e time it seemed
extravagant, even to the strongest anti-slavery Whigs, but the future
verified it.

[Footnote 343: _Ibid._, p. 727.]

The Whigs, however, did not, as in 1840, have a monopoly of the
enthusiasm. The public only half apprehended, or refused to apprehend
at all, the danger in the Texas scheme; and, after the first chill of
their immersion, the Democrats rallied with confidence to the support
of their ticket. Abundant evidence of their strength had manifested
itself at each state election since 1841, and, although no trailing
cloud of glory now testified to a thrifty and skilful management, as
in 1836, the two factions, in spite of recent efforts to baffle and
defeat each other, pulled themselves together with amazing quickness.
Indeed, if we may rely upon Whig letters of the time, the Democrats
exhibited the more zeal and spirit throughout the campaign. They had
their banners, their songs, and their processions. In place of ash,
they raised hickory poles, and instead of defending Polk, they
attacked Clay. Other candidates attracted little attention. Clay was
the commanding, central figure, and over him the battle raged. There
were two reasons for this. One was the fear of a silent free-soil
vote, which the Bryant circular had alarmed in his favour. The other
was a desire to strengthen the liberty party, and to weaken the Whigs
by holding up Clay as a slave-holder. The cornerstone of that party
was hostility to the slave-holder; and if a candidate, however much he
opposed slavery, owned a single slave, it excluded him from its
suffrage. This was the weak point in Clay's armour, and the one of
most peril to the Whigs. To meet it, the latter argued, with some show
of success, that the conflict is not with one slave-holder, or with
many, but with slavery; and since the admission of Texas meant the
extension of that institution, a vote for Clay, who once advocated
emancipation in Kentucky and is now strongly opposed to Texas, is a
vote in behalf of freedom.

In September, Whig enthusiasm underwent a marked decline. Clay's July
letter to his Alabama correspondent, as historic now as it was
superfluous and provoking then, had been published, in which he
expressed a wish to see Texas added to the Union "upon just and fair
terms," and hazarded the opinion that "the subject of slavery ought
not to affect the question one way or the other."[344] This letter was
the prototype of the famous alliteration, "Rum, Roma