SPECIAL HISTORIES.--Josiah Quincy, _Life of John Quincy Adams_, chap. vii.; J. T. Morse, _John Quincy Adams_, 164-225; W. H. Seward, _Life of John Quincy Adams_, 137-201; C. Schurz, _Henry Clay_, I. 203-310; W. G. Sumner, _Andrew Jackson_, 73-135; E. M. Shepard, _Martin Van Buren_, 84- 150; H. C. Lodge, _Daniel Webster_, 129-171; J. L. Bishop, _History of American Manufactures_, II. 298-332. CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS.--J. Q. Adams, _Memoirs_, VII., VIII. (chapter xiv.); H. Niles, _Weekly Register_; T. H. Benton, _Thirty Years's View_, I. 44-118; Josiah Quincy, _Figures of the Past_; N. Sargent, _Public Men and Events_, I. 56-160; Ben Perley Poore, _Perley's Reminiscences_, 1-87; John Trumbull, _Autobiography_; J. French, _Travels_, Mrs. Trollope, _Domestic Manners of the Americans_.--Reprints in _American History told by Contemporaries_, III. 131. POLITICAL METHODS IN 1824. [Sidenote: Old statesmen gone.] The United States was in 1825 half a century old, and the primitive political methods of the early republic were disappearing. Most of the group of Revolutionary statesmen were dead; Jefferson and John Adams still survived, and honored each other by renewing their ancient friendship; on July 4, 1826, they too passed away. The stately traditions of the colonial period were gone: since the accession of Jefferson, the Presidents no longer rode in pomp to address Congress at the beginning of each session; and inferior and little-known men crept into Congress. [Sidenote: New constitutions.] The constitutions framed during or immediately after the Revolution had been found too narrow, and one after another, most of the States in the Union had adopted a second, or even a third. Each change was marked by a popularization of the government, especially with regard to the suffrage. Immigrants had begun to have a sensible effect upon the community. In 1825 there were ten thousand, and the number more than doubled in five years. These changes were reflected in the management of State politics; the greater the number of voters, the greater the power of organization. Hence there had sprung up in the States a system of political chiefs, of whom Aaron Burr is a type. [Sidenote: Political proscription.] [Sidenote: Four Years' Tenure Act.]