Van Buren appeared to be preferred to any other candidate, by the largest proportion of the democratic party.

In answer to letters and inquiries addressed to them on the Texas question, both Mr. Clay and Mr. Van Buren came out, in the month of April, 1844 with their views on the subject. They were both understood to be unfavorable to the immediate annexation of Texas, particularly without the consent of Mexico. Mr. Clay's letter was generally satisfactory to his political friends; but the course of Mr. Van Buren determined the democrats of the south to prevent his nomination for the presidency, by the convention of that party, if possible, and to seek some other candidate, who was favorable to southern views and feelings on the Texas question.

The whig national convention, for the nomination of president and vicepresident, met at Baltimore, on the 1st of May, 1844. Every state in the Union was represented by delegates, and the Hon. Ambrose Spencer, of New York, was chosen president of the convention, assisted by a number of vice-presidents and secretaries. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, was nominated by acclamation, as the candidate to be supported by the whigs, for president of the United States, at the ensuing election; and on the third vote, Theodore Frelinghuysen, formerly of New Jersey, but then a resident of New York, was nominated as the candidate for vice-president. Great unanimity prevailed in the convention after the nominations were announced, and enthusiastic demonstration to support the candidates n'amed.

The democratic national convention of delegates for the nomination of candidates for president and vice-president, met at Baltimore, on the 27th of May, 1844. The states were all represented, except South Carolina. The Hon. Hendrick B. Wright, of Pennsylvania, was chosen president of the convention, assisted by numerous vice-presidents and secretaries. Most of the delegations from the different states had been instructed to vote for Mr. Van Buren for president, but the Texas question had been taken up by the party since those instructions were given, and Mr. Van Buren's letter on the subject had rendered the policy of his nomination doubtful with many who had been anxious for his re-election to the presidency.

On the first ballot by the convention, for a candidate for president, Mr. Van Buren received 146 votes, General Cass 83, Colonel Johnson, of Kentucky, 24, Mr. Calhoun 6, and there were 7 for other persons; thus showing a decided majority in favor of Mr. Van Buren. But the convention having adopted the rule which had governed on former similar occasions, requiring two thirds of the votes for a nomination, no choice was made. Seven subsequent ballots took place, on the last of which Mr. Van Buren received 104 votes, General Cass 114, and 44 for James K. Polk, of Tennessee. The Virginia and New York delegations then each separately retired for consultation, and on their return to the convention it

was announced, by Mr. Roane, of Virginia, that the delegation from that state would give their vote for James K. Polk. Mr. Butler, of New York, responded to Mr. Roane, and having the authority of Mr. Van Buren, withdrew his name, and stated that the delegation from New York would cast thirty-five votes in favor of Mr. Polk, the remaining member voting blank. The call of the states being made for a ninth ballot, a unanimous vote from all the delegations was given for James K. Polk, as the democratic candidate for president of the United States. Silas Wright, of New York, was nominated for vice-president, being then in the United States senate, at Washington. The nomination was declined by Mr. Wright, and on the following morning the convention nominated George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, for that station.

The candidates nominated, both for president and vice-president, were understood to be in favor of the annexation of Texas to the United States. Resolutions were adopted by the convention, one of which declared, “that our title to the whole of the territory of Oregon is clear and unquestiona ble; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to England or any other power; and that the reoccupation of Oregon and the reannexation of Texas, at the earliest practicable period, are great American measures, which this convention recommends to the cordial support of the democracy of the Union." Another resolution declared, "that the convention hold in the highest estimation and regard their illustrious fellow-citizen, Martin Van Buren, of New York," &c., and that they" tender to him, in his honorable retirement, the assurance of the deeply-seated confidence, affection, and respect, of the American democracy."

The nomination of Messrs. Polk and Dallas had the effect of completely uniting the democratic party throughout the country, and the Texas and Oregon questions had a tendency to infuse renewed vigor among the masses attached to the party, enabling them to enter into the election contest with excited hopes and prospects of success.

At the same time when the democratic convention met at Baltimore, a convention of the friends of President Tyler, composed of delegates from various parts of the Union, principally office-holders and political adventurers, assembled at that city, and placed the name of Mr. Tyler in nomination as a candidate for election to the presidency. The presi dent accepted the nomination, but his case as a candidate being hopeless, he yielded, in August, to the solicitations of the friends of Polk and Dallas, who were desirous to have the aid and patronage of the general gov ernment in favor of the democratic candidates, and withdrew his name from the presidential canvass. On that occasion Mr. Tyler published an address in the Madisonian, the official paper at Washington, to his friends throughout the Union, announcing his intention and desire to withdraw from the position in which his friends had placed him. He concludes his address by saying: "I appeal from the vituperation of the present day to

the pen of impartial history, in the full confidence that neither my motives nor my acts. will bear the interpretation which has, for sinister purposes, been placed upon them."

After a most animated and exciting canvass, the presidential election took place, in the fall of 1844, and resulted in the election of the democratic candidates, James K. Polk as president, and George M. Dallas as vice-president, of the United States, over the whig candidates, Clay and Frelinghuysen. The votes of the electoral colleges were, for Polk and Dallas, 170; for Clay and Frelinghuysen, 105. Tho popular vote was, for Polk, 1,335,834; for Clay, 1,297,033; for Birney, the abolition candidate, 64,653; exclusive of South Carolina, which state gave its electoral vote through the legislature, that body choosing the presidential electors. In the states of New York and Michigan, the democratic electoral ticket received a plurality over the whig vote, less than the amount of abolition votes in those states. In addition to the states which voted for Mr. Van Buren in 1840, giving 60 electoral votes; Mr. Polk received the votes of Maine, 9; New York, 36; Pennsylvania, 26; Georgia, 10; Mississippi, 6; Louisiana, 6; Indiana, 12; and Michigan, 5; which states gave their electoral votes to General Harrison, in 1840.

The second session of the twenty-eighth Congress commenced on the 2d of December, 1844, and closed on the expiration of their term, the 3d of March, 1845. The most important and exciting subject of the session was that of the annexation of Texas. Joint resolutions for annexing that republic to the United States, as one of the states of the Union, passed the house of representatives, on the 25th of January, 1845, by a vote of 120 to 98; and on the 1st of March the same passed the senate, by a vote of 27 to 25; and the same day the resolutions were approved by the president.

Among the public acts of interest passed at this session, were the following: To establish a uniform time for holding elections for electors of president and vice-president, in all the states in the Union; to provide for the establishment of the mail between the United States and foreign countries; granting lands to the state of Indiana, to enable the state to extend and complete the Wabash and Erie canal; to reduce the rates of postage, and to limit the use, and correct the abuse, of the franking privilege; allowing drawback upon foreign merchandise exported by the interior to Mexico and the British North American provinces; for the construction and improvement of roads in Wisconsin; making appropriations for fortifications; and an act for the admission of the states of Iowa and Florida into the Union. Florida complied with the terms of the last act, and was, consequently, admitted into the Union; but the people of Iowa rejected the terms, principally on account of the boundary defined by Congress, and, therefore, Iowa remained a territory.

A bill forbidding the president to build revenue-cutters at his own discretion, which had been vetoed by President Tyler, was again passed by

the senate, and by the house, by more than a two-third vote (in the latter by 126 to 31), and thus became a law, notwithstanding the veto. A bill making appropriations for certain harbors and rivers, passed both houses, near the close of the session, but was retained by the president, and thus failed to become a law, in consequence of what was called a "pocket veto,” which was the last act of Mr. Tyler's administration, as a similar act had been that of President Jackson's, in 1837.

Thus ended the administration of John Tyler; of whom it may be said, that he retired without the regret of either of the two great political par ties of the country; as by his course he had lost the confidence of that party by which he was elected, without gaining that of their political opponents. Many important matters, however, were accomplished by this administration, the credit of which was bestowed upon others, instead of the president. Thus the protective tariff act of 1842 was accomplished by a whig Congress, although approved by the executive; and the settlement of the northeastern boundary question, by the treaty with Great Britain, was accredited to the energy and skill of the secretary of state, Mr. Webster; while the annexation of Texas was a measure which was mainly pushed to completion through the ability and exertions of another secretary of state, Mr. Calhoun; and any benefits that were derived from it as forming political capital, were seized upon and used by the democratic party, for the purpose of coming into power, by the election of Polk and Dallas. It wonld be unjust, however, to deny to Mr. Tyler whatever merit is his due from the circumstance of having used every exertion to carry through the Texas measure during his administration. Nor is it to be denied that the foreign relations of the United States were ably managed during his presidential term, and that he generally surrounded himself with able counsellors in his cabinet.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

JAMES KNOX POLK.

JAMES KNOX POLK, the eleventh president of the United States, is the oldest of ten children, and was born on the second of November, 1795, in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina. His ancestors, whose original name, Pollock, has, by obvious transition, assumed its present form, emigrated in the early part of the eighteenth century, from Ireland. The family traces their descent from Robert Polk, who was born and married in Ireland; his wife, Magdalen Tusker, was the heiress of Mowning hill. They had six sons and two daughters; Robert Polk, the progenitor of James Knox Polk, was the fifth son; he married a Miss Gullet, and removed to America. Ezekiel Polk, the grandfather of James K. Polk, was one of his sons.

The Polk family settled in Somerset county, on the eastern shore of Maryland, where some of their descendants still sojourn. Being the only democrats of note in that county, they were called the democratic family. The branch of the family from which the president is descended, removed to the neighborhood of Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, and thence to the western frontier of North Carolina, sometime before the commencement of the revolutionary war. Some of the Polk family were honorably distinguished in that eventful struggle. On the twentieth of May, 1775, consequently more than twelve months anterior to the declaration of independence of the fourth of July, 1776, the assembled inhabitants of Mecklenburg county publicly absolved themselves from their allegiance to the British crown, and issued a formal manifesto of independence, in terms of manly eloquence, similar to some of the expressions in the declaration of the American Congress adopted more than a year afterward. Colonel Thomas Polk, the prime mover in this act of noble daring, and one of the signers of this first declaration of independence, was the great uncle of the president; and the family is also connected with the Alexanders, chairman and sec