John Tyler was the first Vice President to be elevated to the office of President by the death of his predecessor, and took office on April 4th, 1841. Tyler was a former Democrat who had left the party in reaction to what he considered Jackson’s excessively egalitarian program (egalitarianism) and imperious methods, but there were still signs of his Democratic past in his approach to public policy. As a president, he did agree to bills abolishing Van Buren’s independent treasury system and raising tariff rates, but he refused to support Clay’s attempt to recharter a Bank of the United States, and he vetoed several internal improvement bills that Clay and other congressional Whigs sponsored. Finally, a conference of Congressional Whigs read Tyler out of the party on September 13th, 1841. Every cabinet member but Webster resigned, and five former Democrats took their places. When Webster too eventually left the cabinet, Tyler appointed Calhoun, who had rejoined the Democratic Party. In this fashion, a new political alignment was emerging. Tyler and a small band of conservative southern Whigs were preparing to rejoin the Democrats. This was a faction with decidedly aristocratic political ideas, who thought that the government had an obligation to protect and even expand the institution of slavery, and who believed in states’ rights with an almost fanatical devotion. In a short time, the Whigs victory had utterly receded to a defeat, although during Tyler’s presidency they did manage to deal with the British and the Caroline Affair, the Aroostock War, ending with the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842), and also improve relations with China with the Treaty of Wang Hya.