Show res 0 ide AIM t la A 0 n b C g a 42 4 2 al 9 M y I 1 qa 11 T by ELMO SCOTT WATSON S TUE THE time for the republican national convention in ak kansas city on june 12 and tile democratic meeting in douston on june 26 draws near to warn the people of tills this nation that they are again about to be embroiled in tile the heat of 0 another presidential ident ial lal campaign it Is in te resting to compare tile the campaign of 1928 with that of a hundred years ago although no one can safely prophecy what the dominant issue in this years contest call will be nor whether the potential dynamite which now dow seems to be concealed in some of the issues will explode into a bitterness which has been lacking in twentieth century campaigns it Is certain that there Is little chance of the discussion of candidates and policies reaching a the depth of vituperation mud alli aging and general hatred that characterized the campaign of the year of to understand the reason for the bitterness of this campaign it Is necessary to review briefly the previous one that eliat of isa ai when john quincy adalis was elected president oer andrew jackson this thia campaign of was in f fact act the first real presidential contest heretofore the presidency had been more or less of a procession to the lie executive e mansion nian sion by virginia aristocrats aristocrat s george ceorge washington thomas Jefre jefferson james madison llad lson and james monroe with one new england aristocrat julin john adams slipping in for a single term put but by 1824 the west had begun to assert itself and for the first time put forward two to candidates henry clay of kentucky slid am andrew jackson old hickory the military hero of tennessee new ew england offered juhn john quincy adima adams as the candidate of the ding federalists the beir apparent fit lite virginia VIrgin la dynasty was william 11 II crawford secretary of the treasury a georgian born in the old Doni lillon at that time nominations were made by tile the caucus method and tills this uns nis destined to be the last of the kind in the country despite the cilli cimms of the caucus method one was held unit and crawford was recommended to the people of the united states liou IIo neier eier lie was froin the race nice when stricken alth ith paralyses and made speechless almost biond mind nod ind helpless As tile the campaign pro A gressed it became apparent that jack sun son billi jolin john c calhoun of south carolina as the candidate for ave lire president was leading when the returns were all in it was found that calhoun al houn hit had been elected vice president fill little opposition hur but that jackson could haie im 0 votes in the electo ial college adams 81 crow craw ford 41 and amy 37 since none ot of the presidential PresIdent lal candidates hail had obtained an electoral majority under the terms of the constitution the efee election was thrown into the house of I 1 ives which would house batong tile the three alc iest PS alny lay of course was eliminated crawford could also be counted out so that the contest narrowed down to jackson tind adams it soon be became gossip around washington that clays strength would be thrown to adams find and that adams adagus in return would appoint clay as secretary of state for weeks the hie capital was to in it n turmoil charges and counter charges lly fly ing thick and fast tile alie upshot of it till nil was n as that in the final bullo balloting tIng adams had received 13 votes jack SOD bon 7 and craw cra ford 4 tile the balloting aa S w 4 ji fco being done by states adams was elected president and two days later lie fie did appoint clay secretary of state the next nest four years were years of distress for the new president with the war cry of bargain and corruption the democrats did everything in their power to embarrass adams and the bitterness of the campaign of which was carried over during those four years gave warning that the campaign of would be even worse the campaign 0 of 1828 opened with adams as a candidate to succeed himself and jackson who with his friends were firmly that he be had been cheated out of the presidency by the bargain between clay and adams and was determined to justify that belief as adams principal opponent no better dekeip lion of this famous or infamous campaign a hundred years ago has been written than Is the one contained in the book presidential years 1787 1860 by mende meade Alinne gerode put pub inked recently by 0 P sons in the chapter friends of general jackson he characterizes it thus it was a merciless filthy scavenging ran campaign in which nothing personal concerning the candidates was dented denied to the accumulating spoils of pub dished privacies from the temporary legal complication in general jacksons matrimonial affairs to the billiard table that piece of gambling furniture at the white house the generals private record was wa shouted through the pamphlets his hi Persons kilty his ungodliness his profanity his game cocks and his horses his duels ills his brawls his feuds feud 0 and always the technical Irie irregularity irregular gular lly of his marriage coupled on the one hand w with ith the most derisive opinions and on the other with the most slanderous un truths about his wife the mat mal tr t r must be referred to since it tur fur lobed tho h principal staple at aple of the domestic attacks on general jackson and was finally responsible to a certain degree tor for mrs jacksons death in december 1828 hla his public career was wan torn into shreds his alleged dealin dealings gp with aaron burr his military arrests and contempt of cobit at new orleans hla his insubordination in the flor idas tile his executive autocracy at pensacola his murder of deserting m militiamen mile at mobile some accounts of some of the bloody deeds of general jackson by john banns posters adorned with tombstones and a r 1 d cortena coans and known as the binns co coton fl in hand bills from every quarter and in every variety ot of language general jackson was ridiculed assailed and exposed and for mr adams there was nuth log ing but libels and falsehoods he was a monarchist monarc hlat and a federalist he be joad fattened on the public treasury he was a friend of duellists duel lists liste an incongruous charge surely from the jackson camp he was corrupt and unprincipled in his distribution of patronage he was an extravagant profligate while min ister to russia he had so they did not hesitate to insist sold an american servant girl to tho the czar he was a mason it was the time of 0 popular animosity toward masonry and when he be elalfy ela lIy denied he was a mason it made no difference he was still a mason he be was plotting to an announce antoune general jacksons death just before the election in order to prevent citizens from rom voting tor for him and of course he had made a corrupt bargain with henry clay it speaks conspicuously tor for the integrity of 0 his conduct in thirty years ot of distinguished public service that the Jackson lans could find no thicker mud n ud to fling at him the wreckage was dragged to the polls and general jackson was elected he had some hundred and thirty nine thousand th so nd more popular votes than mr air adams adam one hundred and seventy eight electon too elec electoral ballots from seventeen states as against eighty three from ten A movement of the people a revolt of democracy against aristocracy and yet mr channing points out some curious electoral electoral details general jackson was elected by the solid south and according to the federal ratio in 1828 e each ch southern elector represented only 2500 0 tree free persons while his northern colleagues each represented And with the solid south general jackson could cou id not have secured a majority of the electoral votes without the reinforcement fo rc ement of pennsylvania and new york it would seem mr Cb anning concludes that jackson was raised to the presidency by the overrepresentation of the south combined with the employment 0 of the most unjustifiable methods by his partisans in pennsylvania and in new york on the whole possibly it was more honorable to have been defeated in 1828 than to have been elected and mr mcdonald ble Donald in his jackso man democracy remarks that to personal vindication of jackson aas as added emphatic popular indorsement endorsement Indor of the social and political order with which ue tie was identified in the electon ele clon clion of jackson the people turned their backs on their early principles of statesmanship and In trusted the conduct of the federal government to an untrained self passionate frontier soldier that he was not of the old school was in the eyes of his him supporters a commendation A great democracy will never be governed tor for long together by its ite best men but by ls its average to the average voter in 1828 jackson was a great popular r leader because they held him to be also a typical democrat it vias as the end of a cultivated discriminating era the close of the succession whatever the and limitations of seemly per persona of capable intellects of meritorious achievements duch as the foum founders of the republic had envisaged as destined to dignify the chief magistracy of the nation to mature its cou councils 11 and to grace its annals washington adams jefferson madleon monroe adams the quality of that succession was not except at rare intervals to be attained again by the average personalities the tha popular politicians the convention i compromises who were to follow it was indeed with slight future I 1 interruptions ter ions the inal final triumph of democracy |