In these intervening years, when the United
States was several times on the verge of forcibly occupying Florida,
the possibility of a war with Spain, into which European powers
might be drawn, increased the importance of General Jackson as a
figure in the eyes of the public.
Next the Missouri controversy, like "a flaming sword," [Footnote:
Adams, Memoirs, V., 91.]cut in every direction and affected the
future of all the presidential candidates. The hope of Crawford to
reap the reward of his renunciation in 1816 was based, not only upon
his moderation in his earlier career, which had brought him friends
among the Federalists, but also upon the prospect of attracting a
following in Pennsylvania, with the aid of the influence of
Gallatin, and in New York as the regular candidate of the party.
These hopes of northern support demanded that Crawford should trim
his sails with care, attacking the policies of his rivals rather
than framing issues of his own. But for a time the Missouri
controversy alienated both Pennsylvania and New York from the south,
and it brought about a bitterness of feeling fatal to his success in
those two states.
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