Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/132

100 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS consent of Mexico could be obtained, or at least that efforts should be made to obtain it. In this crisis Mr. Polk declared his views in no uncertain tones. It being understood that he would be a candidate for vice-president, a letter was ad dressed to him by a committee of the citizens of Cincinnati, asking for an expression of his senti ments on the subject. In his reply, dated April 22, 1844, he said: "I have no hesitation in declaring that I am in favor of the immediate reannexation of Texas to the government and territory of the United States. The proof is fair and satisfactory to my own mind that Texas once constituted a part of the territory of the United States, the title to which I regard to have been as indisputable as that to any portion of our territory." He also added that "the country west of the Sabine, and now called Texas, was [in 1819] most unwisely ceded away"; that the people and government of the re public were most anxious for annexation, and that, if their prayer was rejected, there was danger that she might become "a dependency if not a colony of Great Britain." This letter, strongly in con trast with the hesitating phrases contained in that of ex-President Van Buren of April 20 on the same subject, elevated its author to the presidency. When the Baltimore convention met on May 27, it was found that, while Mr. Van Buren could not secure the necessary two-thirds vote, his friends