Studies in American History 
127 
complex conditions that faced him. In the campaign which 
followed, the opposition attacked the party in power only on 
large generalities. The President, himself, was satisfied. 
“Seldom has this favored land’’, he said, 
been so generally exempted from the ravages of disease or the 
labor of the husbandmen more amply rewarded, and never before have 
our relations with the other countries been placed on a more favorable 
basis than that which they so happily occupy at this critical conjuncture 
in the affairs of the world. 
During this period, the question of the responsibility of 
representatives to the people was much discussed. There was 
a constant desertion of the leaders of the Democrats to the 
Whig measures. This, the party organization tried to stop 
thru resolutions of the state legislatures. It was also incon- 
sistent for a State Rights Democrat to refuse to obey these 
instructions. North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and 
Georgia censured or instructed their senators, who were in- 
clined to vote with the opposition. Brown and Strange of 
North Carolina,^^ White of Tennessee,^® and Tyler of Virginia 
resigned. Leigh of Virginia, Grundy of Tennessee,^" and Ber- 
rien of Georgia^® kept their seats. The argument died down 
as the cause was removed. 
The Democratic movements preceding the campaign were 
uninteresting and perfunctory. Van Buren’s nomination 
went thru as a matter of form.^® For the third successive 
time the New Hampshire legislature called for a national 
Democratic convention which was to be held at Baltimore on 
May 4, 1840.^° Outside of New Hampshire, there was very 
little said or done concerning the convention. Benton was 
mentioned for president, but this was quite early.^^ Buchanan 
refused to allow his name to be run in the Sentinel for vice- 
president on the ground that as Van Buren was sure to be 
the presidential nominee, it was not wise to have both pres- 
idential and vice-presidential candidates from the same sec- 
tion.^^ 
Richardson (ed.), Messages and Papers of the Presidents, III, 602. 
Niles’ Register, LVIII, 348. 
Letter of Hugh L. White to the legislature of Tennessee on declining to obey 
certain of their resolutions and instructions and resigning his office of senator of the 
United States (printed at the Madisonian Office, Washington, 1840). 
'^’’Albany Argnis, January 23, 1838. 
Pleasant A. Stovall, Robert Toombs (New York, 1892), 39, 
Benton, Thirty Years’ Vietv, II, 203, 204. 
Stanwood, A Histoi'y of the Presidency, 199. 
National Intelligencer, April 15, 1837, from Missouri Argus, March 24, 1837. 
Moore (ed.), The Woi'ks of James Buchanan, IV, 116, 
