120 THE ROARING FORTIES 



The pacific adjustment of the boundary on 

 the northeastern border of the United States 

 was the most decisive and satisfactory feature 

 of the treaty. There had been high hopes in 

 British governmental circles that all the old 

 questions at issue between the two nations 

 would be set at rest. Not only did these hopes 

 fail, but almost before the ink was dry on the 

 treaty the unsettled issues took on a threaten 

 ing aspect. American aspirations were directed 

 with new earnestness to territorial expansion 

 on the Gulf of Mexico and on the Pacific 

 Ocean. British interests were supposed to re 

 quire that such expansion should be thwarted. 

 Out of this situation arose serious ill feeling, 

 both governmental and popular, in relation to 

 Texas, Oregon, and California. 



Texas was in 1842 an independent republic, 

 recognized as such by the leading powers of the 

 world, though not by Mexico. British interests 

 in Mexico were very large, chiefly through the 

 extensive holdings of Mexican bonds in Great 

 Britain. Texas freed herself from Mexican rule 

 in the later thirties, largely through the aid 

 given by immigrants and adventurers from the 

 United States. The British Government at first 

 used its influence to bring about the reunion 



