President William Henry Harrison appointed Thomas Ewing (1789-1871) Secretary of the Treasury in 1841 and he was retained by John Tyler after Harrison's death. As a Senator from Ohio (1831-1837), Ewing had advocated rechartering the Second Bank of the United States and had denounced President Jackson's removal of government deposits. After Congress repealed in 1841 former Secretary Levi Woodbury's law creating an Independent Treasury System, Ewing was called upon to devise a new depository for the government's funds. He introduced several options, including bills for a new national bank. None of his suggestions were adopted and Tyler thwarted his plan for organizing a central bank to replace the Independent Treasury System, maintaining that it was unconstitutional for the Treasury Department to authorize bank branches in the states without their consent. After only six months, along with most of Tyler's cabinet, Ewing resigned in protest against Tyler's opposition to his proposals. Eight years later, in 1849, President Zachary Taylor appointed Ewing the first Secretary of the newly created Department of the Interior.
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