set the sum could work it: and the quotient Mr. Van Buren would be the signal for the was political death to Mr. Clay. The result downfall of all prices, the ruin of all industry, produced was-for General Scott, 16 votes: and the destruction of all labor, the newspapers for Mr. Clay, 90 votes: for General Harrison, in all the trading districts began to abound 148 votes. And as the law of these conventions with such advertisements as these: "The subswallows up all minorities in an ascertained scriber will pay six dollars a barrel for flour majority, so the majority for General Harrison if Harrison is elected, and three dollars if swallowed up the 106 votes given to Mr. Clay Van Buren is." "The subscriber will pay five and General Scott, made them count for the dollars a hundred for pork if Harrison is victor, presenting him as the unanimity can- elected, and two and a half if Van Buren is.” didate of the convention, and the defeated can- And so on through the whole catalogue of mardidate and all their friends bound to join in ketable articles, and through the different kinds his support. And in this way the election of of labor: and these advertisements were signed 1840 was effected! a process certainly not by respectable men, large dealers in the artiwithin the purview of those framers of the cles mentioned, and well able to fix the market constitution, who supposed they were giving to price for them. In this way the result of the a nation the choice of its own chief magistrate. election was brought to bear coercively upon From the beginning it had been foreseen that the business, the property, and the pecuniary there was to be an embittered contest-the se- interest of the people. The class of induceverest ever known in our country. Two powers ments addressed to the passions and imaginawere in the field against Mr. Van Buren, each tions of the people were such as history blushes strong within itself, and truly formidable when to record. Log-cabins, coonskins, and hard united-the whole whig party, and the large cider were taken as symbols of the party, and league of suspended banks, headed by the Bank to show its identification with the poorest and of the United States-now criminal as well as humblest of the people: and these cabins were bankrupt, and making its last struggle for a actually raised in the most public parts of the new national charter in the effort to elect a ❘ richest cities, ornamented with coonskins after President friendly to it. In elections as in war the fashion of frontier huts, and cider drank in money is the sinew of the contest, and the them out of gourds in the public meetings broken and suspended banks were in a condi- which gathered about them: and the virtues tion, and a temper, to furnish that sinew with- of these cabins, these skins, and this cider were out stint. By mutual support they were able celebrated by travelling and stationary orators. to make their notes pass as money; and, not The whole country was put into commotion being subject to redemption, it could be fur- by travelling parties and public gatherings. nished without restraint, and with all the good Steamboats and all public conveyances were will of a self-interest in putting down the dem- crowded with parties singing doggerel ballads ocratic party, whose hard-money policy, and in- made for the occasion, accompanied with the dependent treasury scheme, presented it as an music of drums, fifes, and fiddles; and incited enemy to paper money and delinquent banks. by incessant speaking. A system of public The influence of this moneyed power over its gatherings was got up which pervaded every debtors, over presses, over travelling agents, State, county and town-which took place by was enormous, and exerted to the uttermost, day and by night, accompanied by every preand in amounts of money almost fabulous; and paration to excite; and many of which gatherin ways not dreamed of. The mode of operat-ings were truly enormous in their numbersing divided itself into two general classes, one only to be estimated by the acre; attempts at coercive-addressed to the business pursuits counting or computing such masses being out and personal interests of the community: the of the question. The largest of these gatherother seductive, and addressed to its passions.ings took place at Dayton, in the State of Ohio, The phrases given out in Congress against the financial policy of the administration became texts to speak upon, and hints to act upon. Carrying out the idea that the re-election of the month before the election; and the description of it, as given by its enthusiastic friends, will give a vivid idea of that monster assemblage, and of the myriads of others of which it was only the greatest-differing in degree only, all this manifest? Ay, and what tale does it not in kind: "Dayton, the whole body there assembled in convention covered ten acres by actual measurement! And at no time were there more than two-thirds of the people on the ground. Every house with a flag was a hotel without price-the strings of every door being out, and every latch unfastened! One hundred thousand! It were useless to attempt any thing like a detailed description of this grand gathering of the people. We saw it all-felt it alland shall bear to our graves, live we yet half a century, the impression it made upon our hearts. But we cannot describe it. No eye that witnessed it, can convey to the mind of another, even a faint semblance of the things it there beheld. The bright and glorious day-the beautiful and hospitable city-the green-clad and heaven-blessed valley-the thousand flags, fluttering in every breeze and waving from every window-the ten thousand banners and badges, with their appropriate devices and patriotic inscriptions-and, more than all, the hundred thousand human hearts beating in that dense and seething mass of people-are things which those alone can properly feel and appreciate, who beheld this grandest spectacle of time. The number of persons present was, during the whole of the morning, variously estimated at from seventy-five to ninety thousand. Conjecture, however, was put to rest in the afternoon, at the speakers' stand. Here, while the crowd was compact, as we have elsewhere described it, and during the speech of General Harrison, the ground upon which it stood was measured by three different civil engineers, and allowing to the square yard four persons, the following results were arrived at the first made it 77,600, the second 75,000, and the third 80,000. During the time of making three measurements, the number of square yards of surface covered was continually changing, by pressure without and resistance from within. Mr. Van Buren and his wiseacre assistants, have so managed currency matters, that we have very little to do business with. We can, therefore, be away from home, a portion of the time, as well as at home. And with respect to our families, when we leave upon a rally, we take them with us! Our wives and daughters, we are proud to say, have the blood of their revolutionary mothers and grandmothers coursing through their veins. There is no man among us whose heart is more filled and animated than theirs, by the spirit of seventy-six. Look at the three hundred and fifty at Nashville, who invited Henry Clay, the nation's pride, to be with them and their husbands and brothers on the 15th of August! Look at the four hundred at St. Louis, the nine hundred at the Tippecanoe battle-ground, the five thousand at Dayton! What now, but the spirit of seventy-six, does all tell? Does it not say, that the wicked charlatanry, and mad ambition, and selfish schemings, of the leading members of this administration of the general government, have made themselves felt in the very sanctum sanctorum of domestic life? Does it not speak of the cheerless hearth, where willing hands sit without employment? Does it not speak of the half-recompensed toil of the worn laborer, who finds, now and then, a week's hard work, upon the scant proceeds of which he must subsist himself and his family for a month! Does it not speak of empty larders in the town, while the garners of the country are overflowing? Does it not speak of want here and abundance there, without any medium of exchange to equalize the disparity? Does it not speak of a general disorganization of conventional operations-of embarrassment, stagnation, idleness, and despondency-whose 'malign influences have penetrated the inner temples of man's home, and aroused, to indignant speech and unusual action, her who is its peace, its gentleness, its love, its all but divinity? The truth is-and it should be told-the women are the very life and soul of these movements of the people. Look at their liberal preparations at Nashville. Look at their boundless hospitality at Dayton. Look at their ardor and activity every where. And last, though far from the least important, look at their presence, in hundreds and by thousands, wherever there is any good to be done, to animate and encourage, and urge on their fathers, husbands and brothers. Whence those six hundred and forty-four flags, whose stars and stripes wave in the morning breeze, from nearly every house-top, as we enter the beautiful little city of Dayton? From the hand of woman. Whence the decorations of these porticoes and balconies, that gleam in the rising sun, as we ride through the broad and crowded streets? From the hand of woman. Whence this handsome and proudly cherished banner, under which the Ohio delegation returned from Nashville, and which now marks the head-quarters of the Cincinnati delegation of one thousand to Dayton? From the hand of woman. Whence yon richly wrought and surpassingly beautiful standard, about which cluster the Tippecanoe hosts, and whose production has cost many weeks of incessant labor? From the hand of woman. And to come down to less poetical but more substantial things, whence all the wholesome viands prepared in the six hundred and forty-four flag-houses around us, for our refreshment, and all the pallets spread for our repose? From the hand of woman." By arts like these the community was worked up into a delirium, and the election was carried by storm. Out of 294 electoral votes Mr. Van Buren received but 60: out of twenty-six States CHAPTER LIX. CONCLUSION OF MR. VAN BUREN'S ADMINISTRA- THE last session of the Twenty-sixth Congress was barren of measures, and necessarily so, as being the last of an administration superseded by the popular voice, and soon to expire; and therefore restricted by a sense of propriety, during the brief remainder of its existence, to the details of business and the routine of service. But his administration had not been barren of he received the votes of only seven. He seemed to have been abandoned by the people! On the contrary he had been unprecedentedly support. ed by them-had received a larger popular vote than ever had been given to any President before! and three hundred and sixty-four thousand votes more than he himself had received at the previous presidential election when he beat the same General Harrison fourteen thousand votes. Here was a startling fact, and one to excite inquiry in the public mind. How could there be such overwhelming defeat with such an enormous increase of strength on the defeated side? This question pressed itself upon every thinking mind; and it was impossible to give it a solution consistent with the honor and purity of the elective franchise. For, after mak-measures, nor inauspicious to the harmony of ing all allowance for the greater number of voters brought out on this occasion than at the previous election by the extraordinary exertions now made to bring them out, yet there would still be required a great number to make up the five hundred and sixty thousand votes which General Harrison received over and above his vote of four years before. The belief of false and fraudulent votes was deep-seated, and in fact susceptible of proof in many instances. Many thought it right, for the sake of vindicating the purity of elections, to institute a scrutiny into the votes; but nothing of the kind was attempted, and on the second Wednesday in February, 1841, all the electoral votes were counted without objection-General Harrison found to have a majority of the whole number of votes given-and Messrs. Wise and Cushing on the part of the House and Mr. Preston on the part of the Senate, were appointed to give him the formal notification of his election. Mr. Tyler received an equal number of votes with him, and became Vice-president: Mr. Richard M. Johnson fell twelve votes behind Mr. Van Buren, receiving but 48 electoral votes. It was a complete rout of the democratic party, but without a single moral effect of victory. The spirit of the party ran as high as ever, and Mr. Van Buren was immediately, and generally, proclaimed the democratic candidate for the clection of 1844. the Union. It had seen great measures adopted, and sectional harmony conciliated. The divorce of Bank and State, and the restoration of the constitutional currency, were illustrious measures, beneficial to the government and the people; and the benefits of which will continue to be felt as long as they shall be kept. One of them dissolved a meretricious connection, disadvantageous to both parties, and most so to the one that should have suffered least, and was made to suffer most. The other carried back the government to what it was intended to be— re-established it as it was in the first year of Washington's administration-made it in fact a hard-money government, giving solidity to the Treasury, and freeing the government and the people from the revulsions and vicissitudes of the paper system. No more complaints about the currency and the exchanges since that time. Unexampled prosperity has attended the people; and the government, besides excess of solid money in time of peace, has carried on a foreign war, three thousand miles from home, with its securities above par during the whole time: a felicitous distinction, never enjoyed by our country before, and seldom by any country of the world. These two measures constitute an era in the working of our government, entitled to a proud place in its history, on which the eye of posterity may look back with gratitude and admiration. His administration was auspicious to the general harmony, and presents a period of remarkable exemption from the sectional bitterness which had so much afflicted the Union for personal detriment, losing much popular favor in the border States from his strenuous repression of aid to a neighboring people, insurging for liberty, and militarily crushed in the attempt. He did his duty towards Great Britain by preventing succor from going to her revolted sub authorities did an injury to us by the murder of our citizens, and the destruction of a vessel on our own shore-the case of the Caroline at Schlosser-he did his duty to the United States by demanding redress; and when one of the alleged perpetrators was caught in the State where the outrage had been committed, he did his duty to that State by asserting her right to punish the infraction of her own laws. And although he did not obtain the redress for the outrage at Schlosser, yet it was never refused to him, nor the right to redress denied, nor the outrage itself assumed by the British government as long as his administration lasted. Respected at home, his administration was equally so abroad. Cordially supported by his friends in Congress, he was equally so by his cabinet, and his lead some years before-and so much more sorely since. Faithful to the sentiments expressed in his inaugural address, he held a firm and even course between sections and parties, and passed through his term without offence to the North or the South on the subject of slavery. He reconciled South Carolina to the Union-received thejects; and when the scene was changed, and her support of her delegation in Congress-saw his administration receive the approving vote of her general assembly-and counted her vote among those which he received for the presidency-the first presidential vote which she had given in twelve years. No President ever had a more difficult time. Two general suspensions of the banks-one at the beginning, and the other towards the close of his administration-the delinquent institutions in both instances allying themselves with a great political party-were powerful enough to derange and distress the business of the country, and unscrupulous enough to charge upon his administration the mischiefs which themselves created. Meritorious at home, and in his internal policy, his administration was equally so in its foreign relations. The insurrection in Canada, contemporaneous with his acces-ing newspaper, the Washington Globe. Messrs. sion to the presidency, made a crisis between the Forsyth, Secretary of State-Woodbury of the United States and Great Britain, in which he dis- Treasury-Poinsett of War-Paulding of the charged his high duties with equal firmness, Navy-Kendall and John M. Niles, Postmasskill, and success. The border line of the United ters-general-and Butler, Grundy and Gilpin, States, for a thousand miles, was in commotion to successive Attorneys-general-were all harjoin the insurgent Canadians. The laws of neu- monious and efficient co-operators. With every trality, the duties of good neighborhood, our own title to respect, and to public confidence, he was peace (liable to be endangered by lawless expe- disappointed of a second election, but in a canditions from our shores), all required him to re- vass which had had no precedent, and has had press this commotion. And faithfully he did no imitation; and in which an increase of so, using all the means- -judicial and military-364,000 votes on his previous election, attests which the laws put in his hands; and successfully an increase of strength which fair means could for the maintenance of neutrality, but with some not have overcome. ADMINISTRATION OF WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. CHAPTER LX. seats were placed, and the ceremony of the inauguration was to take place. An immense INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT HARRISON: HIS crowd, extending far and wide, stood closely CABINET-CALL OF CONGRESS-AND DEATH. wedged on the pavement and enclosed grounds in front of the portico. The President elect read his inaugural address, with animation and strong voice, and was well heard at a distance. declaration of general principles and sentiments; and it breathed a spirit of patriotism which adversaries, as well as friends, admitted to be sincere, and to come from the heart. After the conclusion of the address, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Mr. Taney, administered the oath prescribed by the constitution: and the ceremony of inauguration was at an end. MARCH the 4th, at twelve o'clock, the Senate met in its chamber, as summoned to do by the retiring President, to be ready for the inaugura-As an inaugural address, it was confined to a tion of the President elect, and the transaction of such executive business as he should bring before it. The body was quite full, and was called to order by the secretary, Mr. Asbury Dickens; and Mr. King, of Alabama, being elected temporary President of the Senate, administered the oath of office to the Vice-president elect, John Tyler, Esq., who immediately took the chair as President of the Senate. The scene in the chamber was simple and impressive. The senators were in their seats: members of the House in chairs. The justices of the Supreme Court, and the foreign diplomatic corps were in the front semicircle of chairs, on the floor of the Senate. Officers of the army and navy were present-many citizens-and some ladies. Every part of the chamber and galleries were crowded, and it required a vigilant police to prevent the entrance of more than the allotted number. After the Vice-president elect had On the 17th of March, the President issued a taken his seat, and delivered to the Senate over proclamation, convoking the Congress in exwhich he was to preside a well-conceived, well-traordinary session for the 31st day of May enexpressed, and well-delivered address, appropri- suing. The proclamation followed the usual ately brief, a short pause and silence ensued. form in not specifying the immediate, or direct, The President elect entered, and was conducted cause of the convocation. It merely stated. to the seat prepared for him in front of the sec-"That sundry and weighty matters, principally retary's table. The procession was formed and growing out of the condition of the revenue and proceeded to the spacious eastern portico, where finances of the country, appear to call for the VOL. II.-14 The Senate returned to its chamber, and hav ing received a message from the President with the nominations for his cabinet, immediately proceeded to their consideration; and unanimously confirmed the whole. They were: Daniel Webster, Secretary of State; Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Treasury; John Bell, Secretary at War; George E. Badger, Secretary of the Navy; Francis Granger, Postmaster-general; John J. Crittenden, Attorney-general. |