President John Tyler and the Constancy of Human Nature

The campaign was ridiculous—one of the greatest political shell games in American history.  Every weakness of the American party system was exaggerated: the tendency to choose feeble candidates; the tendency to promise all things to all people, a campaign turned over to the image makers.  The rallies, parades and general malarkey were designed only to energized millions of Americans and give them an outlet for their frustrations.

            At first, Democrats rejoiced in the opposition’s nominee.  They considered him too old and too flawed for the office, while their candidate had a resume of pure gold.  But the candidate’s advisors had a better feel for the American temperament and they mined the common man’s feelings of dissatisfaction and estrangement from the halls of power.  In the end, the Democrats lost, and were both embittered and confused by the loss. 

            I am describing the 1840 election of William Henry Harrison (a Whig) over the incumbent Martin Van Buren (a Democrat).  

             President William Henry Harrison died less than 1 month into his presidency after delivering the longest inaugural speech in history.  [Maybe he deserved to die.]  The mantle of the Presidency was passed to Virginian John Tyler, who, if nothing else, set the correct example of how a Vice President assumes the office of the President. 

            Among the many “sticks of dynamite…” Tyler inherited was a looming face off with the leading military and economic power of the time, Great Britain.  In an attempt to stave off a potential military confrontation, Tyler charged his Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, with forging an alliance with the British.  The goal was a classic outline of foreign diplomacy: get as much as we can, give as little as we must, but close the deal. 

            Neither Tyler, nor his administration were aided in these delicate negotiations by the folks back home.  Tyler was disliked by the members of his own party, the Whigs, because he wasn’t behaving like a traditional Whig.  He was also despised by the Democrats who couldn’t accept that Van Buren had lost.  The Democrats routinely referred to Tyler as an imbecile and his Sec. of State as a poor debauchee (strong stuff for the mid-1800’s).  Tyler and Webster had to carry on with little or no support from their fellow Americans.

Prior to beginning negotiations with his British counterpart, Lord Ashburton, Sec. Webster realized that he had to sway the opinion of the part of the country which would be most directly affected by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, the state of Maine.  To grease the mental skids of the populace, Webster and Tyler sent agents to Maine. 

       These paid agents were assigned the task of convincing people that a compromise with the British was what they really wanted—and needed.  The story line was that half a loaf was better than none.  The agents used “experts” to “prove” that an old “mysteriously lost but now equally mysteriously found” map from no less a personage than Benjamin Franklin (and who could doubt Franklin?) showed that all of Maine was to go to the British after the Revolution!  Surely a treaty setting the boundary keeping most of these lands for America, was better than ceding the whole state to Canada!  These paid government agents disrupted the organizations of opposition groups.  They planted false stories in the newspapers cloaked in patriotic, scientific, even seemingly reasonable words like “Northeastern Boundary—Why Not Settle It?”  They brought up “facts” that were not facts at all and supported by “documents” that were printed up like monopoly money. 

            Today’s news talks of both the Obama administration in 2012 and the Trump campaign in 2016 using data acquired from social media to target, manipulate and twist opinion for each group’s own purpose.  My response is that there is nothing new under the sun.  Perhaps we should not condemn the manipulators without also condemning ourselves for being too willing to believe what we want to believe and listen most receptively only to what we want to hear.

            You can not be manipulated without your permission.  Think independently and keep the faith. 

            P.S.  President John Tyler was not nominated by the Whigs to another term.  He tried running as a third party candidate and lost to James Knox Polk.