Doniphan's
command rose and fired, killing more than 200 Mexicans. The rest turned and
fled. Near the capital of Chihuahua, Doniphan, after a sharp encounter,
dispersed 4,000 Mexicans. The Stars and Stripes were raised above the
citadel. In May, Doniphan rejoined Wool at Saltillo. Then followed a long
lull in the Mexican campaign.

[Sidenote: Slavery controversy revived]

The question concerning the power of the American Congress to legislate on
slavery again came up in connection with the bill for the establishment of
the Oregon Territorial government. In February Calhoun had introduced his
new slavery resolution, declaring the Territories to be the common property
of all the States, and denying the right and power of Congress to prohibit
slavery in any Territory. Thus began the agitation which led to the
abrogation of the Missouri Compromise. By the terms of an amendment offered
for the extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean,
slavery was to be excluded from all future territory in the West. This
amendment was lost, but the bill passed with another, incorporating the
anti-slavery clause of the ordinance of 1787. Calhoun declared that the
exclusion of slavery from any Territory was a subversion of the Union, and
proclaimed "the separation of the Northern and Southern States complete."

[Sidenote: John Franklin's career]

[Sidenote: Long overland journey]

[Sidenote: The Northwest Passage]

In British North America a new era of home rule began after the Earl of
Elgin took his oath as Governor-General of Canada in January. The imperial
government abandoned all control over the customs of Canada. The building
of the first great Canadian railroad was begun on the main line of the
Grand Trunk system. Discouraging reports from the extreme northern regions
of America at last confirmed the impression that Sir John Franklin, with
the other members of his expedition, had perished in the Arctic regions. A
romantic naval career was thus brought to a close. Born in 1786, John
Franklin entered the British navy at the age of fourteen as a midshipman,
and soon saw his first active service at the battle of Copenhagen in 1801.
In the following year he was taken on his first trip of exploration to
Australia by his cousin, Captain Flinders of the "Investigator." In 1818 he
was a member of an expedition sent out by the British Government to attempt
a passage to India by crossing the Polar Sea. His bold seamansh