Mexican territory he would demand his passports, and his country would declare war. Upshur in his replies deigned no explanation, and treated the Mexican declaration with scorn.[1] Things were now working well for the United States war clique.
The Texans at first did not show much eagerness to be annexed, which worried Upshur, who then began to use menacing language.[2] He endeavors to allay any apprehension the Texan government may have of a possible rejection by the United States senate of the treaty. He assures it that a clear majority of two thirds of that body is in favor of it — a most extraordinary assertion, indeed, which the result failed to sustain. A treaty of annexation was finally concluded,[3] and laid before the senate of the United States on the 22d of April, 1844, when it was rejected by a vote of thirty-five to sixteen. Steps had been also adopted to induce Mexico to assent to the arrangement.[4] While the treaty was under consideration in the senate, a force of about 1,150 men under General Zachary Taylor was stationed at Fort Jesup, near Natchitoches, and a strong naval force ordered to the gulf of Mexico, to guard American interests in Texas and to check Mexican attempts at reconquest. Taylor was directed, if any danger threatened Texas, to march with his force to the Sabine, but not to go beyond the frontier with-
- ↑ Two notes passed from each side between Nov. 3d and Dec. 1st, both inclusive. Niles' Reg., lxv. 60-8.
- ↑ He wrote Murphy, the American agent, Jan. 14, 1844, if the proposal for annexation should be rejected, 'instead of being, as we ought to be, the closest friends, it is inevitable we shall become the bitterest foes.' Without annexation, 'Texas cannot maintain that institution [slavery] ten years — probably not half that time.'
- ↑ April 12, 1844, in nine articles, signed by John C. Calhoun, Upshur's successor, for the United States, Isaac Van Zandt and J. Pinckney Henderson for Texas.
- ↑ Gilbert L. Thompson, a special agent of the United States, had a conference with Gen. Santa Anna at Puente Nacional on the 17th of May, to obtain Mexico's acquiescence, offering a sum of money for differences of limits. His proposals were rejected, and Mexico's resolve to reconquer Texas assured him. Santa Anna's report of the same date in El Siglo, June 12, 1844, and its translation in Niles' Reg., lxvi. 351.
