the US. Secretary of Navy George Bancroft noted that the acquisition of California was among Polk's top four priorities from the outset of his administration (although this was not public knowledge) and Glenn Price points out that the Mexican War was a result of President Polk utilizing Texas as a means to achieve annexation of California. Perhaps the most important domestic issue in the years prior to the American Civil War was that of slavery. As John C. Calhoun recognized, if the treaty ending the conflict was "silent on the subject of slavery in the ceded territory, the North will oppose it, & if it should prohibit slavery the South would, and in either event, there would be a constitutional majority." This dilemma, some argue, greatly affected the foreign policy decisions that Polk made with respect to Mexico and the relevant territories. However, adherence to this type of societal theory with respect to the Mexican War provides evidence for why Polk might have averted pressures to annex the California and New Mexico; it does not explain Polk's provocation of a war with the US's neighbor nor does it explain Polk's inexorable passion for the Pacific coastline. President Polk considered this issue in his diary when he expressed his disapproval for the Wilmot Proviso, "It [slavery question] is a domestic and not a foreign question, and to connect it with the appropriations for prosecuting the war, or with the two million appropriation with a view to obtain peace, can result in no good". Also, Polk felt that the territories of California and New Mexico were not conducive to slavery, and thus he believed that "the question would never arise." The issue of relative power also deserves consideration when analyzing Polk's foreign policy. As early as 1840, Great Britain began to expand its control over Mexican claims in California. Thomas Benton relates that "The subjection of California to British protection… and the transfer of the...
