passed, leaving untouched the protective duties that had caused the greatest offence.

Jackson's most popular act was his assault upon the Bank of the United States. It is not to the purpose to urge either that he was right or that he was wrong; that he undertook the "war" because he thought Mr. Biddle, the president, wished to thwart him, or because he believed the Bank endangered the liberties of the people. The act was popular, as assaults upon capitalists, "bloated bondholders," "trusts," and "the money power" have always been, in this country.

The candidacy of General Jackson for reëlection being predetermined, the only matter which remained for the Democrats to consider was the choice of a candidate for VicePresident. The President was in favor of Martin Van Buren, the Secretary of State. It is clear that he allowed Mr. Van Buren to have a free hand, and to make all his arrangements with a view to the succession. His letter resigning his seat in the cabinet, April, 1831, was a skilfully worded announcement that he was a candidate for the place when General Jackson should retire. The President nominated him as minister to England, and he departed for his post during the recess of the Senate; the Senate rejected the nomination, and Jackson was more than ever determined that he should be "Vice-President now, and President afterward." Parton says that there was a "programme" laid down before Jackson had been a year in office, "a programme of succession so long that it would have required twenty-four years to play it out. It was divided into three parts of eight years each: Andrew Jackson, eight years; Martin Van Buren, eight years; Thomas H. Benton, eight years." He does not give his authority for this statement, which can be neither proved nor disproved.

The chronological order of events requires that we should mention first the formal nomination of opposition candidates. The alleged abduction, in 1826, of William Morgan, who was supposed to have revealed the secrets of Freemasonry, caused the origin of an Anti-Masonic party. From western New York, the place of its birth, it spread over a large part of the North and played an important part in some state elections. In September, 1830, a national convention of Anti-Masons was held in Philadelphia. Four New England States, New York, Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland,ten States in all, together with the Territory of

Michigan, were represented by 96 delegates. It was voted to hold a second national convention in Baltimore on the 26th of September, 1831, to be composed of delegates equal in number to the representatives in both Houses of Congress from each State, and to be chosen by the people opposed to secret societies, for the purpose of making nominations for the offices of President and Vice-President.

It had McLean

The convention was held at the time and place designated. Delegates to the number of 113 were present, representing all the New England and Middle States, Ohio and Indiana. been intended to nominate Judge McLean, of Ohio. was Postmaster-General under Mr. Adams, but had nevertheless been a supporter of Jackson all through the administration. When he displayed an unwillingness to administer the Postoffice Department as a part of the "spoils" with which the Democratic workers were to be rewarded, the President appointed him a justice of the Supreme Court. He seems to have passed at once to the opposition. At all events, after the convention of Anti-Masons in 1830, he had consented provisionally to become the candidate of the party, if nominated. It appears that certain influential "National Republicans," as the opposition now termed itself, gave notice that they could not support Judge McLean, and he accordingly wrote a letter to the Baltimore convention withdrawing his name. It was the avowed purpose of the Anti-Masons to present the name of one upon whom all the opponents of Jackson could unite. Their course was somewhat disingenuous, since by far the largest section of the opposition desired to vote for Mr. Clay.

The convention invited Chief Justice Marshall, who was in the city, to sit with the convention, and he accepted the invitation. A ballot was taken for a candidate for President. William Wirt, of Maryland, received 108 of 111 votes cast. Having more than the three fourths which it had been previously voted should be necessary for a choice, he was declared nominated. A committee was sent to inform him of his nomination. He went into the convention and delivered one of the most remarkable speeches ever heard, in response to such a notification. He avowed that he had been made a Mason; confessed that he never saw any harm in the order until this political party was founded on the principle of opposition to secret societies; declared that Masonry as they

conceived it "was not and could not be Masonry as understood by Washington;" and concluded by telling the delegates that if they had nominated him under a misapprehension he would permit them to substitute another name for his own. After his address the delegates unanimously voted to stand by the nomination. They completed the ticket by nominating Amos Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. The convention adopted no platform, but issued a long and verbose address to the American people.

The next convention, that of the National Republicans, was held at Baltimore on December 12, 1831. Seventeen States were represented by 167 delegates. South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois were unrepresented. How many delegates attended from each State, and how they were chosen, cannot be ascertained. That it was not a gather

ing of volunteers is evident from the facts that a committee on credentials was appointed and that the convention adjourned to give the committee time to do its work. General Abner Lacock, of Pennsylvania, was the temporary chairman of the convention, and Governor James Barbour, of Virginia, the permanent president. The members voted for a candidate for President by rising in their seats as their names were called and announcing their vote. The nomination of Henry Clay was unanimous. In the same manner John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, was unanimously nominated for Vice-President. A committee was raised, consisting of one member from each State, to inform Mr. Clay of the nomination; and the committee was constituted by the delegation from each State naming its own member. Thus, in the earliest days of the convention system, one of the most striking features of the nomination was introduced in precisely the present form. In 1831, however, the notification was by mail instead of by a pilgrimage to the residence of the candidate. The convention adopted no resolutions, but it issued an address severely criticising the administration for its corruption, partisanship, and abuse of power; for the hostility it had manifested to internal improvement, for treachery on the tariff question, for the war on the Bank, and for the humiliating surrender to Georgia in the matter of the Cherokee Indians.

By recommendation of this convention a national assembly of young men met in Washington in May, 1832, which accepted the nominations made by the National Republicans and adopted

the following series of resolutions, the first platform ever adopted by a national convention :

1. Resolved, That, in the opinion of this convention, although the fundamental principles adopted by our fathers, as a basis upon which to raise a superstructure of American independence, can never be annihilated, yet the time has come when nothing short of the united energies of all the friends of the American republic can be relied on to sustain and perpetuate that hallowed work.

2. Resolved, That an adequate protection to American industry is indispensable to the prosperity of the country; and that an abandonment of the policy at this period would be attended with consequences ruinous to the best interests of the nation.

3. Resolved, That a uniform system of internal improvements, sustained and supported by the general government, is calculated to secure, in the highest degree, harmony, the strength, and the permanency of the republic.

4. Resolved, That the Supreme Court of the United States is the only tribunal recognized by the Constitution for deciding in the last resort all questions arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States, and that upon the preservation of the authority and jurisdiction of that court inviolate depends the existence of the nation.

5. Resolved, That the Senate of the United States is preëminently a conservative branch of the federal government; that upon a fearless and independent exercise of its constitutional functions depends the existence of the nicely balanced powers of that government; and that all attempts to overawe its deliberations by the public press or by the national executive deserve the indignant reprobation of every American citizen.

6. Resolved, That the political course of the present Executive has given us no pledge that he will defend and support these great principles of American policy and the Constitution; but, on the contrary, has convinced us that he will abandon them whenever the purposes of party require it.

7. Resolved, That the indiscriminate removal of public officers, for the mere difference of political opinion, is a gross abuse of power; and that the doctrine lately "boldly preached" in the Senate of the United States, that "to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy," is detrimental to the interests, corrupting to the morals, and dangerous to the liberties of this country.

8. Resolved, That we hold the disposition shown by the present national administration to accept the advice of the King of Holland, touching the northeastern boundary of the United States, and thus to transfer a portion of the territory and citizens of a State of this Union to a foreign power, to manifest a total destitu

tion of patriotic American feeling, inasmuch as we consider the life, liberty, property, and citizenship of every inhabitant of every State as entitled to the national protection.

9. Resolved, That the arrangement between the United States and Great Britain relative to the colonial trade, made in pursuance of the instructions of the late Secretary of State, was procured in a manner derogatory to the national character, and is injurious to this country in its practical results.

10. Resolved, That it is the duty of every citizen of this repub lic, who regards the honor, the prosperity, and the preservation of our Union, to oppose by every honorable measure the reëlection of Andrew Jackson, and to promote the election of Henry Clay, of Kentucky, and John Sergeant of Pennsylvania, as President and Vice-President of the United States.

The Democratic convention, which was held at Baltimore on May 21, 1832, was a striking example of the hold which Jackson had on his party, perhaps still more of the authority which the general's agents were allowed to exercise in his name. Mr. Van Buren was not the free choice of the Democrats for the office of Vice-President. Every contemporary authority, except Benton, assures us of that fact. Yet Jackson desired his nomination, and the machinery was set in motion to effect it. In May, 1831, Major Lewis, second auditor of the Treasury, wrote from Washington to Amos Kendall, fourth auditor of the Treasury, who was then in New Hampshire, urging the propriety of having a convention to nominate a candidate for Vice-President, in May of the following year; hinting that it would be well if the New Hampshire legislature were to propose such a convention, and advising him to "make the suggestion to our friend [Isaac] Hill." This scheme of the "kitchen cabinet" for it was at this time composed of the three men named in the last sentence was carried out. The result was communicated to the public in " a letter of a gentleman" in New Hampshire, printed in the "Globe," the President's organ, in June, 1831. The "gentleman was Mr. Kendall, and the extract printed was as follows:

The Republican members of the New Hampshire Legislature, to the number of about 169, met last evening. An address and resolutions approving of the principles and measures of the present administration, the veto of the President on the Maysville Road bill, disavowing the doctrine of nullification, disapproving Clay's American system, but recommending a judicious reduction of the duties, disapproving of the United States Bank, passed the convention