AND THE WHIG COALITION 351 



seekers at the White House was so great that some 

 good people thought the worry and turmoil enough to 

 account for President Harrison's death. However that 

 may be, the true cause was pneumonia. He died on 

 the 4th of April, just one month after his inaugura- 

 tion, without having had time to indicate his policy. 

 Among the Northern Whigs, however, there was little 

 doubt as to what that policy ought to be. Mr. Clay 

 was their real leader, and they regarded General Har- 

 rison as a mere figurehead candidate, selected for what 

 is called, in political slang, availability. Doubtless most 

 people at the North who voted for Harrison did so in 

 the belief that his election meant the victory of Clay's 

 theory of government in the reestablishment of the 

 national bank and the increase of tariff duties. Mr. 

 Clay's own course, immediately after the inauguration, 

 showed so plainly that he regarded the election as his 

 own victory, that General Harrison felt called upon 

 to administer a rebuke. " You seem to forget, sir," 

 said he, "that it is I who am President." Harrison 

 offered Clay the Secretaryship of State, and when Clay 

 refused it because he preferred to stay in the Senate, 

 it was given to Daniel Webster. 



But whatever President Harrison's policy might 

 have been, there could be no doubt that his sudden 

 death, in raising Mr. Tyler to the presidency, created 

 an unlooked-for situation, which was likely to rob 

 Mr. Clay and his friends of the fruits of their victory. 

 It has been the habit of Whig writers to speak of 

 Mr. Tyler as a renegade, and to slur over the circum- 

 stances of his candidacy by declaring that at the time 

 of his nomination his views on public questions, and 

 in particular on the bank, were little known. But the 



