ted him saw their hopes blasted, and the labors of the campaign
lost, by his ambitious perfidy. Nearly all of his nominations for
office were promptly rejected, and those who for place had espoused
his cause found themselves disappointed. A few days before the
final adjournment, it was announced that Senator Bagby, of Alabama,
would the next afternoon expose the shortcomings of the Whig party.
He was a type of the old-school Virginia lawyers, who had removed
to the Gulf States, and there acquired political position and
fortune. He was a large man, with a bald head, a strong voice,
and a watch-seal dangling from his waistband.

The "Corporal's Guard" who sustained Mr. Tyler were all on hand
and prominently seated to hear him abuse the Whigs, and they
evidently had great expectations that he might eulogize the President.
Upshur, Cushing, Wise, Gilmer, with the President's sons, Robert
and John, were on the floor of the Senate, and they were evidently
delighted as the eloquent Alabamian handled the Whig party without
gloves. He undertook to show that they were for and against a
National Bank, in favor of and opposed to a tariff, pro-slavery
and anti-slavery, according to their location, but all united by
a desire to secure the Federal offices.

Proceeding in a strain of fervid eloquence, he all at once turned
to Senator Smith, of Indiana, who was sitting in front of him, and
asked, in stentorian tones: "Why don't you Whigs keep your promises
to the American people? I pause for an answer!" Mr. Smith promptly
replied: "Because _your_ President won't let us." Mr. Bagby stood
still for a moment and then contemptuously exclaimed: "_Our_
President! OUR President! Do you think that we would go to the
most corrupt party that was ever formed in the United States, and
then take for our President the meanest renegade that ever left
the party?" He then went on to castigate Mr. Tyler, while the
"Corporal's Guard," sadly disappointed, one by one, "silently stole
away," and had no more faith in Mr. Bagby.

Junius Brutus Booth still continued to be the leading star at the
Washington Theatre, and President Tyler used often to enjoy his
marvelous renderings, especially his "Sir Giles Overreach," "King
Lear," "Shylock," "Othello," and "Richard the Third." Booth, at
this time, was more than ever a slave to intoxicating drink, so
much so that he would often disappoint his audiences, sometimes
wholly failing to appear, yet his