ke his
heart, and sent him into unexpected and sudden retirement, was his
opposition to a change in the law providing for the choice of
presidential electors by the people. The demand for such a measure
grew out of a divided sentiment between William H. Crawford, then
secretary of the treasury, John Quincy Adams, secretary of state, and
Henry Clay, speaker of the national House of Representatives, the
leading candidates for President. There was, as yet, no real break in
the Republican party. No national question had appeared upon which
the nation was divided; and, although individuals in the South took
exception to protective duties, the party had made no claim that the
tariff system of 1816 was either inexpedient or unconstitutional. The
selection of a candidate for President had, however, become intensely
personal, dividing the country into excited factions equivalent to a
division of parties. In New York, Van Buren and the Albany Regency
favoured Crawford; James Tallmadge, Henry Wheaton, Thurlow Weed and
others preferred Adams; and Samuel Young, Peter B. Porter and their
friends warmly supported Clay. The heated contest extended to the
people, who understood that the choice of Crawford electors by the
Legislature would control the election for the Georgian, while a
change in the law would give Adams or Clay a chance. To insure such a
change, the opponents of Crawford, calling themselves the People's
party, made several nominations for the Assembly, and among those
elected by overwhelming majorities were Tallmadge and Wheaton.

If Tallmadge was the most conspicuous leader of the People's party,
Henry Wheaton was easily second. Though seven years younger, he had
already made himself prominent, not merely as a politician of general
ability, but as a reporter of the United States Supreme Court, whose
conscientious and intelligent work was to link his name forever with
the jurisprudence of the country. During the War of 1812, Wheaton had
edited the _National Advocate_, writing a series of important papers
on neutral rights; and, subsequently, he had become division
judge-advocate of the army, and justice of the marine court of New
York City. From the constitutional convention of 1821, he stepped into
the Assembly of 1824, where, in the debates over the choice of
electors by the people, his ready eloquence made him a valuable ally
for Tallmadge and a formidable opponent to Flagg. His ambition to
shine as a statesman, and