This episode gave to Adams the
opportunity to write his masterly state paper defending the actions
of the general. But Henry Clay, seeing, perhaps, in the rising star
of the frontier military hero a baneful omen to his own career, and
hoping to break the administration forces by holding the government
responsible for Jackson's actions, led an assault upon him in the
Seminole debates on the floor of the House of
Representatives.[Footnote: Babcock, Am. Nationality (Am. Nation,
XIII.), chap. xvii.] Leaving Tennessee when he heard of the attack
which was meditated against him, the general rushed (1819) to this
new field of battle, and had the satisfaction of winning what he
regarded as "the greatest victory he ever obtained"--a triumph on
every count of Clay's indictment. This contest Jackson considered
"the Touchstone of the election of the next president."[Footnote: N.
Y. Publ. Library, Bulletin, IV., 160, 161; Parton, Jackson, II.,
chap. xl.] From this time the personality of the "Old Hero" was as
weighty a factor in
American politics as the tariff or internal improvements.
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