* * * * *

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 163:  Poore, Reminiscences, I, pp. 316-317.]

[Footnote 164:  Joseph Wallace in the Illinois State Register, April 19, 1885.]

[Footnote 165:  Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, 1, p. 146.]

[Footnote 166:  Globe, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 44.]

[Footnote 167:  Globe, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 45.]

[Footnote 168:  J.Q.  Adams, Memoirs, XI, p. 478.]

[Footnote 169:  Richmond Enquirer, Jan. 6, 1844.]

[Footnote 170:  Act of June 25, 1842; United States Statutes at Large, V, p. 491.]

[Footnote 171:  December 14, 1843. Globe, 28 Cong.  I Sess. p. 36.]

[Footnote 172:  Niles’ Register, Vol. 65, pp. 393-396.]

[Footnote 173:  Globe, 28 Cong.  I Sess. pp. 276-277.]

[Footnote 174:  J.Q.  Adams, Memoirs, XI, p. 510.]

[Footnote 175:  Globe, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 549-550.  For the trend of public opinion in the district which Douglas represented, see Peoria Register, September 21, 1839.]

[Footnote 176:  Globe,28 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 527-528]

[Footnote 177:  Globe, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 534.]

[Footnote 178:  Illinois State Register, February 9, 1844.]

[Footnote 179:  Ibid., May 17, 1844.]

[Footnote 180:  It was intimated that he had at first aided Tyler in his forlorn hope of a second term.]

[Footnote 181:  Globe, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 598 ff.]

[Footnote 182:  Illinois State Register, August 30, 1844.]

[Footnote 183:  Ibid., September 27, 1844.]

[Footnote 184:  Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 70-71.]

[Footnote 185:  Official returns in the office of the Secretary of State.]

CHAPTER V

MANIFEST DESTINY

The defeat of President Tyler’s treaty in June, 1844, just on the eve of the presidential campaign, gave the Texas question an importance which the Democrats in convention had not foreseen, when they inserted the re-annexation plank in the platform.  The hostile attitude of Whig senators and of Clay himself toward annexation, helped to make Texas a party issue.  While it cannot be said that Polk was elected on this issue alone, there was some plausibility in the statement of President Tyler, that “a controlling majority of the people, and a majority of the States, have declared in favor of immediate annexation.”  At all events, when Congress reassembled, President Tyler promptly acted on this supposition.  In his annual message, and again in a special message a fortnight later, he urged “prompt and immediate action on the subject of annexation.”  Since the two governments had already agreed on terms of annexation, he recommended their adoption by Congress “in the form of a joint resolution, or act, to be perfected and made binding on the two countries, when adopted in like manner by the government of Texas."[186] A policy which had not been able to secure the approval of two-thirds of the Senate was now to be endorsed by a majority of both houses.  In short, a legislative treaty was to be enacted by Congress.