Even after gaining new territory stretching to the Pacific Ocean, there was far more room to expand into in Northern America. The Slave economy of The South depended greatly on its warmer climate, and the Missouri Compromise Line placed a political limit on new Northern Slave States. There would always be more room for Free States than Slave States. Many thought that heralded the end of Slavery in the long run. Others forecasted the end of the United States.
Did they play that cartoon about the rat and the cat always fighting each other when you were young? I remember them like they are yesterday. I used to really like that rat. He seemed like a carefree guy that just liked having fun. Heck, I wanted to be like him. Yeah, that explains a few things. After I grew up, I realized the cat was the nice guy and the rat was just the jerk that loved to torment him. That was a mind-altering revelation right there.
We do actually know of dead alien civilizations. The Albion, the Ennead, and many others died two thousand years ago. They were very thorough when it came to ending each other in that old war. But they were thousands of lightyears away. The light of the stars that watched them die has not yet reached Earth. It is amazing to think of how vast the galaxy is. We have explored such a small percentage of it.
Officially, we purchased Texas and New Mexico as part of the peace treaty that ended the Mexican-American War. We actually gave them much better terms than most victors give the vanquished. But Mexico was never happy about the loss of their territory, and continued to print maps showing it as belonging to them for centuries. It would remain a contentious issue until Mexico herself fell to the drug wars of the Twenty-First Century.
The intelligent rats expanded fast after getting out of the lab. They smuggled themselves on trucks, trains, planes, and ships bound for pretty much anywhere. And they bred like…well…rats. I never really saw them where I grew up. Northern Minnesota is too cold for anything that small to stay by choice. They really loved Washington DC though. New York too. I’ve met a few New York rats, and let me tell you, they are nuts.
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