good understanding, and the former would probably have withdrawn in favor of Clay had there been opportunity to do so.1 Clay's hold on Kentucky, even, was sadly shaken. At the state election in August the Clay candidate for lieutenant - governor was elected, but the governorship was captured by the Jackson forces, a result which Clay attributed to a corrupt use of patronage and money, "an irruption of Tennessee voters" in some of the border counties, and, chief of all, to the fact that the Clay candidate was a Presbyterian, against which sect "most deeprooted and inveterate prejudices exist, the weight of which had not been sufficiently estimated when he was selected." The national election was a great Democratic triumph. Jackson received 219 electoral votes, Clay 49, John Floyd, of Virginia, 11, and Wirt 7. Of the twenty-four states, all except Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, South Carolina, and Kentucky voted for Jack son. The Pennsylvania electors voted, according to instructions, for William Wilkins for vice-president, the 30 votes so cast reducing Van Buren's vote to 189. Of the other candidates for the vice-presidency, Sergeant received 49 votes, Henry Lee, of Massachusetts, 11, and Ellmaker 7. The votes for Floyd and Lee, neither of whom was a candidate, came from South Carolina, where the nullifiers had carried the legislature which chose the electors; in other 1 Webster, Letters (Van Tyne's ed.), 175. words, South Carolina deliberately threw away its vote. Maryland, which alone adhered to the district system, gave five of its eight votes for Clay and Sergeant. Vermont alone chose Anti-Masonic electors. There was no Jackson ticket in opposition to Wilkins in Pennsylvania. In New York the National Republicans indorsed the electoral ticket of the Anti-Masons, but without winning a single electoral vote for Jackson.1 The popular vote was 687,502 for Jackson against 530,189 for Clay and Wirt. Clay carried only Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, and part of Maryland. In Rhode Island and Delaware the majority for Clay was extremely small; in Maryland it was only four in a total vote of 38,616. In some of the Jackson states, too, the majorities were small; but Pennsylvania gave the Jackson ticket 90,983 votes against 56,716 for Clay, Virginia 33,609 against 11,451, North Carolina 24,862 to 4563, Tennessee 28,740 against 1436, Indiana 31,552 against 15,472, and Illinois 14,147 against 5429. In Georgia and Alabama there was no opposition. On September 5, 1831, Jackson had written to Van Buren: "I hope circumstances will occur to enable me to retire to the Hermitage in due season, and to set an example, worthy to be followed, and give an evidence to my country, that I never had any other ambition but that of serving my country Stanwood, Hist. of the Presidency, 164. Ibid., 163. when she requested, and when I knew it could be better served by others, to open the door for their employment-you will understand me." 1 The election of 1832 had opened the door, and not only Van Buren, but the whole country as well, understood. 1 Van Buren MSS. CHAPTER XII FOREIGN AFFAIRS UNDER JACKSON N his inaugural address, Jackson declared that with foreign nations it would be his aim "to preserve peace and to cultivate friendship on fair and honorable terms, and in the adjustment of any differences that may exist or arise to exhibit the forbearance becoming a powerful nation rather than the sensibility belonging to a gallant people." The same sentiment was more pithily put in his first annual message, where he stated it to be his "settled purpose to ask nothing that is not clearly right and to submit to nothing that is wrong." The dictum accorded well with the reputation of the man who had defeated the British at New Orleans, invaded Spanish territory in Florida, hung British subjects on tinsel evidence, set the military power above the federal courts, and quarrelled with the commanding general of the army. Apparently it would not be the fault of Jackson if the United States failed to maintain, under his rule, a vigorous foreign policy, and "cause all our just rights to be respected." Richardson, Messages and Papers, II., 437, 443. That he would mingle, with extraordinary skill, in his conduct of diplomatic business, tact, forbearance, and firmness, few could foresee. Several important questions were pending in 1829. Ever since the close of the war for independence, the United States had coveted the lucrative direct trade with the British West Indies, from which, however, American vessels were excluded, save as smugglers, by the English navigation acts. Repeated attempts, from the time of Washington down, to secure the prize had ended in failure. In 1822 an act of Parliament repealed existing statutes regulating the trade of the English colonies in America, and opened certain West Indian ports to direct trade with the United States, although heavy duties were still imposed and some important articles of American export excluded altogether. The United States promptly opened its ports to goods of the British West Indies imported in British bottoms, and allowed exports to the islands to be carried in British vessels. In 1825, however, an act of Parliament limited importation in foreign ships to those countries only which granted to Great Britain the "most favored nation" privilege, established a new schedule of duties, and imposed upon American vessels in Canadian ports the same tonnage duties as were imposed upon British vessels in American ports. The terms of the act were not complied with by the 1 Pickering, Statutes, LXII., 196-207. Ibid., LXV., 905-935 2 |