ment came in the way, and at a fortunate time, when every man in Washington was fighting for his candidate, when every circumstance gave or killed impulse to the tide.

On the 8th of January, there was a party at Mr. Adams's, in honor of General Jackson. It was by every odds the most magnificent affair of the kind, perhaps, which had yet turned the heads of the devotees of fashion at the Capital. General Jackson was the star of the night. Mrs. Adams, leaning upon his arm, glided along, introducing him to the vast, brilliant, and admiring throng, and when that night had ended, and its story been told, General Jackson was many degrees nearer the White House than he had ever been before. This was the climax in the long series of efforts by which Mr. Adams had established Jackson and his deeds in the enthusiastic admiration of his countrymen. After Mrs. Adams's party the women even came out for General Jackson.

The General went about Washington as the sole national knight. Stately and scholarly New England Congressmen wrote home that Jackson was the most Presidential-looking man among the candidates. His ignorance did not rob him of a dignity which his stature and manners rendered chivalrous, for a passing moment, in the most critical positions. It was easy enough, after what Mr. Adams had done, and what the General had done himself, for the shouts of the people to carry Jackson into the Presidential chair. Mr. Parton claims that Wm. B. Lewis did more to make General Jackson President than any other man. But this was true only in the mechanical part of the business when Mr. Adams had rendered even his candi

dacy possible. Mr. Lewis's task was easy enough. A Hercules had gone before him.

All the candidates except Mr. Crawford were opposed to the caucus, and after it had done its last work, all the candidates except Mr. Crawford were opposed to the caucus candidate. Of the Congressional caucus control of the nominations, Mr. Adams said as early as 1819:

"It places the President in a state of undue subserviency to the members of the Legislature; which, connected with the other practice of re-electing only once the same President, leads to a thousand corrupt cabals between the members of Congress and heads of Departments, who are thus made, almost necessarily, rival pretenders to the succession. The only possible chance for a head of a Department to attain the Presidency is by ingratiating himself with the members of Congress; and as many of them have objects of their own to obtain, the temptation is immense to corrupt coalitions, and tends to make all the public offices objects of bargain and sale."

The subject of internal improvements now began to be a matter of party interest, and on this point Mr. Adams disagreed with all the Democratic Presidents, although he mainly stood with them on the general interests of the country. However doubtful the conflict appeared, and however uncertain Mr. Adams was about his own desires as to the result, he did not hesitate to give his opinion on any subject which might take away or increase his chances of success. He fully believed that Congress had the power to make appropriations and legislate in behalf of beneficial general improvements. This was not at all a doubtful question with him.

The following quotations from his statements at this time on this important matter, placing him where

he always stood, and in attitude of author of legislation on the subject, are found in Mr. Seward's "Life of John Quincy Adams :"

"On the 23d of February, 1807, I offered, in the Senate of the United States, of which I was then a member, the first resolution, as I believe, that ever was presented to Congress, contemplating a general system of internal improvement. I thought that Congress possessed the power of appropriating money to such improvement, and of authorizing the works necessary for making it-subject always to the territorial rights of the several States in or through which the improvement is to be made, to be secured by the consent of their Legislatures, and to proprietary rights of individuals, to be purchased or indemnified. I still hold the same opinions; and, although highly respecting the purity of intention of those who object, on Constitutional grounds, to the exercise of this power, it is with heartfelt satisfaction that I perceive those objections gradually yielding to the paramount influence of the general welfare. Already have appropriations of money to great objects of internal improvement been freely made; and I hope we shall both live to see the day, when the only question of our statesmen and patriots, concerning the authority of Congress to improve, by public works essentially beneficent, and beyond the means of less than national resources, the condition of our common country, will be how it ever could have been doubted.

"The question of the power of Congress to authorize the making of internal improvements, is, in other words, a question whether the people of this Union, in forming their common social compact, as avowedly for the purpose of promoting their general welfare, have performed their work in a manner so ineffably stupid as to deny themselves the means of bettering their own condition. I have too much respect for the intellect of my country to believe it. The first object of human association is the improvement of the condition of the associated. Roads and canals are among the most essential means of improving the condition of nations. And a people which should deliberately, by the organization of its authorized power, deprive itself of the faculty of multiplying its own blessings, would be as wise as a creator who should undertake to constitute a human being without a heart."

This subject had recently risen into considerable importance in Congress and out of it, and a great effort had been made to press President Monroe into the sanction of extensive appropriations for the Cumberland Road and other internal improvements. Adams, Clay, and Calhoun supported the growing disposition to favor a general system of internal improvements. Jackson and Crawford were more reserved and qualified in their sentiments, and the course Mr. Monroe took in vetoing the Cumberland Road Bill, and his arguments in support of his act, had a very considerable influence on the question before the people, to the benefit of Jackson and Crawford.

Among the many good and bad things brought out during this exciting personal contest there was a singular story of General Jackson's good and Mr. Adams's ill feeling towards the Federalists. In 1817 Jackson had, in a letter to Mr. Monroe, given him some sage and patriotic advice about appointments to be made under him, sanctioning the selection of Mr. Adams for the State Department and recommending the appointment of at least one Federalist. At the proper moment "Providence," into whose hands the General said he had then committed the management of his affairs, caused the correspondence with Mr. Monroe to be published all over the country. And even some of the old Federalists believing that in this patriotic soldier another Washington had been raised up or discovered to restore the original unselfish, unpartisan purity of the public administration, turned from Mr. Adams to the support of General Jackson, an act that most of them discovered, when too late, was one of those things to be regretted during a lifetime. At

last this remarkable four-ended contest came to a close, and nobody was elected, and nobody was satisfied.

The popular vote stood: Jackson 155,872, Adams 105,321, Clay 46,587, Crawford 44,282. At this time New York, Vermont, Delaware, Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana actually chose their electors in the Legislatures, no popular vote being cast for President and Vice-President. But from this election the people voted for these officers in all the States except South Carolina, which did not become republican in this respect until after the Rebellion, in 1868.

Of the electoral votes General Jackson received 99, Mr. Adams 84, Mr. Crawford 41, and Henry Clay 37, and consequently there was no choice for President.

For Vice-President, Mr. Calhoun received 182 electoral votes, Nathan Sanford 30, Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, 24, Andrew Jackson 13, Martin Van Buren 9, Henry Clay 2, and there was one vacancy, there being in all 261 electoral votes. Mr. Calhoun having over the Constitutional majority

was therefore elected Vice-President.

General Jackson carried the entire electoral votes of Alabama, Indiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. In Illinois he got two votes; Louisiana three; Maryland seven, although that State cast 109 more votes at the polls for Mr. Adams than for him; New York, one.

Mr. Adams carried all the electoral votes of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In Delaware he got one