Jackson and his followers prevailed because they were simple, energetic, efficient, and strong.

Their consistency of feeling and their mutual loyalty enabled them to form a much more effective partisan organization than that of the Whigs.

It is one of those interesting paradoxes, not uncommon in American history, that the party which represented official organization and leadership was loosely organized and unwisely led, while the party which distrusted official organization and surrounded official leadership with rigid restraints was most efficiently organized and was for many years absolutely dominated by a single man.

At bottom, of course, the difference between the two parties was a difference in vitality.

All the contemporary conditions worked in favor of the strong narrow man with prodigious force of will like Andrew Jackson, and against men like Henry Clay and Daniel Webster who had more intelligence, but were deficient in force of character and singleness of purpose.