Chapter XXXVI.

gogues of the day, had not excited against himself deep and wide-spread hostility. Truth, justice, virtue, and patriotism all forbid, as base and criminal, the suppression of the historical fact that, for years, John Quincy Adams was the most hated man in the American Republic. To the Whig party he was an encumbrance, perpetually interrupting the desired harmony between its northern and southern sections, by introducing the topic of slavery, and raising questions on which " policy " required the party to vote against him. Scorning the control of party disciphne and caucus dictation, he pursued his own course, without asking or receiving permission from the leaders. At the organization of the last house of Repre- sentatives he ever attended, he dared to vote against the Whig nominee for Clerk, and by so doing, nearly se- cured the re-election of the late faithful and efficient, but democratic incumbent. The Whig party of his own State did not deem it expedient to assume the responsi- bility of his " fanaticism," by returning him to the Senate of the United States, as they had the power to do ; and the Whig presses throughout the Union, with few excep- tions, were nearly as strenuous in condemning his con- gressional conduct, as were his political opponents.