accident, and Mr. Canning showed such signs of resentment that
there passed between them a "bare salutation."

In the condition of our relations with Great Britain at the time (p. 148)
of these interviews any needless ill-feeling was strongly to be
deprecated. But Mr. Adams's temperament was such that he always saw
the greater chance of success in strong and spirited conduct; nor
could he endure that the dignity of the Republic, any more than its
safety, should take detriment in his hands. Moreover he understood
Englishmen better perhaps than they have ever been understood by any
other of the public men of the United States, and he handled and
subdued them with a temper and skill highly agreeable to contemplate.
The President supported him fully throughout the matter, and the
discomfiture and wrath of Mr. Canning never became even indirectly a
cause of regret to the country.

As the years allotted to Monroe passed on, the manoeuvring among the
candidates for the succession to the Presidency grew in activity.
There were several possible presidents in the field, and during the
"era of good feeling" many an aspiring politician had his brief period
of mild expectancy followed in most cases only too surely by a hopeless
relegation to obscurity. There were, however, four whose anticipations
rested upon a substantial basis. William H. Crawford, Secretary of the
Treasury, had been the rival of Monroe for nomination by the
Congressional caucus, and had then developed sufficient strength (p. 149)
to make him justly sanguine that he might stand next to Monroe in the
succession as he apparently did in the esteem of their common party.
Mr. Clay, Speaker of the House of Representatives, had such
expectations as might fairly grow out of his brilliant reputation,
powerful influence in Congress, and great personal popularity. Mr.
Adams was pointed out not only by his deserts but also by his position
in the Cabinet, it having been the custom heretofore to promote the
Secretary of State to the Presidency. It was not until the time of
election was near at hand that the strength of General Jackson,
founded of course upon the effect of his military prestige upon the
masses of the people, began to appear to the other competitors a
formidable element in the great rivalry. For a while Mr. Calhoun might
have been regarded as a fifth, since he had already become the great
chief of the South; but this cause of his strength was likewise his
w