The treaty concluded with Great Britain in 1842, by removing all apprehension of collision with that power re- specting the north-eastern boundary, gave a fresh impe- tus to the partisan? of annexation. It had been foreseen that a war with England, by diverting the forces of the United States, and by giving Mexico a powerful ally, might enable the latter to repossess herself of Texas.
This danger being passed, Messrs. Tyler and Upshur de- termined that annexation should no longer be delayed.
Texas, moreover, had been acknowledged by France and England. With the latter she had entered into a treaty for the suppression of the slave-trade, thus nominally yielding what the United States had sternly refused. This very treaty was alarming to the slaveholders, who became apprehensive that, if Texas was left to herself, owing to emigration from abroad, the time might come when sla- very would be abolished within her borders, and this ap- prehension seems to have been shared by some of the Texan leaders themselves. -General Lamar, recently Pre- sident of the Republic, about this time addressed a letter to his friends in Georgia warning them that, unless an- nexation shall be effected, " the anti-slavery party in Texas will acquire the ascendancy, and may not only abohsh sla- very by a constitutional vote, but may change the whole character of the constitution itself.
" At present the ami- slavery party is in the minority ;
88 " REVIEW OF THE MEXICAN WAR.
but it would be dangerous, even now, to agitate the question with much violence, for the majority of the people of Texas are not owners of