DEDICATED

IN GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION

TO THAT

DISCRIMINATING AND IMPARTIAL CRITIC

MY WARM-HEARTED AND GENEROUS

FRIEND

JOHN FRANCIS NICHOLS

PREFACE

So far as I know there is no book devoted entirely and specifically to the subject of this monograph, unless it be Jay's Review, referred to below, which has long been out of print. We have general histories in which the subject is treated at more or less length; and special histories, as of Texas or of the Mexican War, or of Slavery, in great number; as well as many biographies of the principal actors in the transactions hereinafter described. But there is no book with which I am acquainted which begins with the Treaty of 1819 and closes with the Compromise of 1850.

Of the four most memorable periods in our

national history, including (1) the Revolution and the foundation of the Government, (2) the Conquest of the Southwest, (3) the Civil War, and (4) the new complexion put upon our relations with the rest of the world by the Spanish-American War and its immediate results, of which we are still a part, with the future not quite determined, the one here under discussion was not the least interesting or important. I hope, therefore, amid the many books on American history a place and a welcome may be found for this one.

In the preparation of this essay I have ransacked a vast number of books and documents, published and unpublished. In notes in the body of the work I have taken care to give references to the authorities for statements about which there is liable to be any question or dispute. A complete bibliography of the period would include so great a num