resolutions upon this subject, passed by the Democratic National Convention, lately assembled at Baltimore.

I am, with great respect,

Dear sir, your ob't serv't,

JOHN K. KANE, Esq., Philadelphia.

JAMES K. POLK.

This letter indicates what were the sentiments of its author on the subject to which it related, as clearly and distinctly as language could express them. He was in favor of a tariff yielding sufficient revenue to support the government economically administered, and which should afford, at the same time, incidental protection to all the various interests of the country. He was willing to encourage manufactures to this extent, but he was not disposed to favor them, to the injury of other interests. A high protective system he could not countenance. saw how it had operated in England, where a powerful aristocracy were maintained in luxury and idleness, and a corrupt and expensive government supported, out of the hard-earned substance of the yeoman, the laborer, and the operative; and history taught him, that whenever and wherever it had been adopted, it had brought the poorer classes to abject penury and want, and reduced them to a condition of slavish dependence on the wealthy and more favored classes.

He

Entertaining such views, he cordially approved of the revenue tariff of 1846. All its main features harmonized with his own convictions; he did not consider it perfect in all its parts, but as a whole it was satisfactory to him;

and the bill received his signature, as it met with his approbation.

Whenever and howsoever any of the objectionable features of the "American System," were brought forward in Congress, they encountered the determined and unyielding opposition of Mr. Polk. He planted himself upon what he conceived to be the impregnable doctrines of the Maysville road veto, and refused to be driven from his position. If he had ever been in doubt in respect to the propriety of constructing works of internal improvement in the states by the general government, his experience as a legislator led him to reflect carefully upon the subject. He saw how the power which had been inferred from the Constitution, had been abused; and when a careful examination of that instrument resulted in discovering no positive warrant for the authority which had been claimed by the friends of the "American System" to belong to the national government, he denied its existence altogether.

During his service in Congress, he was the steadfast friend of the surviving officers and soldiers of the revolution. No one did more than he to establish and perfect the pension system, and he was particularly active in his efforts to extend its benefits to the officers and soldiers of the militia.

He was among the earliest opponents of the recharter of the United States Bank; and in the month of August, 1829, in a letter addressed to his constituents, he avowed

*

*This was several months previous to the appearance of General Jackson's first message.

his convictions to be irreconcilably opposed to the existence of such an institution, and denied both its constitutionality and expediency. He supported and defended the administration of General Jackson during the exciting contest with the bank, and approved and justified the removal of the deposits. With General Jackson and Mr. Van Buren, he was at first favorable to the state bank deposit system; but when he saw how total was its failure to answer the expectations of himself, and his friends and coädjutors, he hailed the project of an independent treasury recommended by Mr. Van Buren, as the great desideratum in the financial system of the government. This measure received his unqualified approbation, and at all times and on all occasions, he expressed himself unreservedly in its favor. He had the proud satisfaction, too, in the first year of his administration, of approving, in an official character, the bill which, at the close of his public career, remained unrepealed on the statute-book, -a bill which had risen, like the Phoenix from his pyre, from the ashes of obloquy and persecution, and was proclaimed the law of the land, in accordance with the expressed will of the Nation.

CHAPTER V.

Dissensions in the Republican Party in Tennessee-Nomination of Judge White for the Presidency-Course of Mr. Polk-Chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives-Reëlected-Character as a Presiding OfficerVote of Thanks--Farewell Address.

ALTHOUGH the vote of Tennessee, given at the presidential election in 1828, was almost unanimous in favor of General Jackson,* indications of dissatisfaction were manifested by some of the most prominent members of the republican party in that state, at an early period of his administration. It was impossible for him to gratify all the numerous applicants for office, and those who were disappointed, though they took care to conceal their chagrin, cherished many an unfriendly feeling at heart, that only required an occasion for its exhibition. But while his personal fortunes appeared to be at stake, nothing like open opposition was witnessed; he had firmly secured the love and respect of the people of Tennessee, and a whisper against his fair fame aroused their indignation. His name, like that of Hafed, was a "name of fear;" and if murmurs were ever heard, they were directed toward those who were said to be his confidential friends and advisers.

As the time approached, however, for the selection of his successor, the elements of discord and disaffection

*There were only about twenty-two hundred votes cast for the Adams electors in the whole state.

were more plainly visible. His preferences for Mr. Van Buren were well known, as they were never disguised. But in Tennessee, a large portion of the republican party were in favor of Hugh L. White, an estimable and talented citizen of that state, then one of its Senators in Congress; and they desired to have him duly brought forward by a legislative nomination, as their candidate for the presidency. Unsuccessful attempts were made to induce the legislature to make the desired nomination, and a similar effort at the convention called to revise the state constitution, in the spring of 1834, likewise failed. of success. In the neighboring state of Alabama, the friends of Judge White were more fortunate; and in the month of January, 1835, the legislature of that state nominated him as their candidate for the succession,but with the reservation, and upon the condition, that he should be "the choice of the republican party throughout the Union."

Governor Carroll, Ex-Governor Blount, Felix Grundy, James K. Polk, Cave Johnson, and other discerning men in the republican ranks in Tennessee, saw, at a glance, that the prospects of Judge White were utterly hopeless. Indeed, it was idle to presume that the condition mentioned in the resolution of the Alabama legislature would ever take place. Tennessee had been honored with a president of her own choice, for eight years in succession; and there was nothing in the public services, or in the character of Judge White, that peculiarly entitled him to inherit this distinction, in opposition to the candidates whose nomination was desired in other states. Besides, the general sentiment of the republican party in