Studies in American History 
425 
west had 13 representatives in Congress to 17 for the Whigs. 
The Ohio legislature selected William Allen, a Democrat, to 
the United States Senate, and the Indiana legislature, thru the 
influence of Jacksonian members who refused a vote for Noble, 
selected Oliver H. Smith. Smith was the only Whig senator 
from the Northwest.^® The Whigs of the Northwest took 
consolation in the fact that Harrison had made a better show- 
ing than had Jackson in his first campaign, and that Van 
Buren’s popularity was only borrowed. 
The panic of 1837 brought the administration around to 
the Sub-Treasury Plan, and the one big topic of discussion 
was banking. The issue had been found on which Democrats 
and Whigs could draw the line. Except in Illinois the Demo- 
crats of the Northwest accepted Van Buren and his policies, 
and even in that state they were forced into line. To the 
Democrats the question resolved itself into this: Shall we 
have a BANK GOVERNMENT, or a GOVERNMENT OE 
THE PEOPLE? Gold and silver were the national currency 
of the world, and all other must be based upon them. “The 
power and vengeance of mercenary monopolies are upon us — 
the iron grasp of pandulent and irresponsible shavers must 
be broken. In spite of such reasoning, however, the voters 
of Ohio returned a Whig legislature in 1837, but the next year, 
playing to the German vote by opposing the English language 
clause in the Common School Bill, the Democrats succeeded 
in electing Wilson Shannon governor over Joseph Vance.^® 
Judge Benjamin Tappen was elected by the Democratic legisla- 
ture to the United States Senate. The Whigs saw no other 
way of accounting for the defeat but by accusing the Aboli- 
tionists and States Rights men of throwing them over.^^ 
The Democrats of Indiana were so dispirited by the loss 
of the state in 1836 that they did not bring out a candidate for 
governor the following year. David Wallace and John Dumont 
fought it out over the classification issue, and Wallace became 
Democrats : Morris and Allen of Ohio, Tipton of Indiana, Robinson and Young 
of Illinois, Norvel and Lyon of Michigan. 
Ohio Statesman, October 4, 1837. 
Shannon, 107,884 ; Vance, 102,146. Eleven Democrats were returned to Congress 
and 8 Whigs. Official vote by counties in Ohio Statesman, December 11, 1838, gives 
Vance 102,156 ; Ohio Statistics, 255. For congressional returns by counties see Ohio 
Statesman, December 18, 1838. Among the counties polling the heaviest Whig vote 
were Ashtabula (2,048 to 738), Champaign, Clark, Cuyahoga, Franklin, Muskingum, 
Ross, and Warren. Democrats were elected in the first, second, fifth, ninth, eleventh, 
twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth. 
Green County (Ohio) Torchlight, October 20; Ohio Statesman, October 30, 1838. 
