had not, as yet, excited Southern jealousy.  Commercial prosperity in New England was the main object desired, although the war with Great Britain had proved disastrous to it.  Political influence seemed to centre in the Southern States.  These States had furnished four presidents out of five.  The great West had not arisen in its might; it had no great cities:  but Charleston and Boston were centres of culture and wealth, and on good terms with each other, both equally free from agitating questions, and both equally benignant to the institution of slavery, which the Constitution was supposed to have made secure forever.  The Adams administration was notable for nothing but beginnings of the tariff question and the protectionist Act of 1828, the growth of the Democratic party, the final intensity of the presidential campaign of 1828, and the election of Jackson, with Calhoun as Vice-president.

As the incumbent of this office for two terms, Mr. Calhoun did not make a great mark in history.  His office was one of dignity and not of power; but during his vice-presidency important discussions took place in Congress which placed him, as presiding officer of the Senate, in an embarrassing position.  He was between two fires, and gradually became alienated from the two opposing parties to whom he owed his election.  He could go neither with Adams nor with Jackson on public measures, and both interfered with his aspirations for the presidency.  His personal relations with Jackson, who had been his warm friend and supporter, became strained after his second election as Vice-President.  He took part against Jackson in the President’s undignified attempt to force his cabinet to recognize the social position of Mrs. Eaton.  Further, it was divulged by Crawford, who had been Secretary of the Treasury in Monroe’s cabinet when Calhoun was Secretary of War, that the latter had in 1818 favored a censure of Jackson for his unauthorized seizure of Spanish territory in the Florida campaign during the Seminole War; and this increased the growing animosity.  What had been an alienation between the two highest officers of the government ripened into intense hatred, which was fatal to the aspirations of Calhoun for the presidency; for no man could be President against the overpowering influence of Jackson.  This was a bitter disappointment to Calhoun, for he had set his heart on being the successor of Jackson in the presidential chair.

There were two subjects which had arisen to great importance during Mr. Calhoun’s terms of executive office which not only blasted his prospects for the presidency, but separated him forever from his former friends and allies.