So Madison and Monroe succeeded to the
political regency which is known as the Virginia Dynasty.
This complacent epoch culminated in Monroe's "Era of Good
Feeling," which proved to be only the hush before the tornado.
The election of 1824 was indecisive, and the House of
Representatives was for a second time called upon to decide the
national choice. The candidates were John Quincy Adams, Andrew
Jackson, Henry Clay, and William H. Crawford. Clay threw his
votes to Adams, who was elected, thereby arousing the wrath of
Jackson and of the stalwart and irreconcilable frontiersmen who
hailed him as their leader. The Adams term merely marked a
transition from the old order to the new, from Jeffersonian to
Jacksonian democracy. Then was the word Republican dropped from
the party name, and Democrat became an appellation of definite
and practical significance.
By this time many of the older States had removed the early
restrictions upon voting, and the new States carved out of the
West had written manhood suffrage into their constitutions. This
new democracy flocked to its imperator; and Jackson entered his
capital in triumph, followed by a motley crowd of frontiersmen in
coonskin caps, farmers in butternut-dyed homespun, and hungry
henchmen eager for the spoils. For Jackson had let it be known
that he considered his election a mandate by the people to fill
the offices with his political adherents.
So the Democrats began their new lease of life with an orgy of
spoils.
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