ent would be a magnificent government." After
delivering his first message, he was told, by a leading and influential
member of Congress from Virginia, that "excitement against the general
government was great and universal in that state; that opinions there
had been before divided, but that now the whole state would move in one
solid column." And the same member read to him letters from Jefferson
and Madison, denouncing the doctrines of the message in the most
emphatic terms.

A letter from distinguished friends of De Witt Clinton, stating that his
adherents predominated in the Legislature of New York, and recommending
a course to conciliate their influence, was shown to Mr. Adams in 1826.
On this suggestion he remarked: "A conciliatory course, so far as may be
compatible with self-respect, is proper and necessary towards all; but,
in the protracted agony of character and reputation which it is the will
of a superior power I should pass through, it is my duty to link myself
to the fortunes of no man. In the balance of politics it is seldom wise
to make one scale preponderate by weights taken from another. Neutrality
towards parties is the proper policy of a President in office."

When officially informed that a senator from Georgia threatened that,
unless the lands of the Creek Indians, claimed by that state as within
its boundaries, were ceded, her weight would be thrown for General
Jackson, Mr. Adams replied, "that we ought not to yield to Georgia,
because we could not do so without gross injustice; and that, as to her
being driven to support General Jackson, he felt little care about that.
He had no more confidence in the one party than the other."

A similar reply was made to an influential New York politician, who told
him that the friends of De Witt Clinton would probably support the
administration, but that Van Buren and his bucktails would be inveterate
in their opposition. "I consider it," said he, "a lottery-ticket whether
either of those parties would support the administration."

The opposition to the election, and subsequently to the administration
of Mr. Adams, in the South, had its origin and support, as we have seen,
first, in the fact that he was (with the exception of his father) the
only President who had not been a slaveholder; and, next, in the fixed
determination, in that section of the Union, to keep the Presidency, if
possible, in the hands of an individual belonging to that class. If,
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