, which commanded almost unanimous support in the West, and at last
secured the passage of all three in June, 1840. Though Clay and his
party waged a powerful opposition through four full years, they had no
definite program to offer. The groups of their organization were as yet
poorly knit together. Their popular appeal was "to drive the Goths and
Vandals" from the capital. The "new Napoleon and his minions," according
to another historical comparison, must give way to the old regime, to
gentlemen "who knew how to govern." And consequently the new alignments
were much the same as those which had supported Adams and Clay in 1828,
the South and West uniting on the "reform" Treasury system and Benton's
land bills, while the East and certain conservative elements of the West
and South indorsed, tentatively, at least, the "American System," or at
least lent willing ears to the eloquence of Clay.

Still the people hardly knew whom to believe, and they grouped
themselves in the different States in a way which seemed unlike the
earlier combinations. Thick-and-thin followers of Van Buren called
themselves Democrats and insisted that they were the disciples of Thomas
Jefferson; the organizers of the opposition to Jackson in his war on the
Bank had claimed to be National Republicans, though they accepted with
pride the name of Whigs after 1836. They asserted also that they were
the followers of the great Virginia democrat; perhaps the historian
would be compelled to deny that either faction was democratic.

As the Democrats were almost unanimously in favor of the renomination of
Van Buren, it was not difficult to manage their convention of that
year. Nor was the platform the occasion of any serious disagreement. It
stated for the first time that the party was opposed to internal
improvements, a protective tariff, and the assumption of the debts of
bankrupt States. In all these the West was much interested. But on the
subject of slavery it was definitely declared that the Federal
Government had no power of interference. For the last time in the
history of the _ante-bellum_ Democracy, the Declaration of Independence
was declared to be an item of the party faith. Van Buren took many risks
in this un-Western program; though the panic of 1837 was doubtless his
heaviest burden, as the Whigs never tired of asserting and repeating.

The Whigs met in convention at Harrisburg in December, 1839. Divided on
the great questions of the day, th