Note 32 — IX THE UNITED STATES MEETS THE CRISIS May—July, 1846
Reading edition
Anti-slavery theorizers represented (see Lalor, Cyclopædia, iii, 1091) that Polk brought the Oregon issue to the verge of war so that Mexico should dare—with the expectation of having England for an ally—to fight us, and when hostilities had begun, made peace with England at a sacrifice of our claim; but this view has little or nothing except its ingenuity for support, and has a great number of facts against it.