33 2 HARRISON, TYLER 



impose one restriction upon a state, where was the 

 exercise of such a power to end ? Once grant such a 

 power, and what was to prevent a slaveholding ma- 

 jority in Congress from forcing slavery upon some 

 territory where it was not wanted ? Mr. Tyler pursued 

 the argument so far as to deny " that Congress, under 

 its constitutional authority to establish rules and regu- 

 lations for the territories, had any control whatever 

 over slavery in the territorial domain." He was un- 

 questionably foremost among the members of Congress 

 in occupying this extreme position. When the 

 Missouri Compromise bill was adopted by a vote of 1 34 

 to 42, all but 5 of the nays were from the South, and 

 from Virginia alone there were 1 7, of which Mr. Tyler's 

 vote was one. The Richmond Enquirer of March 7, 

 1820, in denouncing the compromise, observed, in 

 language of prophetic interest, that the Southern and 

 Western representatives now " owe it to themselves to 

 keep their eyes firmly fixed on Texas ; if we are cooped 

 up on the north, we must have elbow-room to the 

 west." 



Mr. Tyler's further action in this Congress related 

 chiefly to the question of a protective tariff, of which 

 he was an unflinching opponent. In 1821, finding 

 his health seriously impaired, he declined a reelection, 

 and returned to private life. His retirement, however, 

 was of short duration, for in 1823 he was again elected 

 to the Virginia legislature. Here, as a friend to the 

 candidacy of Mr. Crawford for the presidency, he dis- 

 approved the attacks upon the congressional caucus 

 begun by the legislature of Tennessee in the interests 

 of Andrew Jackson. The next year he was nominated 

 to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate, but 



