of power, the Government had become a personal despotism under
Jackson, which had vainly struggled to perpetuate itself through
the Administration of VanBuren. But notwithstanding the absurd
discrepancy of their practical and theoretical politics, the
Democrats had one great advantage over the Whigs in having a large
and influential body of men united in interest, compelled to defend
themselves against aggression, prepared unflinchingly to take the
initiative, to whom politics was not a philosophic theory but a
serious matter of business.

The slave-holding aristocracy of the South was the only united,
organized, positive political force in the country. With the
personal tastes of aristocrats and the domestic habits of despots,
they were staunchly Democratic in their politics and had full control
of the party. They had positive purposes and aggressive courage.
A crisis had come which they only had the ability and energy to
meet. The control of affairs was in the hands of the timid Whigs.
Decisive measures were needed. By a peaceful revolution they seized
the Government out of the hands of the Whigs in the midst of the
Administration and embarked on a career of Democratic conquest.

President Tyler, having quarreled with his party, eager to
accomplish something striking in the closing hours of his abortive
Administration, with unseemly haste rushed through the annexation
of Texas under a joint resolution of Congress. Mr. Polk, the new
President, did not hesitate in carrying out the manifest will of
the people and the imperious behest of his party. The South was
clamoring for more territory for the extension of slavery. The West
was aggressive and eager for more worlds to conquer. New England,
impelled by hatred of slavery and jealousy of the rising importance