Henry Clay attempted to capitalize on the Whig victory in 1840 to transform the nation with features of his American system. In the first months of the Harrison-Tyler administration, he secured congressional approval of a national bank, the distribution of the proceeds of land sales to the states to aid internal improvements, a slight upward adjustment of the tariff, and, as a bonus, a federal bankruptcy law. Hope for a new era soon floundered on the states' rights conservatism of President John Tyler. Vetoes struck down two attempts to charter a bank. The distribution scheme was restricted so as to make it impracticable, and ultimately Whigs had to sacrifice it to secure Tyler's acceptance of a major tariff increase. As the domestic program ran into the President's opposition, Whigs reacted by expelling him from the party; and Clay rediscovered his interest in limiting executive power. By the time that Clay gave up his Senate seat in 1842, a stalemate existed; the President blocked Whig measures while the party refused to consider his solution to the nation's currency problem.;Previous studies have emphasized the importance of presidential ambitions as the source of the feud between Clay and Tyler. This study suggests that Clay's interest in becoming President was secondary to passage of his domestic program in 1841 and 1842. Origins of the dispute can be found in Clay's mistakes in dealing with an oversensitive President and the latter's vacillation which increased Whig distrust. Tyler's willingness to follow advice of his states' rights friends aggravated the quarrel. In addition to dealing with a reluctant executive, Clay had other problems; he was not absolute master of Congress during these months for he often had to modify proposals to accommodate divergent views of his colleagues. Throughout the extraordinary political disruptions of these years, both Whigs and Democrats displayed remarkable unity.
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