Jackson began his administration with characteristic vigor. It was he
who first put into practice the principle, "To the victors belong the
spoils." There was about him no academic courtesy, and he proceeded at
once to displace many Federal officeholders and to replace them with his
own adherents. The Senate tried for a time to stem the tide, but was
forced to give it up. There was no withstanding that fierce and dominant
personality. Jackson was more nearly a dictator than any President had
ever been before him, or than any will ever be again. His great
popularity seemed rather to increase than to diminish, and in 1832, he
received no less than 219 electoral votes.
[Illustration: JACKSON]
Let us do him justice. Prejudiced and ignorant and
wrong-headed as he was, he was a pure patriot, laboring for his
country's good. Nothing proves this more strongly than his attitude on
the nullification question, in other words, the right of a state to
refuse to obey a law of the United States, and to withdraw from the
Union, should it so desire. This is not the place to go into the
constitutional argument on this question. It is, of course, all but
certain that the original thirteen states had no idea, when they
ratified the Constitution, that they were entering an alliance from
which they would forever be powerless to withdraw; and the right of
withdrawal had been asserted in New England more than once.
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