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his predecessors, to adjust the question on the parallel of forty-nine degrees of north latitude. A proposition was accordingly made to that effect, on the part of the United States, by Mr. Buchanan, the secretary of state, to Mr. Pakenham, the British plenipotentiary at Washington, and rejected by the latter, who after a correspondence of some length, suffered the negotiation on his part to drop, without submitting any other proposition. The president thereupon directed the proposition of compromise which had been made and rejected to be withdrawn, and the title of the United States to the whole of the territory of Oregon asserted.

Mr. Everett, the American minister at the court of Great Britain having been recalled, Louis M'Lane was, in June, 1845, appointed by President Polk, embassador to that court, to succeed the former gentleman, and immediately embarked for London, where he arrived on the 1st of August, 1845. Mr. M'Lane had served in the same capacity, in 1830, during the administration of General Jackson.

The first session of the twenty-ninth Congress, commenced on the 1st of December, 1845, and continued until the 10th of August, 1846. The administration was sustained by a majority in both houses, the democratic party having been triumphant in a majority of the congressional districts, and succeeded in changing in their favor the political character of the senate. In the house of representatives the strength of parties was exhibited in the choice of speaker. John M. Davis of Indiana, the democratic candidate, was elected, receiving one hundred and twenty votes, against seventy-two, for Samuel F. Vinton, of Ohio (whig), and nineteen for other persons.

The principal recommendations of the president, in his first annual message to Congress were, a revision of the tariff of duties on imports, with a view to the reduction of the rates of duty, and a consequent withdrawal of the amount of protection to domestic industry, afforded by the tariff of 1842; and the establishment of an independent treasury system, similar to that which had been enacted under the administration of Mr. Van Buren, and repealed during that of Tyler. The president also recommended the passage of a resolution giving notice of the termination after one year of the agreement for the joint occupation of Oregon territory. These several measures of the new administration were adopted by Congress. A new tariff of duties, having in view the interests of the public revenue, and only incidentally that of protection, the bill being based on a plan drawn up by the secretary of the treasury, Mr. Walker, was enacted, after a protracted discussion, by a vote of one hundred and fourteen to ninety-four in the house, and by twenty-eight to twenty-seven in the senate On the question of discharging a committee to whom the bill was referred for amendment, the senate was equally divided, when Mr. Dallas, the vicepresident, gave the casting vote in the affirmative, and the bill was subsequently passed, as above stated, to take effect on the 1st of December,

1846. A warehouse bill was also passed at this session, authorizing the warehousing in public stores of imported articles subject to duty for a limited period, without payment of duties until wanted for home consump tion or exportation. The tariff and warehouse acts gave great dissatisfaction to the manufacturing interests, particularly in Pennsylvania, and other middle states, where the large iron and other establishments, most affected by the reduction of duties and the substitution of advalorem rates of duty instead of specific duties, are situated.

The difficulties with Mexico having assumed a hostile character, and rencontres between the American and Mexican troops on the Rio Grande having taken place, an act was passed by Congress, on the 13th of May, 1846, declaring, that "by the act of the republic of Mexico, a state of war exists between that government and the United States," and placing the militia, naval, and military forces of the United States, at the disposal of the president to enable him to prosecute the war to a speedy and successful termination. The whig members in order to secure unanimity, proposed to strike out the preamble of the bill, but the motion wast refused by the friends of the administration, and the bill with the preamble passed the house, one hundred and forty-two to fourteen, and the senate by a vote of forty to two. On the same day the president issued his proclamation, under the provisions of the act.

The declaration of war, was of course, followed by enactments for carrying it on with vigor. Whatever the president asked for from Congress was promptly voted, and with uncommon unanimity. The army proper was authorized to be augmented to nearly double its usual force. The navy was placed upon a war establishment and considerably enlarged. A volunteer force of fifty thousand men was authorized. Loans and treasurynotes to the amount of ten or twelve millions were authorized. Appropriations of ten millions in one sum, and in another of twelve millions, and various amounts in other bills, were granted within the space of a few weeks.

The Smithsonian Institution was established by enactment at this session, to be located at Washington, and sustained by funds bequeathed to the United States, by Mr. Smithson an English gentleman, for the purposes of literature, science, and education.

Acts, under which senators and representatives from Texas took their seats in Congress, were passed, also preliminary acts providing for the admission into the Union of the states of Iowa and Wisconsin.

Besides the bills enacted, the two houses passed and sent to the president for his signature, a bill for improving rivers and harbors, and a bill granting payment to American citizens for French spoliations on American commerce, which had been settled by treaty between France and the United States. Both of these bills the president returned with his veto, and they were lost.

VOL. II.-33

A resolution for terminating the joint occupation of Oregon by the United States and Great Britain, passed both houses.

Near the close of the session of this Congress, a bill being before the house, authorizing the president to use the sum of three millions of dollars if he deemed expedient, in negotiating a treaty of peace with Mexico, Mr. Wilmot, a representative from Pennsylvania, friendly to the administration, moved to add thereto a proviso, in the words following: "That there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, in any territory on the continent of America, which shall hereafter be acquired by, or annexed to, the United States by virtue of this appropriation, or in any other manner whatsoever, except for crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided always, That any person escaping to such territory, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed, in any one of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed out of said territory to the person claiming his or her labor or service.”

This proviso was adopted with little discussion, but not without calling forth much feeling, by the house, nearly all the members from the free states supporting, while those from the slaveholding states opposed it. The bill thus amended was on the last day of the session sent to the senate, and was promptly met by Mr. D. H. Lewis of Alabama, with a motion to strike out the proviso. Mr. Davis of Massachusetts rose in opposition to this motion, and was speaking against it, when word was brought that the house had adjourned the hour of adjournment, noon, having been struck by the clock in the house, though not yet reached by the senate's clock. The bill therefore failed for the session.

The controversy with Great Britain, respecting the northwestern boundary and the Oregon territory, was settled by a treaty negotiated, June 15, 1846, at Washington, by Mr. Buchanan, on the part of the United States, and Mr. Pakenham, on the part of Great Britain. The basis of this treaty was a settlement of the boundary line on the forty-ninth degree of north latitude. The proposition was made by the British government, through Mr. M'Lane, American minister at London, and was submitted as soon as received by the president to the senate, asking their advice respecting the expediency of accepting the stipulations, and accompanying this application with a declaration that his own opinions on the Oregon question remained unchanged. The advice of the senate was given to the president, to negotiate with the British government, and he therefore caused the projet to pass through the usual forms of negotiation, when, after discussion, it was duly ratified by the senate in June, 1846. By this treaty the last remaining subject of controversy between the United States and Great Britain was removed, and the relations of the two countries were thus placed on the most firm and amicable footing.

During the first session of the twenty-ninth Congress, the affairs of the United States with Mexico, assumed a decidedly hostile character, as

already stated. In the month of March, 1846, the largest part of the regular army of the United States, having been previously concentrated at Corpus Christi, under the command of Gen. Taylor, for the protection of Texas; that officer was ordered by the war department to move forward to the left bank of the Rio Grande. About the last of March, the army arrived at the latter point, and selected a position for the army opposite to Matamoras, at the same time establishing a dépôt of supplies at Point Isabel, about thirty miles in his rear, and near the coast.

The three Mexican generals commanding the troops on the Rio Grande, Meja, Ampudia, and Arista, declared that the advance of Gen. Taylor and his army was a hostile movement. The American government claimed that the territory of Texas extended to the Rio Grande, while the Mexicans insisted that the river Nueces was the true boundary of Texas. On the 24th of April, the Mexican general Arista informed General Taylor that "he considered hostilities commenced and should prosecute them." On the same day a detachment of American dragoons sent on the left bank of the river to observe the movement of the Mexican forces, became engaged with a large body of these troops, and after a short affair, in which some sixteen were killed and wounded, the American detachment was compelled to surrender.

After this occurrence, General Taylor, availing himself of the authority. vested in him by the president and the war department, called on the governors of Texas and Louisiana, for four regiments of volunteers from each state, to be sent forward with the least practicable delay. On the 8th of May, General Taylor being on his return from Point Isabel to the Rio Grande, with his army, encountered the Mexicans in considerable force at Palo Alto, where an action ensued, and the Mexicans were defeated. On the next day the hostile forces again met seven miles in advance, at Resaca de la Palma, when the Americans were again victorious, and the Mexicans retreated with great loss, across the Rio Grande. During Gen. Taylor's absence, Fort Brown opposite Matamoras, was bombarded by the Mexican batteries from the 4th to the 9th of May.

As soon as it became known at Washington, that hostilities had commenced, by the affair of the 24th of April, Congress recognised the existence of a state of war between the United States and the republic of Mexico, and on the 13th of May authorized the president to accept the services of volunteers, not to exceed fifty thousand. Under this act, requisitions were immediately made upon the governors of eleven of the southern and western states for a volunteer force, amounting to twentythree thousand effective men. This call was promptly responded to, much the larger portion of the force being designed to co-operate with the regular army under General Taylor on the Rio Grande. After establishing his base of operations on that river for several hundred miles, Gen. Taylor, who, on the 18th of May, had taken military possession of the city of

Matamoras, moved into the enemy's country, in the direction of Monterey, in the department of New Leon. Another portion of the volunteers was concentrated under General Wool, at San Antonio de Bexar, for a movement upon Chihuahua; and the volunteers from the state of Missouri assembled at Fort Leavenworth, to compose, with a few hundred regular troops, an expedition to Santa Fe, in New Mexico, under Gen. Kearney.

The army under General Taylor arrived before Monterey, on the 19th of September, 1846, and commenced the attack on that strongly-fortified city, on the 21st, the battle continuing through that and the two successive days. The Americans attacked the enemy in his fortified position, captured his batteries, and various fortresses, when terms of capitulation, were solicited by the Mexican general, and liberal terms were granted by the American commander.

The advanced column under General Wool, destined for Chihuahua, commenced its march from San Antonio de Bexar, on the 29th of September, and soon after penetrated the department of Coahuila, to Monclova, the ancient capital of the province, which town the American army entered on the 29th of October, being favorably received by the inhabitants. Gen. Wool with his army afterward formed a junction with the forces under General Taylor at Saltillo.

General Kearney, with the force under his command, moved from Fort Leavenworth upon Santa Fe, where he arrived, after a march of eight hundred and seventy-three miles, on the 18th of August, 1846, and took military possession of New Mexico without resistance. Agreeably to his instructions, General Kearney then established a temporary civil government in New Mexico, and departed with a portion of his forces for California. On his route thither he met an express sent by Commodore Stockton, and Captain (afterward Lieutenant-Colonel) Fremont, who reported that they were already in possession of the Californias. On receiving this intelligence, General Kearney sent back part of his troops, and with about one hundred dragoons continued his march for California, where he arrived in the month of December, 1847. After various actions and skirmishes with the enemy, the American forces remained in quiet possession of the Californias. General Kearney continued in command until the 31st of May, 1847, when he returned home, leaving Colonel Mason as the commanding officer to succeed him in the military government of California.

Various other successes attended the American arms by land and water, during the first year of the war with Mexico. In December, 1846, the secretary of war, reported that, by the operations of the land and naval forces, the United States were then in military possession of the department of Tamaulipas, of the right bank of the Rio Grande, for several hundred miles from its mouth; and, of the department of New Leon, Coahuila and Chihuahua were then, in effect, wrested from the control of Mexico; all Mex

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