It had just been done by joint resolution of the House--done by Tyler and Calhoun, just in time to take the feather out of old Polk's cap! The treaty of annexation--why, yes, it was ratified by Congress, and everything signed up March third, just one day before Polk's inaugural! Polk was on the warpath, according to my gaunt leader.

There was going to be war as sure as shooting, unless we got all of Oregon.

We had offered Great Britain a fair show, and in return she had claimed everything south to the Columbia, so now we had withdrawn all soft talk.

It looked like war with Mexico and England both.

Never mind, in that case we would whip them both! "Do you see that writin' on my wagon top ?" asked the captain.
"_Fifty-four Forty or Fight._ That's us!" And so they went on to tell us how this cry was spreading, South and West, and over the North as well; although the Whigs did not dare cry it quite so loudly.
"They want the _land_, just the same," said the captain.