Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/333

CALHOUN AS SECRETARY OF WAR 325 The other candidates who appeared in 1822, were J. Q. Adams of Massachusetts, Henry Clay of COMPARISON Kentucky, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, WITH OTHER DeWitt Clinton of New York and Craw- CANDIDATES ford of Georgia. All of these, with the exception of Clay, were over ten years older than Calhoun, who was thirty-eight at the time of his nomination. 98 "His age, or rather his youth," was an obstacle to success from the very beginning of the campaign." Party lines were very indefinite in the preliminaries of this campaign. Gallatin wrote that if Calhoun PARTY was nominated he would be the "Federal" DIVISIONS candidate. 100 Elijah H. Mills, writing to IN THIS a friend in 1823, classed Calhoun as a CAMPAIGN "Democrat" with principles like those of Adams, inferring that he belonged to the old conservative democratic party, but of a very different class from that of Crawford. 101 In 1824 Niles stated that Calhoun was nominated by the Democratic Republicans at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. 102 Calhoun in his letters, speaks of Crawford as a Radical, and suggests that he (Calhoun) would like to have the support of the New York Republicans. 103 The following description of this campaign is given by Lyon G. Tyler, in "The Life and Letters of the Tylers :" "At this time, five aspirants had loomed up, William H. Crawford, Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams. All these claimed to be of the good old Republican school, successors in principle as in time of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. But the truth, that only the first had any pretensions to true orthodoxy. The others were latitudinarians from centre to circumference, new men, supporters of the War of 1812, and all fortunate enough to be on the national stage at that important juncture, to gather political capital to speculate on for the rest of their 98 Niks' Register, XXIII, 369. 99 Story, J., Life and Letters of, I, 426. 100 Adams, Life of Albert Gallatin, 581. May 13, 1822. 101 Letters of Elijah H. Mills, Mass. Hist. Society, XIX, 37. 1881-1882. 102 Niles' Register, XXVI, 20. 103 Letters of Calhoun, House Documents, V. 115, Am. Hist. Ass., V. II, page 206.