the whig party, and defeat measures which they deemed necessary to restore the prosperity of the country. Nor were these apprehensions allayed, even when Mr. Tyler was understood to have said, on his arrival at Washington, after the death of Harrison, "You have but exchanged one whig for another."

The cabinet which had been appointed by General Harrison, was retained by President Tyler, namely, Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, secretary of state; Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, secretary of the treasury; John Bell, of Tennessee, secretary of war; George E. Badger, of North Carolina, secretary of the navy; Francis Granger, of New York, postmaster-general; John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, attorney-general. The retention of this cabinet, distinguished for its ability and for its possession of the confidence of the whig party, tended to confirm the feelings of hope and confidence inspired by the inaugural address of President Tyler.

In conformity with the general feelings of sorrow and regret which pervaded the public mind on the death of the chief magistrate of the nation, his successor recommended a day of fasting and prayer, to be observed by the people of the United States.

In entering upon the duties of the office of president, Mr. Tyler did not feel (to use his own words, in his message to Congress) that it would be becoming in him to disturb what had been ordered by his lamented predecessor. He therefore concurred in the measure which had been adopted by President Harrison, of convening Congress in extra session on the 31st of May. "His own first wish," he stated, "in the circumstances in which he was so unexpectedly placed, would have been, to have called to his aid, in the administration of public affairs, the combined wisdom of the two houses of Congress, in order to take their counsel and advice as to the best mode of extricating the government and the country from the embarrassments weighing heavily on both."

After the call of the extra session, and previous to the meeting, members of Congress were elected in the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. The state of Mississippi was not represented at the extra session, as no special election was ordered, and the annual election in that state took place in the month of November following. The members from Illinois were elected at the annual election in August, and took their seats in the house during the session.

The result of the elections at this time were equally favorable to the whig party with those which took place in 1840, immediately preceding the presidential election. The majority in favor of the new administration in the 27th Congress, according to the returns of members elect, was seven in the senate, and one vacancy; and about fifty in the house of representatives.

The hopes of the democratic incumbents in office, which were awa

kened on the accession of Mr. Tyler to the presidency, were soon dissipated by the course he felt bound to pursue with regard to removals and appointments. The applications and importunities of office-seekers, which had commenced immediately after the inauguration of President Harrison, and which were temporarily suspended by his death, were renewed with increased vigor after his successor was invested with the power and patronage of the executive. A few days only had transpired after his accession, when the removal of the friends of the late administration from office was commenced by the new president; and their places were filled by whigs and conservatives. The removals and appointments continued to follow each other in rapid succession, and a similar course was pursued by the postmaster-general, with the sanction of the president, with respect to the numerous postmasters throughout the Union. President Tyler thus showed a disposition to gratify the desires and expectations of his political friends, with regard to office, even before the senate had an opportunity to act on the subject.

A brief review and notice of political parties in the United States, at this period, is deemed appropriate in this place, for the purpose of showing the position of the president and the new administration, with regard to measures of public policy and the course of events.

We have seen, in the sketches already given of various administrations, that the federal party which was thrown into the minority on the accession of Jefferson, and continued in opposition to the administration of that president, and that of his successor, Mr. Madison, became extinct, as a national party, soon after the termination of the war with Great Britain in 1815. In some of the states the name was kept up for a short period, but after a few feeble struggles the name of federalist became so unpopular that it was abandoned during the administration of President Monroe, whose management of the affairs of the nation was so satisfactory to all parties, that opposition for a time ceased. The parties which were subsequently formed for the support of Adams, Jackson, Crawford, and Clay, for the presidency, were more of a personal character than marked by distinct political principles; those who had been called federalists as well as democrats being found among the adherents of each of those candidates for the presidency. When General Jackson was elected president, his supporters claimed the name of democrats, and his opponents at first called themselves national republicans, but when joined by seceders from the administration ranks, in 1833 and '34, they took the name of whigs. Thus the two great national parties which divided the country at the accession of Mr. Van Buren to the president, in 1837, were respectively known by the name of democrats and whigs. With the latter, several minor parties of more limited extent, or local in character, generally acted, and the greater portion of these parties gradually became amalgamated with, and formed part of, the whig party. Such were the anti-masons of the mid

dle and eastern states; the state-rights men of the south who disapproved of the removal of the public deposites from the United States bank, and other acts of General Jackson; and those supporters of General Jackson in Tennessee, Georgia, and other states, who were opposed to Mr. Van Buren as his successor.

The party called democratic, which supported the administration of General Jackson, and Mr. Van Buren as his successor, became themselves divided, particularly in the northern and middle states, even previous to the election of the latter to the presidency. In 1835, there arose in the city of New York, in the ranks of the democratic party, a combination in opposition to banks and other moneyed institutions, which afterward took the name of locofocos, or equal-rights party. The workingmen's party, which arose in the cities of New York and Philadelphia, in 1829, and dissolved in about two years afterward, was the progenitor, to some extent, of the locofoco or equal-rights party. Certain it is, that most of the measures advocated by the former (some of which were introduced into the United States from Great Britain, by Mr. Robert Dale Owen and Miss Frances Wright, who for some time published a newspaper in New York, called "The Free Enquirer") were decidedly popular with the latter, and both were equally hostile to banks, and other moneyed institutions, which they considered monopolies. Nevertheless, it was Andrew Jackson, in his contest with the bank of the United States, who enkindled the highest opposition in that direction, and the enthusiasm which he excited against the national bank soon extended itself to state banks. The New York election of 1834, with the strong pledge against monopolies which the candidates for members of Congress and the legislature, of the democratic party in that city, were required to sign, together with speeches and resolutions of the same character, at political meetings, as well as the circumstances previously mentioned, all combined to plant deeply in the minds of that party the seeds of hostility to monopolies. Consequently, the democratic party became divided within itself. On the one side (in favor of banks and other corporations) were the great majority of the leading men of the party, and nearly all the office-holders under the general, state, and city administrations; on the other, comprising then but a small section, composed principally of mechanics and other workingmen, were those calling themselves free-trade, anti-monopoly, hard-money men.*

The equal-rights party at first deemed it advisable to exercise great caution and secrecy in their movements. It required both moral and physical courage to attack the usages and organization of the democratic party, which were then controlled by those favorable to banking institutions. But at the election in the city of New York, for a member of Congress and members of the legislature, in the autumn of 1835, it was deter

* Byrdsall's History of the Locofoco or Equal-Rights Party.

mined to oppose the nomination of certain persons who were brought forward by the friends of banks.

At a meeting on the evening of the 29th of October, 1835, of the democratic party, at Tammany Hall (the usual place of such meetings), for the purpose of adopting a ticket to be supported at the approaching election, opposition was made by the anti-bank portion of the meeting, to certain names on the ticket. A struggle took place for the chair, between the two sections of the party; but the friends of banks having placed their leader in the chair, and declared their ticket and resolutions adopted, attempted to adjourn the meeting and put out the lights. Their opponents being prepared for the occasion, by means of locofoco matches carried with them for the purpose, instantly restored the light in the room, placed their leader in the chair, adopted an equal-rights democratic ticket, and passed sundry resolutions against banks and paper-money, avowing themselves in favor of gold and silver as the only circulating medium of the country.

Thus was formed a new party, the supporters of which were forthwith denominated by their opponents, "locofocos," a name which was gradually extended to the entire democratic party of the Union. Although this new section of the party was at first inconsiderable in number, giving but about four thousand votes at the election in the city of New York in 1835, apprehensions were entertained by the leading men of the democratic party, that the principles thus avowed might extend in their ranks, and cause disunion and defeat to the friends of the administration of Jackson and Van Buren. Efforts were therefore made to conciliate the equalrights party, and prevent their separation from the ranks of the democracy. Their favorite candidate for president, Colonel Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, was nominated for vice-president on the ticket with Mr. Van Buren, and elected to that office by the friends of the latter. Numerous banks were incorporated by the democratic majority in the legislature of the state of New York, as well as several other states, in the year 1836, after which a pause took place in chartering those institutions; which cessation of bank-making, however, was partly occasioned by the pecuniary embarrassments which overtook the concerns of the country in 1837. The recommendation of a separation of the financial concerns of the United States government from the state banks, brought forward by Presi dent Van Buren, in his message at the extra session of Congress in 1837, created a division in the ranks of the supporters of his administration, which was first exhibited in Congress, but soon extended among the people. Those democrats who were opposed to an exclusive specie currency, and the sub-treasury scheme recommended by Mr. Van Buren, and those in favor of banks as depositories of the public moneys, became a distinct section of the party, and were called "conservatives." Those who adhered to these views eventually joined the whigs, in opposition to Mr. Van

Buren's administration, and in 1840 aided in the election of Harrison and Tyler.

With regard to the state-rights men, or those originally attached to the democratic party, who had disapproved of the removal of the deposites from the bank of the United States, and some other acts of General Jackson; most of them opposed the administration of Mr. Van Buren, and eventually amalgamated with the whig party. A considerable portion of the state-rights men, however, among whom was Mr. John C. Calhoun, and a majority of the people of South Carolina, left the whigs, soon after the accession of Mr. Van Buren to the presidency, and became supporters of his administration, particularly sustaining his views respecting the sub-treasury and other currency measures. Consequently, the vote of South Carolina was given to Mr. Van Buren, when he was a candidate for re-election to the presidency, in 1840.

The election of 1840, which elevated General Harrison and Mr. Tyler to power, was effected by the joint efforts of the whigs and conservatives, the latter, for all practical purposes, becoming merged in the whig party. The party which supported the re-election of Mr. Van Buren in 1840, calling themselves democrats, while their opponents gave them the name of locofocos, were then united throughout the country in advocating the measures of Mr. Van Buren's administration, particularly his recommendation of a sub-treasury, or the separation of the national funds from the state banks, and the collection of the public revenues in gold and silver.

After his nomination for vice-president, in 1840, and previous to the election, Mr. Tyler avowed himself a firm and decided whig, stating that on the subjects of Mr. Clay's compromise tariff law then in operation, which he considered a protective tariff, and the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands among the states, he concurred with Mr. Clay and General Harrison. On the subject of a national bank, he said, in a letter replying to one from the democratic citizens of Steubenville, in October, 1840: "My opinion of the power of Congress to charter a bank of the United States remains unchanged. There is not in the constitution any express grant of power for such a purpose, and it never could be constitutional to exercise that power, save in the event that the powers granted to Congress could not be carried out without resorting to such an institution." In another letter to several citizens of Henrico county, Virginia, dated in October, 1840, he remarked: "My votes are repeatedly recorded on the journals of Congress, against the power of Congress over the subject of internal improvement, in all its phases and aspects, as well in regard to roads and canals, as to harbors and rivers. The first, viz., appropriations to roads and canals, have well nigh entirely ceased, while annual appropriations, to a large amount, have been made to harbors and rivers, with the sanction and approval of the president of the United States."