ne
patented his alphabetic printing telegraph, and telegraph wires were strung
as far as Glasgow. Almost simultaneously with the death of Hook, the
British humorist, the new publication of "Punch, or the London Charivari,"
made its appearance. One of its earliest contributors was George
Cruikshank, the caricaturist.

[Sidenote: William H. Harrison inaugurated]

[Sidenote: Death of Harrison]

[Sidenote: Tyler, tenth President]

[Sidenote: Canadian boundary treaty]

[Sidenote: American financial policy]

In British North America, the first Parliament of Canada was opened with
great ceremony in June. After the changes in the Ministry, Sir Charles
Bagett became Governor-General of Canada. In the United States, General
Harrison was inaugurated as President. It rained on his inauguration day,
and the aged General suffered so from exposure that he contracted
pneumonia. One month later he died. The clamor of office-seekers during his
brief tenure contributed largely to his death. Harrison had been active in
public life since he was Secretary of the Northwest Territory in 1797. He
acquired a national reputation by his victory over the Indians at
Tippecanoe. He served as Senator from Indiana from 1825 to 1828, when he
became Minister to the Republic of Colombia in South America. Congress,
after some debate, passed a bill to appropriate one year's Presidential
salary to General Harrison's widow. Vice-President Tyler became President.
A Virginian by birth, he was committed to the Southern theory of State
rights. In his first message he recognized the veto of the United States
Bank measure as approved by the nation. This caused a decisive break with
the holdover Cabinet. All the members resigned except Daniel Webster, who
was retained to complete the Canadian boundary treaty with England. The
line at length agreed upon gave to the United States 7,000 square miles,
and to Great Britain 5,000, with the navigation of the St. John's River.
Lord Ashburton in a speech at New York declared that never again could war
be possible between the two countries. Tyler's new Secretary of State was
Upham. The first measure of the Whigs was the repeal of the independent
Treasury act of the previous Congress, and the next was the establishment
of a general system of bankruptcy, and for distribution of the public land
revenue. The former was more than a bankrupt law; it was practically an
insolvent law for the abolition of debts at the will of th