Page:EB1911 - Volume 27.djvu/725

Rh of success with the land-jobbers in Congress, and Van Buren's firmness found the way out of the chaos.

184. Van Buren's firmness was unpopular, and the Whig party now adopted methods which were popular if somewhat

demagogical. It nominated William H. Harrison in 1840; it contrasted his homely frontier virtues with Van Buren's “ostentatious indifference to the misfortunes of the people” and with the supposed luxury of his life in the White House; and, after the first of the modern “campaigns” of mass meetings and processions, Harrison was elected, receiving 234 electoral votes and Van Buren only 60. He died on the 4th of April 1841, only a month after his inauguration, and the vice-president, John Tyler, became president. Tyler was of the extreme Calhoun school, which had shown some disposition to grant to Van Buren a support which it had refused to Jackson; and the Whigs had nominated Tyler to retain his faction with them. Now he was the nominal leader of the party, while his politics were opposite to theirs, and the real leader of the party, Clay, was ready to force a quarrel upon him. The quarrel took place; the Whig majority in Congress was not large enough to pass any measures over Tyler's veto; and the first two years of his administration were passed in barren

conflict with his party. The “sub-treasury” law was repealed (1841); the tariff of 1842 introduced a modified protection; and there the Whigs were forced to stop. Their dissensions made Democratic success comparatively easy, and Tyler had the support of a Democratic House behind him during the last two years of his term.

185. The success of the Democratic machinery, and the reflex of its temporary check in 1840, with the influences brought to bear on it by the returning Calhoun faction, were such as to take the control of the party out of the hands of the leaders who had formed it. They had had high regard for political principle, even though they were willing to use doubtful methods for its propagation; these methods had now brought out new men, who looked mainly to success, and to close connexion with the controlling political element of the South as the easiest means of attaining success. When the Democratic convention of 1844 met it was expected to renominate Van Buren. A majority of the delegates had been sent there for that purpose, but many of them would have been glad to be prevented from doing so. They allowed a resolution to be passed making a two-thirds vote necessary for nomination; Van Buren was unable to command so many votes; and, when his name was withdrawn, James K. Polk was nominated. The Whigs nominated Clay.

186. The beginning of the abolitionist movement in the United States, the establishment of the Liberator (1831),

and of the American Anti-Slavery Society (1833), and the subsequent divisions in it, are dealt with elsewhere (see ). Up to that time “abolition” had meant gradual abolition; it was a wish rather than a purpose. Garrison called for immediate abolition. The basis of the American system was in the reserved rights of the states, and slavery rested on their will, which was not likely to be changed. But the cry was kept up. The mission of the Abolitionists was to force the people to think of the question; and, in spite of riots, assaults and persecution of every kind, they fulfilled it manfully. In truth, slavery was more and more out of harmony with the new economic conditions which were taking complete control of the North and West, but had hardly been felt in the South. Thus the two sections, North and South, were more and more disposed to take opposite views of everything in which slavery was involved, and it had a faculty of involving itself in almost everything. The status of slavery in the Territories had been settled in 1820; that of slavery in the states had been settled by the Constitution; but even in minor questions the intrusive element had to be reckoned with. The Abolitionists sent their documents through the mails, and the South wished the Federal government to interfere and stop the practice. The Abolitionists persisted in petitioning Congress for the passage of various measures which Congress regarded as utterly unconstitutional; and the disposition of Congress to deny

or regulate the right of petition in such matters (see ) excited the indignation of Northern men who had no sympathy with abolition. But the first occasion on which the views of the two sections came into flat contrast was on the question of the annexation of Texas.

187. The United States had had a vague claim to Texas until 1819, when the claim was surrendered to Spain in part compensation

for Florida. On the revolt of Mexico Texas became a part of that republic. It was colonized by Americans, mainly southerners and slave-holders, seceded from Mexico in 1835, and defeated the Mexican armies and established its independence in the following year. Southern politicians desired its annexation to the United States for many reasons. Its people were kindred to them; its soil would widen the area of slavery; and its territory, it was hoped, could be divided into several states, to reinforce the Southern column in the Senate. People in the North were either indifferent or hostile to the proposal; Van Buren had declared against it, and his action was a reason for his defeat in the Democratic convention.

On the other hand, there were indications that the joint occupation of the Oregon country could not last much longer. American immigration into it had begun, while the Hudson's Bay Company, the British tenant of the soil, was the natural enemy of immigration. To carry the sentiment of both sections, the two points were coupled; and the Democratic convention declared for the reannexation of Texas and the reoccupation of Oregon.

188. One of the cardinal methods of the political Abolitionists was to nominate candidates of their own against a doubtful

friend, even though this secured the election of an open enemy. Clays efforts to guard his condemnation of the Texas annexation project were just enough to push the (q.v.), the political Abolitionists, into voting for candidates of their own in New York; on a close vote their loss was enough to throw the electoral votes of

that state to Polk, and its votes decided the result. Polk was elected (November 1844); and Texas was annexed to the United States in the following spring. At the next meeting of Congress (1845) Texas was admitted as a state.

189. West of Texas the northern prolongation of Mexico ran right athwart the westward movement of American population; and, though the movement had not yet reached the barrier, the Polk administration desired further acquisitions from Mexico. The western boundary of Texas was undefined; a strip of territory claimed by Texas was settled exclusively by Mexicans; but the Polk administration directed General Zachary Taylor, the American commander in Texas, to cross the Nueces river and seize the disputed territory. Collisions with Mexican troops followed; they were beaten in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and were chased across the Rio Grande. Taylor followed and took the city of Monterey.

190. On the news of the first bloodshed Congress declared war against Mexico, over the opposition of the Whigs. A land

and naval force took possession of California, and a land expedition occupied New Mexico, so that the authority of Mexico over all the soil north of her present boundaries was abruptly terminated (1846). At the opening of 1847 Taylor fought the last battle in northern Mexico (Buena Vista), defeating the Mexicans, and General Winfield Scott, with a new army, landed at Vera Cruz for a march upon the city of Mexico. Scott's march was marked by one successful battle after another, usually against heavy odds; and in September he took the capital city and held it until peace was made (1848)

by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Among the terms of peace was the cession of the present California, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, the consideration being a payment of $15,000,000 by the United States and the assumption of some $3,000,000 of debts due by Mexico to American citizens. With a subsequent rectification of frontier (1853) by the Gadsden Treaty (see ), this cession