he received the votes of only seven. He seemed to have been abandoned by the people! On the contrary he had been unprecedentedly supported by them-had received a larger popular vote than ever had been given to any President before! and three hundred and sixty-four thousand votes more than he himself had received at the previous presidential election when he beat the same General Harrison fourteen thousand votes. Here was a startling fact, and one to excite inquiry in the public mind. How could there be such overwhelming defeat with such an enormous increase of strength on the defeated side? This question pressed itself upon every thinking mind; and it was impossible to give it a solution consistent with the honor and purity of the elective franchise. For, after making all allowance for the greater number of voters brought out on this occasion than at the previous election by the extraordinary exertions now made to bring them out, yet there would still be required a great number to make up the five hundred and sixty thousand votes which General Harrison received over and above his vote of four years before. The belief of false and fraudulent votes was deep-seated, and in fact susceptible of proof in many instances. Many thought it right, for the sake of vindicating the purity of elections, to institute a scrutiny into the votes; but nothing of the kind was attempted, and on the second Wednesday in February, 1841, all the electoral votes were counted without objection-General Harrison found to have a majority of the whole number of votes given-and Messrs. Wise and Cushing on the part of the House and Mr. Preston on the part of the Senate, were appointed to give him the formal notification of his election. Mr. Tyler received an equal number of votes with him, and became Vice-president: Mr. Richard M. Johnson fell twelve votes behind Mr. Van Buren, receiving but 48 electoral votes. It was a complete rout of the democratic party, but without a single moral effect of victory. The spirit of the party ran as high as ever, and Mr. Van Buren was immediately, and generally, proclaimed the democratic candidate for the election of 1844. THE last session of the Twenty-sixth Congress was barren of measures, and necessarily so, as being the last of an administration superseded by the popular voice, and soon to expire; and therefore restricted by a sense of propriety, during the brief remainder of its existence, to the details of business and the routine of service. But his administration had not been barren of measures, nor inauspicious to the harmony of the Union. It had seen great measures adopted, and sectional harmony conciliated. The divorce of Bank and State, and the restoration of the constitutional currency, were illustrious measures, beneficial to the government and the people; and the benefits of which will continue to be felt as long as they shall be kept. One of them dissolved a meretricious connection, disadvantageous to both parties, and most so to the one that should have suffered least, and was made to suffer most. The other carried back the government to what it was intended to bere-established it as it was in the first year of Washington's administration-made it in fact a hard-money government, giving solidity to the Treasury, and freeing the government and the people from the revulsions and vicissitudes of the paper system. No more complaints about the currency and the exchanges since that time. Unexampled prosperity has attended the people; and the government, besides excess of solid money in time of peace, has carried on a foreign war, three thousand miles from home, with its securities above par during the whole time: a felicitous distinction, never enjoyed by our country before, and seldom by any country of the world. These two measures constitute an era in the working of our government, entitled to a proud place in its history, on which the eye of posterity may look back with gratitude and admiration. His administration was auspicious to the general harmony, and presents a period of remarkable exemption from the sectional bitterness which had so much afflicted the Union for personal detriment, losing much popular favor in the border States from his strenuous repression of aid to a neighboring people, insurging for liberty, and militarily crushed in the attempt. He did his duty towards Great Britain by preventing succor from going to her revolted subjects; and when the scene was changed, and her authorities did an injury to us by the murder of our citizens, and the destruction of a vessel on our own shore-the case of the Caroline at Schlosser-he did his duty to the United States by demanding redress; and when one of the alleged perpetrators was caught in the State where the outrage had been committed, he did his duty to that State by asserting her right to punish the infraction of her own laws. And although he did not obtain the redress for the outrage at some years before-and so much more sorely since. Faithful to the sentiments expressed in his inaugural address, he held a firm and even course between sections and parties, and passed through his term without offence to the North or the South on the subject of slavery. He reconciled South Carolina to the Union-received the support of her delegation in Congress-saw his administration receive the approving vote of her general assembly-and counted her vote among those which he received for the presidency-the first presidential vote which she had given in twelve years. No President ever had a more difficult time. Two general suspensions of the banks-one at the beginning, and the other towards the close of his administration-the delinquent institutions in both instances allying themselves with a great political party-were power-Schlosser, yet it was never refused to him, nor ful enough to derange and distress the business of the country, and unscrupulous enough to charge upon his administration the mischiefs which themselves created. Meritorious at home, and in his internal policy, his administration was equally so in its foreign relations. The insurrection in Canada, contemporaneous with his acces-ing newspaper, the Washington Globe. Messrs. sion to the presidency, made a crisis between the Forsyth, Secretary of State-Woodbury of the United States and Great Britain, in which he dis- Treasury-Poinsett of War-Paulding of the charged his high duties with equal firmness, Navy-Kendall and John M. Niles, Postmasskill, and success. The border line of the United ters-general-and Butler, Grundy and Gilpin, States, for a thousand miles, was in commotion to successive Attorneys-general-were all harjoin the insurgent Canadians. The laws of neu- monious and efficient co-operators. With every trality, the duties of good neighborhood, our own title to respect, and to public confidence, he was peace (liable to be endangered by lawless expe- disappointed of a second election, but in a canditions from our shores), all required him to re- vass which had had no precedent, and has had press this commotion. And faithfully he did no imitation; and in which an increase of so, using all the means-judicial and military-364,000 votes on his previous election, attests which the laws put in his hands; and successfully an increase of strength which fair means could for the maintenance of neutrality, but with some not have overcome. the right to redress denied, nor the outrage itself assumed by the British government as long as his administration lasted. Respected at home, his administration was equally so abroad. Cordially supported by his friends in Congress, he was equally so by his cabinet, and his lead ANNO 1841. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, PRESIDENT. 209 ADMINISTRATION OF WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. CHAPTER LX. seats were placed, and the ceremony of the inauguration was to take place. An immense INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT HARRISON: HIS crowd, extending far and wide, stood closely CABINET CALL OF CONGRESS-AND DEATH. wedged on the pavement and enclosed grounds in front of the portico. The President elect read his inaugural address, with animation and strong voice, and was well heard at a distance. As an inaugural address, it was confined to a declaration of general principles and sentiments; and it breathed a spirit of patriotism which adversaries, as well as friends, admitted to be sincere, and to come from the heart. After the conclusion of the address, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Mr. Taney, administered the oath prescribed by the constitution: and the ceremony of inauguration was at an end. MARCH the 4th, at twelve o'clock, the Senate met in its chamber, as summoned to do by the retiring President, to be ready for the inauguration of the President elect, and the transaction of such executive business as he should bring before it. The body was quite full, and was called to order by the secretary, Mr. Asbury Dickens; and Mr. King, of Alabama, being elected temporary President of the Senate, administered the oath of office to the Vice-president elect, John Tyler, Esq., who immediately took the chair as President of the Senate. The scene in the chamber was simple and impressive. The senators were in their seats: members of the House in chairs. The justices of the Supreme Court, and the foreign diplomatic corps were in the front semicircle of chairs, on the floor of the Senate. Officers of the army and navy were present-many citizens-and some ladies. Every part of the chamber and galleries were crowded, and it required a vigilant police to prevent the entrance of more than the allotted number. After the Vice-president elect had On the 17th of March, the President issued a taken his seat, and delivered to the Senate over proclamation, convoking the Congress in exwhich he was to preside a well-conceived, well-traordinary session for the 31st day of May enexpressed, and well-delivered address, appropri- suing. The proclamation followed the usual ately brief, a short pause and silence ensued. form in not specifying the immediate, or direct, The President elect entered, and was conducted cause of the convocation. It merely stated. to the seat prepared for him in front of the sec- "That sundry and weighty matters, principally retary's table. The procession was formed and growing out of the condition of the revenue and proceeded to the spacious eastern portico, where | finances of the country, appear to call for the VOL. II.-14 The Senate returned to its chamber, and hav ing received a message from the President with the nominations for his cabinet, immediately proceeded to their consideration; and unanimously confirmed the whole. They were: Daniel Webster, Secretary of State; Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Treasury; John Bell, Secretary at War; George E. Badger, Secretary of the Navy; Francis Granger, Postmaster-general; John J. Crittenden, Attorney-general. .1 General Harrison was a native of Virginia son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a descendant of the "regicide" Harrison who sat on the trial of Charles I. In the course of the first session of Congress after the death of General Harrison-that session which convened under his call-the oppor convocation of Congress at an earlier day than its next annual session, and thus form an extraordinary occasion which, in the judgment of the President, rendered it necessary for the two Houses to convene as soon as practicable." President Harrison did not live to meet the Congress which he had thus convoked. Short as the time was that he had fixed for its meet-tunity presented itself to the author of this View ing, his own time upon earth was still shorter. In the last days of March he was taken ill on the fourth day of April he was dead-at the age of 69; being one year under the limit which the psalmist fixed for the term of manly life. There was no failure of health or strength to indicate such an event, or to excite apprehension that he would not go through his term with the vigor with which he commenced it. His attack was sudden, and evidently fatal from the beginning. A public funeral was given him, most numerously attended, and the body deposited in the Congress vault-to wait its removal to his late home at North Bend, Ohio ;—whither it was removed in the summer. He was a man of infinite kindness of heart, affectionate to the human race, of undoubted patriotism, irreproachable integrity both in public and private life; and of a hospitality of disposition which received with equal welcome in his house the humblest and the most exalted of the land. - to express his personal sentiments with respect to him. President Tyler, in his message, recommended a grant of money to the family of the deceased President "in consideration of his expenses in removing to the seat of government, and the limited means which he had left behind;" and a bill had been brought into the Senate accordingly, taking one year's presidential salary ($25,000) as the amount of the grant. Deeming this proceeding entirely out of the limits of the constitution-against the policy of the government-and the commencement of the monarchical system of providing for families, Mr. Benton thus expressed himself at the conclusion of an argument against the grant: "Personally I was friendly to General Harrison, and that at a time when his friends were not so numerous as in his last days; and if I had needed any fresh evidences of the kindness of his heart, I had them in his twice mentioning to me, during the short period of his presidency, The public manifestations of respect to the that, which surely I should never have menmemory of the deceased President, were appro- tioned to him—the circumstance of my friend◄ priate and impressive, and co-extensive with the ship to him when his friends were fewer. I bounds of the Union. But there was another would gladly now do what would be kind and kind of respect which his memory received, respectful to his memory-what would be libemore felt than expressed, and more pervading ral and beneficial to his most respectable widow; than public ceremonies: it was the regret of the but, to vote for this bill! that I cannot do. nation, without distinction of party: for it was High considerations of constitutional law and a case in which the heart could have fair play, public policy forbid me to do so, and command and in which political opponents could join with me to make this resistance to it, that a mark their adversaries in manifestations of respect may be made-a stone set up at the place and sorrow. Both the deceased President, and where this new violence was done to the constithe Vice-president, were of the same party, tution-this new page opened in the book of our elected by the same vote, and their administra- public expenditures; and this new departure tions expected to be of the same character. It taken, which leads into the bottomless gulf of was a case in which no political calculation could civil pensions and family gratuities." interfere with private feeling; and the national regret was sincere, profound, and pervading. Gratifying was the spectacle to see a national union of feeling in behalf of one who had been so lately the object of so much political division. It was a proof that there can be political opposition without personal animosity. The deceased President had been closely preceded, and was rapidly followed, by the deaths of almost all his numerous family of sons and daughters. A worthy son survives (John Scott Harrison, Esq.), a most respectable member of Congress from the State of Ohio. ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN TYLER. CHAPTER LXI. of government. He repaired to it immediately, took the oath of office, before the Chief Judge ACCESSION OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT TO THE of the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, PRESIDENCY. William Cranch, Esquire; and appointed the late cabinet for his own. Each was retained in the place held under his predecessor, and with the strongest expressions of regard and confidence. Four days after his accession to the presidency, Mr. Tyler issued an address, in the nature of an inaugural, to the people of the United States, the first paragraph of which was very appropriately devoted to his predecessor, and to the circumstances of his own elevation to the presidential chair. That paragraph was in these words: THE Vice-president was not in Washington when the President died: he was at his residence in lower Virginia: some days would necessarily elapse before he could arrive. President Harrison had not been impressed with the probable fatal termination of his disease, and the consequent propriety of directing the Vicepresident to be sent for. His cabinet could not feel themselves justified in taking such a step while the President lived. Mr. Tyler would feel it indelicate to repair to the seat of government, of his own will, on hearing the report of "Before my arrival at the seat of government, the President's illness. The attending physi- the painful communication was made to you, by cians, from the most proper considerations, held the officers presiding over the several departout hopes of recovery to near the last; but, for ments, of the deeply regretted death of WILLIAM four days before the event, there was a pervad-States. Upon him you had conferred your sufHENRY HARRISON, late President of the United ing feeling in the city that the President would frages for the first office in your gift, and had not survive his attack. His death left the ex- selected him as your chosen instrument to corecutive government for some days in a state of rect and reform all such errors and abuses as interregnum. There was no authority, or per- in the practical operations of the government. had manifested themselves from time to time, son present, legally empowered to take any While standing at the threshold of this great step; and so vital an event as a change in the work, he has, by the dispensation of an all-wise chief magistrate, required the fact to be formally Providence, been removed from amongst us, and and publicly verified. In the absence of Con- by the provisions of the constitution, the efforts to be directed to the accomplishing of this vigress, and the Vice-president, the members of tally important task have devolved upon myself. the late cabinet very properly united in announ- This same occurrence has subjected the wisdom cing the event to the country, and in despatch- and sufficiency of our institutions to a new test. For the first time in our history, the person ing a messenger of state to Mr. Tyler, to give elected to the Vice-presidency of the United him the authentic information which would States, by the happening of a contingency proshow the necessity of his presence at the seat vided for in the constitution, has had devolved |