By that in opposition, the President was not yet openly renounced.

His personal influence was too great to be encountered by a direct avowal that he was at the head of their adversaries; and his public conduct did not admit of a suspicion that he could allow himself to rank as the chief of a party.

Nor could public opinion be seduced to implicate him in the ambitious plans and dark schemes for the subversion of liberty, which were ascribed to a part of the administration, and to the leading members who had supported the measures of finance adopted by the legislature.
Yet it was becoming apparent that things were taking a course which must inevitably involve him in the political conflicts which were about to take place.

It was apparent that the charges against the secretary of the treasury would not be relinquished, and that they were of a nature to affect the chief magistrate materially, should his countenance not be withdrawn from that officer.

It was equally apparent that the fervour of democracy, which was perpetually manifesting itself in the papers, in invectives against levees, against the trappings of royalty, and against the marks of peculiar respect[66] which were paid to the President, must soon include him more pointedly in its strictures.
[Footnote 66: On the 22d of February, the birthday of the President, a motion was made to adjourn for half an hour.