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administration, with charges of official corruption and defalcations of public officers, were alleged with force and truth by the orators and press of the Whig party—much glory and mere party excitement in the log-cabin songs and processions which may, and doubtless did, excite the illiterate and ignorant voter—yet there were sufficient valid political reasons to sustain the citizens in the overwhelming triumph that wafted Harrison and Tyler into office with a strong Congressional delegation to sustain them.
Van Buren received only sixty electoral votes, while Harrison had two hundred and thirty-four.
The death of Harrison occurring one month after inauguration, the administration devolved on Tyler, who became President.
The Administration was very much perplexed by a dissent in the party on the bank question.
The writer of the work under consideration does not enter into the history of this administration with much fullness or minutiae.1 The details of it are sufficiently known, however, and the work is devoted, in this particular, chiefly to the party quarrel with the President on the bank question, and the true position he occupied on it. The compiler of the Letters and Times of the Tylers considers the Whig party guilty of great duplicity on the bank question, and accuses Clay of apostacy.
We think it clear that President Tyler acted consistently with his uniform views on the bank question, and did not violate any principle set forth in his message of June 1, 1841.
It was, however, thought by the Whig members that the President would sign a bank bill, drawn as it was attempted in conformity to this message, in consequence of this belief.
Ewing sent in a bill for the incorporation of the ‘Fiscal Bank of the United States.’
The bill of Ewing finally passed Congress with a slight alteration concerning branch banks.2 It was sent to the President, by whom it was returned with a veto declaring the act unconstitutional, and stated the points on which he so held.
This occasioned great excitement.
It was, however, on this veto message that another bill was prepared with a view and desire,
1 I do not know what Judge Cocke means by lack of ‘details.’ I was afraid I had gone too much into them. The Bank Question takes 18o pages and the other questions—the Exchequer, the Loan Bill, Bankrupt Bill, etc., are treated at much length in chapter V.—author.
2 The bill that passed Congress, which Judge Cocke describes as ‘slightly’ altered from that of Ewing, walked right over the constitutional difficulty. If the difference was only ‘slight,’ why did not Mr. Clay accept Ewing's bill as it stood? The President implored him to do so. Volume II, page— The fight turned wholly on the branch banks and Mr. Archer's time.
Richmond, VA. 1886.
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