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272 who afterwards protested that, according to a secret understanding, the option was not to be exercised by Tyler, but to be left to Polk, and that Polk would resume negotiations for a treaty. If there was such an understanding, Benton found himself cheated; for when the joint resolution so amended had passed both houses, and been signed by Tyler, a messenger was dispatched, on March 3, to the Texan government to offer annexation by joint resolution. On March 4 Polk was inaugurated as President. In his inaugural address he said that the enlargement of the Union would be the extension of “the dominions of peace over additional territories and increasing millions.” He made James Buchanan Secretary of State. Neither he nor Buchanan thought of recalling the messenger sent to Texas with the joint resolution, and of reopening negotiations for a new treaty.

Texas had, after the failure of the annexation treaty in the Senate, sought her salvation in another direction again, and, with the aid of England and France, negotiated a preliminary peace with Mexico. The peace was signed by the Texan agent on March 29. It contained the recognition of Texan independence, and a promise that Texas should not be annexed to any foreign state. On April 21 the Mexican Congress assented to the treaty. The Texan Congress met on June 16. The joint resolution passed by the Congress of the United States was submitted to it, and also the peace with Mexico. The Texan Senate unani-