326 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE both gentlemen then consulted General Jackson at the Hermitage, where Mr. Folk's reply was arranged, but not furnished for two or three weeks thereafter. I have reason to believe that General Jackson did not approve the game about to be played, and wrote to his New York friend subsequently upon the subject. But it was settled by Mr. Van Buren that he or Mr. Polk should be the nominee. With Mr. Polk, he knew the party must be defeated ; and this, then, was the alternative nominate me, or down you go for your treachery." In view of the letter of Silas Wright on 20th May as well as from other facts it is obvious that Van Buren had not given up all hopes of nomination by February. Moreover, Wright, who was looked upon as the probable candidate for vice-president, noted that the situation was better than it had been earlier in the session, although great activity prevailed in Washington. Members of Congress were seizing upon all delegates who appeared in the city; they took them to their homes, and worked upon them to make their action in the con- vention not "disagree with their (the Congressmen's) course. This was especially true of the Indiana and Illinois Congress- men, and "our friend Breese is one of these." A letter written by H. M. Judge on March 1st, 1844, states that Calhoun and Polk had come to an understanding, 25 and this is much nearer the real situation than the account given in the "seceder's" retrospect. James K. Polk had been a rep- resentative in Congress for several terms and had been Speaker for one term ; he was not widely known and was certainly not considered by the country at large as a possible candidate for the presidency. Four days before the Baltimore Convention there appeared in the Nashville (Tenn.) Union this para- graph : 26 "We guess the claims of Mr. POLK and others will be urged privately or publicly, and after two or three ballotings, there will be a cordial, harmonious and strong union upon one of them, who will be hailed as the candi- date of the great democratic party with enthusiasm and unanimity." 25 In Crittenden Papers, Vol. 9. Mss. Div., Library of Congress. 26 Quoted in Nat. Intelligencer, 4 June.
