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

TYLER AND THE WHIGS

65

Congress from Virginia, and this appears to have
been the opinion of Webster.' All such explanations seem less rational and easy to believe than
that Tyler, though led by anger at the dictatorial
behavior of Clay into rashness in the exercise of
his constitutional prerogative, was actuated in the
main by courage and consistency. It was not unnatural that honest misunderstandings as to matters of fact should grow out of the negotiations for
a compromise on a bill to organize a national bank.
If the conflicting evidence be set aside or sifted
fairly to obtain the truth, and the undisputed part
of Tyler's record, together with his character as
manifest therein, be studied, it will appear that he
acquitted himself in his quarrel with the Whigs
only as might have been expected from a brave and
determined man and a stanch believer in state
rights.
Tyler organized a new cabinet readily enough; but,
though Clay remained in control of Congress, the special session adjourned on September 13, I841, with
nothing to show for its work. The bank project was
dead forever, and the fall elections showed that a reaction had set in. Of the states that had voted for
Harrison, Georgia, Maryland, and Maine went over to
the Democratic column, and in some others the Whig
majority was much reduced.2 Clay may have been
1 Von Holst, United States, II., 432; Niles' Register, LXI., 55;
Adams, Memoirs, XI., I4.
2 Nles' Register, LXI., 48, 74, 103.
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