Editing Martin Van Buren (section)

===Texas===
Just before leaving office in March 1837, Andrew Jackson extended diplomatic recognition to the [[Republic of Texas]], which had won independence from Mexico in the [[Texas Revolution]]. By suggesting the prospect of quick [[annexation]], Jackson raised the danger of war with Mexico and heightened sectional tensions at home. New England abolitionists charged that there was a "[[Slave Power|slaveholding conspiracy]] to acquire Texas", and [[Daniel Webster]] eloquently denounced annexation.{{sfn|Henretta|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3djEYV3R7oIC&pg=PA109 109]}} Many Southern leaders, meanwhile, strongly desired the expansion of slave-holding territory in the United States.{{sfn|Wilson|1984|pp=151–152}}

Boldly reversing Jackson's policies, Van Buren sought peace abroad and harmony at home. He proposed a diplomatic solution to a long-standing financial dispute between American citizens and the Mexican government, rejecting Jackson's threat to settle it by force.{{sfn|Henretta|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3djEYV3R7oIC&pg=PA109 109]}} Likewise, when the Texas minister at Washington, D.C., proposed annexation to the administration in August&nbsp;1837, he was told that the proposition could not be entertained. Constitutional scruples and fear of war with Mexico were the reasons given for the rejection,<ref name=TexAnnex3638>{{cite web|last=Neu|first=C. T.|title=Annexation|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|location=Austin|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/mga02|access-date=March 11, 2017|date=June 9, 2010|archive-date=August 7, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807080310/https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/mga02|url-status=live}}</ref> but concern that it would precipitate a clash over the extension of slavery undoubtedly influenced Van Buren and continued to be the chief obstacle to annexation.<ref>{{cite book|last=Merk|first=Frederick|title=History of the Westward Movement|date=1978|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofwestwar00merk/page/279 279]|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|location=New York|isbn=978-0-394-41175-0|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwestwar00merk/page/279}}</ref> Northern and Southern Democrats followed an unspoken rule: Northerners helped quash anti-slavery proposals and Southerners refrained from agitating for the annexation of Texas.{{sfn|Wilson|1984|pp=151–152}} Texas withdrew the annexation offer in 1838.<ref name=TexAnnex3638/>