arter of a century. Instead of killing him, the Senate's
rejection had swung open a wider door for his entrance to the highest
office in the gift of the people.

CHAPTER XXXV

FORMATION OF THE WHIG PARTY

1831-1834

The campaign of 1832 seemed to be without an issue, save Van Buren's
rejection as Minister to Great Britain, and Jackson's wholesale
removals from office. Yet it was a period of great unrest. The debate
of Webster and Hayne had revealed two sharply defined views separating
the North and the South; and, although the compromise tariff act of
1832, supported by all parties, and approved by the President, had
temporarily removed the question of Protection from the realm of
discussion, the decided stand in favour of a State's power to annul an
act of Congress had made a profound impression in the North. Under
these circumstances, it was deemed advisable to organise a Clay party,
and, to this end, a state convention of National Republicans,
assembled in Albany in June, 1831, selected delegates to a convention,
held in Baltimore in December, which unanimously nominated Henry Clay
for President. The Anti-Masons, who had previously nominated William
Wirt, of Maryland, and were in practical accord with the National
Republicans on all questions relating to federal authority, agreed to
join them, if necessary, to sustain these principles.

A new issue, however, brought them together with great suddenness.
Though the charter of the United States Bank did not expire until
1836, the subject of its continuance had occupied public attention
ever since President Jackson, in his first inaugural address, raised
the question of its constitutionality; and when Congress convened, in
December, 1831, the bank applied for an extension of its charter.
Louis McLane, then secretary of the treasury, advised the president
of the bank that Jackson would approve its charter, if certain
specified modifications were accepted. These changes proved entirely
satisfactory to the bank; but Webster and Clay declared that the
subject had assumed aspects too decided in the public mind and in
Congress, to render any compromise or change of front expedient or
desirable. Later in the session, the bill for the bank's recharter
passed both branches of Congress. Then came the President's veto. The
act and the veto amounted to an appeal to the people, and in an
instant the country was on fire.

Under these conditions, the anti-masonic state