On May 11th President Polk sent to Congress a special message, in which he declared that "now, after reiterated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory, and shed American blood upon the American soil”; and that, “as war exists, and, notwithstanding all our efforts to avoid it, exists by the act of Mexico herself, we are called upon by every consideration of duty and patriotism to vindicate with decision the honor, the rights, and the interests of our country." An act providing 50,000 volunteers and $10,000,000 for the prosecution of the war was at once passed. The assertion of the message and of the act that war existed "by act of Mexico" was vehemently denied by the ✓ Whigs, who insisted that hostilities had been brought about by deliberate aggression on the part of the United States. In the country at large, however, and particularly in the South, "Polk's war" was popular. When the 50,000 volunteers were called for 200,000 responded. Only in New England were enlistments small.

Before the war was fairly under way, a treaty with Great Britain had brought the Oregon question to amicable settlement. The region known as Oregon had been claimed by both Great Britain and the United States, the claim of the latter going back to the discovery of the Columbia River by a Captain Gray in 1791. In 1813 the two countries agreed to a joint occupancy of the country for ten years. The limits of the region were further defined by the treaty of 1819 between the United States and Spain, by which the parallel 42° north latitude was declared to be the northern boundary of Spanish territory on the Pacific. Subsequent treaties with Russia fixed

the southern limits of the Russian possessions at 54° 40'. Permanent settlements began about 1830, and a small American population, attracted by the furtrade and the opportunities of a new country, was. gradually established there. Frémont visited Oregon in 1842, on one of his exploring expeditions, and a demand for the definite incorporation of the country with the United States, and the dispossession of Great Britain, presently arose. We have already seen that the Democratic platform, in 1844, demanded the “reoccupation" of Oregon," the intention being, of course, to use Oregon as an offset to Texas "; and Polk, in his inaugural address, asserted his purpose to maintain the rights of the United States in that part of the world. The difficulty was to agree with Great Britain upon the proper boundary. In the course of the diplomatic negotiations the parallel of 49° was several times proposed, but was rejected by Great Britain. Popular opposition to compromise brought out demands for "all Oregon," and for a time the country rang with the cry, "Fifty-four forty or fight!" In the summer of 1846 the controversy was settled. The United States accepted the line of 49°, with the free navigation of the Columbia River. The total area of the region thus acquired was 288,689 square miles. A bill to organize a territorial government for Oregon was rejected by the Senate, in 1845, because of the prohibition of slavery, and it was not until 1848 that a territorial government was at last provided.

The military story of the Mexican War is one briefly told. Notwithstanding the stubbornness and skill with which the Mexicans opposed the American advance, it was from the outset an unequal contest,

whose final outcome did not admit of doubt. On May 18th, five days after Congress voted men and money for the war, Taylor occupied Matamoras. California was shortly taken by fleets under the command of Commodores Sloat and Stockton, aided by a land force under Frémont. A force under General Kearney, advancing overland from Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri River, took Santa Fé, and with it New Mexico. In September Taylor took Monterey, where he established winter - quarters. Kearney, leaving Colonel Doniphan at Santa Fé, pushed on to California, while Doniphan shortly took Chihuahua and joined Taylor at Monterey. A large part of the northern possessions of Mexico was now in the hands of the United States. It was decided to keep what had been won, whatever the outcome of the war, but to pay Mexico for it; and the remainder of the war was fought to compel the submission of Mexico and prevent it from recovering the conquered provinces.

The campaign of 1847 began with the advance of Taylor southwest from Monterey, while General Scott started for the city of Mexico by way of Vera Cruz. At Buena Vista, on February 23d, Taylor, with a force of about five thousand men, overwhelmingly defeated a Mexican army of four times that number, under command of Santa Anna. This closed the active campaign in the north. Taylor, whose force had been reduced to aid Scott, shortly relinquished his command and returned to the United States, where his successful "war record" was shortly to give him the Presidency. Scott, meantime, had taken Vera Cruz early in March, and immediately began his advance upon the Mexican capital. The land

rises rapidly from the coast to the interior, and the steep ascent and narrow mountain-passes admirably fit the country for defence. On April 18th, however, Scott carried by storm the heights of Cerro Gordo, from whence he pressed on to Puebla, where he remained for two months to rest his army. In August, with a force numbering 11,000 men, the advance was resumed. The city of Mexico lay in a basin surrounded by marshes, and the approaches and points of vantage had been strongly fortified. On August 19th the two armies met, the battles of Contreras, San Antonio, and Churubusco being all fought on that day. The Mexican army, numbering about thirty thousand, fought desperately, but to no purpose. That the Mexicans might not be humiliated by the actual capture of the city by the Americans, Scctt agreed to a proposal from Santa Anna for an armistice of three weeks in which to negotiate for peace. The negotiations came to nothing, however, and, as Santa Anna was using the interval to strengthen his position, the armistice was terminated. On September 8th, Scott defeated the enemy at Molino del Rey, and on the 13th stormed the heights of Chapultepec and entered the city. The conquest of the city was completed the next day, and the Mexican War was at an end. Both sides had fought bravely, but the superior training and equipment of the Americans made every battle a victory for the invaders. Grant afterwards declared that all the older officers who won distinction in the Civil War had served under Taylor or Scott. It is interesting to note that both Grant and Lee were of the number.

On February 2, 1848, representatives of the two countries concluded the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.