State of Parties and the Country [pp. 1-53]

14 State of Parties and the Country. [uly,
vanity had grown into dotage; and his body was feele as
his mind, His nomination was unlucky for him in Svery
way. His election killed him. The Whigs have his death
at their door. But they could not rely entirely even upon
the hero of Tippecanoe. They extended their antennae into
other quarters, and, as if the more fully to convict themselves of utter dereliction of principle, they chose for their
Vice-Presidential nominee, an ultra State Rights man; one
who had been from time immemtnorial hostile to all their favourite prospects. Why? They were by this means to secure the matron State of Virginia, and to subsidize or
absorb that portion of the State Rights party, whom Jackson an(d Vanl Buren had driven, in a measure, fronm the ranks
of the Democracy. Now, the discontents of the State Rights
men, of whom John Tyler was one of the exponents, had
made them hostile to certain Democratic favourites, but had
not necessarily made them Whigs. But our sturdy Whigs
did not care for this distinction. The Vice-Presidency,
usually, was but an unsubstantial honour. It carried with
it no power, and but little prestige, under the ordinary course
of events. In giving the office to a Virginic State Rights
man, they were offering but a sop to Cerberus. They did
not dream tlhat, through this medium, they were only commending the poisoned chalice to their own lips. The Fates
stood ready for their punishment, and, in the death of Harrison, the moment the doors of the White House opened for
his reception, the power for which they had bargained their
principles, passed into the hands of one who had been always their avowed opponent, and who punished them justly,
by using his position with regard to his own principles, irrespective of those of which they had shown themselves sufficiently inconsiderate by his election. We are among those
who think that the Democratic and State Rights party have
accorded but meagre justice to Mr. Tyler's administration.
He has received but scant acknowledgment at their hands;
the consequence, probably, of the mistake which lie certainly
made in being content to receive power at the hands of the
Whigs, his own, and the hereditary enemies of his asso ciates.