PRESIDENT ADAMS AND THE OPPOSITION (1825-1827)
For eight years President Monroe had administered the executive
department of the federal government-years that have been called the
"Era of Good Feeling." The reader who has followed the evidences of
factional controversy among the rival presidential candidates in the
cabinet, and noted the wide-spread distress following the panic of
1819, the growing sectional jealousies, the first skirmishes in the
slavery struggle, and the clamor of a democracy eager to assert its
control and profoundly distrustful of the reigning political powers,
will question the reality of this good feeling. On the other hand,
in spite of temporary reverses, the nation as a whole was bounding
with vigor in these years of peace after war; and if in truth party
was not dead, and a golden age had not yet been given to the
American people, at least the heat of formal party contest had been
for a time allayed. The bitterness of political warfare in the four
years which we are next to consider might well make the
administration of the last of the Virginia dynasty seem peaceful and
happy by contrast.
Monroe's presidential career descended to a close in a mellow sunset
of personal approval, despite the angry clouds that gathered on the
horizon. He had grown in wisdom by his experiences, and, although
not a genius, he had shown himself able, by patient and
dispassionate investigation, to reach judgments of greater value
than those of more brilliant but less safe statesmen. Candor, fair-
mindedness, and magnanimity were attributed to him even by those who
were engaged in bitter rivalry for the office which he now laid
down. He was not rapid or inflexible in his decisions between the
conflicting views of his official family; but in the last resort he
chose between policies, accepted responsibility, and steered the
ship of state between the shoals and reefs that underlay the
apparently placid sea of the "Era of Good Feeling." How useful were
his services in these transitional years appeared as soon as John
Quincy Adams grasped, with incautious hands, the helm which Monroe
relinquished.[Footnote: On Monroe's personal traits, see Adams,
Memoirs, IV., 240 et passim; J. Q. Adams, Eulogy on the Life and
Character of James Monroe; Schouler, United States, IV., 201-207.]
"Less possessed of your confidence in advance than any of my
predecessors," wrote President Adams, in his first annual message,
"I am deeply conscious of the prospect that I shall stand more and
oftener in need of your indulgence." In his reply to the
notification of his election by the House, after adverting to the
fact that one of his competitors had received a larger minority of
the electoral vote than his own, he declared that, if his refusal of
the office would enable the people authoritatively to express their
choice, he should not hesitate to decline; [Footnote: Richardson,
Messages and Papers, II., 293.] he believed that perhaps two-thirds
of the people were adverse to the result of the election.[Footnote:
Adams, Memoirs, VII., 98; cf. ibid., VI., 481.] In truth, the
position of the new president was a delicate one, and he was
destined neither to obtain the indulgence asked nor the popular
ratification which he craved. By receiving his office from the hands
of the House of Representatives in competition with a candidate who
had a larger electoral vote, he fell heir to the popular opposition
which had been aroused against congressional intrigue, and
especially against the selection of the president by the
congressional caucus. More than this, it was charged that Clay's
support was the result of a corrupt bargain, by which the Kentucky
leader was promised the office of secretary of state. This
accusation was first publicly made by an obscure Pennsylvania
member, George Kremer, who, in an unsigned communication to a
newspaper, when Clay's decision to vote for Adams was first given
out, reported that overtures were said to have been made by the
friends of Adams to the friends of Clay, offering him the
appointment of secretary of state for his aid to elect Adams; and
that the friends of Clay gave this information to the friends of
Jackson, hinting that for the same price they would close with the
Tennesseean. When these overtures, said the writer, were rejected,
Clay transferred his interest to Adams. [Footnote: Niles' Register,
XXVII., 353.]
Stung to the quick, Clay rushed into print with a denunciation of
the writer as a dastard and a liar, and held him responsible to the
laws which govern men of honor. [Footnote: Ibid., 355.] In reply to
this evident invitation to a duel, Kremer avowed his authorship and
his readiness to prove his charges. If Clay had known the identity
of his traducer, he would hardly have summoned him to the field of
honor, for Kremer was a well-meaning but credulous and thick-headed
rustic noted solely for his leopard-skin overcoat. The speaker,
therefore, abandoned his first idea, and asked of the House an
investigation of the charges, which Kremer reiterated his readiness
to prove. But when the investigating committee was ready to take
testimony, the Pennsylvania congressman refused to appear. He was,
in fact, the tool of Jackson's managers, who greatly preferred to
let the scandal go unprobed by Congress. If Clay transferred his
following to Adams, the charge would gain credence with the masses;
if he were not made secretary of state, it would be alleged that
honest George Kremer had exposed the bargain and prevented its
consummation. In vain, in two successive and elaborate addresses,
[Footnote: Address of 1825 and of 1827, in Clay, Works (Colton's
ed.), V., 299, 341.] did Clay marshal evidence that, before he left
Kentucky, he had determined to vote for Adams in preference to
Crawford or Jackson, and that there was no proof of Kremer's charge.
[Footnote: Clay, Address to the Public (1827), 52; ibid., Works
(Colton's ed.), IV., 109; Adams, Memoirs, VII., 4.] In vain was
evidence produced to show that friends of Jackson [Footnote: Clay,
Works (Colton's ed.), I., chaps. xvi., xvii.; Parton, Jackson, III.,
56, 110-116.] and Crawford [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VI., 464, 513,
VII., 91.] solicited Clay's support by even more unblushing offers
of political reward than those alleged against Adams. To the end of
his career, the charge remained a stumbling-block to Clay's
ambitions, and the more he denounced and summoned witnesses
[Footnote: See, for example, testimony of congressmen, Niles'
Register, XXVIII., 69, 133, 134, 203; Address of David Trimble
(1828).] the more the scandal did its poisonous work.
After all, it was Adams who gave the charge immortality. Even if he
had appreciated the power of public feeling he would not have
hesitated. If the accusation was a challenge to the spirited
Kentuckian, it was a call to duty to the Puritan. Two days after his
election, Adams, asking Monroe's advice about the composition of the
cabinet, announced that he had already determined to appoint Clay
secretary of state, "considering it due," said he, "to his talents
and services to the western section of the Union, whence he comes,
and to the confidence in me manifested by their delegations."
[Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VI., 508.] Clay spoke lightly of the
threatened opposition as a mere temporary ebullition of
disappointment at the issue of the election, [Footnote: Adams,
Memoirs, VI., 509.] and after a short interval accepted the
appointment. [Footnote: For his reasons, see Clay, Works (Colton's
ed.), IV., 114, 192.]
Up to this time Jackson had kept his temper remarkably; but now that
Adams had called to the department of state the man who made him
president, the man who justified his choice by the statement that
Jackson was a "military chieftain," the great deep of his wrath was
stirred. Clay seemed to him the "Judas of the West," and he wrote a
letter, probably for publication, passionately defending the
disinterestedness of his military services, calling attention to the
fact that Clay had never yet risked himself for his country, and
soothing himself in defeat by this consolation: "No midnight taper
burnt by me; no secret conclaves were held; no cabals entered into
to persuade any one to a violation of pledges given or of
instructions received. By me no plans were concerted to impair the
pure principles of our republican institutions, nor to prostrate
that fundamental maxim, which maintains the supremacy of the
people's will." [Footnote: Niles' Register, XXVIII., 20; Parton,
Jackson, III., 77.]
On his way back to Tennessee, he spread broadcast in conversation
his conviction that "honest George Kremer" had exposed a corrupt
bargain between Clay and Adams, [Footnote: Parton, Jackson, III.,
107.] and to this belief he stuck through the rest of his life,
appealing, when his witnesses failed him, to the stubborn fact of
Clay's appointment. [Footnote: Parton, Jackson, III., 110-116.] In
October, 1825, Tennessee renominated Jackson, who accepted, and
resigned his seat in the Senate, accompanying his action with a plea
for a constitutional amendment rendering congressmen ineligible to
office during their term of service and for two years thereafter,
except in cases of judicial appointment. The purpose was evidently
to wage a new campaign to give effect to "the will of the people."
[Footnote: Ibid., III., 95; Niles' Register, XXIX., 155.]
Although he realized that an organized opposition would be formed,
Adams sought to give a non-partisan character to his administration.
[Footnote: Richardson, Messages and Papers, II., 295-297.] In spite
of the low opinion expressed in his diary for the honesty and
political rectitude of the secretary of the treasury, he asked him
to retain his office, but Crawford refused. [Footnote: Adams,
Memoirs, VI., 506, 508.] Ascertaining that Gallatin would also
decline the place, [Footnote: Ibid., Life of Gallatin, 607;
Gallatin, Writings, II., 301.] he appointed Richard Rush, of
Pennsylvania, then serving as minister to England. Jackson's friends
made it clear that he would take unkindly the offer of the
department of war, and Adams gave that office to James Barbour, of
Virginia. [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VI., 510; cf. ibid., 450.] He
retained Southard, of New Jersey, as secretary of the navy, William
Wirt, of Virginia, as attorney-general, and McLean, of Ohio, as
postmaster-general. The latter selection proved peculiarly
unfortunate, since it gave the influence and the patronage of the
post-office to the friends of Jackson. For the mission to England,
he first selected Clinton, and after his refusal he persuaded Rufus
King to take the post. [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VI., 523.] Since
King's acceptance of the senatorship at the hands of the Van Buren
element in New York, he had been less a representative of the
Federalists than in his earlier days; but the appointment met in
some measure the obligations which Adams owed to supporters in that
party.
Far from organizing party machinery and using the federal office-
holders as a political engine, he rigidly refused to introduce
rotation in office at the expiration of the term of the incumbent--a
principle which "would make the Government a perpetual and
unintermitting scramble for office." [Footnote: Ibid., 521.] He
determined to renominate every person against whom there was no
complaint which would have warranted his removal. By this choice he
not only retained many outworn and superfluous officers and thus
fostered a bureaucratic feeling, [Footnote: Fish, Civil Service, 76-
78.] but he also furnished to his enemies local managers of the
opposition, for these office-holders were, in general, appointees of
Crawford, in his own interest, or of McLean, in the interest of
Calhoun and Jackson.
So rigidly did Adams interpret his duty in the matter that only
twelve removals altogether were made during his term. [Footnote:
Fish, Civil Service, 72.] He even retained the surveyor of the port
of Philadelphia, whose negligence had occasioned the loss of large
sums of money to the government and whose subordinates were hostile
to Adams. Under such conditions, the friends of the administration
had to contend not only against their enemies, but against the Adams
administration itself, which left its power in the hands of its
enemies to be wielded against its friends. [Footnote: Adams,
Memoirs, VII., 163.] Binns, the editor of one of the leading
administration papers, in an interview was informed that the
president did not intend to make any removals. "I bowed
respectfully," said the editor, "assuring the president that I had
no doubt the consequence would be that he himself would be removed
so soon as the term for which he had been elected had expired. This
intimation gave the president no concern." [Footnote: Parton,
Jackson, III., 92; Adams, Memoirs, VII., 154.]
Another illustration of his tenacity in this matter, even in
opposition to the wishes of Henry Clay, was his refusal to remove a
naval officer at New Orleans who had made preparations for a public
demonstration to insult a member of Congress who had assisted in
electing Adams. Clay believed that the administration "should avoid,
on the one hand, political persecution, and, on the other, an
appearance of pusillanimity." But the president refused to remove a
man for an intention not carried into effect, and particularly
because he could frame no general policy applicable to this case
which would not result in a clean sweep. Four-fifths of the custom
officers throughout the Union, he thought, were opposed to his
election. To depart in one case from the rule which he had laid down
against removals would be to expose himself to demands from all
parts of the country. [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VI., 546.]
The president who rejected these favorite instruments of political
success was unable to find compensation in personal popularity or
the graces of manner. Cold and repellent, he leaned backward in his
desire to do the right, and alienated men by his testy and
uncompromising reception of advances. And yet there never was a
president more in need of conciliating, for already the forces of
the opposition were forming. Even before his election he had been
warned that the price of his victory would be an organized
opposition to the measures of the administration, [Footnote: Ibid.,
476, 481, 495, 506, 510.] and that Calhoun and his friends in South
Carolina and Pennsylvania would be the leaders. [Footnote: Am. Hist.
Assoc., Report 1899, II., 230, 231; Calhoun, Works, III., 51;
Sargent, Public Men and Events, I., 106, 109.]
The union of the opposition forces into a party was perfected
slowly, for between Crawford, Jackson, and Calhoun there had been
sharp rivalry. Virginia by no means relished the idea of the
promotion of the military hero; and in New York Jackson had been
sustained by Clinton in 1824 against Crawford, the candidate of Van
Buren. The Senate ratification of the nomination of Clay (March 7,
1825) foreshadowed the alliance of southern interests with those of
Pennsylvania; [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VI., 525, VII., 69.] but
only fourteen votes, including that of Jackson, were mustered
against him, while among the twenty-seven who ratified the
nomination was Van Buren. By the opening of the nineteenth Congress,
in December, 1825, however, the situation might well have convinced
Adams of the need of caution. Taylor, the administration candidate
for speaker, was elected by a majority of only five against his
opponents' combined vote, and, in the Senate, Calhoun appointed
committees unfriendly to the president.
Nevertheless, in his first annual message [Footnote: Richardson,
Messages and Papers, II., 299.] Adams challenged his critics by
avowing the boldest doctrines of loose construction. The tide of
sentiment in favor of internal improvements was so strong [Footnote:
Jefferson, Writings (Ford's ed.), X., 348.] that, to insure its
complete success, it would have been necessary only for the
executive to cease to interpose the checks which Monroe had placed
upon this movement. Prudence would have dictated to a president
anxious to enlarge his following the avoidance of irritating
utterances upon this point. But Adams characteristically threw away
his opportunity, choosing rather to make extreme proposals which he
realized had slight chance of success, and to state broad principles
of national power.
In this respect he went even further than Clay approved. [Footnote:
Adams, Memoirs, VII., 59, 61-63.] Defining the object of civil
government as the improvement of the condition of those over whom it
is established, not only did he urge the construction of roads and
canals, but, in his enlarged view of internal improvements, he
included the establishment of a national university, the support of
observatories, "light-houses of the skies," and the exploration of
the interior of the United States and of the northwest coast.
Appealing to the example of European nations, as well as of various
states of the Union, he urged Congress to pass laws for the
promotion of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, the
"encouragement of the mechanic and of the elegant arts, the
advancement of literature, and the progress of the sciences,
ornamental and profound." "Were we," he asked, "to slumber in
indolence or fold up our arms and proclaim to the world that we are
palsied by the will of our constituents, would it not be to cast
away the bounties of Providence and doom ourselves to perpetual
inferiority?" Such a profession of faith as this sounded strangely
in the ears of Americans, respectful of their constituents and
accustomed to regard government as a necessary evil. At a stroke,
Adams had destroyed his fair prospects of winning the support of
Virginia, and, what is more, he had aroused the fears of the whole
slave-holding section.
At the beginning of 1824 the legislature of Ohio passed a resolution
in favor of the emancipation and colonization of the adult children
of slaves, and was supported by the legislatures of at least six
northern states, including Pennsylvania, while the proposal was
attacked by all the states of the lower south. [Footnote: Ames,
State Docs. on Federal Relations, No. 5, p. II (with citations);
McMaster, United States, V., 204.] This followed soon after the
excitement aroused by an attempted Negro insurrection in Charleston,
[Footnote: McMaster, United States, V., 199; Atlantic Monthly, VII.,
728.] in 1822, and from the fears aroused by this plot the south had
not yet recovered. Already Governor Wilson, of South Carolina, was
sounding the alarm in a message [Footnote: December 1, 1824. Ames,
State Docs. on Federal Relations, No. 5, p. 13; Niles' Register,
XXVII., 263, 292.] denouncing the Ohio proposition, and declaring
that there would be more "glory in forming a rampart with our bodies
on the confines of our territory than to be the victims of a
successful rebellion or the slaves of a great consolidated
government." Governor Troup, of Georgia, stirred by the same
proposition, and especially by a resolution which Senator King, of
New York, submitted (February 18, 1825) for the use of the funds
arising from the public lands to aid in emancipating and removing
the slaves, warned his constituents that very soon "the United
States government, discarding the mask, will openly lend itself to a
combination of fanatics for the destruction of everything valuable
in the southern country"; and he entreated the legislature, "having
exhausted the argument, to stand by its arms." [Footnote: Ames,
State Docs. on Federal Relations, No. 5, p. 17; House Exec. Docs.,
19 Cong., 2 Sess., IV., No. 59, pp. 69, 70.] While Georgia was in
this frame of mind, the administration, as we shall see, [Footnote:
Chap, xviii., below.] completed the breach by refusing to permit the
survey of the Indian lands by the state, and thus forced the
followers of Crawford in Georgia to unite with their former
opponents in South Carolina.
Even in North Carolina, where there had been a considerable
sentiment in favor of Adams, [Footnote: Univ. of North Carolina,
James Sprunt Hist. Monographs, No. 2, pp. 79, 88, 106.] the
conviction grew strong that, under such a loose construction of the
Constitution as that which his message advocated, the abolition of
slavery might be effected. The venerable Senator Macon, to whom
Adams had at one time looked as a possible candidate for the vice-
presidency, believed that the spirit of emancipation was stronger
than that for internal improvements; and that the president's loose-
construction doctrine would render it possible for Congress to free
every slave. [Footnote: Ibid., 76, 106, 107.] One of the senators of
South Carolina, desirous of supporting the administration in
opposition to the Calhoun faction, begged Adams to include in his
message some passage reassuring the south in the matter of slavery,
but he received a chilling reply. [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VII.,
57.] The speaker, Taylor, already obnoxious because of his previous
championship of the proposed exclusion of slavery from Missouri,
aroused the wrath of the south by presenting to the House a memorial
from a "crazy Frenchman," who invited Congress to destroy all the
states which should refuse to free their slaves. [Footnote: Ibid.,
103.] In short, there was a wide-spread though absolutely unfounded
fear that the administration favored emancipation, and that the
doctrines avowed in the message of the president gave full
constitutional pretext for such action.
On the other hand, the opposition was in no agreement on principles.
[Footnote: Univ. of North Carolina, James Sprunt Hist. Monographs,
No. 2, p. 79.] It was dangerous for the south to marshal its forces
on an issue which might alienate the support of Pennsylvania. Much
more safely could the enemies of the president press the charge that
the favorite of the people had been deprived of his rights by a
corrupt political intrigue. Consequently, a flood of proposed
amendments to the Constitution poured upon both branches of Congress
day after day, demanding the abolition of the choice of president by
the House of Representatives and the exclusion of members of
Congress from appointment to executive office during their term of
service. [Footnote: Ames, Amendments to the Const., in Am. Hist.
Assoc., Report 1896, II., 21, 106, 339, 343.]
These measures were championed by McDuffie, Benton, and other
friends of Calhoun and Jackson. Although they were undoubtedly
called out in part by a sincere desire to effect a change in a
system which was regarded as dangerous, they also served admirably
the purpose of popular agitation. In pursuance of the same policy, a
report proposing restrictions upon the executive patronage was made
in the Senate (1826) by a committee which included Benton and Van
Buren. This was accompanied by six bills, transferring a large share
of the patronage from the president to the congressmen, and
proposing the repeal of the four-year tenure of office act.
[Footnote: Fish, Civil Service, 73; McMaster, United States, V.,
432.] Six thousand copies of this report were printed for
distribution, and the Puritan president, so scrupulous in the matter
of the civil service that he disgusted his own followers, found
himself bitterly attacked throughout the country as a corrupt
manipulator of patronage.
The first fully organized opposition, however, was effected in the
debates over Adams's proposal to send delegates to the Panama
Congress, for here was a topic that permitted combined attack under
many flags. In the spring of 1825 the ministers of Mexico and
Colombia sounded Clay to ascertain whether the United States would
welcome an invitation to a congress [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VI.,
531, 536, 542; International Am. Conference, Reports, etc., IV.,
"The Congress of 1826 at Panama," 23.] initiated by Bolivar, with
the design of consolidating the Spanish-American policy, though at
first the United States had not been included among the states
invited. [Footnote: International Am. Conference, Reports, etc.,
IV., "The Congress of 1826 at Panama," 155.] Clay was predisposed to
accept the overture, for he saw in the congress an opportunity to
complete the American system, which he had long advocated and which
appealed strongly to his idealistic view of the destiny of the new
republics. [Footnote: See chap, xi., above.] But Adams was skeptical
of the future of these new nations, and, as for an American system,
he had once (1820) declared that we had one already, "we constituted
the whole of it; there is no community of interests or of principles
between North and South America." [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, V.,
176; cf. Am. Hist. Rev., XII., 113.]
Adams had learned something from Clay in the mean time, however, and
his own share in announcing the Monroe Doctrine inclined him to
favor the idea of such a congress, under careful restrictions, to
safeguard our neutrality and independence. So the inquiries were met
in a friendly spirit, and formal invitations were received from
Mexico, Colombia, and Central America in the fall of 1825, defining
more clearly the purposes of the congress and the mode of procedure.
[Footnote: International Am. Conference, Report, IV., 24-34.] The
explanations still left much to be desired, and it may be doubted
whether the president would have accepted the invitation had not
Clay's zeal influenced his decision.
As its proceedings finally showed, the real purpose of the congress
was to form a close union of the new republics against Spain or
other nations which might attack them or make colonial settlements
in violation of their territory, and to determine the troops and
funds to be contributed by each state for this end. Its general
assembly was to meet every two years, and, during the war, its
members were to be bound by the action of the majority. [Footnote:
International Am. Conference, Report, IV., 169 (Bolivar's
instructions); 184 (Treaty of Confederation framed by the Panama
Congress).] Such an organization was manifestly dangerous to the
predominance of the United States, and participation in it was
incompatible with our neutrality and independence. Having reason to
apprehend that the congress might go to this extent, the president,
in determining to accept the invitation, also determined so to limit
our representatives that they should have no power to commit either
our neutrality or our independent action, unless their action were
ratified by the government.
Nevertheless, the prospect of an American system from which the
United States was excluded was not a pleasing one, and certain
topics which were suggested for consideration made the situation
really critical. The presence of a large French fleet off the coast
of Cuba, in the summer of 1825, revived the apprehension of an
invasion of that island, and both Colombia and Mexico contemplated
an attack upon this remaining stronghold of Spain. The annexation of
Cuba and Puerto Rico by any of the South American republics would
unquestionably have meant the emancipation of the slaves, and
already the spectacle of the black republic of Haiti had brought
uneasiness to the south. In this juncture the administration
endeavored to persuade the South American republics to suspend their
expedition, and made overtures for Russian influence to induce Spain
to recognize the revolted republics and thus avoid the danger of
loss of her remaining possessions.
Adams sent a special message to the Senate (December 26, 1825),
nominating two delegates to the Panama Congress. He attempted to
disarm the gathering opposition by declaring that, although the
commissioning of these delegates was regarded as within the rights
of the executive, he desired the advice and consent of the Senate
and the House of Representatives to the proposed mission. Among the
topics named by Adams as suitable for discussion at the congress
were the principles of maritime neutrality, and "an agreement
between all of the parties represented at the meeting that each will
guard by its own means against the establishment of any future
European colony within its borders." This was a striking
qualification of a portion of the Monroe Doctrine, and it indicates
the anxiety of the executive not to commit the United States to any
permanent defensive alliance of the American republics. Seeing their
opportunity, however, the opposition brought in a report strongly
antagonizing the recommendation of this congress, on the ground that
it involved a departure from our time-honored policy of avoiding
entangling alliances, that the congress would really constitute a
government, and that the topics of discussion might better be
handled by negotiation with the respective states. The opposition
considered rather the purposes of the congress as contemplated by
the South American promoters than the propositions which the United
States was willing to discuss in the purely consultative body which
Adams and Clay had in mind.
The knowledge, ignored in the executive message, that the congress
proposed to deal with the problem of the slave-trade and of the
destiny of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Haiti, kindled southern
indignation at the idea of submitting the subject of slavery to the
discussion of an international tribunal. In a notable speech, Hayne
declared this an entirely "domestic question." "With respect to
foreign Nations," said he, "the language of the United States ought
to be, that it concerns the peace of our own political family, and
therefore we cannot permit it to be touched; and in respect to the
slave-holding States, the only safe and constitutional ground on
which they can stand, is, that they will not permit it to be brought
into question either by their sister States, or by the Federal
Government." [Footnote: Register of Debates, 19 Cong., 1 Sess., II.,
pt. i., 165.] "The peace of eleven States in this Union," said
Benton, "will not permit the fruits of a successful Negro
insurrection to be exhibited among them." [Footnote: Register of
Debates, 19 Cong., 1 Sess., II., pt. i., 330.]
This southern resentment against the submission of the question of
our connection with slavery and with the insurrectionary Negro
republics to the discussion of a foreign tribunal, was combined with
the opposition of northern men like Van Buren to engaging the United
States in a system for the control of American affairs by a
congress. Thus the enemies of the administration were brought into
unison. Nevertheless, the Senate assented to the mission (March 14,
1826) by a vote of 24 to 19; and, after an animated debate, the
House, by a vote of 134 to 60, made the necessary appropriations. It
was a barren victory, however, for one of the delegates died while
on his way, and the other reached Panama after the Congress had
adjourned. Although a subsequent session was to have been held at
Tacubaya, near the city of Mexico, dissensions among the Spanish-
American states prevented its meeting. [Footnote: Richardson,
Messages and Papers, II., 329; International Am. Conference, Report,
IV., 81, 113, 173-201.]