His ideas of administrative efficiency were not highly developed, and
he believed that his Cabinet would prove equal to all demands made
upon it. Not the least of its virtues in his eyes was the fact that,
although nearly evenly divided between his own followers and the
friends of Calhoun, it contained not one person who was not an
uncompromising anti-Clay man.
Meanwhile a motley army of office seekers, personal friends, and
sightseers--to the number of ten or fifteen thousand--poured into
Washington to see the old regime of Virginia, New York, and
Massachusetts go out and the new regime of the people come in. "A
monstrous crowd of people," wrote Webster on Inauguration Day, "is in
the city. I never saw anything like it before. Persons have come five
hundred miles to see General Jackson, and they really seem to think
that the country is rescued from some dreadful danger." Another
observer, who was also not a Jacksonian, wrote[7]:
"No one who was in Washington at the time of General Jackson's
inauguration is likely to forget that period to the day of his death.
Pages:
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136