dignity, but of little other than contingent power--has been usually, by
their indulgence, conceded to a citizen of the other section; but even
this political courtesy was superseded at the election before the last
(1829), and both the offices of President and Vice-President of the
United States were, by the preponderancy of slaveholding votes, bestowed
upon citizens of two adjoining slaveholding states. "At this moment
(1833) the President of the United States, the President of the Senate,
the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Chief Justice of
the United States, are all citizens of this favored portion of this
united republic."

Mr. Adams, regarding "the ground assumed by the South Carolina
convention for usurping the sovereign and limitless power of the people
of that state to dictate the laws of the Union, and prostrate the
legislative, executive, and judicial authority of the United States, as
destitute of foundation as the forms and substance of their proceedings
are arrogant, overbearing, tyrannical, and oppressive," declared his
belief "that one particle of compromise with that usurped power, or of
concession to its pretensions, would be a heavy calamity to the people
of the whole Union, and to none more than to the people of South
Carolina themselves; that such concession would be a dereliction by
Congress of their highest duties to their country, and directly lead to
the final and irretrievable dissolution of the Union."

CHAPTER IX.

INFLUENCE OF MILITARY SUCCESS.--POLICY OF THE ADMINISTRATION.--MR.
ADAMS' SPEECH ON THE REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS FROM THE BANK OF THE UNITED
STATES.--HIS OPINIONS ON FREEMASONRY AND TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES.--EULOGY
ON WILLIAM WIRT.--ORATION ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF LAFAYETTE.--HIS
COURSE ON ABOLITION PETITIONS.--ON INTERFERENCE WITH THE INSTITUTION OF
SLAVERY.--ON THE POLICY RELATIVE TO THE PUBLIC LANDS.--SPEECH ON
DISTRIBUTING RATIONS TO FUGITIVES FROM INDIAN HOSTILITIES.--ON WAR WITH
MEXICO.--EULOGY ON JAMES MADISON.--HIS COURSE ON A PETITION PURPORTING
TO BE FROM SLAVES.--FIRST REPORT ON JAMES SMITHSON'S BEQUEST.

On the 4th of March, 1833, Andrew Jackson was inaugurated President of
the United States a second time. Of two hundred and eighty-eight votes,
the whole number cast by the electors, he had received two hundred and
nineteen, Henry Clay being the chief opposing candidate. Martin Van
Buren, having been elected Vice