inois, 2; total, 99. A plurality, not a majority. The people had not elected a President.

Mr. Adams was the choice of seven States; General Jackson, of eleven States; Mr. Clay of three States; Mr. Crawford of three States. Still no majority.

The population of the United States in 1820 was about nine and a half millions. The population of the three States which gave a majority for Mr Clay was 1,212,337. The population of the three States which preferred Mr. Crawford was 1,497,029. The population of the seven States which gave a majority for Mr. Adams was 3,032,766. The population. of the eleven States which voted for General Jackson was 3,757,756.

It thus appears that General Jackson received, first, more electoral votes; secondly, the vote of more States; thirdly, the votes of more people than any other candidate. Add to these facts, the fact not less indisputable, that General Jackson was the second choice of Kentucky, Missouri, and Georgia; and it must be admitted that he came nearer being elected by the people than any other candidate. He was, moreover, a gaining candidate. Every month added to his strength. A delay of a few weeks longer would probably have given him a majority. No man who surveyed the scene with an unprejudiced eye could doubt, that he, more than any one else, was the nation's choice. The opinions of a host of able politicians, beginning with that of Mr. Jefferson, could be cited in support of this position, but it needs no support. Simple addition and the census of 1820 are sufficient to establish it.

The result was not known in all its details when the time came for Senator Jackson to begin his journey to Washington in the fall of 1824. That he was pretty confident, however, of being the successful candidate, was indicated by Mrs. Jackson's accompanying him to the seat of government. They traveled in their own coach-and-four, I believe, on this occasion. The opposition papers, at least, said so, and descanted upon the fact as an evidence of aristocratic pretensions; con

sidering it anti-democratic to employ four horses to draw a load that four horses sometimes could not tug a mile an hour, and were a month in getting to Washington.

The family party reached the city on the 7th of December. The next day General Jackson, from his seat in the Senate chamber, wrote a hasty note to Major Lewis: "I reached this city yesterday morning at 11 o'clock, all in good health, after a continued travel of twenty-eight days without resting one day. I enclose you the President's Message. You will see from the papers the electoral vote. If Louisiana has not voted for Mr. Clay, he is not in the House. When I have obtained the actual vote and become a little acquainted with the views of the political knowing-ones here, I will give you the speculations on the presidential question. I am anxious to hear from you-how Jesse has come out, etc. Write Give me the intelligence how our little sons are."

me.

December 23d. Mrs. Jackson wrote to her friend, Mrs. Kingsley, at Nashville, an interesting and characteristic letter-the last of hers that I possess. This was Mrs. Jackson's first visit to the east:

"The present moment," she says, "is the first I can call my own since my arrival in this great city. Our journey, indeed, was fatiguing. We were twenty-seven days on the road, but no accident happened to us. My dear husband is in better health than when we came. We are boarding in the same house with the nation's guest, Lafayette. I am delighted with him. All the attentions, all the parties he goes to, never appear to have any effect on him. In fact, he is an extraordinary man. He has a happy talent of knowing those he has once seen. For instance, when we first came to this house, the General said he would go and pay the Marquis the first visit. Both having the same desire, and at the same time, they met on the entry of the stairs. It was truly interesting. The emotion of revolutionary feeling was aroused in them both. At Charleston, General Jackson saw him on the field of battle; the one a boy of twelve, the Marquis, twenty-three. He wears a wig, and is a little inclined to corpulency. He is very healthy, eats hearty, goes to every party, and that is every night.

"To tell you of this city, I would not do justice to the subject. The extravagance is in dressing and running to parties; but I must say they regard the Sabbath, and attend preaching, for there are churches of every

denomination and able ministers of the gospel. We have been here two Sabbaths. The General and myself were both days at church. Mr. Baker is the pastor of the church we go to. He is a fine man, a plain, good preacher. We were waited on by two of Mr. Balche's elders, inviting us to take a pew in his church in Georgetown, but previous to that I had an invitation to the other. General Cole, Mary, Emily, and Andrew, went to the Episcopal church.

"Oh, my dear friend, how shall I get through this bustle. There are not less than from fifty to one hundred persons calling in a day. My dear husband was unwell nearly the whole of our journey, but, thanks to our Heavenly Father, his health is improving. Still his appetite is delicate, and company and business are oppressive; but I look unto the Lord, from whence comes all my comforts. I have the precious promise, and I know that my Redeemer liveth.

The apostle The play actors No. A ticket to

"Don't be afraid of my giving way to those vain things. says, I can do all things in Christ, who strengtheneth me. sent me a letter, requesting my countenance to them. balls and parties. No, not one. Two dinings; several times to drink tea. Indeed, Mr. Jackson encourages me in my course. He recommends it to me to be steadfast. I am going to-day to hear Mr. Summerfield. He preaches in the Methodist church; a very highly spoken of minister. Glory to God for the privilege. Not a day or night but there is the church opened for prayer."

On the day on which this letter was written, General Jackson had the pleasure of seeing the Senate concur with the bill which provided so munificently for paying to Lafayette the debt which the nation owed him. General Jackson supported the bill in all its stages, both by his votes and his influence. Seven Senators at one time opposed it. Before the question of ordering the bill to be read a third time but "one dissenting voice was audible," and on its final passage the vote was unanimous.

Before General Jackson had been many days in Washington, he received a confidential message from De Witt Clinton, which, besides being in itself important, is another proof that an expectation of Jackson's election to the presidency pervaded the country. "In the latter part of December," says Dr. Hammond, "I went to Washington, as the agent of the State, to settle its account with the general govern

ment. Before I left Albany, I had, by special appointment, an interview with Governor Clinton, at which he stated to me that he had not the least doubt but that Jackson would be elected, and he instructed me to say to him that he wished him to form his cabinet without any personal reference to him (Mr. C.); that he could not accept of any appointment which would render it necessary for him to leave the State of New York; and that the only solicitude he felt was, that General Jackson should so form his cabinet as would secure prosperity and success to his administration."*

CHAPTER VI.

HENRY CLAY ELECTS A PRESIDENT.

THE people having failed to elect a President, it devolved upon the House of Representatives, voting by States, each State having one vote, to elect one from the three candidates who had received the highest number of electoral votes. A majority of States being necessary to an election, some one candidate had to secure the vote of thirteen States. The great question was to be decided on the 9th of February, 1825.

Henry Clay, though excluded from the coming competition by the smallness of his electoral vote, became, as soon as that fact was known, the most important personage in Washington; the man upon whom all eyes were fixed, upon whom all hopes depended. The influence which he wielded in the House of Representatives, derived from his long connection with it, from his winning cast of character, from his strenuous will, from his eloquence, placed it in his power to give the election to whichever of the candidates he prefer*Hammond's Political History of New York, ii., 189.

red. He was Warwick the king-maker. He was Banquo who should get kings, but be none. From being the great defeated, he was amused to find himself the universally sought.

"In the same hour," he wrote, January 8th, 1825, to his friend and neighbor, Mr. Francis P. Blair, "I am sometimes touched gently on the shoulder by a friend, for example, of General Jackson, who will thus address me, 'My dear sir, all my dependence is upon you; don't disappoint us; you know our partiality was for you next to the hero; and how much we want a Western President.' Immediately after a friend of Mr. Crawford will accost me, 'The hopes of the Republican party are concentrated on you; for God's sake preserve it. If you had been returned, instead of Mr Crawford, every man of us would have supported you to the last hour. We consider him and you as the only genuine Republican candidates.' Next a friend of Mr. Adams comes with tears in his eyes, 'Sir, Mr. Adams has always had the greatest respect for you, and admiration of your talents. There is no station to which you are not equal. Most undoubtedly you are the second choice of New England, and I pray you to consider seriously whether the public good and your own future interests do not point most distinctly to the choice which you ought to make.' How can one withstand all this disinterested homage and kindness ?"

Mr. Clay was not on cordial terms with either of the two highest candidates. His relations with General Jackson have been described by himself in a passage which we have already given. He was far from being a lover or an admirer of Mr. Adams. He had opposed, with all his eloquence and all his influence, many of the most important measures of Mr. Monroe's administration; of which administration Mr. Adams had been the animating soul and the exculpatory pen. That very Spanish Treaty which gained Florida and yielded Texas, upon which Mr. Adams particularly plumed himself, had been denounced by Mr. Clay in the House of Representatives. There had been, moreover, a personal difference between the