[Footnote: Ibid., 76, 106, 107.] One of the senators of
South Carolina, desirous of supporting the administration in
opposition to the Calhoun faction, begged Adams to include in his
message some passage reassuring the south in the matter of slavery,
but he received a chilling reply. [Footnote: Adams, Memoirs, VII.,
57.] The speaker, Taylor, already obnoxious because of his previous
championship of the proposed exclusion of slavery from Missouri,
aroused the wrath of the south by presenting to the House a memorial
from a "crazy Frenchman," who invited Congress to destroy all the
states which should refuse to free their slaves. [Footnote: Ibid.,
103.] In short, there was a wide-spread though absolutely unfounded
fear that the administration favored emancipation, and that the
doctrines avowed in the message of the president gave full
constitutional pretext for such action.
On the other hand, the opposition was in no agreement on principles.
[Footnote: Univ. of North Carolina, James Sprunt Hist.
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