must be one in which there is collusion for private gain at the expense of the public welfare. Bargains which avoid this definition must yet be tolerated in all political systems, although they impair the purity of any system.

The men around Jackson Eaton, Lewis, Livingston, Lee, Swartwout-knew the value of the charge of corrupt bargain for electioneering purposes, and the political value of the appeal to Jackson's supporters on the ground that he had been cheated out of his election. Did not they first put the idea into Jackson's head that he had been cheated by a corrupt bargain? Is not that the explanation of his change of tone from the lofty urbanity of the President's assembly to the rancorous animosity of a few days afterwards? Such a conjecture fits all the circumstances and all the characters. The men around Jackson might see the value of the charge, and use it, without ever troubling themselves to define just how far they believed in it; but Jackson would not do that. Such a suggestion would come to him like a revelation, and his mind would close on it with a solidity of conviction which nothing ever could shake. February 20th, he wrote to Lewis :

-

"But when we see the predictions verified on the result of the Presidential election when we behold two men-political enemies, and as different in political sentiments as any men can be, so suddenly unite; there must be some unseen cause to produce this political phenomena -This cause is developed by applying the rumors be

fore the election, to the result of that election, and to the tendering of and the acceptance of the office of Sec. of State by Mr Clay. These are facts that will confirm every unbiasased mind, that there must have been & were a secret understanding between Mr Adams & Mr Clay of and concerning these scems of corruptoon, that has occasioned Mr Clay to abandon the will, and wishes of the people of the west, and to form the coalition so extraordinary as the one he has done.

From Mr Clays late conduct, my opinion of

him, long ago expressed, is best realized

- from his con

duct on the Seminole question, I then pronounced him a political Gambler- . I have, now, no doubt, but I have had opposed to me all the influence of the Cabinet, except Calhoune would it not be well that the papers of Nashville & the whole State should speak out, with moderate but firm disapprobation of this corruption to give a proper tone to the people & to draw their attention to the subject When I see you I have much to say There is more corruption than I anticipated; and as you know I thought there was enough of it." 1

2

3

Benton always scouted the notion of the bargain. He says that he knew before Adams did, that Clay intended to vote for Adams. Benton would not follow Clay. Clay and Jackson had had no intercourse since the Seminole war affair. The Tennessee delegation patched up a reconcilia1 Ford MSS.

2 Ibid.

31 Benton, 48; see his letter of Dec. 27, 1827, in Truth's Advocate, 63.

tion in 1824.1 Clay's reason for voting for Adams was that Crawford was incapacitated by broken health,2 and that a military hero was not a fit person to be President. January 8th Clay wrote to F. P. Blair that the friends of all the candidates were courting him, but that he should vote for Adams. January 24th Clay and the majority of the Ohio and Kentucky delegations declared that they would vote for Adams. In a letter to F. Brooke, January 28, 1825, Clay stated that he would vote for Adams for the reasons given.4 The Clay men generally argued that if Jackson was elected he would keep Adams in the State Department. It would then be difficult, in 1828, to elect Clay, another western man; but Adams would have more strength. If Adams should be elected in 1824, the election of Clay, as a western man, in 1828, would be easier, especially if Adams would give him the Secretaryship.5 On the 25th of January, the day after the western delegations came out for Adams, an anonymous letter appeared in the "Columbian Observer," of Philadelphia, predicting a bargain between Adams and Clay. Kremer, member of the House

1 Clay's Speech, 1838; 54 Niles, 68.

2 Crawford was taken to the Capitol for a few hours, a day or two before the election, but he was apparently a wreck. Cobb, 218.

3 Blair and Kendall, in 1824, were Clay men. They were both active, in 1825, in urging Clay men to vote for Adams. 40 Niles, 73; Telegraph Extra, 300 et seq.

4 27 Niles, 386.

5 Telegraph Extra, 321.

from Pennsylvania, avowed his responsibility for the letter, although it has generally been believed that he could not have written it. Clay demanded an investigation in the House, and a committee was raised, but Kremer declined to answer its interrogatories. The letter was another case of the general device of laying down anchors for strains which would probably need to be exerted later. It would not do for Kremer to admit that the assertion in the letter was only a surmise of his. It certainly was a clever trick. The charge would either prevent Clay from going into Adams's cabinet, lest he should give proofs of the truth of the imputation, or, if he did go into the cabinet, this letter would serve as a kind of evidence of a bargain. Immediately after the inauguration, Kremer made this latter use of it in an address to his constitutents.1 On the 20th of February, Jackson wrote a letter to Lewis, in which he affirmed and condemned the bargain. Lewis published this letter in Tennessee. February 22d, Jackson wrote a letter to Swartwout, in which he spoke very bitterly of Clay, and resented Clay's criticism of him as a "military chieftain." He sneered at Clay as not a military chieftain. But he did not allege any bargain. Swartwout published this letter in New York.2 Both letters were plainly prepared by Jackson's followers for publication. Clay replied at the end of March in a long statement.3

Jackson remained in Washington until the mid28 Niles, 21. 3. 28 Niles, 71.

2 28 Niles, 20.

dle of March. He was present at the inauguration, and preserved all the forms in his public demeanor towards Adams.1 His rage was all directed against Clay. In the Senate there were fifteen votes against Clay's confirmation, but no charges were made there. On his way home Jackson scattered the charge as he went. It is to his own lips that it is always traceable, when it can be brought home to anybody. Up to this time it is questionable whether Jackson was more annoyed or pleased at being run for President. Now that the element of personal contest was imported into the enterprise, his whole being became absorbed in the determination to achieve victory. There was now a foe to be crushed, a revenge to be obtained for an injury endured. He did not measure his words, and the charge gained amplitude and definiteness as he repeated it. In March, 1827, Carter Beverly, of North Carolina, wrote to a friend an account of a visit to Jackson, and a report of Jackson's circumstantial assertion, at his own table, that Clay's friends offered to support Jackson, if Jackson would promise not to continue Adams as Secretary of State. Beverly's letter was published at Fayetteville, North Carolina.3 In June, Jackson wrote to Beverly an explicit repetition over his own signature. The charge had now a name and a responsible person behind it, Jackson himself.

22.

1 28 Niles, 19.

2 Branch made some allusions and vague comments.

8 32 Niles, 162.

33 Niles, 4 32 Niles, 315.