Tyler's scruples on this and other
measures, Clay marshaled his followers in both houses, held his friends
in the Cabinet in his firm grasp, and was reported to have declared:
"Tyler dares not resist me; I will drive him before me." Tyler was not
the man to be driven, and meanwhile Calhoun, Benton, and their friends
were rallying around him in the hope of breaking down once again the
program of Clay.

A bank law was passed. On the 16th of August it was vetoed, and there
ensued another party break very much like that which Calhoun led in
1831. Many Southern Whigs supported the President; Eastern Whigs burned
Tyler in effigy as "the traitor." A second bank bill was passed only to
meet another veto; and the Clay scheme for the distribution of the
proceeds of the land sales, on which he had set his heart, was so
mutilated by amendments that it could not serve the purpose of its
friends. Anger and denunciation were the order of the day in Washington.
Clay called a conference of the members of Tyler's Cabinet early in
September, and advised all to resign at once in order to isolate their
chief. The advice was followed by all save Webster, who retained his
post and otherwise refused to accept the dictation of the Kentucky
leader. Calhoun, Henry A. Wise, William C. Rives, and other leaders of
Congress applauded the President and Webster. Congress adjourned on
September 13 in the worst possible humor. Excitement now ran high
throughout the country. Whig meetings were held everywhere, some to
denounce, some to defend the Virginian President. The congressional
elections came on and the voters divided sharply. But the Democrats won,
which meant that the next Congress would be deadlocked--the Senate Whig,
and the House Democratic. Under these circumstances Tyler gathered about
him a Cabinet to his own liking and planned a forward step in the
national policy. At the regular session of Congress a protective tariff
law which restored many of the high duties of 1832 was enacted. Tyler
gave his assent, perhaps in the hope of holding his New England friends
like Webster. In view of the fact that the next Congress would be at
least half anti-tariff, this move on the part of the Whigs was resented
in the South, where leaders like Robert Barnwell Rhett still spoke
openly of secession in case the old protectionist policy should be
resumed.

The lines were being drawn for the next presidential race. Clay came
back to Congress in December, 18