NATIONAL PARTY POLITICS, 1837-1840 
I 
THE POLITICAL SITUATION 
The complete defeat of Clay in the election of 1832 had 
left the opponents of the Democratic party prostrate. When 
the election of 1836 came on, there was no one able to weld 
them into anything resembling a party. As a result, various 
local and sectional candidates were put forward. Several of 
these favorite sons were eliminated, but, in the end, no less 
than four men of the anti- Jackson group received electoral 
votes for the presidency. 
The “dark horse” of the campaign was William Henry 
Harrison of Ohio. No one took his candidacy seriously till 
just before the election. Harrison was the last candidate to 
enter the race, and, to judge from his later actions, one is 
warranted in believing that he looked upon this race only as 
an introduction to the election of 1840. Harrison’s friends 
insisted that his nomination in 1835 made him a candidate in 
1840 without further action, and it was only by great pres- 
sure that they agreed to enter a national convention.’^ If this 
convention had not nominated him, it is quite possible that 
he would have been an independent candidate. The Harrison ^ 
press in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky insinuated that 
this would be done. 
The campaign of 1836 was a sort of sifting-out process 
determining the most available candidate to be chosen for 
1840. The constituency of the parties was about the same in 
1840 as in 1836. The Democrats had lost the “Conservatives” 
over Van Buren’s Sub-Treasury Scheme, but had gained Cal- 
houn. 
It is not out of place in this connection to see how these 
two changes were brought about. Van Buren was a man of 
peace. He always avoided a quarrel, and as a result was al- 
1 National Intelligencer, April 20, 1838 ; The Globe, November 20, 1838, from Ohio 
Statesman. 
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