defeated in the House of
Representatives a resolution favoring annexation. To this end Adams
occupied the morning hour of the House each day from the 16th of June to
the 7th of July, within two days of the time fixed for adjournment.
This was only a beginning of his fight against the extension of slavery.
There was no relenting in his opposition to pro-slavery demands until he
was stricken down with paralysis in the streets of Boston, in November,
1846. He never again addressed a public assembly. But he continued to
occupy his seat in Congress until February 23, 1848.

* See "Texas and the Mexican War" (in "The Chronicles of
America").

The debate inaugurated in Congress by Adams and others over the
extension of slave territory rapidly spread to the country at large,
and interest in the question became general. Abolitionists were thereby
greatly stimulated to put into practice their professed duty of seeking
to accomplish their ends by political action. Their first effort was
to secure recognition in the regular parties. The Democrats answered
in their platform of 1840 by a plank specifically denouncing the
abolitionists, and the Whigs proved either noncommittal or unfriendly.
The result was that abolitionists organized a party of their own in
1840 and nominated James G. Birney for the Presidency. Both of the
older parties during this campaign evaded the issue of the annexation of
Texas. In 1844 the Whigs again refrained from giving in their platform
any official utterance on the Texas issue, though they were understood
to be opposed to annexation. The Democrats adroitly asserted in their
platform their approval of the re-annexation of Texas and reoccupation
of Oregon. There was a shadowy prior claim to both these regions, and
by combining them in this way the party avoided any odious partiality
towards the acquisition of slave territory. But the voters in both
parties had become interested in the specific question whether the
country was to enter upon a war of conquest whose primary object should
be the extension of slavery. In the North it became generally understood
that a vote for Henry Clay, the Whig candidate, was an expression of
opposition to annexation. This issue, however, was not made clear in the
South. In the absence of telegraph and daily paper it was quite possible
to maintain contradictory positions in different sections of the
country. But since the Democrats everywhere openly favored annexa