h Texas uncertain as to her
future.

=Northern Opposition to Annexation.=--All through the North the
opposition to annexation was clear and strong. Anti-slavery agitators
could hardly find words savage enough to express their feelings.
"Texas," exclaimed Channing in a letter to Clay, "is but the first step
of aggression. I trust indeed that Providence will beat back and humble
our cupidity and ambition. I now ask whether as a people we are
prepared to seize on a neighboring territory for the end of extending
slavery? I ask whether as a people we can stand forth in the sight of
God, in the sight of nations, and adopt this atrocious policy? Sooner
perish! Sooner be our name blotted out from the record of nations!"
William Lloyd Garrison called for the secession of the Northern states
if Texas was brought into the union with slavery. John Quincy Adams
warned his countrymen that they were treading in the path of the
imperialism that had brought the nations of antiquity to judgment and
destruction. Henry Clay, the Whig candidate for President, taking into
account changing public sentiment, blew hot and cold, losing the state
of New York and the election of 1844 by giving a qualified approval of
annexation. In the same campaign, the Democrats boldly demanded the
"Reannexation of Texas," based on claims which the United States once
had to Spanish territory beyond the Sabine River.

=Annexation.=--The politicians were disposed to walk very warily. Van
Buren, at heart opposed to slavery extension, refused to press the issue
of annexation. Tyler, a pro-slavery Democrat from Virginia, by a strange
fling of fortune carried into office as a nominal Whig, kept his mind
firmly fixed on the idea of reelection and let the troublesome matter
rest until the end of his administration was in sight. He then listened
with favor to the voice of the South. Calhoun stated what seemed to be a
convincing argument: All good Americans have their hearts set on the
Constitution; the admission of Texas is absolutely essential to the
preservation of the union; it will give a balance of power to the South
as against the North growing with incredible swiftness in wealth and
population. Tyler, impressed by the plea, appointed Calhoun to the
office of Secretary of State in 1844, authorizing him to negotiate the
treaty of annexation--a commission at once executed. This scheme was
blocked in the Senate where the necessary two-thirds vote could not be
secure