cases when the vote of the Senate was tied--a contingency
more apt to embarrass than to promote his political interests. He was,
of course, neither sought nor feared by the crowds who besieged the
President. He was therefore not unnaturally thrown into a sort of
antagonism with the Administration--an antagonism sure to be stimulated
by the _coterie_ who, disappointed in efforts to secure favor with the
President, were disposed to take refuge in the Cave of Adullam, where
from chagrin and sheer vexation the Vice-President had too frequently
been found. The class of disappointed men who gathered around the
Vice-President held a political relation not unlike that of the class
who in England have on several occasions formed the Prince of Wales'
party--composed of malcontents of the opposition, who were on the worst
possible terms with the Ministry.

John Tyler, as President Johnson well knew from personal observation,
began his Executive career with an apparent intention of following in
the footsteps of the lamented Harrison, to which course he had been
indeed been enjoined by the dying President in words of the most solemn
import. Tyler gave assurances to his Cabinet that he desired them to
retain their places. But the suggestion--which he was too ready to
adopt--was soon made, that he would earn no personal fame by
submissively continuing in the pathway marked out by another. With
this uneasiness implanted in his mind, it was impossible that he should
retain a Cabinet in whose original selection he had no part, and whose
presence was the symbol of a political subordination which constantly
fretted him. A cause of difference was soon found; difference led to
irritation, irritation to open quarrel, and quarrel ended in a
dissolution of the Cabinet five months after Mr. Tyler's accession to
the Executive chair. The dispute was then transferred to his party,
and grew more angry day by day until Tyler was driven for political
shelter and support to the Democratic Party, which had opposed his
election.

Mr. Fillmore had not been on good terms with General Taylor's
Administration, and when he succeeded to the Presidency he made haste
to part with the illustrious Cabinet he found in power. He accepted
their resignations at once, and selected heads of departments
personally agreeable to himself and in political harmony with his
views. He did not desert his party, but he passed over from the
anti-slavery to the pro-sla