ce, whose will Jackson had made the supreme power in the
State, could not vote for him, they were content to vote for the
candidate he was known to favour.

Indeed, in some ways the coalition which called itself the Whig party
was weakened rather than strengthened by the substitution of a small for
a great man at the head of the Democracy. Antagonism to Jackson was the
real cement of the coalition, and some of its members did not feel
called upon to transfer their antagonism unabated to Van Buren.

The most eminent of these was Calhoun, who now broke away from the Whigs
and appeared prepared to give a measure of independent support to the
Administration. He did not, however, throw himself heartily into the
Democratic Party or seek to regain the succession to its leadership
which had once seemed likely to be his. From the moment of his quarrel
with Jackson the man changes out of recognition: it is one of the most
curious transformations in history, like an actor stripping off his
stage costume and appearing as his very self. Political compromises,
stratagems, ambitions drop from him, and he stands out as he appears in
that fine portrait whose great hollow eyes look down from the walls of
the Capitol at Washington, the enthusiast, almost the fanatic, of a
fixed idea and purpose. He is no longer national, nor pretends to be.
His one thought is the defence of the type of civilization which he
finds in his own State against the growing power of the North, which he
perceives with a tragic clearness and the probable direction of which he
foresees much more truly than did any Northerner of that period. He
maintains continually, and without blurring its lines by a word of
reservation or compromise, the dogma of State Sovereignty in its most
extreme and almost parricidal form. His great pro-Slavery speeches
belong to the same period. They are wonderful performances, full of
restrained eloquence, and rich in lucid argument and brilliant
illustration. Sincerity shines in every sentence. They serve to show how
strong a case an able advocate can make out for the old pre-Christian
basis of European society; and they will have a peculiar interest if
ever, as seems not improbable, the industrial part of Northern Europe
reverts to that basis.

Van Buren, on the whole, was not an unsuccessful President. He had many
difficulties to contend with. He had to face a serious financial panic,
which some consider to have been the result of Jack