THE ELECTION OF 1824 (1822-1825)
As we have seen, [Footnote: See above, chap. x.] the dissensions in
Monroe's cabinet approached the point of rupture by the spring and
summer of 1822, when the spectacle was presented of the friends of
the secretary of the treasury making war upon the measures of the
secretary of war, and even antagonizing the president himself.
Crawford's followers gained the name of the "radicals," and declared
as their principles, democracy, economy, and reform. [Footnote:
Adams, Memoirs, VI., 56; Mass. Hist. Soc., Proceedings, XIX., 40.]
Professing to represent the pure Jeffersonian republicanism of the
"Revolution of 1800," they appealed to the adherents of the Virginia
school of politics for support. [Footnote: Edwards, Illinois, 489.]
Jefferson, although refusing to come out openly, was clearly in
sympathy with Crawford's candidacy: he believed that the old parties
still continued, although under different names, and that the issue
would finally be reduced to a contest between a northern and a
southern candidate.
"You see," said he, in a letter to Gallatin, "many calling
themselves Republicans and preaching the rankest doctrine of the old
Federalists. One of the prominent candidates [Adams] is presumed to
be of this party; the other [Crawford] a Republican of the old
school, and a friend to the barrier of state rights, as provided by
the Constitution against the danger of consolidation." [Footnote:
Jefferson, Writings (Ford's ed.), X., 235; cf. 225-227, 237, 261,
264, 280.] Pennsylvania and New York, he thought, would decide the
question, and the issue would depend upon whether or not the
"Missouri principle" became involved.
At this time parties and principles were still plastic. This is
illustrated by a letter written in the spring of 1823 to Monroe, by
John Taylor, of Caroline, the leading exponent of the orthodox
Virginia tenets of state sovereignty. The writer was evidently
stirred by the recent publication, in Calhoun's Washington organ, of
a series of letters signed A. B., [Footnote: Edwards, Illinois, 525;
National Intelligencer, April 21-23, 1823; Am. State Papers Finance,
V., 1-145.] in which Crawford was denounced for corrupt dealings
with the banks, collusion with slave-traders, and intrigues in
general. Calhoun himself had just ended a visit with Taylor when the
latter wrote, bitterly condemning the "example of obtaining the
presidency by crafty intrigues and pecuniary influence," as tending
to transfer power to a moneyed aristocracy. Neither Calhoun nor
Adams, in his opinion, was open to this objection, and neither of
them, he thought, would prefer a protective tariff to a navy as a
means of national defense. While he admitted his ignorance of
Adams's views on the subject of division of power between the
federal and state governments, he declared that Calhoun had no
advantage on this point, for although the latter professed to
consider the distribution of powers between the states and the
central authority as "a distinguishing pre-eminence in our form of
government," yet, in the opinion of Taylor, he destroyed "this pre-
eminence by endowing the federal government with a supremacy over
the state governments whenever they come in conflict." This was
important testimony, following immediately on Calhoun's visit, and
coming from the pen of a man who was primarily interested in the
question.
In spite of these objections, which would seem to be insuperable
from the point of view of this distinguished expositor of state
sovereignty, Taylor was ready to take the initiative in a movement
against Crawford, if Monroe, Jefferson, and Madison agreed. Although
as between Calhoun and Adams, he intimated that "the Missouri
question" made a distinction of considerable weight, [Footnote:
Taylor to Monroe, April 29, 1823, Monroe Papers, MSS. in Cong.
Libr.; cf. "Farmer's" attacks on Crawford as a protectionist, in
Richmond Enquirer, noted in Niles' Register, XXIV., 306. See Calhoun
to Gouverneur, April 28, 1823, N. Y. Publ. Libr., Bulletin, 1899, p.
324; Adams, Memoirs, VI., 356.] he did not press the point. James
Barbour, the other senator from Virginia, also seriously thought of
supporting Adams, [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VI., 242, 450-452; see
also Taylor's interview with Adams, May 26, 1824, ibid., 356, 357.]
and it is clear that the secretary of state at this time was not
regarded as unsafe in the Old Dominion. In the spring and summer of
1823, however, Crawford seemed to be clearly in the lead. He was
supported by a well-organized press, which took its tone from the
Washington newspapers; and until Calhoun, in retaliation,
established a paper of his own to denounce Crawford's management of
his department, he had effective control of the most influential
organs of public opinion. [Footnote: Ibid., 47, 56, 57, 60, 62-64,
66.] He was a master of political manipulation; but among his rivals
were men of almost equal skill in this respect.
Clay was again chosen speaker, on his return to the House of
Representatives in December, 1823, by a triumphant majority, and, as
the session advanced, he and Calhoun, with all the arts of
fascinating conversation, plied the old and new members. At this
critical period in his campaign, Crawford was overwhelmed by a
stroke of paralysis (September, 1823), which wrecked his huge frame
and shattered his career. Shut in a darkened room, threatened with
blindness and the loss of speech, bled by the doctors twenty-three
times in three weeks, unable to sign his official papers with his
own hand, he was prevented from conducting his own political battle.
But he kept his courage and his purpose, concealing his real
condition from all but his most trusted intimates. Not until April,
1824, was he able to attend cabinet meetings, and within a month
after that he suffered a relapse, which prevented his active
participation in his duties until the fall. [Footnote: National
Intelligencer, September 15, 1824; Life of W. W. Seaton, 160; King,
Life and Corresp. of King, VI., 539; Adams, Memoirs, VI., 130, 270,
275, 356, 357, 387, 428, 435, 439; Univ. of North Carolina, James
Sprunt Hist. Monographs, No. 2, pp. 69, 71; Edwards, Illinois, 492.]
Adams had the New England scruples against urging his cause
personally, and took the attitude that the office of president
should come from merit, not from manipulation. [Footnote: Adams,
Memoirs, IV., 64, 242, 298, V., 89, 129, 298, 525; Dwight, Travels,
I., 266.] Moreover, he saw that the practice of soliciting votes
from members of Congress would render the executive subservient to
that body. Although his uncompromising temper unfitted him for the
tactics of political management, he was an adept in the grand
strategy of the contest, and he noted every move of his adversaries.
His replies to attacks were crushing, for he had the gift of clear
and forcible exposition. [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, V., 361, 496-
535, VI., 116-118; King, Life and Corresp. of King, VI., 475;
Gallatin, Writings, II., 246.] But his greatest strength in the
presidential contest lay in the fact that he was the only promising
northern candidate.
Early in the campaign, Calhoun commented on the fact that five
candidates were from the slave-holding states--a circumstance which,
in his opinion, would give Adams great advantages if he knew how to
improve them. [Footnote: Edwards, Illinois, 492.] Naturally,
therefore, Adams gained the influential support of Rufus King, the
chief antagonist of the slave section. At first decidedly hostile,
King's final adhesion was given to him, not out of personal regard,
but because he believed that the public should be aroused against
"longer submission to a Southern Master.... He is the only northern
Candidate, and as between him and the black Candidates I prefer
him." [Footnote: King, Life and Corresp. of King, VI., 508, 510.]
Steadily Adams increased his following in reluctant New England.
[Footnote: Niles' Register, XXIII., 322, 342; Clay, Private
Corresp., 98; Adams, Memoirs, VI., 235.] In New York he had an
element of strength in the fact that the population was nearly
evenly divided between the natives of that state and the settlers
from New England. Of the delegation from the state of New York in
the seventeenth Congress, for example, those who were born in New
England were about equal to those born in the state itself. Nearly
forty per cent, of the members of the New York constitutional
convention of 1821 were born in New England. [Footnote: King, Life
and Corresp. of King, VI., 413; Carter and Stone, Reports of New
York Convention, 637; Force, Calendar (1823).] The adhesion of ex-
Speaker Taylor, another of the champions of restriction in the
Missouri struggle, furnished an able manager in New York.
Even the attitude of Van Buren was for a time in doubt, for he would
gladly have retired from politics to accept a place on the bench of
the supreme court of the United States; but Adams and King pressed
his candidacy for this position in vain upon the president, and Van
Buren finally gave his full support to Crawford. [Footnote: King,
Life and Corresp. of King, VI., 512-517, 518-527; Adams, Memoirs,
VI., 168, 173; Crawford to Van Buren, August 1, 1823, Van Buren
Papers (MSS.); Am. Hist. Assoc., Report 1904, p. 178.] So little did
Adams appreciate the popular movement that was gathering about
Jackson's name, that he advised his followers to support the "Old
Hero" for the vice-presidency, "a station in which the General could
hang no one, and in which he would need to quarrel with no one. His
name and character would serve to restore the forgotten dignity of
the place, and it would afford an easy and dignified retirement to
his old age." [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VI., 333.] In January,
1824, on the anniversary of the victory of New Orleans, Adams gave a
great ball, attended by over a thousand people, in honor of his
rival. [Footnote: Ibid., 220; Sargent, Public Men and Events, I.,
48-51.]
After Jackson's return from the governorship of Florida, in 1821,
his star steadily rose in the political horizon. His canvass was
conducted by his neighbor, Major Lewis, who was one of the most
astute politicians in American history, able subtly to influence the
attitude of his volcanic candidate and to touch the springs of
political management. On July 20, 1822, the legislature of Tennessee
formally nominated the general for the presidency. [Footnote:
Parton, Jackson, III., 20; Niles' Register, XXII., 402.]
This gave the signal of revolt by the states against the
congressional caucus. Clay rallied his own forces, and in 1822 and
1823 was nominated [Footnote: Niles' Register, XXIII., 245, 342;
Ohio Monitor, January 4, 1823; National Republican (Cincinnati),
January 14,1823; King, Life and Corresp., VI., 487; Clay, Private
Corresp., 70. ] by members of the legislatures of Missouri,
Kentucky, Ohio, and Louisiana. [Footnote: National Intelligencer,
April 12, 1823; Ky. Reporter, April 21. 1823.] Alabama nominated
Jackson; and Mississippi, by a tie vote, proposed both Adams and
Jackson. [Footnote: McMaster, United States, V., 68.] These
nominations by states showed that, however the west might be
divided, it was a unit in resistance to the selection of a president
by a combination of congressmen. It was believed that the spirit of
the Constitution was violated by this method, which made the
executive depend on the legislative body for nomination; and that a
minority candidate might win by the caucus. This became the rallying
cry of Jackson, whose canvass was conducted on the issue of the
right of the people to select their president; [Footnote: Sargent,
Public Men and Events, I., 57; Parton, Jackson, III., 17, 40, 41.]
and the prevalent discontent and industrial depression made the
voters responsive to this idea. The movement was one of permanent
significance in American history, for it represented the growth of
democracy, and led the way to the institution of the national
nominating convention.
In the fall of 1823, Tennessee returned Jackson to the Senate,
having chosen him over one of the prominent leaders of the Crawford
party, and, shortly afterwards, the legislature sent to the other
states a vigorous resolution, asking them to unite in putting down
the congressional caucus. [Footnote: Parton, Jackson, III., 21;
Niles' Register, XXV., 114, 137, 197, 292; McMaster, United States,
V., 60; Tyler, Tylers, I., 341; Richmond Enquirer, January 1, 6, 13,
1824.] In Virginia and many other states the Tennessee resolutions
gave rise to agitation which strengthened the popular feeling
against congressional dictation. [Footnote: McMaster, United States,
V., 60-62, 64; Dallinger, Nominations, 19 n., 54.] Although Adams at
first considered the congressional caucus as one of the "least
obnoxious modes of intrigue," he also finally threw his influence
against the system and announced that he would not accept a
nomination by that body. [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VI., 191, 236.]
Realizing that, in spite of his illness, Crawford could command the
largest following in Congress, the friends of all the other
candidates united their forces in an effort to prevent the meeting
of the caucus. Already it was evident to the Georgian's supporters
that the only thing that could bring him the victory was insistence
upon party unity and discipline, and on February 14, 1824, sixty-six
of the two hundred and sixteen Democrats in Congress gathered for
the last congressional caucus which nominated a president. That
these were practically all Crawford men was shown by his nomination
with only four opposing votes. [Footnote: Dallinger, Nominations,
19; Niles' Register, XXV., 388-392, 403; Hammond, Pol. Hist, of
N.Y., II., 149; McMaster, United States, V., 64; Life of W.W.
Seaton, 173; Annals of Cong., 18 Cong., I Sess., I., 358.] Gallatin
had been persuaded to return from Paris, and he received the
nomination for vice-president, in order to hold the state of
Pennsylvania in Crawford's column; but it proved a forlorn hope, for
this old companion-in-arms of Jefferson found Pennsylvania "Jackson
mad."
Calhoun, seeing that he had lost the northern state on which he had
founded his hopes of success, and despairing of making inroads upon
Crawford's southern forces after the congressional caucus, sought
his political fortunes in an alliance with his rival. [Footnote:
Clay, Private Corresp., 87.] The result was that, in a state
nominating convention held at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (March 4,
1824), Jackson was almost unanimously nominated by that state for
president, and Calhoun was named for the vice-presidency. In vain
the managers of Crawford sought to throw discredit upon Jackson by
the publication of his correspondence with Monroe, in which he had
pleaded for recognition of the Federalists; [Footnote: Parton,
Jackson, II., 357, III., 20; Monroe, Writings.] the letters added to
his strength, and finally Gallatin was induced to withdraw from the
unequal contest, in order that an attempt might be made to persuade
Henry Clay to accept the vice-presidency under Crawford. [Footnote:
Gallatin, Works, II., 297-300; Adams, Life of Gallatin, 604; Clay,
Private Corresp., 100-103; Sargent, Public Men and Events, I., 57.]
The conflict was not entirely a matter of personal politics. Jackson
had raised the popular movement against the congressional caucus
into a distinct issue--the right of the people to choose their own
president. Clay's "American system" of internal improvements and the
protective tariff furnished others. We have seen that these subjects
were hotly debated in Congress during the spring months of 1824. As
the pre-eminent champion of these interests, Clay had a large
following in the states of the Ohio Valley, as well as in New York
The early popularity of Calhoun in Pennsylvania was also due, in
part, to his record as a friend of tariff and internal improvements.
Upon that subject, on July 3, 1824, he gave an exposition of his
constitutional principles to Garnett, of Virginia, in which he
showed some tendency to moderate his position. [Footnote: Houston,
Nullification in S. C., 143.] When interrogated upon his views in
respect to the tariff, Jackson replied, in a letter to Coleman,
avowing himself a moderate protectionist and a supporter of the
doctrine of the promotion of manufactures in order to create a home
market; and in the Senate he voted for the tariff of 1824, and in
favor of internal improvements. [Footnote: Parton, Jackson, III.,
34, 35; Niles' Register, XXVI., 245; Wheeler, Hist, of Cong., II.,
231.] Crawford was embarrassed by the need of reconciling his
southern support with his following in the middle states upon these
subjects. While his treasury reports indicated a preference for a
revenue tariff, they were sufficiently ambiguous to create
opposition in the south and a loss of support in the north. The
issue of internal improvements he evaded by professing himself in
favor of a constitutional amendment, for which he tried in vain to
secure the support of his friends in the Georgia legislature.
[Footnote: King, Life and Corresp. of King, VI., 496, 500; Niles'
Register, XXIV, 306; Gilmer, Sketches, 294.]
Adams announced that his policy with reference to the opposing
interests of the country was "conciliation, not collision"; but he
declared that there was no constitutional question involved, either
in the tariff or in internal improvements, [Footnote: Adams,
Memoirs, VI., 353, 451; cf. 343.] and he was frankly in favor of the
latter, while he professed himself satisfied with the tariff of
1824, as a reasonable compromise between the conflicting interests.
If changed at all, he believed that the tariff should be reduced. An
attempt was made to bring him into disrepute in the south for his
negotiation of a convention in 1824 with England for the
international regulation of the slave-trade. This subject had been
forced upon his reluctant attention early in his career as secretary
of state. While he was willing to join in declaring that traffic
piracy, he was very proud of his record as a steadfast opponent of
the right of search in any form. It was too valuable political
capital to be given up, even if he had not espoused the cause with
all his energy. To all propositions, therefore, for conceding the
right of search of suspected slavers, Adams had turned a deaf ear,
as he did to proposals of mixed courts to try cases of capture. But
in the convention of 1824, declaring the slave-trade piracy under
the law of nations, he had offered to concede the right of British
vessels to cruise along our coasts to intercept slavers, and this
clause the Senate struck out, whereupon England refused to ratify
it.[Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VI., 321, 338, 345; Monroe, Writings,
VII., 22; King, Life and Corresp. of King, 571, 572; DuBois, Slave
Trade, 139, 140.]
On the whole, however, while candidates were forced to declare
themselves on important questions, and while there were distinct
sectional groupings in Congress, which revealed conflicting
interests in economic policy, issues were not clearly drawn in this
campaign. Indeed, it was difficult for any one of the candidates to
stand on a clear-cut platform without losing some of the support
essential to his success. "Could we hit upon a few great principles,
and unite their support with that of Crawford," wrote his friend
Cobb, shortly before the election, "we could succeed beyond doubt."
[Footnote: Cobb, Leisure Labors, 216; Shepard, Van Buren, 92.]
As the year 1824 drew towards its close, the heat of the struggle
was transferred to New York. Nowhere was the revulsion of popular
feeling against caucus control more clearly manifested than in that
state. The feeling was aggravated by the fact that the Albany
Regency, under Van Buren, stubbornly refused to concede the popular
demand for the repeal of the state law for choice of presidential
electors by the legislature. The political machine's control of the
legislature insured New York's vote to Crawford; but if the choice
were confided to the people, no one could predict the result. Out of
these conditions a new combination sprang up in New York, which took
the name of the "People's party," and sought not only to transfer
the choice of electors to the people, but to overturn the Albany
Regency. So rapidly did the discordant elements of New York
Clintonians and anti-Clintonians combine in this party, that
Crawford's managers, in an effort to break the combination,
introduced a resolution in the legislature removing DeWitt Clinton
from his office of canal commissioner. The purpose was to split the
People's party by compelling its members to revive their old
antagonisms by taking sides for or against Clinton. Although the
resolution was carried by a decisive majority, the indignity placed
upon the champion of the Erie Canal aroused popular resentment and
increased the revolt against the Regency. In September, 1824, the
People's party met in a state convention at Utica and nominated
Clinton for governor. [Footnote: On the New York campaign, see
Rammelkamp, Am. Hist. Assoc., Report 1904, p. 177; Hammond, Pol,
Hist, of N. Y., II., chaps, xxix.-xxxii.; Weed, Autobiography, chap.
xv.; McMaster, United States, V., 71-73.]
While this campaign (which resulted in an overwhelming victory for
the People's party) was in progress, the legislature met to choose
electors. So clearly marked was the trend of public opinion that
many members broke away from their allegiance to Crawford. The
Senate nominated electors favorable to him, but in the Assembly the
Adams men predominated, although they were not in a majority. After
several days of deadlock, a combination ticket, made up of Adams
electors and certain Clay men who had been named on the Senate's
ticket, was suddenly presented to the Assembly and passed, with the
aid of Crawford men, who thought that if the matter could be brought
to a joint ballot they could then win and exclude Clay from the
contest. But the Adams men had conciliated the supporters of Clay by
guaranteeing to them five electoral votes, which were expected, if
the ultimate choice of the president should come to the House of
Representatives, to make Clay one of the three candidates before
that body. [Footnote: Clay, Private Corresp., 99, 104, 106; National
Intelligencer, September 15, 1824; Van Buren to Crawford, November
17, 1824; Van Buren Papers (Cong. Libr.).] The Clay following,
therefore, supported the Adams ticket on the joint ballot, with the
result that Adams secured 25 electors, Clay 7, and Crawford 4. When
the electoral college met in December, Clay lost three of his votes,
so that New York finally gave 26 to Adams, 5 to Crawford, 4 to Clay,
and 1 to Jackson. Thus the Adams men had failed to carry out their
agreement with the followers of Clay; had not these three Clay votes
been withdrawn he would have tied Crawford for third place.
Louisiana, although New York's electoral college voted in ignorance
of the fact, had already deserted Clay. [Footnote: N. Y. American,
December 3, 1824; N. Y. Com. Adv., December 14, 1824; Weed,
Autobiography, 128, is in error; L. E. Aylsworth, Clay in Elec. of
1824 (MS. thesis).] The choice of electors in Louisiana was made by
the legislature, in the absence of several Clay men, and the
combined Jackson and Adams ticket received a majority of only two
votes over Clay. [Footnote: Sargent, Public Men and Events, I., 67;
Niles' Register, XXVII., 257; Adams, Memoirs, VI., 446.] Thus
vanished the latter's hopes of becoming one of the three candidates
to be voted on by the House of Representatives.
In the country as a whole, Jackson received 99 electoral votes,
Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37. For the vice-presidency, Calhoun
was chosen by a vote of 182, while Sanford, of New York, received
the vote of Ohio, together with a portion of that of Kentucky and
New York; Virginia voted for Macon, of North Carolina; Georgia for
Van Buren; and scattering votes were given for Jackson and Clay. No
presidential candidate had a majority, and, in accordance with the
Constitution, the House of Representatives was to decide between the
three highest candidates.
To Clay, powerful in Congress, fell the bitter honor of deciding
between his rivals. Jackson had a decisive plurality of the
electoral vote, and even the Kentucky legislature, under the
dominance of the "relief party, "urged the representatives from that
state to cast their vote in his favor.[Footnote: Adams, Memoirs,
VI., 446.] But although Jackson was popular in the west, Clay had
long been hostile to the candidacy of this military chieftain, and
could not well alter his opinion. Moreover, Clay's presidential
ambitions stood in the way of this choice. It would not have been
easy for him to become Jackson's successor, both because of the
difficulty of electing two successive candidates from the west and
because Calhoun had already anticipated him in the alliance. With
Crawford, he was on better terms; but that candidate was clearly in
the minority, his health was gravely impaired, and his following was
made up largely of the opponents of the policies which Clay
represented.[Footnote: Ibid., VII., 4; Niles' Register, XXVII.,
386.] He determined, therefore, to use his influence in behalf of
Adams--the rival who had borne away from him the secretaryship of
state and whose foreign policy had been the target of his most
persistent attacks. On the other hand, the recognition of the
Spanish-American republics and the announcement of the Monroe
Doctrine had made Adams in a sense the heir of Clay's own foreign
policy, and, in the matter of tariff and internal improvements,
Adams was far more in accord with him than was Crawford.
As the day approached on which the House was to make its choice,
friends of Clay, including his "messmate," Letcher, of Kentucky,
sought Adams to convey to him the friendly attitude of Clay and
their hope that their chieftain might serve himself by supporting
Adams.[Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VI., 447, 457, 473-475.] They made
it perfectly clear that by this they intended to suggest for Clay a
membership in his cabinet. Without giving explicit promises, Adams
made it equally clear to these visitors that, if he were chosen by
the votes of western delegations, he should naturally look to the
west for much of the support that he should need. In short, Adams's
diary, like a book of judgment, shows that he walked perilously, if
safely, along the edge of his conscience at this time. "Incedo super
ignes,"[Footnote: Ibid., 453.] he wrote--"I walk over fires." But
his diary records no vulgar bargaining with Clay, although he talked
over with him the general principles which he would follow in his
administration.
The adhesion of Clay by no means assured Adams's election: the
result was not fully certain until the actual vote was given.
Missouri and Illinois were long in doubt,[Footnote: Ibid., 469.] and
in the case of both of these states the vote was cast by a single
person. Cook, of Illinois, was a personal friend of Adams, and,
although the plurality of the electoral vote of that state had been
in favor of Jackson, Cook, giving a strained interpretation of his
pre-election promises to follow the will of his constituency, cast
his vote in favor of Adams. [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VI., 443,
473, 476, 495; Edwards, Illinois, 261-265.] With Scott, of Missouri,
Adams made his peace in an interview wherein he gave him assurances
with respect to newspaper patronage and the retention of his
brother, a judge in Arkansas territory, who was threatened with the
loss of his office because he had killed his colleague in a duel. He
also secured the vote of Louisiana, by the one delegate who held the
balance of power; and he won the Maryland member who had its
decisive vote, by the statement given through Webster, that his
administration would not proscribe the Federalists. [Footnote:
Adams, Memoirs, VI., 492, 499; Webster, Writings (National ed.),
XVII., 378.] Friends of all the other candidates were busy in
proposing combinations and making promises which cannot be traced to
their principals. [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VI., 476, 495, 513;
Clay, Private Corresp., 109, 111; Parton, Jackson, III., 56.]
When the vote was taken, Adams was found to have thirteen states,
Jackson seven, and Crawford four. [Footnote: See map.] Adams
controlled New England, New York, and the Ohio Valley, with the
exception of Indiana, together with Maryland, Missouri, and
Louisiana. The grouping of the Jackson vote showed a union of the
states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey with South Carolina,
Tennessee, and the cotton states of the southwest. The Crawford
territory included Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware.
Van Buren had received the electoral vote of Georgia for the vice-
presidency, and he still exercised a powerful influence in New York.
Adams had to face, therefore, the possibility of a union between two
of the ablest politicians in the nation, Calhoun and Van Buren, both
of whom saw that their political fortunes were involved in the
triumph of Andrew Jackson; and Jackson's popularity was
extraordinary even in the western states which voted for Adams. Even
as he saw victory approaching, the New England leader was filled
with gloomy forebodings over the prospects. "They are nattering for
the immediate issue," he recorded in his diary, "but the fearful
condition of them is that success would open to a far severer trial
than defeat."