Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/799

 Jackson and the Texas Revolution 789 along that river and the forty-second parallel to the Pacific Ocean. For the alternate line of the Colorado he might offer half the sum. The President thought it an auspicious time to urge the negotia- tion, because he was led to believe, said Clay, by the great size and frequency of the grants which IMexico had been making in Texas to colonists from the United States, that the government did not value land very highly. Moreover, the emigrants now flocking to Texas would carry with them their own principles of law, liberty, and religion ; collisions might be expected — some, in fact, had already occurred; — and these would be likely to "enlist the sym- pathies and feelings of the two Republics, and lead to misunder- standings ". And, altogether, the President was of the opinion that the boundary of the Sabine brought Mexico nearer to " our great western commercial capital than is desirable."^ Poinsett was by this time, however, keenly aware of the [Mexican sensitive- ness to the subject, and did not even present the proposal, knowing that it was wholly impracticable and would aggravate the irrita- tion already existing between the two countries." Thus the matter stood at the beginning of Jackson's administration. President Jackson took up the subject less promptly than Adams had done. Nearly si.x months of his first term had expired before Secretary 'an Buren wrote Poinsett (August 25, 1829) to renew the overtures to Mexico. Four lines were suggested as acceptable in varying degrees to the United States. The most desirable one would begin in the centre of the " desert or Grand Prairie," west of the Nueces, the next would follow the Lavaca River, the third the Colorado, and the fourth the Brazos. For the first line he might offer four million, or if " indispensably necessary ", a maxi- mum of five million dollars, and for the others a proportionate part of that sum. The President was induced to make this liberal oft'er, Van Buren said, " by a deep conviction of the real necessity of the proposed acquisition, not only as a guard for our western frontier, and the protection of New Orleans, but also to secure forever to the inhabitants of the valley of the Mississippi the undisputed and undisturbed possession of the navigation of that river ". Numerous reasons were suggested why ]Iexico ought to be glad to make the cession on these terms : the Sabine boundary was not definitely settled — the United States government saw good reason to contend ' MSS. Department of State, Instructions to Ministers, volume ii, pp. 270- 273. Sumner (Andre-iu Jackson, 352, note 2) thinks that the attempt to buy Texas was taken on Clay's initiative rather than Adams's ; but see Adams, Memoirs, XI. 365, and Xiles's Register, LXII. 138. = Clay's Raleigh Letter, April 17. 1844. in Niles's Register. LXVI. 152.