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Indiana University 
Again the Democrats tried to make the Bank question an 
issue, but the Whigs by their own plan of campaign were able 
to keep the Bank issue as well as all others from being lis- 
tened to by the people. Clay, who was most likely to bring 
up this issue, was now quiet. Biddle was attacked for trying 
to prevent the banks from resuming specie payments, but 
this lost its weight when specie payment was resumed.^^ Such 
questions as, “Shall bankers like other people be made liable 
for their debts?” or, “Shall the federal Whig towns and spec- 
ulators continue to flood the country with shin plasters to 
the exclusion of silver?” were unheeded by the people.^^ Those 
towns which had banks were expected to vote against the 
Democrats.^^ 
Along the same line was the charge of “Federalism” 
against the Whigs. This charge had done good service to the 
Democrats in the past corresponding to the charge of “Seces- 
sion” against the Democrats from 1876 to 1896. The Dem- 
ocratic state convention in Maine said it recognized but two 
parties in politics: the Republicans, now usually called Dem- 
ocrats; and the Federalists, anciently and aptly denominated 
Tories. Whigs were spoken of as “blue light” Federalists and 
the Hartford convention party.^^ Ordinarily, these charges 
would have had some weight in areas such as New England 
where Federalists really were prominent among the Whigs, 
but the Whig leaders got up so much enthusiasm that the 
people usually forgot them. We And this exception. Fletcher 
Webster wrote to his father March 16, 1840, from Salisbury, 
Illinois : 
I have made a short trip among the Tuckers — Harrison goes pretty 
well, — but the ignorant & obstinate Pennsylvanians with whom the 
country abounds call the Whigs Federals & join Harrison with them; 
and it is difficult to teach them their error in the latter respect, and im- 
possible to correct their dog-headed prejudices in the other.^® 
Congdon said the Whigs claimed all the decency, refinement, 
culture, and wealth,^^ and they did have much of it, but these 
men were not managing the Whig campaign of 1840. This 
was done by politicians equal in ability to Van Buren himself. 
The Globe, July 11, 1838. 
Daily Statesman (Columbus, Ohio), September 11, 1837. 
Neio Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, July 30, 1838. 
The Globe, June 28, 1838. 
Claude Halstead Van Tyne (ed.). The Letters of Daniel Webster (New York, 1902), 
221. 
Charles Taber Congdon, Reminiscences of a Journalist (Boston, 1880), 60, 61. 
