Then, Mr. Adams, in accordance with his half pledge to Mr. Webster, appointed a few federalists to office. The mission to England, offered first to De Witt Clinton, and declined by him, was given to Mr. Rufus King, the most conspicuous of the surviving members of the old party. This appointment, creditable as it was to the President and to the country, was little relished by the republican party, though Mr. King had for a short time acted with that party.

The administration of Mr. Adams was, in one respect, so superior to any which the country has since known, that it will long be looked back upon by intelligent citizens with mingled pride and sorrow. It was a decent administration. A large proportion of those who served it were gentlemen: i. e., educated men of principle; men who had had mothers that taught them to be kind, and fathers who compelled them to do right. The transcendent meanness, the unspeakable stupidity of removing honest men from subordinate offices on account of their political opinions, was unknown to the administration of John Quincy Adams. He removed but two place-holders, and both for cause. In the third month of his presidency he wrote these wise, these prophetic words: "The custom-house officers throughout the Union, in all probability, were opposed to my election. They are all now in my power; and I have been urged very earnestly, and from various quarters, to sweep away my opponents and provide for my friends with their places. I can justify the refusal to adopt this policy only by the steadiness and consistency of my adhesion to my own. If I depart from this in any one instance, I shall be called upon by my friends to do the same in many. An invidious and inquisitorial scrutiny into the personal disposition of public officers will creep through the whole Union, and the most sordid and selfish passions will be kindled into activity, to distort the conduct and misrepresent the feelings of men, whose places may become the prize of slander upon them."*

Quincy's Life of J. Q. Adams, p. 147.

John Binns, too, tells us : "On the arrival in Philadelphia of President Adams, he did me the honor of an invitation. I waited on him at the Mansion House Hotel, and took an opportunity to introduce the subject of his appointments. I was promptly told that Mr. President Adams did not intend to make any removals. I bowed respectfully, assuring the President that I had no doubt the consequence would be that he would himself be removed so soon as the term for which he had been elected had expired. This intimation gave the President no concern, and assuredly did in nowise affect his previous determination.”*

The honorable conduct of Mr. Adams in this particular, accorded with that of his predecessors. It may, perhaps, be Isaid that no man had been dismissed from a subordinate post under the general government for partisan reasons merely. A place under government was generally regarded as a provision for life, and office-holders enjoyed the dignity, and exhibited the fidelity which permanent appointments alone have ever secured or can secure. In a word, the public business was conducted on principles upon which private business is conducted, and the public clerk had the same motives for good conduct as the private clerk has. The retention of his place, and his advancement to a better, were the natural and just reward of efficiency and fidelity.

Against the new administration, therefore, was soon arrayed a powerful party of "strict constructionists" in Congress, headed by John Randolph, a host of office-seekers, and the great mass of those who had supported General Jackson, and who were soon to believe that he had been kept out of the presidency by a corrupt bargain.

But was not General Jackson, the reader may ask, as decidedly committed to the internal improvement and protective tariff policy as Mr. Adams? Almost. But the fact was not so generally known. And did he not, in his letters to Mr. Monroe, recommend the appointment of federalists to office? He did. Well, then, how could the opposition to * Recollections of John Binns, p. 250.

Mr. Adams on these grounds be made available for the advancement of General Jackson? The question is more easily asked than answered. Read on.

As this chapter was about to be consigned to the printer, I received from Mr. Nicholas P. Trist a copy of a political letter written by General Jackson in 1801, which claims insertion here:

GENERAL JACKSON TO DR. WILLIAM DICKSON.

"KNOXVILLE, Sept. 1, 1801.

"DEAR SIR: Through life I have held it a sacred duty I owed to my country and myself never to give my suffrage to a candidate for a seat in the Congress of the United States, unless I was convinced that his political sentiments were congenial with those he represented, and that he would speak and do the will of his constituents; and being now informed that you are a candidate for the honor of representing the citizens of the State of Tennessee, in the representative branch of the federal legislature, believing, as I do, that any citizen who does obtain the suffrage of the freemen of Tennessee, must be a character, the composition of which is virtue, talents, and the true whig principles of seventy-six; in short, sir, that he must be a republican, and in politics like Cæsar's wife, not only chaste, but unsuspected.

"The first two component parts of this character I know you to possess; the latter, as to myself, I have ever thought you did. But, sir, the public mind has been lately led to believe that your political sentiments are doubtful, and some have held you up as an aristocrat. These reasons have operated upon me to call upon you to answer the following interrogatories:

"First. Are you, and have you always been an admirer of the true whig principles of '76 ?

"Have you always been an admirer of State authority?

"Are you now, and have you always been an admirer of the constitution of the United States, friendly to its administration, agreeable to the true literal meaning of the instrument, and banishing the dangerous doctrine of implication?

"Have you always been, and are you now opposed to standing armies in time of peace?

"Are you now, and have you always been inimical to a standing naval armament?

"Are you now, and have you always been opposed to foreign political connections?

"Are you now, and have you always been opposed to the extension of the executive patronage?

"Have you always been, and are you now an advocate for freedom of religion, and the freedom of the press?

"Are you now, and have you always been friendly to economy in the public disbursements, and an enemy to the system of loans?

"And, lastly, are you a real republican in principle, and will you be a republican in practice?

"The above questions are put to you by a sincere friend in private life, and one who is very much disposed to extend to you his little political support. He expects, however, that these questions will be answered with your usual candor on other subjects. This letter is not confidential, nor will your answer be viewed as such. It is as well for the gratification of inquiring friends as myself.

"Accept, sir, of my respects, and believe me to be your obedient servant, "ANDREW JACKSON.

"Doctor WILLIAM DICKSON."

This is Jeffersonian, as far as it goes, and it touches in a rude way most of the points then in controversy between the Adams men and the Jeffersonians.

CHAPTER IX.

GENERAL JACKSON RENOMINATED.

ACCORDING to the time-honored usages of the Republican party, the presidency was disposed of for twenty-four years. Mr. Adams expected to hold his place for eight years. Mr. Clay expected to succeed him, as previous Secretaries of State had succeeded their chiefs. Mr. Clay would, of course, serve eight years, and appoint a Secretary of State to be his successor in 1841. And, doubtless, there were worthy young gentlemen, not a few, who had an eye fixed hopefully upon the year 1849.

But the dethronement of King Caucus had changed all that. The "secretary dynasty," as it was called, was possible only so long as the sphere of contention was confined to the narrow compass of the Capital. Neither Mr. Adams nor Mr. Clay seem to have been aware of the fact, but it was a fact, and the managers of the Jackson party knew it. The resolution to make General Jackson a candidate for 1829 dated from the moment when the result of the election in the House of Representatives was known. It was, at once, resolved to appeal to "another tribunal."

Tennessee, as we have seen, welcomed her defeated General home in the summer of 1825, as conquerors are welcomed. In October of the same year, the seventh month of the new administration, the legislature of Tennessee, with three dissentient voices, passed a resolution to the effect that "General Andrew Jackson, of this State, be recommended to the freemen of the United States, as a fellow-citizen, who, by his numerous and faithful public services, in the cabinet and in the field, his energy and decision, his political qualifications, and strict adherence to the principles of republicanism, merits to be elected to the office of chief magistrate of this Union, at the next presidential election."

A few days after, it was whispered in the legislature that General Jackson was on his way to the capital of the State. It was forthwith resolved that " as an evidence of the respect and attachment entertained by this legislature, in common with our fellow-citizens, towards General Andrew Jackson for his high personal qualifications, and numerous and important services rendered to his country, that the two branches of this general assembly will receive him on the day next after his arrival at the seat of government, at 12 o'clock, in the representative hall;" and that "one or both of the speakers, on behalf of the two houses, shall deliver, at such time, to General Jackson an address, expressive of the high personal satisfaction they feel in relation to the course he pursued, during the pendency of the late presidential election.”

The General was received and addressed, accordingly, and