CHAPTER XXII. the administrations of van buren and of harrison and tyler, 1837 - 1845. A PERIOD OF CONFUSION.

368. New Parties.—Martin Van Buren won the election of 1836 as a Democrat, for Jackson’s party, as we have seen, had dropped the word “Republican” from their name (§ 361, note 1). His opponent had been William Henry Harrison of Indiana, a man long prominent in his section (§§ 299, 302, 305). Harrison was the nominee of the Whigs, but the real leaders of the latter party were Clay and Webster. The chief bond of union binding the two leaders and their followers together was their desire for a liberal construction of the Constitution and for a strong central government. The Whigs were soon destined to develop strength in every section, even in the South.

369. The Independent Treasury.—Van Buren and the Democrats were destined soon to lose the strength they began with. The panic of 1837 greatly injured business, and then, as they have so often since done, men blamed the central government for a state of things for which it was only partly responsible. Banks failed in every direction and prices went up enormously, flour and corn more than doubling in cost. The President called an extra session of Congress to consider the situation, but had little to propose besides insisting on the policy of the “Specie Circular” and on divorcing the government from the banks. The latter policy, known as the Independent Treasury system or Sub-Treasury, was finally carried through in 1840. With a slight intermission, it has been the policy of the nation ever since. Its main features are the receipt and disbursement of government funds at vaults built in a few of the chief cities.

370. Van Buren’s Failure.—The administration’s policy did little to mend matters, and the people rightly or wrongly attributed most of the financial troubles of the time to Jackson’s meddling with the banks. They accordingly listened to the Whigs, who believed in a national bank in particular and in discrediting the Democrats in general. To make matters worse for Van Buren, the spoils system began to show its seamy side, and he was accused of all its evils, unjustly, on the whole. He was also charged with living in luxury while the poor were starving, and in the midst of the panic was almost menaced by a mob in the White House grounds. Furthermore, he alienated many persons by not siding with the Canadian revolutionists of 1837, and by not encouraging the annexation of Texas, which had revolted from Mexico in 1836. Even the Seminole War,^[165] continued for several years against the Indians of Florida, was charged against him; and, in 1840, although he had on the whole governed well, he was overwhelmingly defeated by General Harrison in a campaign conducted on sensational lines.

371. Campaign of 1840.—Although Harrison was a Whig, the candidate for Vice President who was associated with him, John Tyler of Virginia, was chosen chiefly because he had opposed Jackson. He was really a Jeffersonian Democrat, not a Whig. Principles were little in demand, the voters being satisfied with spectacular demonstrations. In their torchlight processions they carried around large, log cabins with men in front drinking cider—visible insignia of the frontiersmen, to which class Harrison was supposed to belong. They also shouted their campaign refrain of “Tippecanoe and Tyler too” (§ 299), and they held monster meetings in the open air. No campaign in American history has been more marked by noisy, unreasoning enthusiasm than this.

THE EMBARRASSMENTS OF THE WHIGS.

372. Tyler’s Position.—General Harrison^[166] was an old man, and proved unable to bear the strain of his campaign, the pressure of office seekers, and the ceremonies attending his inauguration. He died exactly one month after taking office, and left his party in great confusion. Vice President John Tyler, his successor, did not believe in the Whig policy of loose construction, and was a Democrat in all except a few particulars. He soon showed his colors by vetoing Clay’s bill for a national bank, and then vetoing a second bill framed on suggestions of his own. He was accused of bad faith, but was doubtless only in a false position and anxious to assert a policy of his own that might put him at the head of a party. His vetoes, however, made the Whigs his deadly enemies and caused all his Cabinet to resign except Webster. The latter, as Secretary of State, remained to settle with the British Minister, Lord Ashburton, in the treaty that bears the latter’s name (1842), the disputed northeastern boundary and certain points connected with the suppression of the African slave trade.^[167]

373. The Lesson of Tyler’s Career.—John Tyler^[168] was the first Vice President to reach the White House through the death of his superior. His behavior in the higher office should have taught the people of the United States a lesson as to the necessity of choosing highly qualified candidates for the Vice Presidential office. The career of Andrew Johnson proves that they had not learned this lesson in 1864. The old system by which the candidate receiving the second highest number of electoral votes became Vice President had its drawbacks, but it at least gave the country such Vice Presidents as John Adams and Jefferson. Under the new system the office has been too often given to a candidate possessing political influence or to a good man so old as to be likely to die before the expiration of his term. It follows that Tyler is not so much to blame for his mistakes as the people who put him where he was sure to go astray. He was an honest and amiable man, who by no means lacked capacity. He helped Webster in the Ashburton Treaty. He behaved with discretion during what is known as “Dorr’s Rebellion” in Rhode Island^[169] (1841–1842). But, on the whole, Tyler was lacking in discretion and was unable to take the lead in public matters. He did not believe in a national bank and was perhaps right in not doing so; but if he had been wise, he would have said so plainly and thus prevented the Whigs passing bills that he was sure to veto. He vetoed other measures besides the bank bills and perhaps again was in the right; but the main result of his actions was to earn for him the distrust both of the Whigs and of the Democrats. His attempt to form a party of his own was a complete failure.

TEXAS AND OREGON.

374. The Texas Question.—The congressional election at the middle of Tyler’s term, while adverse to the Whigs, did not help him. The second half of his administration was therefore even more wanting in harmony and effectiveness than the first. The chief question put forward was the admission of Texas, which the President, as a Southern man and a sympathizer with slavery, naturally favored. Although Mexico had not recognized her independence, Texas had now been a republic ever since General Samuel Houston^[170] had defeated the Mexican leader, Santa Anna, at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. The leading Texans were Americans, however, and desired annexation, but this would mean not only war with Mexico, but also a huge increase of territory for slavery. Accordingly Northern men shrank from allowing the annexation of the sparsely populated region. Anti-slavery sentiments were growing, and such able men as Joshua R. Giddings of Ohio were championing them in Congress. But the Southerners were alert also, especially Calhoun, who became Tyler’s Secretary of State toward the end of his term. Calhoun feared that England was anxious to secure Texas; besides, he felt that slavery must spread or be crushed out. It was not hard to induce Tyler to join in negotiations with the Texans, and in April, 1844, a treaty of annexation, secretly prepared, was announced. It was defeated in the Senate by a large vote, but was taken up as the chief issue of the next campaign.

375. The Campaign of 1844.—The Whigs put up Clay, and the Democrats chose James K. Polk^[171] of Tennessee, since Van Buren would not advocate annexation. Polk, although he had been previously Speaker of the House, was not very well known and had aspired only to the Vice Presidency. He was therefore really the first “dark horse” to receive a presidential nomination. Clay, on the other hand, was a veteran statesman, the natural nominee of his party. But Clay unfortunately wrote letters that made his position on the Texas question ambiguous; he therefore lost the support of many anti-slavery men, who, as the “Liberty Party,” put up a candidate of their own. Polk was accordingly elected over a competitor much his superior. But before the newly elected President took his seat, Tyler had secured the annexation of Texas by the passage of a joint resolution through Congress.^[172]

376. The Oregon Question.—Along with the Texas question the Democrats had made the question of the occupation of Oregon a cardinal issue in their campaign. Their success led them to claim that the United States must have all the territory lying south of 54° 40', “or fight.” This demand was in every sense a rash one, and might easily have brought on war with Great Britain, but it fortunately led to no evil results. In 1846 a treaty with Great Britain fixed the American northern line at the 49° parallel, and only Mexico was left to contend against.

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