The
announcement of Calhoun's candidacy turned against him all the
batteries of his rivals. Pleading the depleted condition of the
treasury, Crawford's partisans in Congress attacked the measures of
Calhoun as secretary of war. Retrenchment in the expenditures for
the army was demanded, and finally, under the leadership of
Crawford's friends, the Senate refused to ratify certain nominations
of military officers made by the president on the recommendation of
the secretary of war, giving as a reason that they were not in
accordance with the law for the reduction of the army. In the
cabinet discussion, Crawford openly supported this opposition, and
his relations with the president became so strained that, in the
spring of 1822, reports were rife that his resignation would be
demanded. [Footnote: Cf. Adams, Memoirs, V., 525.] Crawford himself
wrote to Gallatin that it would not be to his disadvantage to be
removed from office. [Footnote: Gallatin, Writings, 31., 241.]
In the summer the matter was brought to a head by a correspondence
in which Monroe indignantly intimated that Crawford had given
countenance to the allegation that the president's principles and
policy were not in sympathy with the early Jeffersonian system of
economy and state rights.
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