Westward extension, 1841-1850, by George Pierce Garrison.

270

WESTWARD EXTENSION

[I846

that the particular president who has perhaps come
nearer than any other to the accomplishment of
the entire programme with which he entered office
should have felt himself so sad a victim of party
defection. His very successes had roused strong
and relentless opposition, had divided his party into
factions, and was finally threatening it with complete disruption. Buchanan believed, with reason,
that the Democratic reverses in Pennsylvania in
the fall of i846 were due to the hard-won victory in
the passage of the Walker tariff.1 That it had been
a dearer triumph still by which Polk snatched the
nomination from Van Buren in 1844 was to be
made evident in the political outcome of i848.
The first party to hold its national convention
preparatory to the campaign for a successor tc Polk
was that of the Native Americans, then of small importance, and its nomination counted for but little.
The convention met at Philadelphia in September,
1847. It declined to put forward a candidate for
the presidency, but recommended General Taylor.
For vice-president it nominated General A. S. Dearborn of Massachusetts.2
The next nomination was made by the Liberty,
or Abolition, party, whose convention met in New
York City in November, I847. The men selected
as its candidates were John P. Hale of New Hampshire for president, and Leicester King of Ohio for
1 Polk, MS. Diary, November 5, 1846.
Niles' Register, LXXIII., 79.