the planters were not interested; but the vote on
this measure showed a curious combination of the Jackson and the Clay
politicians in the West and considerable indifference in New
England, as the accompanying map shows. Having challenged Calhoun to do
his worst, Clay now pressed upon Jackson the question of renewing the
Bank charter. Under his instructions the president of the Bank, Nicholas
Biddle, a very able man, hitherto inclining to settle matters with
Jackson and his friendly advisers, offered a memorial for a re-charter.
That is, the Bank men thought the President of the United States was
losing ground and they would take their chances with the party of the
future. The Maysville veto was thought to have weakened Jackson; he had
lost the support of Calhoun and had been compelled to reorganize his
Cabinet; on the tariff he had no opinions, and he had done nothing to
weld to him the Westerners. It seemed a very simple matter, with the
East behind the brilliant Kentucky leader, to make the American System
the law of the land and to drive the Goths and Vandals from the capital.

[Illustration: The Vote in the House of Representatives on the Tariff of
1832, In Eastern and Western States]

Mr. Clay had been nominated for the Presidency by an enthusiastic
convention of his followers in December, 1831; and his friend William
Wirt had also been nominated three months earlier by the Anti-Masons,
who, it was supposed, would draw supporters from the Democrats,
especially in Virginia, where Jackson had never won the approval of the
ablest leaders. Never did the outlook of a political party seem so
bright as when the plans of the tariff and Bank men were being laid in
the spring of 1832. John Sargent, one of the directors of the Bank and
brother-in-law of Henry A. Wise, a shrewd politician of Virginia, was
made candidate for the Vice-Presidency; a large majority of the Senate
was committed to the renewal of the charter,--even the Calhoun men
agreed as to this,--and in the House John Quincy Adams and George
McDuffie led a decided majority in the same direction. All the
industrial forces of the country were enlisted and well organized. If
there was any doubt that the old hero would be reelected, there was none
that the Bank and the tariff groups would retain control of Congress.

If Jackson was less confident than his opponents, he was not afraid. The
effects of his "Union, it-must-be-preserved" speech were becoming
evident; h