... may be safely extended to the utmost bounds of our territorial limits; and that, as it shall be extended, the bonds of our Union, so far from being weakened, will become stronger. I enter upon the discharge of the high duties which have been assigned me by the people, again humbly supplicating that Divine Being, who has watched over and protected our beloved country from its infancy to the present hour, to continue his gracious benedictions upon us, that we may continue to be a prosperous and happy people. "JAMES K. POLK." PRESIDENTS: ZACHARY TAYLOR, LOUISIANA, MILLARD FILLMORE, NEW YORK. VICE-PRESIDENT: MILLARD FILLMORE, New York. 1849.-JOHN M. CLAYTON, Delaware. SECRETARIES OF THE TREASURY: SECRETARIES OF WAR: 1849.-GEORGE W. Crawford, Georgia. 1849. SECRETARIES OF THE NAVY: WILLIAM B. PRESTON, Virginia. 1852. JOHN P. KENNEDY, Maryland. --- 1850.- ALEXANDER H. H. STUART, Virginia. POSTMASTERS-GENERAL: 1849.-JACOB COLLAMER, Vermont. ATTORNEYS-GENERAL: 1849.-REVERDY JOHNSON, Maryland. CONTEMPORANEOUS ENGLISH HISTORY. Reign. Victoria. Premier. Lord John Russell; resigned Feb. 22, 1851. From Feb. 22 to March 3 there was virtually no administration. Duke of Wellington, Queen's counsellor. : Earl of Derby, February to December, 1852. Earl of Aberdeen, 1852 to 1853 (and 1855). Sir Robert Peel died July 2, 1850, in consequence of a fall from his horse. Burmese War commenced October, 1851. Coup d'Etat in Paris, Dec. 2, 1851. Louis Napoleon, President; recognized as Emperor, Dec. 6, 1852. The Duke of Wellington died Sept. 14, 1852. ZACHARY TAYLOR AND MILLARD FILLMORE. FROM-1849 to 1853. DURATION. One term, four years. PARTY.-Whig. PRINCIPAL EVENTS. Great slavery agitation. Discussions between Calhoun and Webster. Southern leaders determined to carry slaves into Texas and other new territory. Calhoun draws up a Southern manifesto for the dissolution of the Union, and obtains forty-two signatures to it. Secession conventions are held in South Carolina and Mississippi. Pres. Taylor stands by the Union. Southerners oppose the admission of California as a free State. Henry Clay, a member of the House in 1821 (Monroe's administration), and author of the Missouri Compromise of that year, proposes a consolidation of all past compromises on the slavery question into oné bill of thirty-nine sections, called "The Omnibus Bill of 1850." After eight months' heated discussion, the bill, powerfully opposed by Benton on account of its embracing so many subjects, is lost; and the States and Territories are admitted by separate acts, as follows: Utah Territory Bill, Aug. 10, 1850. Texas Boundary Bill, Aug. 10, 1850. California State Bill, Aug. 13, 1850. New-Mexico Territory Bill, Aug. 14, 1850. Fugitive-slave Bill, Aug. 23, 1850. Abolition of slave-trade in District of Columbia, Sept. 14, 1850. 172 Taylor and Fillmore's Administrations. In the course of the discussion, Jefferson Davis requires that the Missouri line of compromise to New Mexico and California shall be extended to the Pacific, with the right to hold slaves in new territory below the line. Calhoun in his last address, read by Mr. Mason, after alluding to the antislavery ordinance of 1787 (no more slavery in the North-west) and the Missouri compromises of 1820-1821, admits that the first agitation for the dissolution of the Union commenced in 1835. Daniel Webster delivers a conciliatory speech, March 7, 1850. Death of John C. Calhoun, March 31, 1850: he graduated at Yale College in 1804 with high honors: his father, Patrick Calhoun, was born in Ireland. Death of Pres. Taylor, July 9, 1850: "The nation mourns his loss.” Millard Fillmore is inaugurated President, July 10, 1850; Daniel Webster, Secretary of State. Upon the passage of the California Bill, ten Southern senators offer a protest. Robert C. Winthrop raises the question of reception of protest, to keep it from the journal of the Senate; and the bill is duly sent to the House, and passed. John C. Frémont and William M. Gwinn of California take their seats as senators. Fugitive-slave, Law terribly obnoxious. Mormon trouble increasing. Webster and Hulsemann correspondence. Gen. Lopez, a Spaniard, attempts a revolution in Cuba. Search is made for Sir John Franklin by the Grinnell and United-States expeditions, under Dr. Kane. Spain, France, and England join in a "tripartite treaty" not to take Cuba. Death of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster in 1852. Election of Charles Sumner to the Senate of 1852, and Nathaniel P. Banks to the House of 1854. Mrs. Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin,” published in 1851, enters upon its world-wide mission. Kossuth visits the United States, and obtains $100,000 for Hungary. The Whig party, by compromises with slavery, is destroyed; and Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire is elected President, and William Rufus King of Alabama Vice-President, to March 4, 1857. |