HARRISON, TYLER 



the project; but it was now easy to see the alliance 

 fast maturing between the Northern National Repub- 

 licans and those Southerners who agreed with Tyler. 

 In December, 1834, as member of a committee for in- 

 vestigating the management of the bank, Mr. Tyler 

 brought in an elaborate report which seems to have 

 been a very fair statement of the case. It did not sus- 

 tain Jackson's charges of mismanagement, and was 

 accordingly attacked by Ben ton as a partisan defence 

 of the bank. This doubtless served to confuse the 

 minds of people as to Tyler's real attitude. Before 

 the smoke of the battle had cleared away, people 

 would not distinguish between disapproval of Jack- 

 son's methods and approval of the bank ; they would 

 consider the one as equivalent to the other, and so 

 they did. An incident which occurred the next year 

 served to confirm this view. On Mr. Clay's famous 

 resolution to censure the President for the removal of 

 the deposits, Tyler had voted, along with Webster, in 

 the affirmative. While Benton's resolutions for ex- 

 punging the vote of censure were before the Senate, 

 the Democratic legislature of Virginia instructed the 

 two senators from that state to vote in the affirmative. 

 As to the binding force of such instructions Mr. Tyler 

 had long ago, in the case of Giles and Brent above 

 mentioned, placed himself unmistakably upon record. 

 His colleague, Benjamin Watkins Leigh, was known 

 to entertain similar views. On receiving the instruc- 

 tions, both senators refused to obey them. Both voted 

 against the expunging resolution, but Leigh kept his 

 seat, while the rigidly consistent Tyler resigned and 

 went home. The result of this for Leigh was to be 

 retirement to private life ; for Tyler it was to be eleva- 

 tion to the presidency. 



