AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY SEVENTY YEARS AGO 285 



average humanity, while his excellences were such 

 as the most illiterate citizen could appreciate. In 

 such a man the ploughboy and the blacksmith could 

 feel that in some essential respects they had for Presi- 

 dent one of their own sort. Above all, he was the 

 great military hero of the day, and as such he came 

 to the presidency as naturally as Taylor and Grant 

 in later days, as naturally as his contemporary Wel- 

 lington, without any training in statesmanship, be- 

 came prime minister of England. A man far more 

 politic and complaisant than Adams could not have 

 won the election of 1828 against such odds. He 

 obtained 83 electoral votes against 178 for Jackson. 

 Calhoun was reflected Vice-president. In this elec- 

 tion the votes of New York and Maryland were 

 divided almost equally between the two candidates. 

 Jackson got one electoral vote from Maine. All the 

 rest of New England, with New Jersey and Dela- 

 ware, went for Adams. Jackson carried Pennsyl- 

 vania, Virginia, both Carolinas, and Georgia, and 

 everything west of the Alleghanies, from the Lakes 

 to the Gulf. There were many Western districts in 

 which Adams did not get a single vote. After this 

 sweeping victory Jackson came to the presidency 

 with a feeling that he had at length succeeded in 

 making good his claim to a violated right, and this 

 feeling had its influence upon his conduct. 



In Jackson's cabinet, as first constituted, Martin 

 Van Buren of New York was Secretary of State; 

 S. D. Ingham of Pennsylvania Secretary of the 

 Treasury; J. H. Eaton of Tennessee Secretary of 

 War; John Branch of North Carolina Secretary of 

 the Navy; J. M. Berrien of Georgia Attorney-gen- 



