an Buren would do nothing "radical." Even Calhoun thought better of the
President-elect than he thought of the "old hero," and the first six
months of the new Administration had not passed before he gave the
President his support.

The political sun of Jackson went down brightly, not a cloud on the
horizon; and his chosen successor declared openly in his inaugural that
he would gladly follow in "the footsteps of his illustrious
predecessor." The country was still prosperous and the wheels of
industry were running at full speed. Foreign Governments looked on with
envy as the young Western Republic stretched her limbs and rose to
gigantic proportions.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The most important book on the bank question is R. C. H. Catterall's
_The Second Bank of the United States_ (1903). The biographies referred
to at the close of chapter _IV_ of this volume are all serviceable in
general till about 1840. James Schouler's _History of the United States_
(1894-99), vol. _IV_, and H. von Holst's _Constitutional and Political
History of the United States_ (new ed., 1899), vol. _II_, give full
narratives of the "war on the bank." J. Q. Adams's _Memoirs_ are ever
ready with the spice of personality to make its pages readable. _The
Register of Debates_, the official publication of Congress which
succeeded the former _Annals of Congress_ and _Niles's Weekly Register_,
published in Baltimore from 1811 to 1849, give the various phases of
public opinion as it was expressed in Congress and in the newspapers of
the time. _House Reports_, 22d Cong., 1st Sess., no. 460, and _House
Executive Documents_, 23d Cong., 1st Sess., no. 523, will satisfy those
who seek to know the two sides as viewed by the parties to the conflict.
There is no satisfactory biography of Nicholas Biddle, though his papers
may be consulted in the Pennsylvania Historical Society Library. R. G.
Wellington's _The Political and Sectional Influence of the Public Lands,
1828-1842_ (1914) tends to show how much of the controversies of these
years was due to sectional jealousy.

CHAPTER VI

DISTRESS AND REACTION

Martin Van Buren came to office without the enthusiastic support of any
large segment of public opinion. The machine forces of the time and the
hearty recommendation of Andrew Jackson had been responsible for his
elevation. His position was very much like that of John Quincy Adams in