Anecdotes of public men; by John W. Forney.

PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. 36I
the disappointment of the vanquished are naturally extreme.
Never shall I forget the exciting struggle in 1844, when James
K. Polk defeated Henry Clay. The rejoicing of the Democrats
and the agony of the Whigs of Philadelphia were literally terrific. Francis R. Shunk had been elected Governor of Pennsylvania in the previous October by a small majority, and the
struggle in November was intense. Immense sums were hazarded by the betting men; but when the October fiat was pronounced in Pennsylvania, the verdict in November was decided.
It also practically decided the fate of the Whigs as a party.
Mr. Clay was regarded as so far superior to Mr. Polk that the
triumph of the latter was accepted as the recognition of a mere
politician and the degradation of a great statesman. The Kentuckian never recovered from it. His real chance was lost in
1840, when Harrison was elected over Van Buren, and I was
not surprised at his violence after his party had preferred a
military availability, so graphically described by Henry A. Wise
in his biography of John Tyler, just published by J. B. Lippincott. There was no actual contest in 1848, for the Democrats
were divided between Cass and Van Buren, and General Taylor had an easy time of it. In 1852 the Whigs made their last
stand as a party. Having set Mr. Clay aside in I844, they ignored Webster for Scott in I852, and broke the heart of the
great New-Englander. Pierce literally walked over the course,
aided by hosts of angry Whigs. But in 1856 the old fires were
relighted. The Republicans came on the stage that year in
great force, openly flying the banner of anti-slavery, and they
would have won but for the pledges of the Democratic candidate of justice to Kansas. The October fight in i856 in Pennsylvania decided the Presidency. The Democratic majority
was small, but it did the work in November. In i860 there
was again not much of a struggle, for there was a hopeless division among the Democrats, who from that time began to grow
weaker and weaker, until their folly ripened into the rebellion.
Q