elphia in gold,--in mint-drops;--a
sacred trust, which the United States had accepted, on the pledge of
their faith to keep it whole, entire, for the purpose for which it had
been given by a foreigner. Within three days the five hundred thousand
dollars were on their way to Arkansas to make a bank. The members of the
Senate and of the House from Arkansas had a quick scent of these moneys
coming into the Treasury; and care had been taken to insert into a bill
for a very different object a provision authorizing the President and
Secretary of the Treasury to loan to the states that sum of money when
it should come into the Treasury. This was three months beforehand; and
three days after the money was received the plan was carried into
execution.

"Now, we had heard," said Mr. Adams, "of British gold carrying the
elections, which had resulted, not in favor of the present incumbent of
the presidential chair, but against him. There he could put his finger
upon five hundred and nine thousand dollars of British gold, which
contributed, so far as it could go, to the election of the present
executive magistrate; and he thought he had shown the means by which it
was done. Go to the State of Arkansas. The dollars are not there, but
they _were_ there, and they were sent there from the Mint of the United
States. Here was policy--profound policy--economy--democracy; and all
this accompanied with so great a horror at the idea of assuming state
debts, that the hair of the gentlemen stood on end at the mere mention
of the possibility of such a thing. Was not here a debt of the State of
Arkansas of half a million of dollars? Had not the general government
assumed that debt? Had they not employed trust-money? If Arkansas
should declare herself insolvent to-morrow, Congress must pay that
debt; they had assumed it."

About this time, Mr. Adams, in some of his writings, thus graphically
illustrates the political influences which have mainly shaped the
destinies of the United States: "A very curious philosophical history
of parties might be made by giving a _catalogue raisonne_ of the
candidates for the Presidency voted for in the electoral colleges since
the establishment of the constitution of the United States. It would
contain a history of the influences of the presidential office. Would
not the retrospect furnish practical principles concerning the
operation of the constitution?--1st. That the direct and infallible
path to the Presidenc