CHAPTER XLII. DIPLOMACY, SOCIETY, AND CIVIL SERVICE. Foreign Relations—Lord Napier, the British Minister—Sir William Gore Ouseley—Society in Washington—A Fashionable Pretender—Civil Service—Office Seeking—Choate's Handwriting—The Governors of Kansas.
CHAPTER XLIII. PRELUDE TO THE REBELLION. Organization of the Senate—John Slidell, of Louisiana—Senator Douglas Opposes the Administration—Ben Wade's Bon Mot—Meeting of the House—Election of Speaker—Investigation of the Wolcott Attempts at Bribery—Debates on the Admission of Kansas—Nocturnal Row in the House—The North Victorious.
CHAPTER XLIV. POLITICIANS, AUTHORS, AND HUMORISTS. Wade, of Ohio—Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi—Johnson, of Arkansas —Anthony, of Rhode Island—Trollope, of England—One of Mike Walsh's Jokes—Albert Pike's Wake—The Sons of Malta.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS [omitted]
LIST OF AUTOGRAPHS
ANDREW JACKSON JOHN QUINCY ADAMS WILLIAM HARRIS CRAWFORD EDWARD EVERETT HENRY CLAY JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN SILAS WRIGHT, JR. DANIEL WEBSTER THOMAS HART BENTON RICHARD MENTOR JOHNSON ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPHENS ANDREW STEVENSON WILLIAM RUFUS KING MARTIN VAN BUREN TRISTRAM BURGESS WILLIAM LEARNED MARCY THOMAS CORWIN WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON THOMAS EWING FRANKLIN PIERCE RUFUS CHOATE FELIX GRUNDY CALEB CUSHING STEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLAS JAMES KNOX POLK HENRY STUART FOOTE ZACHARY TAYLOR ROBERT CHARLES WINTHROP WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD MILLARD FILLMORE ROBERT JAMES WALKER JEFFERSON DAVIS JOHN JORDAN CRITTENDEN THADDEUS STEVENS JOHN TYLER LEWIS CASS GEORGE WASHINGTON ABBOTT LAWRENCE NATHANIEL PRENTISS BANKS WINFIELD SCOTT JOHN BUCHANAN FLOYD PETER FORCE HOWELL COBB GEORGE BANCROFT
PERLEY'S REMINISCENCES.
VOL. I.
CHAPTER I. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS BECOMES PRESIDENT.
John Quincy Adams was elected President of the United States by the House of Representatives on February 9th, 1825. At the tenth popular election for President, during the previous autumn, there had been four candidates: Andrew Jackson, then a Senator from Tennessee, who received ninety-nine electoral votes; John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, then Secretary of State under President Monroe, who received eighty-four electoral votes; William H. Crawford, of Georgia, then Secretary of the Treasury, who received forty-one electoral votes, and Henry Clay, of Kentucky, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, who received thirty-seven electoral votes—in all two hundred and sixty-one electoral votes. As neither candidate had received the requisite majority of one hundred and thirty-one electoral votes, the election of a President devolved upon the House of Representatives, in which body each State would have one vote. As the Constitution required that the choice of the House be confined to the three highest candidates on the list of those voted for by the electors, and as Mr. Clay was not one of the three, he was excluded. Exercising, as he did, great control over his supporters, it was within his power to transfer their strength to either Adams or Jackson, thus deciding the election. The Legislature of his State, Kentucky, had to a certain degree instructed him, by passing a joint resolution declaring its preference for Jackson over Adams, and Jackson always believed that had he accepted overtures made to him, for the promise of the Department of State to Mr. Clay, that would have insured his election.