of slaveholders, annexationists, and Free-Traders. Mr. Polk immediately set about redeeming his pledges to Mr. Calhoun, one of which was to establish a new Democratic organ at Washington to take the place of the Globe. To this end he at once removed to Washington and aided in the purchase of the Globe with money which President Tyler had allowed to be taken from the public Treasury, and he gave notice to Democratic members of Congress that all who did not favor the immediate annexation of Texas need expect no favors after the 4th of March. He also acquiesced with the determination of Calhoun, that Governor Wright of New York should be read out of the Democratic party. He organized his Cabinet as follows: James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, Secretary of State; Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, Secretary of the Treasury; William L. Marcy of New York, Secretary of War; George Bancroft of Massachusetts, Secretary of the Navy; Cave Johnson of Tennessee, Postmaster-General; John Y. Mason of Virginia, Attorney-General. Mason afterwards succeeded Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy, while Nathan Clifford of Maine, in 1846, and Isaac Toucey of Connecticut, in 1848, succeeded to the Attorney-Generalship.

But before Polk was inaugurated, the arrangements for the annexation of Texas were completed. President Tyler and Secretary Calhoun pushed the matter with the utmost vigor, so that upon the very last day of his term the President started a messenger to Texas to secure her assent to the annexation, which had been decreed by our national Congress. The third condition of the resolutions, which had been passed in both Houses of Congress, consenting that the Territory should be erected into a new State, was as follows:

Third. New States of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition to the said State of Texas, and having sufficient population, may hereafter, by the consent of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the Federal Constitution; and such States as may be formed out of that portion of said territory lying south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri Compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union

The Mexican War.

III

with or without Slavery, as the people of each State asking admission may desire. And in such State or States as shall be formed out of said territory north of said Missouri Compromise line, Slavery or involuntary servitude (except for crime) shall be prohibited.

The condition appears ridiculous in the light of the fact that Texas had not possessed a single acre north of the parallel of 36° 30'. It, however, committed Congress to the endorsement of the claim of Texas to the entire left bank of the Rio Grande from its source to its mouth.

This sudden and rather unexpected result of the annexation question startled the North as much as it pleased the South, but the Representatives of the free States were powerless to do anything, at least for four years to come. Texas readily accepted the invitation to become a State, and was admitted December 29, 1845, being the last slave State to join the Union.

The Twenty-ninth Congress assembled December 1, 1845, with a Democratic majority in both branches. John W. Davis of Indiana was chosen Speaker of the House. Up to this time the anticipated and predicted war with Mexico had not materialized. No step whatever had been taken by Mexico following the admission of the new State. It now becomes necessary to record the most disgraceful and dishonorable event connected with our Government in American history. General Zachary Taylor, commanding the Southwestern Department, was sent to the boundary-line between Texas and Mexico with the intent and purpose of provoking war. Mexico was weak but courageous. Texas had made claim to territory to which she had no right or title whatever, and the spirit of the old Spaniards, although torn by internal dissensions, was roused to the point of not only acting upon the defensive, but to taking the aggressive. The armies of the two countries. now faced each other, and, as Benton says in his Thirty Years' View, "being thus in presence, with anger in their bosoms and arms in their hands, that took place which everybody foresaw must take place-collisions and hostilities." Mexican troops were sent across the river, attacking and killing a few AmeriThis was what the President wanted, and when the

cans.

news reached Washington, he immediately sent a message to Congress, declaring that "Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory, and shed American blood upon American soil." Congress then declared, May 13, 1846, that war existed by act of Mexico, and ten million dollars was appropriated, and fifty thousand volunteers were called for the prosecution of the struggle. Although protesting against this unjust war, only fourteen Representatives and two Senators voted against the appropriation, believing that as war did actually exist from whatever cause, the Flag must be defended. It was, as it seemed to the North, a war on behalf of the Slave Power for the still further extension of slave territory. As must be inevitable when a vastly stronger power meets a weak force, we were victorious, even though our troops in nearly every battle faced larger numbers. The Mexicans showed great bravery, but against superior skill, better discipline and equipment. General Taylor and General Scott both became famous during this war, while two other afterwards famous generals, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, served the apprenticeship of their military careers. Congress remained in session until the 10th of August, and when it was apparent that Mexico must finally succumb, President Polk believed that he might make a treaty of peace by the payment of a considerable sum of money to Mexico. Accordingly, on August 8th he sent a special message to Congress upon the subject, and a bill was reported making appropriations of thirty thousand dollars for expenses, and two million dollars to be used by the President in making such a treaty.

This bill seemed at first likely to pass both Houses without opposition, but the Northern Representatives in Congress were now thoroughly alarmed and fully awake to the situation, and after a consultation which occupied but a very short time, Mr. David Wilmot of Pennsylvania, a Democratic Representative, was chosen as the one who should offer an amendment to the bill, providing as follows:

Provided, That, as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty that may be negotiated

The Wilmot Proviso.

113

between them, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein appropriated, neither Slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted.

This was at once known, and continued to be known, as the Wilmot Proviso.' It was quickly adopted by a vote of eightyfive to eighty, and sent to the Senate, where, adjournment being so near, the bill and proviso both failed to be acted upon. More than a year afterwards, on the eve of a presidential convention and election, General Cass, on being asked by Mr. Nicholson of Tennessee his opinion regarding the Wilmot Proviso, said in a reply dated December 24, 1847:

The Wilmot Proviso has been before the country for some time. It has been repeatedly discussed in Congress and by the public press. I am strongly impressed with the opinion that a great change has been going on in the public mind upon this subject, in my own as well as others', and that doubts are resolving themselves into convictions, that the principle it involves should be kept out of the National Legislature, and left to the people of the confederacy in their respective local governments.

This is probably the first expression of the sentiment known afterwards as "Popular" or "Squatter Sovereignty," and was a questioning of the power of the Government to exclude Slavery from the Territories. The Thirtieth Congress on assembling December 6, 1847, elected Robert C. Winthrop of Massachusetts, a Whig Speaker, by a majority of one. The Wilmot Proviso from now on came up repeatedly in different forms, only to be defeated in every instance.

1 Schouler (vol. v., p. 67) says: "Of this famous Wilmot Proviso, David Wilmot, rural Pennsylvanian and Democrat of the last and next House, was unquestionably the author." This is an error. Jacob R. Brinkerhoff of Ohio was the author. Several copies of his original draft were made and distributed among the Free Soil Democrats in the House, with the understanding that whoever could first get recognition from the Speaker should offer it. Wilmot succeeded and won distinction therefor. The original Proviso was in Judge Brinkerhoff's possession until his death in 1880, and to it was added by him an account of its origin. After his death the family, at the suggestion of General Roeliff Brinkerhoff, to whom I am indebted for these facts, deposited it with Mr. Spofford, the Librarian of Congress.-A Political History of Slavery, by William Henry Smith, vol. i., p. 83.

VOL. I.-8

CHAPTER IV.

THE FREE-SOILERS-COMPROMISE OF 1850-FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW-KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL-KNOW-NOTHINGS."

PEA

EACE with Mexico had been made by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February, 1848, and immediately a bill for providing a Territorial Government for Oregon was brought before Congress, and referred to a Senate Committee, which reported it with amendments establishing Territorial Governments in Mexico and California also. In this bill was a proposition to the effect that all questions concerning Slavery in those Territories should be referred to the United States Supreme Court. This so-called Clayton Compromise was, however, defeated.

At the Democratic Convention of 1848, General Cass was nominated for the Presidency, and General William O. Butler of Kentucky was nominated for Vice-President. The New York Democrats were now divided into two factions, namely, the "Barnburners ''' and "Hunkers."

The convention proposed to admit both factions, giving each delegate a half vote, but this proposition the "Barnburners" would not accept, and left the convention in a body, meeting later in a national convention at Buffalo, with the Free-Soil party, where Martin Van Buren was nominated for President, and Charles Francis Adams for Vice-President. a letter to the author, Senator George F. Hoar calls this

In

1 From the story of the Dutch farmer who had burned his barn to free it from rats. This faction was afterwards known as "Softs" in distinction from the Hunkers," who became known as Hards" or "Hard-shells." The "Hunkers " had always been the conservative element of the Democratic party. The origin of the name is uncertain.