Part 8
5. _Resolved_, That it is the duty of every branch of the Government to enforce and practise the most rigid economy in conducting our public affairs, and that no more revenue ought to be raised than is required to defray the necessary expenses of the Government.
6. _Resolved_, That Congress has no power to charter a United States Bank; that we believe such an institution one of deadly hostility to the best interests of the country, dangerous to our Republican institutions and the liberties of the people, and calculated to place the business of the country within the control of a concentrated money power, and above the laws and the will of the people.
7. _Resolved_, That Congress has no power, under the Constitution, to interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several States, and that such States are the sole and proper judges of everything appertaining to their own affairs not prohibited by the Constitution; that all efforts of the Abolitionists or others, made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipient steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences, and that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people, and endanger the stability and permanency of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend to our political institutions.
8. _Resolved_, That the separation of the moneys of the Government from banking institutions is indispensable for the safety of the funds of the Government and the rights of the people.
9. _Resolved_, That the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned in the Constitution, which makes ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in the Democratic faith; and every attempt to abridge the present privilege of becoming citizens and the owners of soil among us ought to be resisted with the same spirit which swept the Alien and Sedition laws from our statute book.
[Illustration: JOHN TYLER]
The campaign of 1840 was the most unique of our political history. The Democrats, in attempting to belittle General Harrison, declared that he lived in a “log cabin” and drank hard cider. Instead of resenting these expressions, intended to prejudice the public against the Whig candidate, the Whigs at once took up the log cabin as one of the great illustrative features of the contest, and when the battle reached its zenith, and the people gathered by thousands at the mass-meetings, the log cabin was always in the procession as the symbol of the simplicity of the party candidate for President. It was a campaign of speeches and songs, and it developed a new class of campaign orators, of which the then celebrated and long after well-known Buckeye Blacksmith was a type.
It was the first national campaign in which the masses of the people took intense interest, and alike in the cities of the East, the prairies of the West, and the savannas of the South the people were singing and shouting for “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too.” The Whig campaign culminated in a tempest against the Democrats, and resulted in the overwhelming defeat of Van Buren, and General Harrison certainly contributed largely to the result by taking the stump in Ohio in September and October, to vindicate himself against the accusations made that he was a mere puppet in the hands of political leaders and unable to speak for himself. The following was the popular vote for Harrison and Van Buren:
═══════════════════╤═══════════╤═══════════╤════════ STATES. │ Harrison. │ Van Buren.│ Birney. ───────────────────┼───────────┼───────────┼──────── Maine │ 46,612 │ 46,201 │ 194 New Hampshire │ 26,163 │ 32,761 │ 126 Vermont │ 32,440 │ 18,018 │ 319 Massachusetts │ 72,874 │ 51,944 │ 1,621 Rhode Island │ 5,278 │ 3,301 │ 42 Connecticut │ 31,601 │ 25,296 │ 174 New York │ 225,817 │ 212,527 │ 2,808 New Jersey │ 33,351 │ 31,034 │ 69 Pennsylvania │ 144,021 │ 143,672 │ 343 Delaware │ 5,967 │ 4,874 │ ――――― Maryland │ 33,528 │ 28,752 │ ――――― Virginia │ 42,501 │ 43,893 │ ――――― North Carolina │ 46,376 │ 33,782 │ ――――― South Carolina[11] │ ―――――― │ ―――――― │ ――――― Georgia │ 40,261 │ 31,921 │ ――――― Alabama │ 28,471 │ 33,991 │ ――――― Mississippi │ 19,518 │ 16,995 │ ――――― Louisiana │ 11,296 │ 7,616 │ ――――― Kentucky │ 58,489 │ 32,616 │ ――――― Tennessee │ 60,391 │ 48,289 │ ――――― Missouri │ 22,972 │ 29,760 │ ――――― Arkansas │ 5,160 │ 6,766 │ ――――― Ohio │ 148,157 │ 124,782 │ 903 Indiana │ 65,302 │ 51,604 │ ――――― Illinois │ 45,537 │ 47,476 │ 149 Michigan │ 22,933 │ 21,131 │ 321 ├───────────┼───────────┼──────── Totals │ 1,275,016 │ 1,129,102 │ 7,069 ═══════════════════╧═══════════╧═══════════╧════════
[11] Chosen by Legislature.
There was nothing to quibble about in declaring the count in Congress, as Harrison had nearly three-fourths of the electoral vote, with a very large popular majority. While the Democrats had not nominated any candidate for Vice-President, and as a division of the vote would be of little consequence, the Democratic electors generally voted for Vice-President Johnson for re-election. Virginia, that cast a solid vote against him four years before, gave him 22 of the 23 votes, and South Carolina, while voting for Van Buren, gave its 11 votes to L. W. Tazewell, of Virginia, for Vice-President, leaving Johnson with only 48 of the 294 electoral votes.
The following is the vote as cast in the electoral colleges:
═══════════════╤════════════════════╦══════════════════════════════════ │ PRESIDENT. ║ VICE-PRESIDENT. ├─────────┬──────────╫──────┬────────┬─────────┬──────── STATES. │W. H. │Martin ║John │R. M. │L. W. │James K. │Harrison,│Van Buren,║Tyler,│Johnson,│Tazewell,│Polk, │Ohio. │N. Y. ║Va. │Ky. │Va. │Tenn. ───────────────┼─────────┼──────────╫──────┼────────┼─────────┼──────── Maine │ 10 │ ―― ║ 10 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― New Hampshire │ ―― │ 7 ║ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ ―― Vermont │ 7 │ ―― ║ 7 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Massachusetts │ 14 │ ―― ║ 14 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Rhode Island │ 4 │ ―― ║ 4 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Connecticut │ 8 │ ―― ║ 8 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― New York │ 42 │ ―― ║ 42 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― New Jersey │ 8 │ ―― ║ 8 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Pennsylvania │ 30 │ ―― ║ 30 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Delaware │ 3 │ ―― ║ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Maryland │ 10 │ ―― ║ 10 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Virginia │ ―― │ 23 ║ ―― │ 22 │ ―― │ 1 North Carolina │ 15 │ ―― ║ 15 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― South Carolina │ ―― │ 11 ║ ―― │ ―― │ 11 │ ―― Georgia │ 11 │ ―― ║ 11 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Alabama │ ―― │ 7 ║ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ ―― Mississippi │ 4 │ ―― ║ 4 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Louisiana │ 5 │ ―― ║ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Kentucky │ 15 │ ―― ║ 15 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Tennessee │ 15 │ ―― ║ 15 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Missouri │ ―― │ 4 ║ ―― │ 4 │ ―― │ ―― Arkansas │ ―― │ 3 ║ ―― │ 3 │ ―― │ ―― Ohio │ 21 │ ―― ║ 21 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Indiana │ 9 │ ―― ║ 9 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Illinois │ ―― │ 5 ║ ―― │ 5 │ ―― │ ―― Michigan │ 3 │ ―― ║ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ├─────────┼──────────╫──────┼────────┼─────────┼──────── Totals │ 234 │ 60 ║ 234 │ 48 │ 11 │ 1 ═══════════════╧═════════╧══════════╩══════╧════════╧═════════╧════════
Harrison was in feeble health when he was called from the clerkship of the Cincinnati courts, that he had held for many years, to the highest civil trust of the world, and the intense pressure upon him after his election so impaired his vitality that he died a little more than a month after his inauguration. Harrison’s death was the first break in the Presidency since the organization of the Government. John Tyler was Vice-President, and was living quietly on his farm on the Virginia Peninsula. He could not be reached by railways, and telegraphs were unknown. He had no knowledge that he had become President through the death of Harrison until late the next day, when Webster and another member of the Cabinet finally found their way to his home, partly by water and partly overland, and formally announced to him the death of the President and the new duties which devolved upon him. He hastened to Washington to find a very grave dispute among the leading statesmen of both parties as to whether he became President or simply Acting President. It was important to determine whether he was President with the full title. The question was brought up in Congress, and in the midst of a discussion on the subject a message was received from the Executive Mansion signed “John Tyler, President.” The dispute was at once ended, and the question settled for all time.
THE POLK-CLAY CONTEST
1844
President Tyler wrecked the Whig party and defeated Henry Clay for President in 1844. The Whigs had carried a majority in both Senate and House in the Harrison sweep of 1840, and they confidently expected that the Whig policy of a national bank to take the place of the bungling Sub-Treasury, of aid to public improvements, and of a protective tariff to stimulate our industries, would inaugurate a Whig political system that could be permanently maintained by the American people. President Harrison died only a little more than a month after he had been inaugurated. He was the oldest President at the time of his inauguration that the country has had, either before or since, and he was physically unequal to the severe exactions put upon him by the clamor for political positions. Civil service reform had then no part in the politics of the country, and as Jackson and Van Buren had been vindictively proscriptive in Federal appointments, it was logically expected that there would be a general removal of the Van Buren favorites. Harrison exhausted his vitality by trying to meet his friends and confer with them about political appointments, in addition to the important questions of State which demanded his attention, and he literally wore himself out and died from exhaustion.
[Illustration: JAMES K. POLK]
John Tyler, who had been one of the most ardent of the Clay Whigs, was confidently expected to maintain the policy of Harrison. The public measures advocated by Clay were well understood by all, and it was reasonable to assume that Tyler, who had been long one of his most earnest supporters, was in entire accord with his chief. A special session of Congress was summoned to meet on the 31st of May, 1841, and the Whigs expected to carry all their political theories into practical effect by national statutes at an early day. To the surprise of some of the leaders, President Tyler exhibited some measure of unsoundness on the question of the United States Bank, but after repeated conferences with him they believed that they could frame a bill that would entirely meet his views and command his approval. The bill was passed by a decided majority in both branches, and the Whigs were dumbfounded by a prompt veto from the President. Other conferences followed, and a new bill was framed, to which the President assented, and although it was passed without amendment, another veto followed. The first veto of the Bank bill brought out very angry criticisms from a number of the Whig leaders, and one of the most earnest and aggressive of Tyler’s critics was John Minor Botts, then a Whig Congressman from Virginia, and one of the most brilliant and erratic of the Whig leaders of his day. It was believed that the irritation of the President, caused by the criticisms of leading Whigs, finally decided the President to veto the second Bank bill.
Thus the Whigs were defeated in one of the cardinal measures of their faith. The Whig Senators and Representatives met in caucus and published an address to the country, in which it was declared that “those who brought the President into power can no longer in any manner or degree be justly held responsible or blamed for the administration of the Executive branch of the Government.” Thus the Whig power was broken and demoralized at the very threshold of its existence, and the chasm between the Whig Senate and House, on the one side, and the President, on the other, steadily widened and deepened until it was admittedly impassable.
President Tyler’s political antecedents offer some excuse for his failure to approve the national bank. He opposed Jackson, as did many other able men in the South, because Jackson had violated the strict construction policy of Southern leaders, especially in his aggressive warfare against nullification, and one trained in the school of strict construction of the supreme law could readily find excuse for withholding his approval from the United States Bank. The same principle applied to internal improvements by the Government, and could have been applied to forbid a protective tariff. The only fruit the Whigs gathered from their great triumph of 1840 was the protective tariff of 1842, that became so popular, especially in the North, that many Democrats who supported Polk in 1844 declared that they favored the tariff of 1842, and that it could not be disturbed if Polk were elected. In Pennsylvania it was common to see in Democratic processions banners bearing the inscription of “Polk-Dallas-Shunk and the Tariff of 1842,” and a letter received by Judge Kane, of Philadelphia, from Mr. Polk during the campaign was interpreted, and plausibly interpreted, as meaning an approval of the then existing tariff. The Whigs, defeated in all their other important measures, were sadly crippled in the campaign for the succession, and even the tariff of 1842 was repealed for a moderate free-trade tariff in 1846.
President Tyler had provoked the earnest and generally vindictive hostility of the Whigs without having made friends with the Democrats. They loved and cheered his apostasy, but gave no love or individual support to the apostate. He confidently expected that they would make him the Democratic candidate for President in 1844, and that delusion was cherished by him until the Democratic National Convention met in Baltimore to nominate national candidates. It was attended by a very large number of office-holders and other friends of Tyler. Finding that they could not command any support for their favorite in the convention, they improvised a national convention of their own on the same day that the Democratic convention met, and unanimously nominated Tyler for President without naming any candidate for Vice-President. The movement had no vitality, as there was no response from either the press or the public, and on the 20th of August Tyler wrote an elaborate and reproachful letter, withdrawing his name from the list of Presidential candidates.
When his term ended he lived in retirement on his Virginia farm, unknown and unfelt as a political factor. He was among the almost forgotten men of the past when, half a generation later, he appeared in Washington as a member of the Peace Convention that was called in 1861 to devise some measures to prevent a civil war, that he did not live to see fulfil its bloody mission.
When Van Buren was defeated for re-election to the Presidency in 1840, his friends imitated the Jackson tactics of 1825 by at once renominating him by mass-meetings and through Democratic newspapers as the Democratic candidate for President in 1844, and a decided majority of the delegates to the national convention were either instructed for Van Buren or elected as his friends. Calhoun was favored by the Democrats of South Carolina and Georgia, and ex-Vice-President Johnson was an energetic candidate for the nomination, with General Cass, of Michigan, as the man who was looked to as most likely to concentrate the opposition to Van Buren. Van Buren was in the attitude before the Democratic National Convention of 1844 that Seward was before the Chicago Republican Convention of 1860. A decided majority of the delegates desired his nomination, but many of them believed that Clay would defeat him, and they were quite willing to reaffirm the two-thirds rule, even against the earnest protest of Van Buren’s most faithful leaders, because it was well known that he never could attain the two-thirds vote of the convention.
Van Buren was regarded as a most accomplished and rather an unscrupulous politician. He was certainly a brilliant political leader, a very sagacious counsellor, and believed in shaping the policy of the party chiefly or wholly with the view of success; but a short time before the meeting of the national convention he made one of the boldest political deliverances of his life against the annexation of Texas, and he did it with the knowledge that the Democrats of the South were practically united in the support of annexation, with a very large proportion of the Northern Democrats in harmony with it. In the month of May letters were given to the public from both Van Buren and Clay, opposing the annexation of Texas at that time as inexpedient, because it would mean war with Mexico, unless annexed with the consent of that nation. Clay’s letter did not strengthen him in the South, but certainly strengthened him in the North, and should have prevented the Abolition vote in New York from sacrificing Clay and electing an ardent supporter of the annexation of Texas with its slave Constitution, and under a treaty that permitted its subdivision into four new States, each of which would increase the slave power in the Senate.
Van Buren’s letter was made public just about one month before the meeting of the Democratic National Convention, and it was severely criticised by Southern newspapers and Democratic leaders generally, and with great severity by those who desired his defeat. The Richmond _Enquirer_, then one of the ablest and most influential of the Democratic organs of the country, edited by Mr. Ritchie, demanded that the instructions which had been given to the Virginia delegates to support Van Buren should be rescinded. In some instances delegates did disobey Van Buren instructions and others resigned rather than support him.
The convention met in Baltimore on the 27th of May, South Carolina being the only State not represented. The first important movement made in the body after its organization was the readoption of the two-thirds rule, which all understood meant the defeat of Van Buren, notwithstanding that a majority of the delegates would vote for him. The sincere and earnest friends of Van Buren battled earnestly against the adoption of the rule, but it finally prevailed by a vote of 148 to 118, and a large majority of the votes in favor of the rule were cast by Southern delegates. It was claimed by his friends, and I doubt not with reason, that had the delegates in the convention voted as they had been instructed to vote, Van Buren would have received within a very few votes of the necessary two-thirds to make a nomination on the 1st ballot.
The convention was anything but harmonious, and stormy debates were common from the beginning to the end of the proceedings of the convention. Finally the convention reached the ballot for President, and Van Buren received on the 1st ballot 146 votes to 120 for all others, giving him a clear majority of 26 of the whole convention, but under the two-thirds rule it required 178 to nominate him. The following table shows the nine ballots in detail, the last resulting in the nomination of James K. Polk, of Tennessee:
═════════════════════╤══════╤═════╤═════╤══════╤══════╤══════╤══════╤══════╤═════ │ 1st. │ 2d. │ 3d. │ 4th. │ 5th. │ 6th. │ 7th. │ 8th. │ 9th. ─────────────────────┼──────┼─────┼─────┼──────┼──────┼──────┼──────┼──────┼───── M. Van Buren, N. Y. │ 146 │ 127 │ 121 │ 111 │ 103 │ 101 │ 99 │ 104 │ 2 L. Cass, Mich. │ 83 │ 94 │ 92 │ 105 │ 107 │ 116 │ 123 │ 114 │ 29 R. M. Johnson, Ky. │ 24 │ 33 │ 38 │ 32 │ 29 │ 23 │ 21 │ ―― │ ―― J. Buchanan, Pa. │ 4 │ 9 │ 11 │ 17 │ 26 │ 25 │ 22 │ 2 │ ―― L. Woodbury, N. H. │ 2 │ 1 │ 2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Com. Stewart, Pa. │ 1 │ 1 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― J. C. Calhoun, S. C. │ 6 │ 1 │ 2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 2 │ ―― J. K. Polk, Tenn. │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 44 │ 233 ═════════════════════╧══════╧═════╧═════╧══════╧══════╧══════╧══════╧══════╧═════
Mr. Polk was the first “dark-horse” candidate ever nominated by any hopeful party for the Presidency. He had not been discussed as a candidate for President, but had been pressed by some of his political friends as a candidate for the Vice-Presidency. He had been long in Congress, was distinguished for his ability and impartiality as Speaker of the House, and had been elected Governor of his State in 1841, but had been defeated in the contest for re-election in 1843, only one year before his nomination for President. Although his nomination for President seemed to be a spontaneous movement of the convention to rescue the party from its bitter factional feuds and the wrangling ambitions of its leaders, there is little doubt that the slavery managers of the South would be satisfied with none other than a positive Texas annexationist, and secretly but systematically prepared a number of the delegates to accept Polk as a compromise when the convention should come to a deadlock on the other candidates. Polk was heralded as the special friend and protégé of Jackson, who was yet living, and those who paved the way for his nomination had very plausible arguments to offer, especially to Southern men, with whom the slavery issue had become vital. However the nomination of Polk may have been organized, it had all the appearance of a spontaneous stampede in the convention. He had only 44 votes on the 8th ballot, the first in which his name appears. While the 9th ballot was in progress the delegates began to change their votes to Polk, and the result was that before its close the chairmen of delegations were jostling each other to get their votes recorded early for the successful candidate. The Morse experimental telegraph line had just been completed between Washington and Baltimore, and the Democratic leaders at Washington were advised by telegraph of Polk’s nomination, to which a congratulatory response was promptly given.