Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/277

Rh or that measure, or to the administration generally, but there had been no opposition party. With the accession of Adams the era of good feeling was well over, and those new groupings began to appear which, in the course of time, developed into new party organizations. Men were driven apart or drawn together by different motives. Of these, the commotion caused by the last presidential election furnished the most potent at that time. A great many of the adherents of the defeated candidates, especially the Jackson men, were bound to make odious and to break down the Adams administration by any means and at any cost. This was a personal opposition, virulent and remorseless. There were rumors, too, of an opposition being systematically organized by Calhoun, who then began to identify his ambition exclusively with the cause of slavery. In the vote against Clay's confirmation Adams saw “the rallying of the South and of Southern interests and prejudices to the men of the South.” Not a few Southern men began to feel an instinctive dread of the spirit represented by Adams.

But the hostility to the administration was soon furnished with an opportunity to rally on a question of constitutional principle. Already in his inaugural address, President Adams had brought forth something vigorous on internal improvements. But in his first message to Congress he went beyond what had ever been uttered upon that subject before. After having laid down the