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Indiana University 
portant part and had been influential in determining the re- 
sult. For the next twenty years it was to dominate the 
political drama. It was to give the Whig party one more brief 
taste of victory, then break it on the rocks. Ohio remained 
the only Whig state of the Northwest, and the Whigs, who 
secured the legislature . in 1844, retained control until 1848. 
Indiana during the forties passed thru a period of political 
demoralization. The Whig party was staggered by the cross 
of internal improvements, and now internal friction and 
general apathy increased the burden. A clique of ex-office- 
holders tried to dominate party councils, but when they failed 
they nominated independent candidates and thus insured 
Democratic success.*^ The Democrats of the state were con- 
fronted by the Hunker-Barnburner division, the Bright-Whit- 
comb jealousy, and the Wright-Hannegan feud, but succeeded 
in electing their first governor in 1843 in the person of James 
Whitcomb and in re-electing him in 1846. Party strife in Illi- 
nois continued to be influenced largely by local issues, with the 
Democrats in control. The Michigan Democracy held undis- 
puted sway, and their factions were kept united under Gover- 
nors Berry and Felch. 
Before the election of 1848 the center of political gravity 
was to be moved still farther north by the admission of Wis- 
consin. Territorial Wisconsin, as had been Territorial Michi- 
gan, was Democratic, but the striking dissimilarity between 
the habits and customs of the settlers from the Mississippi 
Valley and those from the eastern states came to issue in the 
constitutional convention. The constitution which forbade the 
establishment of a state bank of issue was defeated by the 
vote of eastern settlers. In 1847 J. H. Tweedy was elected 
congressional delegate over Moses Strong, Democrat, who 
was opposed by the Abolitionists. Democrats were afraid that 
Wisconsin, “the brightest and last of the five states of the 
old Northwest Territory, would be the first to come into the 
Union under the flag of federalism”.^® But the party which 
had made the defeated constitution claimed two-thirds of the 
members of the second convention, and the second constitu- 
tion with a provision for bank by referendum vote was adopted 
in March, 1848. May 29, Wisconsin, as had each of the other 
For discussion of the condition of the Whig party in Indiana see Indiana State 
Journal, October 8, 15, and 29, 1845. 
"‘^Wisconsin Democrat (Madison, Wis.), August 28, 1847. ' 
s: 
