Westward extension, 1841-1850, by George Pierce Garrison.

50

WESTWARD EXTENSION

[i840

time, in fact, since i8oo that there had been a real
victory of an opposition over a well-organized administration party; for, though the election of Jackson in i828 was of greater significance, Adams had
no such party to support him. But the election of
i840 was, after all, less significant than it seemed.1
The popular majority for Harrison in most of the
states was small; and for the whole Union, in an
aggregate of over 2,400,000, it was less than I50,000.
The congressional elections gave the Whigs a majority of forty-four in the House and seven in the
Senate-enough to carry out a programme if the
party were united in support of it, but not enough
to make Congress independent of the executive.
The significance of the election was mainly negative; it meant only that a little more than half the
voters of the United States were for the moment
arrayed against "Van Burenism; but what alternative they wished was not so clear.
I Cf. Wilson, Division and Reunion, I33.