ler elected, 1840.]

317. Election of 1840.--General William Henry Harrison was the son
of Benjamin Harrison of Virginia, one of the signers of the Declaration
of Independence. General Harrison had moved to the West and had won
distinction at Tippecanoe, and also in the War of 1812 (pp. 202, 209).
The Whigs nominated him in 1836, but he was beaten. They now renominated
him for President, with John Tyler of Virginia as candidate for
Vice-President. Van Buren had made a good President, but his term of
office was associated with panic and hard times. He was a rich man and
gave great parties. Plainly he was not a "man of the people," as was
Harrison. A Democratic orator sneered at Harrison, and said that all he
wanted was a log cabin of his own and a jug of cider. The Whigs eagerly
seized on this description. They built log cabins at the street corners
and dragged through the streets log cabins on great wagons. They held
immense open-air meetings at which people sang songs of "Tippecanoe and
Tyler Too." Harrison and Tyler received nearly all the electoral votes
and were chosen President and Vice-President.

[Sidenote: Death of Harrison, 1841.]

318. Death of Harrison, 1841.--The people's President was
inaugurated on March 4, 1841. For the first time since the establishment
of the Spoils System a new party came into control of the government.
Thousands of office-seekers thronged to Washington. They even slept in
out-of-the-way corners of the White House. Day after day, from morning
till night, they pressed their claims on Harrison. One morning early,
before the office-seekers were astir, he went out for a walk. He caught
cold and died suddenly, just one month after his inauguration. John
Tyler at once became President.

[Sidenote: President Tyler.]

[Sidenote: His contest with the Whigs.]

319. Tyler and the Whigs.--President Tyler was not a Whig like
Harrison or Clay, nor was he a Democrat like Jackson. He was a Democrat
who did not like Jackson ideas. As President, he proved to be anything
but a Whig. He was willing to sign a bill to repeal the Independent
Treasury Act, for that was a Democratic measure he had not liked; but he
refused to sign a bill to establish a new Bank of the United States.
Without either a bank or a treasury, it was well-nigh impossible to
carry on the business of the government. But it was carried on in one
way or another. Tyler was willing to sign a new tariff act, and one was
passed in 1842