The new secretary of State, Abel P.Upshur of Virginia,--who had been at the head of the Navy Department for a few months,--was a man of strong parts and brilliant attainments, but not well known outside of his own commonwealth, and subject therefore to disparagement as the successor of a man so illustrious as Mr.Webster.

He grasped his new duties, however, with the hand of a master, and actively and avowedly pursued the policy of acquiring Texas.

His efforts were warmly seconded by the President, whose friends believed with all confidence that this question could be so presented as to make Mr.Tyler the Democratic candidate in the approaching Presidential election.

What Mr.Upshur's success might have been in the difficult field of negotiation upon which he had entered, must be left to conjecture, for his life was suddenly destroyed by the terrible accident on board the United-States steamer "Princeton," in February, 1844, but little more than seven months after he had entered upon his important and engrossing duties.
ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT TYLER.
Mr.Tyler's administration being now fully committed to the scheme of Texas annexation, the selection of a new secretary of State was a matter of extreme importance.

The President had been finally separated from all sympathy with the party that elected him, when Mr.Webster left the cabinet the preceding summer.