any way, nor able to
impress himself upon the country. He announced at his inauguration that
it was his intention, to tread in the footsteps of his "illustrious
predecessor," but none for a moment imagined that he was big enough to
fill Jackson's shoes. Indeed, Jackson, was by far the most important
figure at the inauguration.

Van Buren's term as President witnessed nothing more
momentous than the great panic of 1837, which he faced with a calmness
and clear-sightedness surprising even to his friends, but which
nevertheless assisted a collection of malcontents, under the leadership
of Henry Clay, calling themselves National Republicans or Whigs, to
defeat him for re-election. There was really no valid reason why he
should have been re-elected; he had little claim, upon the country, but
was for the most part, merely a clever politician, the first to attain
the presidency. His life had been marked by an orderly advance from
local to state, and then to national offices--an advance obtained not
because he stood for any great principle, but because he knew how to
make friends and build his political fences.

His nomination and election to the presidency was in no sense an
accident, as was Taylor's, Pierce's, Hayes's and Garfield's, but was
carefully prearranged and thoroughly understood. Yet let us do him the
justice to add that his public services were, in some respects, of a
high order, and that he was not wholly unworthy of the last great honor
paid him. He was a candidate for the nomination in 1844, but was
defeated by James K. Polk; and four years later, secured the nomination,
but was defeated at the polls by Zachary Taylor. That ended his
political career.

In the campaign against him of 1840, the Whigs were fortunate in having
for their candidate William Henry Harrison, a man of immense personal
popularity, resembling Jackson in that his reputation had been made as
an Indian fighter in the West, where he had defeated Tecumseh at the
battle of Tippecanoe, and by a successful campaign in the war of 1812.
Since then, he had been living quietly on his farm in Ohio, with no
expectation of anything but passing his remaining years in quiet, for he
was nearly seventy years of age. But Clay, with a sort of prophetic
insight, picked him out as the Whig leader, and "Tippecanoe and Tyler
Too" became the rallying cry of a remarkable campaign, which swept the
country from end to end and effectually swamped Van Buren. It was to