overcome this heavy vote was impossible; but Mr. Polk entered upon the canvass with his accustomed spirit and energy. His competitor was James C. Jones, a most effective speaker, and decidedly the most popular man at that time in the whig party of the state.

Personal good feeling on the part of the opposing candidates characterized this contest, as it had that of 1839. Mr. Polk frankly and cordially met Mr. Jones on the stump and travelled in company with him; and, it is said, they slept in the same bed on one occasion. But all the efforts of Mr. Polk proved unavailing. The politics of the state were for the time firmly fixed in opposition to his own. He was defeated, but in his defeat achieved a triumph, by the reduction of the whig majority to about three thousand. In 1843 he was once more a candidate in opposition to Governor Jones, but the latter was reëlected by nearly four thousand majority.

CHAPTER VII,

Presidential Canvass of 1844-The Texas Question-Letter of Mr. Polk to the Citizens of Cincinnatti-The Baltimore Convention-Nomination of Mr. Polk-His Acceptance-Resolutions of the Convention-The Election-Reception at Nashville-Journey of the President Elect to Washington-His Inauguration—Address.

ON leaving the executive chair of Tennessee, Mr. Polk returned, without a single murmur or feeling of regret, to private life. Its peace and tranquillity, its happiness and content, its calm and sweet pleasures, were congenial to his disposition and his tastes. Fortune had not showered wealth upon him with a lavish hand; nor had he ever taken advantage of the frequent opportunities presented to him, to enrich himself by speculation. Festina lente-" make haste slowly"-was his motto in the studies and pursuits of his youth, and in the occupations of maturer years. He possessed a competence-all that he needed or desired—which enabled him to be liberal in the bestowment of his charities, and to dispense a generous hospitality to his numerous friends. And more than all, and above all, there dwelt by his fireside a ministering angel, whose virtues and graces made his home a paradise of joys.

But a politician, like a revolution, can rarely go backward. As a combatant who entered the lists at the Olympian Games could not retire without dishonor, so

he who has long been before the people as a candidate for their suffrages, and been elevated by them to positions of distinction, is not often permitted to withdraw himself voluntarily from the political arena. The claims of party friends upon the leader whom they have supported are always strong, and generally irresistible. Mr. Polk was not without ambition; but he preferred henceforth to rely upon others to secure his advancement, if they desired so to do, and contented himself with being in the main a passive instrument in their hands. 1841 and 1843, he came forward as a candidate for governor, only in compliance with the general desire of his party.

In

The wishes and expectations of his friends were early fixed on the presidential office. At the session of the Tennessee legislature in 1839, he was nominated by that body for the vice-presidency, to be placed on the ticket with Mr. Van Buren, and with the expectation, no doubt, that he might succeed that gentleman in the higher office. He was afterward nominated in other states for the same position; but as Colonel Johnson seemed to be the choice of the great body of the republican party in the Union, no efforts of importance were made by the friends of the former, and at the election in 1840 he received but one electoral vote, in the college of Virginia.

From the time of the defeat of Mr. Van Buren, in 1840, up to within a few weeks previous to the assembling of the national democratic convention at Baltimore, in May, 1844, public opinion in the republican party seemed to be firmly fixed upon him as their candidate for reëlection to the station which he had once filled. But

The

in the month of April, 1844, a treaty was concluded under the auspices of President Tyler, between the representatives of the government of the United States and of the republic of Texas, providing for the annexation* of the latter to the American Confederacy. This measure, though long in contemplation, like the apple of discord, was fruitful in strife and dissension. Hitherto it had been conceded on every hand, that Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Clay ought to be, and would be, the rival candidates for the presidency in 1844; but now the political elements were thrown into complete confusion. opinions of almost every public man in the United States were inquired after; and among others, Mr. Polk was addressed, it being understood that he would be a prominent candidate at the Baltimore Convention for the republican nomination for vice-president. At a meeting of citizens of Cincinnati opposed to the annexation, held on the 29th of March, a committee was appointed to correspond with the prominent men of both political parties, and to solicit from them an expression of their views upon the Texas question. From this committee Mr. Polk received a letter, accompanying a copy of the proceedings of the meeting at Cincinnati, to which he returned the following reply:

COLUMBIA, Tennessee, April 22, 1844. GENTLEMEN-Your letter of the 30th ult., which you have done me the honor to address to me, reached my residence during my absence from home, and was not re

*The term reannexation was frequently used during the canvass, as synonymous with annexation; because Texas originally formed part of the Louisiana purchase, and belonged to the United States.

ceived until yesterday. Accompanying your letter you transmit to me, as you state, "a copy of the proceedings of a very large meeting of the citizens of Cincinnati, assembled on the 29th ult., to express their settled opposition to the annexation of Texas to the United States." You request from me an explicit expression of opinion upon this question of annexation. Having at no time entertained opinions upon public subjects which I was unwilling to avow, it gives me pleasure to comply with the request. I have no hesitation in declaring, that I am in favor of the immediate reännexation of Texas to the territory and government of the United States. I entertain no doubts as to the power or expediency of the reännexation. The proof is fair and satisfactory to my own mind, that Texas once constituted a part of the territory of the United States, the title to which I regard to have been indisputable as that to any portion of our territory. At the time the negotiation was opened with a view to acquire the Floridas, and the settlement of other questions, and pending that negotiation, the Spanish Government itself was satisfied of the validity of our title, and was ready to recognize a line far west of the Sabine as the true western boundary of Louisiana, as defined by the treaty of 1803 with France, under which Louisiana was acquired. This negotiation, which had at first opened at Madrid, was broken off and transferred to Washington, where it was resumed, and resulted in the treaty with Florida, by which the Sabine was fixed on as the western boundary of Louisiana. From the ratification of the treaty of 1803 with France, until the treaty of 1819, with Spain, the territory now constituting the Re