Cabinet.—Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, Massachusetts, March 5, 1841; Hugh S. Legaré, South Carolina, May 9, 1843; A. P. Upshur, Virginia, July 24, 1843; John C. Calhoun, South Carolina, March 6, 1844. Secretary of the Treasury, Thomas Ewing; Ohio, March 5, 1841; Walter Forward, Pennsylvania, September 13, 1841; John C. Spencer, New York, March 3, 1843; George M. Bibb, Kentucky, June 15, 1844. Secretary of War, John Bell, Tennessee, March 5, 1841; John McLean, Ohio, September 13, 1841; John C. Spencer, New York, October 12, 1841; James M. Porter, Pennsylvania, March 8, 1843; William Wilkins. Pennsylvania, February 15, 1844. Secretary of the Navy, G. E. Badger, North Carolina, March 5, 1841; A. P. Upshur, Virginia, September 13, 1841; David Henshaw, Massachusetts, July 24, 1843; T. W. Gilmer, Virginia, February 15, 1844; John Y. Mason, Virginia, March 14, 1844. Attorney-General, John J. Crittenden, Kentucky, March 5, 1841; Hugh S. Legaré, South Carolina, September 13, 1841; John Nelson, Maryland, July 1, 1843. Postmaster-General, Francis Granger, New York, March 6, 1841; Charles A. Wickliffe, Kentucky, September 13, 1841.
Two weeks after his inauguration, President Harrison issued a proclamation calling an extra session of Congress to consider the financial distress prevailing throughout the country and other questions that beset the Government. The extra session was called for May 31st, but on April 4th the President died after a short illness. The new President, John Tyler, retained for a few months his predecessor's Cabinet. When Congress met in accordance with General Harrison's call of March 17th, the Whigs, who had a majority in both Houses, began to carry out the changes to which their party had pledged itself in the campaign of the preceding year. A bill was passed for the incorporation of a new United States Bank, to be called the ‘Fiscal Bank of the United States,’ planned somewhat after the model of that which had been so vigorously attacked by President Jackson. To the consternation of the Whigs, the new President on August 16th vetoed it as being unconstitutional, since it provided for the establishment of branches of the bank in the various States without securing the prior consent of these States. The leading members of the party then conferred with President Tyler and asked him to suggest the provisions of a bill that he would be willing to accept. He agreed to do so, yet after the bill framed largely in accordance with his own ideas had passed the two Houses (September 3d) it promptly met the fate of the former act. It now became evident that the President was at heart a Democrat, and that his political principles would prevent him from acting cordially with the party that had elected him to office. The indignation and chagrin of the Whigs was unbounded. The entire Cabinet with one exception immediately resigned, Webster remaining in the State Department until pending negotiations with England had been completed. On September 11th the leaders of the Whig Party issued a manifesto ‘reading’ the President out of the party, and holding him responsible for the failure to effect the reforms that had been promised. President Tyler immediately filled the places in his Cabinet with conservative politicians, and having been cut off from political affiliation with his own party, turned to the Democrats for support.
During Tyler's administration the relations between the United States and Great Britain became very strained. In the course of an insurrection in Canada in 1837 a party of supporters of the Canadian Government had crossed over to the American territory and destroyed a vessel, the Caroline, owned by the friends of the insurgents. In the affair one American had been killed. In 1840 one Alexander McLeod, who had come to New York State and boasted of having taken part in the destruction of the Caroline, was arrested and indicted for murder. England protested vigorously and serious international complications for a time seemed imminent. (See Caroline.) Again, in October, 1841, the British freed most of the slaves aboard an American vessel, the Creole, which had been seized by them and carried into a port in the Bahamas. (See Creole Case.) Thus each nation had a grievance against the other, and such ill feeling resulted that war was feared.
Fortunately, Webster, Tyler's Secretary of State, was liked and respected by English statesmen, and upon the reorganization of the Cabinet he retained his office until the pending negotiations were concluded. In 1842 Lord Ashburton was sent out from England to negotiate a treaty, with particular reference to adjusting the boundary between Canada and the Northeastern States. The boundary question was settled by a compromise, though Great Britain gave up the larger and more valuable share of the disputed territory. Two other points of importance were settled by this treaty. One was the agreement of the two governments looking to the suppression of the slave trade. The other was the provision for mutual surrender of criminals. The treaty was concluded on August 9, 1842, and was proclaimed on November 10th. See Northeast Boundary Dispute; Webster-Ashburton Treaty.
In 1843 the Government arranged a treaty with the new Republic of Texas (q.v.), providing for the future annexation of that country to the United States. The Senate rejected this treaty by a vote of 35 to 16, seven Democrats voting with the Whigs for rejection. The problem of the future relations with Texas became still more critical in national politics, and its immediate importance was increased by the strong desire for annexation among the Southern leaders. To maintain the status quo, the annexation of Texas became an actual necessity to the interests of the South; for should the free States ultimately acquire a dominant power in the Senate, as they had already done in the House, the time might come when the existence of slavery would be imperiled. The possibility of this was kept continually before the Southern mind by the increasing activity in the North of the Liberty Party (q.v.), which in 1843 held a national convention at Buffalo and there put forth a series of resolutions denouncing slavery, and calling on the free States to pass penal laws to prevent the return of fugitive slaves, and which again nominated James G. Birney for the Presidency. The Whigs at their convention held at Baltimore in May, 1844, nominated Henry Clay, of Kentucky, with Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New York, as
