USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 52
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"Who does not see that the people of the United States are competitors with the people of England in the manufacturing arts, and in the carrying trade of the world? And that the question is soon to be, if it be not already, whether Texas and Oregon are to be considered as auxiliaries to American or British interests? Whether these vast and fertile regions are to be settled by our posterity, blessed by republican government-or are to become the theatre of British enterprise, and thus add another link to the vast colonial claim by which that great monarchy upholds its lords and nobles, and extracts from suffering millions the earnings of their labor?
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"The American people cannot be deceived in this manner. They know that the real object of England is to check the prosperity of the United States-and lessen their power to compete with England as a naval power, and as a growing agricultural, manufacturing and commercial country. They know that Lord Aberdeen, in the midst of thousands and thousands of starving subjects of the British monarchy, is more anxious, or ought to be, to relieve the wants of those wretched people than he can be to alter the relation subsisting between the white and black races of this country."
General Jackson closed the letter with an appeal to the American people to not "let slip the opportunity now offered of concentrating their Union, and promoting the general causes of their prosperity and happiness, by the annexation of Texas."
The views of General Jackson, as set forth in this letter, were promulgated throughout the Union as quickly as possible by Mr.
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Polk's party managers; and, possibly, it did more to secure success for Polk and Dallas than any other one thing that transpired in the campaign. It gave fresh impulse to the already aggressive policy of the Democatic party for territorial acquisition, a policy which had always been popular with the American people, and all peoples who have a strain of Anglo-Saxon blood in their veins. It also aroused enthusiasm in the young men of adventurous and daring spirit, who were eager to see something of "grim visaged war."
For the first time in his political life, Mr. Clay had placed him- self on the hesitating or timid side of any grave question that had arisen in the politics of the country. He had enthusiastically advocated war with Great Britain in 1812; had ardently opposed the treaty of 1819 which ceded to Spain all that portion of Texas west of the Sabine River; and had stubbornly resisted the efforts of the Abolitionists to prevent the introduction of slavery into the territory acquired by the Louisiana Purchase.
The great Whig leader, being put upon the defensive, and believing that he was losing favor with the pro-slavery Southern Whigs, because of his pronounced hostility to the annexation of Texas, was induced to modify his position on the Texas question. This was accomplished through a letter Mr. Clay wrote to Stephen Miller, editor of the Tuscaloosa (Ala.) Monitor, in which he said: "Personally I could have no objection to the annexation of Texas; but I certainly would be unwilling to sce the existing Union dis- solved or seriously jeopordized for the sake of acquiring Texas." But in the letter, Mr. Clay spoke of the treaty for the annexation of Texas as "Mr. Tyler's abominable treaty." The letter was used with telling effect by the Democrats, who designated it Mr. Clay's "Death Warrant." They insisted that Mr. Clay was playing double, that he was pandering to the Abolition sentiment at the North by expressing opposition to the Texas treaty, and was curry- ing favor with the slaveholders in the South by proclaiming that he was "personally" friendly to annexation.
Apparently, it had been the desire and purpose of both the parties to eliminate the slavery question from the campaign, as each of them had many friends at the North who were earnestly opposed to the extension of slavery. Mr. Clay's letter to Miller completely wrecked the intentions of the Whigs and the Democrats on that line.
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There was another concurrent circumstance that made slavery a very eventful issuc in the future politics of the United States. The Abolitionists had nominated James G. Birney, of Michigan, as their candidate for the Presidency. In the Presidential campaign of 1840 Birney had been the candidate of the Abolitionists, who posed as the "Liberty Party." At the election in 1840 he received only 6,475 votes; but at the election of 1844 his vote was swelled to 62,127. Birney's followers in the election of 1844 were the rudiments from which the great Republican Party was developed; and that sixteen years later, under the guidance of Abraham Lin- coln, gained control of the Nation and preserved the Union.
No more exciting political contest has ever been witnessed in the United States. More than two and a half million American citizens voted at the election. Of these, James K. Polk received the suffrage of 1,336,196; Henry Clay, 1,297,912; and James G. Birney, 62,127, giving Polk a plurality of 38,284 over Clay. The popular vote of South Carolina was not included in the foregoing, as the electors from that State were chosen by the Legislature. There were twenty-six States in the Union, with an aggregate of 275 electoral votes. Of these, 170 were cast for James K. Polk and 105 for Henry Clay, which gave Mr. Polk a majority of 70 in the electoral college. Polk's election was conceded to be a verdict of the people for the annexation of Texas. At the following session of Congress annexation was accomplished by a joint resolution, which was signed by President Tyler on the 1st of March, 1345, three days before the inauguration of President Polk.
The assertion of Mr. Clay, in his letter written at Raleigh, that "Annexation and war with Mexico are identical," was reduced to a certainty two years after its utterance. During the winter of 1845- 46 General Zachary Taylor was in command of the United States army that had been sent to Texas as an army of occupation. He was ordered to move westward and take a position on the east side of the Rio Grande; and on the 28th of March, 1846, he arrived at that river and went into camp opposite Matamoras. On the 22nd of April, General Ampudia, who was in command of the Mexican forces at Matamoras, notified General Taylor that he should break camp and march his army eastward beyond the Neuces River, that
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stream being claimed as an agreed boundary line between Mexico and Texas. General Taylor promptly refused to comply with the demands of the Mexican general; and on the 24th of April, General Arista, who had taken command of the Mexican army, informed General Taylor that, "he considered hostilities commenced and should prosecute them." Immediately following the notification, General Taylor sent a detachment of sixty dragoons-officers and men-up the river as a scouting party, to ascertain if the Mexicans had crossed or were crossing the Rio Grande into Texas. The American party came in contact with a large force of Mexicans, seventeen of the Americans were killed and wounded, and the bal- ance capturcd. Thus began the war between the United States and Mexico.
On the 11th of May, 1846, President Polk sent a message to Congress "invoking its prompt action to recognize the existence of war" and to place at the disposition of the Executive the means of prosecuting the contest with vigor, and thus hastening the restora- tion of peace. After the message was read in the House of Repre- sentatives, a bill was promptly introduced by an Administration supporter, declaring that "war existed by the act of Mexico," and giving authority to the President to call out and organize an army of fifty thousand men, and to supply them with all necessary equipments. The assertion in the preamble of the bill, that "war existed with Mexico," provoked a heated discussion of the measure by the Whig members of the House. They were reluctant to plunge the country into war with our neighbor republic upon the doubtful pretext that "our country had been invaded and American blood spilled on American soil." After a very brief debate a vote was forced on the measure; but fourteen members of the House had the courage to vote against the bill.
Very soon after the declaration of war, agitation of the slavery question again assumed alarming proportions. From the commence- ment of hostilities with Mexico, the Whigs and Free-Soilers of the North had claimed that the war was being prosecuted to acquire territory into which slavery could be extended. This charge was reasserted when the. President, three months after the formal declaration of war, sent a message to the Congress, suggesting that the chief obstacle to be surmounted in securing peace would be the adjustment of a boundary that would prove satisfactory and
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convenient to both republics. The President conceded that we ought to give Mexico a just compensation for any territory she would be forced to cede to the United States as a result of the war. And he requested Congress to appropriate two millions of dollars to be "applied under the direction of the President to any extraordinary expenses which may be incurred in our foreign inter- course."
When the bill was receiving very harsh criticism from the Whigs and anti-slavery men in the House, David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, who was then serving his first term in Congress as a Democrat, offered, on August 8th, 1846, an amendment providing "that as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any terri- tory from the republic of Mexico by the United States, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in any part of said territory." This amendment has ever since been called the "Wilmot Proviso;" and it not only became an issue in the Congressional campaign then in progress, but was made the basis of the Free- Soilers' campaign in the Presidential election of 1848.
The two million dollar bill was finally passed by the House, but failed of final action in the Senate by a filibuster which was lead by John Davis, a Senator from Massachusetts. At the next session of Congress the two million dollar bill was enlarged to three millions ; and the Administration had gained sufficient strength in both Houses to secure the passage of the bill without the proviso being attached. Though the Administration had gained a notable victory in securing the passage of the appropriation bill free of the Wilmot amendment, the Democrats had met a disaster in the Congressional elections the preceding fall, when a new Congress was elected. At that election the Whigs and Free-Soilers had won a majority in the House of Representatives, and it was certain that the Southern Democrats would be blocked in any effort to extend slavery into territory acquired from Mexico.
The new Congress met in December, 1847, and Robert C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, was made Speaker of the House by the Whigs. Mr. Winthrop had earnestly supported the Wilmot Proviso in the preceding Congress, and it was thought his election for Speaker would provoke renewed agitation of the slavery ques- tion. But the Whig leaders were laying their plans to elect the President in 1848, and very wisely avoided the introduction of
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the slavery question into the proceedings of that session. The Democrats were alarmed by the success of the Whigs at the election the previous fall, and they, too, remained quiet. Both parties were then looking for their Presidental candidates for the approaching election. Remembering that the only success they had achieved at a Presidential election since the organization of their party was with a military hero for their candidate, the Whigs resolved to win victory in 1848 with a similar standard bearer. General Zachary Taylor had made a great reputation in the war with Mexico, where, by winning a series of victories from Mexican generals and against enormous odds, his soldiers had bestowed upon him the name "Old Rough and Ready." He was a Whig in politics, was a slaveholder, but had not voted for forty years, owing to the fact that he had for all that time been an officer in the United States army. Mr. Clay was eager to be made the candidate of his party again, but the Whigs nominated General Taylor for President and Millard Fillmore for Vice President, and declined to make a platform for their candi- dates. They thus sought to avoid taking sides with either the anti-slavery men of the North, or the pro-slavery Whigs of the South. When sneered at by the Democrats for failure to promul- gate a platform of principles, the Whigs would declare: "The Whig platform is well known and immutable. It is the broad platform of the Constitution, with the acknowledged right of the people to do or to demand anything authorized by that instrument, and denying the powers of our rulers to do anything in violation of its provisions." With this exalted declaration, the Whigs prose- cuted with much vigor what they called a "Star and Stripe" canvass.
The Democratic party at the North, especially in New York, had become seriously disorganized by factional fights. Mr. Van Buren remained sore and resentful toward the Southern Democrats for procuring his defeat for the nomination in 1844. The party in New York had been divided into two bitterly hostile factions. One faction bore the name "Hunkers," were adherents of President Polk, and were led by William L. Marcy, then Secretary of War. The other was called "Barnburners," were followers of Mr. Van Buren, and were under the leadership of Governor Silas Wright. In fact, the Hunkers represented the pro-slavery wing, and the Barnburners the anti-slavery wing of the Democratic party; and were products of the quarrel provoked by the annexation of Texas.
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When the National Convention of the party met at Baltimore the State of New York had two full delegations present, one composed of Hunkers and the other of Barnburners, each delegation claiming the right to sit in the convention to the exclusion of the other. The National Convention attempted to heal the breach in the party by the usual method of admitting both delegations, with power to jointly cast the vote of the State. But the Barnburners would net accede to the compromise and left the convention. The Hunkers wisely concluded that it would be expedient for them to take no part in the proceedings, and refrained from casting the vote of New York State. The convention nominated General Lewis Cass, of Michigan, for President, and William O. Butler, of Kentucky, for Vice President. On the 22nd of June, 1848, the Barnburners held a National Convention at Utica, New York, and nominated Martin Van Buren for the Presidency, and Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, for the Vice Presidency. This Free-soil move- ment forced the slavery question into the campaign, regardless of the wishes of both Whigs and Democrats to keep it out. The Whigs again won the Presidency with a hero candidate, but their victory was the forerunner of an early dissolution of Henry Clay's great 1
party.
The war with Mexico had been brought to a successful con- clusion by the Americans; and on the 2nd of February, 1848, a treaty of peace had been negotiated between the United States and the Republic of Mexico. By this treaty the extensive territory then known as New Mexico and Upper California was ceded to the United States; and it precipitated a struggle between the anti- slavery and pro-slavery advocates for control of the new territory. Previous to the making of the treaty an animated controversy, involv- ing the slavery question, had been going on in Congress over the territorial organization of Oregon. The leaders of both National parties were anxious to eliminate the slavery question from the approaching Presidential campaign; and they thought this could be done by a compromise measure. Accordingly the matter was referred to a committee of eight members of the United States Senate, which committee was representative of every sectional interest involved. A Compromise bill was finally adopted and signed by the President on the 12th of August, 1848. The bill
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provided that the Legislature of Oregon Territory should enact laws in conformity with the wishes of the people on the question of slavery. As its people had already pronounced against the intro- duetion of slavery, Oregon, necessarily, became a free Territory. As to New Mexico and California, the bill gave to the governors and judges of those two Territories the power to make such legis- lation as was needed for their temporary government; but restrain- ing them from passing any laws on the subject of slavery; and vesting authority in the Supreme Court to determine, if called upon to do so, whether slaveholders could settle in either of the Terri- tories with their slaves while the temporary governments were in existence.
When this eompromise measure was adopted no one anticipated that California would soon be seeking admission to the Union as a full-fledged State. On January 19th, 1848, gold was discovered in such quantities at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma, that emigration to California on a large scale quickly ensued. Most of the gold- seekers arrived in the early part of 1849, and by the end of that year the population of the Territory exceeded 100,000. The people held a convention on the 3rd of September and framed a constitu- tion, in which there was a provision that prohibited slavery in the State. A State government was organized, and a petition was sent to Congress asking that California be admitted to the Union.
President Taylor in his first message to Congress, when it con- vened in December, 1849, recommended that California, with her anti-slavery constitution, be promptly admitted to the Union. He also made recommendations with regard to New Mexico that were obnoxious to the pro-slavery people of the South. His message provoked intense anger at the South, but largely increased his popularity at the North. As a sequence, the situation on the slavery question became more alarming to the statesmen who wished to preserve the Union.
Mr. Clay, having failed in 1848 to secure a second nomination for the Presidency from the Whigs, had been sent again by his Kentucky friends to the United States Senate. Though grievously disappointed in his Presidential aspirations, the grand old states- man was eager to procure "an amicable arrangement of all questions in controversy between the free and slave States growing out of the
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subject of slavery." Hc sought to accomplish his lofty purpose by introducing a series of resolutions, setting forth the measures he believed would terminate the sectional animosities that were being aroused by the prolonged agitation of the slavery question. The resolutions were referred to a committee of thirteen, of which Mr. Clay was made chairman. After duly considering the several resolutions, the committee incorporated them in a single bill, which was named the "Omnibus Bill." The Administration was firmly opposed to Mr. Clay's compromise scheme, as it contravened some of the most important recommendations President Taylor had made in his message to Congress. A prolonged and acrimonious debate followed the introduction of the Omnibus Bill, that was not ended until President Taylor's death, which came suddenly on the 9th of July, 1850.
Mr. Fillmore, who had been elevated to the Presidency by the death of President Taylor, was in full sympathy with Mr. Clay's measures of Compromise; but the friends of the deceased President antagonized the Omnibus Bill so vigorously that it could not be passed in its entirety. Mr. Clay and his associates then resorted to the use of separate bills to secure the passage of their Com- promise measures. A bill was passed for the organization of the Territory of Utah, and that placed freedom and slavery upon the same plane in that Territory. Other separate bills were then passed, providing for the admission of California; for the organiza- tion of New Mexico; for adjustment of the disputed Texas bound- ary; for the more effective recovery of fugitive slaves; and for abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia.
The leaders of both political parties, with a few exceptions, were well satisfied with the Compromise, and expressed confident belief that the slavery question had been effectually adjusted. But a few prominent Whigs at the North, led by William H. Seward, Benjamin Wade, and others, had persistently opposed the Com- promise measures. Subsequently they organized a revolt in their party at the North against President Fillmore's administration that brought crushing defeat to the Whigs in the next Presidental elec- tion. On the other hand, the Democrats of all sections of the Union became compactly united in support of the Compromise; and the Southern Whigs were equally earnest in its support.
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The Democrats assembled in a National Convention at Balti- more on June 1st, 1852, to nominate a Presidential ticket. There were three candidates for the Democratie nomination for Presi- dent-General Lewis Cass of Michigan; James Buchanan of Penn- sylvania; and William L. Marcy of New York. Forty-cight bal- lots were taken without either of the candidates getting two-thirds of the delegates that was necessary to secure the nomination. Franklin Pieree, of New Hampshire, who had been given scattering votes during the balloting, was unanimously nominated for Presi- dent on the forty-ninth ballot ; and William R. King, of Alabama, was nominated for Vice President. The Democrats took a very bold position on the slavery question. In their platform, which was unanimously adopted by the convention, it was resolved that "all efforts of the Abolitionists or others to induce Congress to interfere with the question of slavery or to take incipient steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences." It was then defiantly declared that "the Democratic party will resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempts may be made." All the Compromise measures that had been passed by Congress were enthusiastically endorsed, the fugitive-slave law being given special significance in the platform.
Two weeks later the Whigs held their National Convention at Baltimore; and they were as sharply divided on the slavery question as the Democrats were closely united thereon. There were but three names placed before the convention as candidates for the Presidential nomination. They were, President Fillmore, General Winfield Scott, and Daniel Webster. The first ballot showed that the Southern Whigs were solidly for Fillmore, with the exception of one vote from Virginia; and that the Northern Whigs were for General Scott, except twenty-nine that voted for Mr. Webster. A long and bitter contest was waged by the friends of the rival candidates, but General Scott was nominated on the fifty-third ballot. The ticket was completed by nominating William A. Graham, of North Carolina, for Vice President.
The Whigs had again selected a military hero for their candi- date: and they were, in the first stages of the campaign, very hope- ful of winning the Presidency. But personal enmities among the
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leaders and widely divergent views on the slavery question brought humiliating defeat to the Whig candidates. The Whigs carried but four States of the Union-Massachusetts and Vermont in the North, and Kentucky and Tennessee in the South. Of the 296 electors in the electoral college, Franklin Pierce got the votes of 254 and General Scott only 42. Both the great Whig leaders, Clay and Webster, had died while the campaign was in progress; Mr. Clay a few days after Scott's nomination, and Mr. Webster a few days before the election. The Whig party never rallied from this disas- trous defeat, but began to disintegrate, and soon ceased to be a vital element in national politics.
Elated with the wonderful victory they gained over their now prostrate rival, the Democrats thought they had secured a lease of power that would last for many years. But there was one portent- ous incident of the Presidential election which failed to impress the Democrats with the imminent danger that awaited them. The Free-Soilers had again presented a Presidential candidate in the person of John Parker Hale of New Hampshire. He received 157,685 votes, nearly 100,000 more than Birney, the Free-Soil candidate, got in 1844.
By his inaugural address, on the 4th of March, 1853, President Pierce placed his administration squarely upon the principles and policies announced in the platform made at Baltimore by his party. He had no sympathy with the politicians who contemplated a dis- solution of the Union, and said: "Do my countrymen need any assurance that such a catastrophe is not to overtake them while I possess the power to stay it." Of the slavery question, which then threatened to break up the Union, he said:
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