With his usual ill-fortune, Clay
had the least and must be dropped. He had carried the three States of
Kentucky, Ohio, and Missouri. It was to be presumed that he would throw
his influence in these States to Jackson, his fellow of the South-west.
But the Representatives from these three States gave a total of eleven
votes to Adams, six to Jackson, and two to Crawford. This gave the
States to Adams and made him President. That Clay should have
immediately afterward accepted the first place in Adams's Cabinet is
not strange. Presidents have frequently honoured their rivals in
convention in this way in later times. But it gave the people the
impression that these two politicians had made a "corrupt bargain,"
and this story hampered the entire administration of Adams. No
Administration had met with as much opposition since the stormy four
years of his father.
The strict Republicans asserted that Adams was a "consolidationist,"
and Clay's views of the paternalistic duty of the National Government,
no less than his association with Adams, placed him in the same
category. The new President gave out his political creed in his
inaugural address.
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