Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/472

 468 CRAWFORD CREAM OF TARTAR treasury. There were those who desired to support him as a candidate for the presidency instead of Monroe, and he received a large vote in the congressional caucus ; but upon Monroe's accession he continued to hold the secretary- ship of the treasury, having J. Q. Adams and J. 0. Calhoun as his colleagues in the cabinet. The course of events had led a portion of the democratic party to alter their views as to the powers and duties of the federal government. Abandoning that strict limitation of federal authority, power, and patronage, of which Jefferson had been the champion, many among them had begun to favor a liberal expenditure of money, especially in facilitating trade and intercourse between the states by means of internal improvements. Calhoun was at this time an active champion of these new views. They were opposed by Crawford, who was for adhering to the old Jeffersonian policy, and was denounced in consequence in Calhoun's newspaper organ at "Washington as a " radical." Thus sprang up a warm political and even per- sonal hostility between these two men. This feeling of hostility was aggravated upon the coming up of the question of a successor to Monroe. Crawford, ever since the withdrawal of his claims at the former election in favor of Monroe, had been considered as in some sense the destined successor. He was nominated as such by a congressional caucus, held Feb. 14, 1824. All the other candidates, Calhoun, Jackson, Adams, and Clay, joined against him ; and among other assaults upon him was one in the house of representatives involving charges of official misconduct as secretary of the trea- sury. He demanded an immediate investiga- tion, and a committee was appointed, of which Daniel Webster, Edward Livingston, and John Randolph were members. Crawford, though sick in bed at the time, dictated a conclusive reply, and the committee made a unanimous report declaring the falsity of the charges. The sickness of Mr. Crawford was long and severe, and though it had little influence on the vote given for him as president (he obtained all the electoral votes of Virginia and Georgia, five in New York, two in Maryland, and one in Delaware, 41 in all), it wholly destroyed any chance of his election by the house, and re- moved him henceforth from the political arena. He continued for some time an invalid, his dis- ease being paralysis, occasioned it was said by the improper use of lobelia for an attack of erysipelas. His health gradually improved, but he never entirely recovered. He could not see to write, and had not the physical ability to encounter any labor. He returned to Georgia ; but his pecuniary means were not large, and a vacancy occurring in May, 1827, on the bench of the circuit in which he had formerly practised, he accepted a temporary appointment from the governor to fill it. In November following he was chosen by the legislature for the remainder of the vacant term, in which position (the judges holding office for three years only) he was continued at two subsequent elections in 1828 and 1831. Though his disorder affected him both physically and mentally, he made a much better judge than would have seemed pos- sible to those familiar with his paralyzed state. He was strongly opposed to the nullification movement. To the last he retained his social temper and admirable conversational talent. He was a hearty laugher, negligent in his dress, simple in all his arrangements, and totally re- gardless of artificial dignity. In the family his residence was familiarly known as liberty hall. In religion he inclined to the Baptists. CRAWFORDSVILLE, a city and the capital of Montgomery co:, Indiana, 43 m. N. W. of In- dianapolis; pop. in 1870, 3,701. It is finely situated in a fertile and undulating region on the banks of Sugar creek. It is the seat of W abash college (Presbyterian), which in 1871 had 10 instructors, 226 students, of whom 138 were in the preparatory department, and a library of 12,000 volumes. There are two weekly newspapers and several manufactories. The Indianapolis, Bloomington, and Western, and the Louisville, New Albany, and Chicago railroads pass through it. CRATER, Gaspard de, a Flemish painter, born in Antwerp in 1582, died in Ghent in 1669. He was the pupil of Raphael van Coxcie, but subsequently developed a style not unlike that of Rubens, with whom, as also with Vandyke, he was on terms of intimate friendship. He was appointed court painter at Brussels, but in the zenith of his fame he retired to Ghent. Commissions followed him thither from all parts of the country, and to the close of his life he was an almost incessant worker. Bib- lical subjects principally occupied him, and he also occasionally attempted with marked suc- cess history and allegory. In subjects demand- ing energy and grandeur of treatment, and in coloring, he falls below Rubens ; but in quiet compositions he often equals him. In freedom and mastery of touch he rivals his great model, and in respect to the qualities which combine to form a historical painter he probably ap- proadhed nearer to him than any of his coun- trymen. That he has not occupied this place in popular estimation is partly owing to the inferior class of work which he produced in his later years. His pictures are very numer- ous. Among the best are a " Virgin and Child adored by Saints," in the Louvre; the "Mi- raculous Draught of Fishes " and the " Assump- tion of St. Catharine," in the Brussels gallery; the "Judgment of Solomon," in the Ghent gallery ; the " Virgin and Child," in the Pina- kothek, Munich; and the "Virgin and Child, enthroned and adored by Saints," in the Bel- vedere, Vienna. The Metropolitan museum of art of New York possesses a fine example of Crayer in a picture, 10 ft. 8 in. in height by 15 ft. 8 in. in width, representing the meeting between Alexander and Diogenes. CREAM OF TARTAR, a bitartrate of potassa purified from the crude tartar or argol, which