The retirement of Monroe marked the end of “the Virginia dynasty.” It had always been a sore point with John Adams that the highest office of the Government should be passed from hand to hand in the Old Dominion, and he once threw out the splenetic comment that not “until the last Virginian was laid in the graveyard” would his son have a chance at the Presidency. The son had been trained with reference to such an inheritance, and, on becoming Monroe’s Secretary of State, regarded himself as in the line of succession. His appearance as a Presidential candidate, however, aroused no general enthusiasm, whereas General Andrew Jackson, having given the finishing stroke to the defeat of the British invaders by his victory over Pakenham, and acquired the nickname “Old Hickory,” had become the idol of the multitude. In spite of their approaching competition for the Presidency, Adams was obliged to recognize Jackson’s prestige at every turn; and on the eighth of January, 1824, Mrs. Adams gave a ball in the General’s honor which was so grand that it was still talked of in Washington fifty years afterward. The Adams house stood on the site now occupied by the Adams office building in F Street near Fourteenth. On this occasion the floor of the ballroom was decorated with pictures in colored chalks. The central design, which portrayed an American eagle clutching a trophy of flags, bore the legend: “Welcome to the Hero of New Orleans!” The pillars were trimmed with laurel and other winter foliage, roses were scattered everywhere, and the illumination was furnished by variegated lamps, with a brilliant luster in the middle of the ceiling. There were eight pieces of music. Mrs. Adams was seated in the center of the hall, with Jackson standing at her side and a semicircle of distinguished guests behind them. President Monroe and Mr. Adams attended, but both were conspicuous for their sobriety of attire. It was this gathering which inspired a tribute in verse by a local journalist, beginning: “Wend you with the world to-night? Brown and fair, and wise and witty, Eyes that float in seas of light, Laughing mouths and dimples pretty, Belles and matrons, maids and madams, All are gone to Mrs. Adams!”