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Elias Nason, The Life and Times of Charles Sumner: His Boyhood, Education and Public Career., Chapter 5: (search)
nistration of John Tyler, himself a slaveholder, the gigantic scheme of annexing Texas to the Union was introduced by Southern members into Congress. This republic, which had declared itself free from Mexican rule in 1835, embraced an area of 237,500 square miles, extending from the Sabine and Red Rivers on the east, to the Rio Grande (as some held), separating it from Mexico, on the west. The acquisition of such a vast extent of territory would give the slave states the command of the Gulf of Mexico, and insure to them the balance of political power. It would give, said Gen. James Hamilton, a Gibraltar to the South; and Texas or disunion! became the Southern war-cry. Mr. Webster, with the Whig party, opposed the annexation; and Mr. Van Buren said it would in all human probability draw after it a war with Mexico. On this question turned the election of James K. Polk, in 1844; and three days previous to the expiration of his term of office, John Tyler signed the bill for the annex