Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/120

90 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS by Washington were so much more important than his own. The office of vice-president was then more highly esteemed than it afterward came to be, but it was hardly suited to a man of Mr. Adams s vigorous and aggressive temper. In one respect, however, he performed a more important part while holding that office than any of his successors. In the earlier sessions of the senate there was hot debate over the vigorous measures by which Washington s adminis tration was seeking to reestablish American credit and enlist the conservative interests of the wealthier citizens in behalf of the stability of the govern ment. These measures were for the most part opposed by the persons who were rapidly becom ing organized under Jefferson s leadership into the republican party, the opposition being mainly due to dread of the possible evil consequences that might flow from too great an increase of power in the federal government. In these debates the senate was very evenly divided, and Mr. Adams, as presiding officer of that body, was often enabled to decide the question by his casting vote. In the first congress he gave as many as twenty casting votes upon questions of most vital importance to the whole subsequent history of the American people, and on all these occasions he supported President Washington s policy. During Washington s administration grew up