194 University of Caifornia Publications in History
might ponder how well the young nation could have assimilated
at that early date Texas and even more Mexican territory, which
might have come to it in a war, and what effect such expansion
would have had on the sectional strife of the country. Further-
more, it must be remembered that the decision to yield Texas was
taken in full Cabinet council, and that Adams was not in favor
of it.
 However that may be, the United States received the almost
 abandoned Floridas and the valid Spanish claim to Oregon in
 exchange for her own debatable claim to Texas. On the south, the
 acquisition increased slave territory and gave us a more direct
 interest in Caribbean affairs. On the southwest, the limit almost
 immediately did prove too much of a restriction on our expansion,
 and the seeds of the Texas revolution were laid. In the upper Mis-
 souri country the legend of a "great American desert," which be-
 came current after the Long expedition, delayed settlement for
 some time, but the region was definitely secured for the migration
 which was inevitable. '
 Over the mountains, recognition was obtained for title to a
 region then far distant, to which few people journeyed for some
 years thereafter. An international boundary line was drawn, how-
 ever, which remained as established for twenty-seven years, and
 the southern limits of the joint-occupation territory were defined."
 The English in relinquishing Astoria in 1818 had not, to be
sure, admitted our title to that region, and they did not after the
Adams-Onis Treaty was ratified. They claimed in 1826 the right to
settlement and navigation as far south as the Thirty-eighth Paral-
lel below the Spanish treaty line." They proceeded, however, with
slight resistance, to sign an agreement on August 6, 1827, which
indefinitely prolonged the period of joint occupation beyond the
original ten-year period, but which defined the limits no more
specifically. Clay, during this negotiation, indicated his under-
standing that effectively the region was bounded on the south by
the Adams-Onis line and on the north by the line of 540 40' estab-
lished in treaties with Russia." For some time the Oregon country
was dominated by the Hudson's Bay Company; but its influence
did not extend below the Columbia, and no claim to territory be-
low the Forty-second Parallel appeared in the negotiation of the
treaty of 1846. Furthermore, that England accepted the line of