by means of this power thus acquired, to mold the public will into an acquiescence with their authority, then is the issue fairly made out, shall the government or the people rule. And it becomes the man whom the people shall indicate as their rightful representative in the solemn issue, so to have acquitted himself, that while he displaces these enemies of liberty, there will be nothing in his own example to operate against the strength and durability of the government."

But it is es

It is painful to copy such sentences. sential to the integrity of this work to do so. It is necessary to show that it was the habit of General Jackson's mind to attribute the conduct of his opponents to the lowest motives from which that conduct could be imagined to proceed.

The health of Mrs. Jackson continued to be precarious during the whole of this period. Her disease was an affection of the heart, which was liable to be aggravated by excitement. She never approved of the General's running for office; and, if now she wished him to succeed, it was only because she knew he wished it. Unceasingly she strove to turn his thoughts to those subjects in which alone she found comfort, which alone she thought important. She warned him not to be dazzled nor deluded by his popularity; of which her good sense as a woman, no less than her opinions as a Presbyterian, taught her the emptiness. One Sunday morning, a communion Sunday, in 1826 or 1827, as they were walking toward the little Hermitage church, she besought him to dally no longer with his sense of duty, but, then and there, that very hour, in their own little church, to renounce the world and all its pomps and vanities, and partake of the communion with her. He answered, “My dear, if I were to do that now, it would be said, all over the country, that I had done it for the sake of political effect. My enemies would all say so. I can not do it now, but I promise you that when once more I am clear of politics I will join the church."

This incident he related, with tears in his eyes, many years after to his beloved friend Blair, of the Globe, as they stood under the tall trees of the grove in which the church stands.

CHAPTER X.

THE BARGAIN AND CORRUPTION CRY.

Too much, by a hundred thousand pages, having been already written upon this sorry business, I have been sorely tempted to pass it over without mention. The disgraceful story must be told, however. It belongs to our subject. It can not be suffered to pass into that oblivion which has ruthlessly swallowed so much that was better worth preservation.

"Give us a good cry to go down to the country with," say the London clubs to a shaky ministry anticipating a dissolution of Parliament. The Jackson party had a most telling cry in the campaign of 1828, and we are now to learn how they got it.

General Jackson, as we know, left Washington after the election in the House of Representatives, convinced that there had been a corrupt understanding between Mr. Clay and Mr. Adams, to the effect that Clay should make Adams President, on condition that Adams should appoint Clay Secretary of State. General Jackson, as we have just observed, was always prone to think evil of those who opposed him, as well as to be too indulgent to those who supported him. On this occasion, as on many others, his propensity was stimulated by those who hoped to thrive by his assist

ance.

I. On the 28th of January, 1825, twelve days before the election in the House of Representatives, the following letter

was published anonymously in a Philadelphia newspaper, called the Columbian Observer:

"WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 1825.

“DEAR SIR: I take up my pen to inform you of one of the most disgraceful transactions that ever covered with infamy the republican ranks. Would you believe that men, professing democracy, could be found base enough to lay the ax at the very root of the tree of liberty! Yet, strange as it is, it is not less true. To give you a full history of this transaction would far exceed the limits of a letter. I shall, therefore, at once proceed to give you a brief account of such a bargain as can only be equaled by the famous Burr conspiracy of 1801. For some time past, the friends of Clay have hinted that they, like the Swiss, would fight for those who pay best. 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 the friends of Clay gave the information to the friends of Jackson, and hinted that if the friends of Jackson would offer the same price, they would close with them. But none of the friends of Jackson would descend to such mean barter and sale. It was not believed by any of the friends of Jackson that this contract would be ratified by the members from the States which had voted for Clay. I was of opinion, when I first heard of this transaction, that men, professing any honorable principles, could not, or would not be transferred, like the planter does his negroes, or the farmer does his team of horses. No alarm was excited. We believed the republic was safe. The nation having delivered Jackson into the hands of Congress, backed by a large majority of their votes, there was on my mind no doubt that Congress would respond to the will of the nation by electing the individual they had declared to be their choice. Contrary to this expectation, it is now ascertained to a certainty that Henry Clay has transferred his interest to John Quincy Adams. As a consideration for this abandonment of duty to his constituents, it is said and believed, should this unholy coalition prevail, Clay is to be appointed Secretary of State. I have no fear on my mind. I am clearly of opinion we shall defeat every combination. The force of public opinion must prevail, or there is an end of liberty."

II. The editor of the Columbian Observer forwarded to Mr. Clay a copy of the paper containing this precious effusion. On the first of February, Mr. Clay replied to it in the National Intelligencer, by a card:

"I have seen," said he, "without any other emotion than that of in

effable contempt, the abuse which has been poured upon me by a scurrilous paper issued in this city, and by other kindred prints and persons, in regard to the presidential election. The editor of one of those prints, ushered forth in Philadelphia, called the Columbian Observer, for which I do not subscribe, and which I have never ordered, has had the impudence to transmit to me his vile paper of the 28th instant. In this number is inserted a letter, purporting to have been written from this city, on the 25th instant, by a member of the House of Representatives, belonging to the Pennsylvania delegation. I believe it to be a forgery; but if it be genuine, I pronounce the member, whoever he may be, a base and infamous calumniator, a dastard, and liar; and if he dare unvail himself, and avow his name, I will hold him responsible, as I here admit myself to be, to all the laws which govern and regulate men of honor."

III. Two days afterward, appeared in the Intelligencer a communication, entitled "Another Card," which read as follows:

"George Kremer, of the House of Representatives, tenders his respects to the Honorable H. Clay, and informs him that, by reference to the editor of the Columbian Observer, he may ascertain the name of the writer of a letter of the 25th ult., which, it seems, has afforded so much concern to H. Clay. In the mean time, George Kremer holds himself ready to prove, to the satisfaction of unprejudiced minds, enough to satisfy them of the accuracy of the statements which are contained in that letter, to the extent that they concern the course and conduct of H. Clay. Being a representative of the people, he will not fear to 'cry aloud and spare not,' when their rights and privileges are at stake.”

This George Kremer was an honest, illiterate rustic, eccentric in costume and manners, a man absurdly out of place in an assembly of educated persons. "Mr. Kremer," wrote Daniel Webster to his brother Ezekiel," is a man with whom one would think of having a shot, about as soon as with your neighbor, Mr. Simeon Atkinson, whom he somewhat resembles." He was a little, bustling, credulous man of fifty, much stared at in Washington from his wearing a leopard-skin over-coat of curious cut.

IV. Mr. Clay read Kremer's card before going to the House on the morning of February 3d. From his place in the

Speaker's chair he addressed the House on the subject, and demanded an immediate investigation of the charge. 'Standing,' said the Speaker, 'in the relation to the House, which both the member from Pennsylvania and himself did, it appeared to him, that here was the proper place to institute the inquiry, in order that, if guilty, HERE the proper punishment might be applied; and if innocent, HERE his character and conduct might be vindicated. He anxiously hoped, therefore, that the House would be pleased to order an investigation to be made into the truth of the charges. Emanating from such a source as they did, this was the only notice which he could take of them.'

Mr. Forsyth moved the appointment of a select committee for the investigation. Whereupon, Mr. Kremer rose and said, that "If, upon investigation being instituted, it should appear that he had not sufficient reason to justify the statements he had made, he trusted he should receive the marked reprobation which had been suggested by the Speaker. Let it fall where it might, he was willing to meet the inquiry, and abide the result."

After a debate of a day and a half, the committee was ordered and appointed. It consisted of seven members, Messrs. Barbour, Webster, M'Laine, Taylor, Forsyth, Saunders, and Rankin.

V. The committee met, and summoned Mr. Kremer to appear before them with the proofs of the charges he had made. Mr. Kremer, in a long, rambling communication, refused to come before the committee! The House, he said, had no jurisdiction over the conduct of members out of the House. "I protest, therefore, most solemnly against the assumption of any jurisdiction, either by the committee or the House of Representatives, that shall jeopardize my right to communicate freely to my constituents whatever I may believe necessary for the public good. Whatever assent I may have given, was done hastily, relying on the conscious rectitude of my conduct, and regarding my own case, without having reflected duly on the dangerous principles involved in the pro