324 FRANCES PACKARD YOUNG spend money for military supplies, which could be used to great- er advantage in building roads and canals. Calhoun expressed the policy of his administration in three words of his letter to Mr. Tait, when he wrote : "Let us grow." CHAPTER VI CALHOUN AS CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT John Q. Adams wrote on December 29, 1821, less than a year after Monroe's second inauguration, CALHOUN that a delegation of men from Pennsyl- CONSENTS vania had called on Calhoun and asked TO BECOME him to become a candidate in the Presi- A CANDIDATE dential election of 1824. 95 He as- IN 1824 sented, but a few days later assured a friend, Mr. W. Phemer of New Hamp- shire, that, after some hesitation, he only wished to run against a southern man, for personally he was in favor of a northern President. 96 Presumably Calhoun meant by this that he was willing to compete with Crawford, the Secretary of the Treasury, a man whom he thoroughly disliked. In a con- versation with Mr. Adams, on April 22, 1822, Calhoun "spoke with great bitterness of Crawford, of whose manoeu- vers and intrigues to secure the election to the next Presi- dency and to blast the administration of Mr. Monroe, of which he is a member, he (Calhoun) has a full and thorough knowledge. He said there had never been a man in our history, who had risen so high of so corrupt a character or upon so slender a basis of service; and that he (Calhoun) had witnessed the whole series of Crawford's operations from the winter of 1816 to this time." 97 95 Adams, J. Q., Memoirs, V, 466, 468. 96 Ibid. 477-8. 97 Adams, J. Q., Memoirs, V, 497-8.
