Of the members of the Kitchen Cabinet, Lewis’s influence in determining the political fate of men, and Hill’s in establishing the system of spoils, were of no small importance, but the publicity work of Blair and Kendall, more than any other one thing, contributed to the solidarity of the party, and the general popularity of Jackson and his measures. Benton, Van Buren, Forsyth, were masterful managers of Jackson’s congressional battles, where he frequently lost to Clay, but the practical politicians of the Kitchen Cabinet, through the free use of patronage and the press, aroused and organized the masses with the ballots for the succession of successful battles at the polls.
CHAPTER VII
CLAY LEADS THE PARTY ONSLAUGHT
I
Henry Clay sat in the little library at Ashland reading a letter from Webster. “You must be aware of the strong desire manifested in many parts of the country that you should come into the Senate,” the letter ran. “The wish is entertained here as earnestly as elsewhere. We are to have an interesting and arduous session. Everything is to be attacked. An array is preparing much more formidable than has ever yet assaulted what we think the leading and important public interests. Not only the tariff, but the Constitution itself, in its elemental and fundamental provisions, will be assailed with talent, vigor, and union. Everything is to be debated as if nothing had ever been settled. It would be an infinite gratification to me to have your aid, or rather, your lead. I know nothing so likely to be useful. Everything valuable in the government is to be fought for and we need your arm in the fight.”
The meaning was perfectly clear to Clay. The man in the White House, contrary to Whig expectations, was disclosing masterful qualities of leadership. The veto of the Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Bills had left no room for doubt as to his attitude toward internal improvements. No Executive had ever before so freely exercised the power of presidential rejection.[377] On the tariff he was known to favor such reasonable reductions as would conciliate the Southern States, and his brief reference to the National Bank in his first Message, disconcerting in itself, had been followed by ominously hostile action on the part of several State Legislatures.[378] Meanwhile Jackson’s candidacy for reëlection was practically announced. Major Lewis, in his subterranean manner, had been busy and with the usual results. The “New York Courier and Enquirer,” organ of Van Buren, was advocating his reëlection, and the President’s followers, quietly encouraged by Kendall and Lewis, had placed him in nomination in the legislatures of five States.
Under these conditions the old party of Adams grew restive and impatient for a strong leader, and instinctively turned to the magnetic figure of Ashland. Already his nomination for the Presidency in 1832 was a foregone conclusion. The enthusiastic acclaim which had greeted him on his political tours during his retirement had impressed his sanguine temperament as a sure omen of success. He would have preferred to have remained in retirement pending the election, but the party demand for his leadership in Washington was insistent. The Opposition needed a figure around which it could rally, and as a party leader Webster was a failure. With much reluctance Clay decided to respond to the call. The election in Kentucky had been a keen disappointment, and the enemies of the Administration had a bare majority in the legislature, but it was enough, and he was elected.
Early in November he reached the capital, “borne up by the undying spirit of ambition,” looking “well and animated,” to be received with “the most marked deference and respect.”[379] From this time on, throughout Jackson’s Presidency, he was to remain the brilliant, resourceful, bitter, and unscrupulous leader of the Opposition—as brilliant and remarkable an Opposition as has ever confronted a Government in this or any other country.
And such a politician! There have been few remotely like him, none his superior in personal popularity. His
