ouse passed over Jackson and gave the prize to Adams, who stood
next to him--though at a considerable interval. That it had a
constitutional right to do so cannot be disputed: as little can it be
disputed that in doing so it deliberately acted against the sentiment of
the country. There was no Congressman who did not know perfectly well
that the people wanted Jackson rather than Adams. This, however, was not
all. The main cause of the decision to which the House came was the
influence of Clay. Clay had been last on the list himself, for the West,
where his main strength lay, had deserted him for Jackson, but his power
in Congress was great, and he threw it all into Adams' scale. It is
difficult to believe that a man of such sagacity was really influenced
by the reasons he gave at the time--that he "would not consent by
contributing to the election of a military chieftain to give the
strongest guarantee that the Republic will march in the fatal road which
has conducted every Republic to ruin." Jackson was a soldier, but he had
no army, nor any means of making himself a Caesar if he had wished to do
so. Yet Clay may reasonably have felt, and was even right in feeling,
that Jackson's election would be a blow to Republican Institutions as he
understood them. He was really a patriot, but he was above all things a
Parliamentarian, and the effect of Jacksonian democracy really was to
diminish the importance of Parliamentarianism. Altogether Clay probably
honestly thought that Adams was a fitter man to be President than
Jackson.

Only he had another motive; and the discovery of this motive moved not
only Jackson but the whole country to indignation. Adams had no sooner
taken the oath than, in accordance with a bargain previously made
between the backers of the two men, unofficially but necessarily with
their knowledge, he appointed Clay Secretary of State.

Jackson showed no great resentment when he was passed over for Adams: he
respected Adams, though he disliked and distrusted Clay. But when, in
fulfilment of rumours which had reached him but which he had refused to
credit, Clay became Secretary, he was something other than angry: he was
simply shocked, as he would have been had he heard of an associate
caught cheating at cards. He declared that the will of the people had
been set aside as the result of a "corrupt bargain." He was not wrong.
It was in its essence a corrupt bargain, and its effect was certainly to
set aside t