Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/410

 CHAPTER XII. COMMERCE, EXPANSION AND SLAVERY. (18281850.) WHEN the passing of the Tariff Act became known in the South, angry protests and loud threats of resistance were heard. The ships in Charleston harbour flew their flags at half-mast. Anti-tariff meetings were held in South Carolina; and the governor was urged to summon the legislature in special session. Proposals were made to stop all trade with States whose representatives in Congress had voted for the Act, and for an anti-tariff convention of delegates from the planting States. From grand juries, from the muster-grounds, from Fourth of July meetings, from gatherings of all sorts came demands that the legislature should defend the rights of South Carolina. In the midst of this excitement in the South the time arrived for the choice of presidential electors. The defeat of Jackson in the House of Representatives in 1825 was quickly followed by his renomination for the Presidency by the legislature of Tennessee ; and during three years a bitter personal campaign was carried on in Congress and before the people. The friends of Jackson insisted that the election of Adams was the result of a corrupt bargain by which Clay bound himself to use his influence in the House of Representatives to secure the election of Adams, and Adams bound himself in return to appoint Clay Secretary of State ; that the sovereign will of the people had been disregarded by the House of Representatives; and that the "will of the people" must be vindicated. In their ranks were to be found all who were opposed to internal improvements at the Federal expense; all who believed the Tariff Acts to be oppressive, partial, and unconstitutional ; all who believed the story of the corrupt bargain ; all the great body of office-holders ; and all who for any reason hated Adams or Clay. No great principle of national policy as yet bound them together; but the lack of such a bond was more than compensated by the belief that Adams stood for aristocratic principles of government, and Jackson for government by the people. Political affairs were still further complicated by the rise of the most extraordinary political party that has yet appeared in American history