Westward extension, 1841-1850, by George Pierce Garrison.

92

WESTWARD EXTENSION

[1836

The recognition of Texas opened the way for the
effort to secure annexation after Jackson's retirement; and on August 4, i837, Memucan Hunt, the
Texan minister at Washington, in accordance with
the instructions of his government, addressed Secretary Forsyth a proposal to negotiate a treaty to
that effect. Van Buren, however, while he may
have been deceived by the noise and strength of
the wind, in seeking to determine which way it blew,
at least knew where the storm-centre of American
politics lay. On August 25 the offer was refused,
in terms too positive to admit of its being pushed
further.1
The refusal of the president to negotiate a treaty
of annexation turned attention towards the possibility of reaching the same result by means of an
act of Congress. This alternative the Texans had
been considering from the very beginning of the
movement, and it was they who first suggested it.
The instructions of Stephen F. Austin, Texan secretary of state, to William H. Wharton, minister to
the United States, dated November i8, i836, show
that Wharton was expected, in pushing annexation,
to deal with either the president or Congress.2 The
message of Governor McDuffie to the South Carolina legislature on his retirement from office at the
close of the year I836 indicates that he was looking
1 For the whole correspondence, see Sen. Exec. Docs., 25 Cong.,
i Sess., I., No. 40.
2 MS. Diplomatic Correspondence of Texas, file 52.