The death of General Harrison and the elevation of John Tyler to the Presidency wrought a great change in the fortunes of the Whig Party. Soon after the assembling of Congress at the extra session, called by President Harrison, a bill for a Fiscal Bank was passed by the two Houses, and vetoed by President Tyler. The veto message was so framed as to encourage the Whig leaders to pass a second bill in a form designed to avoid the objections of the President.
In the discussion upon the veto of the first bill, Mr. Clay assailed the President in such terms that a reconciliation was impossible. From that moment it was the purpose of the President to co-operate with the Democratic Party. A second bill was passed. That was also vetoed by the President. Early in September all the members of the Cabinet resigned except Mr. Webster. The outgoing members gave reasons to the public, and Mr. Webster gave reasons for not going. Caleb Cushing, Henry A. Wise, and a few other Whigs, called the Omnibus Party chose their part with Webster and Tyler. The Whig Party was divided, hopelessly.
Previous to the division, a bill had passed, which had been approved by the President, for the repeal of the Independent Treasury System. The ardor of its enemies was such that no substitute was provided. The expectation was that a Fiscal Bank, or Fiscal Agent, would be created. The failure of the bank bills left the Government without any lawful system of finance. The pet bank system was restored, in fact. The rupture in the Whig Party contributed to its defeat in Massachusetts at the election in 1842, but the party was so compact in 1841 that its triumph was assured. Mr. Webster defended his course, and with few exceptions his conduct was either approved or tolerated in Massachusetts.
[* It was then an unfinished building and stood where the Willow Dale road connects with Hollis Street. The building had been erected by a body of people who advocated the union of all the churches. They called themselves Unionists. Their leader was the Rev. Silas Hawley. He was a vigorous thinker, a close reasoner, and he displayed great knowledge of the Bible. His following became considerable. The excitement extended to the neighboring towns and for a time serious inroads were made upon the churches of the village.
The no-creed doctrine was accepted by some who never believed in any creed, and by others who had believed in creeds that they then thought were false. In the year 1838, Hawley convened a "World's Convention" at Liberty Hall, called by the wicked "Polliwog Chapel," to consider the subject of uniting all the churches in one church without a creed.
One afternoon early in the week of the session, I saw three men walking on the street towards Liberty Hall, with knapsacks buckled on their backs. One of these was Theodore Parker, one George Ripley, and the third, I think, was Charles A. Dana. In this I may be in error. Parker told me in after years when he had a wide-spread reputation, that his first public speech was made in that convention.]
X MASSACHUSETTS MEN IN THE FORTIES
In 1841 I was again a candidate for the House, and I was elected by the meager majority of one vote. As a member for the year 1842 I made the acquaintance of many persons, some of whom became distinguished in state and national politics. The leading members on the Democratic side were Samuel C. Allen of Northfield; Nathaniel Hinckley of Barnstable; Seth Whitmarsh, of Seekonk; Seth J. Thomas, Richard Frothingham of Charlestown; and James Russell, of West Cambridge. Allen was a son of the Samuel C. Allen who had been a member of Congress, a member of the old Republican Party of Jefferson, and the author of the saying: "Associated wealth is the dynasty of modern states." Another son was Elisha Allen, who was then a member of Congress from Maine, elected in 1840. He was afterwards our Commissioner to the Sandwich Islands, and subsequently he was Minister from the Islands to the United States.
Samuel C. Allen, Jr., was a vigorous, incisive debater. His speeches were brief, direct, and disagreeable to his opponents. He followed Mr. Webster's advice to the citizens of Boston—he "made no long orations" and in those days, he "drank no strong potations."
Thomas was an energetic, capable man, a ready debater, although of limited resources in learning. Whitmarsh was an unlearned country leader, whose speeches were better adapted to a neighborhood gathering of political supporters, than to the deliberations of an assembly charged with a share in the government of a state. Hinckley was an original thinker, with a hobby. His purpose was to secure the abolition of the rule which excluded from the witness-stand those who did not believe in a personal God. This he accomplished, and by the aid of the arguments that are formulated in Stuart Mill's Treatise on Liberty, but they are not there more clearly presented by Mill than they had been presented by Hinckley in the debates of 1842 and 1843 in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Hinckley was a bore, but the object was accomplished through his agency. Since that time such parties have been permitted to testify, and the day should come speedily when the laws should be so changed as to allow the husband and wife to testify in all cases where they happen to be jointly interested or opposed to each other.