Linking the Texas and Oregon questions tended to defuse the tension over slavery. It was made into a national rather than sectional issue. The Democrats had inspiring slogans such as “Fifty-four Forty or Fight!” (the northern boundary of the Oregon Territory was fifty-four degrees forty minutes north latitude) and “All of Texas, All of Oregon.” The Democrats ran a truly nationalistic campaign based on the great issue of Manifest Destiny, the notion that it was our nation’s obvious destiny to control all the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Clay immediately began modifying his position, hoping to attract southern support while holding on to his northern support. Trying to straddle the fence, Clay said that although he personally favored annexation, he would push for it only if it could be accomplished without war, without national dishonor, and on fair terms. He outlined his position in two letters to a supporter in Alabama. The “Alabama letters” outraged northern abolitionists who wanted no more slave states admitted to the Union. Abolitionists in the general election voted in large numbers for James Birney, the abolitionist candidate. Birney’s vote in New York took enough away from Clay to give the state, and with it the election, to Polk. Clay’s attempt to win southern support by pleasing both sides of the issue probably won him no southern support while costing him northern votes. Clay, by trying to please both groups, pleased neither. Although there were other issues, this one overshadowed them and determined the outcome of the election.
During the campaign, Clay finally took a stand and came out against the annexation of Texas, which of course infuriated his southern supporters. One southern editor published his opinion of Clay’s position:
He wires in and wires out And leaves the people still in doubt, Whether the snake that made the track Was going South or coming back.
According to one story, never denied by Clay, Clay was at his home in Ashland waiting to hear who the Democrats nominated to oppose him in the 1844 election. Clay’s son arrived with the news and when Clay asked whom his opponent would be, told his father to guess. Clay guess “Matty” (Martin Van Buren) and his son said it was not. Clay then guessed in turn Cass, Buchanan, Calhoun, and Johnson. Each time his son said no, Clay’s spirits rose. Finally, his son told him the Democratic nominee was James Polk, thinking his father would be delighted at the unknown opponent. Clay, who knew Polk well, got up, it is said, walked quietly over to the liquor cabinet, filled his glass, and sighed, “Beat again, by God.”
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