CHAPTER IX.
CANDIDATE FOR THE VICE-PRESIDENCY During the twelve years that Mr.Gallatin was in the Treasury he was continually looking for some man who could take his place in that office, and aid in the direction of national politics; to use his own words, "who could replace Mr.Jefferson, Mr.Madison, and himself." Breckenridge of Kentucky only appeared and died.

The eccentricities of John Randolph unfitted him for leadership.

William H.Crawford of Georgia, Monroe's secretary of the treasury, alone filled Gallatin's expectations.

To a powerful mind Crawford "united a most correct judgment and an inflexible integrity.

Unfortunately he was neither indulgent nor civil, and, consequently, was unpopular." Andrew Jackson, Gallatin said, "was an honest man, and the idol of the worshipers of military glory, but from incapacity, military habits, and habitual disregard of laws and constitutional provisions, entirely unfit for the office of president." John C.Calhoun he looked upon as "a smart fellow, one of the first amongst second-rate men, but of lax political principles and an inordinate ambition, not over-delicate in the means of satisfying itself." Clay he considered to be a man of splendid talents and a generous mind; John Quincy Adams to be 'wanting to a deplorable degree in that most essential quality, a sound and correct judgment.' The contest lay between Adams and Crawford.