h he saw in every
suggestion made by the Secretary of the Treasury only an insidious
intent to lead the Administration, and especially the Department of
State, into difficulty, failure, and disrepute. He notes, evidently
with perfect belief, that for this purpose Crawford was even covertly
busy with the Spanish ambassador to prevent an accommodation of our
differences with Spain. "Oh, the windings of the human heart!" he
exclaims; "possibly Crawford is not himself conscious of his real
motives for this conduct." Even the slender measure of charity
involved in this last sentence rapidly evaporated from the poisoned
atmosphere of his mind. He mentions that Crawford has killed a man in
a duel; that he leaves unanswered a pamphlet "supported by documents"
exhibiting him "in the most odious light, as sacrificing every
principle to his ambition." Because Calhoun would not support him for
the Presidency, Crawford stimulated a series of attacks upon the War
Department. He was the "instigator and animating spirit of the whole
movement both in Congress and at Richmond against Jackson and the
Administration." He was "a worm preying upon the vitals of the (p. 156)
Administration in its own body." He "solemnly deposed in a court
of justice that which is not true," for the purpose of bringing
discredit upon the testimony given by Mr. Adams in the same cause. But
Mr. Adams says of this that he cannot bring himself to believe that
Crawford has been guilty of wilful falsehood, though convicted of
inaccuracy by his own words; for "ambition debauches memory itself." A
little later he would have been less merciful. In some vexatious and
difficult commercial negotiations which Mr. Adams was conducting with
France, Crawford is "afraid of [the result] being too favorable."

To form a just opinion of the man thus unpleasantly sketched is
difficult. For nearly eight years Mr. Adams was brought into close and
constant relations with him, and as a result formed a very low opinion
of his character and by no means a high estimate of his abilities.
Even after making a liberal allowance for the prejudice naturally
supervening from their rivalry there is left a residuum of condemnation
abundantly sufficient to ruin a more vigorous reputation than Crawford
has left behind him. Apparently Mr. Calhoun, though a fellow
Southerner, thought no better of the ambitious Georgian than did Mr.
Adams, to whom one day he remarked that Crawford was "a very