Ill 
STATE AND CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS 
Van Buren went into office with a Democratic Congress, 
but it refused to be guided completely by him. It consented 
to withhold the fourth instalment of the Treasury surplus 
from the states, yet that was the only thing left with a bank- 
rupt Treasury. On the question of the Sub-Treasury Bill, the 
President’s plan was turned down in three successive sessions 
of Congress, tho finally enacted into law in the session of 
1839-1840. 
This same reaction was going on outside of Congress. In 
New York, the well-organized Seward- Weed machine was 
gaining votes from the Democrats, who were split into the 
Loco Foco and Tammany branches. The state election in the 
fall of 1837 went in favor of the Whigs. Six of the eight 
senatorial districts elected Whigs, and 101 of the 128 As- 
semblymen were Whigs. The county officers were elected in 
about the same proportion.®^ The Whig gains were largest in 
New York, but the state elections were generally unfavorable 
to the Democrats.®- 
The congressional elections of 1838 showed about the same 
division as the elections of 1836. The Whigs raised their 
membership in Congress from 106 to 114. They gained 6 
members in Connecticut, 10 in New York, 1 in Illinois, 1 in 
Louisiana, and 8 in Georgia. They lost 1 member in Ver- 
mont, 5 in New Jersey, 1 in Pennsylvania, 1 in Kentucky, 
3 in Tennessee, 1 in Delaware, 1 in Maryland, 1 in Virginia, 
1 in North Carolina, and 3 in South Carolina. The gains of 
the Democrats were more general, but the total was not so 
large as that of the Whigs. 
In New York, the split in the Democratic party between 
SI Frederick W. Seward (ed.), William H. Sci(}a7'd, an Autohiog^raiohy (New York, 
1891), I, 343, 344. 
Stanwood, A History of the Presidency, 192, 193. The feeling of the times and 
the attitude toward Van Buren are shown by occurrences that followed the election. 
For example, about three hundred jubilant Whigs got a cannon and surrounded the 
White House where they made a great noise to the discomfort of the President. Adams 
(ed.), Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, IX, 432. 
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