"America, can you come here a moment?" Tyler asked one day, sitting at his desk, the by now familiar glasses in his hands.
"Yes?" curiously, the young Nation came over, looking down at the lenses.
"Can you put these on for a minute, please? I just want to see something," Tyler held out the spectacles.
Reluctantly, America took the seemingly sentient object, startled when a slight shock ran through his fingers as they made contact. Spurred on by curiosity, he pushed the frames onto his nose. It was a strange feeling, unaccustomed to the slight weight of glasses as he was. And the lenses were blurry, obscuring his vision. Not to mention the overwhelming sense of unease he felt, for whatever the reason.
"They feel weird," he summarized after a minute, taking the spectacles off and handing them back to the president. "And they started hurting my eyes after awhile."
"Hm…" Tyler hummed to himself, examining the lenses further. He put them on a couple of times himself, seemingly nonplussed.
"Sir…what was the purpose of that?" America questioned, interrupting the president in his internal musings.
"I was thinking of annexing Texas," Tyler announced, as if an answer to America's question. "Before Britain gets it."
"Really?" America asked, surprised, at once excited and suspicious. But he passed off the later emotion as paranoia: the odd glasses must've just set him on edge.
"Yes, I've replaced Webster with Upshur as secretary of state, and he shares my sentiment," Tyler set the lenses back down, watching America carefully for a reaction. "You wanted to annex Texas, right?"
"Yeah," America replied, much more half-heartedly than intended. He shook his head, before correcting himself in a more enthusiastic tone. "I mean…of course. Yes!"
"Good to hear," his president smiled softly, before turning back to his paperwork.
America watched the pen scribble back and forth, unnerved by the unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"Are you sure it's alright for me to leave?" America questioned, as he put the finishing touches to his packing.
"Of course," Tyler smiled encouragingly. "You're just heading out to Oregon for a little while…a few months. I trust you. And I'll try to make some headway with Texas' annexation while you're gone. I can tell you want to go, so run along and enjoy yourself!"
"Alright," America returned the grin, swinging the pack onto his shoulders with one hand, holding out the other. "Good luck here, then, and I'll be back in time for Christmas."
"Good luck," agreed Tyler, shaking his hand warmly. And so the two parted.
It had been so long since America had been allowed to go off on his own, explore the wilderness to his heart's content. It was more difficult than he remembered, traversing the vast landscapes, but it was refreshing in a way as well, such a pleasant change from the constant worries of politics and such.
Sweat beaded on his forehead in the hot summer sun, only the occasional wind blowing it dry for a moment, before the process repeated. But it was a comforting rustic struggle, a good physical challenge to relax all the mental turmoil he had had to deal with lately.
Because, alone in the wild, America could think back to the days when he lived in comfortable solitude with his brother. Alone, before Europe intruded into their peaceful existence and made life complicated.
"It failed," Tyler announced months later, needlessly, for America knew. He had heard of Upshur's unexpected death, and the subsequent appointment of Calhoun to the position. He'd felt the rising agitation of his people, but had ignored it, hoping it would pass.
Because it was right for them to annex Texas, was it not? Mexico wouldn't try anything, definitely not. (He decided not to think about how, really, he knew next to nothing about his Southern neighbor or their ideals. Spain had dealt with all of Mexico's foreign affairs, having just lost control of the Nation a couple decades ago.)
But, really, Mexico had let his people settle in Texas, and had been lenient with them up until recently. Mexico couldn't be that bad of a guy…definitely not.
But that didn't stop the apprehension curled within the pit of his stomach.
Historical Notes: Southerners were alarmed that a Texas dominated by Britain would lead to abolition of slavery. As a Southerner, Tyler sympathized with them. When Webster resigned as secretary of state in 1843, Tyler replaced him with fellow Virginian, Abel P. Upshur. He then asked Upshur to seek a treaty of annexation for Texas. The country was eager for Texas' annexation, the West, and even the North, filled with patriotic desire to obtain such a 'magnificent' piece of territory. Estimating, Upshur was connived Senate would provide the necessary two-thirds majority. He negotiated a treaty in February 1844, but before he could sign it, he was killed in an accidental explosion of a cannon on the USS Princeton during a weapons demonstration.
To continued work towards Texas' annexation, Tyler appointed John C. Calhoun as the new secretary. However, Calhoun was so closely linked with the South and slavery by this point that his appointment alienated thousands of Northerners who otherwise might have support annexation. It suddenly became a hot topic of debate. Clay and Van Buren, who seemed assured of the 1844 Whig and Democratic presidential nominations, promptly announced that they opposed annexation, simply because it might lead to war with Mexico. With an election approaching, northern and western senators refused to vote for annexation, and in June the Senate rejected the treaty, 35 to 16.
No longer daunted by the vastness of the West, Americans now wished to take control of the entire continent and form it into a strong nation to showcase democracy. This ideal was known as Manifest Destiny.
Moving west was not the romantic journey many had pictured it to be. It was very difficult, the distances further and the comforts left behind more appealing than they had been in previous generations. The new family structure consisted of "separate spheres" for men and women. Men were to work and provide for the family, and women were supposed to keep house and care for the children. This ideal was disrupted by westward movement, as women and men often had to share a lot of the same duties, child care and all.
Indians, while potentially dangerous, were more often complained of for being "dirty, lazy, and thieving". Women feared them more for their strangeness than their actual behavior. It was a very tiresome trip. Women often grew weary from "men's work" in addition to child-rearing along the trail.
California was owned by Mexico, a sparsely settled land of several thousand Spanish speaking ranchers and a few English settlers from the United States. Until the 1830s when their estates were broken up by the anticlerical Mexican government, 21 Catholic missions controlled more than 30,000 Indian converts, who they treated little better than slaves. Oregon was a vaguely defined area between California and Russian Alaska, jointly owned by the United States and Britain, was very fertile. Both of these areas were very appealing to Americans.
"Oregon fever" was the name given to the desire to go westward, often along the Oregon Trail which was filled with difficulties. Scores of towns and societies organized movements westward, a path especially appealing to new immigrants, but considered patriotic by American citizens as well. Each caravan became their won self governing group, with regulations democratically agreed upon. The trip was fairly expensive to make, about $600 for a family of four, no small fee at the time. The five-month trip was full of labor, discomfort, and uncertainty, a "remorseless, unending, weather scoured, nerve-rasping plod on and on and on and on, foot by aching foot.
But pioneers were motivated to reach their destination, Americans eager to control San Diego, San Francisco (both Mexican owned), and the Puget District (British claimed). They believed they were the key to trade with the desirable Orient.
I'm so tired Hope this is okay. The first part is probably noticeable better, since I wrote it out a few days ago with the previous chapter. I meant to have this up earlier, but a friend invited me over last minute, and I spent the day there. Anyway…'tis late…or early. Going to go sleep.