Polk  to  the  Presidency  was  first  announced  in  Mont-
pelier. by  a  hurried  scrawl  from  Hon.  J.  McM.
Shafter,  then  Whig  Secretary  of  State  for  Vermont,  writ-
ten at  Burlington  and  forwarded  bv  the  stage  driver  to
Col.  E.  P.  Jewett.  it  reading  as  follows:  "New  York
gone ;  all  gone ;  we  have  got  to  take  Polk,  Texas  and  the
aevil."  Wc  also  got  by  the  election  of  Polk  that  vast  and
rich  territory  now  comprising  not  only  Texas,  but  New
Mexico,  Utah,  Arizona,  Nevada  and  California,  to  which


latter  State  Mr.   Shafter  moved  some    twenty-flve   years
ftgo,  becoming  one  of  its  wealthy  and  prominent  men.
Upon  thepnrchase  of  the  Patriot  by  Eastman  &  Dan-
forth  the  office  and  bookstore  were  removed  across  the
bridge  easterly,  to  a  wooden  building  then  standing  on
the  southerly  side  of  State  street,  opposite  the  westerly
tenement  of' 'Walton's  Block,"  where  it  remained  through
the  administration  of  Eastman,  and  also  that  of  E.  M-
Brown.
When  tlie  Patriot  was  resuscitated  and  consolidated
with  the  Argus,  the  Lyman  &  King  store,  on  Main  street,
opposite  the  "old  brick  church,"  was  leased  for  the
office  ;  a  year  later  the  buildiug  was  purchased  for  Mr.
Atkins  by  Mr.  E.  F.  Kimball,  his  father-in  law.  Since
then  a  two  story  and  attic  extension  have  been  put  on  in
the  rear,  a  French  roof  story  added  to  its  height,  and  a
new  front  put  in.  The  structure  is  now  known  as  the
"Argus  and  Patriot  buildiug."

"Slate  Journal,"  by  Knapp  &  Jewett.  Vol.  i.  No.  i,  is-
sued, Montpelier,  Monday  morning,  October  31,  1831.  An
anti-masonic  paper,  and  subsequently  it  became  an  ap-
pendage to  the  "Vermont  Watchman."  and  so  continues.
"The  Voice  of  Freedom,"  E.  A.  Alleu,  publisher.  C.  L.
