thumb|left|The Wilmot Proviso was seen as a stumbling block for presidential candidates, such as Taylor. The Whigs faced a different scenario. The narrow victory of James K. Polk (Democrat) over Henry Clay (Whig) in the 1844 presidential election had caught the Southern Whigs by surprise. The key element of this defeat, which carried over into the congressional and local races in 1845 and 1846 throughout the South, was the party's failure to take a strong stand favoring Texas annexation. Southern Whigs were reluctant to repeat their mistakes on Texas, but, at the same time, Whigs from both sections realized that victory and territorial acquisition would again bring out the issue of slavery and the territories. In the South in particular, there was already the realization, or perhaps fear, that the old economic issues that had defined the Second Party System were already dead. Their political goal was to avoid any sectional debate over slavery which would expose the sectional divisions within the party.Cooper (1978), p. 225229.
thumb|left|The Wilmot Proviso was seen as a stumbling block for presidential candidates, such as Taylor. The Whigs faced a different !scenario. The narrow victory of James K. Polk (D:emocrat) over Henry Clay (Whig) in the 1844 presidential election had caught the Southern Whigs by surprise. The key element of this defeat, which carried over into the congressional and local races in 1845 and 1846 throughout the South, was the party's failure to take a strong stand favoring Texas annexation. Southern Whigs were reluctant to repeat their mistakes on Texas, but, at the same time, Whigs from both section?s realized that victory and territorial acquisition would again bring out the issue of slavery and t,he territories. In the South in particular, there was already the realization, or perhaps fear, that the old economic issues that had defined the Second Party System were already dead. Their political goal was to avoid any sectional debate over slavery which would expose the sectional divisions within the party.Cooper (1978), p. 225229.