e union when there arose the
Great Civil War testing whether this nation or any nation so conceived
and so dedicated could long endure.

=References=

G.P. Brown, _Westward Expansion_ (American Nation Series).

K. Coman, _Economic Beginnings of the Far West_ (2 vols.).

F. Parkman, _California and the Oregon Trail_.

R.S. Ripley, _The War with Mexico_.

W.C. Rives, _The United States and Mexico, 1821-48_ (2 vols.).

=Questions=

1. Give some of the special features in the history of Missouri,
Arkansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota.

2. Contrast the climate and soil of the Middle West and the Far West.

3. How did Mexico at first encourage American immigration?

4. What produced the revolution in Texas? Who led in it?

5. Narrate some of the leading events in the struggle over annexation to
the United States.

6. What action by President Polk precipitated war?

7. Give the details of the peace settlement with Mexico.

8. What is meant by the "joint occupation" of Oregon?

9. How was the Oregon boundary dispute finally settled?

10. Compare the American "invasion" of California with the migration
into Texas.

11. Explain how California became a free state.

12. Describe the early economic policy of the Mormons.

=Research Topics=

=The Independence of Texas.=--McMaster, _History of the People of the
United States_, Vol. VI, pp. 251-270. Woodrow Wilson, _History of the
American People_, Vol. IV, pp. 102-126.

=The Annexation of Texas.=--McMaster, Vol. VII. The passages on
annexation are scattered through this volume and it is an exercise in
ingenuity to make a connected story of them. Source materials in Hart,
_American History Told by Contemporaries_, Vol. III, pp. 637-655; Elson,
_History of the United States_, pp. 516-521, 526-527.

=The War with Mexico.=--Elson, pp. 526-538.

=The Oregon Boundary Dispute.=--Schafer, _History of the Pacific
Northwest_ (rev. ed.), pp. 88-104; 173-185.

=The Migration to Oregon.=--Schafer, pp. 105-172. Coman, _Economic
Beginnings of the Far West_, Vol. II, pp. 113-166.

=The Santa Fe Trail.=--Coman, _Economic Beginnings_, Vol. II, pp. 75-93.

=The Conquest of California.=--Coman, Vol. II, pp. 297-319.

=Gold in California.=--McMaster, Vol. VII, pp. 585-614.

=The Mormon Migration.=--Coman, Vol. II, pp. 167-206.

=Biographical Studies.=--Fremont, Generals Scott and Taylor, Sam
Houston, and David Crockett.

=The Romance of Western Exp