Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs/Chapter 09

by George Sewall Boutwell

 

IX

THE ELECTION OF 1840

IN the early summer of 1840 the great contest began, which ended in the defeat of Mr. Van Buren and the election of Gen. Harrison to the Presidency. The real issues were not much discussed—certainly not by the Whigs. In reality the results were due to the general prostration of business and the utter discredit that had fallen upon General Jackson’s pet bank system. The Independent Treasury System, as it was termed by Democrats, or the Sub-Treasury System, as it was called by the Whigs, had not been tested.

The country was tired of experiments and all the evils, which were many, that then afflicted the people, were attributed to the experiments of General Jackson in vetoing the bills for the recharter of the United States Bank and for the institution of the pet bank system. In truth the country was wedded to the idea that the funds of the government should be so placed that they could be used to facilitate business. That idea and the practice arising from it were full of peril. In the infancy of a country, when the resources are inadequate, a national bank, assuming that it is managed honestly and wisely, may be an important aid, but time being given, it will inevitably become a political machine in a country, like the United States, where the political aspirations of the people are active and the temptations to seek the aid of the money power are always great. Even in modern times, with a surplus of millions in the banks of the city of New York, for which no proper use can be found, there are indications of a purpose to return to the pet bank system under another name.

Gen. Harrison, the nominee of the Whig Party, was then sixty-seven years of age by the record, but the public opinion credited him with several more years. His mental powers were not of a superior quality, and his life had not been of a sort to develop his faculties. He had done good service in the Indian wars of the frontier and as commander at the battle of Tippecanoe he had won a reputation as a soldier. During the war of 1812, he commanded the army of the Northwest, and with honor. He had had a seat in each House of Congress, he had represented the government at the capital of a South American Republic, and all with credit, and all without distinction. His career had been sufficiently conspicuous to justify his friends in eulogies in the party papers and speeches; and neither as good policy nor just treatment should his opponents have been betrayed into criticisms of his military and civil life. The Democrats were unwise enough to raise an issue upon his military career, and the result was greatly to their loss. His frontier life in a log cabin was also the subject of ridicule at the opening of the campaign. The Whigs accepted the issue, built log cabins on wheels and drew them over the country from one mass meeting to another. The unfortunate remark was made by a writer or speaker that if Harrison had a log cabin and plenty of hard cider he would be content. A barrel became the emblem of the Whig Party. The log cabin was furnished with a cider barrel at the door, and the emblematic barrel was seen on cane heads and breast pins.

Mr. Webster struck a fatal blow at the error of the Democratic Party:—“Let him be the log cabin candidate. What you say in scorn we will shout with all our lungs. * * * It did not happen to me to be born in a log cabin; but my elder brothers and sisters were born in a log cabin raised amid the snow drifts of New Hampshire, at a period so early that when the smoke first rose from its rude chimney and curled over the frozen hills there was no similar evidence of a white man’s habitation between it and the settlements on the rivers of Canada. * * * If ever I am ashamed of it, or if I ever fail in affectionate remembrance of him who reared it, and defended it against savage violence and destruction, cherished all the domestic virtues beneath its roof, and through the fire and blood of a seven years’ Revolutionary war, shrunk from no danger, no toil, no sacrifice to save his country and to raise his children to a condition better than his own, may my name and the name of my posterity be blotted forever from the memory of mankind.”

John Tyler of Virginia, was placed on the Whig ticket as the candidate for Vice-President. Tyler had been a Democrat and the opinions of the States Rights wing of the Democratic Party were his opinions, notwithstanding his associations with the Whig Party. His nomination was due to the disposition to balance the ticket by selecting one of the candidates from each wing of the party—and there are always two wings to a party.

Of poetry the Whig writers furnished much more than was enjoyed by Democrats. An effort was made to stay the tide in favor of Harrison by poetry as well as by argument. The effort was fruitless. The contest of 1840 had its origin in the most distressing financial difficulties that ever rested upon the country, and it was conducted on the part of the Whigs by large expenditures of money, for those days, and with a degree of hilarity and good nature that it is difficult now to realize. This may have been due to general confidence, and to a consequent belief that a change of administration would be followed by general prosperity.

The Whigs were not under the necessity of submitting arguments to their followers, and the arguments of Democrats were of no avail. The Whig papers in all parts of the country contained lists of names of Democrats who were supporting General Harrison. Occasionally the Democratic papers could furnish a short list of Whigs who declared for Van Buren in preference to Harrison. The most absurd stories were told of the administration, and apparently they were accepted as truth. Charles J. Ogle, of Pennsylvania, delivered a speech in the House of Representatives in which he marshaled all the absurd stories that were afloat. He charged among other things that Van Buren had sets of gold spoons. The foundation for the statement was the fact that there were spoons in the Executive Mansion that were plated or washed with gold on the inside of the bowls. Those spoons were there in General Grant’s time, but so much like brass or copper in appearance that one would hesitate about using them. Another idle story believed by the masses was that the Navy bought wood in New Orleans at a cost of twenty-four dollars a cord and carried it to Florida for the use of the troops during the Seminole war of 1837-8. Isaac C. Morse, of Louisiana, was one of the Congressional bearers or mourners at the funeral of John Quincy Adams, in 1848. He was a Whig member and his district in 1840 was on the Texas frontier. At one of the evening sessions of mourning, while the Committee was in Boston, he gave an account of his campaign, and he recited a speech made by a young orator who went out with him as an aid. The speech opened thus: “Fellow Citizens; who is Daniel Webster? Daniel Webster is a man up in Massachusetts making a dictionary. Who is General Harrison? Everybody knows who General Harrison is. He is Tippecanoe and Tyler too. But who is Martin Van Bulen? Martin Van Bulen! He is the man who bought the wood in the Orleans, paid twenty-four dollars a cord for it, carried it round to Florida and had to cut down the trees to land it.” A fellow in the crowd cried out, “Carrying coals to Newcastle.” “Yes.” said the speaker, “them coals he carried to Newcastle. I don’t know so much about the coals, but about the wood I’ve got the documents.”

The general public was not only disposed to accept every wild statement, but the average intelligence was much below the present standard, and the means of communication were poor. If, however, there had been no canvass, the overthrow of Van Buren would have occurred. The defeat of the United States Bank, and the failure of the pet bank system, had been attended by disorders in the finances, the ruin of manufactures, a reduction in wages, with all the incident evils. As these evils were coincident in time with the measures, the measures were treated as the guilty cause. Beyond question, Mr. Clay’s tariff bill contributed to the troubles.

George Bancroft, the historian, was then collector of the port of Boston. He took an active part in the canvass in Massachusetts. On the evening of Saturday previous to the election in Massachusetts, he spoke at Groton in a building afterwards known as Liberty Hall.^[1]

Mr. Bancroft had a full House, but not an enthusiastic one. Many of his hearers were Whigs, who came from curiosity, but not to cheer the speaker. Moreover, the news of the New York election, then held the first three days of the week, was not encouraging to Democrats. After the meeting Mr. Bancroft was taken to the tavern, where a supper was served to him and to a small number of Democrats. Mr. Bancroft was excited, and walking the room he said:—“I do believe if General Harrison is elected, Divine Providence will interfere and prevent his ever becoming President of the United States.” These words of disappointment seemed prophecy, when the death of Harrison occurred within thirty days after his inauguration.

In his address Mr. Bancroft spoke with great confidence of the vote of New York. There were some conscientious Democrats in his audience, who remembered the remarks, and it was with great reluctance that they gave him their votes when he was a candidate for Governor in 1844.

The more considerate members of the Democratic Party apprehended defeat from the opening of the canvass. As early as June 17, the Whigs had enormous mass meetings at Boston and Bunker Hill. The Democrats were not inert. The Governor of the State was a Democrat and there were those who had hopes of his re-election. In set-off of the great meeting of the 17th of June at Charlestown, the Democrats prepared for a similar meeting on Lexington Green, July 4. The concourse of people was large. Governor Morton was present and spoke. I there met William D. Kelley, who spoke to a portion of the crowd from a wagon. He was then employed in a jeweller’s establishment in Boston.

Groton sent a company of volunteers for the day numbering about seventy-five men, under command of Captain William Shattuck, then a sturdy Democrat and afterwards an equally sturdy Republican. Shattuck was the grandson of Captain Job Shattuck, of Shays’ Rebellion. Job Shattuck had been a captain in the War of the Revolution, and he was always an earnest patriot. He was also a man of wealth, having large possessions in land, and being wholly exempt from the pecuniary distresses that harassed the majority of men, from the close of the war to the close of the century. Job Shattuck’s action was due to his sympathy for the sufferers and to his sense of justice. In every town there were traders and small capitalists who had supplied the families of soldiers who were absent in the service.

Either by mortgage or by executions, the creditors had secured liens upon the homesteads of the soldiers and from 1783 to 1789 the liens were enforced. Petitions went up to the General Court for a stay act. James Bowdoin was Governor. The General Court did not listen to the appeal. Daniel Shays and others organized forces for the suppression of the Courts. Shattuck was the leader in the county of Middlesex, and at the head of his force he broke up the Court at Concord. Finally he was arrested. Major Woods, who had been an officer in the war, was in command of the Government forces. Shattuck was secreted at the house of one Gregg, who lived near where the house of John Gilson now stands. The season was winter. It was believed that Gregg betrayed Shattuck. When Shattuck discovered his peril, he fled and made his way toward the Nashua River, which was then frozen. His pursuers followed, but at unequal pace. When he had crossed the river, he saw that the three men in sight were widely separated from each other. Shattuck turned, and for a time he became the pursuer. The first man ran, then the second, but finally Shattuck fell on the ice, with sword in hand. His pursuers seized him. Upon his refusal to surrender his sword, they cut the cords of his hand, and wounded him in the leg. He was tried, sentenced to be hanged, and confined in the jail at Concord.

The election of 1786 turned upon the questions at issue, and especially upon the execution of the persons under sentence. Bowdoin was the candidate of the “Law-and-Order Party,” and John Hancock was nominated by the friends of the convicts. Hancock was elected by a vote of about nineteen thousand against less than six thousand for Bowdoin. The convicts were pardoned, and a stay law was passed. The demand of the Shays men was reasonable, and the Government was guilty of a criminal error in resisting it.

The Shays Rebellion was beneficial to Massachusetts, and it contributed to the argument in favor of the Constitution of the United States.

The town of Groton continued in the control of Shattuck and his friends for many years after the suppression of the Rebellion. During that period he was drawn as a juror. When his name was called the judge repeated it, and said, “Job Shattuck! He can’t sit on the jury in this Court.” As Shattuck came out of the seat limping he said: “I have broken up one Court here, and things won’t be right, until I break up another.”

Something of the spirit of Job Shattuck has been exhibited in the larger portion of his numerous descendants. They have been devoted to liberty and just in their dealings. These two qualities were conspicuous in his grandson, Captain William Shattuck.

I took part in the canvass of 1840 and made speeches in Groton and in several of the towns in the vicinity. I was also the candidate of the Democratic Party for a seat in the House of Representatives. There was no opposition for the nomination, although there were many Democrats who thought that my defection the preceding year had prevented the election of the Democratic candidates. My temperance opinions were offensive to many, if not to a majority of the party. On the other hand there were a number of young members of the Whig Party whose votes I could command. As a final fact, the political feeling was then so strong that all considerations yielded to the chances and hopes of success.

My opponent, and the successful candidate, was Mr. John Boynton, afterward, and for a single year, a member of the senate. He was a native of the town, a blacksmith by trade, and the son of a blacksmith. He was a man of quiet ways, upright, and known to every voter. He had been in the office of town clerk for many years, he had been kind to everyone, and he had no enemies. Boynton was elected, but by a moderate majority. But for the excitement of the Presidential election, the contest would have been very close.

The death of General Harrison and the elevation of John Tyler to the Presidency wrought a great change in the fortunes of the Whig Party. Soon after the assembling of Congress at the extra session, called by President Harrison, a bill for a Fiscal Bank was passed by the two Houses. and vetoed by President Tyler. The veto message was so framed as to encourage the Whig leaders to pass a second bill in a form designed to avoid the objections of the President.

In the discussion upon the veto of the first bill, Mr. Clay assailed the President in such terms that a reconciliation was impossible. From that moment it was the purpose of the President to co-operate with the Democratic Party. A second bill was passed. That was also vetoed by the President. Early in September all the members of the Cabinet resigned except Mr. Webster. The outgoing members gave reasons to the public, and Mr. Webster gave reasons for not going. Caleb Cushing, Henry A. Wise, and a few other Whigs, called the Omnibus Party chose their part with Webster and Tyler. The Whig Party was divided, hopelessly.

Previous to the division, a bill had passed, which had been approved by the President, for the repeal of the Independent Treasury System. The ardor of its enemies was such that no substitute was provided. The expectation was that a Fiscal Bank, or Fiscal Agent, would be created. The failure of the bank bills left the Government without any lawful system of finance. The pet bank system was restored, in fact. The rupture in the Whig Party contributed to its defeat in Massachusetts at the election in 1842, but the party was so compact in 1841 that its triumph was assured. Mr. Webster defended his course, and with few exceptions his conduct was either approved or tolerated in Massachusetts.

1. It was then an unfinished building and stood where the Willow Dale road connects with Hollis Street. The building had been erected by a body of people who advocated the union of all the churches. They called themselves Unionists. Their leader was the Rev. Silas Hawley. He was a vigorous thinker, a close reasoner, and he displayed great knowledge of the Bible. His following became considerable. The excitement extended to the neighboring towns and for a time serious inroads were made upon the churches of the village.

   The no-creed doctrine was accepted by some who never believed in any creed, and by others who had believed in creeds that they then thought

   were false. In the year 1838, Hawley convened a “World’s Convention” at Liberty Hall, called by the wicked “Polliwog Chapel,” to consider the subject of uniting all the churches in one church without a creed.

   One afternoon early in the week of the session, I saw three men walking on the street towards Liberty Hall, with knapsacks buckled on their backs. One of these was Theodore Parker, one George Ripley, and the third, I think, was Charles A. Dana. In this I may be in error. Parker told me in after years when he had a wide-spread reputation, that his first public speech was made in that convention.