He was caught in the toils prepared by Mr.Calhoun's diplomacy.

His disastrous defeat four years before by General Harrison had not injured him within the lines of his own party, or shorn him of his prestige in the nation.

He still retained the undiminished confidence of his old adherents in the North, and a large support from the Southern Democracy outside of the States in which Mr.Calhoun's influence was dominant.

But the leading Democrats of the South, now inflamed with the fever of annexation, determined upon Van Buren's defeat as soon as his letter opposing the acquisition of Texas appeared.

They went to work industriously and skillfully to compass that end.