ames
of candidates were generally recommended by influential parties, and
their consent to become candidates obtained through solicitations
addressed to them, and then published to the people. The State was so
unanimous in political sentiment, that for many years no opposition to
the Republican party was thought of.

But now parties were organizing upon principles, or rather policies,
entirely new; there was a fusion of the old elements of party, and
Federalists and Republicans were side by side in this new organization.
Men who had been under the ban, for opinion's sake, were coming into
public view and public favor, and disclosing great abilities. At the
head of these was John McPherson Berrien, who, to the end of his life,
was so distinguished in the councils of the nation. At the same time,
in every part of the State, young men were rising up as men of promise
for talent and usefulness. These men arrayed themselves with either of
the two parties, as inclination or interest prompted. Active and
assiduous, they were soon prominent before the people, and a new era
was commencing. With the election of John Quincy Adams, the State was
in a blaze and politics a furor. Opposition immediately commenced to
the leading measures of the Administration, and the Legislature of 1825
was filled with young men of talent, who were enthusiastic and fierce
in their sentiments and feelings. They had been divided as partisans of
Troup and Clarke, and met as antagonists in the Legislature; but really
without any defined policy in opposition to that of the administration
of the General Government of the nation. A suspicion filled every one
that this policy was disastrous to Southern interests, and sectional in
its character, although designated as national.

Few men of the South had given much attention to the effect a tariff
for revenue had upon the commercial and manufacturing interests of the
North. The war with England had created a debt, and this tariff had
been imposed solely for the purpose of securing, not only a sufficient
revenue for the current necessities of the Government, but a surplus,
which should in a short time liquidate the public debt. It was
sufficient to afford protection to the manufacturing interests of the
North, to increase this into a formidable revenue, and to enlist a
national party in its support. It was now, when the public debt was
liquidated, that another reason was necessary for continuing a policy
which