The Jacksonian Era 123attempt at a treaty of annexation, which required a two-thirds vote,
was defeated in the Senate) that required only a majority vote from
each house, it passed. The President signed it on March 1 , 1845 , a few
days before he was succeeded by James Knox Polk, who had defeated
Henry Clay in 1844 in a very close presidential election. Texas ratifi ed
the annexation on July 4 , 1845 , and was admitted as a slave state on
December 29 , 1845.
But Polk, a protégé of Andrew Jackson, was not satisfied with Texas.
Like Jackson, he lusted after “all Spanish North America.” In partic u-
lar he wanted California, with its incomparable seaports fronting the
Pacifi c Ocean and the possibility of an expanded trade with the Ori-
ent. During the presidential campaign of 1844 , the Democrats not only
demanded all of Texas to the Rio Grande but raised the cry of “ 54 ° 40 ' or
Fight,” by which they meant the reoccupation of Oregon—that is, all
the territory of the extreme northwest, right up to the border of Rus-
sian Alaska. The area in dispute—roughly from the Rocky Mountains
to the Pacific Ocean and from the northern border of California to
54 ° 40 '—was jointly occupied by Britain and the United States. Polk’s
victory over Clay encouraged Tyler to move forward on Texas, but he
made no move toward the Oregon country. When Polk succeeded to
the presidency, he was more concerned about acquiring California and
the area west of Texas than challenging Great Britain over Oregon, so
he readily agreed to establish the 49 th parallel as the border separating
Canada and the United States. A treaty was speedily arranged with
Great Britain on June 15 , 1846 , and the Senate hastily ratifi ed it.
Mexico regarded the annexation of Texas as a clear indication of the
United States’ ever-expanding lust for additional territory, and it in-
sisted that the Nueces River, not the Rio Grande, separated the two
countries. Furthermore, Mexico rejected offers by the United States to
buy California. Whereupon Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor,
commander of about 3 , 500 troops stationed on the Nueces River, to
advance to the Rio Grande, a sort of no-man’s-land between the United
States and Mexico. This action virtually invited a Mexican attack,
which not surprisingly occurred on April 25 , 1846 , when a detachment
of Mexican troops crossed into the “no-man’s-land,” ambushed an
American scouting party of sixty-three soldiers, killed sixteen of them,
and captured the others.