Northwest Boundary.-The northeast boundary question had scarcely been settled, when the northwest boundary came into dispute. It was settled during Polk's administration, by compromise, fixing the boundary line at 49 degrees instead of 54 degrees 40 minutes as claimed by the United States.
POLITICAL PARTIES.—The question of the annexation of Texas went before the people for their decision. The democrats, who favored its admission, nominated James K. Polk, who, after a close contest, was elected President. The whigs, who opposed its admission, had nominated Henry Clay.
[Footnote: The announcement of Polk's nomination was the first news ever sent by magnetic telegraph. It was transmitted from Baltimore to Washington, May 29 1844 over a line built with $30,000 appropriated by Congress to test Professor Morse's invention This was the grandest event of this administration and it had largely influenced the civilization and prosperity of the country. Thus the steamboat and the magnetic telegraph were the first fruits of American liberty and industry (Read Barnes's Popular History of the United States pp. 360 and 442)]
[Illustration: ASHLAND, THE HOME OF HENRY CLAY]
[Footnote: Henry Clay was a man whom the nation loved, but signally failed to honor. Yet his fame and reputation remain far above any distinction which mere office can give, and unite with them an affection which stands the test of time. Respected by his opponents he was almost idolized by his friends. In this he somewhat resembled Jefferson, but, unlike him, he had not in his early years the advantages of a liberal education. His father, a Baptist minister of very limited means, died when Henry was five years old and at fifteen he was left to support himself. Meantime he had received what little tuition he had, in a log-cabin school house from very indifferent teachers. With a rare tact for making friends, ready talent waiting to be instructed, and a strong determination seeking opportunities, he soon began to show the dawnings of the power which afterward distinguished him. He said, "I owe my success in life to one single fact, namely that at an early age I commenced, and continued for some years, the practice of daily reading and speaking the contents of some historical or scientific book. These off-hand efforts were sometimes made in a corn field, at others, in the forest, and not unfrequently in some distant barn, with the horse and ox for my only auditors. It is to this that I am indebted for the impulses that have shaped and molded my entire destiny." Rising rapidly by the force of his genius, he soon made himself felt in his State and in the nation. He was peculiarly winning in his manners. An eminent and stern political antagonist once refused an introduction to him expressly on the ground of a determination not to be magnetized by personal contact as he "had known other good haters" of Clay to be "United with this suavity was a wonderful will and an inflexible honor." His political adversary but personal admirer John C. Breckenridge, in an oration pronounced at his death, uttered these words—"If I were to write his epitaph I would inscribe as the highest eulogy on the stone which shall mark his resting place 'Here lies a man who was in the public service for fifty years, and never attempted to deceive his countrymen.'">[
JAMES K. POLK'S ADMINISTRATION.
[Footnote: James K. Polk was born 1795; died 1849. He was one of the most conspicuous opposers of the administration of J. Q. Adams, and a warm supporter of Jackson. In 1839, having served fourteen years in Congress, he declined a re-election and was chosen governor of Tennessee. His Presidential nomination, in connection with that of George M. Dallas of Pennsylvania, as Vice-President, had the effect of uniting the democratic party, which had been disturbed by dissensions between the friends and opponents of Martin Van Buren. The Mexican war, which was strongly opposed in many States, the enactment of a tariff based on a revenue principle instead of a protective one, and the agitation caused by the "Wilmot proviso" (see p. 190), all conspired to affect his popularity before the end of his term. He had, however, previously pledged himself not to be a candidate for re-election. He died about three months after his retirement from office.]