298 Chapter 11 Westward Expansion
Tyler’s Troubles
John Tyler, who became president in 1841 after the
death of William Henry Harrison, was a thin, rather
delicate-appearing man with pale blue eyes and a long
nose. Courteous, tactful, and soft-spoken, he gave
the impression of being weak, an impression rein-
forced by his professed belief that the president
should defer to Congress in the formulation of policy.
This was a false impression; John Tyler was stubborn
and proud, and these characteristics combined with
an almost total lack of imagination to make him wor-
ship consistency, as so many second-raters do. He had
turned away from Jackson because of the aggressive
way the president had used his powers of appoint-
ment and the veto, but he also disagreed with Henry
Clay and the northern Whigs about the Bank, protec-
tion, and federal internal improvements. Being a
states’ rights Southerner, he considered such mea-
sures unconstitutional. Nevertheless, he was prepared
to cooperate with Clay as the leader of what he called
the “more immediate representatives” of the people,
the members of Congress. But he was not prepared
to be Clay’s puppet. He asked all of Harrison’s
Cabinet to remain in office.
Tyler and Clay did not get along, and for this Clay
was chiefly to blame. He behaved in an overbearing
manner that was out of keeping with his nature, prob-
ably because he resented having been passed over by
the Whigs in 1840. (When news of Harrison’s nomi-
nation reached him in Washington, he was half drunk.
His face darkened. “I am the most unfortunate man in
the history of parties,” he said, “always run... when
sure to be defeated, and now betrayed for a nomina-
tion when I, or anyone, would be sure of an elec-
tion.”) He considered himself the real head of the
Whig party and intended to exercise his leadership.
In Congress, Clay announced a comprehensive
federal program that ignored Tyler’s states’ rights
view of the Constitution. Most important was his
plan to set up a new Bank of the United States. When
Congress passed the new Bank bill, Tyler vetoed it.
The entire Cabinet except Secretary of State Daniel
Webster thereupon resigned in protest.
Abandoned by the Whigs, Tyler attempted to
build a party of his own. He failed to do so, and for
the remainder of his term the political squabbling in
Washington was continuous.
The Webster-Ashburton Treaty
Webster’s decision to remain in the Cabinet was moti-
vated in part by his desire to settle the boundary
between Maine and New Brunswick. The intent of
the peace treaty of 1783 had been to award the
United States all land in the area drained by rivers
flowing into the Atlantic rather than into the St.
Lawrence, but the wording was obscure and the old
maps conflicting. In 1842 the British sent a new min-
ister, Lord Ashburton, to the United States to try to
settle all outstanding disputes. Ashburton and
Webster easily worked out a compromise boundary.
The British needed only a small part of the territory to
build a military road connecting Halifax and Quebec.
Webster, who thought any settlement desirable simply
to eliminate a possible cause of war, willingly agreed.
Webster solved the problem of placating Maine
and Massachusetts, both of which wanted every acre
of the land in dispute. It was known that during the
peace negotiations ending the Revolution, Franklin
had marked the boundary between Maine and Canada
on a map with a heavy red line, but no one could find
the Franklin map. Webster obtained an old map of the
area and had someone mark off in red a line that fol-
lowed the British version of the boundary. He showed
this document to representatives of Maine and
Massachusetts, convincing them that they had better
agree to his compromise before the British got wind
of it and demanded the whole region! It later came
out that the British had a true copy of the Franklin
map, which showed that the entire area rightfully
belonged to the United States.
Nevertheless, Webster’s generosity made excellent
sense. Lord Ashburton, gratified by having obtained
the strategic territory, made concessions elsewhere
along the Canadian and American border. British
dependence on foreign foodstuffs was increasing;
America’s need for British capital was rising. War, or
even unsettled affairs, would have injured vital busi-
ness relations and produced no compensating gains.
The Webster-Ashburton Treaty was regarded as a
diplomatic triumph.The Texas Question
The settlement with Great Britain won support in
every section of the United States, but the same could
not be said for Tyler’s attempt to annex the Republic
of Texas, for this involved the question of slavery. In
the Transcontinental Treaty of 1819 with Spain the
boundary of the United States had been drawn in
such a way as to exclude Texas. This seemed unim-
portant at the time, yet within months of the treaty’s
ratification in February 1821, Americans led by
Stephen F. Austin had begun to settle in the area.
Almost simultaneously Mexico threw off the last ves-
tiges of Spanish rule and secured its independence.
Texas was now part of Mexico.
Cotton flourished on the fertile Texas plains, and
for a time, the new Mexican authorities offered free