the judgment and rescinded its action.

President Polk on

August 14th gave the bill his approval. In doing so, he declared that the line of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes sufficiently excluded slavery apart from the proviso. At the same time, he expressed regret that a bill had not been introduced and passed organizing the Mexican acquisition with Territorial government. Once more he commended to Congress the extension of the Missouri Compromise line as the proper plan of national subdivision. During July there had been a noteworthy effort made in the Senate to embrace Oregon, New Mexico, and California in a single Territorial bill. This met the slavery problem by proposing to refer the matter to the Supreme Court. This measure, known as the Clayton Compromise, passed the Senate, securing the votes of such extremists as Calhoun and Jefferson Davis; but the House laid the measure on the table, not a Whig representing a free State giving his vote for it. On August 14th, this session of Congress closed. During its sitting, Wisconsin had been admitted as a free State.

The Democrats held their national convention in Baltimore from May 22d to the 26th. Four ballots were taken before a choice for president was secured. From the beginning, Lewis Cass, of Michigan, held the lead. In common with the other candidates, he was against the Wilmot Proviso, and, like the rest of them, he was designated a Northern man with Southern principles. Indeed, the preferences of the delegates in their votes were largely personal rather than political. General W. O. Butler received the nomination for vice-president. The resolutions of the convention expressed the trust of the American Democracy in the patriotism and discriminating justice of the American people. William L. Yancey, of Alabama, offered a resolution to the effect that the doctrine of non-interference with the rights of property of any portion of the people, either in the States or Territories, was the true Republican doctrine. This resolution was overwhelmingly rejected, the thirty-six affirmative votes coming from the slave States.

Historical Society.

The Whig convention met at Philadelphia on June 7th, with every State represented except Texas. General Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana, received the nomination for president, upon the fourth ballot. General Taylor had obtained favor with the country as a "no-party man"; consequently, on the first ballot he was supported by representatives from all parts of the country, only eight States in the Union failing to accord him votes. New England, however, was committed to Webster and Clay. On the final ballot, Taylor's vote came from every State in the Union. No committee on resolutions was appointed, and the convention set forth no platform. The Whigs of the country at large were not satisfied to have the convention place them in such a non-committal position, and General Taylor was induced to give assurances that he sympathized with the purposes of the Whig party. This secured him the support of prominent Whig leaders.

The State of New York had sent to the Democratic Convention two delegations. One calling itself the “Barnburners" was under the leadership of John Dix, Samuel J. Tilden, and John Van Buren. The other, the "Hunkers" were under Marcy and Dickinson. The "Barnburners' withdrew from the convention, but were not disposed quietly to submit to its proceedings. They held a State convention at Utica, New York, on June 22d and 23d, in which delegates from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, and Wisconsin participated, and put in nomination for president Martin Van Buren, with Henry Dodge, of Wisconsin, for vice-president. Van Buren gave a reluctant acceptance, but Dodge declined, and supported General Cass. Still another convention was called in Ohio of persons dissatisfied with the selections of the other nominating conventions. It was convened by the Ohio State Convention, and met at Buffalo, August 9th. Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, presided, representatives of seventeen States were present, and the membership of the convention numbered about two hundred. Martin Van Buren received the

endorsement of the convention for president, and Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, was tendered the vicepresidential nomination by acclamation. This convention denounced the Baltimore convention for "stifling the voice of a great constituency," and the Philadelphia convention for "abandoning its distinctive principles for mere availability." It declared that "Slavery in the several States of this Union which recognized its existence depends upon State laws alone, which cannot be repealed or modified by the Federal government, and for which laws that government is not responsible. We therefore propose no interference with slavery by Congress within the limits of any State." Upon the question of slavery in the Territories, it asserted that “the true and in the judgment of this convention the only safe means of preventing the extension of slavery into territory now free is to prohibit its existence in all such territory by an act of Congress. . . . We accept the issue which the slave power has forced upon us, and to their demand for more slave States and more slave territory, our calm, our final answer is, no more slave States and no more slave territory." After demanding the admission of Oregon, California, and New Mexico as free States, and declaring that "there must be no more compromises with slavery; if made, they must be repealed," the platform concluded "We inscribe on our banners, Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Men,' and under it we will fight on, and fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions."

The admission of four new States, Florida, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin, since the preceding presidential campaign had raised the number of States in the Union to thirty and had increased the electoral vote to two hundred and ninety. For the first time in the history of the Federal government all the presidential electors were to be chosen on the same day, in accordance with an act of Congress, passed in 1845, which provided that "The electors of president and vicepresident shall be appointed in each State on the Tuesday