Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

550 GEOKGIA AND GEORGIANS
supported Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee. The other, advocating a
system of internal improvements, a protective tariff, a national bank
and a broad construction of the Constitution, called themselves national
republicans, and supported Mr. Adams for re-election. The extreme
radical wing of the party, led by General Jackson, consisted of those
who cared little for ancient traditions and who wished to see in the
. White House one who represented a new order of things. The aristo
cratic or conservative wing of the party adhered to Mr. Adams. These
looked upon Jackson, though laureled with the victory of New Orleans,
as a plebeian and a backwoodsman, better fitted to guard the frontier
against Indian encroachments than to occupy the presidential chair of
the nation. Webster and Clay belonged to this camp, each of them
supporting Adams for re-election; and out of this anti-Jackson revolt,
for such it undoubtedly was, arose the old whig party of ante-bellum
days.
In the campaign of 1828, Jackson defeated Adams for President.
At the same time, John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, his running
mate, was elected vice president. Mr. Adams was not popular in
Georgia, on account of his attitude toward the Indian problem. Geor
gia's nine electoral votes, therefore, were given in this campaign to
General Jackson. The electors chosen at this time to cast the vote of
the state were: From the state at large, John Rutherford and William
Terrell; district electors, Robert R. Reid, Seaton Grantland, David
Blackshear, Augustin S. Clayton, Solomon Graves, John G. Maxwell,
and Oliver Porter.* For vice president, two of Georgia's votes were
given to John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, while seven were cast for
William Smith, likewise a South Carolinian.
On entering the White House, President Jackson appointed Hon.
John MacPherson Berrien, of Georgia, then a United States senator,
to a seat in the cabinet, conferring upon him the attorney-generalship.
To succeed Judge Berrien as United States senator, the Legislature
of 1829 elected the stout apostle of State Rights, ex-Governor George M.
Troup. Meanwhile, Hon. Thomas W. Cobb, having relinquished the
toga, was succeeded by Hon. Oliver H. Prince, of Macon. Mr. Cobb
died two years later, on February 1, 1830, while judge of the Ocmulgee
Circuit.
Georgia, in the Twentieth Congress (1827-1829) was represented by
a strong delegation, to wit: John Floyd, Tomlinson Fort, George R.
Gilmer, Charles E. Haynes, Wilson Lumpkin, Wiley Thompson, and
Richard Henry Wilde.
The Legislature of 1825 having divided the state into seven con-
1 gressional districts, the new law went into effect at this election. Mem
bers of Congress, however, in each district were still to be elected by
the entire state. Separate elections by each district of its own repre
sentative did not come until a later day. But under this new law no
two congressmen could be chosen from the same district; and while each
voter was allowed to vote for seven candidates, each of these was to
represent a separate district.! Says Mr. Phillips: t "The object of
*Lanman's "Biographical Annals of the TJ. S. Govt.," pp. 322-523.
t Georgia Journal, December, 1825; January, 1826.
t "Georgia and State Eights," TJ. B. Phillips, p. 109.