The History of the United States (Volume 4); From Their Colonization to the End of the Twenty-Sixth Congress, in 1841 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: change of foreign Ministers. Accordingly, Mr. M'Lane, of Delaware, was appointed Minister to Great Britain, Mr. Rives to France ? both of whom had been distinguished by their zeal and ability in opposing the late Administration. Mr. Preble was appointed to the Netherlands, and Mr. Van Ness to Spain. Political parties were now about to assume a new phasis, or rather they had already assumed it. The union of the friends of Messrs. Calhoun, Crawford, and Jackson having effected their common object of overthrowing the Adams Administration, according to the ordinary course of independent allies, as soon as their main purpose was attained, began to disagree among themselves. The question about the successor to General Jackson, who seemed committed, by his public and repeated declarations, against serving a second term, presented a ready ground, first of competition, and subsequently of open hostility. Mr. Calhoun, who had been twice elected Vice-Presi- dent, and whose zeal and management had contributed to the large vote which General Jackson had received in 1824, seemed to have the first claim, and it was thought probable by most people, and more than probable by himself, that he would be elected after General Jackson had served one term. But there was an engine brought into play against him, of which he appeared to have entertained no suspicion, and of which, had he been aware, it is not easy to see how he could have averted its effects. In the summer of 1828, Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Cam- breling went to Georgia, for the ostensible purpose of paying a friendly visit to Mr. Crawford, then withdrawn from the political arena, and for whose elevation to the Presidency it was known they had made every exertion in their power. Whether they had been invited on toreceive the communicat...