with clean hands." It is reported
that as he spoke there was in his eye the fire of determination, such
as his soldiers had seen there as he strode up and down the
breastworks at New Orleans.

To this point Jackson had sought the presidency rather at the
instigation of his friends than because of personal desire for the
office. Now all was changed. The people had expressed their preference
for him, and their will had been thwarted. Henceforth he was moved by
an inflexible purpose to vindicate both his own right to the position
and the right of his fellow citizens to choose their chief executive
without hindrance. In this determination he was warmly backed up by
his neighbors and advisers, and the machinery for a long, systematic,
and resistless campaign was speedily put into running order. One group
of managers took charge in Washington. Another set to work in New
York. A third undertook to keep Pennsylvania in line. A fourth began
to consolidate support in the South. At the capital the _United States
Telegraph_, edited by Duff Green of Missouri, was established as a
Jackson organ, and throughout the country friendly journals were set
the task of keeping up an incessant fire upon the Administration and
of holding the Jackson men together. Local committees were organized;
pamphlets and handbills were put into circulation; receptions and
public dinners were exploited, whenever possible, in the interest of
the cause. First, last, and always, Jackson's candidacy was put
forward as the hope and opportunity of the plain people as against the
politicians.

In October the Tennessee Legislature again placed its favorite
formally in nomination, and a few days later the candidate resigned
his seat in the Senate in order to be more advantageously situated for
carrying on his campaign. For more than a year he remained quietly at
the Hermitage, dividing his attention between his blooded horses and
dogs and his political interests. Lewis stayed at his side, partly to
restrain him from outbreaks of temper or other acts that might injure
his interests, partly to serve as an intermediary between him and the
Washington manipulators.

Before Adams had been in the White House six months the country was
divided substantially into Jackson men and anti-Jackson or
administration men. The elements from which Jackson drew support were
many and discordant. The backbone of his strength was the
self-assertive, ambitious western Democracy, which