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44 Zandt that "at the moment a treaty of annexation" was signed the United States would send army and navy forces for the protection of Texas. 20 Upshur was confident that the Senate would pass the annexation treaty with the two-thirds majority necessary for treaty ratif ication. In January 1844, he assured Murphy that "a clear constitutional major- ity of two thirds" of the Senate favored the annexation treaty. "The salvation of our Union," he wrote a few days later, "depends on its success." On 27 February 1844, Van Zandt and Upshur informally completed an annexation agreement. 21 The next day, 28 February, the Texas representative joined Upshur and Tyler, with many other Washing- ton dignitaries, including Members of Congress, dip- lomats, and Washington doyenne Dolley Madison, on a Potomac cruise aboard the Navy's newest and most technologically advanced warship, the Princeton. The steam-powered frigate had a propeller below the water- line making it less vulnerable to enemy fire, and it car- ried a powerful new gun dubbed the "Peacemaker." The passengers admired the vessel and the crew fired the "Peacemaker" for their entertainment. As the day was ending they prepared the gun for a final salute as they Fig. 10. This 1844 pro-Democrat lithograph by James S. Baillie and H. Bucholzer predicts the end of Whig opposi- tion to Texas annexation. In its description of the cartoon, the Library of Congress notes "James K. Polk, the expan- sionist candidate, stands at right near a bridge spanning 'Salt River.' He holds an American flag and hails Texans Stephen Austin (left) and Samuel Houston aboard a wheeled steamboat-like vessel, 'Texas.' Austin, waving the flag of the Lone Star Republic, cries, 'All hail to James K. Polk, the friend [sic] of our Country!' The Texas boat has an eagle figurehead and a star on its prow. Below the bridge, pandemonium reigns among the foes of annexation. Hold- ing onto a rope attached to 'Texas' above, they are dragged into [the] Salt River. Led by Whig presidential nominee Henry Clay, they are (left to right) Theodore Frelinghuysen, Daniel Webster, Henry A. Wise, and an unidentified figure whose legs are tangled in the rope.…Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, straddling a barrel labeled 'Aboli- tion' in the river, shouts at Clay, 'Avaunt! Unholy man! I will not keep company with a blackleg!,' referring to the candidate's reputation as a gambler." THE CAPITOL DOME