U.S 1

Introduction of Whigs  Began in 1834  Brought together in opposition to “King” Andrew Jackson  Jackson crushed National Republicans in 1828 and 1832  Whigs were made about: National Bank and tariffs in South Carolina  Fiscal conservatives and states’ rights proponents

Election of 1836  Vice- President Martin Van Buren of New York was who Jackson wanted to take over  Jackson was now 70  Jacksonites supported Van Buren but not with enthusiasm  Whigs could not come up with a good presidential candidate

Strategy  Whig strategy was to run several different “favorite sons” each with a regional appeal  Hoped to scatter vote so no candidate would win a majority  Then vote would go to House of Rep. AGAIN  William Henry Harrison of Ohio, hero of Battle of Tippecanoe

Van Buren v. Harrison

Election results

Electoral Vote

“Little Magician”  Short, slender, bland and bald  Had resentment from many Democrats  More mild-mannered than Jackson  Inherited Jackson’s numerous enemies  Rebellion in Canada 1837 stirred up ugly incidents along northern frontier and threatened to trigger war with Britain!  MFd5o&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_ mode=1 MFd5o&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_ mode=1

Panic of 1837  Economic Depression  Much of Van Buren’s energy was spent on battling the panic  Basic cause was rampant speculation from get-rich-quickism  But speculation alone didn’t cause the crash

Jacksonian finance  Jacksonian finance, included the Bank War and Specie Circular helped out the bad times  Failures of what crops, ravaging by Hessian fly deepened the distress  Grain prices were forced so high that mobs in NYC, 3 weeks before Van Buren took oath stormed warehouses and broke open flour barrels

Economics  Late in prominent British banks created tremors so British investors called in foreign loans  Resulted in pinch for U.S, combined with previous topics worsened the “depression”  American banks collapsed by the hundreds

Hard times  Factories closed their doors, unemployed workers mulled in streets  Whigs called for: expansion of bank credit, higher tarriffs, subsidies for internal improvements  Van Buren did not like those ideas

One foreign traveler 1837  “The greatest annoyance I was subjected to in travelling was in exchanging money. It is impossible to describe the wretched state of currency- which is all bills issued by private individuals; companies; cities and states; almost all of which are bankrupt; or what amounts to the same thing, they cannot redeem their issues… and these do not pass out of the state, or frequently, out of the city”