To the committee which announced the result to him, Mr. Adams declared that if there was a probability that the people could make an election, he should feel it his duty to decline the high honor, in which he was doubtless sincere. Mr. Seward, in his biography of John Quincy Adams, so declares. No one knew better than he, that there was no method by which this election could be again remitted to the people. Of the defeated men, Mr. Clay remained aspiring and hopeful. General Jackson was angry and revengeful, and entered upon a new canvass. It was the end of Mr. Crawford's presidential aspirations. If Mr. Clay chose wisely as to the presidency, no one can question the sagacity and wisdom of the new President, who placed Mr. Clay at the head of his cabinet. With him were associated Richard Rush, secretary of the treasury; James Barbour, secretary of war; Samuel L. Southard, secretary of the navy, and William Wirt, attorneygeneral. No man in our history, except Washington, ever reached the place unembarrassed with obligations, and promises to others. No administration, not even Washington's, was more pure. No one was more unpopular in the country, or more unfortunate as the head of it. Mr. Adams was a Puritan of the Puritans. He believed that even virtue should appear unlovely, and his work in his high office, hard, constant, unremitting, enlightened, and always patriotic, had none of the personal or public graces to commend him or it, or his policy, to the favor of his countrymen. He absolutely refused to use any of his vast power to change or control any of the numerous offices within his gift to advance the general interests of his administration, though the success of an administration must largely depend on the public estimate of it; while the prosperity of the country must, for the time, depend much upon the success of the power which governs it.

He found the custom houses filled with the creatures of Mr. Crawford, who at once turned to Jackson, yet he continued them in office; refused to dismiss any officer, who, though an enemy of his, otherwise manifested personal fitness for the place. He began by the appointment of Rufus King, of New York, a federalist, and a political enemy, to the English mission, and could never at any time be brought to permit an appointment to be made, influenced by a purpose to advance the interests of his administration, though he must have seen the success of that administration, and the general public good, were largely identical. Upon his entrance to office he maintained every man in place, against whom no specific charge was made; and this was the practiced rule of his government. It was an illjudged, and suicidal, but an inflexible rule of righteousness-self-righteousness it may be called-and rewarded as self-righteousness is. General Jackson came forward at the inauguration of John Quincy Adams as President, and warmly congratulated him. There was no man in America who had stood so courageously by the general as had Mr. Adams. This was the last

time they were ever to join hands. Soon after Jackson had himself nominated for the presidency by the legislature of Tennessee, and organized an opposition to his late friend, into which he drew most of the elements not favorable to Mr. Adams in the late election, with a large circle of young federalists.

The story of the coalition of Adams and Clay, first told by George Kremmer, was widely circulated. In the Senate, the eccentric John Randolph, of Virginia, denounced the coalition of "the Puritian and black-leg" in a speech of nine hours. The Vice President, Mr. Calhoun, who had adopted the singular rule that a senator could not be called to order for words however unparliamentary, indulged the Virginian, who proceeded to such lengths that the secretary of state challenged him to mortal combat. It was said that Mr. Randolph had recently been in attendance upon the death bed of the unfortunate Decatur, mortally wounded by Barron of Chesapeake fame, and was rather inclined to an affair of honor. At the meeting Randolph went on the ground in a huge morning-gown. Mr. Clay's bullet passed through it without touching the senator; at the second shot, Randolph fired into the air, and rushing upon Mr. Clay, forced his hand upon him.

The charge of the bargain and sale was largely the stock in trade of the Jackson party, which then assumed the name of democrats. The general had said in a party of friends, that the charge was true, and that he could prove it by a member of Congress. Mr. Beverly, of that party, was imprudent enough to permit this to get to the public. This led to a call from Mr. Clay for the member's name, when General Jackson gave the name of James Buchanan. Mr. Buchanan promptly disclaimed, and said the general had gravely misunderstood him. Mr. Buchanan became the object of contempt on the part both of Mr. Clay and General Jackson. Most of the parties implicated in this scandalous tale, including Kremmer and Beverly, wrote contrite letters to Mr. Clay, disclaiming, or admitting and apologizing for their part in it. General Jackson remained unconvinced. The tale was too useful, and had too much vitality.

Mr. Benton is authority for the saying, that no administration was ever launched in the face of more difficulties. The powerful minority in the House became a large majority at the next election, and the vote on the confirmation of Mr. Clay indicated that the south as a section would be arrayed against it; indeed, this sectional feeling made itself manifest in the presidential election. Slavery instinctively felt the presence of its great antagonist, and brought on the contest. There was to be a congress, at Panama, of delegates from the South American republics, and the United States had been invited to take part in it. These republics had abolished slavery. In his first message the President said he had accepted the invitation on the part of the United States, and should commission a minister to

attend it. The vehement opposition which this statement provoked is astonishing at this later day. Mr. Webster came to the aid of Mr. Adams, who ultimately prevailed, but the debate consolidated the slaveholding element, and disclosed to the President the underlying ground of its opposition. Innocently Mr. Adams struck the first blow in the great war to which his later years were to be devoted. As stated, the election of 1827 resulted in the overwhelming triumph of the Jackson opposition. The party elected a speaker of the House, and organized the committees, with four members of the opposition, and three administration members. comparatively a period of political quietude, and the antagonism of the two great departments of the government wrought less mischief than might have been anticipated. Mr. Van Buren now came forward as the leader and organizer of the Jackson forces. As a political strategist, he was largely in advance of any of his countrymen to that period of our history. No effort was made to meet him by methods similar to his own. The administration compared him with Aaron Burr, and left him to work the ruin of his party in his own time and way.

The opposition, as we have seen, was organized in advance of any measure or policy of the administration. It did not care to test and try Mr. Adams on the merit of his government. The opposition was purely personal-opposition to him and his cabinet. They must be displaced, were condemned in advance, and were to be removed at the first opportunity. Any means that would aid in that was proper and legitimate, no other thing was worth working for; the only issue made: Shall Mr. Adams or General Jackson be elected in 1828; and while this issue was forced on the President, in his removals and appointments to office, against the earnest, angry remonstrance of his supporters, he persistently ignored the issue thus forced. He adopted the American policy—a protective tariff, and a general scheme of internal improvements. This was offensive to Virginia and Virginia politicians generally. He could not be expected to change his policy to placate Virginia. He was only asked to soften its expression, that it might be less offensive, This he refused to do, not only insuring his own defeat by what he said and did, but making it more decisive by his manner. This man, who met the commissioners at Ghent with tact and skill, who was too much for the strategy of Canning, was absolutely tactless at the head of the government. His idea seemed to be that whatever was pleasant and gracious must be wrong, and he was careful not to err in that direction. To propitiate was a vice which he studiously avoided. He squared his conduct and his management of public affairs by the passionless, rigid rules of uprightness; and this he would submit to the judgment of his countrymen. His countrymen did him justice, but it came too late to save him from the pain and mortification of defeat. History is fast settling the account between him and his successor. not the least of whose misfortunes

is that his administration followed so directly one which sharply contrasts with and condemns it. The cool north saw and appreciated his merit, but that alone found no heart in the day of battle. It kindled no enthusiasm, did not even secure the organization, the earnest labor, and persistent effort, necessary to insure his re-election. He had the cold respect of men, not their love, their devotion.

President Adams' life, as sketched by himself, was one of rare simplicity, industry, and absence of relaxation, or pleasure of any kind. Rising at 4 or 5 in the winter, and lighting his own fire, he devoted several hours to work, ere the average man was out of bed. The usual forenoon and afternoon hours were given to public affairs, sorely interrupted then as now by throngs of visitors. He was often so overtaxed as to be compelled to retire at 8 or 9 in the evening. Bathing in the solitary Potomac, and riding on horseback were among the means employed to insure a health, uniformly good. Descended from a hardy race, well made for endurance, an abstemious, cleanly life fitted him for the continuous strain of labor and anxiety carried through all his years. He had not a particle of the magnetism which attracts personal followers, which leads and moulds men to a purpose, and subjects them to the will. He hardly had personal friends, save as good men are the friends of virtue. Mr. Adams' relations with his cabinet were pleasant, friendly, nothing more. Those were the days of permanency in the cabinet. All of Mr. Adams' cabinet appointees remained, with the exception of Governor Barbour, who wished to go to England. He probably desired to be absent when the day of certain defeat came, which must have seemed inevitable. His place was filled with General Peter B. Porter, of New York, in compliance with the wish of the cabinet itself.

What of comfort could be extracted from the Holy Scriptures, he drew as he began each day with some chapters of the Bible, in connection with Scott's and Hewlett's commentaries. He was profoundly devout and religious, after the New England pattern. He was compelled by the squarest rules of rigid honesty, to play a losing game, while his opponents resorted to all the tricks then known, to which their ingenuity and mendacity made additions. Mr. Adams was not one by nature and temper to submit placidly to the injustice meted out to him; nor did the lesson of Christian meekness restrain him from setting down in his diary his opinion of his traducers and enemies. His command of the strong expressions of English was copious; his power of vituperation unsurpassed. He spoke of Randolph as the image and superscription of a great man stamped on base metal; as a frequenter of gin lane and beer ally. "The rancor of this man's soul against me is that which sustains his life; the agony of envy and hatred of me, and the hope of effecting my downfall, are his chief remaining sources of vitality. The issue of the presidential election will kill him by the gratification of his revenge."

In the exigency of the campaign Mr. Adams did one thing not characteristic of him. He addressed an open letter to the electors of Virginia, in which he claimed their votes on the ground that he had exposed to Mr. Jefferson, twenty years before, the designs of certain New England federalists-the Essex junto. This was more an ill-judged, than an unworthy act. That the statements made to Mr. Jefferson were true, hardly admits of a doubt. It was not worth while to re-open the wound; it did nothing in the desired direction; it was hurtful to Mr. Adams; and re-involved him in an old, always profitless controversy. In no instance was he provoked to retort upon his enemies any of the many gross injustices done to him. The election resulted in eighty-three votes for Adams, (one less than in the contest of 1824), and one hundred and seventy-eight for Jackson. Mr. Calhoun was re-elected Vice President by one hundred and seventy-one votes, eleven less than he received at the previous election.

He need not have been surprised. He could not conceal his disappointment. That his administration should receive such a judgment from the people was disheartening to others than himself. That Andrew Jackson should have been preferred by the masses to John Quincy Adams, should not greatly surprise; that the American people quite deliberately elected Jackson over Adams, is not encouraging. Von Holst, the able German political historian, says that "in the person of Adams, the last statesman, who was to occupy it for a long time, left the White House." The line of able, of great Presidents, of men elected for eminent fitness for the place, was violently interrupted, and an epoch in political history closed, and closed worthily. Mr. Adams was well entitled to rank with his predecessors. A new and depressing era was to open; one in which personal interests were to be the controling element in the administration of the government.

Mr. Adams philosophically regarded it as closing his public career. He was then in his sixty-second year-an old man; his view of himself was most sad. It was very superficial. The result had left his "character and reputation a wreck;" his "sun sets in deepest gloom;" "the year 1829 begins in gloom;" "the dawn was overcast, and as I began to write, my shaded lamp went out;" and he justly observes, the noting of so trivial a thing "may serve but to mark the present temper of my mind." The strong, self-sufficient Adams had his moments of weakness. He went to retirement as he said with a combination of parties and public men against his character and reputation, such as had not attended any man since the Union began, and that combination had been formed, and was then exulting over him, for the devotion of his life and soul to the Union. This very reflection should have conveyed consolation to his soul, which for the time was beyond the reach of alleviation. His language is exquisitely pathetic. He resolved to go into the deepest retirement, and withdraw from all