No. of electors

appointed in

each State.

were conndent of success, and were animated with the greatest ardor and enthusiasm. The result was the election of Messrs. Polk and Dallas to the Presidency and Vice Presidency of the United States, by a majority of sixty-five electoral votes.*

On the 4th of March, 1845, the President elect of the United States delivered his Inaugural Address in the presence of the assembled representatives of the American people, the Supreme Court of the United States, the diplomatic corps, and an

immense concourse of spectators, and took the oath of office, which was administered by the Chief Justice.*

Mr. Clay, the unsuccessful candidate of the whig party for the presidency, had for a long period been an aspirant for that office. As early as 1824, he was supported for that position by many warm admirers. Perhaps no man in the Union has won the attachment of so many ardent and enthusiastic personal friends as Mr. Clay. No disaster can dampen their zeal, and each successive defeat only has the effect of attaching them still more closely to his person and his fortunes. He is, indeed, a noble leader. His bold and impassioned eloquence, his affability and fascination of manner, and his unwavering devotion to his friends, altogether constitute him one of the most influential statesmen which this country has ever produced.

His patriotism has been too often put to the test to admit of doubt. Upon two occasions he has interposed his form between the exasperated citizens of the North and South. When the excitement raged with frightful violence before the admission of Missouri, and threatened to destroy the Union itself, with a promptness and sincerity which proved that a patriot's heart beat within his bosom, he poured oil upon the troubled waters and assisted to allay the storm. And now, when threatening cloud

danger thickens, and a dark and

And

hovers over the Temple of Liberty, his tall and venerable form is again seen protecting from sacri

*For the Inaugural Address, see Appendix.

lege and violence our glorious Constitution, and in tones which are tremulous with age, he implores our distracted countrymen to pause in their career, and save the American Confederacy from the frightful horrors which must flow from its dissolution.

The difficult and delicate duty now devolved upon Mr. Polk of selecting his cabinet, and upon a wise choice of those persons much of the popularity and success of his administration depended. Not only was it necessary to call around him statesmen whose ability and experience would enable them to illustrate the broad and comprehensive platform which he had laid down in his inaugural address, but whose commanding talents and popularity with the American people would recommend its adoption by their representatives. Among the names which Mr. Polk presented to the Senate as his cabinet officers, were some of the most distinguished statesmen in the Union, and in their selection he exhibited a thorough knowledge of those men, whose great abilities and remarkable energy greatly assisted in erecting that splendid superstructure which has given an undying reputation to his administration.

The long service of Mr. Buchanan in the Senate, where he had encountered in debate the profoundest statesmen in the land, qualified him thoroughly for the department of State. Logical and sound in his reasoning, with a sagacity which could discover dangers in the future, and the ability to avoid them, however threatening and sudden their approach, he was always a formidable foe to

meet.

His diplomatic communications gave evidence of thorough preparation, and in every conflict between himself and the representatives of foreign powers, they retired confounded and discomfited before his unanswerable arguments. His judgment was sound and comprehensive, and his mind was enriched by a course of long and painful study. In the Senate he never wielded the glittering blade of Clay, nor the ponderous falchion of Webster. But whenever he addressed that body it was with a majesty of diction, an amplitude of information, and an iron and irresistible strength of reasoning which seldom failed to convince, where it did not control. He was as successful in the cabinet as he had been in the Senate, and his vast powers were ever equal to the responsibilities which devolved upon the department of State, while his opinions were always received with marked attention in cabinet council. The policy which he undeviatingly advocated in the settlement of our difficulties with England and Mexico, was bold and decisive. While the delicate position he occupied in relation to the interests of Pennsylvania, after the course which he pursued in the campaign of 1844, rendered him somewhat timid upon the great domestic question of free trade.

Robert J. Walker, who was assigned to the Treasury Department, had also for many years been a distinguished Member of the Senate, where his powers were illustrated and gave indications of what might be expected from his extraordinary energy, in the responsible position to which he was

called in the Cabinet of Mr. Polk. He possessed solidity, without being brilliant, and always exhausting the subject which he was investigating, he rarely failed to produce an impression upon the Senate. It was only when he was aroused by the magnitude of the subject under discussion, that he employed all that was gorgeous, yet pointed, in the arts of oratory. At such moments his sarcasm and irony told with great effect upon his adversary. Ordinarily, however, his power consisted in argumentation, and in that field he had but few equals. It was chiefly upon his labors as Secretary of the Treasury, that he will rest his claims to an enduring fame. It was in that department that he employed all the energies of his nature, and the resources of his vast and varied acquirements, in the advocacy of free trade. We have only to look over the voluminous pages which he submitted to Congress, crowded with facts and arguments, to become satisfied that his mind was absorbed with the one idea which his pen so faithfully illustrated. The subject was greatly embarrassed by the war with Mexico, and the success with which he carried the financial credit of the country through that contest, proved him incontestably the ablest financier whom our country has produced since the days of Robert Morris. The opposition of Webster and Evans, and the denunciations of the whig party, could not arrest the success of that policy, which triumphed over the assaults of its enemies, and more than realized the warmest anticipations of its friends.