d that Mexico should be annexed bodily. Against this madness
Henry Clay spoke out with his old-time power. Clearly the country would
tolerate no such extreme, and the annexationists contented themselves
with mulcting Mexico, upon the payment of $6,000,000, of the vast
territory known as California.

Then set in with full vigor the controversy over the new territory which
Calhoun had foreseen. Calhoun had been left in a sort of isolation by
his defection from the administration upon the war, but he did not break
with President Polk; for the reason, says Von Holst, that he wanted to
save his influence to oppose the tendency to a war with England. Oregon
had been held in joint occupancy by the two nations for many years; now
a line of demarcation was to be drawn, and there was a loud popular
demand for maintaining at any cost the extreme northern line of
latitude--it was "Fifty-four-forty or fight." But the sense of the
country was against coming to extremities, and Calhoun--a statesman when
slavery was not concerned--threw his influence with the moderate
sentiment which secured the acceptance of the line of 49 degrees. But he
looked with foreboding eyes on the deepening conflict of the sections
and the advantage which gravitated toward the North;--from political
causes, he declared, unwilling or unable to recognize that the
industrial superiority lay inevitably with free labor. He met the danger
with a bolder and more advanced claim. The South, he declared, had had
enough of compromise over territory; it must now fall back on its
ultimate right under the Constitution; and that right was that slaves,
being lawful property, might be taken into any territory of the United
States, and Congress had no right to forbid their introduction; neither
had Congress a right to refuse admission of any State whose people
desired to retain slavery. This was a claim for the nationalization of
slavery; and it was not until after Calhoun's death that the South came
to this position, staked its cause upon it, and when it was rejected by
the popular vote broke with the Union.

But Calhoun's logic and passion had not yet brought his section up to
his own position, and over the division of the newly acquired territory
North and South disputed as before. While the war was still waging,
President Polk asked for an appropriation to be expended as compensation
for new territory; and David Wilmot, a Democratic member from
Pennsylvania, moved that a