or, March 7th, 1849, to July
25th, 1850; was again Senator from Ohio, July 27th, 1850, to March
3d, 1851, and died at Lancaster, Ohio, October 26th, 1871.

CHAPTER XX.
THE KING IS DEAD--LONG LIVE THE KING.

John Tyler, having found that his position as Vice-President gave
him no voice in the distribution of patronage, had retired in
disgust to his estate in Prince William County, Virginia, when Mr.
Fletcher Webster brought him a notification, from the Secretary of
State, to hasten to Washington to assume the duties of the President.
Mr. Webster reached Richmond on Sunday--the day following General
Harrison's death--chartered a steamboat, and arrived at Mr. Tyler's
residence on Monday at daybreak. Soon afterward, Mr. Tyler,
accompanied by his two sons, left with Mr. Webster, and arrived at
Washington early Tuesday morning.

The Cabinet had arrived at the conclusion that Mr. Tyler should be
officially styled, "Vice-President of the United States, acting
President," but he very promptly determined that he would enjoy
all of the dignities and honors of the office which he had inherited
under the Constitution. Chief Justice Taney was then absent, so
Mr. Tyler summoned Chief Justice Cranch, of the Supreme Court of
the District of Columbia, to his parlor at Brown's Indian Queen
Hotel, and took the oath of office administered to previous
Presidents. The Cabinet officers were soon made to understand that
he was Chief Magistrate of the Republic, and the Whig magnates
began to fear that their lease of power would soon terminate. In
conversation with Mr. Nathan Sargent, a prominent Whig correspondent,
soon after his arrival, Mr. Tyler significantly remarked: "If the
Democrats and myself ever come together, they must come to me; I
shall never go to them." This showed that he regarded his connection
with the Whigs as precarious.

The extra session of Congress, which had been convened by General
Harrison before his death, was not acceptable to his successor,
who saw that its legislation would be inspired and controlled by
Henry Clay. When the two houses were organized, he sent them a
brief message, in which the national bank question was dexterously
handled, "with the caution and ambiguity of a Talleyrand." Mr.
Clay lost no time in presenting his programme for Congressional
action; and in a few days its first feature, the repeal of the sub-
Treasury Act, was enacted. That night a thousand or more of the
jubilant Wash