that "our title to the whole of Oregon is clear and unquestionable;
that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to England or any other
power; and the reoccupation of Oregon and the reannexation of Texas at
the earliest practicable period, are great American measures, which
the convention recommends to the cordial support of the Democracy of
the Union."

Van Buren's defeat practically closed his career. His failure of
re-election in 1840 had left his leadership unimpaired, but with the
loss of the nomination in 1844 went prestige and power which he was
never to regain. Seldom has it been the misfortune of a candidate for
President to experience so overwhelming an overthrow. Clay's failure
in 1839 and Seward's in 1860 were as complete; but they lacked the
humiliating features of the Baltimore rout. Harrison was an equal
favourite with Clay in 1839; and at Chicago, in 1860, Lincoln shared
with Seward the prominence of a leading candidate; but at Baltimore,
in 1844, no other name than Van Buren's appeared conspicuously above
the surface, until, with the help of delegates who had been instructed
for him, the two-thirds rule was adopted. It seemed to Van Buren the
result of political treachery; and it opened a chasm between him and
his former southern friends that was destined to survive during the
remaining eighteen years of his life. The proscription of his New York
friends undoubtedly aided this division, and the death of Jackson, in
1845, and rapidly accumulating political events which came to a climax
in 1848, completed the separation.

There are evidences that Van Buren's defeat did not break the heart of
his party in New York. Contemporary writers intimate that after his
election as President the warm, familiar manners changed to the
stiffer and more formal ways of polite etiquette, and that his visit
to New York, during his occupancy of the White House, left behind it
many wounds, the result of real or fancied slights and neglect. Van
Buren's rule had been long. His good pleasure sent men to Congress;
his good pleasure made them postmasters, legislators, and cabinet
officers. In all departments of the government, both state and
national, his influence had been enormous. For years his friends,
sharing the glory and profits of his continued triumphs, had been
filling other ambitious men with envy and jealousy, until his
overthrow seemed necessary to their success. Even Edwin Croswell
shared this feeling, and, alth