USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > Washington : the capital city and its part in the history of the nation > Part 3
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War with Mexico was a part of the trouble- some legacy bequeathed by Tyler to his suc- cessor. When at the battle of San Jacinto the Texan army under Houston defeated Santa Anna, then president of Mexico, the latter made a treaty with the victors, in which he acknowl-
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edged the independence of the republic they had set up, and agreed that the Rio Grande from its mouth to its source should be the boundary between the two countries. The Mexicans, however, repudiating Santa Anna's action, con- tinued to regard Texas as a revolted state, and when, nine years later, Congress provided for its admission into the Union, the Mexican min- ister at Washington declared the act an in- fringement of the rights of his government, demanded his passports, and left the country. Negotiations looking to a friendly settlement came to nothing. and in March, 1846, General Zachary Taylor, acting upon orders from the President, marched at the head of four thou- sand men from Corpus Christi towards the Rio Grande. A Mexican army, opposing his ad- vance, was badly beaten at Palo Alto and Re- saca de la Palma and driven across the Rio Grande. After that Taylor advanced to Mata- moras and made an easy capture of it.
President Polk, on receipt of the news of these events, sent a message to Congress asking for a formal declaration of war. A bill was accordingly passed by both houses recognizing that hostilities had been begun and voting funds
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for their prosecution; not, however, without vigorous protest from the Whigs, who alleged that the President-it was held by Mexico that Texas extended only to the Rio Nueces and the country lying between that river and the Rio Grande was Mexican territory-had provoked retaliations by ordering the advance of Tay- lor's army. Nevertheless, they voted for the bill, and generally supported the war until its brilliant conclusion in February, 1848.
Ten million dollars was the sum first voted by Congress for the prosecution of the war. The funding of the loan which this appropriation involved was undertaken by William W. Cor- coran, a native of Georgetown and former auc- tioneer, who since 1837 had been a broker and banker in Washington. Subscribers for only a part of the loan could be found in America, and in the end Corcoran was compelled to seek aid in London. There he succeeded in enlisting the greatest banking houses in support of a loan that seemed perilous, but afterwards rose to a high premium and brought large profits to all interested in it. This negotiation, so cred- itable to his courage and sagacity, was the be- ginning of Corcoran's remarkable success as a
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banker, and laid the basis of the great fortune, reckoned by the millions, which in after-years enabled its generous master to lay out and adorn Oak Hill Cemetery on the heights of George- town, one of the most picturesque pieces of landscape gardening in the land; to present to the Washington Orphan Asylum its valuable grounds; to erect and endow the Corcoran Art Gallery and the Louise Home for reduced gen- tlewomen; to present Columbian College with a lucrative estate; to make liberal donations to other institutions of learning, and to disburse in private charities, during the last of his ninety years of life, an amount hardly equalled in any age.
Polk, in August, 1846, sent a second message to Congress, in which he asked for money with which to purchase territory from Mexico that the pending dispute might be settled by nego- tiation. A bill appropriating two million dol- lars for the purpose brought up again the ques- tion of slavery extension, and David Wilmot, in behalf of many Northern Democrats, moved that there be added to it a proviso that slavery should be excluded from the territory to be ac- quired. The House accepted the proviso, after
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prolonged and caustic debate, and passed the bill as amended, but it reached the Senate too late to be acted upon by that body. Yet the Wilmot proviso marked the beginning of the end of the slavery struggle; it cut across the lines of both of the old parties, presented a more moderate and practical programme than the abolitionists offered, furnished the basis of the Free-Soil movement, wrecked the Whig or- ganization, and formed the vital principle in the creed of the soon-to-be-created Republican party.
The Oregon question was another part of the troublesome legacy bequeathed by Tyler to his successor. The United States, through treaties with France and Spain, had fallen heir to the rights of those countries on the Pacific coast north of California. The northern boundary of the ceded territory, however, was unsettled, the Washington government claiming that the line of 54° 40' north latitude was such boundary, while Great Britain maintained that it followed the Columbia River. The disputed country, by an agreement entered into in 1827, was held jointly by the two countries, the arrangement being terminable by either on a year's notice. Marcus
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Whitman's timely visit to Washington in the winter of 1843, as we know, prevented the sur- render of our claims to Oregonl. During the next twelve months there sprang up an army of converts to the view that it was too valuable a possession to be lost or impaired, whence arose a demand in the Democratic national con- vention of 1844 for the reoccupation of the whole of Oregon up to 54° 40', " with or with- out war with England," a demand popularly summarized in the campaign rallying-cry of "Fifty-four-forty or fight!"
The annexation of Texas accomplished, the Whigs at once demanded that the Democrats should fulfil their promise regarding Oregon, and the President, against the votes of many of the pro-slavery men, was directed to give the requisite twelve months' notice, and war seemed imminent. Louis McLane, meanwhile, had been despatched to London to seek a peace- ful settlement of the dispute, and the negotia- tions instituted by him resulted in the offer by Great Britain to yield her claim to the ter- ritory between the forty-ninth parallel and the Columbia River, and acknowledge that parallel as the northern boundary. This concession
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failed to keep the promise made in the Demo- cratic platform to which the President stood committed ; but Polk was anxious to avoid war, and he, therefore, threw upon the Senate the responsibility of deciding whether the claim of the United States to the whole of Oregon should be insisted upon or the compromise pro- posed by Great Britain accepted. The Senate assumed this responsibility, and, to quote the words of Benton, " gave the President a faithful support against himself, against his Cabinet, and against his peculiar friends." It advised the President, at the end of a two days' debate, to accept the boundary proposed by Great Brit- ain, and in June, 1846, a treaty drawn on these lines was duly signed and ratified.
During the same session the sub-treasury sys- tem was re-enacted and the protective tariff of 1842 repealed. To replace the latter a bill based on a plan prepared by Secretary Walker and providing for a purely revenue tariff was intro- duced in the House on June 15, 1846. There it was keenly and thoroughly debated, and on July 3 passed by one hundred and fourteen ayes to ninety-five nays. After that it underwent unusually able and exhaustive discussion in the
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Senate. All the arguments capable of being adduced on the subject were presented on both sides, and for days the Senate chamber was crowded with eager listeners. Party spirit ran high, and so nearly equal was the Senate di- vided that only the casting vote of Vice-Presi- dent Dallas saved the bill from defeat. The occasion was a memorable one, and an eager crowd hung on the lips of that official as he announced the reason for his course. Proof had been furnished, he said, that a majority of the people desired a change, but in giving the casting vote for a low tariff he violated pledges which the managers of his party had made to the protectionists of Pennsylvania and which two years before had secured the vote of that State for the Democracy. At the same time, as events proved, he dealt a fatal blow to his own chances for the Presidency, to achieve which had long been his consuming ambition.
The waxing contest between the friends and opponents of slavery again held first place in the proceedings of Congress during the closing years of Polk's Administration. Another at- tempt was made in 1847 to add the Wilmot proviso to a second bill voting money for the
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purchase of Mexican territory, but the Senate struck the proviso from the bill, and the House was finally compelled to pass it without the prohibition of slavery. Close upon this trial of strength came the matter of providing a government for the Territory of Oregon. The Wilmot proviso was again attached to the sev- eral bills submitted for the purpose. This pro- voked vehement discussion of the powers of Congress to legislate upon the subject of slavery in the newly acquired Territories, and bore un- expected issue in the doctrine of "popular sovereignty," or, as Calhoun contemptuously styled it, "squatter sovereignty."
Congress should have nothing to do with the problem, but the people of each Territory should determine for themselves whether or not they should have slavery. Such was the essence of the doctrine which, first enunciated by Lewis Cass, found eager supporters in Doug- las and other Northern Democratie leaders who desired to steer their course safely between the Wilmot proviso and the Southern demand for slavery extension. While this new dogma was taking form a bill was finally passed by Con- gress organizing the Territory of Oregon with-
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out slavery. At the same time, a treaty of peace having been signed with Mexico, after a series of victories, provisional governments were ordered for New Mexico and California, whose peaceful conquest had kept pace with the American advance upon the Mexican capital, and which now, as the spoils of victory, became an integral part of the Union.
It was while the course of events were thus tending to a crisis that John Quincy Adams, who had bravely blazed a way for others to follow, fell like a faithful soldier at his post. The ex-President, now eighty-one years old, was, as usual, in his seat when the House was called to order on the morning of February 21, 1848. A resolve of thanks to the generals of the Mexican War came up, and Adams arose to address the Speaker, but instead tottered and fell in the arms of his neighbor. The cry "Look to Mr. Adams !" rang through the cham- ber. He had received a second and fatal stroke of paralysis. The House at once adjourned, and the sufferer was carried to a sofa in the rotunda, and later into the Speaker's room. At the end of an hour he recovered sufficient consciousness to say, "This is the last of earth, I am con-
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tent," and then sank into a slumber from which he never awoke. There was an imposing funeral in Washington, and a committee of one from each State accompanied the remains to Boston, where they lay in state in Faneuil Hall, and were then taken to Quincy for burial.
Although, when the Presidential campaign of 1848 opened. the slavery question had become an overshadowing issue in national politics, both of the old parties sought to compromise with it. Polk, broken with the cares of office and with the shadow of death already upon him, did not seek a renomination. The Democrats named to succeed him General Cass, a Northi- ern man acceptable to the slave-holders, while the Whigs, passing over such men as Clay and Webster, chose as their candidate General Taylor, a slave-holder and one of the heroes of a war which they had denounced as a crime. The friends of Van Buren, however, had been prompt to resent his defeat in the convention of 1844 because of his supposed opposition to the extension of slavery. He was made a hero and a martyr, while the Democracy of New York divided into pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions, known as Hunkers and Barn-Burners.
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Both factions appeared at the Democratic con- vention of 1848, and both were admitted with the privilege of dividing the State vote equally between them.
The Barn-Burners, however, would have none of this half-hearted recognition. They went home, and joining with the anti-slavery men from other States, nominated Van Buren on a platform declaring for "free soil, free speech, and free men." Van Buren, anxious to wipe out the slight that had been placed upon him by the South, and remembering how Cass had stood in the way of his success four years be- fore, accepted the nomination. His defection lost New York to the Democracy and sealed the fate of Cass. Taylor received a majority of thirty-six votes in the electoral college. Van Buren, who had received twenty-nine thousand two hundred and sixty-three popular votes, a fourth of which were Democratic, retired to become the sage of the village of Kinderhook, while Cass continued in public life undisturbed, showing his real greatness in the serenity with which he accepted defeat. The anti-slavery men had at last entered politics in earnest, and the Whigs had won their final victory at the polls.
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CHAPTER III
TAYLOR'S BRIEF TERM
T HE day of Taylor's inauguration, Mon- day, March 8, 1849, was one of mingled rain, wind, and dust, but this did not dampen the enthusiasm of those who came to witness it, and the President-elect was loudly cheered as, with his predecessor by his side, he drove from Wil- lard's Hotel to the Capitol. Twelve volunteer companies led the way ; a body-guard of a hun- dred hopeful young Whigs surrounded Taylor's carriage, and half a dozen Rough and Ready clubs brought up the rear. The incoming Presi- dent read his inaugural address from a plat- form erected in front of the east portico of the Capitol, and the oath was administered by Chief Justice Taney, after which the procession reformed and marched to the White House. There were three inaugural balls at night, and Taylor attended them all. Another attendant at one of the balls was Abraham Lincoln, then a modest member of the House, who could not
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have dreamed that like honors were to come to him within a dozen years.
President Taylor had been a soldier from his youth, and his face and carriage spoke his call- ing. His hardy features-his were the mouth, chin, and nose of a born captain-had been bronzed by exposure and deeply lined by care; his whiskers were of the military cut then pre- scribed, and his figure stocky and erect. Like Jackson before him, Taylor soon fell into the habit of taking daily walks about Washington, garbed in a high silk hat and a suit of broad- cloth much too large for him, but made in obedience to his orders that he might be com- fortable. Like Jackson, too, he was a man of strong sense and simple, unaffected address. Sparing of speech, he never wasted words, and always went straight to the heart of the matter in hand. Senator Butler, of South Carolina, calling to pay his respects to the President, begged for a description of the battle of Buena Vista. Colonel Pierce M. Butler, his brother, had fallen in that desperate conflict, and he was, therefore, anxious for details.
" Yes, your brother was a brave man, and behaved like a true soldier. But about the
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battle,-you want to know how it was fought?" asked Taylor. " Yes, general, if you will be so kind. I wish to learn how your troops were disposed on the field, and how you posted them to repel a force so overwhelming. Santa Anna must have outnumbered you five to one," said Butler. " The difference was greater than that, I think, but we did not stop to count the Mexi- cans. I knew there was a heavy force, and longed for a couple of regiments more of regu- lars. As it was, we went to fighting early in the morning, and we fit all day long, losing a good many men, and at night it looked pretty bad." Here the general paused. "Well, what next ?" queried Butler. " When it got dark I rode over to Saltillo to look after our stores and to provide against a surprise. Why did I go myself instead of sending one of my aides ? Because everything depended on our not having our supplies cut off, and I wanted to see after things myself." Another pause. "How was it the next morning when you came on the field?" asked Butler. "Not much change since the night before. General Wool was the first man that I met, and he told me that all was lost. Maybe so, general,-we'll see,' said I.
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And upon that we went to fighting again, and fit all that day, and towards night it looked better." A third pause. "What next?" per- sisted Butler, looking rather blank. "Well, the next morning it was reported to me that Santa Anna and all his men had disappeared in the night. And devilish glad I was to be rid of them."
Taylor had married, while still a subaltern, Margaret Smith, the daughter of a Maryland planter. Their life for many years was the arduous and changeful one of an army couple on the frontier. "My wife," the general once said to a friend, " was as much of a soldier as I was." She was, however, without social am- bition, and this, with failing health, compelled her to surrender to others the duties entailed by her husband's election as President. Colonel William W. Bliss, who had served as Taylor's chief of staff in the Mexican campaign, a little later took to wife the general's youngest and favorite daughter, Elizabeth. When Taylor became President, Bliss continued with him as his private secretary, while to Mrs. Bliss fell the social responsibilities that would have de- volved upon her mother had the latter's health II .- 5
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permitted the exertion. And with skill and grace did she acquit herself. One of the love- liest of women, always solicitous for the com- fort of others, graceful, cordial, and attentive, no one has ever received with more dignity and universal popularity than did "pretty Betty Bliss" while mistress of the White House.
Mrs. John Sherwood describes Washington life in Taylor's time as "a strange jumble of magnificence and squalor. Dinners were hand- some and very social, the talk delightful, but the balls were sparsely furnished with light and chairs. The illumination was of wax and stearine candles, which used to send down showers of spermaceti on our shoulders. Bril- liant conversation, however, was the order of the day, and what Washington lacked of the upholsterer it made up in the manners and wit of its great men. Neighbors on summer evenings would run about to visit each other without bonnets. Indeed, it seemed a large vil- lage. People sat on the door-steps, and I have often seen a set of intimates walk up Pennsyl- vania Avenue to the Capitol grounds, attended by Senators and secretaries, with their heads bare, at seven o'clock of a fine summer even-
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ing. There was another side to this picture. Some of the Southwestern members got fear- fully drunk at dinners, and Bardwell Slote was not a caricature."
The new President's most trusted adviser was John J. Crittenden, who had lately left the Senate to become governor of Kentucky, and who had given Taylor ardent support in the Presidential canvass. Taylor, while on his way from Louisiana to Washington, visited Crit- tenden and offered him the post of Secretary of State, but Crittenden, knowing that his ad- vocacy of Taylor had given lasting offence to Clay, still the dominant spirit of the Whig party, reluctantly refused the honor. The port- folio of State was then tendered to and accepted by John M. Clayton. Taylor, acting upon the advice of Crittenden, next offered the Secretary- ship of War to Robert Toombs, but the latter declined, and George W. Crawford, of Georgia, a man of fair reputation at home, but compara- tively unknown to the country, was named in his stead, only to be succeeded at the end of a year by Edward Bates, of Missouri. William M. Meredith, of Pennsylvania, was made Secre- tary of the Treasury, after Taylor had been
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overruled in his desire to give the post to Josiah Randall, the man who, more than any other, had contributed to his nomination and election.
Other compromises filled the remaining seats in the Cabinet. A contest between Thomas Corwin and Samuel F. Vinton, of Ohio, for a seat was settled by the appointment of Thomas Ewing, of that State, as Secretary of the newly created Department of the Interior, while Jacob Collamer, of Vermont, who had been recom- mended by the Legislature of his State for the portfolio of Justice, was made Postmaster- General. It was Taylor's original purpose to appoint William B. Preston, of Virginia, one of his earliest and most efficient partisans, Attorney-General, but several of the Whig lead- ers entered vigorous protest. Finally, Senator Archer, of Virginia, called upon the President and asked if there was truth in the report that he intended to make Preston the law officer of his Administration. " Yes, I have deter- mined to appoint him," said Taylor. " Are you aware that an attorney-general must rep- resent the government in the Supreme Court?" continued Archer. "Of course," answered the President. " But do you know that he must
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there meet Daniel Webster, Reverdy Johnson, and other leading lawyers as opposing counsel ?" persisted the President's caller. " Certainly .. What of that?" inquired Taylor. "Nothing," said Archer, "except that they will make an infernal fool of your Attorney-General." The Virginia Senator, without another word, took his leave, but he had made the desired impres- sion. Preston was named Secretary of the Navy, and the Cabinet completed by the ap- pointment of Reverdy Johnson as Attorney- General.
Taylor, though overruled in the selection of his official advisers, was allowed to have his way in the choice of a newspaper organ. Gales and Seaton, the editors of the National In- telligencer, were devoted friends of Webster, and Webster had denounced Taylor's nomina- tion as one " not fit to be made." A new journal was, therefore, called into being to voice and defend the aims and policy of the new Admin- istration. It was named the Republic, and Alexander Bullitt and John O. Sergeant were summoned to Washington, the one from New Orleans, the other from New York, to become its editors. Neither possessed the requisite qual-
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ities, audacity and confidence of the public, for the work to which he had been called, and the Republic's success and influence were evanes- cent. Upon the accession of Fillmore, with Web- ster at the head of his Cabinet, the National Intelligencer was restored to favor, and again became the official mouth-piece of the Whigs.
The day of the organ, however, was about to pass away. The telegraph and its logical fruit, an independent press, had introduced their quick- ening influences in journalism, influences speed- ily felt at the capital ; and with the organization in 1848 of the Associated Press, the present method of news gathering and moulding public opinion went into operation. The special cor- respondents, instead of writing wordy editorials in the guise of letters bearing a Washington date, now turned their attention to social and political gossip, and to the securing of impor- tant information in advance of the Associated Press, for the sole use of their respective jour- nals. News, not opinions, became the motto of the new era, which found early and typical representatives in James W. Simonton and James S. Pike. Simonton, in later life the effi- cient head of the Associated Press, was for a
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dozen years the Washington correspondent first of the New York Courier and Enquirer and afterwards of the Times. Pike, subsequently minister to the Netherlands, was during the same period the correspondent of the New York Tribunc.
Both were watchful enemies of corruption in high places, and especially was this true of Simonton, who upon one occasion wrote a letter to his journal framing grave charges against certain members of the House in regard to land grants that had been made to railroads. There were stormy scenes in the House when the paper containing the charges was received, and the implicated members demanded the pun- ishment of the offender. But while the matter was being debated a reputable Representative arose and said that he had been offered a con- siderable sum if he would vote for a certain measure. An investigation, therefore, became necessary, and the guilty members, to escape expulsion, resigned. The House, however, in revenge, held Simonton a prisoner during the remainder of the session because he would not disclose the name of his informant.
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