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The Whig Campaign of 1840: the Editorial Policy of George D

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The Whig Campaign of 1840: the Editorial Policy of George D The Whig Campaign of 1840: The Editorial Policy of George D. Prentice Betty Carolyn Congleton” The loss of popularity suffered by the Democrats as a result of the Panic of 1837 was an obvious advantage for the Whig party in the presidential campaign of 1840. A combination of heterogeneous groups organized in opposition to Jacksonian Democracy, the Whigs were confronted with the necessity of selecting a candidate who could win the sup- port of the diverse groups within the party. The principal contenders for the nomination were William Henry Harrison, Daniel Webster, and the ever-ambitious Henry Clay. In previous presidential campaigns Clay’s staunchest editorial support in Kentucky had come from the pen of George D. Prentice, editor of the Louisville Daily Journal. Founded in November, 1830, to promote Clay’s candidacy in 1832, the Journal promptly became the most widely circulated newspaper west of the m0untains.l A warm personal friend and admirer of Clay, Prentice was also an astute politician who recognized the necessity for unanimity within the Whig party in the campaign of 1840. He believed that the Whigs must unite in favor of a candidate, chosen by a national convention, who could attract the vote of the diverse elements * Betty Carolyn Congleton is assistant professor of history at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina. 1 The son of Rufus and Sarah Stanton Prentice, George D. Prentice was born in New London County, Connecticut, December 18, 1802. After graduation from Brown University in 1823, he taught school and later studied medicine and law before becoming editor of The New England Review in 1826. In 1830 Prentice accepted an invitation to write a campaign biography of Henry Clay. With John Greenleaf Whittier in his chair as editor of the Weekly Review, Prentice traveled to Kentucky in midsummer, 1830 to collect material for the Clay biography. Shortly after his arrival in Kentucky he accepted the editorship of the Louisville Daily Journal. With A. J. Buxton, former proprietor of the Cincinnati Chronicle as publisher, the first issue of the Journal was distributed on November 24, 1830. Within a short time Prentice’s fame as a bold editor of unusual talent spread across America. C. J. F. Birney, The History and Genealogy of the Prentice or Prentiss Family in New England, from 1631 to 1852 (Boston, 1852), 1; Betty Carolyn Congleton, “The Louisville Journal: Its Origins and Early Years,” The Registey of the Kentucky Historical Society, LXII (April, 1964), 87-92. See also Betty Carolyn Congleton, “George D. Prentice and His Editorial Policy in National Politics, 1830-1861” (Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of History, University of Kentucky, 1962). 234 Indiana Magazine of History within the party and also win the support of the discontented Democrats. Clay’s widely known political record and his defeats in 1824 and 1832 were regarded as decided disad- vantages for the “Sage of Ashland.”z As early as August, 1837, Clay addressed a letter to Prentice in which he suggested that, regardless of his inclina- tion, he should again be forced into the presidential arena. “It is right,” he wrote, “that I should put you in possession of some of the information which has reached me.” Since election forecasts from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana suggested the inevitable downfall of the Van Buren adminis- tration, Clay surmised that “as a necessary consequence some Whig must be elected, if we can unite in favor of anyone.” He explained to Prentice that in response to a letter of inquiry from a “Committee of 170” in New York City he had said he did not wish to have his name used unless there was reason to believe that he was favored by a majority of the Whigs throughout the country. He further told Prentice: I have no wish, not the least wish to be run without a high degree of probability of success. If there be a convention, I shall most cheerfully acquiesce in its decision, be that what it may. I think it premature to hold public meetings now and publicly to discuss at large the P. question; but perhaps some such occasional notice of me as I have hinted may serve to counteract the efforts to put me aside, or put me down by the zealous partisans of other candidates.3 Clay was confident that western New York preferred him to all other candidates; and he believed that he was a strong contender throughout New England and in South Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia. Believing that Prentice’s 2Clay had been active in the arena of national politcs since his arrival in Washington in 1811 to serve as Kentucky’s representative in the House. Promptly elected Speaker, he also served as a leader of the “war hawks” and commissioner to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent and was influential in framing the Missouri Compromise. AS the fourth man in the contest for the presidency in 1824, Clay gave his support to John Quincy Adams who invited the Kentuckian to serve as secretary of state, 1825-1829. Clay was defeated in 1832 in his second bid for the presidency against the incumbent Andrew Jackson. Widely known for his “American System,” which favored the protective tariff and federal aid for internal improvements, Clay also sponsored the Compromise Tariff of 1833. See Clement Eaton, Henry Clay and the Art of American Politics (Boston, 1957). 3 Henry Clay to George D. Prentice, August 14, 1837, typescript in the papers of Henry Clay assembled for publication by the University of Kentucky, to be edited by James F. Hopkins and Mary W. M. Hargreaves. Unless otherwise indicated all letters cited in this article are typewritten copies from this collection, hereafter cited as Clay Papers. The Whig Campaign of 1840 235 talents would be more valuable in the capital city, the prospec- tive candidate noted his desire that arrangements be com- pleted to entice the editor to move to Wa~hington.~ Although there are no known extant issues of the Louis- ville Journal for 1838, Prentice probably followed Clay’s suggestion and expressed a preference for him as the Whig presidential andi id ate.^ At least, several other southern Whig newspapers endorsed the Kentuckian; and by 1839 the Whigs of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Virginia, and North Carolina had indicated a preference for Clay.6 Early in January, 1839, Prentice already had begun to exercise extreme caution in his comments concerning the leading Whig contenders for the nomination. He informed his readers that because he had been among the first to urge the selection of a candidate by a national convention, he was reluctant to print anything about the prospective candidates.? A few days later he noted, “We perceive, that a writer in the Cincinnati Republican is publishing a series of voluminous articles to prove the ‘capacity’ of General Harrison. Let Mr. Clay be the candidate, and the Whigs will be saved the trouble of all such disagreeable discussions.”8 The next day, however, following a comment on the scheduled date of the national convention, he wrote: Whether the meeting of the Convention be early or late, we are con- fident that the Kentucky statesman will be nominated by an over- whelming majority; and moreover, we have the consolation of knowing, that if the nomination fall on the hero of Tippecanoe, we shall have for our candidate a distinguished and venerable patriot, whom we have once supported with zeal and in whose talents and virtues we still have unabated c0nfidence.Q Thus the editor of the Journal acknowledged that he would support the Whig party in its bid for the presidency if either Harrison or Clay were the candidate. 4 Zbid. 5 In January, 1838, following the suggestion of John J. Crittenden, the Kentucky legislature passed a resolution calling for a national convention and at the same time endorsed Clay for president. See Albert D. Kirwan, John J. Crittenden: The Struggle for the Union (Lexington, 1962), 130. 6Arthur Charles Cole, The Whig Party in the South (Washington, 1913), 57. 7 Louisville Daily Journal, January 11, 1839. glbid., January 17, 1839. elbid., January 18, 1839. 236 Indhnu Magazine of History The Whig National Convention was scheduled for Decem- ber, 1839. During the early weeks of that year Clay became concerned when one of the Harrison faction prompted the Whigs in Washington to hold “several consultations” in regard to rescheduling the convention for “September or some earlier month.”lo Apparently he believed that his bid for the nomina- tion would be strengthened if the meeting were held at the regular time. In a letter to his son, the Kentuckian also noted that he was “inclined” to believe that Webster had decided to lend his support to the Harrison faction.ll Despite these developments Clay claimed that his prospects for the Whig nomination were improving.lz Prentice was obviously anxious to avoid extensive discus- sion of the contenders for the Whig nomination. On May 1 he printed a brief notice of the national convention scheduled to convene in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in December, 1839. A short time later the Louisville Journal listed the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia, Louisiana, and Mississippi in the Whig column with a total of 182 electoral votes. This tally included thirty-four more votes that were needed for vi~t0ry.l~Probably prompted by public ridicule, Prentice in midJuly admitted his restraint in commenting on the Whig candidates and extolled the virtues of Henry Clay, Kentucky’s “noblest and greatest where many are noble and great. .”14 As summer waned into autumn, there were widespread rumors of Clay’s expected withdrawal as a contender for the Whig nomination.
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