| The new plan for annexation. |
Here now were all the elements of a new plan for annexation, which promised more success. They were, the doctrine unwittingly advanced by Mr. Archer, and as unwittingly approved by many of the Senators, that Texas could be connected with the United States only by means of an act of Congress admitting her as a Commonwealth into the Union, the plank of the platform making annexation the chief issue of the campaign for the election of a new President and a new House of Representatives, and the connection of the Oregon question with that of annexation, in order to get votes in the North for both projects at once.
On June 11th, President Tyler took the first step in the combination of these elements. He sent a copy of the rejected Treaty, and all the papers connected with it, to the House of Representatives, together with a message, in which he reviewed the subject and justified his position in regard to it, and declared, finally, that while he had regarded a treaty as the most suitable means for accomplishing annexation, he would co-operate with Congress in the use of any other means compatible with the Constitution and likely to accomplish the result.
Before, however, following the history of the annexation of Texas further, we must present briefly the main points in the development of the Oregon question.
CHAPTER XIV.
OREGON
[Extent of Oregon and Claims to it]—[The Nootka Convention]—[Louisiana and Oregon]—[Astoria]—[The Joint Occupation Agreement of 1818]—[Spain's Claims on Oregon Ceded to the United States]—[Renewal of the Convention of 1818]—[The British Policy in Reference to Oregon]—[The Ignorance of Oregon in the United States]—[Dr. Marcus Whitman]—[Dr. Whitman's Mission to the United States Government]—[Dr. Whitman's Colony]—[The Democratic Party on the Oregon Question.]