er will find all the documentary evidence collected in its
original shape in the first volume of Colton's "Life of Clay,"
accompanied by an argument needlessly elaborate and surcharged with
feeling yet in the main sufficiently fair and exhaustive.

Mr. Benton says that "no President could have commenced his administration
under more unfavorable auspices, or with less expectation of a popular
career," than did Mr. Adams. From the first a strong minority in the
House of Representatives was hostile to him, and the next election
made this a majority. The first indication of the shape which the
opposition was to take became visible in the vote in the Senate upon
confirming Mr. Clay as Secretary of State. There were fourteen nays
against twenty-seven yeas, and an inspection of the list showed that
the South was beginning to consolidate more closely than heretofore as
a sectional force in politics. The formation of a Southern party
distinctly organized in the interests of slavery, already apparent in
the unanimity of the Southern Electoral Colleges against Mr. Adams,
thus received further illustration; and the skilled eye of the (p. 189)
President noted "the rallying of the South and of Southern interests
and prejudices to the men of the South." It is possible now to see
plainly that Mr. Adams was really the first leader in the long crusade
against slavery; it was in opposition to him that the South became a
political unit; and a true instinct taught him the trend of Southern
politics long before the Northern statesmen apprehended it, perhaps
before even any Southern statesman had distinctly formulated it. This
new development in the politics of the country soon received further
illustration. The first message which Mr. Adams had occasion to send
to Congress gave another opportunity to his ill-wishers. Therein he
stated that the invitation which had been extended to the United
States to be represented at the Congress of Panama had been accepted,
and that he should commission ministers to attend the meeting. Neither
in matter nor in manner did this proposition contain any just element
of offence. It was customary for the Executive to initiate new
missions simply by the nomination of envoys to fill them; and in such
case the Senate, if it did not think the suggested mission desirable,
could simply decline to confirm the nomination upon that ground. An
example of this has been already seen in the two nominations of Mr.
Adams