Whigs proved either noncommittal or unfriendly. The result was
that abolitionists organized a party of their own in 1840 and
nominated James G. Birney for the Presidency. Both of the older
parties during this campaign evaded the issue of the annexation
of Texas. In 1844 the Whigs again refrained from giving in their
platform any official utterance on the Texas issue, though they
were understood to be opposed to annexation. The Democrats
adroitly asserted in their platform their approval of the
re-annexation of Texas and reoccupation of Oregon. There was a
shadowy prior claim to both these regions, and by combining them
in this way the party avoided any odious partiality towards the
acquisition of slave territory. But the voters in both parties
had become interested in the specific question whether the
country was to enter upon a war of conquest whose primary object
should be the extension of slavery. In the North it became
generally understood that a vote for Henry Clay, the Whig
candidate, was an expression of opposition to annexation. This
issue, however, was not made clear in the South. In the absence
of telegraph and daily paper it was quite possible to maintain
contradictory positions in different sections of the country. But
since the Democrats everywhere openly favored annexation, the
election of their candidate, James K. Polk, was generally
accepted as a popular approval of the annexation of Texas.
Indeed, action immediately followed the election and, before the
President-elect had been inaugurated, the joint resolution for
the annexation of Texas passed both Houses of Congress.

The popular vote was almost equally divided between Whigs and
Democrats. Had the vote for Birney, who was again the candidate
of the Liberty party, been cast for Clay electors, Clay would