TRANSLATOR'S NOTE. THE title of the first volume of the German edition of this work is Verfassung und Democratie der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika. Believing that the literal translation of that title would not convey to the American reader as correct an idea of the contents of the distinguished author's book as: "The Constitutional and Political History of the United States," the translators of the first volume agreed to call the work in English by the latter name. This was done without any previous consultation with the author himself. Professor v. Holst, however, has given this second volume. the title-which is to be preserved in those that are yet to Verfassungsgeschichte der Vereinigten Staaten seit der Administration Jacksons or "The Constitutional History of the United States from the Administration of Jackson.” It is due to Professor v. Holst and the public to say that the author himself is of opinion that the title chosen by the translators for the first volume raises a claim which that volume does not entirely support. This second volume fulfills the promise of the translators' title, and hence the reader will find the scope of this second volume somewhat different from that of the first. come Those acquainted with the German edition will notice that the Einleitung (Introduction) to the second volume is not here translated. The reason of its omission is that it was intended by the author only for the German edition. I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to the kindly criticism of Professor William F. Allen, of the University of Wisconsin, General James M. Lynch, of Milwaukee, and Alfred B. Mason, counsellor at law of Chicago, my collaborator in the translation of the first volume, whose withdrawal from the continuation of the task has not diminished his interest in a work, the great merits of which he was one of the first to recognize. JOHN J. LALOR. VAN BUREN'S ADMINISTRATION. I. VAN BUREN'S POLITICAL JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION: ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. CHAPTER I. THE REIGN OF ANDREW JACKSON. Andrew Jackson's administration constitutes, in more respects than one, an important epoch in the history of the United States. With the nullification ordinance of South Carolina and the compromise of 1833, the first phase in the development of states-rightsism came to a close. Jackson's election was the triumph of the radical over the moderate democracy. In the person of Adams, the last statesman who was to occupy it for a long time left the White House: professional politicians and the crowd took possession of it. A mere accident, in 1824, broke down the barrier which had, since 1804, restricted the taking of the initiative in the matter of proposing presidential candidates to congress. William H. Crawford, secretary of the treasury under Monroe, was the designated candidate of a portion of the democratic party, when a stroke of paralysis made of him a physical and mental ruin. Spite of this, however, his more intimate friends did not want to drop him. Their hope was in the weight which custom gave to the nomination made by a so-called "caucus" of the party members in congress. They had not rightly read the signs of the times. The undemocratic "King Caucus" was already so thoroughly hated that, under any and all circumstances, his days were |