Gold was taken in large quantities from the Appalachians. There were
about five thousand miles of railroad in the country as compared with
the something more than one thousand miles which it had in 1833. The
telegraph was following the railroads. For in this very year, under the
administration of President Tyler, $30,000 had been appropriated by
Congress for the building of a telegraph line from Baltimore to
Washington. But above all, the country thrilled with the prospect of
acquiring Texas and settling the territory of Oregon. Douglas was at
once one of the creators and one of the most conspicuous products of
this great drama.
He had been reelected to Congress by a plurality of over 1700 votes over
his Whig opponent. The Whigs opposed the annexation of Texas. Clay was
against it. New England preached and sang against it. But Tyler had
tried to negotiate a treaty for it. It had failed. He devoted much of
his last annual message to Congress to the Texas subject, soliciting
"prompt and immediate action on the subject of annexation." Douglas,
during the campaign in Illinois and in Tennessee, had denounced those
weaklings who feared that the extension of the national domain would
corrupt the institutions of the country. As to war with Mexico because
of Texas, let it come. The Federal system was adapted to expansion, to
the absorption of the whole continent.
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