CHAPTER III 



THE ROARING FORTIES: POLK AND 

 PALMERSTON 



IN 1837 Martin Van Buren succeeded Andrew 

 Jackson as President of the United States and 

 Victoria succeeded William IV on the throne of 

 the United Kingdom. These changes did not 

 signify any open reversal of governmental pol 

 icy in either case. Van Buren was Jackson s 

 own choice for the succession and was thor 

 oughly identified with the Democratic Party 

 that followed Jackson; the Whig cabinet of 

 Lord Melbourne continued to direct affairs 

 under the Queen as they had done under the 

 King. Yet from this date the relations among 

 the English-speaking peoples lost the tone of 

 cordiality that had characterized them for a 

 decade, and entered upon a protracted period 

 of hostility and tension, approaching more than 

 once to the verge of war. 



First among the conditions that revealed 

 the new trend of things was a political ebul 

 lition of serious proportions in Canada. In 



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