dams was placed, on his taking
his seat in the House of Representatives, it is important that some of
the events which had occurred during his absence from public life should
be briefly recapitulated. General Jackson had been two years President
of the United States. The alliance which he had entered into with Mr.
Van Buren for their mutual advancement, to which allusion has been made
in a former chapter, had not resulted immediately as the high
contracting parties probably intended. An obstacle to the advancement of
Mr. Van Buren to the Vice-Presidency presented itself which was
insurmountable. John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, possessed an
influence in the slave states which it was important to conciliate, and
imprudent to set at defiance. The allies were, consequently, compelled
to accede to his nomination as Vice-President, and Van Buren was forced
to be content with the prospect of being appointed Secretary of State.

The elevation of Calhoun to the Vice-Presidency, there is reason to
believe, could not have been acceptable to Jackson. It appears, by the
documents published by Calhoun in connection with his account of his
controversy with Jackson, that William H. Crawford had, as early as
December, 1827, taken direct measures to render the friendship of
Calhoun suspected by Jackson. On the 14th of that month he wrote a
letter to Alfred Balch, at Nashville, with the express purpose of its
being shown to Jackson, containing the following statement: "My
opinions upon the next presidential election" (against Adams and in
favor of Jackson) "are generally known. When Mr. Van Buren and Mr.
Cambreling made me a visit, last April, I authorized them, upon every
proper occasion, to make these opinions known. The vote of the State of
Georgia will, as certainly as that of Tennessee, be given to General
Jackson, in opposition to Mr. Adams. The only difficulty that this
state has upon that subject is, that, if Jackson should be elected,
Calhoun will come into power. I confess I am not apprehensive of such a
result. For ---- ---- writes to me, Jackson ought to know, and if he
does not he shall know, that, at the Calhoun caucus in Columbia, the
term _military chieftain_ was bandied about even more flippantly than
it had been by Henry Clay, and that the family friends of Mr. Calhoun
were most active in giving it currency; and I know, personally, that
Calhoun favored Mr. Adams' pretensions until Mr. Clay declared for him.
He well k