In 1844 the Whigs again refrained from giving in their platform any official utterance on the Texas issue, though they were understood to be opposed to annexation.

The Democrats adroitly asserted in their platform their approval of the re-annexation of Texas and reoccupation of Oregon.

There was a shadowy prior claim to both these regions, and by combining them in this way the party avoided any odious partiality towards the acquisition of slave territory.

But the voters in both parties had become interested in the specific question whether the country was to enter upon a war of conquest whose primary object should be the extension of slavery.

In the North it became generally understood that a vote for Henry Clay, the Whig candidate, was an expression of opposition to annexation.