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.
William Henry Harrison.
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.