Congressional Giants. J. Michael Martinez

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СКАЧАТЬ slave states, except for South Carolina. Senator Daniel Webster ran in Massachusetts, and North Carolina Senator Willie P. Mangum ran in South Carolina. With the wide array of Whigs splitting the party, Van Buren narrowly won the presidency.³⁷

      It would have been a good time to retire, but the Panic of 1837, a major recession that weakened Van Buren and the Democrats, convinced Clay that he should stay in Congress and ponder the future of the Whig Party a while longer. He sensed that he might have one more opportunity to grab the brass ring in the 1840 election. When party members suggested that the Whigs schedule a national convention, Clay agreed.

      He knew that the nomination would not be his for the asking despite his eminence. Daniel Webster, another grand old man from the same era as Clay, initially appeared to be his strongest rival. Yet, he and Webster had been around so long that both men had collected numerous political enemies. It simply was not possible to lead a public life for decades and escape the growing animosity among the petty and the jealous. Antislavery men did not trust Clay; he was a slave owner and, in their view, too quick to compromise on matters of principle. Webster had the opposite problem. He was a darling of the New England Whigs, but men farther south feared that he was too beholden to abolitionists to be trusted in high office. William Henry Harrison, a military hero whose political views were not well known, maneuvered to grab the Whig nomination, denying Clay and Webster what each man believed to be his right.

      

      In the fall election, Harrison defeated Van Buren—infantilized in a popular campaign song as “little Van . . . a used up man”—to become the first Whig president. Ceding leadership of the Whigs to a Johnny-come-lately was not easy for Clay. He was convinced that he could perform as president far better than Harrison, and Harrison knew of Clay’s opinion. Clay might have returned to the executive branch as secretary of state in the new administration—the president-elect had offered him any cabinet post he desired—but he would have none of it. He could not bring himself to serve a man he believed to be his inferior in every way. Instead, the post went to Daniel Webster.³⁸

      Even if he did not occupy a formal position in the Harrison regime, Clay, from his perch as a U.S. senator, expected the new president to resurrect the essential features of the American system following the neglect of the Jackson and Van Buren presidencies. He advised the new president to call a special session of Congress to entertain bills reinstating the national bank as well as Clay’s proposals for new infrastructure construction. Without regard for protocol, Clay drafted a proclamation for Harrison’s signature. Mindful that his critics believed him to be Clay’s puppet, Harrison bristled at the barrage of suggestions, writing his would-be confidant that “you are too impetuous. Much as I would rely on your judgment, there are others whom I must consult and in many cases to determine adversely to your suggestions.” On another occasion, an exasperated Harrison remarked, “Mr. Clay, you forget that I am President.”³⁹

      Clay claimed to be “mortified” at Harrison’s rebuke. The president’s resistance left him fuming, unsure of how he could direct the Whigs from the sidelines. The men eventually reached an uneasy accommodation, but it was short-lived. The sixty-eight-year-old Harrison died suddenly after only a month in office. In his place stood John Tyler, the first vice president to ascend into office upon the death of his predecessor.⁴⁰

      The new president was determined to step out of Harrison’s shadow and demonstrate his independence. If Clay had experienced troubles with Harrison, Tyler was even worse. Initially, though, the relationship between the two men appeared promising. Harrison had called the special session of Congress that Clay had requested. With Harrison dead, the session continued. President Tyler signed a measure repealing Van Buren’s Independent Treasury Act, which had allowed the government to conduct financial transactions through the U.S. Treasury and sub-treasuries in the absence of a national banking and financial systems. Clay had urged the repeal as the first step in rechartering a national bank. Congress passed a bill creating the new bank, as Clay recommended, but Tyler vetoed the measure, arguing that the bank was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court had held that the bank was constitutional, and the original institution had existed for four decades. No matter; Tyler was a strict constructionist, and apparently something of a contrarian. Tyler vetoed a compromise measure as well.⁴¹

      Clay was upset at what he believed to be the new president’s impetuosity. Consequently, Tyler and Clay became locked in a battle for leadership of the Whigs. Despite their standoff, Congress and the president managed to enact part of the Whig agenda. They passed the Preemption Act of 1841, which allowed settlers derisively known as “squatters” on government-owned lands the right to purchase 160-acre homesteads at a minimum price without going through an auction. Tyler also signed a bill that allowed for bankruptcy protection for individuals, a relief measure aimed to alleviate suffering brought on by the Panic of 1837.

      Tyler’s resistance to the Whigs’s efforts to increase the protective tariff further exacerbated his rift with Henry Clay. After the president vetoed several bills to raise the tariff, he signed a measure to retain the lower level. He also pocket-vetoed a measure to continue a distribution program whereby states received revenue from land sales from which they could fund infrastructure projects and make other investments. It was clear that John Tyler, elected on a Whig platform, did not share the Whig ideology.⁴²

      Disgusted with the Faux-Whig incumbent, Clay anxiously looked to the 1844 presidential election. With Harrison dead and Webster sidelined—he had resigned as secretary of state a year earlier—the Kentucky senator was the only elected official with the gravitas to lead the party. Perhaps Tyler, already contemplating the creation of a third party, could be dumped and a faithful Whig—such as Clay himself—could be substituted in his place.

      The political scene was changing fast by 1844. With the rise of anti-immigrant nativism and the pressure to annex Texas as part of the United States, the Whigs struggled to adapt. Clay sought to play to the party’s strengths by focusing on economic issues. In his view, the Whigs could point to strong policies that were helping the country recover from the 1837 recession. Whatever else it did, the party must avoid discussing Texas annexation, a subject that would anger one or another faction. Southerners wanted guarantees that Texas and other new territories would be open to the expansion of slavery while northerners resisted these efforts. Clay had already suffered political reversals over the slavery issue, and he was not willing to sacrifice his ambition again on the altar of freedom. Alas, after President Tyler negotiated an annexation treaty with Texas, Clay could not avoid the issue. He announced that he opposed annexation.⁴³

      Clay won the Whig presidential nomination in 1844, but his opposition to Texas annexation hurt him politically. He had expected to run against Martin Van Buren, who also opposed annexation, but, to his surprise, he faced the Democratic Party’s nominee, James Knox Polk, a dark horse candidate. Polk announced that he favored annexation. Clay found himself in an untenable position. He began to temper his opposition, which aggravated his supporters and yet failed to win new converts, most of whom had distrusted Clay for much of his political career. Clay’s track record simply was too long and well known. Polk, a relatively unknown politician despite having previously served as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, promised that he would annex Texas and secure Oregon from Great Britain, thereby satisfying Americans who believed that territorial expansion was in the national interest. This concept became known as Manifest Destiny, the belief that American expansion across the continent was inevitable and justified. In this rapidly shifting terrain, the stodgy old-time politician, Henry Clay, lost to the more agile Polk in the general election. It was a close matter. Had a few thousand votes here and there swung the other way, Clay could have squeezed out a victory.⁴⁴

      Bitter and exhausted, he retired to his Kentucky estate to focus on his law practice and retire debts accumulated during his long public career. Clay remained vitally interested in national affairs, however, especially as the United States engaged in a war with Mexico over disputed territory. During the 1844 campaign, he had warned СКАЧАТЬ