Connecticut to resort to a general ticket of electors, now stirred the people of Massachusetts to revise their election law, to abandon the old system of appointment by the Legislature, and to adopt a choice by the people. Of her fifteen electors, one was to reside in each of the thirteen congressional districts, while two were to be electors at large. As soon as the act was approved, a caucus of the Legislature named fifteen Adams electors. The old Federalists then met, and, after twice failing to make a ticket, left the matter to be taken up by the people in the congressional districts, in each of which an elector was nominated. The central committee added two more to be electors at large, and called the product the "Unpledged Electoral Ticket." In New Jersey a State convention, attended by delegates from twelve of the thirteen counties, assembled at Trenton, and before proceeding to business adopted a rule that no delegate pledged to support any candidate should have a seat. This shut out the Adams men, who organized by themselves and framed an Adams ticket. The rest of the delegates chose seven Jackson men and one friendly to Crawford. In Ohio a caucus of members of the Legislature, after resolving to support a candidate opposed to slave-holding, put John Quincy Adams in nomination, and made a State ticket of "Free Federal Electors."* Some Clay Republicans meantime, after correspondence and conference with friends of his all over Ohio, prepared a list of names and gave it to the editor of the Columbus Gazette to publish, which he did with the remark, "We have thought proper to publish the following electoral ticket in favor of Clay." The Adams men thereupon dubbed it "The We Ticket." But Adams and Clay were not the only favorites. At a meeting of citizens of Steubenville, in December, 1823, De Witt Clinton had been nominated for President and Andrew Jackson for Vice-President. The nomination of Clinton was so severely ridiculed that a second meeting was held at Cincinnati, where a motion was made to strike out his name from the Steubenville resolutions. The church * Ohio Monitor, April 24, 1824. 1824. PENNSYLVANIA FOR JACKSON. 67 in which the people met was so crowded that to divide was impossible, so those present adjourned to a field near by, where they divided and were tolled off. Four hundred and fifty were for Clinton and three hundred and thirty opposed to him. In Pennsylvania Adams had no following. Acting on the advice of their members of Congress, the people in every county save one had chosen delegates to attend a convention at Harrisburg, where, on the fourth of March, Jackson was nominated with but one dissenting voice. Calhoun was selected for the Vice-Presidency.* Never before had the people shown so deep an interest in the choice of a President. In Philadelphia "Hickory Clubs" were formed, and each member required to wear a black silk vest stamped with portraits of Jackson. Public meetings were held; resolutions were passed; pamphlets were written and scattered broadcast. The substance of such documents was that the people were heartily in favor of Jackson. His services in the late war, in the Indian campaign of 1813, in the Seminole War, were glowingly described. Who among his rivals, it was asked, could show a like record? Were Crawford, like Jackson, in private life, would he be a candidate? Did not everybody know that the Secretary of the Treasury was the favorite of the caucus because the patronage of his office was lucrative and great? Adams, it was admitted, had served his country well. But to elect him would be to indorse and continue a custom dangerous to republican institutions— the custom of making the Secretary of State the successor of the President whom he served. Madison had been Secretary to Jefferson, Monroe to Madison, and if Adams followed Monroe, the dynasty of the Secretaries would be well established, and the Presidents would practically select their successors. What this meant the people well knew. In Virginia some members of the Legislature nominated. Clay, and urged his election on the ground that he was a Virginian born and bred. In Sevier County, East Tennessee, the people showed their preference by means of a novel device. Five banners *United States Gazette, March 8, 1824. were hoisted in a line, and at suitable distances apart. On each was the name of one of the five candidates-Adams, Jackson, Clay, Crawford, and Calhoun. When the meeting had been called to order, those present were asked to fall into line and march past the banners, each stopping at that of his favorite. After this was done, six hundred and sixteen men were counted under the Jackson banner, seven under the Adams, one under the Crawford, and three under the Clay. Calhoun had not one friend present. In many places throughout the South a favorite ticket was Adams and Jackson, or, in the language of one of the newspapers John Quincy Adams, Who can write, And Andrew Jackson, In Maryland the people of Cecil Council gathered at Elkton, and, after denouncing the caucus nomination, declared for an Adams and Jackson ticket. In North Carolina a caucus of the Legislature indorsed Crawford. But a "People's Ticket," composed of the friends of Adams and Jackson, was at once put in the field. In Mississippi a convention of members of the Legislature and private citizens met and balloted for a candidate. When the vote was taken on the question, Shall he be Adams or Calhoun? Adams had all the votes save two that went to his rival. Adams was next pitted against Crawford, and then against Clay, with a like result. But when he was put up against Jackson, the vote was a tie. The chair then gave a casting vote in favor of Adams, whereupon the convention nominated both. Alabama was strong for Jackson. Indeed, the Legislature in formal session went so far as to indorse his candidacy in a set of resolutions, copies of which it requested the Governor to transmit to the Governors of the sister States. This he refused to do, not because he disliked Jackson, but because, in his opinion, the Legislature had no right to meddle in the matter of the selection of a presidential candidate. As the summer of 1824 wore away the people in States where electors were to be chosen in districts or by a general 1824. CRAWFORD AND GALLATIN. 69 ticket became more active than ever, and nomination followed nomination in quick succession. The friends of Jackson in Ohio called so vigorously for a State convention that one was held, and men pledged to Jackson and Calhoun were formally chosen.* This action made a popular nomination of Adams necessary, and it was accomplished during a session of the United States Circuit Court. The judges, the bar, the jurymen, the witnesses, the suitors, all who were in attendance on the court, men from every part of the State, were called together one evening, and before they dispersed Adams was indorsed and an address in his behalf was issued. The same thing took place in Alabama, where, during a sitting of the Supreme Court of the State, the judges, lawyers, and citizens from all parts of Alabama met and formed an Adams and Calhoun electoral ticket. In Virginia delegates from each congressional district assembled at Fredericksburg and made a Jackson electoral ticket. That Jackson would carry Pennsylvania was by this time certain. Nevertheless, delegates from Philadelphia and ten counties gathered at Harrisburg, approved of the congressional caucus and its nominees, and made a "Democratic Republican Electoral Ticket" pledged to Crawford and Gallatin.‡ The campaign had now gone far enough to prove beyond a doubt that at least two candidates had no chance whatever of election. Not a State save Virginia, and no public body save the few delegates from ten counties of Pennsylvania, had declared for Gallatin. No State save South Carolina wanted to see Calhoun President. For the office of VicePresident, however, his indorsement by Jackson men and Adams men was so general all over the South and West that before autumn came he had ceased to be regarded as a presidential candidate, and had become the choice of Republicans for the Vice-Presidency. The appearance of the name of the Secretary of War on the Jackson and Adams tickets suggested to the friends of Crawford the idea of attempting a like fusion of the support * Ohio Monitor, July 17, 1824. + Ibid., August 7, 1824. American Daily Advertiser, August 13, 1824. ers of Crawford and Clay, and in September, accordingly, the offer of second place was made to the Speaker and firmly declined. But the Republican leaders would not give up hope of such a coalition, and, in order to remove every possible obstacle in the way, they now forced Gallatin to withdraw. The letter requesting his resignation was written late in September, and informed him that in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York the belief was strong that Calhoun would be chosen Vice-President by the electors; that his warmest friends advised him to retire, as such action would perhaps make it possible to come to an understanding with Clay which would do much to secure the election of Crawford.t Gallatin complied at once, and copies of his resignation were soon on their way to Martin Van Buren at Albany, and to the committee of correspondence in Virginia, and were published in the newspapers. He might as well have never written it, for, when the Legislature of New York attempted to choose electors, a quarrel broke out between the supporters of Crawford and Clay. Two The people of New York made a new Constitution in 1821, and seized the occasion to abolish the Council of Appointment and extend the suffrage by removing the property qualification until that time required of voters. consequences followed. In the first place a new party machine -a group of able politicians then in office-was organized by Van Buren and his friends, to take the place of the Council of Appointment, and by controlling the Governor control the patronage of the State. The new machine was the "Albany Regency." "In the second place, the absolute certainty that this little group of able men if left to themselves would capture * Clay to J. S. Johnston, September 3, 1824. J. S. Johnston to Clay, September 4, 1824. Clay to J. S. Johnston, September 10, 1824. Cotton's Life and Works of Henry Clay, vol. iv, pp. 100–103. Walter Lowrie to Gallatin, September 25, 1824. Adams's Life of Gallatin, pp. 602, 603. Gallatin to Walter Lowrie, October 2, 1824. Adams's Life of Gallatin, pp. 604-606. #Chief among them were the Controller (W. L. Marcy); the District Attorney of Albany County (Benjamin F. Butler); the Attorney-General; the State printer; the United States district judge; the State treasurer. |