VOLUME 17 WESTWARD EXTENSION 1841-1850 BY GEORGE PIERCE GARRISON, PH.D. PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS THE ELECTION OF 1844 (1843-1844). ANNEXATION OF TEXAS BY JOINT RESOLUTION 420323 208 CONQUERING A PEACE (1846-1848). XVI. THE WILMOT PROVISO (1846-1847). THE COMPLEX SLAVERY ISSUE (1847-1849) EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION FEW periods in American history are so replete with problems, contested questions and difficult adjustments, as that of Professor Garrison's volume, which extends from 1841 to 1850. Its predecessor in the political narrative of the series is MacDonald's Jacksonian Democracy (American Nation, Vol. XV.); in its discussion of the questions immediately arising out of slavery, it follows after Hart, Slavery and Abolition (Vol. XVI.), one chapter of which (xx.), makes a political connection between the volumes preceding and following. In his two first chapters the author considers the spirit of expansion and the three directions-Texas, Oregon, and California-in which extension of the republic seemed possible. In chapters iii. and iv., he disposes of the political questions of Tyler's administration, and in chapter v. of the Maine boundary; then in chapters vi. to x., the annexation of Texas is carefully followed from the independence of that republic, in 1836, to its incorporation into the Union in 1846. Chapter xi. describes the adjustment of the Oregon question, and the consequent formal recognition of the fact that the United States |