by the exclusive power which the Congressional Caucus
had wielded. But at the final vote in the College of
Electors none of the candidates for the Presidency
secured a majority, and, in accordance with the Con-
stitution, the election passed to the House of Repre-
sentatives. Of the three candidates who had obtained
the most votes in the Electoral College, Jackson, John
Quincy Adams, and Crawford, it chose the second,
a statesman of the highest eminence.

Hardly had the new President entered on his
duties than his less fortunate competitors and their
followers in Congress began a pitiless war on his
administration. The arch-contriver of this coalition
was the Senator of New York, Martin Van Buren,
who has left a name in the history of the United
States as one of the fathers of the great managers
and crack wire-pullers. Having discerned in one
of the defeated candidates, Jackson, the coming
man, he set himself to form a party in his
favour. That party, which was destined to become the
Democratic party, was at first only an amalgam of
factions and of coteries, a coalition of individuals
devoid of principles, with no distinct character. It
could succeed only if carried on by a powerful organi-
zation in the country. Van Buren set to work to
provide for this want, exceptionally qualified for the
task by a long apprenticeship in his native State,
which had early developed the arts of the politician.

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