The Significance of the USS Princeton Tragedy

On a cold Wednesday afternoon, as the USS Princeton passed Mount Vernon on its return to Washington, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer asked for a final demonstration of one of its new guns—the “Peacemaker”—in honor of George Washington. The gun’s breech exploded to the left, killing six men, including Gilmer and Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur.

Upshur’s death disrupted the work he had done on a treaty annexing Texas to the United States. His successor, John C. Calhoun, explicitly injected the slavery issue into the annexation debate, destroying the fragile voting coalition that Upshur had put together in Congress.

The continued debate over Texas annexation, now tied overtly to slavery, affected the Democratic presidential nomination. James K. Polk, an avowed expansionist, defeated former president Martin Van Buren, who came out publicly in opposition to the immediate annexation of Texas.

Texas annexation became one of the main issues of the presidential campaign that year. After winning a close election, Polk interpreted his victory as a signal that American voters wanted territorial expansionism, a goal he wholeheartedly supported and pursued during his one term as president.

Illustration credit: Library of Congress