ADMINISTRATION AS PRESIDENT.--POLICY.--RECOMMENDATIONS TO CONGRESS.--
PRINCIPLES RELATIVE TO OFFICIAL APPOINTMENTS AND REMOVALS.--COURSE IN
ELECTION CONTESTS.--TERMINATION OF HIS PRESIDENCY.
Those sectional, party, and personal influences, which at all times tend
to throw a republic out of the path of duty and safety, were singularly
active and powerful during the Presidency of Mr. Adams. They were
peculiar and unavoidable. His administration, beyond all others, was
assailed by an unprincipled and audacious rivalry. Its course and
consequences belong to the history of the United States, and will be
here no further stated, or made the subject of comment, than as they
affect or throw light on his policy and character.
Immediately after his inauguration, Mr. Adams appointed Henry Clay, of
Kentucky, Secretary of State; Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, Secretary
of the Treasury; James Barbour, of Virginia, Secretary of War; Samuel L.
Southard, of New Jersey, Secretary of the Navy; John McLean, of Ohio,
Postmaster-General; and William Wirt, of Virginia, Attorney-General. The
election of Mr. Adams to the Presidency depended on the vote of Henry
Clay, who recognized and voluntarily assumed the responsibility. By
voting for General Jackson, he would have coïncided with the majority of
popular voices; but, actuated, as he declared, by an irrepressible sense
of public duty, in open disregard of instructions from the dominant
party in Kentucky, he dared to expose himself to the coming storm, the
violence of which he anticipated, and soon experienced. In a letter to
Mr. F. Brooke, dated 28th of January, 1825, which was soon published,[1]
he thus expressed his views: "As a friend to liberty and the permanence
of our institutions, I cannot consent, in this early stage of their
existence, by contributing to the election of a military chieftain, to
give the strongest guaranty that this republic will march in the fatal
road which has conducted every other republic to ruin." In a letter
dated the 26th of March, 1825, addressed to the people of his
Congressional district, in Kentucky, Mr. Clay more fully illustrated the
motives for his vote: "I did not believe General Jackson so competent to
discharge the various intricate and complex duties of the office of
chief magistrate as his competitor. If he has exhibited, either in the
councils of the Union, or in those of his own state or territory, the
qualities of a statesman, the evidence of the fact has escaped my
observation."--"It would be as painful as it is unnecessary to
recapitulate some of the incidents, which must be fresh in your
recollection, of his public life, but I was greatly deceived in my
judgment if they proved him to be endowed with that prudence, temper,
and discretion, which are necessary for civil administration."--"In his
elevation, too, I thought I perceived the establishment of a fearful
precedent."--"Undoubtedly there are other and many dangers to public
liberty, besides that which proceeds from military idolatry; but I have
yet to acquire the knowledge of it, if there be one more pernicious or
more frequent. Of Mr. Adams it is but truth and justice to say that he
is highly gifted, profoundly learned, and long and greatly experienced
in public affairs, at home and abroad. Intimately conversant with the
rise and progress of every negotiation with foreign powers, pending or
concluded; personally acquainted with the capacity and attainments of
most of the public men of this country whom it might be proper to employ
in the public service; extensively possessed of much of that valuable
kind of information which is to be acquired neither from books nor
tradition, but which is the fruit of largely participating in public
affairs; discreet and sagacious, he will enter upon the duties of the
office with great advantages."[2]
[1] _Niles' Weekly Register_, vol. XXVII., p. 386.
[2] _Niles' Weekly Register_, vol. XXVIII., p. 71.
General Jackson was deeply mortified and irritated by Mr. Clay's
preference of Mr. Adams, and still more by his avowal of the motives on
which it was founded. In a letter to Samuel Swartwout, dated the 23d of
February, 1825,[3] by whom it was immediately published, he complained
bitterly of the term "military chieftain," which Mr. Clay, in his letter
to Mr. Brooke, had applied to him; and, utterly disregarding the rights
and duties which the provisions of the constitution had conferred and
imposed on Mr. Clay, he assumed that he was himself entitled, by the
plurality of votes he had received, to be regarded as the object
indicated by "the supremacy of the people's will." Treating the
objections as personal, and as ominously bearing on his future political
prospects, after insinuating that there had been "art or management to
entice a representative in Congress from a conscientious responsibility
to his own or the wishes of his constituents," he declared his intention
"to appeal from this opprobrium and censure to the judgment of an
enlightened, patriotic, uncorrupted people."
[3] Ibid., p. 20.
Not content with uttering these general insinuations against Mr. Clay
and Mr. Adams, he immediately put into circulation among his friends and
partisans an unqualified statement to the effect that Mr. Adams had
obtained the Presidency by means of a corrupt bargain with Henry Clay,
on the condition that he should be elevated to the office of Secretary
of State. To this calumny Jackson gave his name and authority, asserting
that he possessed evidence of its truth; and, although Mr. Clay and his
friends publicly denied the charge, and challenged proof of it, two
years elapsed before they could compel him to produce his evidence.
This, when adduced, proved utterly groundless, and the charge false; the
whole being but the creation of an irritated and disappointed mind.
Though detected and exposed, the calumny had the effect for which it was
calculated. Jackson's numerous partisans and friends made it the source
of an uninterrupted stream of abuse upon Mr. Adams, through his whole
administration.
The Legislature of Tennessee immediately responded to General Jackson's
appeal to the people, by nominating him as their candidate for the
office of President, at the next election; a distinction which he
joyfully accepted, and on that account immediately resigned his seat in
the Senate of the United States.
Thus, before Mr. Adams had made any development of his policy as
President, an opposition to him and his administration was publicly
organized by his chief competitor, under the authority of one of the
states of the Union, which manifested itself in party bitterness, and
animosity to every act and proposition having any bearing on his
political prospects. The appointment of Henry Clay to the office of
Secretary of State was seized upon as unequivocal proof of Jackson's
allegation; yet it was impossible to designate any leading politician
who had such just, unequivocal, and high pretensions to that station, or
one more popular, especially at the South and the West. Mr. Clay had
been a prominent candidate for the Presidency in opposition to Mr.
Adams. His talents were unquestionable, and a long career in public life
rendered him more conspicuous and suitable for the office than any other
statesman of the period. These qualifications weighed nothing in the
scale of popular opinion and prejudice. The strength of opposition,
based on the calumny circulated by Jackson, became apparent on every
question which could be construed to affect the popularity of Mr. Adams;
especially with regard to those measures which were obviously near his
heart, and which tended to give a permanent and effective character to
his administration.
In his inaugural address, on the 4th of March, 1825, after enumerating
the duties of the people and their rulers, he proceeded to intimate the
views which characterized his policy: "There remains one effort of
magnanimity, one sacrifice of prejudice and passion, to be made by
individuals, throughout the nation, who have heretofore followed the
standard of political party. It is that of discarding every remnant of
rancor against each other, of embracing as countrymen and friends, and
of yielding to talents and virtue alone that confidence which, in times
of contention for principle, was bestowed only on those who bore the
badge of party communion."
His thoughts on this subject were again expressed in May, 1825: "The
custom-house officers throughout the Union, in all probability, were
opposed to my election. They are all now in my power; and I have been
urged very earnestly, and from various quarters, to sweep away my
opponents, and provide for my friends with their places. I can justify
the refusal to adopt this policy only by the steadiness and consistency
of my adhesion to my own. If I depart from this in any one instance, I
shall be called upon by my friends to do the same in many. An invidious
and inquisitorial scrutiny into the personal disposition of public
officers will creep through the whole Union, and the most sordid and
selfish passions will be kindled into activity, to distort the conduct
and misrepresent the feelings of men, whose places may become the prize
of slander upon them."
He made but two removals, both from unquestionable causes; and, in his
new appointments, he was scrupulous in selecting candidates whose
talents were adapted to the public service. It was averred, in the
spirit of complaint or disappointment, that he often conferred offices
on men who immediately coïncided with the opponents and became
calumniators of his administration. He was soon made to realize the
impracticability of disregarding the old lines of party. On being
informed, by some of his friends in the Southern States, that the
objections to the appointment of Federalists were insuperable, and would
everywhere affect the popularity of his administration, he observed: "On
such appointments all the wormwood and gall of the old party hatred ooze
out. Not a vacancy to any office occurs but there is a distinguished
Federalist started and pushed home as a candidate to fill it, always
well qualified, sometimes in an eminent degree, and yet so obnoxious to
the Republican party, that they cannot be appointed without exciting a
vehement clamor against him and the administration. It becomes thus
impossible to fill any vacancy in appointment without offending one half
of the community--the Federalists, if their associate is overlooked; the
Republicans, if he be preferred. To this disposition justice must
sometimes make resistance, and policy must often yield."
The intention of Mr. Adams, avowed and invariably pursued, to make
integrity and qualification the only criterions of appointment to
office,--to remove no incumbent on account of political hostility, and
to appoint no one from the sole consideration of political
adherence,--diminished the power of the administration. The most active
members of party, who follow for reward, either of place or station,
were discouraged, and preferred to continue their allegiance to those
from whom pay was certain, rather than to transfer it to an
administration whose continuance, from the well-known influences on
which political power in this country depends, was dubious, and probably
short-lived. These consequences were familiar to the mind of Mr. Adams;
but his spirit was of a temper which chose rather to fall in upholding
the constitution of his country on its true and pure principles, than to
become the abettor of corruption, and participator in its wages, for the
sake of power. The firmness of these principles was put to frequent
trial during his Presidency, but his resolution never wavered.
The confiding spirit in which he conducted his intercourse with his
cabinet was thus stated by himself in November, 1825: "I have given the
draft of my annual message to the members of the administration, who are
to meet and examine it by themselves, and then discuss the result with
me. I have adopted this mode of scrutinizing the message because I wish
to have the benefit of every objection that can be made by every member
of the administration. But it has never been practised before, and I am
not sure that it will be a safe precedent to follow. In England the
message or speech is delivered by a person under no responsibility for
its contents; but here, where he who delivers it is alone responsible,
and those who advise have no responsibility at all, there may be some
danger in placing the composition of it under the control of cabinet
members, by giving it up to discussion entirely among themselves."
His first message to Congress contained the following special
recommendations: "The maturing into a permanent and regular system the
application of all the superfluous revenues of the Union to internal
improvement." "The establishment of a uniform standard of weights and
measures, which had been a duty expressly enjoined on Congress by the
constitution of the United States." "The establishment of a naval
school of instruction for the formation of scientific and accomplished
officers; the want of which is felt with a daily and increasing
aggravation." "The establishment of a national university, which had
been more than once earnestly recommended to Congress by Washington,
and for which he had made express provision in his will." "Connected
with a university, or separated from it, the erection of an
astronomical observatory, with provision for the support of an
astronomer." Every one of these recommendations was obviously
intimately associated with the progress and character of the nation,
and independent of all personal or party influences. Yet they were
treated with utter neglect, or, after having been permitted to pass
through the forms of commitment and report, were suffered to lie
unnoticed on the tables of both houses, or to be lost by indefinite
postponement.
The firmness of Mr. Adams, and his independence of personal
considerations, were constantly manifested. Thus, in November, 1825,
when he was urged by some of his influential friends to put into his
message _something soothing to South Carolina_, he replied: "South
Carolina has put it out of my power. She persists in a law[4] which a
judge of the United States has declared to be in direct violation of
the constitution of the United States, and which the Attorney-General
of the United States has also declared to be an infringement of the
rights of foreign nations; against which the British government has
repeatedly remonstrated, and upon which we have promised them that the
cause of complaint should be removed;--a promise which the obstinate
adherence of the government of South Carolina to their law has
disenabled us from fulfilling. The Governor of South Carolina has not
even answered the letter from the Department of State, transmitting to
them the complaint of the British government against this law. In this
state of things, for me to say anything gratifying to the feelings of
the South Carolinians on this subject, would be to abandon the ground
taken by the administration of Mr. Monroe, and disable us from taking
hereafter measures concerning the law, which we may be compelled to
take. To be silent is not to interfere with any state rights, and
renounces no right of ourselves or others."
[4] In the year 1823 the State of South Carolina passed a law
making it the duty of the sheriff of any district to apprehend any
free negro or person of color, brought into that state by any
vessel, and confine him in jail until such vessel depart, and then
to liberate him only on condition of payment of the expenses of
such detention. To this law William Johnson, a South Carolinian,
and a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, in a letter
to Mr. Adams, then Secretary of State, called the attention of the
President of the United States, as a violation of the constitution;
and declared his belief "that it had been passed as much for the
pleasure of bringing the functionaries of the United States into
contempt, by exposing their impotence, as from any other cause
whatsoever;" they being precluded from resorting to the writ of
habeas corpus and injunction because the cases assumed the form of
state prosecutions. William Wirt, also, the Attorney-General of
the United States, in a letter to Mr. Adams, then Secretary of
State, pronounced that law "as being against the constitution,
treaties, and laws, and incompatible with the rights of all
nations in amity with the United States."
The same trait of character is evidenced by his persisting in
recommending the application of the superfluous revenue to internal
improvements, notwithstanding he well knew its unpopularity in Virginia,
where it was denounced as realizing the prophecy of Patrick Henry, that
"the Federal government would be a magnificent government." After
delivering his first message, he was told, by a leading and influential
member of Congress from Virginia, that "excitement against the general
government was great and universal in that state; that opinions there
had been before divided, but that now the whole state would move in one
solid column." And the same member read to him letters from Jefferson
and Madison, denouncing the doctrines of the message in the most
emphatic terms.
A letter from distinguished friends of De Witt Clinton, stating that his
adherents predominated in the Legislature of New York, and recommending
a course to conciliate their influence, was shown to Mr. Adams in 1826.
On this suggestion he remarked: "A conciliatory course, so far as may be
compatible with self-respect, is proper and necessary towards all; but,
in the protracted agony of character and reputation which it is the will
of a superior power I should pass through, it is my duty to link myself
to the fortunes of no man. In the balance of politics it is seldom wise
to make one scale preponderate by weights taken from another. Neutrality
towards parties is the proper policy of a President in office."
When officially informed that a senator from Georgia threatened that,
unless the lands of the Creek Indians, claimed by that state as within
its boundaries, were ceded, her weight would be thrown for General
Jackson, Mr. Adams replied, "that we ought not to yield to Georgia,
because we could not do so without gross injustice; and that, as to her
being driven to support General Jackson, he felt little care about that.
He had no more confidence in the one party than the other."
A similar reply was made to an influential New York politician, who told
him that the friends of De Witt Clinton would probably support the
administration, but that Van Buren and his bucktails would be inveterate
in their opposition. "I consider it," said he, "a lottery-ticket whether
either of those parties would support the administration."
The opposition to the election, and subsequently to the administration
of Mr. Adams, in the South, had its origin and support, as we have seen,
first, in the fact that he was (with the exception of his father) the
only President who had not been a slaveholder; and, next, in the fixed
determination, in that section of the Union, to keep the Presidency, if
possible, in the hands of an individual belonging to that class. If,
from circumstances, this should be no longer practicable, then their
policy would be to select a candidate who had no sympathy for the slave,
and whose subserviency to the supremacy of Southern interests was
unquestionable. The attempt to extinguish slavery in Missouri, although
it had resulted in what was called the Missouri compromise, had created
towards all who were not slaveholders a feverish jealousy in the South,
which descended on Mr. Adams with double violence because his free
spirit was known. This was not diminished by the fact that he had,
neither in act nor language, ever transcended the provisions of the
constitution, but had, in every instance, fully recognized its
obligations.
In February, 1826, two resolutions, which had been adopted in executive
session, were brought to Mr. Adams. The first declared "that the
expediency of the Panama mission ought to be debated in Senate with open
doors, unless the publication of the documents, to which it would be
necessary to refer in debate, would prejudice existing negotiations. The
second was a respectful request to the President of the United States to
inform the Senate whether such objection exists to the publication of
all or any part of those documents; and, if so, to specify to what part
it applies."
"These resolutions," said Mr. Adams, "are the fruit of the ingenuity of
Martin Van Buren, and bear the impress of his character. The resolution
to debate an executive nomination with open doors is without example;
and the thirty-sixth rule of the Senate is explicit and unqualified,
that all documents communicated in confidence by the President to the
Senate shall be kept secret by the members. The request to me to specify
the particular documents the publication of which would affect
negotiations was delicate and ensnaring. The limitation was not of
papers the publication of which might be injurious, but merely of such
as would affect existing negotiations; and, this being necessarily a
matter of opinion, if I should specify passages in the document as of
such a character, any senator might make it a question for discussion in
the Senate, and they might finally publish the whole, under color of
entertaining an opinion different from mine upon the probable effect of
the publication. Besides, should the precedent once be established of
opening the doors of the Senate in the midst of a debate upon executive
business, there would be no prospect of ever keeping them shut again. I
answered the resolution of the Senate by a message stating that all the
communications I had made on this subject had been confidential; and
that, believing it important to the public interest that the confidence
between the Executive and the Senate should continue unimpaired, I
should leave to themselves the determination of a question, upon the
motives of which, not being informed, I was not competent to decide."
When the intrigues which embarrassed and disturbed the Presidency of Mr.
Adams were in full vigor, his spirit and strength of character were
conspicuously manifested. In April, 1827, whilst the state elections
were pending, letters were shown to him complaining that the
administration did not support its friends, and intimating that time and
money must be sacrificed to his success. Mr. Adams remarked: "I have
observed the tendency of our elections to venality, and shall not
encourage it. There is much money expended by the adversaries of the
administration, and it runs chiefly in the channels of the press. They
work by slander to vitiate the public spirit, and pay for defamation, to
receive their reward in votes."
At the beginning of the third year of his term of office the currents of
party began to run strongly towards the approaching struggle for the
Presidency. Mr. Adams, writing concerning the aspects of the time,
remarked. "General politics and electioneering topics appear to be the
only material of interest and of discourse to men in the public service.
There are in several states, at this time, and Maryland is one of them,
meetings and counter meetings, committees of correspondence, delegations,
and addresses, for and against the administration; and thousands of
persons are occupied with little else than to work up the passions of
the people preparatory to the presidential election, still more than
eighteen months distant."
Complaints were constantly made that the administration neglected its
friends, and gave offices to its enemies. Applications for appointments,
especially for clerkships, in the departments, were continual, and were
often made to Mr. Adams himself. He always refused to interfere
directly, or by influence, unless his opinion was sought by the heads
of the departments themselves, saying that to them the selection and
responsibility properly belonged. "One of the heaviest burdens of my
station," he observed, "is to hear applications for office, often urged,
accompanied with the cry of distress, almost every day in the year,
sometimes several times in the day, and having it scarcely ever in my
power to administer the desired relief."
In May, 1827, Mr. Adams wrote to a friend: "Mr. Van Buren paid me a
visit this morning. He is on his return from a tour through Virginia,
North and South Carolina, and Georgia, with C. C. Cambreling, since the
close of the last session of Congress. They are generally understood to
be electioneering; and Van Buren is now the great manager for Jackson,
as he was, before the last election, for Mr. Crawford. He is now acting
over the part in the Union which Aaron Burr performed in 1799. Van
Buren, however, has improved, in the art of electioneering, upon Burr,
as the State of New York has grown in relative strength and importance
in the Union. Van Buren has now every prospect of success in his present
movements, and he will avoid the rock on which Burr afterwards split."
These general conclusions, formed on observation and knowledge of
character, projects, and movements, time has proved to be just. At this
day there can be no doubt that, during a tour through the Southern
section of the Union, in April and May, 1827, by Van Buren and
Cambreling, one a senator, the other a representative in Congress from
New York, an alliance was formed between the former and Jackson, having
for its object to supersede Mr. Adams and to elevate themselves in
succession to the Presidency. The result is illustrative of the means
and the arts by which ambition shapes the destinies of republics, by
pampering the passions and prejudices of the multitude, by casting
malign suggestions on laborious merit, effective talent, and faithful
services.
In June, 1827, some of the friends of Mr. Adams urged him to attend the
celebration at the opening of the Pennsylvania Canal, to meet the German
farmers, and speak to them in their own language. He replied: "I am
highly obliged to my friends for their good opinion; but this mode of
electioneering is suited neither to my taste nor my principles. I think
it equally unsuitable to my personal character, and to the station in
which I am placed."
As the year drew towards the close, Van Buren, who had increased his
influence by union with De Witt Clinton, triumphed throughout the State
of New York. "The consequences," said Mr. Adams, "are decisive on the
next presidential election; but the principles on which my administration
has been conducted cannot be overthrown. A session of Congress of
unexampled violence and fury is anticipated by its friends. My own mind
is made up for it. I have only to ask that as my day is so may my
strength be."
A letter from Thomas Mann Randolph, on the opinions of Mr. Jefferson
relative to the last presidential election, which had been recently
published in Ohio, was at this time shown to Mr. Adams, and it was
proposed to him to publish a letter to his father from Mr. Jefferson, on
that subject; which he declined, saying: "The letter is not here, but if
it were I would not publish it. I possess it only as executor to my
father; and, it having been confidential, the executors of Mr. Jefferson
have undoubtedly a copy of it, and, as depositaries of his confidence,
are the only persons who can, with propriety, authorize its publication."
He added: "The divulging private and confidential letters is one of the
worst features of electioneering practised among us. Though often
tempted and provoked to it, I have constantly refrained from it."
At this period Mr. Rush read to Mr. Adams his report on the finances, in
which he largely discussed the policy of encouraging and protecting
domestic manufactures. "It will, of course," said Mr. Adams, "be roughly
handled in Congress and out of it; but the policy it recommends will
outlive the blast of faction, and abide the test of time."
At the opening of the Twentieth Congress, in December, 1827, the
election of Andrew Stevenson, of Virginia, a man decidedly hostile to
the administration, as Speaker of the House of Representatives,
manifested that the opposition had now gained a majority in both houses
of Congress; a state of affairs which had never before occurred under
the government of the United States.
Mr. Adams, being informed that it was Mr. Clay's intention to issue
another pamphlet in refutation of the charge of bargaining and
corruption, which General Jackson and his partisans under his authority
had brought against them both, remarked: "They have been already amply
refuted; but, in the excitement of contested elections, and of party
spirit, judgment becomes the slave of the will. Men of intelligence,
talent, and even of integrity upon other occasions, surrender themselves
to their passions, believe anything, with and without, and even against
evidence, according as it suits their own wishes."
Mr. Clay and his friends were not disposed to permit a calumny so
opprobrious to pass without disproof; yet during two years they could
only oppose to it a general denial; but, in March, 1827, a letter from
Mr. Carter Beverly, a friend of General Jackson, came into their
possession, by which it appeared that Jackson, before a large company,
in Beverly's presence, had declared that, "concerning the election of
Mr. Adams to the Presidency, Mr. Clay's friends made a proposition to
his friends, that if they would promise for _him_ not to put Mr. Adams
into the seat of Secretary of State, Mr. Clay and his friends would _in
one hour_ make him the President;"[5]--a proposition which, Jackson
said, he indignantly rejected. No sooner was this statement made known
to Mr. Clay, than he pronounced it "a gross fabrication, of a
calumnious character, put forth for the double purpose of injuring his
public character and propping up the cause of General Jackson; and
that, for himself and his friends, he defied the substantiation of the
charge before any fair tribunal whatever." This compelled General
Jackson, in self-defence, to come before the public; and in a letter to
Carter Beverly, dated the 5th of June, 1827, he made specific charges
against Mr. Clay and Mr. Adams. He stated that early in January, 1825,
a member of Congress, of high respectability, informed him that there
was a great intrigue going on, which it was right he should know; that
the friends of Mr. Adams had made overtures to the friends of Mr. Clay,
that if they would unite in the election of Mr. Adams, Mr. Clay should
be Secretary of State; that the friends of Mr. Adams were urging, as a
reason to induce the friends of Mr. Clay to accede to their
proposition, that if he (Gen. Jackson) was elected President, Mr. Adams
would be continued Secretary of State [_Innuendo_, there would be no
room for Kentucky]; that the friends of Mr. Clay stated, that the West
did not wish to separate from the West, and if he would say, or permit
any of his confidential friends to say, that, in case he was elected
President, Mr. Adams should not be continued Secretary of State, by a
complete union of Mr. Clay and his friends they would put an end to the
presidential contest in one hour; and that this respectable member of
Congress declared that _he was of opinion it was right to fight such
intriguers with their own weapons_. To which General Jackson replied,
that he would never step into the presidential chair by such means of
bargain and corruption; and added, that the second day after this
communication and reply, it was announced in the newspapers that Mr.
Clay had come out openly and avowedly in favor of Mr. Adams.[6]
[5] _Niles' Weekly Register_, vol. XXXII., p. 162.
[6] _Niles' Weekly Register_, vol. XXXII., p. 316.
To this accusation Mr. Clay, in a letter to the public, dated the 4th
of July, 1827, made "a direct, unqualified, and indignant denial," and
called on General Jackson "to substantiate his charges by satisfactory
evidence." General Jackson immediately gave to the public the name of
James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, as "the respectable member of
Congress" who made to him this communication and proposition. This
declaration compelled Mr. Buchanan to come before the public; who
accordingly, in a letter dated the 8th of August, 1827,[7] published to
the world what he declared to be "_the only conversation which he ever
held with General Jackson_," in which he stated to him that, having
heard a rumor that he intended, in case of his election, to appoint Mr.
Adams Secretary of State, and thinking such an appointment would "cool
the ardor of his friends," he called on him, and informed him of the
rumor, and asked him whether he had ever intimated such intention; that
Jackson replied he had not, and that, if elected President, he would
enter upon the office untrammelled; and that this was substantially the
whole conversation. Mr. Buchanan added, that he did not call upon
General Jackson as the agent of Mr. Clay, or his friends, which he was
not; and that he was incapable of entertaining the opinion Jackson had
charged him with, that "_it was right to fight such intriguers with
their own weapons_;" and that he thought that Jackson "could not have
received this impression until after Mr. Clay and his friends had
actually elected Mr. Adams President, and Mr. Adams had appointed Mr.
Clay Secretary of State."
[7] Ibid., p. 415.
A more full, direct, and conclusive contradiction of every fact asserted
by General Jackson is impossible. Yet it had no effect upon his
prospects or policy. His partisans continued to propagate the calumny,
and profess their belief in it; and he gave encouragement to this course
by maintaining a scrupulous silence on Mr. Buchanan's contradiction. Mr.
Clay, speaking on this point, observed: "After Mr. Buchanan's statement
appeared, there were many persons who believed that General Jackson's
magnanimity would immediately prompt him to retract his charge. I did
not participate in that just expectation, and therefore felt no
disappointment that it was not realized."[8]
[8] _Niles' Register_, vol. XXXIII., p. 297.
The calumny had done its work. It had been, for more than two years,
cankering the public mind. General Jackson realized that it was an
efficient means of victory, and was not disposed to diminish its power.
His partisans, as Mr. Adams anticipated, had "surrendered themselves to
their passions, and believed, without evidence and against evidence, as
suited their own wishes."
The inveteracy of opposition to the administration of Mr. Adams was
systematic, violent, and unprincipled. Party spirit determined that it
should be prostrated. It was stated publicly that "a highly-respected
member of Congress, of General Jackson's party, had declared that it was
to be put down though it be as pure as the angels which stand at the
right hand of the throne of God." No respect was paid, no regard had,
for either faithful services or acknowledged integrity. An
administration conducted on the most elevated and consistent principles,
as far above party and selfish motives as it is possible for human
beings to attain, was destined to be sacrificed. General Jackson entered
upon his civil career in the spirit of a military chieftain. He knew
well how to collect round his standard those intriguers in the free
states who were content to adopt his badge, and ride into power in his
train. Of the slave states he was sure, from both affinity and policy.
Mr. Clay, in his address to the public in December, 1827, thus
represents the spirit of General Jackson's party at that period:[9] "The
rancor of party spirit spares nothing. It penetrates and pervades
everywhere. It does not scruple to violate the sanctity of social and
private intercourse. It substitutes for facts dark surmises and
malevolent insinuations. It misrepresents, and holds up in false and
insidious lights, incidents perfectly harmless in themselves, of
ordinary occurrence, or of mere common civility."
[9] _Niles' Register_, vol. XXXIII., p. 303.
During these agitations Mr. Adams was diligently watching over the great
interests of the country, and assiduously fulfilling the duties of his
station, and no further interesting himself in the struggles of party
than when compelled to notice them by their virulence, or by the
earnestness of political friends. A member of the Senate having asked
him how the interdiction of commerce by our vessels with the British
colonies could be counteracted, "My opinion is," he replied, "that there
should be an act of Congress totally interdicting the trade with all her
colonies, both in the West Indies and North America; but the same act
should provide for reopening the trade, upon terms of reciprocity,
whenever Great Britain should be disposed to assent to them."
Early in 1828 Mr. Adams was informed that the question of Free-masonry
was the conclusive criterion on which the elections in the western parts
of the State of New York would turn; and that it was industriously
circulated that he was a Free-mason. If the assertion was denied, offers
had been made to produce extracts from the books of the lodge to which
he belonged. He was, therefore, requested publicly to deny being a
Mason. He replied, that he was not, and never had been, a Free-mason;
but that, if he should publicly deny it, he would not be surprised if a
forged extract from some imaginary lodge should be produced to
counteract his statement. Such are the morals of electioneering!
On the subject of the Indians in the State of Georgia Mr. Adams said:
"Our engagements with them and among ourselves, in relation to the
lands lying within that state, are inconsistent. We have contracted
with the State of Georgia to extinguish the title to the Indian lands
lying within that state, and at the same time have stipulated with the
Creeks and Cherokees that they should hold their lands forever. We
have talked about benevolence and humanity, and preached them into
civilization; but none of this benevolence is felt when the rights of
the Indians come into collision with the interests of the white man.
The Cherokees have now been making a written constitution; but this
_imperium in imperio_ is impracticable; and, in the instance of the New
York Indians removed to Green Bay, and of the Cherokees removed to the
Territory of Arkansas, we have scarce given them time to build their
wigwams before we are called upon by our own people to drive them out
again. My own opinion is that the most benevolent course towards them
would be to give them the rights and subject them to the duties of
citizens, as a part of our own people. But even this the people of the
states within which they are situated would not permit."
In January, 1828, Mr. Adams received a letter from his friends in
Pennsylvania, proposing a subscription for the purchase and setting up a
German newspaper in support of the administration, and inquiring if he
would permit his son, John Adams, to contribute to that object. He
replied that, on full consideration of the transaction, he deemed it his
duty to decline; that how far the employment of money to promote the
success of the election might be proper in others, it was not for him to
determine; he could only lament the necessity, if it existed; but to
apply money himself for the promotion of his own election he thought
incorrect in principle, and had invariably avoided it. He knew that
others were less scrupulous, and that it had been done by one individual
to the pecuniary embarrassment of his whole life. He had been solicited
to adopt a like course, but had uniformly declined, not from pecuniary
considerations, but because he could not approve of the thing.
In January, 1828, Mr. Floyd, of Virginia, who had taken upon himself the
inglorious office of hunting up and disseminating malign aspersions
against President Adams, brought before the House of Representatives
statements concerning his accounts, which had been long before settled
at the treasury of the United States; and, after recapitulating the
number of the public offices he had held, and swelling to the utmost the
amount he had received out of the public treasury, terminated his
censorious attack with the mean sneer that he did not complain, since
every man should make his own living, if he can. To this, Mr. Everett,
of Massachusetts, replied, with truth and dignity, that whatever Mr.
Adams had received, be it great or small, was sanctioned by other
administrations, with which Mr. Adams had nothing to do, either in
establishing the office fixing the compensations, or seeking the
employment. For a third of a century passed in the service of his
country, neither he, nor his friends for him, with his knowledge nor
without his knowledge, ever solicited any public office or employment;
and that, taking into consideration the number of years passed by him in
the public service, and the variety and importance of the missions with
which he had been intrusted in whole or in part, no foreign minister had
ever received less than Mr. Adams, while many have received more. These
statements he supported by many minute, accurate, and unanswerable
details. In a like spirit Mr. Sargent, of Philadelphia, reprobated and
refuted the calumnies uttered against the administration relative to
these accounts.
In January, 1828, Mr. Chilton, of Kentucky, introduced a resolution into
the House of Representatives, declaring the necessity of retrenchments,
to save money and pay off the national debt; and proposing reductions
not only in executive contingencies, but also in those of the two
houses. This movement disconcerted the party to which Mr. Chilton
belonged. They were disposed to point the battery against the
administration, but charges of abusive applications of the public moneys
by the past as well as the present administration, and both houses of
Congress, did not suit party purposes. Randolph, of Virginia, Ingham, of
Pennsylvania, and McDuffie, of South Carolina, accordingly strove, by
amendments, to narrow down the discussion so as to make it bear upon Mr.
Adams or Mr. Clay, and to give countenance to every slander with which
the newspapers were teeming against them, but deprecating all general
investigations.
Being repeatedly asked concerning his rule of conduct relative to
appointments to office, Mr. Adams answered: "My system has been, and
continues to be, to nominate for reäppointment all officers, for a term
of years, whose commissions expire, unless official or moral misconduct
is charged and substantiated against them. This does not suit the
Falstaff friends 'who follow for the reward;' and I am importuned to
serve my friends, and reproached for neglecting them, because I will not
dismiss, or drop from executive favor, officers faithful and able,
because they are my political opponents, to provide for my own
partisans. This I will not do."
In February, 1828, Mr. Wright, of Ohio, defended Mr. Adams and his
administration, on the subject of his votes in the Senate on the
acquisition of Louisiana, on the Mississippi and fishery question at
Ghent, on an expression in his message to Congress in December, 1825,
and other charges and falsehoods which the friends of General Jackson
were publishing against him in newspapers, handbills, and stump
speeches, throughout the Union.
Mr. Adams was earnestly entreated by his friends to reply to a pamphlet
by Samuel D. Ingham, of which many thousands had been franked by members
of Congress to their constituents. He refused to do it, saying, "The
slanders and falsehoods of that pamphlet have already been abundantly
refuted in the speeches of Jonathan Roberts, Edward Everett, and John C.
Wright."
In the committee on retrenchments, Mr. Wickliffe and Mr. Ingham were
extremely busy in search of charges against the administration, and
asserted that there was a large item of secret services, vouched only by
the certificate of Mr. Adams. A member of Congress informed him of their
proceedings, and asked, if there should be any clamorers on that
subject, whether he would have any objection to make a communication
with regard to it. Mr. Adams replied: "Certainly. The secret was
enjoined on me by the constitution and the law, and I shall not divulge
it. It might be alleged as probable--and such was the fact--that,
although the accounts had been but lately settled, the expenditures had
been incurred and the payment authorized by the direction of the late
President Monroe."
As the electioneering struggle was progressing, Mr. Adams, being asked
to advance money in aid of his own election, replied: "The Presidency of
the United States is not an office to be either sought or declined. To
pay money for securing it is, in my opinion, incorrect in principle. The
practices of all parties are tending to render elections altogether
venal, and I am not disposed to countenance them."
On the subject of personal interviews with the President, he thus
expressed himself: "I have never denied access to me as President to any
one, of any color; and, in my opinion of the duties of that office, it
never ought to be denied. Place-hunters are not pleasant visitors, or
correspondents, and they consume an enormous disproportion of time. To
this personal importunity the President ought not to be subjected; but
it is, perhaps, not possible to relieve him from it, without excluding
him from interviews with the people more, perhaps, than comports with
the nature of our institutions."
In Kentucky the Senate of the state constituted itself into an
inquisition on a charge against Mr. Adams of corruption, sent for
persons and papers, and invited _ex parte_ depositions and garbled
statements, where the parties inculpated had no opportunity of being
heard, and where the testimony given and the testimony suppressed were
alike adapted to promote groundless slanders.
In South Carolina movements were made towards civil war and the
dissolution of the Union, for the purpose of carrying the election by
intimidation, or, if they should fail in that, of laying the foundation
of a future forcible resistance, to break down or overawe the
administration after the event.
Evidences of the vehement party war stimulated and personally waged by
General Jackson against Mr. Adams might be easily multiplied; but enough
has been stated to vindicate the character of his administration and the
judgment of Henry Clay. By daring to exercise his constitutional rights,
by taking the responsibility of preferring Mr. Adams to General Jackson,
Mr. Clay postponed for four years an administration characteristic of
its leader, violent, intriguing, headstrong, and corrupt. After the
passions and interests of the present day have passed away, his vote on
that occasion will be regarded by posterity as his choicest and purest
title to their remembrance.
To aid the adversaries of Mr. Adams, and to awaken against him in the
Northern States, where his strength lay, the dormant passions of former
times, the name and influence of Mr. Jefferson were brought into the
field. In December, 1825, a letter had been drawn from him, by William
B. Giles, a devoted partisan of Jackson, and given to the public with
appropriate commentaries and asperities. In this letter Mr. Jefferson,
after acknowledging that "his memory was so broken, or gone, as to be
almost a blank," undertook to relate a conversation he had with Mr.
Adams in 1808, and connected it with facts with which it had no
relation, and which occurred several years afterwards, while Mr. Adams
was in Europe. These mistakes, in the opinion of Mr. Adams, required
explanations. He, therefore, gave a full statement of the facts, so far
as he was concerned, and of the communications he had made in 1808 to
Mr. Jefferson. These explanations had the tendency which Mr. Giles and
the authors of the scheme intended; but the controversies which ensued
are not within the scope of this memoir. Feelings and passions, which
had slept for almost twenty years, were awakened. Correspondences
ensued, in which the policy and events of a former period were discussed
with earnestness and warmth. But the ultimate object, for which the
broken and incoherent recollections of Mr. Jefferson's old age were
brought before the public, was not attained. Those who differed from the
opinions of Mr. Adams, and had condemned his political course in former
times, although their sentiments remained unchanged, were satisfied with
the principles and ability he evinced in his present high station, and
indicated no inclination to aid the projects of his opponents. The
embers of former animosity were indeed uncovered, but in the Eastern
States, where the friends of Mr. Adams were most numerous, no
disposition was evinced to favor the elevation of General Jackson to the
Presidency.
In other sections of the Union a combination of influences tended to
defeat the reëlection of Mr. Adams. In Virginia William B. Giles engaged
in giving publicity to violent and inflammatory papers against his
administration; Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, strenuously endeavored to
destroy his popularity in the West; while Martin Van Buren, the leader
of the party which then controlled New York, also devoted his efforts to
secure Jackson's ascendency.
When Mr. Adams was informed that Mr. Clay's final and full vindication
of himself against the aspersions of General Jackson had appeared from
the press, he said: "It is unnecessary. Enough has already been said to
put down that infamous slander, which has been more than once publicly
branded as falsehood. The conspiracy will, however, probably succeed.
When suspicions have been kindled into popular delusion, truth, reason,
and justice, speak to the ears of adders. The sacrifice must be
consummated. There will then be a reäction in public opinion. It may not
be rapid, but it will be certain."
By one of those party arrangements which ever have shaped, and to human
view forever will decide, the destinies of this republic,--a coalition
being effected between the leading influences of the slave states and
those of New York and Pennsylvania,--Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun,
both slaveholders, were respectively elected President and
Vice-President of the United States.