Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/386

 380 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Jackson and the opposition to the election ol" Martin Van Buren, Cal- houn truly remarked : " It is also true that a common party designa- tion :Whig) was applied to the opposition in the aggregate. But it is no less true that it was universally known that it consisted of two distinct parties, dissimilar in principle and policy, except in relation to the object for which they had united the National Republican party and the portion of the State Rights' party, which had sepa- rated from the Administration on the ground that it had departed from the true principle of the original party." This reflects in sev- eral instances the views expressed above in this sketch, and will sus- tain us in views subsequently to be taken in relation to the elements composing the Whig party in its organization and action during the Van Buren administration.

In May, 1835, Van Buren was unanimously nominated by the Democratic National Convention for President, and was inaugurated March 4th, 1837. The country, for some years a prey to the most violent pecuniary embarrassments, was now involved in a crisis of unprecedented severity ; commerce and manufactures were prostrate. The President called an extra session to meet in September, 1837. This extra session " witnessed," to quote the language of our writer, " the deduf in Van Buren' s message of the new system of finance," Vol. I, page 584. It also witnessed, as he observes, a split in the ranks of the Democratic party. Thi's faction called themselves con- servatives, among which were some men of great virtue and ability — Rives, Tallmadge and Legree being of that party. But what is also remarkable Calhoun, Tazewell, Gordon, Troup and many others of the Whig party, who had been bitter opponents of the Jackson measures, co-operated with the Democrats on the specie platform of the sub-treasury. We will not trace out at this time the history of the sub-treasury. It was a scheme used as a substitute for a national bank, and its very existence depended upon and practiced daily all of the essential features of banking, except lending money on good security.

In the Whig National Convention, on December 4th, 1839, Har- rison was nominated for the Presidency and Tyler for Vice-President. Van Buren, as the representative of the Democratic party, was nomi- nated without opposition by a national convention of May 5th, 1840.

The contest between Harrison and Van Buren was conducted with more absorbing interest and public excitement than ever before ex- hibited in the United States in any political canvass. The financial distress which had overshadowed the country during Van Buren's