Arizona republican., 1920-09-29
THE ADAMS S-JAckSON- -CRAW- # FORD CLAY RACE OF 1924
By Frederic J. Haskln


 CEdrtor's Note: The foregoing is the first of a series of articles by Mir. Has kin in which he will discuss the most Interesting features of each of the presidential campaigns from 1924 to 1920 This series of articles Will he valuable to everybody interested in the pro sent campaign fort presid sn-, and Wall contain much interesting historical information of the kind usually over locked in the historieS-the incidents and the stories of the campaigns. Taken a whole, this series will form a complete history of the quadrcnnial struggles of the American pc ople to choose a president. Cut them but and paste them in your scrap boolS)
 WASHINGTON, D. C.. Sep. 2S. - When the citizens of Blount county, Tennessee, held a ma $ meeting at Maryville early in the year 1923 they little thought that their action was -C revolutionize the methods of choosing president of the United States; tha1 they were to be responsible for tre be- ginning of political party organizations in this country; or that they were 10 take the first step in the movement which succeeded in obtaining recogni- ton of the fact that man has a right to aspire to the office of pre sident,
  c~aft. These wftally important things which directly resulted from the BIount county mass meeting became issues in the campaign of 1924 and caused that contest to be the first in which the American nation selected a president according to the general methods still oktaining
 This Blount county mass meeting started all the trouble IL refused 10 be bound by the then recognized rules th3t a president must be selected from among those schooled in state craft and experienced in administration. Every president up to that time had been a man directly connected with the separation from England and the for nation of the republic under the cor stitution. Each president had been either vice president or a cabinet of f:ccr in the administration D eeeding his selection. The people had pvactt- ca ly nothing to say in the matter of choosing electors and such q thing as popular interest in a presidential cam paigr was unknown. Furt lermore, with the exception of the four years Of John Adams administration the head of the government had been a Virginian and representative Of an eXclusive clique which set mu-h store by knowledge and culture, however democratic they may have been in tho ir theories of government.
 The Four Candidates
 The idea of the succession to the presidency was firmly fixed In the minds of the politicians It happened that four candidates appeared On the horizon. They were John Quincy Ac- ans of Massachusetts, secretary of State. William II. Crawford of Geor- gla. secretary of the treasury; John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, secretary of war, and Henry Clay of Ker-uclyy, speaker of the house of representatives So it appeared that the country was safe, whatever the outcome, fo- every Cue of the aspiFants was a trained sta esman of prominence in the adnlln- islss ton.
 Then this Blount county mass meet ing appeared on the scene. It pow wowed awhile one first Monday" and then adopted a resolution formally nominating for pr eSi lent of the United Sts tes, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. Thus originated what wouls be known in twentieth centry political nome1- cIature as the "Tennessee idea" An drew Jackson had been a great soldier Everybody recognized that fact and cHc) ybody praised iiim for tn strategy cf The Horseshoe and the military eenius of the battle of New Orleans. Iiut he had little or no eXae"icnce in statecraft, notwithstanding . shoc. ser vice in both hoa&es of cong ~css. The conservatives all over the country held J;, their hands .n oly horror ard erted ouc: This man is not fit to he presi- .deEt. He is und gnified. He can't speak French he doesn't know the classlcs. He woudb know how to oet at d elmer party. He is unspcak- a!fe"
 F'o- a time +l,e three menbe,s of A:onroe's cabinet and the speaker e tcc ouse who were running for prosi- de;j declined to pay much atten.ton to the .racksOn can iidacy, whio.i was re earded as a joke. At this ti4ne- it must ho remembered. there was only one party The old Federal pafty orSa1.i- zi:itIt had disappeared arl Monroe hlc received every vote but oQv in he tleLtoraI college of 1s20.s :sI.ss1aD