“I can’t help that, sir, but I already knew it. See here—I can take a roll of the House and check off every Democrat who will vote for the Bank. In fact I have one here.”
Turning briskly, he produced it, and the Representative, running over the list, indicated one name as that of a man who would vote with Jackson.
“How do you know?” demanded Jackson.
When told that this Congressman had been so unmercifully berated by his constituents that he had felt compelled to change his tack, the old warrior smiled grimly.
“He is a lucky fellow,” he said, “to get the views of his constituents beforehand. There are several other Democrats in the House who will not get similar notice until next fall, sir.”[533]
Nothing occurred after that incident to alter his opinion of the sentiment of the people. As Hill left the boat bearing the presidential party down the Ohio, at Wheeling, Jackson said, as he clasped his hand: “Isaac, it’ll be a walk. If our fellows didn’t raise a finger from now on the thing would be just as well as done. In fact, Isaac, it’s done now.”
That his friends shared his confidence we have ample evidence. Hill, writing to a friend, advised him to bet all he could on Pennsylvania and Ohio for Jackson—“not on stated majorities, but hang on to the general result.” And he added frankly, “I am on the turf myself. Benton and his friends out West are picking up all they can get.” John Van Buren, the son of Martin, and popularly known as “Prince John,” made a small fortune with his ventures on the election, and Hone, commenting on the manner and appearance of Martin Van Buren, the nominee for Vice-President, thought it indicated a feeling of absolute security.
The result was a notable victory for Jackson and his policies—an unmistakable rebuke to Clay. In electoral votes Jackson received 219, Clay 49, and Wirt 7, and the popular vote gave Jackson 124,392 over the combined strength of Clay and Wirt, thus proving the absurdity of Thurlow Weed’s theory that if Clay had acquiesced in the wishes of the Anti-Masons he could have been elected. The only State carried by Wirt was Vermont—as he had predicted. Clay carried Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, and Kentucky, and five out of the eight electoral votes of Maryland. All the other States went to Jackson but one—South Carolina, with childish petulance, threw its vote away at the behest of Calhoun.
Nothing could have been more ominous than this action. Going entirely outside the regularly nominated candidates, and acting in conformity with the views of the Nullifying party, which insisted on placing the State outside the Union, she gave her vote to Governor Floyd of Virginia. And Jackson, getting the returns, instantly caught the significance of the act, and girded his loins for a life-and-death struggle with Calhoun and Nullification.