on took his place. A
change in the "Kitchen Cabinet" followed. General Duff Green would not
desert Calhoun, and so "The Telegraph" ceased to be the organ of the
administration. Instead, Francis P. Blair, of Kentucky, who, like Amos
Kendall, had been first the friend and then the enemy of Clay, was
called to Washington, and set up "The Globe," which soon became a power
for Jackson. Nor were these the only consequences of the break with
Calhoun. Jackson and his closest friends were by this time bent on
making Van Buren, instead of Calhoun, President after Jackson, but were
doubtful of their ability to accomplish it at the next election. The
President was therefore persuaded to run again. The Democrats in the
legislature of Pennsylvania, acting on a hint from Lewis, sent him an
address urging him to stand. If for a time he hesitated, he ceased to
hesitate when it became apparent that Clay was going to be the candidate
of the National Republicans. Clay, yielding to the appeals of his party
friends, reappeared in the Senate at the opening of Congress in
December, 1831, and now the duel between the two great party leaders
grew fiercer than ever.

Clay returned to the Senate to find his tariff policy attacked by the
nullifiers, his internal improvements policy blocked by the President's
vetoes, and still a third policy which he and his party firmly supported
vigorously attacked by the terrible man in the White House. The
National Bank was in danger. Its charter expired in 1836, and the
President in both his annual messages had gravely questioned the wisdom
of granting another. He questioned the constitutionality of setting up
such an institution, and he questioned the value and safety of the Bank
as it existed. December 12, 1831, the National Republicans, assembled in
their first national convention at Baltimore, nominated Clay for
President, and called on the people to defeat Andrew Jackson in order to
save the Bank. Jackson dauntlessly accepted the issue and gave the
country to understand that either he or the Bank must go to the wall.
For the time, even Calhoun and the nullifiers yielded the first place
among his enemies to Clay, Biddle, and the Bank.

Biddle was president of the Bank, a handsome, accomplished man, a
graceful writer, and a clever, though not always a safe financier. His
ready pen first brought him into disfavor. Isaac Hill and Levi Woodbury,
the Democratic Senators from New Hampshire, made complaints of Je