Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/327

Rh fear of encroachment, and the assertion of the home rule principle was, therefore, mainly directed against the national power. That the national government had a natural tendency hostile to local self-government was mainly a Southern idea.

The Southern interest, knowing what it wanted, compact, vigilant, and represented by able politicians, was naturally destined to become the leading force in that aggregation of political elements which, beginning in a mere wild opposition to the Adams administration, hardened into a political party. An extensive electioneering machinery, which was skillfully organized, and used with great effect in the four years campaign, beginning with the election of John Quincy Adams and ending with Jackson's election in 1828, continued to form one of its distinguishing features.

The followers of Adams and Clay were, by the necessities of their situation, driven to organize on their side. Having been the regular administration party during Adams's presidency, they became the regular opposition after Jackson's inauguration. A majority of those who favored a liberal construction of the constitutional powers of the general government gathered on that side, interspersed, however, with not a few state-rights men. Among them the protective tariff and the policy of internal improvements found most of their advocates.

Each of these new parties claimed at first to be the genuine, orthodox Republican party, but, by