As already hinted, such disunion advocacy as was expressed attracted little attention in the North, save as it made capital in the presidential contest. The National Intelligencer held that the attempts in the South to bring about a separation of the Union originated with, and were promoted by, the friends of General Jackson; that the
Jackson party was a dangerous one, because Jackson's election would result in the destruction of the confederacy. The Mercury denounced this as a mean artifice to help John Quincy Adams, and, after disavowing disunion, gave Jackson warm praise, in sharp contrast with its bitter censures
a few years later.
If there is a man in the United States whose whole soul is devoted to his country, and who would esteem no sacrifice too great for the preservation of her liberty, that man is Andrew Jackson. … If any individual can preserve the Union; if any one man can compose the agitated waves which threaten to engulf us, he is that man. To him the people look emphatically as their last, sole hope.[1]}}
The Adams administration, however, was not without its friends. The Courier and the Gazette were both Adams papers. The friends of the
- ↑ Mercury, June 27, August 6, 1828.
