Continuing the Trail of Tears
Van Buren continued Jackson’s policies of resettling Native Americans. The infamous Trail of Tears took place during his tenure. (See Chapter 6.) He sent the military to destroy the Seminoles, who rose up for the last time to fight resettlement.
Even though he opposed the institution of slavery, Van Buren did not act on his beliefs beyond refusing to admit Texas and Florida as slave states.
Battling with British Canada
During his presidency, Van Buren had a major foreign policy crisis with Canada. In 1837, Canadian citizens revolted against British rule. Many U.S. citizens were sympathetic to the uprising, so they supplied the Canadians with weapons and ammunition.
The British intercepted and destroyed a U.S. steamer carrying weapons for the Canadians, killing a U.S. citizen in the process. Enraged, some U.S. citizens raided Canada, capturing a British steamer and setting it on fire. War seemed close.
Van Buren, not wanting a war with Britain, sent the army to seal the border with Canada. The move reduced tensions, but many in the United States regarded it as a sign of weakness by their president.
In 1839, another conflict broke out with Canada. The state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick were ready to go to war over a border dispute. Both sides called out their militias. Van Buren sent the U.S. military to create a buffer between the two sides. The conflict was resolved peacefully in 1842.
Losing badly in 1840
In 1840, President Van Buren ran for reelection. He easily received the support of his own party, even though many in the United States were not very happy with him. The campaign against the Whig candidate, William Henry Harrison, proved to be a classic. Van Buren hit the campaign trail talking about issues, while the Whigs couldn’t even agree on a platform. So the Whigs ran a campaign on images instead of issues and won the election.
Staging a minor comeback and retiring
In 1844, Martin Van Buren was the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. He lost the nomination to James Polk when former president Jackson refused to endorse Van Buren because he didn’t support the admission of Texas into the Union.
In 1848, Van Buren, now active in the anti-slavery movement, received the nomination from the Free Soil Party — a political party opposed to the extension of slavery. He received almost 300,000 votes, or 10 percent of the popular vote. Van Buren siphoned off enough Democratic votes to take the election away from the Democratic nominee, Lewis Cass.
In 1853, Van Buren toured the continent of Europe, making him the first ex-U.S. president to travel abroad. He spent two years in Europe and then returned home to finally retire. In 1860, he endorsed Stephen Douglas for the presidency. When Lincoln won the election, he supported President Lincoln and the Union in the Civil War. Van Buren died at the age of 79 in his home in Kinderhook, New York in 1862.
The Founder of the Image Campaign: William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison, shown in Figure 7-2, was a capable soldier and an average politician. His exploits fighting Native Americans made him a hero to the average person. He relied upon this image to win the presidency. As president, Harrison wasn’t able to accomplish much because he died right after delivering his inaugural address.
Figure 7-2: William Henry Harrison, 9th president of the United States.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Harrison’s lasting legacy is the way he won in 1840. For the first time in U.S. history, a presidential candidate didn’t talk much about issues — he ran a race based solely on his image. Harrison gave the United States its first image campaign. The image campaign has been with us ever since.
Using politics and militia against Native Americans
Like George Washington and Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison entered U.S. politics through the military. By 1814, he had become one of the best-known military leaders in the United States. He used his military reputation as a springboard into politics.
In 1798, Harrison, with the help of some well-connected friends, became the secretary of the Northwest Territory. Only one year later, he became the territorial delegate to the U.S. Congress for the Northwest Territory.
As a delegate to Congress, Harrison became a champion of settlers at the expense of Native Americans. He was responsible for the Land Act of 1800, which parceled up and gave Native American–held lands to white settlers at low interest rates.
As soon as Congress established the Indiana territory, Harrison became its first governor — a job he held for 12 years. As governor, he continued his onslaught on Native Americans. He got some help from President Jefferson, who told him to take all Native American lands. Jefferson also told Harrison to maintain the Native American’s friendship. Obviously, that didn’t happen.
Harrison took almost all Native American lands in the territory. When the Shawnee opposed him, he organized a militia against them. This conflict resulted in the famous Battle of Tippecanoe, where Harrison, despite losing 20 percent of his men, defeated the Shawnee and sent them fleeing to Canada. Harrison was a national hero.
Harrison’s nickname, “Old Tippecanoe,” came from the Battle of Tippecanoe. The nickname became part of Harrison’s presidential campaign slogan in 1840.
In 1812, war broke out with Great Britain. Harrison, as governor of the Indiana territory, always blamed the British for inciting the Shawnee and was ready to go after them. Harrison, who was now a brigadier general in the U.S. army, won major battles in the War of 1812. He liberated Detroit, Michigan, from British occupation and defeated the British army and the rest of the Shawnee in Canada. Harrison made sure that the British didn’t invade from Canada, and this further enhanced his reputation. By 1814, everybody in the United States knew about the great “Indian fighter.”
The educated “Indian fighter”
William Henry Harrison was born in 1773 on a large plantation in Virginia. His father was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and governor of Virginia. Harrison received a top-notch private schooling and then attended Hampden-Sydney College. His father wanted him to study medicine, so he sent him to the University of Pennsylvania.
Harrison really didn’t want to study medicine. When his father died in 1791, he dropped out of school and joined the military. For the next seven years, Harrison served on the northwestern frontier (what is now Ohio) and participated in several battles fighting local Native American tribes, including the battle of Fallen Timbers.
While serving on the northwestern frontier, he married the love of his life, Anna Symmes. They had ten children together. William Henry Harrison’s grandson, Benjamin Harrison, became the 23rd president of the United States in 1889.
Focusing on politics
From 1816 until 1836, Harrison held a whole slew of political offices. These offices included
Member of the House of Representatives
Member of the Ohio state senate
U.S. senator
Ambassador to Columbia
In 1836, the Whigs were desperate for a candidate to take on the ruling Democrats. They wanted someone of similar stature to Democratic President Jackson, who was about to retire. The Whigs ran three regional candidates for office. The idea behind this odd strategy was to win enough Electoral College votes to deny the Democrat, Van Buren, a majority in the Electoral College. This would throw the election to the House of Representatives, where the Whigs believed that they could win. The Whigs nominated Harrison to run in the western part of the United States. Two other regional candidates, Hugh White and Daniel Webster, ran in the South and East, respectively.
The idea backfired. Van Buren won easily in 1836. However, Harrison did so well in the West, winning 73 Electoral College votes, that he became the front-runner for the 1840 Whig presidential nomination.
President William Henry Harrison (1841–1841)
In 1839, the Whigs, desperate to win, nominated Harrison for the presidency. At the convention, the party was so
split that they couldn’t agree on a party platform. So Harrison decided to run an image campaign. The party portrayed him as a common man who was born in a log cabin, like most U.S. citizens. His image became one of a hardworking, heavy-drinking commoner running against the aristocrat Van Buren. The Whigs labeled Van Buren — the son of a small tavern owner — a New York aristocrat out of touch with the common man. His nickname became “Martin Van Ruin.”
A Democratic newspaper, the Baltimore American, was the first to try to belittle Harrison by portraying him as a frontier bumpkin. “Give him a barrel of hard cider and settle a pension of $2,000 a year on him and, my word for it, he will sit the remainder of his days in a log cabin by the side of a sea coal fire and study moral philosophy.” The Whigs simply took this imagery to the frontier.
To attract southern support, former U.S. Senator John Tyler from Virginia became Harrison’s vice-presidential candidate. Harrison’s campaign slogan, “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too,” became an instant classic. Harrison’s campaign involved dragging log cabins around and providing the audience with free alcohol — a moveable party. Harrison won in a landslide, receiving 234 Electoral College votes to Van Buren’s 60.
The campaign of 1840 employed massive lies. Harrison, in reality, was a wealthy aristocrat who grew up on a plantation and owned slaves. His manor in Ohio had twenty-two rooms and employed many servants. Van Buren was the commoner, not Harrison. At the end, it didn’t matter. The public bought the fabricated image of Harrison, and he won big.
William Henry Harrison presented his inaugural address in March 1841. It was a cold and rainy day, and Harrison refused to wear a hat and a warm winter coat. Not surprisingly, he caught a cold, which turned into pneumonia. He never recovered and died one month later.
William Henry Harrison gave the longest inaugural address in U.S. history. He talked for almost two hours in freezing rain. He was the second oldest president to ever win office (Ronald Reagan was the oldest), and he holds the distinction of serving the shortest term of any president in U.S. history.
Stepping Into the Presidency: John Tyler
John Tyler, depicted in Figure 7-3, was the first vice president to succeed a president who died in office. Thus, he set a precedent for vice presidents to come.
A Southerner to the core
John Tyler was born in 1790, the son of a wealthy plantation owner. He attended a local school and then graduated from the College of William and Mary. In 1809, he became a lawyer in Virginia after being admitted to the bar. That same year, the people of Virginia elected his father governor of the state. It was then that Tyler’s political career took off.
He became a member of the Virginia legislature in 1811 and began to serve in the House of Representatives in 1816. In between, he married Letitia Christian and fathered eight children. The marriage was a happy one until his wife died in 1842, shortly after he became president.
Tyler was a stubborn man who didn’t believe in compromise. He alienated not just his opposition, but also his own supporters. He was eventually kicked out of his party. After his presidency was over, he supported the Confederacy and served it as a congressman. John Tyler was the last U.S. president to favor and defend slavery.
Throughout his congressional career, Tyler favored state rights. He didn’t believe in a strong national government. He supported the institution of slavery — he owned many slaves himself — and opposed any bill that would inhibit the practice. He was a member of the southern slavocracy, as his voting record proved.
Figure 7-3: John Tyler, 10th president of the United States.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Supporting states’ rights and slavery
As a U.S. Congressman, Tyler became a staunch supporter of states’ rights and the institution of slavery. He even opposed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 because it restricted slavery. Discouraged because he was always on the losing side of such issues as slavery, he resigned his seat in 1821.
Only four years later, Tyler became governor of Virginia. The legislature subsequently elected him to the U.S. Senate in 1827. For the next nine years, Tyler served in the Senate, basing his votes on his own beliefs and ignoring his political constituency.
At first, Tyler supported President Adams. He eventually switched over to the Jacksonian Democrats, giving his support to Jackson in 1828. He felt that Adams was creating a national government that was too strong. Tyler especially hated the National Bank — Jackson’s opposition to it won him over.
But by 1833, Tyler was disenchanted with Jackson. He disagreed with Jackson’s threat to use force against South Carolina when it threatened to secede from the United States.
Tyler joined the newly created Whig party. When the Virginia legislature told him to vote to erase a previous vote to censure Jackson, he flat out refused and resigned his Senate seat. After serving two more years in the Virginia legislature, he was ready for the big time.
Balancing the ticket; becoming president
In 1840, the Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison for the presidency. To balance the ticket, they decided they needed to add a southerner. John Tyler was a perfect fit.
Because Tyler supported slavery, the Whig leadership told him to keep his mouth shut during Harrison’s image-based campaign. The objective of the campaign was to keep Harrison vague and Tyler quiet. It worked.
Tyler was getting ready to move to Washington, D.C. when he heard that President Harrison had died. A constitutional crisis loomed. Many believed that Tyler should be the acting president until a new election could be held. Tyler objected and had himself sworn in as president in April 1841. Both foes and friends went crazy, coming up with nicknames such as “His Ascendancy,” “Acting President Tyler,” “Executive Ass,” and “His Accidency.” Soon things got worse.
President John Tyler (1841–1845)
As president, Tyler didn’t change — he was still stubborn, and he refused to bargain or cooperate. His attitude made it very difficult for him to get anything accomplished, not to mention that it almost got him impeached.
Angering Congress
In 1841, Congress tried to reestablish the Bank of the United States abolished by Jackson. Tyler vetoed the bill, even though his own party proposed and passed it. Congress passed a second bill, and Tyler vetoed it again. This time, almost everyone in his cabinet resigned, his own party kicked him out, and the House of Representatives called for his impeachment.
After Tyler narrowly avoided being kicked out of office in 1843, he turned to the Democrats for help. They didn’t want anything to do with him. So Tyler formed his own party, which failed miserably. Now he was all alone, and his presidency was over. In 1844, Tyler decided to back the Democrat, James Polk, who, like him, supported the annexation of Texas.
John Tyler remarried in 1844. His new wife, Julia Gardiner, was 30 years younger than him, which caused quite a stir in Washington, D.C. He fathered another 7 children with her, bringing his total to 15 children. This is the most children any U.S. president has ever had.
Faring better with foreign policy
Despite the problems Tyler was having with Congress, he did succeed in foreign policy. His most notable successes include
Settling a border dispute between Maine and Canada
Opening trade with China
Annexing Texas
Tyler truly deserved praise for the way he handled the annexation of Texas. The U.S. Senate rejected the annexation treaty in 1844. The Constitution required a two-thirds majority to ratify treaties, which Tyler wasn’t able to get. Undeterred, Tyler tried again. He changed the rules of the game and proposed a joint resolution passed by both Houses of Congress to annex Texas — this required only a simple majority vote. It passed, and three days before Tyler left office, Texas joined the Union.
Dying a Confederate
Before 1861, Tyler tried his best to help preserve the Union. However, after listening to Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address, he decided that th
e Union was over. Tyler now backed the Confederacy and openly urged secession. Later that year, the people of Virginia elected him to the Confederate House of Representatives. He died of a stroke in early 1862, shortly before he could assume the office.
Chapter 8
Dreaming of California: James K. Polk
In This Chapter
Understanding Polk’s rise to power
Keeping campaign promises after winning the presidency
Expanding into new territories
Knowing when not to run
J ames Knox Polk is one of the most underrated presidents in U.S. history. Polk had one of the most successful presidencies in U.S. history, yet presidential observers usually ignore him. In his fours years as president, Polk was not only one of the hardest working presidents, but he was also able to keep his administration free of corruption and scandals — no small feat, as recent history has shown.
Polk’s legacy isn’t just his able leadership but also the doubling of the size of the United States. To top it off, Polk also kept his campaign promises, making him even more unique in America’s long list of presidents.
US Presidents For Dummies Page 13