Part 5

While very many candidates were discussed for the succession, when the time came for concentration only six names remained, and three of those were members of the Monroe Cabinet. They were John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State; John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War; William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury; Henry Clay, of Kentucky, who had been Speaker of the House; Ex-Governor De Witt Clinton, of New York, who was not then in official position, and General Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, who had been Senator, Representative, and Supreme Judge. Mr. Clay was presented to the people as a candidate for President by the Kentucky Legislature as early as the 18th of November, 1822, or two years before the election, and the Missouri Legislature also adopted a resolution about the same time recommending Mr. Clay. During the year 1823 the Legislatures of Illinois, Ohio, and Louisiana had also formally favored Clay.

General Jackson was first formally named for the Presidency by a mass-meeting in Blount County, Tenn., early in 1823, and that was followed up by various mass-meetings and local conventions in different parts of the Union. Mr. Adams, although not in sympathy with the Federalists, having earnestly supported the war with England against the Federal sentiment of his State, was presented as a candidate by the Legislature of Massachusetts, and it was seconded by most of the New England States during the early part of the year 1824.

Clinton was nominated by local mass-meetings in New York and Ohio. Calhoun was presented by the Legislature of South Carolina, and Crawford by the Legislature of Virginia. It is worthy of note that while Adams was the Premier of the administration, Crawford was obviously the favorite candidate of President Monroe, as the Legislature of Virginia recommended Crawford, and Virginia voted for him at the election.

All of these candidates were opposed to the Congressional caucus excepting Crawford, who had been the competitor of Monroe in the caucus in 1816. His friends made earnest effort to get the prestige of a caucus nomination, and 6 Senators and 5 Representatives from different States called a caucus to meet on the 14th of February, 1824, “to recommend candidates to the people of the United States for the office of President and Vice-President.” That call was met by a card signed by 24 Republican Senators and members declaring that of the 261 Senators and Representatives there were 81 who were opposed to the caucus. The caucus was held, however, but only 66 members appeared, a majority of whom were from 4 States, and 8 States were not represented at all. A motion to adjourn to meet some weeks later was opposed by Mr. Van Buren and rejected. A ballot was then had for President, when Crawford received 64, Adams 2, Jackson 1, and Macon 1. Albert Gallatin, of Pennsylvania, was also nominated for Vice-President.

The caucus nomination was certainly a hindrance rather than a help to Crawford, as it concentrated his opponents to a very large extent. The caucus system had become very odious, and with 5 of the 6 candidates openly hostile to the caucus, it placed Crawford at a decided disadvantage. Gallatin, who was of foreign birth, was bitterly assailed, and a month before the election he withdrew his name as a candidate, but no attempt was made to give formal nomination to a successor for him on the ticket.

Strange as it may appear, Pennsylvania, the home of Gallatin, did not cordially respond to his nomination, and there was a decided preference in that State in favor of Calhoun for Vice-President. Calhoun and Clinton, being without any large measure of support, gradually dropped out of the Presidential contest, leaving Adams, Jackson, Crawford, and Clay to make the scrub race. There were 24 States to participate in the election, and New York, Vermont, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana chose their electors by their Legislatures, while Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Illinois, and Kentucky chose electors by districts, and in the other States popular elections were held and electors chosen by general ticket.

An incident that occurred in the selection of electors by the Legislature of New York resulted in making Clay the fourth candidate in the Electoral College instead of the third. There were 3 of the electors chosen by the Legislature who were elected as Clay men by a combination between the Clay and Adams men, who in the Electoral College divided their votes between Adams, Crawford, and Jackson, and had they voted for Clay, as it was expected they would, Clay would have had 40 votes in the electoral colleges and Crawford only 38. As only the three highest candidates in the Electoral College could be returned to the House from which a choice had to be made, Crawford was thus returned instead of Clay, and if Clay had been returned, it is probable that Adams would not have been chosen President. The New York Legislature had a protracted contest in choosing electors. The combined strength of the candidates in the two Houses as shown by the 1st ballot was 60 for Crawford, 57 for Adams, and 39 for Clay. Finally a combination was made between the friends of Adams and Clay, and divided electors were chosen, by which Adams received 26 votes, Crawford 5, Clay 4, and Jackson 1. In Delaware the electors were divided by a like dispute in the Legislature.

The contest was not one of great bitterness, and in some States there was practically no contest at all. Massachusetts and Virginia, for instance, did not poll half their votes, as they were really not contested, one being conceded to Adams and the other to Crawford. The following is the popular vote of the States except where the electors were chosen by the Legislature, as nearly as it can be ascertained after the most exhaustive investigation of the records:

═════════════════╤═════════╤═════════╤═════════╤═════════ STATES. │ Jackson.│ Adams. │Crawford.│ Clay. ─────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼───────── Maine[6] │ ―――――― │ 10,289 │ 2,336 │ ―――――― New Hampshire │ 643 │ 4,107 │ ―――――― │ ―――――― Vermont[7] │ ―――――― │ ―――――― │ ―――――― │ ―――――― Massachusetts[6] │ ―――――― │ 30,687 │ 6,616 │ ―――――― Rhode Island │ ―――――― │ 2,145 │ 200 │ ―――――― Connecticut │ ―――――― │ 7,587 │ 1,978 │ ―――――― New York[7] │ ―――――― │ ―――――― │ ―――――― │ ―――――― New Jersey │ 10,985 │ 9,110 │ 1,196 │ ―――――― Pennsylvania │ 36,100 │ 5,440 │ 4,206 │ 1,609 Delaware[7] │ ―――――― │ ―――――― │ ―――――― │ ―――――― Maryland[6] │ 14,523 │ 14,632 │ 3,646 │ 695 Virginia │ 2,861 │ 3,189 │ 8,489 │ 416 North Carolina │ 20,415 │ ―――――― │ 15,621 │ ―――――― South Carolina[7]│ ―――――― │ ―――――― │ ―――――― │ ―――――― Georgia[7] │ ―――――― │ ―――――― │ ―――――― │ ―――――― Alabama │ 9,443 │ 2,416 │ 1,680 │ 67 Mississippi │ 3,234 │ 1,694 │ 119 │ ―――――― Louisiana[7] │ ―――――― │ ―――――― │ ―――――― │ ―――――― Kentucky[6] │ 6,455 │ ―――――― │ ―――――― │ 17,321 Tennessee │ 20,197 │ 216 │ 312 │ ―――――― Missouri │ 987 │ 311 │ ―――――― │ 1,401 Ohio │ 18,457 │ 12,280 │ ―――――― │ 19,255 Indiana │ 7,343 │ 3,095 │ ―――――― │ 5,315 Illinois[6] │ 1,901 │ 1,542 │ 219 │ 1,047 ├─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼───────── Totals │ 153,544 │ 108,740 │ 46,618 │ 47,136 ═════════════════╧═════════╧═════════╧═════════╧═════════

[6] By districts.

[7] By Legislature.

The popular vote as given in the foregoing table does not fully represent the relative strength of the opposition candidates to Jackson. There were what were called “Opposition” tickets, “People’s” tickets, and “Convention” tickets voted in different States. It will be seen that Jackson received no votes in New England excepting a few in New Hampshire, and in most of those States electoral tickets were known as “Opposition” designed to concentrate all the opposition to Adams, and in North Carolina the Jackson ticket was voted as the “People’s” ticket, but no more intelligent and satisfactory presentation of the popular vote can be gathered from the records than that presented.

The following is the vote of the Electoral College:

═══════════════╤══════════════════════════════════╦═════════════════════════════════════════════════════ │ PRESIDENT. ║ VICE-PRESIDENT. ├────────┬──────┬─────────┬────────╫────────┬────────┬─────────┬────────┬──────┬───────── STATES │Andrew │J. Q. │ W. H. │H. Clay,║John C. │ Nathan │Nathaniel│ Andrew │M. Van│H. Clay, │Jackson,│Adams,│Crawford,│ Ky. ║Calhoun,│Sanford,│ Macon, │Jackson,│Buren,│ Ky. │Tenn. │Mass. │ Ga. │ ║ S. C. │ N. Y. │ N. C. │ Tenn. │ N. Y.│ ───────────────┼────────┼──────┼─────────┼────────╫────────┼────────┼─────────┼────────┼──────┼───────── Maine │ ―― │ 9 │ ―― │ ―― ║ 9 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― New Hampshire │ ―― │ 8 │ ―― │ ―― ║ 7 │ ―― │ ―― │ 1 │ ―― │ ―― Vermont │ ―― │ 7 │ ―― │ ―― ║ 7 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Massachusetts │ ―― │ 15 │ ―― │ ―― ║ 15 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Rhode Island │ ―― │ 4 │ ―― │ ―― ║ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Connecticut │ ―― │ 8 │ ―― │ ―― ║ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 8 │ ―― │ ―― New York │ 1 │ 26 │ 5 │ 4 ║ 29 │ 7 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― New Jersey │ 8 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 8 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Pennsylvania │ 28 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 28 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Delaware │ ―― │ 1 │ 2 │ ―― ║ 1 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 2 Maryland │ 7 │ 3 │ 1 │ ―― ║ 10 │ ―― │ ―― │ 1 │ ―― │ ―― Virginia │ ―― │ ―― │ 24 │ ―― ║ ―― │ ―― │ 24 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― North Carolina │ 15 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 15 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― South Carolina │ 11 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 11 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Georgia │ ―― │ ―― │ 9 │ ―― ║ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 9 │ ―― Alabama │ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Mississippi │ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Louisiana │ 3 │ 2 │ ―― │ ―― ║ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Kentucky │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 14 ║ 7 │ 7 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Tennessee │ 11 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 11 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Missouri │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 3 ║ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 3 │ ―― │ ―― Ohio │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 16 ║ ―― │ 16 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Indiana │ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ║ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Illinois │ 2 │ 1 │ ―― │ ―― ║ 3 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― ├────────┼──────┼─────────┼────────╫────────┼────────┼─────────┼────────┼──────┼───────── Total │ 99 │ 84 │ 41 │ 37 ║ 182 │ 30 │ 24 │ 13 │ 9 │ 2 ═══════════════╧════════╧══════╧═════════╧════════╩════════╧════════╧═════════╧════════╧══════╧═════════

Jackson led the popular vote, as was generally expected, and next to him is Adams, with Clay third and Crawford fourth. While all of the 4 candidates were regarded as Republicans as between Federalism and Republicanism, the friends of Adams in a number of the States fought the battle under the title of National Republicans, and the supporters of Jackson, who represented the more Democratic element of the opponents of Federalism, entitled themselves in some States the Democratic Republicans. As was generally expected, there was no choice for President, as no one of the 4 candidates had a majority of either the popular or electoral votes, but Calhoun was elected Vice-President by a large majority, having received the support of the Adams men generally in New England, and of the Jackson men in Pennsylvania, Maryland, North and South Carolina, and indeed in all of the Southern States, excepting Georgia, Kentucky, and Missouri.

Thus for the second time in the history of the Republic the Presidential election was remanded to the House for final decision, and the names of Jackson, Adams, and Crawford, the three highest in the Electoral College, were returned to that body from which a choice had to be made by a majority of the States. Although Clay had received less votes than Crawford, he was a very much more potent factor in deciding the contest between the three candidates than Crawford could have been, and it soon became evident that the friends of Clay were in much closer accord and sympathy with Adams than they were with the friends of either Crawford or Jackson. Clay certainly had no love for Jackson, as Jackson was not accredited with any great qualities of statesmanship, and it was the general apprehension that Clay would control the election in favor of Adams that made the friends of Jackson publish the accusation of “bargain and sale” between Adams and Clay, by which Clay was to make Adams President and receive the position of Premier under the administration. Although the Legislature of Kentucky had requested the Congressmen from that State to vote for Jackson, there were well-known reasons, both public and personal, why Clay could not favor Jackson, and on the first ballot in the House Adams received the votes of 13 States, with 7 for Jackson and 4 for Crawford. The majority of the delegation of each State decided how the vote should be cast, and the following table shows not only how the vote of each State was given, but the divisions in the different delegations in deciding between the three candidates:

═══════════════╤═════════╤═════════╤═════════╤═══════════ STATES. │ Adams. │ Jackson.│Crawford.│ Vote for— ───────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────┼─────────── Maine │ 7 │ ―― │ ―― │ Adams. New Hampshire │ 6 │ ―― │ ―― │ Adams. Vermont │ 5 │ ―― │ ―― │ Adams. Massachusetts │ 12 │ 1 │ ―― │ Adams. Rhode Island │ 2 │ ―― │ ―― │ Adams. Connecticut │ 6 │ ―― │ ―― │ Adams. New York │ 18 │ 2 │ 14 │ Adams. New Jersey │ 1 │ 5 │ ―― │ Jackson. Pennsylvania │ 1 │ 25 │ ―― │ Jackson. Delaware │ ―― │ ―― │ 1 │ Crawford. Maryland │ 5 │ 3 │ 1 │ Adams. Virginia │ 1 │ 1 │ 19 │ Crawford. North Carolina │ 1 │ 2 │ 10 │ Crawford. South Carolina │ ―― │ 9 │ ―― │ Jackson. Georgia │ ―― │ ―― │ 7 │ Crawford. Alabama │ ―― │ 3 │ ―― │ Jackson. Mississippi │ ―― │ 1 │ ―― │ Jackson. Louisiana │ 2 │ 1 │ ―― │ Adams. Kentucky │ 8 │ 4 │ ―― │ Adams. Tennessee │ ―― │ 9 │ ―― │ Jackson. Missouri │ 1 │ ―― │ ―― │ Adams. Ohio │ 10 │ 2 │ 2 │ Adams. Indiana │ ―― │ 3 │ ―― │ Jackson. Illinois │ 1 │ ―― │ ―― │ Adams. ├─────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ │ 87 │ 71 │ 54 │ ═══════════════╧═════════╧═════════╧═════════╧═══════════

The administration of John Quincy Adams will be regarded by the careful and dispassionate student of American history as the model government of the Republic. He was the most accomplished scholar who ever filled the position, and surpassed all others in general and accurate intelligence. He was a tireless student until the day of his death, and he had no taste and no fitness for political manipulation. He removed but two men from office during his four years in the Presidency, and they were dismissed for very good cause, and in the discharge of his official duties he looked solely to what he conceived to be the interests of the nation.

He made no efforts to popularize himself personally; was regarded as austere and unapproachable, but he was always courteous, and the arts of the demagogue had no place in the Executive Mansion. He was the real author of the Monroe Doctrine, and earnestly attempted to accomplish what Blaine struggled to accomplish three-quarters of a century later—that is, the unity of the South American governments in sympathy with our Government. His Cabinet was not in political harmony, but as he regarded politics as entirely outside of Cabinet duties, he never took note of political disagreements. He aimed to win a re-election solely by deserving the considerate approval of the American people. After his defeat he returned to his home in Massachusetts, but was soon elected to Congress, where he continued until his death in 1848.

As an illustration of the careful methods of his life my own experience in obtaining his autograph serves a good purpose. A few weeks before his death, when I was the editor of a village newspaper and ambitious to have the autographs of the celebrated men of the country, I wrote him asking for an autograph letter. I received no reply, and after his death was announced I assumed that the letter had gone into the waste basket; but three months after his death I received a letter franked by Louise Catharine Adams (widows of Presidents were then accorded the franking privilege), and the envelope contained only the autograph of John Quincy Adams, clipped from a public document that he had franked. The pressure of duties had prevented him from answering my letter, but the fact that it was answered by his wife so long after his death is evidence that many letters had accumulated, all of which were answered by Mrs. Adams. He fitly died in the Capitol of the nation. He was stricken with paralysis during a session of the House, and died on the following day, having written, as I believe, the most lustrous political record of any of our statesmen, with the single exception of Abraham Lincoln.

THE JACKSON-ADAMS-CLAY CONTESTS

1828–32

The election of Jackson to the Presidency in 1828 was not in any sense a revolution as to the general policy of the Government, but it was a decided revolution in the political methods of our national administrations. Madison, Monroe, and Adams were not confronted by the spoils system. They never entertained the question of removing men from office to reward political friends or to punish political enemies.

[Illustration: ANDREW JACKSON]

The civil service system of the Government under those administrations was an ideal system, but the Jackson leaders openly inspired the followers of their favorite to earnest political action by the declaration that “to the victors belong the spoils.” That slogan was first heard in the Jackson-Adams campaign of 1828, and when Jackson succeeded, for the first time Washington was overrun with a countless host of greedy spoilsmen, clamoring for the dismissal of every man who had not supported Jackson.

Jackson himself was thoroughly committed to the policy of political proscription, and from that day until the present time it has been generally accepted that a change of politics in the national administrations means a general change of the now enormous army of Federal officers, excepting as it is feebly restrained by all parties professing devotion to a civil service system with none honestly maintaining it.

When it is remembered that Jackson was defeated by Adams in 1824, although having more popular and electoral votes than Adams, it is not surprising that the friends of Jackson became intensely embittered, and they opened the campaign of 1828 immediately after the inauguration of Adams in 1825. In the Southwest, where Jackson lived and had his chief strength outside of Pennsylvania, the cockpit, the race-course and the gaming-table were favorite amusements, and the people were strongly prejudiced against what they regarded as the aristocratic power that had been maintained by the Virginia Presidents and continued by Adams. They had a candidate who enthused his followers to the uttermost, and the quiet citizens of Washington, long used to the delectable and cultivated official circles which had prevailed from Washington to the second Adams, were shocked at the mob of Democratic place-hunters who crowded into the Capitol when Jackson became President, and had access to the White House regardless of conventionality, where Jackson is reported to have smoked his corn-cob pipe during his greeting of visitors. With Jackson came the spoils system that has done so much to demoralize the politics of the Republic.

Jackson held a very strong position before the nation, not only because of his triumph over the British at New Orleans, but because of the high civil positions which he had filled with reasonable credit, but without displaying any high standard of statesmanship. He aided in framing the Tennessee Constitution in 1796, and was elected as the first Representative in Congress by the people after the admission of the State, then entitled to only one member.

He had been an ardent supporter of Jefferson in his first contest with the elder Adams, and in 1797 he was elected to the United States Senate, but he resigned a year later to become a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State, where he served until 1804, and was again elected Senator in 1823. He had filled all those important civil positions before he had attained any military distinction. He had served in the last year of the war of the revolution as a boy, and the only thing notable that is preserved of his military record of that day is the tradition that after he had been captured by the British he was wounded by an English officer because he refused to clean the officer’s boots.

It is not likely that he ever would have been a prominent candidate for President but for the fact that he defeated the English in the battle of New Orleans on the 8th of January, 1815. Had there been steamships, cables, and telegraphs at that time Jackson could never have commanded the hero worship that twice elected him President and made him practically political dictator.

The treaty of peace between England and the United States was signed at Ghent on December 24, 1814, but it required nearly a month for the Government to receive information that the treaty had been signed and that the war was ended. On January 8, 1815, more than a fortnight after England and the United States were actually at peace by their own treaty, the battle of New Orleans was fought between Jackson and Packenham, and a victory achieved over the English that then electrified the country as thoroughly as did Dewey’s victory at Manila. That victory, and that victory alone, made Jackson President, and with his rugged and indomitable will, for nearly a generation he stamped his impress upon the policy of the Government with greater emphasis than any other living man since Washington.

The Presidential contest of 1828 formally began soon after the inauguration of Adams, when the Legislature of Tennessee presented Jackson as a candidate, and the criticisms of the Adams administration revived much of the political asperities and resentments of the violent discussions between the old Federalist and Republican parties in the days of Jefferson and the elder Adams. One of the reasons strongly urged against the re-election of Adams was that his administration had become recklessly extravagant, as the expenditures of the Government under him had reached the enormous sum of nearly $14,000,000 a year.