By 1836 Jackson's leadership had produced a generally united Democratic party. The party nominated Martin Van Buren as successor to Jackson who promised to "tread generally in the footsteps of President Jackson." Although the party had no formal platform it did agree on some general political positions. It tended to be skeptical of businesses and anything perceived as special privilege, and it generally conformed to Thomas Jefferson's positions, including equal opportunity, limited national government, and political freedom, to which Jackson's Democrats added the concepts of social equality and faith in the common man. In addition, Democrats were in favor of the Jeffersonian concept of free public education, an idea that was spreading across the nation, far ahead of most of the rest of the world.
Jackson's opponents had coalesced into the Whig party, generally united against whom they saw as "King Andrew." When the Whigs could not agree on a single candidate, they decided to run multiple candidates in the hope of throwing the election into the House of Representatives, where the Whigs would be able to determine the outcome. The leading candidate was Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, and the Whigs also nominated William Henry Harrison as the candidate to run in the West and Hugh L. White to run as a states' rights candidate in the South. The Whigs' "favorite son" nominating tactic failed, however, and Martin Van Buren succeeded Jackson to the presidency.
Martin Van Buren as President
Martin Van Buren was the first of several presidents and presidential candidates from New York, and the first of Dutch descent. He had the misfortune to be inaugurated just as a financial crisis loomed on the horizon. Within weeks of van Buren's inauguration, prices rose, financial firms began to fail, and by May 1837 panic had set in. Problems had begun with the decrease in land sales brought about by the specie circular, and real estate troubles were followed by problems with stocks and commodity prices, especially cotton in the South. An acute banking crisis, also resulting from policies of the Jackson administration, caused bank failures and other economic problems. Protests broke out over inflationary prices, and Van Buren's measures failed to halt the economic downturn. As generally happens in times of economic depression, the incumbent party was assigned the blame, whether properly or not. It was the worst financial crisis in American history until 1929.52
The Panic of 1837 was the result of a period of rampant speculation in railroads, land, manufacturing ventures and other enterprises. By 1835 New York City had become the second most important financial center in the world after London. Americans acted as though the economy would keep rising indefinitely and spent accordingly. Many new banks had opened to process the expanding commerce, some of the built on shaky foundations. In the spring of 1837 the economic bubble burst. Bankruptcies and unemployment caused untold suffering and hardship. Confidence was difficult to restore, and the nation foundered.
President van Buren called Congress into special session and presented them with a far-reaching plan for recovery. The plan, designed to help banks and forestall lawsuits, sailed through Congress, and by late 1838 the situation had begun to improve. Nevertheless, van Buren was blamed for the economic disaster, which provided a rallying point for the Whigs. Although the panic was not van Buren's fault, it undermined his chance for reelection in 1840.
The Abolition Movement. Abolitionist sentiment had begun around 1830 and was getting stronger by the time and Van Buren became president. As debates in Congress grew increasingly bitter, Congress eventually adopted a gag rule:
"Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions, or papers, relating in any way, or to any extent whatever, to the subject of slavery, or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be laid upon the table, and that no further action whatever shall be had thereon."53
Former President John Quincy Adams, now a congressman from Massachusetts, argued repeatedly for the right of petition and earned the title "Old Man Eloquent." (Adams's speech before the Supreme Court in the Amistad" case was another famous example of his eloquence.)
The presidential campaign of 1840 was one of the more colorful in American history and became known as the "Log cabin and Hard Cider" campaign. Although Clay was still a powerful figure, the Whig convention nominated William Henry Harrison and John Tyler as its candidates. Their chief unifying position was still opposition to the Democrats, and Harrison's popularity was based upon his winning the Battle of Tippecanoe. (Thus the slogan, "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!") Newspaper ads, parades, rallies and other symbols of the sort which soon became popular in presidential campaigns, were all part of the scene in 1840, so there was little discussion of hard issues. The campaign soon degenerated into a mudslinging contest in which wild charges were flung in all directions. The only mature element of the campaign was the fact that two organized political parties were vying against each other.
Harrison's popular vote margin was about 150,000 out of 2Vi million votes cast, but his majority in the electoral College was 234 to 60. Harrison's presidency became the shortest in history, lasting just over 30 days as he became ill from delivering his inaugural address during nasty weather and died. Vice President John Tyler succeeded to the presidency, the first vice president to move up to the White House upon the death of a president.
World History
