Election of 1840. Schouler's Unite 1 States, IV, 327-340; Stanwood's Elections, 123-137. formidable party. The Jackson men, after calling themselves Democratic Republicans, had dropped the Republican, and now became known as Democrats; the Adams men, or National Republicans of the earlier day, had assumed the name of Whigs, probably to distinguish their reforming tendencies from the conservatism of the Democrats. The Whigs also employed their opponents' popular methods, and, indeed, outdid them in appeals to the passions of the multitude. The party machinery of the present time was already organized: nominating conventions, party platforms, torchlight processions, and the rest. The campaign of 1840 stands out in marked contrast to all preceding campaigns in appeals to the eye and to the senses. Van Buren Election of 1840 was a candidate for re-election, and the Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison, who had been their candidate in 1836, and John Tyler of Virginia, a lifelong Democrat of the extreme Calhoun school. "Tippecanoe and Tyler too!" became the war cry of those opposed to Van Buren. The Whigs put forward no principles save "Down with Van Burenism." They pictured the Democratic candidate as "indifferent to the sufferings of the people," as sitting in a "stuffed chair" in the White House, and as eating out of gold spoons. On the other hand, they eagerly adopted the contemptuous assertion of a Democratic speaker, that Harrison would be 1841] Tyler's Administration 411 satisfied if he were given a log cabin and a barrel of cider. Log cabins were erected everywhere; they were dragged around on wheels with men drinking cider before the doors. The campaign was one of "hurrah for Tippecanoe," the log-cabin, cider-drinking candidate. The Whigs won not merely the presidency, but with it a majority in both houses of Congress. A month after his inauguration, Harrison was Death of dead. For the first time in the history of the country, a Vice-President became President owing to the death of his chief. Harrison. 359-365. 1841. 296. Tyler's Administration, 1841-45.-The first session of the first Congress under the new administration was held in May, 1841. It at once became apparent that the triumphant Whigs could not carry out their policy, and President Tyler was confronted by a hostile majority in both houses of Congress. Tyler was a Whig only in the sense that he was John Tyler, opposed to Jacksonianism, in so far as it departed from the President, old Jeffersonian lines. In other respects, he was a strict constructionist and a firm states'-rights man. Clay, who was the real leader of the Whig party, at once brought forward a set of measures of reform, as they were conveniently regarded. The first of them, to repeal the Independent Treasury Act of 1840, passed easily enough. When it came Tyler and to chartering a new national bank, however, it was found the Whigs. that Tyler was opposed to the measure on constitutional United grounds. It was understood that he would consent to the States, IV, establishment of a bank in the District of Columbia with 372. branches in such of the states as were willing to have them within their limits. A bill passed both houses, with the provision for the District of Columbia, but without the provision for state assent; Tyler vetoed it, and the Whigs had not the necessary two-thirds vote to pass it over his veto. A bill was drawn up for the establishment of a "fiscal corporation" in the federal district, with branches, which should not exercise full banking privileges. This bill was elaborated after conferences with Tyler, and his assent to it was supposed to be assured; when it came to him for his signature, he Schouler's Tariff of 1842. Schouler's United States, IV, 406. boundary dispute. Schouler's United States, IV, 396-403. vetoed it. Every member of the cabinet resigned, except Webster, who remained to conclude important negotiations with Great Britain. More revenue was urgently needed, and the Compromise Tariff of 1833 (p. 398) having run its course was now capable of amendment. The Whigs, therefore, brought in a tariff bill considerably increasing the duties from the twenty per cent basis, which had just been reached; the bill, as first passed, also contained a provision for the distribution of surplus revenue among the states. This measure was one of those to which Tyler had objected in Jackson's time. He vetoed the bill, and it was not until it came before him without this clause that he signed it. The other measures provided for the payment to the states of the money received from the sales of public lands; this would have disguised the fact that the government was collecting more revenue under the new tariff than it could properly expend. The friends of a low tariff, however, secured an amendment whereby the distribution should take place only when the tariff on imports should fall below twenty per cent ad valorem. This clause rendered the bill inoperative, as the duties never fell to that point. Northeastern 297. The Ashburton Treaty, 1842.- Daniel Webster, whom Harrison had selected as Secretary of State, had opened negotiations with Lord Ashburton, British minister at Washington, for a settlement of the long-standing dispute with Great Britain, as to the northeastern boundary of the United States. The negotiators of the treaty of 1783 had plainly intended to give Canada the same southern boundary eastward that it had had according to the Proclamation of 1763 (p. 117). This line followed the forty-fifth parallel from the St. Lawrence to the Connecticut, and thence along "the highlands which divide the rivers that empty themselves into the River St. Lawrence from those which fall into the sea." These words were repeated in the treaty, except that "Atlantic Ocean" was substituted for "the sea," and the northeastern corner of the United States was 1842] The Ashburton Treaty 413 declared to be "formed by a line drawn from the source of St. Croix River to the Highlands." In maps printed in Great Britain immediately after the conclusion of peace, this line was merely copied from earlier maps showing the southern boundary of Quebec according to the Proclamation of 1763. But when the time came to run the line on the spot, the British government raised innumerable difficulties. First, there was a dispute about the identity of the St. Croix River; that was set at rest by the discovery of the ruins of De Monts's houses (p. 50). Then the British advanced the theory that the "Highlands" mentioned in the treaty were not those intended in the proclamation, but were much farther south. They based their argument on the substitution of the words "Atlantic Ocean" in place of "the sea," and contended that the St. John's River emptied into the Bay of Fundy and not into the Atlantic Ocean. The Highlands, according to this view, was a line drawn around the sources of the Penobscot and Kennebec, and not the water parting between the St. John's and the St. Lawrence. The dispute was referred to the king of the Netherlands as arbiter. Instead of deciding in favor of one of the contending governments, he proposed a compromise line, which he had no right to do (1829). Meantime, the United States had built a fort at Rouse's Point on Lake Champlain. This point was south of the forty-fifth parallel according to old surveys, but more accurate observations showed that it was really north of that parallel and therefore in Canada. The controversy was Ashburton now settled by Webster and Ashburton, by the adoption of Treaty, 1842. a compromise line on the northeast (the present northeastern boundary of Maine) and the cession of Rouse's Point to the United States. At the same time, the extradition of certain specified classes of criminals was agreed to, and a long series of negotiations for the suppression of the African slave trade was arranged by the conclusion of what was called the "cruising convention," which obliged each nation to keep a squadron of a certain strength always cruising on the African coast. This arrangement produced less valuable results than its authors expected; but Webster followed his Whig colleagues into retirement, convinced that he had done something "for the peace of the world." Before long Calhoun succeeded him as Secretary of State. SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND TOPICS §§ 273-279. THE UNITED STATES IN 1830 a. Examine the maps on pp. 299 and 383, and tabulate the growth of the several states; arrange the free and the slave states in separate columns. b. Bring to class digests of the lives of Robert Fulton and De Witt Clinton. §§ 271, 272, 280. ANDREW JACKSON a. Study the career of Andrew Jackson under the following heads: personal appearance, personal influence; preparation for public life; military career, strength and weakness of character; importance of his administrations; has his influence on politics been good or bad? b. The constitutional theories of Jackson's party; state them at length; how much of them can you find in our political system to-day? c. Rise of the Spoils System: study it in a larger book and say whether Jackson's course was the result or the cause of the Spoils System. §§ 281-284. THE NULLIFICATION EPISODE a. Why was "state interposition" the "weapon of the minority"? b. Define sovereignty. What is your idea of a state? of a nation? c. Compare Jackson's action in 1832-33 with Buchanan's inaction in 1860-61. d. Had the South a real grievance in 1832? What was it? Give precedents for nullification. e. Was it fortunate or unfortunate that the dispute was compromised in 1833? Give reasons. §§ 285-288. ANTISLAVERY AGITATION a. Slavery has the history of any modern nation other than the United States been profoundly affected by slavery? What effect would slavery in a new country be likely to have upon free white immigration, and why? |