The debates on tariff and public improvements of 1824 indicated a speedy termination of the era of good feeling and a return to some kind of political parties. This was to be accomplished not by a revival of the old Federalists and Republicans, but by a division in the ranks of the leaders. The Republicans, as has been pointed out in preceding pages, were so transformed as to be scarcely recognisable. Only an occasional veto and a conservative minority stood between old party principles and the desires of an expanding people and the demands of growing industries. The old Republicans were bewildered by the onward march of events under the hand of compulsion. Familiar landmarks had disappeared.
"We have our bank," complained one writer, "our standing army, our permanent navy, with all the officers, sub-officers, and their connections, ramified throughout the whole nation, all of which appears to me to be of a piece and in direct hostility with the liberties of the people. The people seem contented with the government's pursuing a policy which in 1800 caused a complete revolution."
The announcement of the Monroe doctrine and the culmination of "Americanism" were contemporary with the cessation of party spirit. The "era of good feeling," the millennium described by Washington in his farewell address, was at last realised. Monroe's second election had come within one electoral vote of being unanimous.
Such unanimity could not continue. Those who believe that parties are absolutely necessary; that men must have some means of alignment; that individual following will immediately take the place of dormant national issues, will find an excellent argument in this "era of good feeling," as well as in the ward "boss" of municipal politics. Strict construction was practically dead, destroyed by its impracticability. But individualism was still alive. In due time, when the commercial power of the Gulf States, or "lower South," should become dominant, it would reappear in the guise of "State rights," a doctrine dimly foreshadowed by the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, but not brought to a fruition by those border States.
On the other hand, it was equally true that Clay and the advocates of his system could never return to the close confines of a limited or individualistic government. A protective tariff and internal improvements supplemented each other. Clay's companion in measures, John Quincy Adams, was an apostate from Federalism, and never at ease in the strict-construction ranks. Inheritance and early training cannot be so readily overcome. These two statesmen, representing the old and the new, the North-east and the South-west, the college-bred lawyer and the country-bred orator, formed as strange a partnership under the banner of nationalism as has ever been witnessed.
In using the people to further his American system, Clay was following the tactics of his former chief, Jefferson, in the early days. But the Republicans maintained their way as stubbornly and ignored the people as persistently as the Federalists had done. If Clay had been Monroe's successor in 1824, a return toward centralisation must have inevitably followed. Supported by the people, he would have brought unification a long step forward. Unfortunately, when it came to political strength, Clay's people were confined to the Western section, where his efforts in their behalf had made him an idol. He was a legislative hero, so to speak. But there was a war hero, whose popularity was not measured so much by a section.
The battle of New Orleans had been the redeeming feature of the War of 1812, as has been stated. Jackson's popularity had been increased by his highhanded actions in the Floridas. Popular thought turned to him as a relief from the professional officeholders, such as Crawford, Clay, Adams, and Calhoun. Newspapers called attention to the fact that Jackson had once refused the governorship of East Florida. What offices had these other candidates for the Presidency ever refused? Jackson's friends rejoiced when Tennessee made him a Senator in 1824, since his residence in Washington would enable him to compete with his rivals, the professional office-holders.
The candidacy of Jackson for the Presidency in 1824 may truly be regarded as evidence of a coming revolt of the people of the West. It would have been strange if all this spirit of Americanism had not brought about a demand for more share in the Government. It was a part of that general movement for an extension of the suffrage which characterised the middle period, culminating in the Dorr Rebellion. In both the Carolinas and Maryland, a freehold of fifty acres of land or town lots was still required for complete suffrage. Rhode Island still admitted only a freeholder or his eldest son to citizenship. New York had only three years before abandoned property qualification for white men to vote and still demanded from negroes an estate of $250 for this inestimable privilege; so slowly did we slough off the inherited idea and ancient custom of being admitted to freemen's rights instead of being born into them.
The revolt of the people also showed itself in a demand for the right to nominate candidates and to choose electors for the presidential elections. Since the beginning of the Constitutional Government, many State Legislatures had assumed that right to themselves. "Each State shall appoint," says the Constitution, "in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors." So late as 1820, six States still refused to allow the people to choose the electors and, consequently, the President. In five of the States where they were chosen by the people, voting was done by districts and in the remainder by a general ticket. Ever since the change in the manner of casting the electoral votes was made in 1804, attempts had been made either by an amendment to the Constitution or by national legislation, to secure a direct and unrestricted vote for the people. It was not fully accomplished until after the Civil War.
In selecting the candidates to be voted for, the people had still less power. After Washington's term, candidates had been selected by a caucus of members of Congress of each party called together at the seat of government. Since 1800, each President had been influential in bequeathing the office to his Secretary of State. Virginia, it was said, had thus been able to retain the Presidency for twenty out of the twenty-four years during which the Government under the Constitution had existed. Some claimed that Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe in the beginning held a conference and agreed upon a protracted retention of the chief executive position. New York was said to have assisted in this monopoly of the "mother of Presidents." It had been accomplished mainly through the caucus system and legislative election. Men like Hezekiah Niles, editor of the Register, now led a revolt against the "regency at Richmond," and the subordinate "regency at Albany." Niles claimed that the State Legislatures were created for the purpose of making laws and not for choosing presidential electors; that in some cases members were elected far in advance of the presidential election and could not possibly represent the present wish of the people. These reformers were unable to secure a popular nomination for presidential candidates in the election of 1824. Precedent and the office-holders were too strong. Nominations were made as before by congressional caucus and State Legislatures; but this agitation, dating directly from the rebirth of Americanism, bore full fruit within a score of years.