"Are you all right?" When America entered the office to see bags beneath Tyler's eyes, and an aura of exhaustion around the man, he had at once been concerned, thoughts darting back immediately to Harrison.
"I'm fine," Tyler assured, rubbing at his temples as he straightened in his chair. "It's just…Clay. He's out for me, I swear. First the Bank issue, and now all this mess on the tariffs. It's insanity. He's turning my own administration against me."
"I'm sure it will all work out," America smiled, with his seemingly perpetual optimism. "Is there anything I can do to help? Besides knock off Clay, I mean."
Tyler's mouth quirked into a grin at the young Nation's joke. With a chuckle, he shook his head. "I've got it under control, America, but thank you for the offer. This is just a bunch of economic stuff…you wouldn't be interested. Anyway, Webster's going to be meeting with Britain's minister soon, if you want to tag along with that?"
"Sure," America agreed instantly. It had been awhile since he'd last seen England.
"You found Franklin's map?" America questioned, glancing briefly at the worn parchment in Webster's hand.
"Oh, no," Webster denied with a smirk. He held the paper out for the Nation's inspection, tracing a finger down the red ink. "I just found an old map and had someone mark it off. They'll never be able to tell the difference."
When he noticed the frown on America's face, he quickly continued on. "I'm just trying to avoid any more of a squabble over this. If we let Britain get what it wants now, then they'll be more partial to us and our opinions later on. Besides, it's not as if we're giving them all of this, just the bit they want."
"I suppose," America's frown faltered, before turning into a smile. "England always says I never help him out any, so this should make him happy."
"Exactly," Webster agreed, briskly leading the way into the room where the final settlements would take place.
The meeting passed quickly, with little difficulty. The representatives of Maine and Massachusetts were livid when informed of the results, but Webster's little ploy convinced them immediately, as they feared Britain might ask for the whole territory if should they hear word of the map. Tricking them left a bitter taste in America's mouth, but he supposed it was for the best. Settlements would have no doubt been much more prolonged, if not for Webster's insight.
As it was, England and his diplomat had arrived promptly. The older Nation listened intently throughout the proposal, looking pleasantly surprised when the desired land was offered up. Ashburton was pleased as well, nodding in approval as Webster continued on about the rest of the border.
When the meeting ended, he made to leave but, much to his surprise was stopped by none other than England. The older Nation made a quick excuse to Ashburton, who nodded pleasantly, before walking away to join the others.
America waited, beside his old caretaker, as the other tried to find the words to speak in the now empty room.
"I…I—thank you, America," England stuttered out, cheeks coloring slightly. "It was nice of you to cooperate. I didn't think you had it in you to be so…so civil."
"…" America's eyes widened slightly, taken aback by the fairly straight forward compliment. When he continued his voice was soft, a truly happy pleased smile on his face. "You're welcome…England. Thank you for—"
"It was for my own benefit!" England announced, before hurrying out of the room, before America had a chance to tell him that made no sense. So caught up was he in the pleasantness of the moment, that he did not notice the Brit covertly slipping a folded sheet of paper into his jacket.
Historical Notes: 'When news of Harrison's nomination reached Clay in Washington, he was half drunk. His face darkened. "I am the most unfortunate man in the history of parties," he said, "always run…when sure to be defeated, and now betrayed for a nomination when I, or anyone, would be sure of an election." '- direct from my textbook
Tyler and Clay did not get along, mainly due to Clay's over-bearing behavior. This wasn't normal for Clay, but he felt he should've been the Whig candidate in 1840 for President, and considering himself the real head of the Whig party.
Vice-president John Tyler, now President, was a 'thin, rather delicate-appearing man with pale blue eyes and a long nose'. Courteous, tactful, and soft-spoken, he gave the impression of being weak, an impression further enforced by his belief that the president should defer to Congress in the creation of policy. In actuality, he was stubborn and proud, lacking in imagination. He disagreed with Henry Clay and the northern Whigs about the Bank, protective tariffs, and federal internal improvements. However, he was prepared to cooperate with Clay, as it was necessary, but he was not ready to 'be Clay's puppet'.
In Congress, Clay announced a comprehensive program that ignored Tyler's states' rights view of the Constitution. More important, was his plan to set up a new Bank of the United States. A bill repealing the Independent Treasury Act caused no trouble, but when Congress passed a bill that would create a new Bank, Tyler vetoed it. The entire Cabinet sans Secretary of State Webster resigned in protest.
Abandoned by the Whigs, Tyler tried to make a party of his own, but failed, the remainder of his term filled with political discord. Clay wanted to distribute the proceeds from land sales to the states in order to "bolster their sagging finances" though he really just wanted to reduce federal revenues to such a level that raising the tariff would be justified. In order to win Western support, he agreed to support the Preemption Act of 1841 that would legalize the right of squatters to occupy unsurveyed land and to buy it later at $1.25 an acre without bidding for it at an auction.
The Southerners, however, wanted an amendment promising that distribution would be stopped if the tariff was raised above the 20% level. When the Whigs tried to push a high tariff through Congress without repealing the Distribution Act, Tyler vetoed the bill. Eventually, the Distribution Act was repealed, and Tyler signed the new Tariff Act of 1842, raising duties to levels similar to those of 1832, which had led to Nullification Crisis.
Webster stayed in the Cabinet, partly because of his desire to settle the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick. The intent of the peace treaty of 1763 (French-Indian War) had been to award the United States all land in the area drained by rivers flowing into the Atlantic rather than into the St. Lawrence, but the wording was obscure and the old maps conflicting. In 1842, Britain sent a new minister, Lord Ashburton, to America to settle all land border disputes. A compromise was quickly worked out, as the British only need a small part of the territory to build a road connecting Halifax and Quebec. Webster, simply eager to avoid any possible cause of war, agreed.
Webster's generosity made sense. Lord Ashburton, happy about obtaining the desired territory, made other concessions along the Canadian and American border. British dependence on foreign foodstuffs and America's need for British capital were increasing. War, or even unresolved disputes, would have harmed vital business relations between the two.
However, placating Maine and Massachusetts was difficult, as they had wanted every acre of the disputed land. During the peace negotiations that ended the Revolution, Franklin had marked a boundary between Maine and Canada on a map with a heavy red line, but no one could find the map. So, Webster came up with a clever idea. He found an old map and had someone mark off a red line that followed Britain's version of the boundary, and showed this to the representatives of Maine and Massachusetts, convincing them to agree with his compromise before the British heard of this map and demanded the whole region.
It later came out that the British had a true copy of the Franklin map, which showed that the entire area belonged to the United States—that's the slip of paper Iggy had ;)
I ended up cutting the last part of this chapter once it got to be well over 2,000 words and the Notes turned into a monster. So, I more or less have the next chapter done/planned out, so that shouldn't take to long to get up. The actual Mexican-American War is taking awhile I forgot how much stuff came before it.
This part itself would have been up sooner, but it's approaching course selection time, and I've been deciding between all the choices (and filling out paperwork) since there are so many this year ._. Picked out everything by now, sans my math course. Either going to take Honors Intro to Calculus or AP Statistics…and that mental debate has been bothering me for days now ' If you guys have any input, I'd be glad to hear it. I'm so horribly indecisive sometimes.
Anyway, the response to last chapter was amazing :D Mexico as girl won (almost) unanimously. So I'll think about it, but I'm pretty sure that's the route I'm going to take. Thank you, everyone, for the input, and I apologize to those of you that think of Mexico as a boy ^^'