Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/357

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THE PARTY CHIEFS.
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Duff Green, the editor of Jackson's first newspaper organ. He fell from grace as being a friend of Calhoun, and was supplanted by Francis P. Blair. Kendall and Blair had been journalists in Kentucky, and near friends of Henry Clay, but had turned against him mainly in consequence of the so-called “relief” movement in that state, which, as already mentioned, was one of those epidemic infatuations which make people believe that they can get rid of their debts and become rich by legislative tricks and the issue of promises to pay. The movement developed intense hostility to the Bank of the United States. There had been personal disputes, too, between Clay and Kendall, engendering much ill feeling. The existence and known influence of the Kitchen Cabinet kept the political world in constantly strained expectation as to what would turn up next.

The “Globe” newspaper had been established, with Francis P. Blair in the editorial chair, as President Jackson's organ, to direct and discipline his own party, and to castigate its opponents.

In his first message to Congress, in December, 1829, President Jackson had thrown out threatening hints as to the policy of rechartering the Bank of the United States, the charter of which would expire in 1836; and in the message of 1830 those threats were repeated. The approaching extinction of the national debt rendering a reduction of the revenue necessary, there was much apprehension as to what the fate of the protective tariff