administration and the southern influence greatly diminished in the new organization." His hopes were blighted and he and his following became the most bitter of the opposition." Jackson had become “the greatest impediment in the march of principle in the Southern States "20 At once Calhoun began to urge a return to the Whig doctrines of '98" which at an earlier period of our history had "effected so salutary a change in our Government "," hoping that they might act as a check upon "that corrupt knot" that had got hold of power. Considerable sentiment developed in the south Atlantic states in favor of Calhoun's candidacy for the presidency and in opposition to Jackson's reelection."

Jackson's overwhelming popularity in the South seems to have rested upon a somewhat artificial basis. Political parties there had for some time been in substantial agreement on questions of national policy, while local divisions were largely the result of the personal followings of the rival leaders. Jackson had been supported by the planters with the expectation that he would be a fair champion of the political opinion of

15 Ibid., 291.

19 Clay, Private Correspondence, 327. Governor John Floyd of Virginia, having been "thrown overboard" by Jackson, openly declared war upon him, promising if reelected to play Macduff to Jackson's Macbeth. Floyd to Colonel John Williams, Dec. 27, 1830. He believed that Jackson had adopted latitudinarian principles: "To my chagrin and mortification, every principle, and every power claimed by Adams and Clay, as belonging to the Federal Government, has been acted on, or claimed by President Jackson." Floyd to J. S. Barbour, June 24, 1831, Floyd MSS.

20 Calhoun Correspondence, 319.

21 Ibid., 317, 318.

"M. Jones to Mangum, Dec. 21, 1831, Mangum MSS. Floyd to Calhoun, April 16, 1831, Floyd MSS.

most of the voters of his section. But many were mere eleventh hour converts following the majority sentiment in his favor with a good deal of reluctance. Though they feared that peculiar type of democracy of which Jackson was so truly representative, they preferred him in 1828 to Adams and later to Clay, since they were the only other alternatives and he the lesser evil." This was especially true of those who had in the presidential election of 1824 supported William H. Crawford of Georgia, a southerner who himself preferred and would have chosen his bitter adversary, John Quincy Adams with his reputed " federalism,” over the popular Tennessean."

When, therefore, Jackson as president of the United States was called upon to consider the interests of all sections, it became an impossibility to live up to the expectations of all southerners. Many of them noted with dismay that the confidence of the administration was given to Van Buren and other northern politicians and believed that Jackson had readily embraced all their feelings and views." Accordingly, his first term was hardly under way when the seeds of indifference and discontent began to germinate in the southern

23 Floyd of Virginia analyzed the motives of Jackson's supporters in a letter to J. S. Barbour, June 24, 1831. He declared that most of them embraced his cause as a reward for his military services, while many did so from "dislike of Henry Clay and fear of his political principles ". He could see no difference between the Princely Purple and the Blackguard Black". Floyd MSS.

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24 Crawford to Clay, Feb. 4, 1828, Clay, Private Correspondence, 192. 25 Floyd to Colonel John Williams, Dec. 27, 1830. In a letter to Senator L. W. Tazewell, dated May 31, 1832, Floyd declared that he had an early premonition of a division in the Jackson party: "Why I thought there would be a division was that I knew Jackson to be a coarse, vulgar man in his feelings, and had chosen the base part of his party to counsel and advise." Floyd MSS.

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states and open dissatisfaction to appear among southern representatives at Washington."

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This discontent was increased by developments that came in 1832. The clamor of southern dissatisfaction with the tariff policy of the country was daily growing louder and the determination became more and more decisive not to endure any legislation in the direction of further protection. Some southerners were unable to decide as to just where Jackson stood on the matter of the tariff; others definitely understood that he was a supporter of the principle of protection; both groups were dissatisfied with the position that he was occupying. Mangum of North Carolina declared upon the floor of the Senate that the South had long known the president to be in favor of a protective system: "Loving him as we did, admiring him as we must, revering him as we ought, and confiding in him as we still delight to do, we, nevertheless, always remembered his opinions on this subject, with great regret. . . . The sentiment is growing in the South, and I trust will grow more and more, that we will wear in our hearts no love for any administration, that compels us to wear the chains of this system."

Opposition to the new tariff measure had been utterly

"When the editorial management of the Natchez Gazette was changed in November, 1830, the new editor announced his intention of giving the administration his active support, explaining his policy thus: "For there is, we believe, but one or two journals in the State that have taken a decided stand in its defence, or even given a full and impartial history of its proceedings." United States Telegraph, Nov. 24, 1830.

"Duff Green to R. K. Crallé, Dec. 5, 1831, Duff Green MSS.

2 I. Iredell to Mangum, Feb. 4, 1832: "Why does not General Jackson come out upon it! Why is this studied equivocation in all his messages-who can understand on which side he is?" Mangum MSS. Register of Debates, 22 Cong., 1 sess., I, 327.

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unavailing; its enactment, however, led to proposals for the cooperation of the people of the whole South. Self-redress was talked of as the only remaining remedy for the oppression. Calhoun's doctrines naturally became very popular. Many southern politicians had already taken sides with him in his strictures on the administration. In Mississippi, Quitman had declared himself for Calhoun and in the summer of 1831 had organized state rights associations in a few counties there." The passage of the tariff gave an occasion for the redoubling of energies. Duff Green urged the Calhoun supporters in Virginia " to adopt the model of South Carolina and organize WHIG clubs" in every county: "Take the Whig principles of '98, the creed of Jefferson, opposition to the tariff, etc., as your text." Again, "If we organize Whig clubs in opposition to Van Buren and the tariff, and rally around the constitution... we will lead the people back to first principles and cure the sea of Jacksonism without seeming to assail it". Within a sixmonth Green was making an appeal to the whole nation on a broader basis, laying entire stress on common cause against Jackson.

Confidence in Jackson was becoming impaired; his word no longer had its accustomed influence. In the heat of the campaign of 1832 a strong movement in opposition to Van Buren, whom Jackson had designated for the vice-presidency, took place in Virginia, the Carolinas, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Seldom has a leader stirred up such universal animosity in the South with seemingly so little provocation as

30 Claiborne, Life of Quitman, I, 108.

1 Ibid., 111.

32 Green to R. K. Crallé, March 12, 28, 1832, Duff Green MSS. The highest honor that Green could do a man was to call him a Whig of the school of '98 ".

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Van Buren had even by the summer of 1832. Southerners had become suspicious of him from the time that Jackson had given him the chief seat in his cabinet and with it his entire confidence. They seem to have taken a strong dislike to him as a "New York politician". This feeling was shared even by many of Van Buren's personal friends who hailed from the southern states; it increased as the rumor spread that Jackson proposed to make Van Buren his successor. For it was known to some of the state rights leaders before the end of 1830 that Jackson counted on Van Buren's nomination for the vice-presidency and was planning to resign and retire in his favor shortly after his own reelection." This hatred of Van Buren was especially intense in the state of South Carolina." Calhoun and his friends saw in the situation in the early part of 1832 an opportunity of dividing the Jackson party in the South by making an issue over the ratification of the appointment of Van Buren as minister to England." This, combined with other causes, led to his rejection by the Senate." The mere suggestion of Van Buren's nomination for the vice-presidency was found to be enough to raise

J. Iredell to Mangum, Feb. 4, 1832, Mangum MSS.

Floyd to Colonel John Williams, Dec. 27, 1830, Floyd MSS. Cf. Jackson to Van Buren, Dec. 6, 1831, Van Buren MSS.

See Jackson to Van Buren, Nov. 3, 1832, Van Buren MSS. "Green to R. K. Crallé, Jan. 3, 1832, Duff Green MSS. Cf. J. A. Hamilton to Van Buren, Feb. 12, 1832, Van Buren MSS.

*W. S. Archer, a Virginia Jackson supporter, wrote to Crittenden, July 8, 1832, that there was only one consideration which would induce him to take the mission to England: "It is if there be no other mode of preventing its being given to the most despicable of all the Protegees of the Kitchen Cabinet." Crittenden MSS. Archer later requested a friend to make it perfectly plain to Van Buren that, while supporting the administration, he had no personal regard for the latter. Cf. C. C. Cambreleng to Van Buren, Dec. 26, 1832; Van Buren to Cambreleng, Jan. 25, 1833, Van Buren MSS.