March 4th, 1817, to March 4th, 1825) in which he filled that office has generally been designated in the political history of the country as “an era of peace and good-will." The line of division between political parties at that time, so as to fix definitely the status of many of the prominent men in public life was not very clearly drawn.

The general divisions of the parties up to that time had simply been between Federalists and Republicans. It seems a little strange to partisans of the present day to note the fact, that John Quincy Adams, the recognized leader of the Federal party of the North, should have been selected by President Monroe, an avowed states right Democrat of the South, as his chief cabinet officer-Secretary of State. This selection of Mr. Adams, however, is not so difficult to account for as the appointment of Henry Clay to the same office by Mr. Adams after he became President in 1825.

I mention this fact for the purpose of calling attention to an act of Col. Benton for which he has scarcely received the credit to which he was entitled.

At the presidential election of 1824, it will be remembered there were four candidates John Quincy Adams, William H. Crawford, the nominee of a congressional caucus, Gen. Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay. Neither one having received a majority at the polls the election was thrown into the House of Representatives and resulted in the choice of Mr. Adams. Henry Clay was then a member of the House, and, against the public expectation, cast his vote for Adams. The appointment of the distinguished Kentuckian to the office of Secretary of State gave rise to the suspicion and afterwards to the open charge of "bargain and corruption," which for a time greatly agitated the people of the whole country, to the great injury of both the President and his Secretary of State. Col. Benton very promptly exonerated Mr. Clay from the slander of his enemies by making the statement that he (Clay) had told him in private conversation long before the election that he intended to vote for Adams. The circumstances were such as to place Mr. Clay in a very awkward position. His personal and political enemies were hard to convince of his innocence and it was a noble act

and a very gracious thing for a political opponent to do. Col. Benton and Mr. Clay were connected by marriage, the former being a blood-relation of the latter's wife.. It was said-but upon what authority I know not-that being of the same political creed up to the election of 1824, Benton had favored the election of Mr. Clay to the Presidency. In Col. Benton's own language, they had been very intimate up to that time and it was during that intimacy and previous to the election by the House of Representatives that Mr. Clay had confidentially said to Benton that he intended to cast his vote for Mr. Adams. The testimony of Col. Benton was of double value by reason of the fact that his own party was exceedingly anxious to establish the truth of the statement made by Mr. George Kremer, a member of Congress from Pennslyvania, that the appointment of Mr. Clay as Secretary of State was the result of a corrupt bargain between him and the President. A verbal report of the speech of John Randolph, of Virginia, made in the Senate of the United States during the discussion of the Panama Mission represented him as saying that a certain letter sent to the Senate by the President "bore the ear-marks" of having been manufactured or forged by the Secretary of State (Clay) and denounced the administration as "a corrupt coalition between the blackleg and the Puritan." Whether the report was true or false, it would have been accepted as a genuine utterance of that erratic statesman.

The result was that Clay challenged him to mortal combat and a dual actually took place between these distinguished men, during the first week in April, 1826, near the city of Washington. Col. Benton was the only disinterested witness. and, after the exchange of two harmless shots, he with some other members of the party, secured a meeting of the two principals at which mutual explanations were made, the difficulty satisfactorily adjusted and friendly greeting exchanged. From this point Clay and Benton drifted farther and farther apart until a state of violent antagonism was reached. This continued for many years and up to a short time before Mr. Clay's death in 1852.

Benton on Nullification.

I pass on to the very celebrated debate in the Senate between Hayne, of South Carolina, and Daniel Webster upon the resolution of Senator Foote, of Connecticut, in reference to the appointment of a committee to inquire into the expediency of discontinuing the survey and sale of the public lands and to abolish the office of Surveyor General. The debate took a wide range, taking in the relative powers of the State and Federal government, in which the doctrine of nullification by a state against a law of Congress was first asserted as one of the remedies to which it might result in its extremnity. Col. Benton seems not to have taken this as at all serious, said, "he did not believe in anything practical from nullification, did not believe that there would be forcible resistance to the laws of the United States from South Carolina, did not believe in any scheme for disunion." He said he "believed in the patriotism of Mr. Hayne and as he came into the argument on my side in the matter of the public lands so my wishes were with him and I helped him when I could. Of this desire to help and disbelief in unionism, I gave proof in ridiculing as well as I could Mr. Webster's fine peroration to liberty and union and really thought it out of place, a fine piece of rhetoric misplaced for want of circumstances to justify it."

Posterity will hardly give Col. Benton credit for perfect candor in making this statement. It was always his boast that he was a Democrat of the Jeffersonian school. The fundamental creed of that school was a belief in the doctrine of "State rights" as interpreted by him in the celebrated Resolutions of 1798. It was upon South Carolina's interpretation of these Resolutions that the doctrine of nullification was based. In every step taken by that state in its determination to resist the execution of the provisions of the Tariff Law of 1828, they were guided by the principles of and policy contained in those Resolutions according to the interpretation of the Southern Democrats and the correctness of that interpretation can hardly be questioned today. When the point was reached at which Andrew Jackson felt called upon to issue the celebrated pro

clamation to the people of that state, giving his interpretation of the Constitution and defining the relative power of the Federal and state governments he enunciated principles and views entirely different from those embodied in these Resolutions. Benton endorsed this proclamation and really became Jackson's chief lieutenant and champion during the whole of the fierce war that was made against his administration by Mr. Calhoun and his followers.

I am aware that Col. Benton claimed at the time that he had given a new interpretation to these Resolutions, but he did not point out in what essential particular it differed from the true interpretation, and the fact would seem to be that that interpretation continued to be maintained by the Southern Democracy down to 1861. The truth must be admitted that the principles enunciated by General Jackson became the creed of a new type of that party which continued to control the af fairs of the government down to the end of Van Buren's term in 1841. Calhoun and his followers deserted the Democratic party, formed an alliance with Henry Clay and the Whig party and through the last term of Jackson and the four years of Van Buren assisted in overthrowing the Jacksonian Democracy. There never was a more exciting and enthusiastic political canvas than that of 1840, when Wm. Henry Harrison, the candidate of the Whig party, defeated Mr. Van Buren-the pet of General Jackson-for the Presidency.

There was a singular combination of political elements that secured the final overthrow and defeat of the Jackson Democracy. Col. Benton did not go down at that time with the wing of the party to which he really belonged. Nominally he was classed with the organization as it was then constituted.

Benton and the Bank Agitation,

He was re-elected to the Senate in 1844 for another term of six years, but the "handwriting on the wall" was already beginning to appear. Those who then began to take charge of the party machinery had no use for Benton, nor any other Jackson Democrat. Nobody doubted the fact that Benton had been truly loyal to the party and Jackson's chief lieutenant

from the day of his first inauguration down to the end of his successor's term of office, (1828-1840).

In his first annual message to Congress in 1829 President Jackson declared his hostility to the rechartering of the Bank of the United States. The charter granted in 1816 did not expire until 1836. Jackson anticipated that the friends of the Bank would not wait until near the end of the limit of the time of its existence before an application would be made for its renewal. He knew that the Bank was powerful and would use every means that it could control to perpetuate its existence. The voters of the country had to be aroused and prepared for the contest when it should come. From the moment that his hostility to the Bank was made known until the last day of its existence Benton was recognized as the leader of the anti-Bank forces in Congress, and the chief spokesman of the President. He bore the brunt of the fierce attacks made by such men as Clay, Webster, and a host of other distinguished advocates of the Bank and who continued to fight without loss of courage until the bill was passed in June, 1832. General Jackson was supposed to be in great peril. He was a candidate for re-election in November following. Neither he nor his lieutenant were intimidated by the situation. The bill was promptly vetoed. The great battle in the halls of Congress to pass it over the veto was fought to a final defeat and Jackson was triumphantly elected in the month of November following.

A

I pass over the period which followed and begin with the effort to recharter the Bank during the administration of John Tyler. Elected as vice president on the ticket of General Harrison, he proved to be a great disappointment to the party. brief reference to the condition of affairs and the organization of parties after the death of nullification is necessary in order to explain what followed so far as Col. Benton's subsequent career was concerned.

Benton on Party Control.

John C. Calhoun and his adherents, among whom was Mr. Tyler, openly allied themselves with Henry Clay and the Whig