%327.  The Third-term Tradition.%—­Another political custom which had grown to have the force of law was that of never electing a President to three terms.  There is nothing in the Constitution to prevent a President serving any number of terms; but, as we have seen, when Washington finished his second he declined another, and when Jefferson (in 1807-1808) was asked by the legislatures of several states to accept a third term, he declined, and very seriously advised the people never to elect any man President more than twice.[1] The example so set was followed by Madison and Monroe and had thus by 1824 become an established usage.

[Footnote 1:  McMaster’s With the Fathers, pp. 64-70.]

%328.  New Political Issues.%—­The most important change of all was the rise of new political issues.  We have seen how the financial questions which divided the people in 1790-1792 and gave rise to the Federalist and Republican parties, were replaced during the wars between England and France by the question, “Shall the United States be neutral?” It was not until the end of our second war with Great Britain that we were again free to attend to our home affairs.

During the long embargo and the war, manufactures had arisen, and one question now became, “Shall home manufactures be encouraged?” With the rapid settlement of the Mississippi valley and the demand for roads, canals, and river improvements by which trade might be carried on with the West, there arose a second political question:  “Shall these internal improvements be made at government expense?”

Now the people of the different sections of the country were not of one mind on these questions.  The Middle States and Kentucky and some parts of New England wanted manufactures encouraged.  In the West and the Middle States people were in favor of internal improvements at the cost of the government.  In the South Atlantic States, where tobacco and cotton and rice were raised and shipped (especially the cotton) to England, people cared nothing for manufactures, nothing for internal improvements.

%329.  Presidential Candidates in 1824.%—­This diversity of opinion on questions of vital importance had much to do with the breaking up of the Republican party into sectional factions after 1820.  The ambition of leaders in these sections helped on the disruption, so that between 1821 and 1824 four men, John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, Henry Clay of Kentucky, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, were nominated for President by state legislatures or state nominating conventions, by mass meeting or by gatherings of men who had assembled for other purposes but seized the occasion to indorse or propose a candidate.  A fifth, William H. Crawford, was nominated by the congressional caucus, which then acted for the last time in our history.

Before election day this list was reduced to four:  Calhoun had become the candidate of all factions for the vice presidency.