George M. Dallas
Despite Dallas's efforts to avoid taking a stand, the Senate completed its voting on the Walker Tariff with a 27-to-27 tie. (A twenty-eighth vote in favor was held in reserve by a senator who opposed the measure but agreed to follow the instructions of his state legislature to support it.) When he voted for the tariff on July 28, 1846, Dallas said that he had studied the Senate support and concluded that all regions of the country had people who liked the bill. Additionally, the measure had overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives. While the vote earned Dallas the respect of the president and certain party leaders from the southern and western states that supported low tariffs, it destroyed his home state political base.