"the American system." It was popular in the manufacturing towns
and in portions of the agricultural communities, but was bitterly
opposed by the slave-owning States.

A third issue dealt with internal improvements. All parts of the
country were feeling the need of better means of communication,
especially between the West and the East. Canals and turnpikes
were projected in every direction. Clay, whose imagination was
fervid, advocated a vast system of canals and roads financed by
national aid. But the doctrine of states-rights answered that the
Federal Government had no power to enter a State, even to spend
money on improvements, without the consent of that State. And, at
all events, for Clay to espouse was for Jackson to oppose.

These were the more important immediate issues of the conflict
between Clay's Whigs and Jackson's Democrats, though it must be
acknowledged that the personalities of the leaders were quite as
much an issue as any of the policies which they espoused. The
Whigs, however, proved unequal to the task of unhorsing their
foes; and, with two exceptions, the Democrats elected every
President from Jackson to Lincoln. The exceptions were William
Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, both of whom were elected on
their war records and both of whom died soon after their
inauguration. Tyler, who as Vice-President succeeded General
Harrison, soon estranged the Whigs, so that the Democratic
triumph was in effect continuous over a period of thirty years.

Meanwhile, however, another issue was shaping the destiny of
parties and of the nation. It was an issue that politicians
dodged and candidates evaded, that all parties avoided, that