52 POLITICAL LIFE-I 



this was a wise measure seems now proven by the fact that 

 through all the vicissitudes of politics, from that day to 

 this, it has remained and rendered admirable service. But 

 at that time it was used as a weapon against the Demo- 

 cratic party, and came to be considered by feather- 

 brained partizans, young and old, as the culmination of 

 human wickedness. As to what the "Sub- Treasury" 

 really was I had not the remotest idea ; but this I knew ; 

 that it was the most wicked outrage ever committed by a 

 remorseless tyrant upon a long-suffering people. 



In November of 1840 General Harrison was elected. In 

 the following spring he was inaugurated, and the Whigs 

 being now for the first time in power, the rush for office 

 was fearful. It was undoubtedly this crushing pressure 

 upon the kindly old man that caused his death. What 

 British soldiers, and Indian warriors, and fire, flood, and 

 swamp fevers could not accomplish in over sixty years, 

 was achieved by the office-seeking hordes in just one 

 month. He was inaugurated on the fourth of March and 

 died early in April. 



I remember, as if it were yesterday, my dear mother 

 coming to my bedside, early in the morning, and saying 

 to me, "President Harrison is dead." I wondered what 

 was to become of us. He was the first President who had 

 died during his term of service, and a great feeling of 

 relief came over me when I learned that his high office 

 had devolved upon the Vice-President. 



But now came a new trouble, and my youthful mind was 

 soon sadly agitated. The Whig papers, especially the 

 "New York Express" and "Albany Evening Journal," 

 began to bring depressing accounts of the new President, 

 tidings of extensive changes in the offices throughout the 

 country, and especially in the post-offices. At first the 

 Whig papers published these under the heading "Ap- 

 pointments by the President." But soon the heading 

 changed; it became "Appointments by Judas Iscariot," 

 or "Appointments by Benedict Arnold," and war was 

 declared against President Tyler by the party that elected 



