Paige Whidbee

In 1844, the disastrous first term of President John Tyler was coming to an end. In the course of his time in office, he managed not only to garner complete disdain from the opposing Democrat Party, but he ended up alienating the vast majority of his own party as well. By the time the campaign of 1844 was underway Tyler had been expelled from the Whig Party, and despite his efforts to run as a third-party candidate, he was virtually out of the race. Ironically, however, even though Tyler dropped out of the race early and did not play a major role within the election, Tyler’s actions regarding the annexation of Texas ended up defining the election and its campaigns.

In the election of 1844, the annexation of Texas was the most important issue. Democrats supported annexation and promoted the expansion of the United States as being essential to the continuation of liberty and prosperity for the American people. The Whigs, meanwhile, accused Tyler and anyone else who supported the annexation of Texas of having an egregious proslavery bias, and they opposed the annexation of Texas on the grounds that it would expand the institution of slavery and increase the power of the pro-slave South. The Democrats had the most trouble choosing a candidate – while the Whigs chose prominent arty leader Henry Clay after only one ballot, the Democrats were still deadlocked between Martin Van Buren and Lewis Cass after eight ballots. In the end, the Democrats compromised and chose dark horse candidate James Polk to be on their ticket. This choice set the stage for Clay’s campaign to play up Polk’s political obscurity throughout the election while Polk focused more on deflecting accusations of having a proslavery bias, eventually combining the annexation of Texas issue with the acquisition of the Oregon Territory to please northern voters.

For my anti-Polk video, I chose to focus first on playing up Polk’s political obscurity, and then on portraying the annexation of Texas as something that would lead to war and disunion. Throughout the video I used a musical piece[1] from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in a minor key, which gave the video a consistently ominous tone. To start the video, I displayed an image of Polk[2] with the question “Who is James K. Polk?” According to Howe[3], this was the Clay’s main campaign slogan, and it was meant to portray Polk as an unknown and insignificant political figure who could not be trusted. After this, I displayed several quotes from newspapers to reinforce this idea. The Barre Patriot called Polk “unknown,”[4] and the Berkshire County Whig called him “obscure”[5] and claimed that he was a candidate “utterly untried by experience”[6] who had “never before been thought of for the Presidency.”[7] To further emphasize the idea that Polk was unqualified as a candidate, I pointed out that even his own state of Tennessee did not like him, and that he had lost an election for governor there as a result[8] (in the background, I used Ken Burns to pan across a map[9] of Tennessee). Next, to drive home the point that Polk had nothing substantial to offer the country as President, I used a quote from the Barre Patriot satirizing Democrats’ admiration of Polk,[10] with a demeaning cartoon[11] of Jackson leading a donkey carrying Polk and his running mate Dallas towards “Salt River” in the background. Finally, to end the section of the video focusing on Polk’s obscurity and political inexperience, I used a quote from the Berkshire County Whig saying that the idea of Polk as president was “preposterous.”[12]

From here, I moved into the second section of the video focusing on the annexation of Texas. I displayed a political cartoon[13] and zoomed in on the section of it where Polk is depicted as falling into “Salt River” carrying a pack with “annexation Texas” written on it, portraying the idea that the annexation of Texas was going to drag Polk, the Democrats, and the rest of the country into disaster. Next, I displayed a map[14] of Texas in the background and put up a quote from the Berkshire County Whig (quoting The N.Y. Eve Post) saying the annexation of Texas “means nothing more than the extension and perpetuation of slavery at the risk of war”[15] Following this, I quoted another passage from the Barre Patriot[16] making it clear that Polk intended to annex Texas anyway, even if the Union fell apart as a result. All of this was meant to portray Polk as reckless and dangerous, and to show that electing him would constitute a substantial threat of war and even disunion.

Finally, I ended the video with the image of James Polk from the beginning, but with a red Photoshop filter over the picture to give it a more threatening and ominous appearance. Then I added a quote saying, “It would be a national weakness to commit the great executive trusts of war and peace…into the hands of this fresh-caught candidate.”[17] This was meant not only to emphasize the unqualified nature of Polk as a candidate, but also to demonstrate the great amount of responsibility voters would be placing into his hands. I wanted the viewer to think about this great responsibility, and then logically decide that a more qualified candidate – namely, Henry Clay – would be better for the job. Finally, I concluded the video with a quote suggesting that in the dire circumstances the next president was bound to face (including the potential annexation of Texas, growing tension over slavery, and possible war), James K. Polk as president would be “sure not to save us, but to sacrifice us.”[18]

Note: I realized while writing this explanation paper that in the video, I mixed up the newspapers that two of the quotes came from – the Berkshire County Whig quote in footnote no. 15 I quoted in the video as being from the Barre Patriot, and the very last quote in footnote no. 18 was from the Barre Patriot, but I quoted it as being from the Berkshire County Whig. Both newspapers eventually published articles quoting each other saying both passages, but if you would like me to fix this within the video and re-post it to youtube, let me know and I can do that.