in the Senate; Randolph could rave in "besotted violence" against the "puritanic-diplomatic-blacklegged administration,"1 and fight a duel with Clay in consequence, without losing or gaining a vote for either candidate. The question at issue was not the fitness of the candidates, but their "availability." For the vice-presidency, it was understood that Calhoun would have the support of the Jackson men, but his treatment of Adams would of itself have made impossible any other connection. As Calhoun could hardly expect to serve more than two terms, the question of his probable position in 1832 was an important one. Clay thought of the place, and even spoke to Adams about it. The names of Barbour, the secretary of war, William Henry Harrison, and Crawford were also suggested. Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, who was eventually nominated by the administration convention at Harrisburg, had voted against Adams. Of the twenty-four states that took part in the election of 1828, eighteen voted by general ticket, while only two, Delaware and South Carolina, adhered to the older method of election by the legislature. Maryland and Tennessee voted by electoral districts. In Maine and New York the election was by congressional districts, the members so chosen selecting the two electors at large. Jackson received 178 electoral votes against 83 for Adams. 1 Benton, Thirty Years' View, I., 72. Calhoun, the candidate for vice-president, received 171 votes, seven of the nine votes of Georgia being given to William Smith, of South Carolina. New England voted for Adams, with the exception of one of the nine votes of Maine. In New York the antimason issue divided the vote, twenty of the thirty-six votes going to Jackson. The Maryland vote was also divided, Jackson receiving five of the eleven votes. In the other states there was no division of the electoral vote, and all except New Jersey and Delaware were carried by Jackson.1 'Adams got not a single vote south of the Potomac or west of the Alleghanies." " The popular vote showed 647,276 for Jackson and 508,064 for Adams. All the New England states except New Hampshire gave Adams heavy majorities; and a similar preponderance was true of most of the states that voted for Jackson. In New York, on the other hand, Jackson received only 140,763 votes as compared with 135,413 given for Adams. Maryland gave 24,565 for Jackson and 25,527 for Adams; Louisiana, 4603 for Jackson and 4076 for Adams; Ohio, 67,597 for Jackson and 63,396 for Adams. In Pennsylvania the Jackson majority was almost exactly as two to one, the votes for the two candidates being 101,652 and 50,848 respectively. There were still states in which the Adams or anti-Jackson following was strong; but a comparison of the total vote of the states in 1828 1 Stanwood, Hist. of the Presidency, 148. with the figures, so far as obtainable, of the vote in 1824 shows how thoroughly the country had become aroused and how sweeping was the victory. Benton characterizes the election of 1828 as "a triumph of democratic principle, and an assertion of the people's right to govern themselves." It was all this, and more. To personal vindication of Jackson was added emphatic popular endorsement of the social and political order with which he was identified. In the election of Jackson the people of the United States turned their backs on their early principles of statesmanship, and entrusted the conduct of the federal government to an untrained, self-willed, passionate frontier soldier. That he was not of the old school was, in the eyes of his supporters, a commendation. It was as idle then as it is now to bemoan the change. A great democracy will never be governed for long together by its best men, but by its average. To the average voter in 1828, Jackson was a great popular leader because they held him to be also a typical democrat. With him, democracy springs into the saddle. It had yet to show how well it could ride. 1 Benton, Thirty Years' View, I., III. CHAPTER IV THE BEGINNING OF PERSONAL POLITICS THE (1829-1837) HE election of Jackson was the signal for an outburst of popular enthusiasm such as had not been witnessed since the first election of Washington. The journey from the "Hermitage" to the capital, where Jackson arrived early in February, was a continuous ovation. A motley army of officeseekers, personal friends, and sight-seers flocked to Washington to cheer the "old hero." Webster wrote that there was "a monstrous crowd of people" in Washington on the day of the inauguration, some of whom had come five hundred miles to see Jackson. "They really seem to think," he added, "that the country is rescued from some dreadful danger.” 1 "Judge Story, of the supreme court, an Adams man, describes how the new president, going to the "palace," as he calls the executive mansion, after the inauguration, was visited "by immense crowds of all sorts of people, from the highest and most polished down to the most vulgar and gross in the nation. . . . The reign of King Mob seemed 1 Webster, Private Corresp., I., 470, 473. triumphant." 1 Parton, who preserves with cynical impartiality the spectacular incidents of Jackson's time, records how the crowd upset the pails of orange punch, broke the glasses, and stood with muddy boots on the "damask satin-covered chairs" in their eagerness to see the president. Jackson's inaugural address' set forth, in dignified phrases and with commendable brevity, but with varying degrees of definiteness, the principles by which he proposed to be guided. The address was the joint production of Jackson, Lewis, and Henry Lee, the latter being responsible for the literary form.' Jackson declared it to be his purpose, in administering the laws of Congress, to "keep steadily in view the limitations as well as the extent of the executive power." In his conduct touching the rights of the several states, he hoped "to be animated by a proper respect for those sovereign members of our Union, taking care not to confound the powers they have reserved to themselves with those they have granted to the Confederacy.' "A strict and faithful economy," with special reference to the extinguishment of the public debt, was promised. On the subject of the tariff the expressions were vague: "the spirit of equity, caution, and compromise in which the Constitution was formed requires that the great interests of agriculture, com 1 Story, Story, I., 563. 2 Richardson, Messages and Papers, II., 436-438. |