stitution, his vote was recorded against an appropriation to pay the negotiations of a treaty with Turkey, which mission had not been authorized by congress. The act of President Jackson in appointing commissioners to negotiate the treaty was in his view an unwarranted assumption of power not authorized by the constitution.

Opposed as he was to any form of internal improvement under the auspices of the general government, and to the imposition of any duties or imports for other purposes than revenue, he also held to the nullification. doctrines of Calhoun and other southern members. As President Jackson had received the support of the south in his candidacy, his action directed against the anti-tariff and nullifying proceeding of South Carolina called down upon him the denunciations of states rights men with whom Mr. Tyler sympathized. On this question he withdrew his support of the administration. Again, when was brought before the senate the free bill, granting extraordinary powers to the President, in the collection of the revenue, the vote of Mr. Tyler was cast against the proposition; it was the only vote so recorded, Calhoun and other opponents of the measure leaving the hall before the question was put to the senate, convinced that further opposition was useless.

While a member of the senate, in 1832, Mr. Tyler was reëlected for the full term, from March 4, 1833. The most important question before congress in the session of 1833-4, was regarding the action of President Jackson in removing the deposits from the bank of the United States. From his first service in the legislature of his native state, Mr. Tyler had held the establishment of the bank an unconstitutional act. However, it was established by law; it had been designated by congress the depository of public monies; as such it was entitled to the protection of the law that established it. When, in furtherance of his own plans for personal advancement, Jackson determined on the removal of deposits from the bank, in the accomplishment of his ends he dismissed Mr. Duane, secretary of the treasury, and through the connivance of Roger B. Taney, attorneygeneral, who was appointed to succeed Duane, was enabled to vent his spite against the directors of the bank, and deposit all incoming funds in another place of security. This action of the President was taken in September. On reassembling in December, the senate refused to confirm. the appointment of Taney as secretary of the treasury; it took the same action when, a few days later, his name was sent in for confirmation as judge of the supreme court. A motion to censure President Jackson was early entertained, which called from Mr. Tyler a strong speech favoring the passage of such resolution. The ground on which he based his support of the censure lay in the law granting a charter to the bank, and protecting it in its rights. He was sustained in these views by instructions from the legislature of Virginia, which state had held to a strict construc

tion of the constitution, and always opposed assumption of power by either President or congress. "Her instructions to me," said Mr. Tyler, "convey the information that she is against the bank, as she has always been; can any man find his apology for ratifying the proceedings of the executive department in the mere fact that the bank of the United States is a great evil; that it ought never to have been created; and that it should not be rechartered? For one, I say, if it is to die, let it die by law. It is a corporate existence created by law, and while it exists, entitled to the protection which the law throws around private rights. This, sir, is the aspect in which I regard this question; and this, I am instructed to say, is the light in which Virginia regards it." In support of the cen, sure, he was sustained by the states rights senators from the south and west, who now opposed the administration of President Jackson. As chairman of the committee on finance, Mr. Tyler was called upon to report a scheme of treasury agency. In a speech presenting the report, he said that if the President was sustained by congress in his assumption of power, then congress had nothing further to do with the deposits. If the President was right in removing the deposits, then he was right in selecting another agency. The report submitted by the committee was exhaustive, and was assailed from the floor of the senate by Thomas H. Burton. In defending the report, Mr. Tyler delivered an effective speech, a short extract from which will not be out of place in this connection. Among other things, he said:

"Nothing would please me more than to have the report which has been so furiously attacked by the senator from Missouri referred to another committee for their most rigid examination; and I would be well pleased that he be one of the committee. Let him summon his witnesses and take depositions without number; let him then return with his budget to the house, and lay them, with or without an air of triumph, on the table. He would find himself mistaken. All his witnesses combined would not be able to overthrow the testimony upon which the report of the committee is based. There is not a single declaration in the report which is not founded upon testimony which cannot lie-written, docu'mentary evidence which no party testimony can overcome. He

has loudly talked of the committee having been made an instrument of by the bank. For myself, I renounce the ascription. I must tell the senator that I can no more be made an instrument of by the bank than by the still greater and more formidable power, the administration. I stand upon this floor to accomplish the purposes for which I am sent. In the consciousness of my own honesty, I stand firm and erect. I worship alone at the shrine of truth and honor. It is a precious thing in the eyes of some to bask in the sunshine of power. I rest only upon the support which has never failed me-the high and lofty feeling of my constituents.

I would not be an instrument even in their hands, if it were possible for them to require it of me, to gratify an unrighteous motive. I

am opposed-have always been opposed-to the bank. In its creation, I regard the constitution as having been violated, and I desire to see it expire. But the senate appointed me, with others, to inquire whether it was guilty of certain charges, and I should regard myself as the basest of mankind were I to charge it falsely."

The tenacity with which he held to the doctrine of state rights and strict construction of the constitution, together with his opposition to the administration, led to a separation from him of that part of the Democratic party which upheld the course of the President, and which afterward sustained Martin Van Buren for the Presidency. In March, 1835, near the close of the session, by the united votes of the Whigs and State Rights Democrats, Mr. Tyler was elected President pro tempore of the senate. One of his last acts in this session of the senate was to vote in opposition to a resolution appropriating the sum of three millions of dollars to the disposal of the President in preparing for contemplated difficulties with France, which resolution, had it passed, would virtually have given to the President power possessed only by congress.

His service in the session of 1835-36, was brief. In February, 1836, the Virginia legislature passed a resolution instructing the senators from that state to vote for the expunging from the journal of the senate of the resolution of March 28, 1834. The resolution referred to was that censuring President Jackson for his course regarding the removal of the deposits. At the time the censure was passed, the senators acted under instructions received from the legislature, as well as from their own convictions of right. In the present case, should they be governed by the instructions given them, they would violate their own convictions. Mr. Tyler promptly tendered his resignation, in his letter to the legislature saying: "I dare not touch the journal of the senate. The constitution forbids it. In the midst of all the agitations of party, I have heretofore stood by that sacred instruIt is the only post of honor and safety. A seat in the senate is sufficiently elevated to fill the measure of any man's ambition; and as an evidence of the sincerity of my convictions that your resolutions can not be executed without violating my oath, I surrender into your hands three unexpired years of my term. I shall carry with me into retirement the principles which I brought with me into public life, and by the surrender of the high station to which I was called by the voice of the people of Virginia, I shall set an example to my children which shall teach them to regard as nothing place and office, when to be either obtained or held at the sacrifice of honor."

ment.

At this period in his life, Mr. Tyler was quite popular in other states than Virginia. Particularly was this so in such as opposed Jackson's adminis

tration. When, in 1835, the legislature of Maryland nominated General Harrison as candidate for President, John Tyler received the nomination for vice-president. Although there was no concerted action among the states in the presidential nomination, those opposed to Martin Van Buren selected such candidates as they saw fit, more as a rebuke to the party of the administration than with the hope of defeating its candidate. In the electoral college, Mr. Tyler received the vote of Maryland for vice-president; also of South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. Van Buren was elected by the Jackson branch of the party. At that time Mr. Tyler was not classed among the Whigs, although he received the vote of that part of the party which held to state rights. Virginia, being controlled by the friends of Van Buren, did not cast its vote for Tyler, but instead gave it to William Smith of Alabama.

At some time in 1830, Mr. Tyler removed from Charles City county to Gloucester, where he resided until that year, when he again removed to the ancestral home at Williamsburg. In the spring of 1838 he was elected by the Whigs of Charles City county, a member of the house of delegates, and during his term of service was instrumental in uniting the factions of that party in opposition to the administration of President Van Buren. When, in 1839, delegates were chosen to attend the Whig national convention, which met in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Mr. Tyler, as a representative of that party, was selected one of the number. He was chosen one of the vice-presidents of the convention, and exerted his influence in favor o Henry Clay for President. Mr. Clay had done much toward settling the controversy between the tariff and the South Carolina nullification factions and in consequence stood high with the States Rights Whigs, who hoped to see him elected President. When that project failed by the nomination of General Harrison, it was deemed best to conciliate the friends of Mr. Clay by the nomination of a southern candidate for vice-president. Accordingly. after a brief consultation, the nomination was offered John Tyler, and accepted. Then followed the exciting campaign, the closing contest at the polls, the inauguration ceremonies, and one month later the sudden death of President Harrison. The course pursued by Mr. Tyler previous to the election led members of the Whig party to believe him consistent in hist adherence to the principles of the party, and that he would heartily cooperate with the President and Mr. Clay in the application of those principles.

The death of President Harrison took place on the fourth of April, 1841. Immediately after the decease of the President, Fletcher Webster, chief clerk in the office of the department of state, accompanied by Mr. Beall, an officer of the senate, proceeded to Williamsburg to notify the vice-president of the sad event. Early on Tuesday morning, April 6, Mr. Tyler arrived in Washington, and took lodgings at Brown's hotel.