gree, be
ascribed the bringing forth to public view the transcendent abilities
of the young men aspiring for fame in Georgia, and in the South
generally. McDuffie, Hamilton, Holmes, and Waddy Thompson, of South
Carolina; Colquitt, Cobb, Toombs, Stephens, Johnson, Nesbit, and John
P. King, of Georgia; Wise, Bocock, Hunter, Summers, Rives, and others
of Virginia; Mangum, Badger, and Graham, of North Carolina; Bell,
Foster, Peyton, Nicholson, and James K. Polk, of Tennessee; King and
Lewis, of Alabama; Porter, Johnston, White, and Barrow, of Louisiana;
Ashley, Johnson, and Sevier, of Arkansas; Chase, Pugh, Pendleton, and
Lytell, of Ohio; and Douglas, Trumbull, and Lincoln, of Illinois, were
all men of sterling talent, and were about equally divided in political
sentiment. Kentucky had Tom and Humphrey Marshall, Crittenden, Menifer,
Letcher, Breckinridge, and Preston.

General Jackson was now the avowed candidate of the States-rights
party, which soon after assumed the name of Democratic, and his
political principles and great personal popularity were not only
dividing the West, but the Middle States, and even those of New
England.

During the entire administration of Adams, there was a majority in
Congress supporting his policy. It was then and there that the great
battle for supremacy was fought. Berrien and Forsyth, from Georgia, in
the Senate; McDuffie and Preston, from South Carolina; Cass, from
Michigan, and Van Buren and Silas Wright, from New York--all giants in
intellect. But there were Webster and John Davis, from Massachusetts,
George Evans, from Maine, and others of minor powers, but yet great
men. Between these great minds the conflict was stupendous. Every means
were put into requisition to sustain the Administration and its policy,
but all were unavailing--General Jackson was elected by an overwhelming
majority. Mr. Clay was immediately returned by Kentucky to the Senate,
and organized an opposition upon the policy of the late Administration,
led on by himself and Webster. The memory of those days, and the men
who made them memorable, flits vividly before me; but I am not writing
a history, and can attempt no order, but shall write on as these
memories of men and events shall seem to me most interesting in their
character to the general reader.

General Jackson was one of those rare creations of nature which appear
at long intervals, to astonish and delight mankind. It seems to be
settled in the public mi