CHAPTER II. THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844--ANNEXATION AND SLAVERY. The nomination of Clay--His position on the slavery question and annexation--Van Buren's letter to Hammet, and its effect upon the South--His repudiation, and the nomination of Polk--The surprise of the country--Unbounded confidence of the Whigs--The course of the New York Democrats--The "Kane Letter"--Trouble among the Whigs on the annexation question--Fierceness of the contest, and singular ability of the leaders--The effect of Clay's defeat upon the Whigs --Causes of the defeat--The Abolitionists, and the abuse heaped upon them--Cassius M. Clay--Mr. Hoar's mission to South Carolina-- Election of John P. Hale--Annexation and war with Mexico--Polk's message, and the Wilmot proviso--The Oregon question, and Alex. H. Stephens. The times were serious. The fun and frolic of 1840 had borne no fruit, and that part of our history could not be repeated. The campaign of 1844 promised to be a struggle for principle; and among the Whigs all eyes were turned for a standard-bearer to Mr. Clay, who had been so shabbily treated four years before. He was unanimously nominated on the first of May, with Theodore Frelinghuysen as the candidate for Vice President. The party issues were not very sharply defined, but this was scarcely necessary with a candidate who was proverbially regarded as himself "the embodiment of Whig principles." On the subject of annexation, he clearly defined his position in his letter of the 17th of April to the "National Intelligencer." He declared that annexation and war with Mexico were identical, and placed himself squarely against it, except upon conditions specified, which would make the project of immediate annexation impossible. On the slavery question, he had not yet seriously offended the anti-slavery element in his own party, and was even trusted by some of the voting anti-slavery men. In a speech at Raleigh, in April of this year, he declared it to be "the duty of each State to sustain its own domestic institutions." He had publicly said that the General Government had nothing to do with slavery, save in the matters of taxation, representation, and the return of fugitive slaves. He had condemned the censure of Mr. Giddings in 1842 as an outrage, and indorsed the principles laid down in his tract, signed "Pacificus," on the relations of the Federal Government to slavery, and the rights and duties of the people of the free States. In his earlier years, he had been an outspoken emancipationist, and had always frankly expressed his opinion that slavery was a great evil. These considerations, and especially his unequivocal utterances against the annexation scheme, were regarded as hopeful auguries of a thoroughly united party, and its triumph at the polls; while Mr. Webster, always on the presidential anxious-seat, and carefully watching the signs of the political zodiac, now cordially lent his efforts to the Whig cause.