James Polk, Part 3 (end)

　» 

By Frank Beardsley

Broadcast: August 12, 2004

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.

(MUSIC)

A great constitutional debate split the United States in eighteen-forty-eight. The dispute arose over slavery in the new territories. The question was this: did Congress have the power to control or prohibit slavery in the territories. Southerners argued that they had the right to take slaves into the new territories of New Mexico and California. Northerners opposed any further spread of slavery.

There seemed to be no answer to the problem. Everyone agreed that governments had to be organized in the territories. But northern and southern leaders could not settle their dispute over slavery.

VOICE TWO:

Senator John Clayton of Delaware proposed to the Senate that it name a special committee on the question of slavery in the new territories. Both parties -- the Whigs and the Democrats -- had the same number of senators on the committee. Senator Clayton was its chairman.

South and north were equally represented. After six days, Clayton's committee agreed on a compromise bill. It proposed that Oregon be organized as free territory. Slavery there would be illegal. And on California and New Mexico, the bill proposed this: they could be organized as territories. But their territorial legislatures would not have the power to act on the issue of slavery. All questions on slavery in these two territories must be decided by the United States Supreme Court.

VOICE ONE:

Not everyone believed this plan was a good one. Some northern senators believed that Chief Justice Taney would decide for slavery. Southern senators were just as sure that Taney would decide against slavery.

Many Whigs in the House of Representatives opposed the plan, because they feared that the political dispute over slavery would destroy the Supreme Court. The Senate approved the compromise bill. But the House rejected it. After long debate, Congress finally approved territorial government for Oregon. And it voted that Oregon should be free territory, with slavery illegal.

The vote on the Oregon bill was very close. It passed in the Senate only because two men from slave states voted for it. They were Senator Thomas Benton of Missouri and Senator Sam Houston of Texas. Senator John C. Calhoun said it was a bad defeat for the south. But what was worse was the fact that it was caused by the votes of two southern senators.

Soon after, at the end of August, Congress ended its session. And the nation's leaders prepared for the national election of eighteen-forty-eight.

VOICE TWO:

President James Polk

The country moved quickly into the presidential campaign. President Polk was old, tired, and in poor health. He had decided not to try for a second term. Polk felt he had done his duty. During the first days of his administration, he listed the things he planned to do as president.

First, he wanted to reduce the tax on imports. Second, he wished to establish the independent treasury, which the Whigs had voted out. Third, he hoped to settle the Oregon border dispute with Britain. And fourth, he wanted to get California for the United States.

Less than four years later, he had succeeded with each item on his list. The United States and Britain agreed on a compromise in the Oregon dispute. In eighteen-forty-six, he was able to establish the independent treasury again, where the government could keep its own funds. No longer would government funds be kept in private banks. That same year, Polk was able to get Congress to approve a bill that greatly reduced the taxes on imports. And the peace treaty with Mexico gave the United States not only California, but also New Mexico. So, Polk believed he had served his country well.

VOICE ONE:

Polk, however, had not served his party well. He was not a good politician. He failed to unite the disputing groups of the Democratic Party. What was worse, he let them move even farther apart.

There seemed to be no strong Democratic candidate who could unite the party. At one extreme were the supporters of former President Van Buren--New York Democrats opposed to slavery. They were called 'Barnburners'. They got this name from their political opponents, who charged that they were willing to burn down the barn to get rid of pro-slavery rats.

At the party's other extreme were the Democrats of the south, led by John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. In every state, the Democrats were divided between those who supported the administration and those opposed to it.

VOICE TWO:

The Democrats met in Baltimore in May, eighteen-forty-eight, to choose their presidential candidate. Several men were proposed as possibilities: Polk's Treasury Secretary, Robert Walker of Mississippi; John Dix of New York; and Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan.

On the fourth vote, the convention chose Cass as the party's presidential candidate. Cass was sixty-six years old. He was a middle-of-the-road Democrat. He was a northerner who did not oppose slavery.

On the que