d. Balked but not defeated, the advocates of annexation drew up a
joint resolution which required only a majority vote in both houses,
and in February of the next year, just before Tyler gave way to Polk,
they pushed it through Congress. So Texas, amid the groans of Boston and
the hurrahs of Charleston, folded up her flag and came into the union.

[Illustration: TEXAS AND THE TERRITORY IN DISPUTE]

=The Mexican War.=--The inevitable war with Mexico, foretold by the
abolitionists and feared by Henry Clay, ensued, the ostensible cause
being a dispute over the boundaries of the new state. The Texans claimed
all the lands down to the Rio Grande. The Mexicans placed the border of
Texas at the Nueces River and a line drawn thence in a northerly
direction. President Polk, accepting the Texan view of the controversy,
ordered General Zachary Taylor to move beyond the Nueces in defense of
American sovereignty. This act of power, deemed by the Mexicans an
invasion of their territory, was followed by an attack on our troops.

President Polk, not displeased with the turn of events, announced that
American blood had been "spilled on American soil" and that war existed
"by the act of Mexico." Congress, in a burst of patriotic fervor,
brushed aside the protests of those who deplored the conduct of the
government as wanton aggression on a weaker nation and granted money and
supplies to prosecute the war. The few Whigs in the House of
Representatives, who refused to vote in favor of taking up arms,
accepted the inevitable with such good grace as they could command. All
through the South and the West the war was popular. New England
grumbled, but gave loyal, if not enthusiastic, support to a conflict
precipitated by policies not of its own choosing. Only a handful of firm
objectors held out. James Russell Lowell, in his _Biglow Papers_, flung
scorn and sarcasm to the bitter end.

=The Outcome of the War.=--The foregone conclusion was soon reached.
General Taylor might have delivered the fatal thrust from northern
Mexico if politics had not intervened. Polk, anxious to avoid raising up
another military hero for the Whigs to nominate for President, decided
to divide the honors by sending General Scott to strike a blow at the
capital, Mexico City. The deed was done with speed and pomp and two
heroes were lifted into presidential possibilities. In the Far West a
third candidate was made, John C. Fremont, who, in cooeperation with
Commodore