284 ANDREW JACKSON 



utterly without support and in every way improbable. 

 The excellence of the appointment of Clay was beyond 

 cavil, and the sternly upright Adams was less influ- 

 enced by what people might think of his actions than 

 any other President since Washington. But in this 

 case he was perhaps too independent. The appoint-- 

 ment was no doubt ill-considered. It made it neces- 

 sary for Clay, in many a public speech, to defend him- 

 self against the imputation. To mention the charge to 

 Jackson, w r hose course in Florida had been censured 

 by Clay, was enough to make him believe it ; and he 

 did so to his dying day. 



It is not likely that the use made of this "griev- 

 ance " had any decisive effect in securing victory for 

 Jackson in 1828. Doubtless it helped him, but the 

 causes of his success lay far deeper. The stream of 

 democratic tendency was swelling rapidly. Hereto- 

 fore our Presidents had been men of aristocratic type, 

 with advantages of wealth or education or social train- 

 ing. In a marked degree all these advantages were 

 united in John Quincy Adams. He was the most 

 learned of all our Presidents. He had been a Har- 

 vard professor. He was a trained diplomatist, and 

 had lived much in Europe. He was an able admin- 

 istrative officer. In his character there was real 

 grandeur. For bulldog courage and tenacity he 

 was much like Jackson, but in other respects a 

 stronger contrast than the two men afforded cannot 

 well be imagined. Curiously enough, in point of 

 politeness and grace of manner, the backwoodsman 

 far surpassed the diplomatist. A man with less 

 training in statesmanship than Jackson would have 

 been hard to find. In his defects he represented 



