clared unanimously nominated. The moment the result was no longer in doubt a despatch announcing the triumph of Polk was hurried off to the telegraph, was sent to the Capitol, was spread among the Congressmen, and the reply-" The Democratic members of Congress, to their Democratic brethren in Convention assembled, send greeting. Three cheers for James K. Polk "-was read in the Convention before the President had officially announced the nomination.*

Silas Wright was unanimously nominated for the VicePresidency, was at once informed by telegraph, and by the same means promptly declined. Loath to accept his resignation, the Convention appointed a committee to go to Washington that night and persuade him to permit his name to remain on the ticket. But, on the morning of the fourth day, the committee reported that Wright would not consent, and balloting for a Vice-President began again. Votes were cast for Fairfield, Woodbury, Dallas, Cass, Johnson, Commodore Stewart, and Marcy. Walker, of Mississippi, appealed to the Convention to elect Dallas; but the question was at once asked: Is he sound on the bank? Did he not in 1832 introduce in the Senate the bill to recharter? The answer was: "Yes, but he acted under instructions; he was opposed." Why, then," it was asked, "did he not resign?" All hope of electing him now seemed lost; but a delegate announced that he had been conspicuous at an annexation meeting in Philadelphia, opposition disappeared, and on the next ballot Dallas was nominated.†

The platform was that of 1840 with three planks added. They declared that any law for the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands among the States would be inexpedient and unconstitutional; that the party was opposed to taking from the President the limited veto which had "thrice saved the American people from the corrupt and tyrannical domination of the Bank of the United States "; and "that our title to the whole of the Territory of Oregon is clear and unquestionable; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to England or any other power, and that the

*The Globe, June 6, 1844.

+National Intelligencer, June 1, 2, 1844.

reoccupation of Oregon and the reannexation of Texas at the earliest practicable period are great American measures, which the Convention recommends to the cordial support of the Democracy of the Union."

James Knox Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, November second, 1795. The name of the forefather who came from Ireland and settled in Maryland is said to have been Pollock, and that, in the course of the repeated migrations of his descendants from Maryland to Carlisle in Pennsylvania, and from Carlisle to North Carolina, it came to be first pronounced, and then spelled, Polk.

In Mecklenburg the Polks began to rise into prominence, and one, Thomas, a granduncle of James, became colonel of the county militia, member of the provincial assembly, and is still remembered as a signer of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.

James was the oldest of ten children, and when eleven years of age was taken to the frontier of Tennessee, where the family settled in the valley of the Duck River. There the boy secured such an education as could be had from the frontier preachers of those days, spent a few months at the Murfreesborough Academy, and in 1815 entered the University of North Carolina. After graduation, in 1818, he returned to Tennessee, became a student of law in the office of Felix Grundy, was admitted to the bar in 1820, and sent to the legislature in 1823. There he became a warm supporter of Jackson and voted for him when elected to the United States Senate.

Polk's activity in the campaign of 1824 won him an election to Congress, and in December, 1825, he took his seat in the House of Representatives, spoke in favor of the proposed amendment to the Constitution giving the people a direct vote for President and Vice-President, and attacked the Panama mission, and was rewarded for this, in 1827, with a place on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, was made chairman of the Select Committee to which was sent the remarks of Jackson on the coming surplus revenue, and wrote the report denying the right of Congress to distribute the surplus, or raise more revenue than was needed for the public service.

During the sessions of 1830 Polk defended the Maysville Road' veto, became a member of the Committee of Ways and Means in 1832, and wrote the report of the minority against the conduct of the bank in the matter of the three-per-cent stock. For his conduct in the struggle for the recharter of the bank, Polk was made Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means in 1833, defended the removal of the deposits, and in 1834, when Speaker Stevenson resigned the chair and his place in the House, Polk was defeated for the great place of Speaker, but was elected to it in 1835 and reelected at the extra session of 1837. In 1839 he was made Governor of Tennessee, but was beaten by the Whig candidate in 1841 and 1843.

George Mifflin Dallas, the candidate for Vice-President, was the son of Alexander James Dallas. He was born at Philadelphia in 1792, graduated from Princeton in 1810, was admitted to the bar in 1813, and when Gallatin went as one of the peace commissioners Dallas accompanied him as private secretary. A year later he returned from Ghent with despatches to find his father Secretary of the Treasury, and remained with him a while at Washington; but soon returned to the practice of law, plunged into politics, became a Democratic leader of note, was elected Mayor of Philadelphia, filled an unexpired term in the United States Senate, and was for a time Attorney-General of Pennsylvania, and then Minister at the Court of St. Petersburg during the first half of Van Buren's term.

A third pair of candidates, James Gillespie Birney and Thomas Morris, of Ohio, were nominated by the Liberty party in August of 1843. As described by itself, the Liberty party was not founded for the time-serving purposes of scheming politicians. It sprang from the people because of the firm belief that no party in the country stood for the true principles of American liberty. It was not formed merely to labor for the overthrow of slavery, but to carry out the principles of equal rights, and uphold every just measure of individual and social freedom. It was not a sectional, but a national party, was not a new party nor a third party, but the old party of 1776 struggling for the principles of that memor

able era.* When the Constitution was adopted, so the platform set forth, it was understood that the faith of the nation was pledged that slavery should not be spread beyond its then existing limits, and should at no distant day be wholly abolished. This pledge had been nobly redeemed in the ordinance of 1787, but had been shamefully violated by the failure of some States to abolish slavery, by the continuance of it in the District of Columbia and in the Territory of Florida, by the admission of new slave-holding States into the Union, and by the protection afforded slave-holders in American vessels on the high seas employed in the coastwise slave-trade. Congress had no power under the Constitution to set up or continue slavery anywhere, for an amendment declared that no person should be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Therefore, all acts of Congress continuing slavery in the District of Columbia and the Territory of Florida, or on the high seas, were unconstitutional. The Act of Congress which required the return of fugitive slaves, nullified the habeas corpus acts of the States and ought to be repealed. The clause of the Constitution which required the return of fugitives from labor was a requirement to do an act derogatory to natural right, to rob a man of his natural right to liberty, was vitiated by its own inherent immorality, and was, therefore, absolutely void. The legislature of each free State ought, therefore, to make it penal for any of its inhabitants to aid in carrying out of the State any person merely because he was a slave by the laws of some other State.

The stronghold of the Liberty party was New York and Massachusetts; but thousands of ardent supporters were to be found in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

Everywhere the nomination of Polk was heard with astonishment. It would require a skilful limner, said a Washington newspaper, to portray the scene exhibited by expectant Democrats gathered about the north door of the Capitol as the operator reported the names of States that, one after

* Platform of the Liberty party, adopted at Buffalo, August 30, 1848.

1

another, voted for Polk, and the speechless amazement of the faithful when the telegraph made known his nomination.* A Macon journal † remarked that when the news reached that town nobody would believe it. Some said it was a hoax, others had never heard of the nominee. "Polk!" it was asked, "who is he? What has he done to give him prominence over Buchanan, Van Buren, Johnson, Cass, Calhoun?" "He has," was the answer, "been twice defeated for Governor of the State of Tennessee." At New York, some ardent Democrats who had a cannon ready to salute the nomination of Van Buren were so disappointed that they did not fire it once. "Polk! Great God, what a nomination! wrote Letcher, of Virginia. "I do think the Democratic Convention ought to be d-d to all eternity for this villainous business."‡

While the Democratic Convention was in session at the Odd Fellows Hall, another body of delegates assembled at Calvert Hall. Each wore on his coat a large gilt button adorned with a single star, for they had come together for the sole purpose of nominating John Tyler, the champion of the annexation of Texas. Over the chair of the presiding officer was displayed the motto, used at a recent Texas meeting in Baltimore, "Reannexation of Texas-Postponement is Rejection"; and on a flag that hung near by were the words "Tyler and Texas." The proceedings were short and harmonious; for as soon as officers were chosen and organization completed a committee of five was appointed to write to John Tyler and inform him that he had been nominated by the Convention for the high office of President of the United States. This done, the Convention adjourned to the following day, when the duty of selecting a candidate for VicePresident was assigned to another committee.§

No platform was framed; but it mattered little, for in the contest thus opened the overshadowing issue was the imme

*National Intelligencer, May 30, 1844.

+ Macon Messenger.

R. P. Letcher to Buchanan, July 7, 1844.

Historical Society.

§ Baltimore American, May 28, 1844.

Buchanan MSS., Pennsylvania