Immediately after the final A'ote on the annexation of Texas had been taken in the Senate, a senator from Flo- rida arose in his place, and introduced a resolution de- claring it expedient for the President to open negotiations for the cession of the Island of Cuba to the United States. No action was called for ; the sole object of the resolution being to familiarize the public mind with devices for the acquirement of slave territory. The addition of Texas operated but as blood to the famished wolf ; and the ap- petite for Mexican pro^ances, instead of being satiated, was stimulated to a ravenous ferocity. Texas had been gained N'irtually under Mr. Tyler's administration, and there is reason to believe that Mr. Polk Avas resolved that his should be signalized by the annexation of California.
This province had long excited the cupidity of the slave- holders, and great efforts were now made to stimulate public opinion into unison with the designs of the Presid- ent. The newspapers teemed with articles on the fertility of Cahfornia, its vast importance to the United States, and, as a matter of course, the secret designs of Great Britain to appropriate it to herself, either by force or by treaty. The reader will recollect the prematui'e seizure and annexationfor ever of Cahfornia by Commodore Jones :
he will also call to mind that, at an earlier period, fruitless efforts had been made to purchase the province, whole or in part. Already many of our restless wandering adventurers had penetrated into that distant territory and the opinion had been extensively propagated, that it was a region too rich and too convenient to be left in pos- session of the