Source: H.W. Brands. Heirs of the Founders (2017)
The Whigs did not ostracize Daniel Webster for staying on board as President John Tyler’s Secretary of State for awhile, but many in the party thought that he made a serious mistake by not resigning in a time frame of their liking. There was nothing devious about Webster’s actions, but Clay and his Whig followers pounced nonetheless, openly questioning Webster’s loyalty to the party. Webster pondered retirement from politics, but financially he could not do so, and he still felt he had a mission to fulfill. Once again elected to the Senate from Massachusetts, Webster made sure that he stood for the Union and the Constitution when so many in the nation didn’t seem to be doing so.
Webster continued to oppose the annexation of Texas, and agreed with many others in government that if Texas was added as a state, war with Mexico would be the result. Webster kept questioning the idea that the Three-Fifths Compromise in the Constitution should apply to any additional slave state, and he openly opposed the idea of even adding slave states. Webster was actually behind the times in that the North had long before acquiesced in terms of agreeing to additional slave states with the Missouri Compromise (1820). The election of James Knox Polk in 1844 guaranteed the annexation of Texas, which was a development that hadn’t yet truly registered with Webster. Polk’s election also put the final nail in the coffin of Calhoun’s Presidential hopes, but Calhoun angled to claim that Texas had been annexed on his watch as SecState, in that the lame duck Tyler could be the President that annexed Texas.
Webster continued to oppose the annexation of Texas, and agreed with many others in government that if Texas was added as a state, war with Mexico would be the result. Webster kept questioning the idea that the Three-Fifths Compromise in the Constitution should apply to any additional slave state, and he openly opposed the idea of even adding slave states. Webster was actually behind the times in that the North had long before acquiesced in terms of agreeing to additional slave states with the Missouri Compromise (1820). The election of James Knox Polk in 1844 guaranteed the annexation of Texas, which was a development that hadn’t yet truly registered with Webster. Polk’s election also put the final nail in the coffin of Calhoun’s Presidential hopes, but Calhoun angled to claim that Texas had been annexed on his watch as SecState, in that the lame duck Tyler could be the President that annexed Texas.
There was nowhere near a 2/3’s majority in the Senate to annex Texas, so Tyler and Calhoun chose the route of a joint resolution in both houses which only required simple majorities. The disadvantage of that strategy was that nobody knew for certain if annexing Texas via a joint resolution was constitutional. The US had never before annexed an independent nation, and Texas would be a slave state. The Constitution itself was silent on the matter of adding territory, but that didn’t stop President Thomas Jefferson, who, based on the advice of John Quincy Adams, used the treaty process in the Senate to officially add the Louisiana Territory.
The joint resolution on annexing Texas passed on 2 March 1845, a couple of days before Tyler’s term as President ended. In the succeeding months, Texas had to ratify annexation, and then write a constitution that would pass muster in Congress. Webster, knowing that Texas statehood was a fait accompli, spoke out in opposition nonetheless; Texas was added as the 28th state in December 1845, which moved the US and Mexico closer to war.
President Polk’s war with Mexico was a land-grab packages as self-defense due to a border dispute between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers. Polk wanted to add California as well, but was rebuffed when no Mexican official of consequence would even meet with his envoy, John Slidell. Polk sent troops under the command of General Zachary Taylor to the Rio Grande to provoke an attack by Mexico, but Mexico wouldn’t take the bait for many weeks.
The joint resolution on annexing Texas passed on 2 March 1845, a couple of days before Tyler’s term as President ended. In the succeeding months, Texas had to ratify annexation, and then write a constitution that would pass muster in Congress. Webster, knowing that Texas statehood was a fait accompli, spoke out in opposition nonetheless; Texas was added as the 28th state in December 1845, which moved the US and Mexico closer to war.
President Polk’s war with Mexico was a land-grab packages as self-defense due to a border dispute between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers. Polk wanted to add California as well, but was rebuffed when no Mexican official of consequence would even meet with his envoy, John Slidell. Polk sent troops under the command of General Zachary Taylor to the Rio Grande to provoke an attack by Mexico, but Mexico wouldn’t take the bait for many weeks.
President Polk had a flimsy war message ready to sent Congress when Mexico crossed the Rio Grande, which allowed Polk to claim that Amerian blood had been shed on America soil by the Mexican army. Polk wanted unilateral control and authority to wage war (which Congress gave LBJ with the Tonkin Resolution), but among others, Calhoun refused to be stampeded to war. Calhoun and others were only able to slightly slow the march towards war in the Senate.
The only real opposition to the war in Congress came from the Whigs, but Polk understood that in creating a situation in which he could claim US blood was shed on US soil, there was no way that the war could be stopped. Webster did his best to dodge the entire issue, since his constituents and conscience opposed the war, but he knew the price the Federalists paid for opposing the War of 1812, so when the vote was taken in the Senate, Webster was not in the chamber. But Webster reserved the right to complain as sis others such as Congressman David Wilmot (PA), whose Wilmot Proviso twice passed the House and twice failed in the Senate, but it became the lighting rod for the expansion of slavery west.
Webster knew that unlike Clay and Calhoun, he still had a chance at the Presidency, and since Polk had in essence declared that he would only serve one term, the Election of 1848 seemed to be wide open. Almost by default, Webster had become the leading Whig in terms of Presidential timbre, which meant that Webster couldn’t risk alienating the various Whig factions, so he tried to walk the political fence on slavery.
The only real opposition to the war in Congress came from the Whigs, but Polk understood that in creating a situation in which he could claim US blood was shed on US soil, there was no way that the war could be stopped. Webster did his best to dodge the entire issue, since his constituents and conscience opposed the war, but he knew the price the Federalists paid for opposing the War of 1812, so when the vote was taken in the Senate, Webster was not in the chamber. But Webster reserved the right to complain as sis others such as Congressman David Wilmot (PA), whose Wilmot Proviso twice passed the House and twice failed in the Senate, but it became the lighting rod for the expansion of slavery west.
Webster knew that unlike Clay and Calhoun, he still had a chance at the Presidency, and since Polk had in essence declared that he would only serve one term, the Election of 1848 seemed to be wide open. Almost by default, Webster had become the leading Whig in terms of Presidential timbre, which meant that Webster couldn’t risk alienating the various Whig factions, so he tried to walk the political fence on slavery.
General Zachary Taylor’s successes in the Mexican War, in particular Buena Vista, catapulted him into the conversation for Whig nomination in 1848. Although Polk didn’t plan to run again, he disliked the idea that Taylor could use his military success in the war as a platform to propel himself and the Whigs to the White House. In part to blunt Taylor’s political momentum, Polk positioned General Winfield Scott (and Taylor’s superior officer), to be the main war hero by landing at Vera Cruz and taking the war to Mexico City. Scott was also a Whig, but Polk gambled that two Whig war heroes would split the party in 1848, which would benefit the Democrats. On the sidelines, Webster hoped that the division of military fame and credit between Taylor and Scott would work in his favor for the Whig nomination.
Polk’s envoy to Mexico City, Nicholas Trist, in essence decided to negotiate his own treaty with the Mexican government in defiance of Polk’s orders, which infuriated Polk to the point where he explored the possibility of taking all of Mexico. The US was tiring of the war, and the possibility that Taylor and Scott could become even more popular if he kept prosecuting the war led Polk to grudgingly decide to send Trist’s treaty to the Senate for ratification.
The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (a.k.a. the Mexican Cession) provided that potentially seven states could be added to the US, which meant 14 Senators, equal to New England’s contingent, but the population of those states would not even equal that of Vermont. Webster and the other Senators that opposed the treaty were outvoted by a total of 38 - 14, and the ratified treaty went into effect on 4 July 1848 (during the process, Congressman John Quincy Adams died in the Capitol on 23 February 1848).
Polk’s envoy to Mexico City, Nicholas Trist, in essence decided to negotiate his own treaty with the Mexican government in defiance of Polk’s orders, which infuriated Polk to the point where he explored the possibility of taking all of Mexico. The US was tiring of the war, and the possibility that Taylor and Scott could become even more popular if he kept prosecuting the war led Polk to grudgingly decide to send Trist’s treaty to the Senate for ratification.
The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (a.k.a. the Mexican Cession) provided that potentially seven states could be added to the US, which meant 14 Senators, equal to New England’s contingent, but the population of those states would not even equal that of Vermont. Webster and the other Senators that opposed the treaty were outvoted by a total of 38 - 14, and the ratified treaty went into effect on 4 July 1848 (during the process, Congressman John Quincy Adams died in the Capitol on 23 February 1848).
If communication was faster in 1848, then Mexico would have known about gold in California before negotiations with Nicholas Trist ended. But the news didn’t reach Mexico City until it war far too late, and it didn’t reach Washington, D.C. until after the Senate had ratified the treaty. The California Gold Rush turned the territory of California into perhaps the most diverse region in Earth, but Americans were by far the largest in number. It was beyond obvious that California needed a government as soon as possible and that it would be a free state since it didn’t have the necessary climate/terrain for plantations. California’s effort for quick statehood was the impetus for what became known as the Compromise of 1850.
By 1849, Henry Clay was 73 years old and feeling poorly, and consumption would claim him before long. Clay assumed that his political life was over, and he had retired, like Jefferson at Monticello, to his happy place outside of Lexington (KY). Clay had many visitors, which he enjoyed entertaining and being flattered and complimented, but he also valued that those visitors kept him updated on what was going on in DC. Clay had meant to leave the affairs of the nation in the hands of the New Guard, but after the death of his son, Clay figured that the best tonic for his grief was to head back to the DC trenches, unsure if his health could stand the stress. Yet again, Kentucky elected Clay to the Senate, and outside of Calhoun and Webster, only a few from his generation remained in Congress.
By 1849, Henry Clay was 73 years old and feeling poorly, and consumption would claim him before long. Clay assumed that his political life was over, and he had retired, like Jefferson at Monticello, to his happy place outside of Lexington (KY). Clay had many visitors, which he enjoyed entertaining and being flattered and complimented, but he also valued that those visitors kept him updated on what was going on in DC. Clay had meant to leave the affairs of the nation in the hands of the New Guard, but after the death of his son, Clay figured that the best tonic for his grief was to head back to the DC trenches, unsure if his health could stand the stress. Yet again, Kentucky elected Clay to the Senate, and outside of Calhoun and Webster, only a few from his generation remained in Congress.
Clay, ever the main-in-the-middle, had a much tougher time finding that ever-shrinking middle in Congress. Clay was an advocate of gradual emancipation liked to colonizing freed slaves in Africa, but Clay’s recommendation failed, and he was seen as an enemy by most Southerners. What Clay was really after was time, not emancipation, when he addressed the Senate in January 1850, where he formally introduced his compromise via a series of proposed resolutions. The first resolution was that California be admitted as a free state, the second wanted to establish one-or-more territorial governments in the remaining areas taken from Mexico. Other resolutions proposed the ban of the African Slave Trade in DC, and what would eventually become the Fugitive Slave Act. In total, Clay previewed eight resolutions.
Clay hoped to mount his usual behind the scenes magic to get the resolutions passed, but the uproar in response to his floor speech meant that he had to be public in his defense of his resolutions, which he did on
5 & 6 February 1850. Clay argued that CA becoming a free state did not violate the Missouri Compromise as Southerners claimed. Clay argued that the 36/30 line did not guarantee slavery south of the line, but merely allowed it while forbidding slavery north of the line. Clay stated that slavery was being barred in CA by Californians, not Congress, and if Virgina voted to end slavery, or Ohio voted to have slavery, Congress would be powerless to act in either case. For the return of fugitive slaves, Clay vigorously agreed with the South, but in almost the same breath Clay stated that there was no constitutional right for secession.
Clay hoped to mount his usual behind the scenes magic to get the resolutions passed, but the uproar in response to his floor speech meant that he had to be public in his defense of his resolutions, which he did on
5 & 6 February 1850. Clay argued that CA becoming a free state did not violate the Missouri Compromise as Southerners claimed. Clay argued that the 36/30 line did not guarantee slavery south of the line, but merely allowed it while forbidding slavery north of the line. Clay stated that slavery was being barred in CA by Californians, not Congress, and if Virgina voted to end slavery, or Ohio voted to have slavery, Congress would be powerless to act in either case. For the return of fugitive slaves, Clay vigorously agreed with the South, but in almost the same breath Clay stated that there was no constitutional right for secession.
Calhoun was not moved by Clay’s appeal for the Union above all else, and was also unimpressed with Clay’s proposed resolution concerning fugitive slaves. Calhoun wanted nothing to do with Clay’s compromise. Calhoun’s consumption was much further along than Clay’s, and he simply didn’t have the ability to stand and directly rebut Clay on the Senate floor. Days later, however, In early-March 1850, Calhoun dragged himself to the Senate where Senator James Mason (VA) read Calhoun’s missive.
According to Calhoun, it was the actions and agitations of the radical Abolitionists that were the main threat to the Union, not the South. Calhoun went on to say that Clay’s proposed compromise would not save the Union, and that CA as a free state was totally unacceptable. Calhoun claimed that Clay wanted compromise, but he was after justice. Calhoun blamed the Missouri Compromise for leading the nation astray as well as placing the South in jeopardy, and that any compromise must first deal with the damage done by the Missouri Compromise (e.g. repeal). Calhoun demanded that the North must give the South the right to track down fugitive slaves as well as crack down on the radical Abolitionists.
According to Calhoun, it was the actions and agitations of the radical Abolitionists that were the main threat to the Union, not the South. Calhoun went on to say that Clay’s proposed compromise would not save the Union, and that CA as a free state was totally unacceptable. Calhoun claimed that Clay wanted compromise, but he was after justice. Calhoun blamed the Missouri Compromise for leading the nation astray as well as placing the South in jeopardy, and that any compromise must first deal with the damage done by the Missouri Compromise (e.g. repeal). Calhoun demanded that the North must give the South the right to track down fugitive slaves as well as crack down on the radical Abolitionists.