known as Anti-Masons:" (4) "Many, who up to that time had been known as Jackson men, but who united in condemning the high-handed conduct of the executive, the immolation of Duane and the subserviency of Taney:" (5) "Numbers who had not before taken any part in politics, but who were now awakened from their apathy by the palpable usurpations of the executive and the imminent peril of our whole fabric of constitutional liberty and national prosperity."

Mr. Clay refused to become a candidate in 1836, and the opposition to the Democratic party, instead of combining their strength, undertook to scatter SO as to throw the election into the House of Representatives.

Of the twenty-six States that took part in the election -Arkansas and Michigan having been added to the Union-Van Buren carried Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Michigan, receiving in all 762,679 votes at the polls, and 170 in the electoral college. Massachusetts cast her 14 votes for Daniel Webster. William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, also a Whig candidate, received the votes of Vermont, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana, making in all 73 votes in the electoral college. Hugh L. White, of Tennessee, received the votes of Georgia and Tennessee, 26 in all. South Carolina voted for Willie P. Mangum, of North Carolina, II votes. The combined popular vote for the Whig candidates, Harrison, Webster, and White, amounted to 735,651.

Richard M. Johnson received 147 of the electoral votes for Vice-President, Francis Granger, of New York, 77, John Tyler, of Virginia, 47, and William Smith, of Alabama, 23.

As Johnson thus received one-half, and not a majority of the electoral votes, the Senate chose between him and Francis Granger, the two highest candidates. He received 33 votes to 16 for Granger.

On retiring from office, Jackson followed the example of Washington, and issued a farewell address to the American people, and withdrew to his home in Tennessee -The Hermitage-where he died on June 8, 1845.

It will be a fitting close of this rapid outline of his administration to quote from Benton's description of the inauguration of Van Buren on the 4th of March, 1837, as it referred to Jackson.

"At twelve he appeared with his successor, Mr. Van Buren, on the elevated and spacious eastern portico of the capitol, as one of the citizens who came to witness the inauguration of the new President, and in no way distinguished from them except by his place on the left hand of the President-elect. The day was beautiful-clear sky, balmy, vernal sun, tranquil atmosphere, and the assemblage immense. On foot, in the large area in front of the steps, orderly without troops, and closely wedged together, their faces turned to the portico, presenting to the beholders from all the eastern windows the appearance of a field paved with human faces. This vast crowd remained, riveted to their places, and profoundly silent, until the ceremony of inauguration was over. It was the stillness and silence of reverence and affection; and there was no room for mistake as to whom this mute and impressive homage was rendered. For once the rising was eclipsed by the setting sun. Though disrobed of power and retiring to the shades of private life, it was evident that the great ex-President was the absorbing object of this intense

regard. At the moment he began to descend the broad steps of the portico to take his seat in the open carriage which was to bear him away, the deep, repressed feeling of the dense mass broke forth, acclamations and cheers bursting from the heart and filling the air, such as power never commanded nor man in power received. It was the affection, gratitude, and admiration of the living age, saluting for the last time a great man. It was the acclaim of posterity breaking from the bosoms of contemporaries. It was the anticipation of futurity-unpurchasable homage to the hero-patriot, who, all his life, and in all the circumstances of his life, in peace and in war, and glorious in each, had been the friend of his country, devoted to her, regardless of self. Uncovered, and bowing, with a look of unaffected humility and thankfulness, he acknowledged in mute signs his sensibility to this affecting overflow of popular feeling. I was looking down from a side window and felt an emotion which had never passed through me before. I had seen the inauguration of many Presidents and their going away, and their days of state, vested with power, and surrounded by the splendor of the first magistracy of a great republic. But they all appeared to be as pageants, empty and soulless, brief to view, unreal to the touch, and soon to vanish. But here there seemed to be a reality-a real scene-a man and the people, he laying down power, and withdrawing through the everlasting portals of fame; they sounding in his ears the everlasting plaudits of unborn generations. Two days after, I saw the patriot ex-President in a car which bore him off to his desired seclusion. I saw him depart with that look of quiet enjoyment which bespoke the inward satisfaction of the soul at exchanging the cares of office for the repose of home. History, poetry, oratory, marble and brass, will hand down the military exploits of Jackson: this work will commemorate the events of his civil administration, not less glorious than his military achievements, great as they were; and this brief notice of his last appearance at the American capitol is intended to preserve some faint memory of a scene the grandeur of which was so impressive to the beholder, and the solace of which must have been so great to the heart of the departing patriot."

CHAPTER IX.

HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT

VAN BUREN, 1837-1841.

N his inaugural address the new President declared his

IN

intention to "follow in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor," and according to the doctrines of the democratic school as existing in the original formation of parties; close observance to the Federal Constitution as written; no latitudinarian construction permitted; or doubtful powers assumed; faithful adherence to all its compromises, economy in the administration of the government, peace, friendship and fair dealing with all foreign nations, entangling alliances with none.

The rise of an abolition party during the last years of Jackson's administration called from the President a pledge, not to permit interference with slavery in the States where it existed, or in the District of Columbia, without the consent of those States.

The great financial panic followed soon after the incoming of the new administration. A general suspension of banks, depreciation of currency, and insolvency of the Federal treasury followed a period of surplus revenue. As carly as the 10th of May, 1837, the New York State banks refused to pay gold and silver for their notes, and the Leg