Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/94

 66 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS States bank. But there is no doubt that some measures of Jackson s administration such as the removal of the deposits and their lodgment in the so-called &quot;pet banks,&quot; the distribution of the sur plus followed by the sudden stoppage of distri bution, and the sharpness of the remedy supplied by the specie circular had much to do with the virulence of the crisis. For the moment it seemed to many people that all the evil resulted from the suppression of the bank, and that the proper cure was the reinstatement of the bank, and because President Van Buren was too wise and clear sighted to lend his aid to such a policy, his chances for re-election were ruined. The cry for the moment was that the hard-hearted administration was doing nothing to relieve the distress of the peo ple, and there was a general combination against Van Buren. For the single purpose of defeating him, all differences of policy were for the moment subordinated. In the Whig convention at Harris- burg, December 4, 1839, no platform of principles was adopted. Gen. Harrison was again nominated for the presidency, as a candidate fit to conciliate the anti-Masons and National Republicans whom Clay had offended, and Mr. Tyler was nominated for the vice-presidency in order to catch the votes of such Democrats as were dissatisfied with the ad ministration. In the uproarious canvass that fol lowed there was probably less appeal to sober