WAR WITH MEXICO. QUESTIONS. What controversy arose with the annexation of Texas? What boundary was in dispute? What do you know of the causes of the Mexican War? Taylor's occupation of the disputed territory? Thornton's massacre? What two battles did Taylor fight before the war was declared? What campaigns were planned? What do you know of Kearney's expedition? Doniphan's march? Conquest of California? What do you know of Taylor's operations? Battle of Buena Vista? Who particularly distinguished themselves in this battle? Who led the expedition against the city of Mexico? Where did it land? What was its first battle? What two battles were fought in one day? What two battles caused the surrender of Mexico? To what was the success of Scott's army in part attributable? What do you know of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo? Texas cession? Gadsden purchase? What event led to the rapid settlement of California? Leaves Leavenworth (June, 1846). Arrives at Santa Fe (August 18, 1846). Kearney's Campaign Departs for California (September 25, 1846). Taylor's Campaign Scott's Campaign (March begins (December 14, 1846). Battle of Bracito (December 25, 1846). Doniphan's March Battle of Sacramento (Feb. 28, 1847). Capture of Chihuahua (March 1, 1847). Capture of Matamoros (May 19, 1846). August 20, 1847. Battle of Molino del Rey (September 8, 1847). Result, Accession of Territory. CHAPTER XIII. The Development of Sectional Antagonism. The twelve years immediately following the administration of Polk were years leading up to a crisis in American affairs. This crisis was the terrible sectional conflict known as the Civil War, which began in 1861, lasted four years, and resulted in the abolition of slavery and the preservation of the Union from the evils of dismemberment. The causes which led to this war, like those which have led to other great conflicts, were of slow growth and long standing. It may be said that when the United States emerged from the gloom of the Revolution, it entered the shadow of Civil War. The differences between North and South, developed in colonial times, had become more and more marked as years wore on. As these differences strengthened, we see, with the understanding that has come to us in recent years, how there grew up on American soil two distinct peoples, each evolving a civilization of its own, each bound to the other by the mutually constituted Federal Government. The social institutions and characteristic features of one were wholly unlike those of the other; the interests of both were not always identical. The constituted authority governing them was at times in position to wield power detrimental to one or the other. The control of national affairs was therefore an object with each at an early day, and many rivalries and discords arose. The halls of Congress became the arena where representatives of North and South met in forensic combat. The eloquence of these representatives echoed sectional sentiments, stirred up sectional pride, and strengthened sectional feeling. We have seen how this feeling became at times one of bitterness, threatening the dissolution of the Union, but disappearing before the peacemakings of a pacific policy or of a compromise. The sentiment with which the system of slavery had come to be regarded by the North and South divided irreconcilably the sections. This system, as we have seen, was closely interwoven with the welfare and prosperity of the South, and the four million slaves found there, represented a value of twenty-five hundred million dollars. The system Opposition to Slavery. A change of conditions had come upon the country. In the colonial days conscientious opposition to slavery had been stronger in the South than in the North. The New England colonists had few scruples against selling into slavery the captives taken in their Indian war; and the profitable slave trade that arose with the general introduction of slavery into the southern colonies was almost monopolized by New England vessel, manned by New England crews. On the other hand, the strongest advocates of emancipation were found among the gentry of colonial Virginia, the colony into which slavery had first been introduced, the voluntary liberation of slaves being of frequent occur. rence. A SOUTHERN COTTON FIELD. was expressly recognized by the Constitution, without which recognition the Constitution would not have been ratified. In the North the anti-slavery sentiment, from feeble beginnings, grew to such proportions that it was made a leading issue in politics. The party of anti-slavery principles became in time dominant in the affairs of the national government. The coming into power of this party caused the withdrawal from the Union of the slave States, in order to subserve what at the time appeared to be their best interests, their interpretation of the constitutional compact justifying them in the act. We have seen how the development of agricultural conditions in the South at an early day rendered profitable the employment of unskilled labor, if such labor was intelligently directed. No industrial system answered the conditions of the time to better purpose than that of chattel servitude-a system in which the interests of master and slave were identical. However objectionable the system may now be generally regarded, no facts stand out clearer in American history than that the steady and directed toil of the Southern slave first placed the United States among the great commermercial nations of the world; and that the systematic training bestowed upon him during his period of servitude, and his contact with higher intelligence, have given to the negro an impulse to civilization that neither his inherent inclinations nor his native environment would of themselves have bestowed. The admission of Missouri, as we have seen, brought the North and South into direct issue with each other, but the differences were settled by compromise. The acquisition of new territory after the war with Mexico, renewed the slavery agitation with a violence that revealed how far apart the sections had drifted in feeling, and how inevitable was the approaching conflict. At the first intimation that new territory was about to be acquired, DAVID WILMOT of Pennsylvania, moved in Congress to appropriate money to purchase the territory in question, with the PROVISO that slavery be not permitted therein (1846). The measure failed to pass, however, and the territory was acquired without it. The rapid settlement of California, after the discovery of gold, enabled that territory to apply soon for admission as a State. A controversy arose which, with other causes of discord, did much to strengthen sectional antagonism. The Missouri Compromise line divided the proposed State, and |