The Territorial Status of the North and the South—Politico-Historical View of the Subject Continued [pp. 245-262]

DE BOW'S REVIEW.
ESTABLISHED JANUARY, 1846.
SEPTEMBER, 1859.
VOL. XXVII., 0. S.] ENLARGED SERIES. [VOL. II., No. 3, N. S.
ART. I.-THE TERRtTORIAL, STATUS OF THE NOITHI AND THIE SOUTH.
POLITICO-HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE SUBJECT CONTINUED.
THHE ACQUISITIONS FROM MEXICO, INCLUDING THE ARIZONA PURCHASE, IN THE
LIGHT OF THE WILMOT PROVISO OF 1846-'47-THE COMPROMISES OF 1850 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT, OR DOUGLAS COMPROMISE OF 1854, AND TIr
KANSAS BILL, OR ENGLISH COMPROMISE OF 1858.
ON the fourth day of March, 1845, James K. Polk, in the
manner already stated, succeeded to the chief magistracy.
He found at his accession to power, as we have seen, through
the wisdom and policy of his predecessor, a people prosperous
and happy, having been redeemed from bankruptcy and restored to their industrial pursuits. He found a country at
peace with itself and with all the world, the Florida war having, been terminated, and the Indians removed from the States,
and interposed as a barrier between our frontiers and the
wild, predatory and hostile tribes of the West; the disturbing
issues of the sections having been adjusted by the annexation
of Texas, restoring co-equality of political power and coequality of territorial extension between the North and the
South, thereby engendering their equilibrium in the Union;
and all the questions that for so long had disturbed our relations with foreign nations having been either finally settled or
arranged on a basis at once just and satisfactory. He found
a government sound and vigorous in every department, the
public credit having been re-established, the public treasury
VOL. II.-NO. III.
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