What were the motives which directed this course, or the means by which the end was attained" need not be considered. "It is enough that the deed was done."

Said another Tennesseean to the voters of his district: "As our Government is in all respects a representative republic, where the voice of the people governs, there must be a manifest defect in the Constitution in relation to the election of President. One candidate was greatly preferred by the people of eleven out of twenty-four States. Yet, when the power passed from their hands to the House of Representatives the voice of the people was not regarded. The man clearly the choice of a majority of the people was not raised to that high place for which his talents so preeminently fitted him, and to which his public services so richly entitled him. This is a subject for serious consideration by the people, and it will be for them to say on some subsequent occasion whether their voice shall be heard and their rights respected, or whether they will tamely yield those inestimable rights to the unhallowed dictation of politicians."

"Your favorite candidate," said an Indiana member to the people of his district, "was not before Congress. Mr. Clay, not being one of the three highest supported by the people, was excluded by the Constitution. Agreeable to the principles avowed to you, I supported General Jackson, the next in your regard, as shown by the electoral returns of my district. My sincere hope is that the administration of Mr. Adams may be prosperous and happy. Yet I hope never again to see a President of the United States who is not the choice of the people, and trust soon to see the Constitution so amended as to preclude Congress from any sort of interference in the matter, leaving the decision where it ought to be in the hands of the people."

"The qualifications of the candidates," said a Kentucky member, "were examined by us fully, fairly, and deliberately, and every view we took of them resulted in favor of Adams. That Adams is as much superior to Jackson in the necessary qualifications of a chief magistrate as Jackson is superior to Adams in fitness to command an army was

1825.

CAUSE OF JACKSON'S DEFEAT.

491

admitted generally. It has always been held to be a settled principle of our elective system that the candidate best qualified should be preferred, and on this the old Republicans acted. The superior fitness of Adams for the presidency ought to justify our vote in the eyes of all sober-minded

That Mr. Kremer should be silent in this hour of personal explanation was impossible, and from him came another letter to the electors in his district. "Recurring to the specific charges in my letter, have I not redeemed my pledges," said he, "and made them good? I stated that Henry Clay had transferred his interests to John Quincy Adams. Has not time disclosed the reality? Can any human being acquainted with the circumstances doubt that it was by the agency of Mr. Clay, and by that alone, that the members of five Western States were induced, contrary to the wishes of their constituents, to vote for Mr. Adams? There is no part of the Union where the people maintain the right to instruct their representatives with more jealous inflexibility than in the Western States. Can it be believed, then, that some twenty or thirty of the representatives of such a people would have thought for one moment of voting for Mr. Adams, who was known to be odious to them, and against Jackson, who was known to be their decided choice, if it had not been for the influence of Henry Clay? No, fellow-citizens; Mr. Clay has to answer for the double sin of defeating the will of his constituents and of sacrificing his friends at the shrine of his own unchastened ambition.

"I said that as a consideration for this abandonment of duty to his constituents, it was said and believed, should this unholy coalition prevail, Mr. Clay was to be appointed Secretary of State. This time has verified to the very letter. He has been offered the appointment of Secretary of State, and has agreed to accept it. It would now be affected squeamishness in me were I to say, 'it is believed' that the appointment of Secretary of State is the consideration given for the support rendered by Mr. Clay to Mr. Adams. I entertain no doubt upon the subject." The address closed with an appeal to the voters to punish the perpetrators "of

the horrid deed," and to give no "sanction to Mr. Clay's denunciation of General Jackson as a military chieftain, but let him know that the hero who saved the Republic should not thereby incur the ban of proscription.” *

How deeply the epithet offended Jackson is apparent in a letter the general wrote to a friend at New York. He was well aware, he said, that for some time past the words military chieftain had been a phrase with Mr. Clay. But the vote with which the people had honored him was proof enough how little prejudice had been raised by the term. True it was that in early days, even while yet a lad, he had contributed his mite to shake off the yoke of tyranny. True it was that when the country was lately involved in war he, as a military general with three thousand citizens of Tennessee, had taken the field to support his country's eagle. If that constituted a military chieftain, then was he one. Aided by the patriotism of the West and an indulgent Providence, he had protected the frontier from savages, and had successfully defended a vulnerable point of the Union. life had been risked, privations endured, and sacrifices made not with any view of personal gain, but for the preservation of the honor, glory, and safety of the country. Did this constitute the character of a military chieftain? If so, then was he one.

His

But, military chieftain though he was, he never sought the office of President. It was the frank and flattering call of his countrymen that placed his name before the people. And when the electoral colleges failed to make a choice no one beheld him seeking to entice congressmen to betray the wishes of his constituents. He burned no midnight taper, he held no secret conclaves, he entered into no cabals to persuade any one to violate pledges given or instructions received, he formed no plans to impair the pure principles of our republican institutions and prostrate the people's will.t

*Washington City Gazette, February 28, 1825; Niles's Register, March 12, 1825, vol. xxviii, pp. 21-24.

Jackson to Samuel Swartwout, February 23, 1825; Niles's Weekly Register, March 12, 1825, vol. xxviii, pp. 20-21.

1825.

*

CLAY ANSWERS JACKSON.

493

The address of Kremer to his constituents, a paper which many declared he never wrote, and the letter of Jackson to Mr. Swartwout, were made public at the same time and for the sole purpose, Clay believed, of inducing the Senate to refuse to confirm his nomination to the Secretaryship of State. So thinking, Clay waited till the Senate acted, and then, in a long address to the people of his congressional district, answered both Kremer and Jackson. He began by describing the political situation in Washington in December, 1824; how he "seemed to be the favorite of everybody"; how "strong professions of high consideration and of unbounded admiration" of him were made to his friends by active supporters of all candidates; how he found himself transformed from a candidate before the people to an elector for the people; and how, conscious of the duties of this new position, he had taken time to weigh all the facts on which his decision was to be founded. While he delayed, rumors of every sort were used to awe and influence him. Critics could not comprehend how a man standing as he did toward the three candidates could be restrained by a sense of propriety from fighting under the banner of one of them. Letters were therefore issued from the "Jackson factory at Washington," were sent to remote parts of the country to be mailed, and, after prolonged journeys, came back to Washington for consumption." These at first imparted to Mr. Clay and his friends a mysterious air, or portentous silence. But, from dark and distant hints, the progress was easy to open and bitter denunciation. Anonymous letters, full of menace and abuse, were poured in on him daily. Personal threats were communicated to him through friendly organs, and he was fully informed of all the glories of village effigies which awaited him. A systematic attack was made on him simultaneously from Boston to Charleston,

"Whether intended or not as a 'private communication' and 'not for the public eye,' as alleged by him, there is much probability in believing that its publication in New York on the 4th of March was then made, like Mr. Kremer's address, with the view to its arrival in this city in time to affect my nomination to the Senate. In point of fact, it reached here the day before the Senate acted on that nomination." Clay's letter in National Journal, March 28, 1825.

with an object it was impossible to mistake. No man but himself could know the nature, extent, and variety of the means used to awe him. At last came a letter purporting to be written by a member of the House over which he pre sided. When he saw it he felt that a crisis had come in his public career, that silence could no longer be kept, and he issued his card.

The address went on to narrate how Kremer came forward with a card acknowledging the authorship of the anonymous letter; how and why Clay brought the matter before the House; how Kremer, standing in his place, declared he was ready and willing to make good every charge; how, a day later, he repented and assured one member "that he never intended to charge Mr. Clay with corruption or dishonor in his intended vote for Mr. Adams "; how an explanation was put on paper and the Speaker asked if he would be satisfied if Kremer read it in his place; and how the House referred the matter to a committee, before which Kremer refused to come and make good the charges he had made.

Turning from Kremer, Clay next discussed the question, Ought the fact that a plurality has been given to one candidate have any weight in determining an election by the House; has a Legislature any authority to instruct a member of the House of Representatives and to a long explanation of why he cast his vote forAdams? Coming next to Jackson's letter, Clay protested that he was at a loss to know what the general meant by stating that he held no secret conclaves, entered into no cabals, formed no plans to prostrate the will of the people. No such charges had ever been made against the general. Why, then, this defence? Could it be that he intended to impute to Clay the misconduct described? Taking the whole context of the letter and coupling it with Mr. Kremer's address, others might think he did. If so, he must have based his belief on the information of others who deceived his credulity and were unworthy of all credit. "I," said Clay, "entered into no cabals; I held no secret conclaves; I enticed no man to violate pledges given or instructions received; and how I pros