AND THE WHIG COALITION 327 



stand the course of events that led to the overthrow of 

 the Democrats in 1840, we must look for a moment 

 into the history of this current of Southern opinion 

 that was loath to go with Calhoun, but felt itself in 

 honour bound to make protest against coercion as 

 threatened by President Jackson. It was the same 

 current of opinion and sentiment that in 1861 was 

 loath to go with Jefferson Davis, but felt itself in 

 honour bound to resist coercion as exercised by 

 President Lincoln. There was much of this feeling 

 in the South, and it was especially strong in the 

 border states. It would never take the lead in a 

 movement toward secession, but might easily be 

 driven into such a movement as a choice between 

 conflicting alternatives. Nowhere was this feeling 

 stronger than in Virginia, and in no public man 

 was it more completely exemplified than in John 

 Tyler, tenth President of the United States. For 

 studying the sources and the growth of this feeling, 

 there is no better text-book than the " Letters and 

 Times of the Tylers," two stout octavos published 

 at Richmond in 1884 and 1885, edited by one of the 

 President's younger sons, Mr. Lyon Gardiner Tyler, 

 president of William and Mary College. This inter- 

 esting book gives us a sketch of the political history 

 of the United States for a hundred years, as viewed by 

 the intelligent and public-spirited members of one 

 of the leading families of Virginia. The elder John 

 Tyler, born in 1 747, was associated with Madison in 

 1785 in the resolution which secured a conference of 

 delegates at Annapolis in the following year, and thus 

 led the way toward the federal Convention. When 

 the federal Constitution was laid before the people, 



