In many ways, Saturday, April 27, was the most consequential day in the 1844 presidential election. By the time the sun set, a presumptive presidential aspirant found himself confronting an emerging political issue that significantly threatened his chances of winning the White House, while another had virtually ended his chances of being nominated by his party.
That April morning, a letter from Whig presidential hopeful Henry Clay appeared in the Washington, DC, Daily National Intelligencer. Written from Raleigh, North Carolina, it outlined the Kentuckian’s opposition to the immediate annexation of Texas. That evening, a letter from Democratic presidential hopeful Martin Van Buren appeared in the Washington Daily Globe. Written from Van Buren’s home in Kinderhook, New York, it was a reply to a letter from Mississippi representative William Henry Hammett asking for the former president’s views on what the United States should do about Texas. Van Buren’s response, like Clay’s letter, opposed Texas’ immediate annexation.
Van Buren’s “Hammett letter” would cost him the Democratic presidential nomination. The party that Van Buren had founded chose instead James K. Polk of Tennessee, a committed annexationist. Clay, who would win the Whig presidential nomination, found himself forced to revise his “Raleigh letter” several times during the campaign as Texas annexation emerged as a major election issue with substantial support among potential voters.
Polk ultimately defeated Clay. Once in the White House, Polk completed the process of annexing Texas and prosecuted a war against Mexico that significantly expanded the borders of the United States.
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