The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-06-08
OTHERS BEFORE
ROOSEVELT
President Charged With Bad Faith
jefferson the First of Them.

history the issue Oh NeTdCIty Vi VI Udu
faith has been squarely made between
the President of the United States
and some other responsible public
man. In every case the question has
greatly interested and moved the
country, and in some instances the
echoes of the controversy have been
heard for the better part of a genera
ton.
The charge that Jefferson obtained
the Presidency in 1901 by a definite
bargain with a few leading Federalists
brought about a issue of veracity be-
tween Jefferson and James A. Bayard
the elder that appeared and reap
| peared long after the end of Jeffer-
sons life
Bayard declared that Senator Smith,
Republican, acted as a go-between,
and arranged the bargain in the
minutest details Jefferson at the
time and always afterward denied
having authorized Smith to make any
such bargain, though he admitted
that from several quarters came init
nation that a few promises on his
part would end the effective opposi.
ton of the Federalists to his election.
Bayard put the accusation in the
form of an affidavit, and Jefferson, in
his "Anas," published long afterward,
again made denial In 1880 the thing
fiared up again, and Smith from his
place in the Senate denied having
been party to any bargain.
Then the sons of Bayard published
pamphlet renewing the charge and
bringing forward a remarkable array
of contemporary evidence upon their
fathers side. In extreme old age AL
bert Gallatin declared that Smith in
his dealings with Bayard confused his
own ideas with those of Jefferson.
Most historians agree that there were
negotiations looking to a bargain, but
some acquit Jefferson of any direct
part in the bargaining.
When Jackson offered in setting out
upon his Seminole campaign in 1918
to make Florida United States terri
tory in 60 days if only President Mon
roe would signify his assent to the
proposal he laid the basis for a charge
of bad faith and untruth that haunted
Monroe to his dying day.
Jackson made Monroe signify his
assent to the proposal through some
such safe channel Is Representative
John Rhea, of Tennessee. Long after,
when the exgencies of Jacksons quar-
rel with Calhoun over the question of
made it apparently good /
politics to revive this old scandal, I
Jackson induced Rhea to declare in a
savage letter to Monroe, then dying
at the house of his son-in-law in New
York City that Monroe had author
lied him to assent in the Presidents
name to Jacksons proposal to seize
Florida
Monroe, on what proved his death
bed made affidavit denying Rhea's ac-
but the whole matter even +
vet remains in a cloud of doubt,
though Schouler, the historian, finds
n the Jackson papers recently given
% the library of Congress evidence
% satisfy him that Rhea's charge
was the result of something like a
between Rhea and Jack
son.
Jackson, Buchanan, John Quincy
Adams and Clay were all involved in
he famous bargain and sale" story {
If 1S24-25, when Adams was accused ,
If having promised to make Clay !
of State and heir apparent,
10 to speak, in return for Clays aid ;
n the contested election, which re- |
ulted in the choice of Adams as Pres ]
dent Washington brfstled with t
umors of corrupt bargains at the ;
ime, and intrigue was rife. {
The story was, indeed. an article of l
aith with sound Democrats for 20
ears, and Adams and Clay kept on a
enying it to the end of their lives. I
Is to Buchanan, he denied Jackson's /
ersion of part of the story but in t
is denial convicted himself of hav- s
1g been pretty deep in the ugliest S
( the intrigues. u
Jackson never wavered in his be- t
eff in the story, and never forgave a
ither Adams or Clay. 1t required r
ne affidavit of nearly every Repre- t
entative who voted for Adams to sat n
fly some of the doubters that no bar
ain was made. Il
Many volumes were written upon b
lie charge of bad faith brought a
gainst Tyler when he vetoed the c
1hig national bank bill after APP