Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/198

188 the means of state banks carefully selected, or of a new United States Bank, “should be left to the arbitrament of an enlightened public opinion.” He feared that without a United States Bank there could be no sound currency; but if it could be obtained otherwise, he would be satisfied. Manufacturing industries should be protected, but he was contented with the tariff duties provided for in the compromise act of 1833. The public lands should be treated as a source of revenue, in accordance with his land bill. The building of roads and canals should be left to the states; and they should receive from the general government, for internal improvements, no more than the fourth installment under the distribution law, and their share of the proceeds of public land sales. There should be a reduction of expenses and a diminution of offices. The right to slave property “should be left where the Constitution had placed it, undisturbed and unagitated by Congress.”

We shall remember some parts of this programme when we hear its author on the meaning of the victory.

Harrison was elected by 234 electoral votes against 60 for Van Buren. The Whigs carried nineteen, the Democrats only seven, states. In the popular vote, Harrison's majority reached nearly 150,000. The Whigs were wild with delight. They regarded their success as a great deliverance, the greatest event of their time. Few of them would have admitted that an occurrence