324 HARRISON, TYLER 



itself a stockholder. This did not become a burning 

 question until late in Jackson's first term. The 

 extent to which old Federalist ideas had been adopted 

 or acquiesced in by the Republicans was well shown 

 in the fact that the bill for rechartering the bank in 

 1816 was signed by President Madison. But Mad- 

 ison's acquiescence was largely due to the want of 

 any definite alternative policy ; and there were many 

 who regarded the bank rather as a temporary make- 

 shift, to be endured for the moment, than as a 

 beneficent institution to be fastened permanently 

 upon the country. 



Upon these three great questions of internal im- 

 provements, tariff, and bank, the all-embracing Re- 

 publican party became divided between 1824 and 

 1832. The followers of Adams and Clay came to 

 be distinguished as National Republicans, and this 

 title indicated their strong point. Their policy com- 

 mended itself, not only to those who believed it to 

 be economically sound, but to many more who felt it 

 desirable that above all things the national govern- 

 ment should be strong. Such people inherited the 

 tendencies of the original Federalists. They were 

 inclined to construe liberally the implied powers of 

 the Constitution, because they felt that the govern- 

 ment needed such implied powers, in order to ward 

 off the dangers of nullification and secession which 

 were then looming upon the horizon. This was the 

 strong point of the National Republicans. It was 

 this that gave them the powerful support of Mr. 

 Webster, who was by no means blind to the economic 

 unsoundness of the so-called American system. On 

 the other hand, those who now began acting in 



