AND THE WHIG COALITION 357 



and the President was glad to retain his hold upon so 

 strong an element in the North as that which Mr. 

 Webster represented. Some of the leading Whig 

 members of Congress now issued addresses to the 

 people, in which they loudly condemned the conduct 

 of the President and declared that " all political connec- 

 tion between them and John Tyler was at an end from 

 that day forth." It was open war between the two 

 departments of government. Only a few members of 

 Congress, commonly known as " the corporal's guard," 

 really recognized Mr. Tyler as their leader ; but the 

 Democratic members came to his support as an ally 

 against the Whigs. The state elections of 1841 

 showed some symptoms of a reaction in favour of the 

 President's views, for in general the Whigs lost ground 

 in them. As the spectre of the crisis of 1837 faded 

 away in the distance, the people began to recover from 

 the sudden and overmastering impulse that had swept 

 the country in 1840, and the popular enthusiasm for 

 the bank soon died away. Mr. Tyler had really won 

 a victory of the first magnitude, as was conclusively 

 shown in 1844, when the presidential platform of the 

 Whigs was careful to make no allusion whatever to 

 the bank. On this crucial question the doctrines of 

 paternal government had received a crushing and per- 

 manent defeat In the next session of Congress the 

 strife with the President was renewed, but it was now 

 tariff, not bank, that furnished the subject of discus- 

 sion. The lowering of duties by the compromise 

 tariff of 1833 had now diminished the revenue until 

 it was insufficient to meet the expenses of government. 

 The Whigs accordingly carried through Congress a 

 bill continuing the protective duties of 1833, an d pro- 



