ed to buy.
Prices of everything went down with a rush. People felt so poor that
they would not even buy new clothes. The mills and mines were closed,
and the banks suspended payments. Thousands of working men and women
were thrown out of work. They could not even buy food for themselves or
their families. Terrible bread riots took place. After a time people
began to pluck up their courage. But it was a long time before "good
times" came again.

[Sidenote: The national finances.]

[Sidenote: The Sub-Treasury plan.]

[Sidenote: Independent Treasury Act, 1840.]

315. The Independent Treasury System.--What should be done with the
government's money? No one could think of depositing it with the state
banks. Clay and his friends thought the best thing to do would be to
establish a new United States Bank. But Van Buren was opposed to that.
His plan, in short, was to build vaults for storing money in Washington
and in the leading cities. The main storehouse or Treasury was to be in
Washington, subordinate storehouses or sub-treasuries were to be
established in the other cities. To these sub-treasuries the collectors
of customs would pay the money collected by them. In this way the
government would become independent of the general business affairs of
the country. In 1840 Congress passed an act for putting this plan into
effect. But before it was in working order, Van Buren was no longer
President.

[Sidenote: New parties.]

[Sidenote: The Democrats.]

[Sidenote: The Whigs.]

316. Democrats and Whigs.--In the Era of Good Feeling there was but
one party--the Republican party. In the confused times of 1824 the
several sections of the party took the names of their party leaders: the
Adams men, the Jackson men, the Clay men, and so on. Soon the Adams men
and the Clay men began to act together and to call themselves National
Republicans. This they did because they wished to build up the nation's
resources at the expense of the nation. The Jackson men called
themselves Democratic Republicans, because they upheld the rights of the
people. Before long they dropped the word "Republican" and called
themselves simply Democrats. The National Republicans dropped the whole
of their name and took that of the great English liberal party--the
Whigs. This they did because they favored reform.

[Illustration: Log Cabin Song Book.]

[Sidenote: "A campaign of humor." _Higginson_, 269; _McMaster_,
315-316.]

[Sidenote: Harrison and Ty