onderfully little modified by times and circumstances. The ordinary
arts of propitiation would have appeared to him only a feeble and
diluted form of dishonesty; while suavity and graciousness of (p. 203)
demeanor would have seemed as unbecoming to this rigid official as
love-making or wine-bibbing seem to a strait-laced parson. It was
inevitable, therefore, that he should never avert by his words any
ill-will naturally caused by his acts; that he should never soothe
disappointment, or attract calculating selfishness. He was an adept in
alienation, a novice in conciliation. His magnetism was negative. He
made few friends; and had no interested following whatsoever. No one
was enthusiastic on his behalf; no band worked for him with the ardor
of personal devotion. His party was composed of those who had
sufficient intelligence to appreciate his integrity and sufficient
honesty to admire it. These persons respected him, and when election
day came they would vote for him; but they did not canvass zealously
in his behalf, nor do such service for him as a very different kind of
feeling induced the Jackson men to do for their candidate.[7] The
fervid laborers in politics left Mr. Adams alone in his chilling (p. 204)
respectability, and went over to a camp where all scruples were
consumed in the glowing heat of a campaign conducted upon the single
and simple principle of securing victory.

[Footnote 7: Mr. Mills, in writing of Mr. Adams's
inauguration, expressed well what many felt. "This
same President of ours is a man that I can never
court nor be on very familiar terms with. There is
a cold, repulsive atmosphere about him that is too
chilling for my respiration, and I shall certainly
keep at a distance from its influence. I wish him
God-speed in his Administration, and am heartily
disposed to lend him my feeble aid whenever he may
need it in a correct course; but he cannot expect
me to become his warm and devoted partisan." A like
sentiment was expressed also much more vigorously
by Ezekiel Webster to Daniel Webster, in a letter
of February 15, 1829. The writer there attributes
the defeat of Mr. Adams to personal dislike to him.