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Indiana University 
ways on good terms with the most extreme of his opponents. 
Calhoun had been opposed to the Democratic party during the 
later Jacksonian period, but had, for some time, been trying 
to get back without appearing as a penitent. This was im- 
possible under Jackson, but the more suave Van Buren was 
glad to admit him without any humiliating conditions. 
As early as November 3, 1837, Calhoun said that since the 
party in power had been brought down by its loss of patron- 
age and exhausted state of the Treasury and since the party 
he had been voting with was openly in favor of a United 
States Bank, he had decided to join the administration party. ^ 
Calhoun’s motives in turning back to his old party were 
questioned. Benton said he was sounded by two different men 
on the chances for Calhoun’s succession to the presidency.^ 
While Calhoun desired to be president, one does not have to 
go further than his open declarations to find the cause for 
his return. His letters show that he thought the movement 
which he headed was going to be the successful one in the 
end. ‘T now begin to feel confident that our principles and 
doctrines are destined to gain a permanent ascendency”, he 
said.^ But he also saw “that our only recruiting ground is in 
their (Democratic) ranks. We have no hopes from that of 
the Nationals, or Northern Whigs.”® Again he said, “By act- 
ing with them, (Democrats) we have some prospect, . . . 
to arrive at the end, we propose, while the opposite course 
could not fail in terminating in all we have a right to dread, 
as fatal to us and our institutions.”® 
Tyler and Preston were leading men who maintained their 
Whig allegiance. Preston had been excluded in the distribu- 
tion of spoils in South Carolina and could not be placated.'' 
Calhoun’s reconciliation was complete. It even carried him 
so far that, for the sake of harmony, he was compelled to sac- 
rifice the interests of his old friend Duff Green.® Even his 
daughter questioned him for calling on Van Buren, but he 
-NUcs’ Register, LIII, 217, 218. 
Nathan Sargent, Public Men and Events (Philadelphia, 1875), II, 30. 
^ J. Franklin Jameson (ed.). Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, American His- 
torical Association Annual Re-part, 1899, II, 435. 
Ibid., 409. 
Ibid., 449. Calhoun had already decided that slavery should he perpetuated thru the 
ag'ency of the Democratic party. 
■^Charles Francis Adams (ed.). Memoirs of John Quincy Adams (Philadelphia, 
1876), X, 59. 
® Jameson (ed.). Correspondence of Calhoun, 438. 
