Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/384

 378 Southern Historical Society Papers.

cessive years. His career along- the pathway of an honorable dis- tinction was rapid. In 1816 he was elected to Congress, and was twice re-elected. Ill health induced him to resign before the expira- tion of his term. In'i823 and the two following years he was elected a member of the Legislature, and in 1825 was chosen Governor of the State by the Legislature. The next session he was re-elected unanimously, by the Legislature, Governor.

Tyler was a cultivated^man with a refined taste in literature. On the death of Thomas Jefferson he was requested to deliver, in Rich- mond, Virginia, a funeral oration, which he did on the nth of July, 1826. It is a beautiful eulogy, and will compare favorably, in literar)' style and in pure sentiments and sound political philosophy, with any of the very many pronounced on the life and services of the distin- guished statesman, Thomas Jefferson.

His official life was almost continuous. In March, 1827, he suc- ceeded John Randolph as United States Senator, having been elected over Mr. Randolph by a decided vote. In 1833 Tyler was re elected.

The writer of the work now under consideration presents a very accurate and interesting history of the rupture of the great Repub- lican party of the Jeffersonian school, which, in 1824, had been split in many factions, but which, at this period, was combining under what was known as the Democratic and National Republicans. Tyler was opposed to the United States Bank policy, to internal improve- ment by the General Government, and to the protective tariff" policy. In the Jeffersonian application of Democrat, Tyler was a Democrat; but when the Whig party took its rise, Tyler co-operated with them, and was never, in the Jackson sense, a Democrat, but a decided Whig.

The history of the'rise of the Whig party, occasioned by the vio- lent Federal measures and principles of the Jackson Democratic party, which was in no sense Democratic, is very fairly presented by the writer of the " Letters and Times of the Two Tylers." It was characterized by the exhibition of the talent of such men as Web- ster, Clay, Calhoun, Tyler, Leigh, Archer, Badger, Berrien, Preston, White, Prentice, Reverdy Johnson, and many others, determined to resist the violent measures of Andrew Jackson as President of the United States. We will not enter into a discussion of the many points on which the Whig party acted. It is known, historically, how P'ederal the so called Democratic party of the Jackson school became, and, in truth, the Whigs were more Democratic than the professed Democrats. It was under that influence that Mr. Webster