their faith. The Whig Senators and Representatives met in caucus and
published an address to the country, in which it was declared that
“those who brought the President into power can no longer in any manner
or degree be justly held responsible or blamed for the administration
of the Executive branch of the Government.” Thus the Whig power was
broken and demoralized at the very threshold of its existence, and
the chasm between the Whig Senate and House, on the one side, and the
President, on the other, steadily widened and deepened until it was
admittedly impassable.
President Tyler’s political antecedents offer some excuse for his
failure to approve the national bank. He opposed Jackson, as did
many other able men in the South, because Jackson had violated the
strict construction policy of Southern leaders, especially in his
aggressive warfare against nullification, and one trained in the
school of strict construction of the supreme law could readily find
excuse for withholding his approval from the United States Bank. The
same principle applied to internal improvements by the Government, and
could have been applied to forbid a protective tariff. The only fruit
the Whigs gathered from their great triumph of 1840 was the protective
tariff of 1842, that became so popular, especially in the North, that
many Democrats who supported Polk in 1844 declared that they favored
the tariff of 1842, and that it could not be disturbed if Polk were
elected. In Pennsylvania it was common to see in Democratic processions
banners bearing the inscription of “Polk-Dallas-Shunk and the Tariff of
1842,” and a letter received by Judge Kane, of Philadelphia, from Mr.
Polk during the campaign was interpreted, and plausibly interpreted, as
meaning an approval of the then existing tariff. The Whigs, defeated in
all their other important measures, were sadly crippled in the campaign
for the succession, and even the tariff of 1842 was repealed for a
moderate free-trade tariff in 1846.
President Tyler had provoked the earnest and generally vindictive
hostility of the Whigs without having made friends with the Democrats.
They loved and cheered his apostasy, but gave no love or individual
support to the apostate. He confidently expected that they would make
him the Democratic candidate for President in 1844, and that delusion
was cherished by him until the Democratic National Convention met in
Baltimore to nominate national candidates. It was attended by a very
large number of office-holders and other friends of Tyler. Finding
that they could not command any support for their favorite in the
convention, they improvised a national convention of their own on the
same day that the Democratic convention met, and unanimously nominated
Tyler for President without naming any candidate for Vice-President.
The movement had no vitality, as there was no response from either
the press or the public, and on the 20th of August Tyler wrote an
elaborate and reproachful letter, withdrawing his name from the list of
Presidential candidates.
When his term ended he lived in retirement on his Virginia farm,
unknown and unfelt as a political factor. He was among the almost
forgotten men of the past when, half a generation later, he appeared in
Washington as a member of the Peace Convention that was called in 1861
to devise some measures to prevent a civil war, that he did not live to
see fulfil its bloody mission.
When Van Buren was defeated for re-election to the Presidency in
1840, his friends imitated the Jackson tactics of 1825 by at once
renominating him by mass-meetings and through Democratic newspapers as
the Democratic candidate for President in 1844, and a decided majority
of the delegates to the national convention were either instructed
for Van Buren or elected as his friends. Calhoun was favored by the
Democrats of South Carolina and Georgia, and ex-Vice-President Johnson
was an energetic candidate for the nomination, with General Cass, of
Michigan, as the man who was looked to as most likely to concentrate
the opposition to Van Buren. Van Buren was in the attitude before
the Democratic National Convention of 1844 that Seward was before
the Chicago Republican Convention of 1860. A decided majority of the
delegates desired his nomination, but many of them believed that
Clay would defeat him, and they were quite willing to reaffirm the
two-thirds rule, even against the earnest protest of Van Buren’s most
faithful leaders, because it was well known that he never could attain
the two-thirds vote of the convention.
Van Buren was regarded as a most accomplished and rather an
unscrupulous politician. He was certainly a brilliant political leader,
a very sagacious counsellor, and believed in shaping the policy of
the party chiefly or wholly with the view of success; but a short
time before the meeting of the national convention he made one of the
boldest political deliverances of his life against the annexation of
Texas, and he did it with the knowledge that the Democrats of the South
were practically united in the support of annexation, with a very
large proportion of the Northern Democrats in harmony with it. In the
month of May letters were given to the public from both Van Buren and
Clay, opposing the annexation of Texas at that time as inexpedient,
because it would mean war with Mexico, unless annexed with the consent
of that nation. Clay’s letter did not strengthen him in the South, but
certainly strengthened him in the North, and should have prevented the
Abolition vote in New York from sacrificing Clay and electing an ardent
supporter of the annexation of Texas with its slave Constitution, and
under a treaty that permitted its subdivision into four new States,
each of which would increase the slave power in the Senate.
Van Buren’s letter was made public just about one month before the
meeting of the Democratic National Convention, and it was severely
criticised by Southern newspapers and Democratic leaders generally,
and with great severity by those who desired his defeat. The Richmond
_Enquirer_, then one of the ablest and most influential of the
Democratic organs of the country, edited by Mr. Ritchie, demanded that
the instructions which had been given to the Virginia delegates to
support Van Buren should be rescinded. In some instances delegates did
disobey Van Buren instructions and others resigned rather than support
him.
The convention met in Baltimore on the 27th of May, South Carolina
being the only State not represented. The first important movement
made in the body after its organization was the readoption of the
two-thirds rule, which all understood meant the defeat of Van Buren,
notwithstanding that a majority of the delegates would vote for him.
The sincere and earnest friends of Van Buren battled earnestly against
the adoption of the rule, but it finally prevailed by a vote of 148 to
118, and a large majority of the votes in favor of the rule were cast
by Southern delegates. It was claimed by his friends, and I doubt not
with reason, that had the delegates in the convention voted as they had
been instructed to vote, Van Buren would have received within a very
few votes of the necessary two-thirds to make a nomination on the 1st
ballot.
The convention was anything but harmonious, and stormy debates were
common from the beginning to the end of the proceedings of the
convention. Finally the convention reached the ballot for President,
and Van Buren received on the 1st ballot 146 votes to 120 for all
others, giving him a clear majority of 26 of the whole convention,
but under the two-thirds rule it required 178 to nominate him. The
following table shows the nine ballots in detail, the last resulting in
the nomination of James K. Polk, of Tennessee:
═════════════════════╤══════╤═════╤═════╤══════╤══════╤══════╤══════╤══════╤═════
│ 1st. │ 2d. │ 3d. │ 4th. │ 5th. │ 6th. │ 7th. │ 8th. │ 9th.
─────────────────────┼──────┼─────┼─────┼──────┼──────┼──────┼──────┼──────┼─────
M. Van Buren, N. Y. │ 146 │ 127 │ 121 │ 111 │ 103 │ 101 │ 99 │ 104 │ 2
L. Cass, Mich. │ 83 │ 94 │ 92 │ 105 │ 107 │ 116 │ 123 │ 114 │ 29
R. M. Johnson, Ky. │ 24 │ 33 │ 38 │ 32 │ 29 │ 23 │ 21 │ ―― │ ――
J. Buchanan, Pa. │ 4 │ 9 │ 11 │ 17 │ 26 │ 25 │ 22 │ 2 │ ――
L. Woodbury, N. H. │ 2 │ 1 │ 2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
Com. Stewart, Pa. │ 1 │ 1 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
J. C. Calhoun, S. C. │ 6 │ 1 │ 2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 2 │ ――
J. K. Polk, Tenn. │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 44 │ 233
═════════════════════╧══════╧═════╧═════╧══════╧══════╧══════╧══════╧══════╧═════
Mr. Polk was the first “dark-horse” candidate ever nominated by any
hopeful party for the Presidency. He had not been discussed as a
candidate for President, but had been pressed by some of his political
friends as a candidate for the Vice-Presidency. He had been long
in Congress, was distinguished for his ability and impartiality as
Speaker of the House, and had been elected Governor of his State in
1841, but had been defeated in the contest for re-election in 1843,
only one year before his nomination for President. Although his
nomination for President seemed to be a spontaneous movement of the
convention to rescue the party from its bitter factional feuds and
the wrangling ambitions of its leaders, there is little doubt that
the slavery managers of the South would be satisfied with none other
than a positive Texas annexationist, and secretly but systematically
prepared a number of the delegates to accept Polk as a compromise when
the convention should come to a deadlock on the other candidates. Polk
was heralded as the special friend and protégé of Jackson, who was
yet living, and those who paved the way for his nomination had very
plausible arguments to offer, especially to Southern men, with whom
the slavery issue had become vital. However the nomination of Polk
may have been organized, it had all the appearance of a spontaneous
stampede in the convention. He had only 44 votes on the 8th ballot, the
first in which his name appears. While the 9th ballot was in progress
the delegates began to change their votes to Polk, and the result was
that before its close the chairmen of delegations were jostling each
other to get their votes recorded early for the successful candidate.
The Morse experimental telegraph line had just been completed between
Washington and Baltimore, and the Democratic leaders at Washington were
advised by telegraph of Polk’s nomination, to which a congratulatory
response was promptly given.
Although the Van Buren men had finally voted for Polk, preferring him
to any of the candidates who had aggressively opposed the success
of Van Buren, they were profoundly grieved at Van Buren’s defeat.
They believed that slavery had crucified Van Buren, and it was their
purpose, during the flush of their anger, to allow Polk to suffer a
humiliating disaster. The friends of Polk well understood the deep
disaffection that would confront them among the friends of Van Buren,
and they adopted the very shrewd policy of taking Van Buren’s ablest
lieutenant as the candidate for Vice-President. Silas Wright, of
New York, Van Buren’s own State, was then one of the ablest of the
Democratic Senators of that day, and a most zealous supporter of Van
Buren. He was nominated for Vice-President by practically a unanimous
vote, only eight of the Georgia delegates preferring Levi Woodbury,
of New Hampshire. Mr. Wright, being in the Senate at Washington, was
at once informed by telegraph of his nomination, but smarting under
what he believed to be the betrayal of Van Buren, he promptly sent a
curt and peremptory declination back on the wire. Had there been no
electric telegraph, Mr. Wright would have accepted the nomination for
Vice-President and been elected to that position, but the success of
Morse’s great invention, that had been completed between Washington
and Baltimore only a few days before the convention met, changed his
political destiny.
After mature reflection the friends of Van Buren were brought to terms
by the Democratic leaders in the interest of Polk, and they decided
to give a cordial support to the national ticket, but New York was
regarded as certain to vote against Polk unless some extraordinary
measures were adopted to save it. It was finally decided that only by
nominating Senator Wright for Governor could the vote of the State
be assured to Polk, and the man who had declined the Vice-Presidency
that was within his reach, because he expected and really desired the
ticket to be defeated, was compelled to resign his seat in the Senate
to accept the Democratic nomination for Governor of New York. He was
admittedly the strongest man in the party, and it was that nomination
that saved the Democrats of New York from demoralization and made Mr.
Polk President.
Two years later Wright suffered a humiliating defeat in a contest for
re-election, and thus ended a political career that should have been
rounded out in the second office of the Government. Jackson was made
President because there were no steamers, cables, or telegraphs to
advise him on the 8th of January, 1815, when he fought and won the
battle of New Orleans, that peace had been declared between the two
nations a fortnight before, and Silas Wright lost the Vice-Presidency
and ended his political career in disaster because the telegraph had
just been invented and put into operation between Washington and
Baltimore.
The convention then proceeded to a second nomination for
Vice-President, with the following result:
═════════════════════════════╤═════════╤═════════
│ 1st │ 2d
│ Ballot. │ Ballot.
─────────────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────
John Fairfield, Maine │ 107 │ 30
Levi Woodbury, New Hampshire │ 44 │ 6
Lewis Cass, Michigan │ 39 │ ――
R. M. Johnson, Kentucky │ 26 │ ――
Com. Stewart, Pennsylvania │ 23 │ ――
Geo. M. Dallas, Pennsylvania │ 13 │ 220
Wm. L. Marcy, New York │ 5 │ ――
═════════════════════════════╧═════════╧═════════
The nomination of Dallas was made unanimous.
In constructing the Democratic platform for 1844 the Democrats threw
out a political drag-net. The first Democratic national platform that
had been adopted by the convention of 1840 was embodied in its entirety
in the platform of this convention, and the following new resolutions
added:
_Resolved_, That the American Democracy place their trust, not in
factitious symbols, not in displays and appeals insulting to the
judgment and subversive of the intellect of the people, but in a clear
reliance upon the intelligence, patriotism, and the discriminating
justice of the American people.
_Resolved_, That we regard this as a distinctive feature of our
political creed, which we are proud to maintain before the world, as
the great moral element in a form of government springing from and
upheld by the popular will; and we contrast it with the creed and
practice of Federalism, under whatever name or form, which seeks to
palsy the will of the constituent, and which conceives no imposture
too monstrous for the popular credulity.
_Resolved_, Therefore, that, entertaining these views, the Democratic
party of this Union, through the delegates assembled in general
convention of the States, coming together in a spirit of concord,
of devotion to the doctrines and faith of a free representative
Government, and appealing to their fellow-citizens for the rectitude
of their intentions, renew and reassert before the American people the
declaration of principles avowed by them on a former occasion, when,
in general convention, they presented their candidates for the popular
suffrage.
_Resolved_, That the proceeds of the public lands ought to be sacredly
applied to the national objects specified in the Constitution; and
that we are opposed to the laws lately adopted, and to any law,
for the distribution of such proceeds among the States, as alike
inexpedient in policy and repugnant to the Constitution.
_Resolved_, That we are decidedly opposed to taking from the President
the qualified veto power by which he is enabled, under restrictions
and responsibilities amply sufficient to guard the public interest, to
suspend the passage of a bill, whose merits cannot secure the approval
of two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, until the
judgment of the people can be obtained thereon, and which has thrice
saved the American people from the corrupt and tyrannical domination
of the Bank of the United States.
_Resolved_, That our title to the whole of the territory of Oregon
is clear and unquestionable; that no portion of the same ought to be
ceded to England or any other power; and that the reoccupation of
Oregon and the reannexation of Texas at the earliest practical period
are great American measures which this convention recommends to the
cordial support of the Democracy of the Union.
_Resolved_, That this convention hold in the highest estimation and
regard their illustrious fellow-citizen, Martin Van Buren of New York;
that we cherish the most grateful and abiding sense of the ability,
integrity, and firmness with which he discharged the duties of the
high office of President of the United States, and especially of
the inflexible fidelity with which he maintained the true doctrines
of the Constitution and the measures of the Democratic party during
his trying and nobly arduous administration; that in the memorable
struggle of 1840 he fell a martyr to the great principles of which he
was the worthy representative, and we revere him as such; and that
we hereby tender to him, in honorable retirement, the assurance of
the deeply seated confidence, affection, and respect of the American
Democracy.
The Whigs had nominated their national ticket in advance of the
Democrats, the convention having been held at Baltimore on the 1st of
May, with every State fully represented. It was a national assembly
of unusual ability, and was most heartily and enthusiastically united
in the support of Clay for the Presidency. It did not require the
formality of a ballot to present him as the Whig candidate, and his
nomination was made by acclamation. It required three ballots to
nominate a candidate for Vice-President, as follows:
════════════════════════╤════════╤═════════╤════════
│ First. │ Second. │ Third.
────────────────────────┼────────┼─────────┼────────
T. Frelinghuysen, N. J. │ 101 │ 118 │ 155
John Davis, Mass. │ 83 │ 74 │ 79
Millard Fillmore, N. Y. │ 53 │ 51 │ 40
John Sergeant, Penn. │ 38 │ 32 │ ――
├────────┼─────────┼────────
Total │ 275 │ 275 │ 274
════════════════════════╧════════╧═════════╧════════
The platform adopted by the Whigs was brief but expressive. The Whig
faith was tersely given in a single resolution. The other resolutions
were simply eloquent tributes to Clay and Frelinghuysen, and the
convention adjourned, making the welkin ring with cheers for “Harry
Clay of the West” and for the “Mill Boy of the Slashes,” and absolutely
confident of the triumphant election of their great leader to the
highest honors of the Republic. The first Whig national platform was as
follows:
_Resolved_, That, in presenting to the country the names of Henry Clay
for President and of Theodore Frelinghuysen for Vice-President of the
United States, this convention is actuated by the conviction that all
the great principles of the Whig party—principles inseparable from the
public honor and prosperity—will be maintained and advanced by these
candidates.
_Resolved_, That these principles may be summed as comprising:
a well-regulated currency; a tariff for revenue to defray the
necessary expenses of the Government, and discriminating with special
reference to the protection of the domestic labor of the country; the
distribution of the proceeds from the sales of the public lands; a
single term for the presidency; a reform of executive usurpations;
and generally such an administration of the affairs of the country
as shall impart to every branch of the public service the greatest
practical efficiency, controlled by a well-regulated and wise economy.
_Resolved_, That the name of Henry Clay needs no eulogy. The history
of the country since his first appearance in public life is his
history. Its brightest pages of prosperity and success are identified
with the principles which he has upheld, as its darkest and more
disastrous pages are with every material departure in our public
policy from those principles.
_Resolved_, That in Theodore Frelinghuysen we present a man pledged
alike by his Revolutionary ancestry and his own public course to every
measure calculated to sustain the honor and interest of the country.
Inheriting the principles as well as the name of a father who, with
Washington, on the fields of Trenton and of Monmouth, perilled life
in the contest for liberty, and afterward, as a Senator of the United
States, acted with Washington in establishing and perpetuating that
liberty, Theodore Frelinghuysen, by his course as Attorney-General
of the State of New Jersey for twelve years, and subsequently as a
Senator of the United States for several years, was always strenuous
on the side of law, order, and the Constitution, while, as a private
man, his head, his hand, and his heart have been given without stint
to the cause of morals, education, philanthropy, and religion.
The third national convention that presented candidates for the
campaign of 1844 was that of the Abolitionists. They had grown since
1840, when they first nominated Mr. Birney as their candidate, and
their platform, elaborate as it is, is well worthy of careful study. It
met at Buffalo, in August, 1843, and nominated James G. Birney, of New
York, for President, and Thomas Morris, of Ohio, for Vice-President,
and it increased its vote up to 62,300, all of which were cast in the
Northern States, including 15,812 for Birney in New York. As nearly all
of them were of Whig antecedents, they would have preferred Clay to
Polk if they had not presented a ticket of their own to divert their
votes, and it was their support of Birney that gave Polk the majority
over Clay in the Empire State, whose electoral vote decided the
contest. The following is the full text of the first platform presented
by an Abolition national convention:
_Resolved_, That human brotherhood is a cardinal principle of
true democracy, as well as of pure Christianity, which spurns all
inconsistent limitations; and neither the political party which
repudiates it nor the political system which is not based upon it can
be truly democratic or permanent.
_Resolved_, That the Liberty party, placing itself upon this broad
principle, will demand the absolute and unqualified divorce of the
General Government from slavery, and also the restoration of equality
of rights among men, in every State where the party exists or may
exist.
_Resolved_, That the Liberty party has not been organized for any
temporary purpose by interested politicians, but has arisen from among
the people in consequence of a conviction, hourly gaining ground,
that no other party in the country represents the true principles of
American liberty or the true spirit of the Constitution of the United
States.
_Resolved_, That the Liberty party has not been organized merely
for the overthrow of slavery. Its first decided effort must indeed
be directed against slaveholding as the grossest and most revolting
manifestation of despotism, but it will also carry out the principle
of equal rights into all its practical consequences and applications,
and support every just measure conducive to individual and social
freedom.
_Resolved_, That the Liberty party is not a sectional party, but a
national party; was not originated in a desire to accomplish a single
object, but in a comprehensive regard to the great interests of the
whole country; is not a new party nor a third party, but is the party
of 1776, reviving the principles of that memorable era, and striving
to carry them into practical application.