In the south, Calhoun and Crawford were already contending for the
mastery. Each of them represented fundamental tendencies in the
section. Born in Virginia in 1772, Crawford had migrated with his
father in early childhood to South Carolina, and soon after to
Georgia. [Footnote: Phillips, "Georgia and State Rights," in Am.
Hist. Assoc., Report 1901, II., 95; Cobb, Leisure Labors; Miller,
Bench and Bar of Georgia; West, "Life and Times of William H.
Crawford," in National Portrait Gallery, IV.; Adams, Life of
Gallatin. 598.] Here he became the leader of the Virginia element
against the interior democracy. But in his coarse strength and
adaptability the burly Georgian showed the impress which frontier
influences had given to his state. His career in national politics
brought him strange alliances. This Georgia candidate had been no
mere subject of the Virginia dynasty, for he supported John Adams in
his resistance to France in 1798; challenged the administration of
Jefferson by voting with the Federalists in the United States Senate
against the embargo; and ridiculed the ambiguous message of Madison
when the issue of peace or war with Great Britain was under
consideration.
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