dependence was "the true issue," one sheet falsely assured her, as if to whet her sword. It was entirely uncertain, proclaimed Calhoun in February, 1847, whether our army could reach Mexico City or dictate a peace if it should. She cannot be conquered, it was often said.[1]
Magazines of epithets and arguments, that became gunpowder the moment they crossed the Rio Grande, poured from the Whig presses. Leading papers invoked foreign intervention. 'The official journal of the Mexican government offered the thanks of the nation to Webster for threatening our President with impeachment. "If there is in the United States a heart worthy of American liberty, its impulse is to join the Mexicans," exclaimed a Boston journal; "It would be a sad and woeful joy, but a joy nevertheless, to hear that the hordes under Scott and Taylor were, every man of them, swept into the next world." No wonder that Polk dropped a hint about aiding and abetting the enemy. It was proper. In 1813-14 the National Intelligencer had stigmatized those who denounced the country's war after its own present fashion as "traitors in thought and purpose."[2]
Early in December, 1846, amidst feelings of depression, dissatisfaction with the government and opposition to the war, the second session of the Twenty-ninth Congress opened. The Democrats of that body found themselves in a general state of dissension. At the beginning of the year Marcy had written privately, "Our noble party [is] on the brink of ruin," and there it still hung.[3]
Van Buren's implacable followers nursed a grudge against Polk for the intrigues that had led to his nomination; and the partisans of Cass nursed one against them for their votes at the Baltimore convention. New York Barnburners and Old Hunkers glared at one another. Calhoun's friends were sour because of his exclusion from the Cabinet. The old free-traders cursed Walker in their hearts for stealing their tariff hobby. The westerners had no thought of forgiving the South for dropping Oregon, and the South refused to be scared by those "Big Braggarts" of the west, who seemed to want all the funds in the treasury for their internal improvements. Many wore crape and hatchets, one might say, for the river and harbor bill. . Everybody wished to blame somebody for the recent election returns. Some were quite ready to break openly with the
