purpose of extending slavery. This discovery coincided with the
suppression of abolition propaganda in the South. Hitherto John
Quincy Adams had favored the western expansion of our territory.
He had labored diligently to make the Rio Grande the western
boundary of the Louisiana Purchase at the time of the treaty with
Spain in 1819. But though in 1825 he had supported a measure to
purchase Texas from Mexico, under the new conditions he threw
himself heartily against the annexation of Texas, and in 1838 he
defeated in the House of Representatives a resolution favoring
annexation. To this end Adams occupied the morning hour of the
House each day from the 16th of June to the 7th of July, within
two days of the time fixed for adjournment. This was only a
beginning of his fight against the extension of slavery. There
was no relenting in his opposition to pro-slavery demands until
he was stricken down with paralysis in the streets of Boston, in
November, 1846. He never again addressed a public assembly. But
he continued to occupy his seat in Congress until February 23,
1848.

* See "Texas and the Mexican War" (in "The Chronicles of
America").

The debate inaugurated in Congress by Adams and others over the
extension of slave territory rapidly spread to the country at
large, and interest in the question became general. Abolitionists
were thereby greatly stimulated to put into practice their
professed duty of seeking to accomplish their ends by political
action. Their first effort was to secure recognition in the
regular parties. The Democrats answered in their platform of 1840
by a plank specifically denouncing the abolitionists, and the