comply with the request of the Legislature, nor hold his seat in disregard of its mandate, and accordingly resigned. In 1838, he was again sent to the Legislature, and, in 1839, we find him a delegate to the Whig National Convention, which, at Harrisburg, nominated Harrison and himself as candidates for President and VicePresident. Of the campaign which followed, and of the subsequent death of Harrison, we have already given an account.

On receiving tidings of the President's death, Mr. Tyler hastened to Washington, and, on the 6th of April, was inaugurated, and he retained all the Cabinet officers Harrison had appointed. Three days later, he issued an inaugural address, which was well received, both by the public and by his partisan friends; who, knowing his antecedents, had been somewhat dubious as to what policy he would pursue. But this was only the calm before the storm. Tyler's veto of the bill for a "fiscal bank of the United States," led to a complete rupture with the party by which he had been elected, who charged him with treachery to his principles. Attempting conciliation, he only displeased the Democrats, who had at first shown a disposition to stand by him, without regaining the favor of the Whigs. In consequence of this course of action, Tyler's Cabinet all resigned, and in their places several Democrats were ap pointed.

During his Administration several very important measures were adopted. Among them the act establishing a uniform system of bankruptcy, passed in 1841, the tariff law of 1842, and the scheme for the annexation of Texas, which, by the vigorous efforts of the President, was brought to a successful issue by the passage of joint resolutions in Congress, on the 1st of March, 1845, just three days before the close of his term. formal act of annexation, however, was not passed until a later period. One new State-Floridawas also admitted into the Union under Mr. Tyler's Administration, in 1845.

The

After his retirement from the Presidency, on the 4th of March, 1845, Mr. Tyler remained in private life at his beautiful home of Sherwood Forest, in Charles City County, till, in 1861, he appeared as a member of the Peace Convention, composed of delegates from the "Border States," which met at Washington to endeavor to arrange terms of compromise between the seceded States and the General Government. Of this Convention, which accomplished nothing, he was president.

Subsequently, Mr. Tyler renounced his alle giance to the United States, and was chosen a member of the Confederate Congress. While acting in this capacity he was taken sick at Richmond, where he died after a brief illness, on the 17th of January, 1862.

M

JAMES KNOX POLK.

ECKLENBURG County, North Carolina, has the distinction of being the birthplace of two Presidents of the United States-Andrew Jackson and James Knox Polk-the latter of whom was born there on the 2d of November, 1795. Like his friend and neighbor, General Jackson, Mr. Polk was of Scotch-Irish descent. It was his great-uncle, Colonel Thomas Polk, who, on the 19th of May, 1775, read from the steps of the court-house, at Charlotte, that famous "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence," to which reference has been made. in our sketch of Jefferson. James at a very early age manifested decided literary tastes. After a vain attempt to induce him to become a storekeeper, his father finally consented to his entering the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, from which, in his twenty-third year, he graduated with the highest honors. Studying law at Nashville, Tennessee, where he renewed a former acquaintance with General Jackson, he was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice at Columbia.

In 1823, he was elected to the Legislature of Tennessee, and during the following year was married to Miss Sarah Childress, a beautiful and accomplished young lady, of refined manners and

rare social gifts. In the fall of 1825, he was elected to Congress, where he remained the next fourteen years, during five sessions occupying the responsible and honorable position of Speaker of the House, the duties of which he performed with a dignity and dispassionateness which won for him the warmest encomiums from all parties. In 1839, he was chosen Governor of Tennessee. Again a candidate in 1841, and also in 1843, he was both times defeated,—a result due to one of those periodical revolutions in politics which seem inseparable from republican forms of government, rather than to Mr. Polk's lack of personal popularity:

As the avowed friend of the annexation of Texas, Mr. Polk, in 1844, was nominated by the Democrats for the Presidency. Though he had for his opponent no less a person than the great and popular orator and statesman, Henry Clay, he received one hundred and seventy out of two hundred and seventy-five votes in the electoral college. He was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1845. Three days previously, his predecessor, John Tyler, had signed the joint resolutions of Congress favoring the annexation of Texas to the United States. Consequently, at the very beginning of his Administration, Mr. Polk found the country involved in disputes with Mexico, which, on the formal annexation of Texas, in December, 1845, threatened to result in hostilities between

the two countries. General Zachary Taylor was sent with a small army to occupy the territory stretching from the Neuces to the Rio Grande, which latter stream Texas claimed as her western boundary. Mexico, on the other hand, declaring that Texas had never extended further west than the Neuces, dispatched a force to watch Taylor. A slight collision, in April, 1846, was followed, a few days later, by the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, in which General Taylor was victorious. When the tidings of these battles reached Washington, the President, on May 11th, sent a special message to Congress, declaring "that war existed by the act of Mexico," and asking for men and money to carry it on. Congress promptly voted ten million dollars, and authorized the President to call out fifty thousand volunteers. Hostilities were prosecuted vigorously. An American army, under General Scott, finally fought its way to the capture of the City of Mexico. On the 2d of February, 1848, the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo was signed, and ratified by the Senate on the 10th of March following, by which New Mexico and Upper California, comprising a territory of more than half a million square miles, were added to the United States. In return, the United States agreed to pay Mexico fifteen million of dollars, and to assume the debts due by Mexico to citizens of the United States, amounting to three and a half millions more.