SECTIONALISM IN VIRGINIA FROM 1776 TO 1861

VII. Parties in the Whig Period, 1834–50

CHAPTER VII PARTIES IN THE WHIG PERIOD, 1834-50 The compmmise tariff and the attempt to distribute the proceeds of the sales of the public lands increased Clay's popularity in the west, but they brought confusion in the ranks of the Union party. The tariff satisfied the desire for protection, and the nationalists hoped to use the income from the land sales to promote works of internal improvement. Many citizens of the west refused to believe the rumor that Clay had formed a corrupt coalition with Calhoun and insisted that his surrender of the American System was a "magnanimous offering on the altar of peace."! Jackson, "the impersonation of the Union," was in a measure superseded by Clay, "its real preserver."2 Preparatory to the election of 1834 the administration party, again called Democrat, made a desperate effort to prevent union between the followers of Clay in the west and members of the State-Rights party in the east. To this end Rives made a campaign in the west. Though it was generally recognized that nullification and seeession were no longer issues, he praised the heroic Union party of South Carolina; expounded the Resolutions of 1798 to show wherein they were unlike the Nullification doctrines; justified his course 1 Lynchburg Virginian, March 4 and r 4, r833; ibid., February 28, r833. • Ibid., March 4, r833. 219 220 SECTIONALISM IN VIRGINIA, 1776-1861 in support of the Force Bill; and drank toasts to the President, "who has given effect to the sentiment 'the Union, it must be preserved.' "3 About the same time Mercer made a trip to the west in behalf of the Clay party, and Clay himself found it convenient to tarry among the mountaineers on his way to and from Washington. The people, however, would not be wrought up by appeals to nationalism or other general principles. They were turning again entirely to the practical questions of their locality. The following toast to Mercer shows the sentiment which was uppermost in their minds: "Western Virginia! The feeling is awake; the canal boat shall bear away the product of our industry, where a little while ago, the mountain deer trod with trim step."4 Meanwhile Jackson's arbitrary conduct in the removal of the deposits had widened the breach within the Union party and increased the zeal of the opposition . Although opposed to the recharter of the United States Bank, the east did not sanction executive usurpation ;5 and many state-rights politicians had come to regard "a United States Bank" as a necessary evil.6 In many counties of the east mass-meetings denounced" the removals as dangerous to the business interests of the country and as an executive usurpation.7 In his • Niles Register, XLIV, 61, 78. • Ibid., XLV, 131. • Wise, Seven Decades of the Union, 136. • Niles Register, XLVIII, 249. 1 National Intelligencer, January 2 and 30, 1834; "Calhoun Correspondence," Am. Hist. Asso. Rept. (1899), II, 335. PARTIES IN WHIG PERIOD, r834-50 221 annual message to the Assembly, Governor Tazewell condemned them as a scheme intended to promote the banking interests of New York and to make the South dependent thereon.8 In the Assembly the nationalists and state-rights delegates united to pass resolutions declaring the removals "a dangerous and alarming assumption of power" and asserting the right .of Congress to a voice in policies of general finance;9 and they requested their representatives in Congress and instructe.d their senatars to bring about the restaration .of the depasits and to adopt measures toO remedy the evils occasioned by their remova1.l0 Rives refused to obey these instructions and resigned his place in the Senate. Again the nationalists and state-rights delegates united to elect his successor, B. W. LeighY Despite the efforts of the Democrats, the coalition had been made between the oppasition factions and the name Whig adopted by the whole. The election of 1834 returned a large Whig majority in the Assembly, and the caalition held a farmal jubilation over this, its first victory in the state. Letters of c.ongratulation from Clay, Calhoun, Preston, Ewing, and Poindexter were features of the occasion. Of this election Calhoun said: "The result has given jay and canfidence to 8 Journal, House of Del., 1833-34, 9. • Niles Register, XLV, 388, 410. 10 Journal, House of Del., 1833-34, 100, 167. 11 The vote in the House was: Leigh 69; P...