life, his lieutenants succeeded to the warfare on Mr. Clay, which was maintained until age, allied to repeated disaster, completed the conquest-indeed, until "Harry Percy's spur was cold."

Clay's defeat was the defeat of his friends. It closed to them the avenues of Federal preferment. With occasional exceptions, the Whig party maintained its ascendancy in Kentucky, but it cost an unceasing struggle. Even this hard-bought triumph had its drawbacks. The party was full of talent and ambition. The honors that the State could confer were all the rewards in reach. Mr. Clay expected to share in the highest of these. His loyal friends divided the rest. The property was small, the distributees numerous, and not unfrequently the Jackson men made spoil of it.

The points of difference between the characters of Mr. Clay and Mr. Hardin were more numerous than the points of sympathy. But the latter did exist. The characters of Hardin and Jackson were antipodal. Hardin-like Clay-underestimated Jackson's political strength. Instead of analyzing it and discovering why he was and should be strong, a different course of logic was adopted. It was unwarrantably assumed that the people distrusted, and should distrust, a military chieftain, and that the election of such a person threatened the stability of the Government. "The military principles have triumphed," said Mr. Clay in 1828, and triumphed in the person of one devoid of all the graces, elegancies, and magnanimity of the accomplished men of the profession."* Jackson's rashness and cruelty were exaggerated. His illiteracy, of itself, was supposed to render his pretensions absurd. From such points of view (prior to 1828) Hardin and the Kentucky Whigs contemplated the hero of New Orleans.

But a political revolution was transpiring, and Jackson was on its topmost wave. In 1828 Jackson's vote in Kentucky was nearly eight thousand greater than that of Adams, notwithstanding that three months before the Adams candidates for governor and lieutenant-governor had been elected. Mr. Hardin's old adversaries, the New Court party, had supported Jackson almost solidly-another reason why he should not do so. When Jackson had attained the presidency, he rapidly furnished arguments to his opponents. He proscribed his enemies and rewarded his friends. He fell under the influence and control of artful politicians. Obnoxious appointments were made. His self-will and ungovernable passion betrayed him into many follies. His administration was not a little in contrast to all that had preceded. Party

* Letter of Mr. Clay to H. Niles.

spirit ran higher than ever before. The administration maintained a newspaper organ (a practice then introduced) whose diatribes were of unparalleled bitterness. The Whigs, or National Republicans, under the lead of Clay, and the Democratic, or Locofoco followers of Jackson, were so widely separated by political feelings as to interrupt in no small degree the social and business intercourse of communities. The intense passion of the leaders passed down the rank and file.

Mr. Hardin, although a faithful Whig, was, however, not transported by his zeal. He, perhaps, excited party spirit in others that he himself shared only to a limited extent. He never came to respect General Jackson.

He ridiculed and denounced him quite sincerely.

As

He was elector for Clay in the presidential campaign of 1832. such, he canvassed the State, increasing his fame for oratory and contributing to the triumph of his party in the State.

"I heard Mr. Hardin on Jackson, in 1832," writes Colonel Allen, "and I then thought it the most exquisite irony I ever listened to. He drew a picture of Jackson's excessive vanity and how the magician of Kinderhook (Mr. Van Buren) ministered to it, for his own purposes, and how complacently the old hero received the ministrations. He depicted the President occupying an easy chair in one of the private rooms of the White

House, a weak, ill-educated, vain old man, in the hands of the wily foxVan Buren-who, being present, played on his inordinate vanity to subserve his private ends.

"There was more truth than poetry in the picture," remarks Colonel Allen. "The particular flattery being administered at the time was the repetition of the number of high-sounding names his admiring followers had bestowed upon him. 'General Jackson,' says Van Buren, 'you are the old Roman.' 'Yes,' responds the general, I am the old Roman; if I ain't I would like to know who is.' 'General Jackson,' says Van Buren again, you are the second father of your country.' 'Oh, yes,' answers Jackson (who, by the way, was childless), 'I am the father of my country, if I am the father of nothing else.' 'General Jackson,' continues the little flatterer, you are the hero of New Orleans.' 'Yes-oh yes,' says the old

6

man; 'I am undoubtedly the hero of New Orleans, if I am not, I would like to know who is!' 'General Jackson,' once more says Van Buren, 'you have filled the measure of your country's glory-your cup of greatness is full.' 'Certainly I have,' responds the President with unction, it won't hold another drap.'"'*

The Whig party had within its fold the best talent of the State. The energy of that talent kept it in power there, notwithstanding the popular admiration for military glory and the insidious pressure of the executive patronage and influence. Save the opportunities afforded by a congressional career, Whig politicians were left for the most part to deal with local affairs. Possibly there was compensation in this. Thus the State enjoyed the benefit of talent that otherwise might have shone in the cabinet, graced the supreme bench, or adorned diplomatic missions abroad. The State was well governed. The standard of political honor was exalted. Questions of constitutional law and the science and policy of government were discussed on every hilltop and in every valley. The public mind was educated and public sentiment given tone and direction. In the ministrations of that political priesthood that kept Kentucky thus faithful to Clay and Whiggery, none were more laborious or more potential than Ben Hardin.

*Letter from Colonel Alfred Allen, of Hardinsburg.

CHAPTER XIV.

M

IN AND OUT OF THE STATE SENATE.

R. HARDIN did not seek a return to the Legislature at the August election, 1826. The death-stroke had been dealt to the new court in 1825, and that tribunal had quietly folded its hands, awaiting its end. No prospective question before the General Assembly either invited or offered employment for his talents. What remained to be done for dismantling the new court could be as well accomplished by another. So he turned for the time from affairs of

state to his private business and professional duties.

January 14, 1827, death, for the first time, invaded his family circle. His son William was a boarding student at St. Joseph's College, at Bardstown. That college was a Roman Catholic institution, possessing an accomplished faculty, and enjoyed, at that time and long afterward, a wide and deservedly high reputation for learning. It was then a fair rival for Centre College, of Danville, and Transylvania, of Lexington. William, becoming ill of an epidemic fever, soon died. He was in his eleventh year, and was assisted in preparation for death by the Catholic Church, and died in reception of its spiritual consolations. The entire college turned out to attend the obsequies. The noted Rev. Robert A. Able preached the funeral sermon. These facts are related to the author by one who was then present-a twelve-yearold boy, who has not forgotten his young friend so long since gone to the "other side." Such an event could not but throw a gloom over the household, which time and the consolations of religion only. availed to disperse.

In the spring or summer of 1827. Mr. Hardin became a candidate. for the State Senate, to which he was elected in the August following. The State Senate, in 1827, was a somewhat more august body, and enjoyed many functions not vouchsafed to its successor under the present Constitution. With the governor resided the power of filling all the more important judicial and ministerial offices in the State by appointment by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. When the governor and a majority of the Senate were in political accord, as a rule, the appointees of the executive were confirmed

with little hesitation. When this was not the posture of affairs, gubernatorial appointments were sometimes sharply criticised. But even when governor and Senate were in harmony, nominations were not at all times advised or consented to. Illustrations of this kind will presently be furnished. There is some reason to believe that a seat in the Senate was not an inauspicious point from which to catch the ear of the executive when the latter came to dispense favor. The percentage of senators and senators' particular friends nominated to office was strikingly greater than fell to any other body or class of people.

The Legislature met December 3d-Lieutenant-Governor Robert B. McAfee presiding in the Senate. John Speed Smith, of the Administration (or Old Court) party, was chosen speaker of the House of Representatives. The relief governor, Joseph Desha, had, at the time, one more year to serve. The political storm aroused by the old and new court controversy, it is true, was abating. But the alignment of parties existing when that struggle was at its height was continued upon other issues. National questions were never marked by greater heat and asperity, and partook almost entirely of a personal character. Incensed by his defeat in 1824, General Jackson did not hesitate to stigmatize the chief author of his disaster-Henry Clay-with the charge of "bargain and intrigue." The election for President, falling into the House of Representatives, between Clay, Crawford, Adams, and Jackson, and the contest coming between Jackson and Adams, Mr. Clay (who was a member of the House) voted and cast his influence for Adams, and the latter was successful.

When Adams was inaugurated, he appointed Clay secretary of State. These events were charged to be the result of an agreement. This charge was the chief battle-cry of the Jackson men as early as 1827. The presidential contest of 1828 was between Jackson and Adams nominally, but between Jackson and Clay really, and the issue—“bargain and intrigue." Mr. Clay quit his post at Washington to vindicate his character in public speeches. In regard to a speech he delivered at Lexington on this question, Mr. Webster thus wrote him: "In point of merit, as a clear and well-stated argument, it is certainly at the head of all your efforts, and its effects on public opinion have not been exceeded by those of any political paper. I may almost say, within my generation." The substantial portion. of the New Court party became supporters of General Jacksonwhile the Old Court adherents, with still greater unanimity, followed