Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 2
1826-12-04
This day the 2d Session of the Nineteenth Congress commenced. Whether the members who compose it have come with a disposition to be more mild than they were last Winter is yet to be seen. The 91parties which now divide the nation, are pretty distinctly marked but not yet so much so as to be able clearly to define which will prove the strongest. The governing party seems however to be in the best spirits.2
From D/CFA/5. CFA read Plutarch in the morning and played cards with his family in the evening (D/CFA/1).
The Southern supporters of Vice-President Calhoun and the Northern friends of Senator Van Buren were coalescing against the National Republicans led by Henry Clay and JQA. This new alliance of “southern planters and plain republicans of the North” became the triumphant Democratic party of Andrew Jackson (Bemis, JQA
, 2:77).