o
strenuous for a man as old as Harrison, and he died at the White House
within a month of taking the oath of office.

The "Tyler Too" was John Tyler, who had been elected Vice-President, and
who assumed the office of President upon Harrison's death. His accession
was little less than a bomb-shell to the party which had nominated him
and secured his election. For he was a Virginian, a follower of Calhoun
and an ardent pro-slavery man, while the Whigs were first, last and all
the time anti-slavery. He had been placed on the ticket with Harrison,
who was strongly anti-slavery, in the hope of securing the votes of some
disaffected Democrats, but to see him President was the last thing the
Whigs desired. The result was that he soon became involved in a bitter
quarrel with Clay and the other leaders of the party, which effectually;
killed any chance of renomination he may have had. He became the mark
for perhaps the most unrestrained abuse ever aimed at a
holder of the presidency.

It was largely unmerited, for Tyler was a capable man, had seen service
in Congress and as governor of his state; but he was dry and
uninspiring, and not big enough for the presidency, into which he could
never have come except by accident. His administration was marked by few
important events except the annexation of Texas, which will be dealt
with more particularly when we come to consider the lives of Sam Houston
and the other men who brought the annexation about. He retired to
private life at the close of his term, appearing briefly twenty years
later as a member of a "congress" which endeavored to prevent the war
between the states, and afterwards as a member of the Confederate
Congress, in which he served until his death.

Clay secured the Whig nomination for himself, in the campaign of 1844,
and his opponent on the Democratic ticket was James Knox Polk, a native
of North Carolina, but afterwards removing to Tennessee. He had been a
member of Congress for fourteen years, and governor of Tennessee for
three, and was a consistent exponent of Democratic principles. Two great
questions were before the country: the annexation of Texas and the right
to Oregon. Polk was for the immediate annexation of Texas and for the
acquisition of Oregon up to 54 deg. 40" north latitude, regardless of Great
Britain's claims, and "Fifty-four forty or fight!" became one of the
battle-cries of the campaign. Clay, inveterate trimmer and
compromiser that he was, p