The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 18, July 1914 - April, 1915 Page: 37

Early Sentiment for Annexation of California

might prove important in the Oregon and Texas negotiations. 2
The substance of this was derived from a confidential interview
about three months before with Lansford W. Hastings, a sometime
resident of California, of whom we shall also have occasion to
speak hereafter.
Hastings, on his way from California to New York, had given
Green very positive assurance that a movement for independence
was on foot in California, and only waited his return, with a
party of emigrants as reinforcements, before materializing. There
was also talk in Oregon of uniting with California and forming a
separate republic; and the movement once begun would speedily
be joined by the Mexican provinces bordering upon Texas."
The certainty of this was rendered more imminent by Santa
Anna's attempt to' provoke a war with France, which, if it came
and were properly managed, would result in the annexation of the
disaffected provinces to Texas. With such an addition of territory,
Green warned Calhoun, who was already prone to alarms, "that
Texas would no longer desire admission to our Union, but on the
contrary would prove a dangerous rival both to the cotton interests
of the South and the manufactures of the North.""4
Efforts of Duff Green.-Following this despatch Calhoun re-
ceived a more detailed report on California and the whole Mexican
situation from a personal interview with Waddy Thompson who
returned about this time from Mexico.85 The rejection of the
Texas treaty in the senate on June 9, however, left little place in
the plans of the administration for immediate action regarding
"Green spoke of Calhoun's appointment as "with a view to. the Oregon
and Texas questions." It is to be noted that, as in this despatch -which
spoke of Oregon 'and Texas only in a subordinate relation to California,
California was often included under the general heading of "the Oregon
question," or the "Texas question."
"aAs Hastings had given this information to Green three months before,
the time for the denouement in California was probably not far away.
"8Green to Calhoun, April 11, 1844. Correspondence of John C. Cal-
hotin, edited by J. Franklin Jameson in American Historical Association
Report, 1899, II, 945-947. This will hereafter be referred to simply as
Calhoun's Correspondence.
1"Same to same, May 30, 1844. Ibid., 961. Calhoun was also informed
of the encroachments of the Hudson's Bay Company in California. Lar-
kin to Calhoun, June 20, 1844. MS., State Department.
Larkin had been appointed consul at Monterey, May 1, 1843. Webster
to Thompson, May 5. MS., State Department.