1. Congress in 1841 passed two bills for chartering a new national bank, but President Tyler vetoed both. The Whig leaders then declared that Tyler was not a Whig. 2. The next year the Webster-Ashburton treaty settled a long-standing dispute over the northeastern boundary. 3. In 1844 the Democrats declared for the annexation of Texas and Oregon, and elected Polk President. Congress then quickly decided to admit Texas to the Union. 4. War with Mexico followed a dispute over the Texas boundary. In the course of it Taylor won victories at Monterey and Buena Vista; Scott made a famous march to the city of Mexico; and Kearny marched to Santa Fe and on to California. 5. Peace added to the United States a great tract of country acquired from Mexico. Meanwhile, the Oregon country had been divided by treaty with Great Britain. 6. The acquisition of Mexican territory brought up the question of the admission of slavery, for the territory was free soil under Mexican rule. 7. The opponents of extension of the slave area formed the Free-soil party in 1848, and drew off enough Democratic votes so that the Whigs elected Taylor and Fillmore. 8. Meanwhile gold had been discovered in California, and a wild rush for the "diggings" began. 9. The people in California formed a free-state constitution and applied for admission to the Union. 10. The chief political issues now centered around slavery, and as they had to be settled, lest the Union be broken, the Whigs and Democrats arranged the Compromise of 1850. 11. This made California a free state, but left the new territories of Utah and New Mexico open to slavery. [Illustration: OLD ADOBE RANCH HOUSE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.] FOOTNOTES [1] Besides the long-standing dispute over the Maine boundary, two other matters were possible causes of war with Great Britain. (1) Her cruisers had been searching our vessels off the African coast to see if they were slavers. (2) In the attack on the _Caroline_ (p. 297) one American was killed, and in 1840 a Canadian, Alexander McLeod, was arrested in New York and charged with the murder. Great Britain now avowed responsibility for the burning of the _Caroline_, and demanded that the man should be released. McLeod, however, was tried and acquitted. [2] Two other provisions of the treaty were of especial importance. (1) In order to stop the slave trade each nation was to keep a squadron (carrying at least eighty guns) cruising off the coast of Africa. (2) It was agreed that any person who, charged with the crime of murder, piracy, arson, robbery, or forgery, committed in either country, shall escape to the other, shall if possible be seized and given up to the authorities of the country which he fled.