[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