d politician;
from South Carolina, John C. Calhoun, the subtlest of reasoners; from
Kentucky, Henry Clay, the orator; from Massachusetts, John Quincy Adams,
the best trained of public servants. Only Tennessee offered a soldier.

It was twenty-six years from the end of Jackson's first service in
Congress to his second appearance in the Senate. Again he showed himself
unfit to shine as a legislator, but in spite of that he was now clearly
the most marked figure in the upper house. None of his rivals were
Senators. Clay was the Speaker of the House; Adams, Crawford, and
Calhoun were in the Cabinet. Jackson probably did not occupy more than
ten minutes of the Senate's time during the whole session, but his fame
and his candidacy made his votes on the tariff and internal improvements
important data to politicians. The country was already entered upon the
second period of its history, in which there was to be no French party
and no English party; in which a voter should choose his party on
account of its position on such questions as the tariff, internal
improvements, and the bank, or on account of the general view of the
Constitution which it favored. But as yet no clear division into such
parties had come about. The old Federalist party was no longer in the
field, and no other had arisen to take its place. It was a time of
personal politics. The first question was, Who is to succeed Monroe? and
the next question, Who is to succeed the successor of Monroe?

Jackson found some firm friends awaiting him in Washington, and he soon
added to their number by becoming reconciled to some old enemies. Among
the old friends was Livingston, now Congressman from Louisiana. One of
the old enemies was the Senator from Missouri, whose chair was next his
own; for the Senator from Missouri, a rising man in Washington, was
Thomas H. Benton. According to Benton's account, Jackson made the first
advance, and they were soon on friendly terms, though Benton continued
to support Clay, whose niece he had married. General Winfield Scott made
an overture, and Jackson cordially responded. Even with Henry Clay he
was induced by mutual friends to stand on a footing of courteous
friendliness, though there never was any genuine friendship between
them.

Against Crawford, the Georgian candidate, and at first the leading
candidate of all, he had a grudge that dated from 1815. Crawford was
Secretary of War at that time, and, contrary to Jackson's advice, h