es were sustained
by the people. In 1845 the Congressional agitation was resumed on the
question of annexing Texas. It resulted in the annexation, upon the
compromise of extending the Missouri compromise line of 36 deg. 30 min.
across the Texan territory, leaving a disputed boundary north of that
line, which was adjusted in 1850 by making 36 deg. 30 min. the north
boundary of Texas.

In 1846 the question of prohibition again came up in Congress on the
bill to organize a territorial government for Oregon, and was kept in
agitation until Oregon was forced, for self-protection to form a
provisional government; and after a proposition of Mr. Douglas,
sustained by the Senate, to extend the Missouri compromise line to the
Pacific, had been voted down in the House by northern votes, the Oregon
bill was finally passed in 1848, with the proviso of the ordinance of
1787 against slavery, the South voting in a body against its
passage--not because they expected slavery to go there, but because they
wanted the Missouri line of compromise extended to the Pacific.

In 1846 and 1847 the slavery agitation raged fiercely in the nation and
in Congress upon the question of applying a slavery prohibition in the
form known as the Wilmot proviso to all the territory to be acquired
from Mexico under the treaty, the negotiations for which were then
pending. The Wilmot proviso was voted down, and the treaty was
consummated Feb. 2, 1848, and Mexican territory, embracing California,
Utah and New Mexico was acquired without prohibition of slavery, but the
territory was free under the Mexican law, and all Mexican inhabitants
who should elect to become citizens of the United States, were entitled
to become so at the proper time to be judged of by Congress, and to be
incorporated into the Federal Union according to the principles of the
Constitution.

At the commencement of the session of the XXXIst Congress in 1849, the
slavery agitation had reached a degree of intensity before unknown. The
territory acquired from Mexico, in consequence of this agitation had
been left without civil government. California, full of northern
emigrants in search of gold, had in the absence of any action of
Congress, exercised her inherent right of self-government and formed a
State Constitution prohibiting slavery, and was asking admission to the
Union. Utah and New Mexico were ripe for territorial governments. The
Texan boundary was unsettled. The South was opposing