on repeatedly urged unofficially the
annexation of their country, which had fallen into a state of
semi-bankruptcy, and whose governor, Sam Houston, was making overtures
for English protection as an alternative to failure to get a favorable
hearing in Washington. Southern States petitioned for annexation, while
Middle Westerners met in a convention at Cincinnati in August, 1843, and
demanded the immediate seizure of Texas and prompt occupation of Oregon.
Thousands of emigrants left Missouri during the summer of 1843 for the
Columbia Valley, under the encouragement of Senator Benton and for the
purpose of holding the country against English fur traders or more
permanent settlers. Under all this pressure the Administration let it be
known in Congress that at least Texas would be annexed. Upshur reopened
negotiations with the Texan envoy in Washington. Immediately John Quincy
Adams protested, declaring the "Confederacy" to be dissolved in case
Tyler's "nefarious" scheme should be consummated; but the President
continued to press the Texan negotiations.

When the treaty with the new republic was about concluded, Upshur was
accidentally killed by the explosion of a gun on the ship Princeton.
Calhoun, whose ardent candidacy for the Democratic nomination had
failed, was called to the State Department to take up the unfinished
work. Meanwhile the campaigns of the two great parties were already far
advanced. Clay was the acknowledged candidate of the Whigs, and Van
Buren had obtained the pledged support of two thirds of the delegations
to the next Democratic Convention, which was to meet in Baltimore in
May, 1844. Instinctively dreading new issues, Van Buren arranged a visit
to Jackson in the early spring, and on his return he called on Clay at
Lexington, Kentucky, where it seems to have been agreed that the two
candidates should eventually eliminate the Texas proposition from the
platforms of the two great parties. On April 20, when Clay was in
Raleigh, North Carolina, and Van Buren was at his home at Lindenwald,
New York, public letters were given out by both leaders. Both advised
against discussing the one thing everybody was discussing. The
simultaneous appearance of these formal statements, each advising the
same thing, caused a national sensation. Men thought that the two
candidates had agreed beforehand what the people should not do. In
Virginia, South Carolina, and Mississippi, where Texas feeling ran high,
Democratic op