225-227, 237, 261,
264, 280.] Pennsylvania and New York, he thought, would decide the
question, and the issue would depend upon whether or not the
"Missouri principle" became involved.
At this time parties and principles were still plastic. This is
illustrated by a letter written in the spring of 1823 to Monroe, by
John Taylor, of Caroline, the leading exponent of the orthodox
Virginia tenets of state sovereignty. The writer was evidently
stirred by the recent publication, in Calhoun's Washington organ, of
a series of letters signed A. B., [Footnote: Edwards, Illinois, 525;
National Intelligencer, April 21-23, 1823; Am. State Papers Finance,
V., 1-145.] in which Crawford was denounced for corrupt dealings
with the banks, collusion with slave-traders, and intrigues in
general. Calhoun himself had just ended a visit with Taylor when the
latter wrote, bitterly condemning the "example of obtaining the
presidency by crafty intrigues and pecuniary influence," as tending
to transfer power to a moneyed aristocracy.
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