CHAPTER XIV. POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. 1845-1849. POLK'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. The President, in a somewhat lengthy inaugural, set forth his views, which were substantially in accordance with the platform of his party. He discountenanced any interference with slavery, and thought that any attempt to destroy this "domestic institution" would be fraught with most “ruinous and disastrous" consequences. As to the Texas question, he stated that its adjustment was probable, and declared it to be a matter which exclusively concerned Texas and the United States. He thought the legal claim of our government to Oregon was "clear and unquestionable," and promised to maintain this right by all constitutional means. The President opposed a national bank; was entirely silent on the question of internal improvements; and rather diffuse on the vital question of the tariff. The principle that the spoils belong to the victors, which had come down from Jackson and had been accepted by the whigs, was adhered to by the new administration. ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. In accordance with the resolution passed by the last session of Congress, Texas accepted annexation, both by her own Congress and by a popular convention. Mexico offered a formal protest merely, and discontinued diplomatic relations with the United States. She offered to acknowledge the independence of Texas, however, if that state would maintain a separate existence. The proposals of the two powers, the United States and Mexico, respectively, were laid before the Texas Congress, which convened on the 16th of June, 1845, and on July 4 they completed the act of annexation in accordance with the terms proposed by the American Congress. At the instance of Texas, the President sent an army under General Taylor into the newly acquired territory. Congress met December 1, 1845, the democrats having a maTwenty-ninth Congress, jority in both houses. John W. DaFirst Session. vis, of Indiana, was chosen speaker. On the 29th of December Texas became a state of the Union, and on the 31st an act was passed extending the revenue system of the United States over the doubtful territory of the Nueces river and the Rio Grande. WAR WITH MEXICO. Thus far Mexico had not offered any actual resistance to the proceedings of the American government. In March, 1846, hostilities were induced by an order from the President advancing General Taylor from the Nueces to the Rio Grande, for the purpose of occupying the debatable territory. In carrying out this order the army was brought into contact with Mexican troops. The first engagement was at Palo Alto, and resulted in a Mexican defeat. General Taylor drove the enemy across the Rio Grande. May 11, 1846, the President sent a special message to Congress, announcing that a state of war existed between us and Mexico by the act of the latter, and, after detailing the preliminary skirmishes, declared that the blood of American citizens had been shed on American soil by Mexican troops, and asked for a declaration of war. The whigs looked upon the action of the President, in sending troops into the disputed territory, as one intended to provoke hostilities. And when a bill was introduced recognizing the existence of war, and appropriating $10,000,000 for its prosecution, they voted for it under protest, doing so only because the army had been forced into a perilous situation and must be rescued. WILMOT PROVISO. While hostilities were pending, the President sent a message to Congress, August 8, asking for money with which to negotiate a peace and purchase a section of Mexican territory, provided he should find such accession expedient or desirable. A bill was accordingly introduced in the House of Representatives appropriating $2,000,000 for this purpose. This at once brought up the slavery question, and David Wilmot moved a proviso to the bill prohibiting slavery in the territory that should be acquired. This provision, after the name of its originator, was called the WILMOT PROVISO. This was supported by the whigs and northern democrats, but failed to become a law, having been passed by the House, and sent to the Senate too late for action. Those of the dominant party who supported it were called Wilmot proviso democrats. THE SUB-TREASURY. An act was passed re-establishing the sub-treasury, which had been done away with in 1842. This now became a permanent institution of the country, and agitation on the subject was henceforth closed. TARIFF. During this session the tariff of 1842 was repealed, and there was substituted for it an act known as the Tariff of 1846. This act was in accordance with the strict constructionist theory, imposing a tariff for revenue only, without regard to protection. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. It has already been noted that in the platform to which Mr. Polk was pledged there was a resolution disapproving appropriations by Congress for internal improvements. The friends of this doctrine, however, received a little encouragement from Mr. Polk's first message, in which he, speaking of "the state of our defenses, and the condition of our public works," refers for information "to the accompanying report of the secretary of war," in which the system of internal improvements was ardently indorsed. Thus encouraged, a bill was presented appropriating money for the improvement of certain rivers and harbors. After a lengthy discussion it passed both houses, but was vetoed by the President on the ground that the constitution did not, in his judgment, confer upon the federal government the power to construct works of internal improvements within the states, or to appropriate money from the treasury for that purpose. The public, and a majority of Congress, did not agree with the President on the subject. The views of the former were expressed in conventions, and those of the latter by resolutions favoring the system. OREGON. During this session, also, came up the disputed question of the northern boundary of Oregon, which, for a time, threatened to involve us in a war with England. It will be remembered that the Baltimore platform had declared the right of the United States to "all Oregon" to be unquestionable. In his inaugural address the President had omitted the "all," but expressed a determination to defend our claims to that territory by all just means within his power. The phrase, "all Oregon," was understood to mean the territory up to the line of 54°, 40', north latitude; hence the war-cry "fifty-four, forty or fight," used by those urging this claim. This question, in a vague and indefinite form, had existed for a long time. Both countries based their claims upon priority of discovery. By the treaties of 1803 with France, and 1819 with Spain, the United States acquired from those powers all their rights north of California on the Pacific coast. The northern boundary of the territory thus ceded was unsettled. Our government claimed that it was 54°, 40′ north latitude, while England claimed that it followed the Columbia river. The latter claim was based upon the discoveries of Sir Iancis Drake, on the north-west coast of America, in 1578 and 1579. Under the Florida treaty the United States claimed to be the hrs of the Spanish dominion north of 40° north latitude, and relied upon the earlier discovery of the coast by Ferrelo, in 1543, as well as the whole line of Spanish discoverers up to 1775. They denied that Drake had penetrated as far north as 48°, but only to 43°, the point reached by Ferrelo. In their own direct right the United States could lay claim to the valley of the Columbia river, but could go no higher up. This river was discovered by Robert Gray, of Boston, May 11, 1792, who sailed up the stream quite a distance, and gave it its name. This very just claim to the Columbia region was supported, also, by the fact that in the Louisiana treaty the United States had become the heirs of France upon the North American continent. As such they appealed to the treaty of Utrecht, one article of which declared that the boundary between the English and French possessions in America should be settled by commissioners; and these commissioners, it was claimed, had agreed upon the forty-ninth degree of north latitude. Before the discovery of the Columbia, England was indifferent to the line of Utrecht. Now, however, as the mouth of this river lay some three degrees south of this line, England denied that this division held good. The question was finally settled by a treaty with England, June 15, 1846, by which the United States abandoned the claim of 54°, 40', and accepted the line of 49° north latitude as the northern boundary A motion to organize this territory, with the Wilmot proviso attached, was passed |