Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/122

 102 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS derstood as referring only to the territorial con- dition of the district embraced in it, or must it be understood to extend to such states as might be erected out of it? These questions grew out of the circumstance that the southern members of congress had denied any power in congress to prohibit slavery in a state, and therefore any right to refuse to admit Mis- souri into the Union on the ground that her con- stitution established slavery. Those of them who supported the compromise admitted, how- ever, a power of imposing conditions on territo- ries, as necessarily implied in the power to erect them. On the first of these questions all the cab- inet declared themselves in the affirmative. As to the second question, Adams thought that the term "for ever" must be understood to mean for ever, and that the prohibition of slavery, in- stead of ceasing with the territorial condition of the district, would under the act of congress extend to any states that might at any time be erected out of it. The other members of the cabinet, including Thompson of New York (ex- cept Adams, the only other northern man in it, and soon after made judge of the sflpreme federal court), were all of opinion that the " for ever " in question was only a territorial for ever, and that it did not and would not op- erate to prevent any states that might be or- ganized out of this territory from establishing or prohibiting slavery as they chose. But to prevent this delicate point from being mooted, and to give to the cabinet an appearance of una- nimity, at Mr. Calhoun's suggestion the second question was modified so as to read, " Is the proviso as it stands in the bill constitutional ? " To this question all the members returned the brief answer "Yes," and on the strength of their apparently unanimous opinion (ordered to be de- posited in the archives of the state department, whence, like some other valuable historical pa- pers, it has since disappeared), Monroe signed the bill. "We owe this piece of secret history to an extract which has been published from Mr. Adams's diary, from which it also appears that he still strongly entertained the same sen- timent of opposition to southern ideas, institu- tions, and predominancy, which had led him to vote against the annexation of Louisiana. But the time was not yet come for the open avowal of his opinions or for acting upon them. Least of all were the present crisis and Adams's position favorable to such a course. No sooner had Monroe entered upon his second term of office (1821) than the question of who should be his successor began to be vehemently agitated. Of the five members of his cabinet, no fewer than tlirt>o, Adams, Crawford, and Calhoun, were brought forward as candidates, as were also, out- side the cabinet, Gen. Jackson and Henry Clay. Crawford obtained the congressional caucus nomination, according to the usage which then prevailed ; but this nomination had no weight with the partisans of the other candidates. To support Adi.ms, the federal party of Massachu- setts the only state in which that party could be said to maintain an organized existence, and even there it had lately lost the control of the state government amalgamated with the dem- ocratic party of that state ; and the same union took place throughout New England, and par- tially in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. All the federalists, however, did not come into this arrangement. Some of the more persistent among them refused to sup- port Adams. The aged Timothy Pickering, his former senatorial colleague, made a violent at- tack upon him in a printed pamphlet, founded on his former separation from the federal party. As a general thing, however, the greater part of the old federalists throughout the country gave in their adhesion to Adams a circumstance urged by his opponents as going to show that he was still but a federalist in a democratic disguise, and not entitled to the support of the democratic party. From the earliest history of the United States as an independent nation, Virginia and New England ideas had 'contended for predominancy and control. Notwithstand- ing his former abandonment of New England at the time of the embargo, in the present con- test Mr. Adams represented the New England which was in fact synonymous with the federal idea. Of course he suffered greatly from that bitter dislike of New England, which in the preceding quarter of a century had been labo- riously and assiduously instilled into the people not merely of the southern but of the western states, and which he had himself, as we have seen, contributed to aggravate. The election resulted in giving to Adams all the votes of New England, 26 votes from New York, 1 from Delaware, 3 from Maryland, 2 from Louisiana, and 1 from Illinois 84 in all ; while Jackson had 99 those of Pennsylvania, New Jer-rv, Indiana, and 2 of the 8 votes of Illinois among the number. Crawford had 41, and Clay had 87, including the votes of Kentucky and Ohio. Calhoun, who had previously withdrawn from the contest, was chosen vice president almost unanimously. There being no choice by the people, the election came into the house, where, by the influence of Clay, Adams was chosen at the first ballot 13 states voting for him, 7 for Jackson, and 4 for Crawford. Jefferson, in a letter a few days before to John Adams, had characterized the decision between John Quincy Adams and Jackson the only two candidates really before the house as involving the ques- tion whether he and his correspondent were to end their days " under a civil or military gov- ernment." It is probable that Jefferson's fa- vorite candidate had been Crawford, win* received the vote of Virginia; but by nobody had Jackson been more vehemently opposed .is the backwoods, uncivilized, and military candi- date than by the supporters of Crawford, who had painted in very strong colors the probable barbarizing consequences of Jackson's election. Crawford himself, in a subsequent letter to Clay, most decidedly approved of Clay's pref- erence of Adams to Jackson. No sooner,