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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVIII.
ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES K. POLK.
SECTION II.
THE MEXICAN WAR.
MAY, 1846-SEPTEMBER, 1847.
Military renown to opponents of administration
The two chief commanders: Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor Taylor, the subordinate, first preferred
Taylor's misgivings at the southwestern frontier Outbreak of the war near the Rio Grande
Siege of Fort Brown; Battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la
Palma
16
American troops victorious; Matamoras occupied.
Taylor's promotion to command; operations on the Rio Grande.
Mexico invaded; assault and capture of Monterey
Invasion of northern line abandoned; Taylor in disfavor
Scott sent to the front; new route by Vera Cruz
30
33
Taylor attacked; great battle of Buena Vista
34
.
Various minor operations of the war
Scott's new expedition; his grievances against the President.
A landing effected; siege of Vera Cruz
38
39
42
Vera Cruz captured; march to the interior.
Battle of Cerro Gordo; Scott at Puebla
Fruitless efforts to negotiate; Trist's mission
46
49
51
Scott's march resumed; the approach to Mexico city.
Stubborn contests at Contreras and Cherubusco
New efforts to negotiate; Santa Anna's wily policy
Battle of Molino del Rey; Chapultepec stormed
Mexico city surrenders; Scott enters the capital
SECTION III.
PERIOD OF THIRTIETH CONGRESS.
MARCH 4, 1847-MARCH 3, 1849.
Odium of war; news of victories; Taylor a popular hero
Clay speaks at Lexington; keynote of Whig opposition
Clay, Webster, and the Wilmot Proviso.
Administration losing ground; State elections
Polk's obloquy; his eastern tour; his defence of the war.
Thirtieth Congress assembles; organization; message.
Membership; Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, etc.
Winthrop as Speaker; House censorious of the administration
Whigs oppose prudently; loan bill; rumors of peace
Scott in Mexico; treaty of peace; cession of territory
Death of John Quincy Adams at the capitol.
80
82
84
88
President's confidential message; Mexican treaty ratified
Cost of Mexican war; acquisition, whether for freedom or slavery
Washington monument begun; runaway slaves at the capital.
Slavery seeks preponderance; plans for the new domain.
Oregon territorial bill; Wilmot Proviso applied . . .
Session ends; Wisconsin admitted; various measures passed
National party conventions; Democrats nominate Cass
Whig convention; Clay and Webster disappointed; Taylor nomi-
nated
"Liberty Party" and Van Buren; Free Soilers at Buffalo
The Presidential campaign; Taylor's letters; course of Clay and
Webster.
90
91
94
97
98
99
100
101
103
105
Taylor's support united; campaign speakers; Whigs successful
Final session of Congress; Polk's last message
110
114
etc..
Proposals to divide Mexican acquisition; Calhoun's new dogma
Slavery in the District; postponement of territorial division
Taylor's arrival at Washington; Interior Department created
Secretary Walker of the Treasury; the Polk tariff, sub-treasury,
The Republic at peace; Polk's success as a negotiator.
The administration reviewed; Polk's retirement and death
Whig office-seekers; Lincoln leaves public life
Retribution of the Mexican war; the spirit of conquest
A noble acquisition; California's fair domains
Discovery of gold; the Pacific Argonauts of 1849
Sacramento laid out; growth of San Francisco
California for freedom; policy of new President.
State constitution framed and adopted
Similar movements in Utah and New Mexico.
Taylor's policy towards the acquisition from Mexico
Inauguration of Taylor; his cabinet and chief advisers
Clay, Webster, and Seward
New portent of freedom; a free Pacific population.
Southern leaders jealous; a growing disunion sentiment
Calhoun and secession; Davis and Quitman
A new Congress assembles; sectional feeling strong
157
Cobb chosen Speaker of the House; President's territorial plan
158
House without direction; giants of the Senate
160
Clay once more a member; his compromise scheme.
161
Discussion started; famous senatorial oratory.
165
Calhoun's last speech, suggestive of disunion
Webster's March speech; Seward and the “higher law
167
Calhoun's death; Benton and Foote; grand committee appointed. 171
Taylor's cabinet not strong; Clayton as premier. .
173
Central American relations; the Clayton-Bulwer treaty
Cabinet scandal of the Galphin claim.
Clay's committee report; compromise measures; the "omnibus
bill "
178
California's admission loaded down; option supersedes the Wilmot
Proviso.
Opposition to Clay's plan; President prefers his own
Failure of Southern disunion convention .
179
181
182
Danger of collision in New Mexico; Texas makes claim Taylor indignant; his firm stand against disunion Sudden illness and death; Taylor's character.
CHAPTER XX.
SECTION I.
ADMINISTRATION OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
PERIOD OF THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS.
JULY 9, 1850-MARCH 3, 1851.
PAGE
The Senate eulogies; second loss of a Whig President
Fillmore, the Vice President, as successor; his disposition
Cabinet reconstructed; Clay influential
191
192
193
Webster the new premier; temporizing tendencies
Omnibus bill upset; Clay rebukes disunion
195
196
Compromise measures pass the Senate in separate bills
Admission of California; money offer to Texas.
198
New Mexico and Utah territorial bills; fugitive-slave bill
District slave trade interdicted; compromise complete.
Adjournment of the long session
Clay's career closing; burden upon Fillmore and Webster
Texas accepts money; Southern disunion subsides
Northern humiliation; fugitive-slave excitement.
Conservatives support compromise and denounce the radicals
The fall elections; political changes threatened
Second session of Congress; unimportant legislation
Compromise proclaimed a finality; Clay's last leadership.
199
201
202
204
207
208
210
212
PERIOD OF THIRTY-SECOND CONGRESS.
MARCH 4, 1851-MARCH 3, 1853.
Second thought of the people sustains the compromise
Anti-slavery statesmen; their views as to local slavery.
Plans of Southern expansion; expeditions against Cuba
Filibustering stigmatized by the government
Transportation problems at the isthmus .
Foreign news enterprise; railway jubilees
Webster, the defender of compromise measures
Morbid forebodings of disunion; capitol extension begun
Saving the Union; Northern State elections; Whigs divided
Southern elections; conditional union sentiment.
A re-united country and a re-united democracy
New national diversions; Jenny Lind; the yacht "America"
Arrival of Louis Kossuth; his tour and task.
Thirty-second Congress convenes; Kossuth at the capital.
Discussions as to intervention; the Magyar's disappointment
Webster and Hulsemann; European troubles.
A tame and unimportant session
Party preparations for the Presidential canvass; candidates.
Democratic convention; Franklin Pierce nominated
Whig convention; Scott preferred to Fillmore and Webster.
National parties; Whigs and Democrats distinguished
The Presidential campaign; Pierce's strength as a candidate
Whig cause desperate; deaths of Clay and Webster
Scott unacceptable to Southern Whigs
"Uncle Tom's Cabin " and the Free Soilers; Scott's canvass
Waterloo defeat of the Whig party; Pierce victorious
"National Union Party" merged into the Democracy
Second session of Congress; cabinet changes.
250
Spread-eagleism upon foreign relations; Cass and Douglas
Monroe doctrine expounded; Central American situation
Fillmore's foreign policy; troubles over the Clayton-Bulwer treaty 253
Non-intervention in Europe; Perry's expedition to Japan
Prudent internal management; Whig balance-sheet
Fillmore's appointments; apparent tranquillity of the country.
Retirement with applause; Fillmore's character..
Arrival of President-elect; adjournment of Congress
251
252
255
257
259
Impulse given to carrier enterprise; subsidies and appropriations. 260
Collins line of steamers; steamboat explosions; inspection laws
Increase of crime and misrule in large cities .
New York troubles; San Francisco's vigilance committee
Chinese immigration on the Pacific slope
261
262
..
265
Oregon, Texas, and Utah; a Mormon territorial governor
Woman's Rights movement; temperance and the liquor laws
267