The adhesion of Clay by no means assured Adams's election: the
result was not fully certain until the actual vote was given.
Missouri and Illinois were long in doubt,[Footnote: Ibid., 469.] and
in the case of both of these states the vote was cast by a single
person. Cook, of Illinois, was a personal friend of Adams, and,
although the plurality of the electoral vote of that state had been
in favor of Jackson, Cook, giving a strained interpretation of his
pre-election promises to follow the will of his constituency, cast
his vote in favor of Adams. [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VI., 443,
473, 476, 495; Edwards, Illinois, 261-265.] With Scott, of Missouri,
Adams made his peace in an interview wherein he gave him assurances
with respect to newspaper patronage and the retention of his
brother, a judge in Arkansas territory, who was threatened with the
loss of his office because he had killed his colleague in a duel. He
also secured the vote of Louisiana, by the one delegate who held the
balance of power; and he won the Maryland member who had its
decisive vote, by the statement given through Webster, that his
administration would not proscribe the Federalists.
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