He returned to Congress, after his defeat for the Presidency, for no other purpose than to give shape and direction to a sentiment which he felt must ultimately result in her ruin, and to accomplish this he was more than willing to hazard that of the Government.  He felt, should this follow, his own people would be in a condition to dictate and control a government of their own creation, and which should embody their peculiar views, rather than the pure and unselfish principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, and preserved in the Constitution of the United States.

The sagacity of George M. Troup was the first to discover this in his conduct as President, and to sound the alarm as Governor of Georgia.  He came directly in contact with him, and determined he should be defeated in one of his means for injury to the South.  Troup knew and felt the right was with him, and maintained it with the honest boldness of a true man.  He triumphed, and the doctrine of State rights was rescued from a fatally aimed blow, and reaffirmed, gave renewed popularity and strength to its supporters.  The election of General Jackson soon after followed, and, as the embodiment of the principle, rallied around him its supporters from every section.  With these, and his immense popularity personally, he scotched, for a time, the Puritan snake; but, true to its instincts, it struggled to bite, though its head was off.

Mr. Adams saw in Troup a strong and uncompromising foe; he knew, too, the right was with him, and that if pushed to extremities the result would be damaging to his fame, as having, in persevering for the wrong, destroyed the Government, and at a time, too, when every benefit from such destruction would inure to the South.  Under the circumstances his course was taken:  he dared not consult or trust Mr. Clay with the real motives which influenced him to yield, and made a virtue of patriotism and magnanimity which cloaked his pusillanimity, and shielded from public view his envenomed chagrin.

It was doubtless this triumph which secured the second election of Troup.  Personally he was unpopular with the masses.  His rearing had been in polished society, and though he was in principle a democrat, in his feelings, bearing, and associations he was an aristocrat.  He accorded equality to all under the law and in political privilege, but he chose to select his associates, and admitted none to the familiarity of intimacy but men of high breeding and unquestioned honor.  In many things he was peculiar and somewhat eccentric.  In dress, especially so—­often appearing in midwinter in light, summer apparel; and again, in summer, with a winter cloak wrapped carefully about him.  When he appeared first before the assembled Legislature, and many of the first citizens of the State, to take the oath of office, it was a raw, cold day in November; his dress was a round jacket of coarse cotton, black cassimere vest, yellow nankeen