g to her, and but for their factious
divisions, the hazards of a conflict between the troops of the United
States and those of Georgia would have been more imminent. It was
believed by both these factions, that whoever should, as Governor of
the State, succeed in obtaining these lands, would thereby be rendered
eminently popular, and secure to his faction the ascendency in the
State for all time. The faction supporting Clarke believed he would
certainly triumph in the coming contest before the people, and assumed
to believe that then the matter of acquisition would be easy, as the
Administration of Mr. Adams supposed that faction could, by that means,
be brought into the support of the party now being formed about it.
Clarke and many of his leading friends were coquetting with the
Administration. He was--as was his brother-in-law, Duncan G.
Campbell--a strong friend of Mr. Calhoun, who was then the
Vice-President. National parties were inchoate, and many politicians
were chary of choosing, and seemed to wait for the development of
coming events, ere they gave shape and direction to their future
courses. It was certain that Mr. Clay was identified with the American
System, and that would, in a great degree, be the leading policy of the
Administration. Mr. Calhoun, when Secretary of War, under Mr. Monroe,
had made a strong report in favor of internal improvements by the
General Government, within the limits of the States, and, while a
member of Congress, had made an equally strong one in favor of a
national bank. These were two of the prominent features of the American
system, and it was generally believed that this policy would be too
popular to combat. It had originated during the Administration of
Monroe, and if it had the opposition of any member of his Cabinet, it
was unknown to the country. Mr. Crawford and Mr. Calhoun, as well as
Mr. Adams, were members of that Cabinet, and were all, in some degree,
committed to this policy; for Mr. Crawford, as a Senator from Georgia,
during the Administration of Mr. Madison, had sustained the doctrine of
the constitutionality and the policy of a national bank, in one of the
very ablest speeches ever made upon the subject, saying everything
which could or can be said in favor of such a government financial
agent, and refuting every objection of its opponents. From this speech
is derived every argument and every idea of both the reports of Calhoun
and McDuffie, which were heralded t