Clarke and the Legislature were present.  The moment Mercer’s eye, from the pulpit, descried Clarke, he threw open his Bible violently, and for many minutes was busy searching from page to page some desired text.  At last he smiled.  And such a smile!  It was malignant as that of a catamount.  Turning down the leaf—­as was the custom of his church—­he rose and gave out to be sung, line by line, his hymn.  This concluded, he made a short and hurried prayer—­contrary to his custom—­and, rising from his prayerful position, opened his Bible, and fixing his eye upon Clarke, he directed his audience to his text, and read: 

“When the wicked rule, the land mourns.”

The expression of his countenance, the twinkling of his eye, all pointed so clearly to Clarke as to direct the attention of every one present to the Governor.  This was followed by a sermon half made up of the irregularities of Clarke’s life.  This was the tocsin to the church, and it came down in force with the opposition to the Governor elect.  It was, too, the slogan of the Crawford party to rally for a new conflict.

Mr. Crawford’s conduct as a representative of the State in Congress, and the representative of her people in his foreign mission, had been eminently satisfactory; and his present elevated position as Secretary of the Treasury of the United States was exceedingly gratifying to their pride.  When it was determined by his friends to present his name to the nation as a candidate for the Presidency, it was supposed his support would be unanimous in Georgia.  Time had given opportunity for the prejudices and hatreds of youth to wear out with the passions of youth.  Those, however, who knew John Clarke, were not deceived when he successfully rallied a party in opposition.  So little interest had been felt in the personal difficulty formerly existing between Clarke and Crawford, that even those who remembered it attached to it no importance, and they did not suppose Clarke’s election was to be the commencement of an organized opposition to Crawford’s election, and of the bitterness which was to follow.

There was scarcely the show of opposition to the election of Clarke.  Those who remembered the old feud, and how completely it had pressed down all the ambitious hopes and aspirations of Clarke, were willing to forget the past, and, though warm friends of Mr. Crawford, to vote for Clarke, and honor him with the first office in the State.  Some felt his treatment had been too harsh, and that for his father’s Yazoo antecedents he had been made to pay quite too severe a penalty, and were desirous to manifest their feelings in their votes.  Besides, his family connections were most respectable.  Griffin Campbell and Dr. Bird were his brothers-in-law, and were men of high character and great influence.  The friends of these gentlemen united in his support.  And there was still another, whose influence, to the writer’s knowledge, carried four young, talented members of the House to