concluded at length to record their names in favor of the amendment. And so the resolutions for the annexation of Texas were passed, and approved on the 1st day of March, 1845.

The resolutions being passed and approved, they would, in the ordinary course of events, as was expected, have gone over into Mr. Polk's administration for execution. But Mr. Polk was in collusion with Tyler and Calhoun, and could not fulfill his pledge with General Dix without breaking faith with them. It is supposed that he communicated to Mr. Tyler the dilemma in which he was placed, and the necessity of such immediate action as would extricate him from it. It is positively known that they had a consultation, and that it was then arranged between them, that Tyler should commission an agent to proceed forthwith to Texas and offer that government annexation under the first and second sections of the bill; and that when Mr. Polk was called upon, on the 5th of March, for information respecting the subject, he very complacently replied, that he regretted the fact, but that Mr Tyler had anticipated him, and by immediate action had put it out of his power to comply with his pledge to General Dix. In this way the friends of Silas Wright permitted themselves to be treated after they had come to understand that Mr. Polk was in league with their enemies. Their patient forbearance, under the circumstances, is very remarkable.

Although other legislation of a general character took place during the administration, and, indeed, during this session of congress, which was esteemed advantageous to the country, the great and distinguishing measure of this administration was the annexation of Texas-a measure conceived by the great nullifier himself, and urged to a consummation, for the principal purpose of augmenting

TYLER EXTENDED SLAVERY.

349

and aggrandizing the local despotism. It need not be said, that, instead of contributing anything whatever toward the general cause of human freedom, the administration of President Tyler employed its political forces for the extension and perpetuation of human bondage.

CHAPTER X.

NOMINATION OF POLK AND DALLAS UNDER EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES— INTRIGUE OF POLK AND CALHOUN-ANNEXATION OF TEXAS INCORPORATED INTO THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM-WILLIAM C. BRYANT AND OTHER DISSENTERS IN NEW YORK-THEIR SECRET CIRCULAR-NOMINATION OF CLAY AND FRELINGHUYSEN BY THE WHIGS-THE WHIG PLATFORM-THE CANVASS-CLAY DEFEATED BY HIS LETTERS TO ALABAMA-HIS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO WILLIAM H. SEWARD-POLK AND DALLAS ELECTED-POLK REMOVES TO WASHINGTON-ACQUIESCES IN THE ABSTRACTION OF PUBLIC FUNDS FOR THE PURCHASE of the GLOBE-AGREES TO TABOO SILAS WRIGHT AS A RECREANT DEMOCRAT HIS INTRIGUE WITH TYLER RESPECTING THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS-HIS INAUGURAL-HIS CABINET-THE OREGON QUESTION AND WAR WITH MEXICO-OTHER MEASURES-REFUSED A RENOMINATION-GENERAL REMARKS.

JAMES K. POLK, of Tennessee, succeeded John Tyler in the presidency, and George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, was elected vice president. They were put in nomination for those offices under extraordinary circumstances, by a Democratic national convention held at Baltimore on the 27th of May, 1844. The friends of Ex-President Van Buren had cherished the hope, from the period of his defeat by General Harrison, that it would please the Democratic party to re-nominate him. But General Cass, of Michigan, who had pretended to be favorable to Mr. Van Buren's nomination, had been paying addresses to the slave power on his own account. Colonel Richard M. Johnson and James Buchanan were in the field, also, in the hope that "something might turn up" to induce the convention to concentrate upon them. And John C. Calhoun, then secretary of state under President Tyler,

POLK'S NOMINATION.

351

was a candidate, without hope of a nomination, but for the purpose of obtaining a position that would enable him to direct the current, whenever it should turn from Van Buren and Cass, toward another candidate, whom he could impress with his peculiar views. In order to render Mr. Van Buren's nomination impossible, the convention adopted the two-third rule, notwithstanding the opposi tion of Mr. Butler, before proceeding to ballot. On the 28th, the balloting commenced, and after seven ineffectual efforts to nominate a candidate for president, the convention adjourned for the day. During the night which ensued, the nullifier intimated to the delegation from Tennessee that the time was opportune for them to bring forward Mr. Polk as a candidate. They improved the suggestion, and, before morning, perfected an understanding with the Leading friends of Mr. Van Buren, that after the next ballot, they would all support James K. Polk, to defeat General Cass. Accordingly, after the eighth ballot Mr. Butler withdrew the name of Martin Van Buren from the canvass. On the ninth, all of the friends of Mr. Van Buren except two voted for Mr. Polk, and all the friends of General Cass, except twenty-nine, perceiving the direction of the current, fell in with it from motives of policy, and voted for him also; so that on this ballot he received the votes of more than two-thirds of the delegates attending the convention.* In this result the friends of Mr. The following results were shown by nine ballotings:

Van Buren,
Cass,

Johnson,

Buchanan,
Calhoun,.

Woodbury,
Stewart,
Polk,
Morton,

I. II. III. IV. V. VI. 146 127 121 121 103 101

VII. VIII. IX. 99 104 83 94 92 105 107 116 125 114

2

29

Van Buren, although beaten on their favorite candidate, found consolation in the idea that they had beaten General Cass, and put in nomination a friend of Andrew Jackson, whose influence over him would be likely to result in a recognition of themselves as the persons entitled to executive favor. The friends of General Cass, although beaten on their candidate also, found equal consolation in the idea that they had overthrown Van Buren, and cleared the field for their favorite in 1848. Mr. Calhour, the master spirit of all, felicitated himself with assurance that with the aid of the secret nomination of John Tyler, which he controlled, he would be able to convert Mr. Polk to his own peculiar measures and policy. Hence, for entirely different and conflicting reasons, the friends of Martin Van Buren, Lewis Cass, and John C. Calhoun respectively acknowledged themselves satisfied with the choice. To keep up the delusion with the Van Buren men, Mr. Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi, moved the nomination of Silas Wright, of New York, for the vice presidency, which prevailed. Mr. Wright declined the honor, however, and the convention then nominated George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, and adopted the following resolutions:

"Resolved, That the American Democracy place their trust, not in fictitious symbols, not in displays and appeals insulting to the judgments and subversive of the intellect of the people; but in a clear reliance upon the intelligence, the patriotism, and the discriminating justice of the American masses.

66

Resolved, That we regard this as a distinctive feature of our political creed, which we are proud to maintain before the world, as the great moral element in a form of government springing from and upheld by the popular will; we contrast it with the creed and practice of Fed