" Admitting to his friends that the
situation looked "a little dubious," he exerted himself powerfully to
bring about the reelection of the New Yorker. He wrote a letter
belittling the military qualities of the Whig candidate, thereby
probably doing the Democratic cause more harm than good; and finally,
to avert the humiliation of a Whig victory in Tennessee, he "took the
stump" and denounced the enemy up and down through all western
Tennessee and southern Kentucky. But "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" was
too much for him; the Whig candidates carried both Tennessee and
Kentucky and won the nation-wide contest by 234 to 60 electoral votes.
The old warrior took the defeat--_his_ defeat, he always regarded
it--philosophically, and at once began to lay plans for a recovery of
Democratic supremacy in 1844. For another quadrennium his hand was on
the party throttle. When men speculated as to whether Van Buren,
General Cass, General Butler, or Senator Benton would be the standard
bearer in 1844, they always asked what Jackson's edict on the subject
would be; and the final selection of James K.
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