Mrs. John H. Eaton, was later to upset the equilibrium of the Jackson
Administration--and other favorite lodging houses were the scenes of
midnight conferences, intimate conversations, and mysterious comings
and goings which kept their oldest and most sophisticated frequenters
on the alert. "_Incedo super ignes_--I walk over fires," confided the
straitlaced Adams to his diary, and not without reason. A group of
Clay's friends came to the New Englander's room to urge in somewhat
veiled language that their chief be promised, in return for his
support, a place in the Cabinet. A Missouri representative who held
the balance of power in his delegation plainly offered to swing the
State for Adams if the latter would agree to retain a brother on the
federal bench and be "reasonable" in the matter of patronage.

By the last week of January it was rather generally understood that
Clay's strength would be thrown to Adams. Up to this time the Jackson
men had refused to believe that such a thing could happen. But
evidence had been piled mountain-high; adherents of both allies were
openly boasting of the arrangements that had been made. The
Jacksonians were furious, and the air was filled with recriminations.
On January 28, 1825, an anonymous letter in the _Columbian Observer_
of Philadelphia made the direct charge that the agents of Clay had
offered the Kentuckian's support to both Jackson and Adams in return
for an appointment as Secretary of State, and that, while the friends
of Jackson would not descend to "such mean barter and sale," a bargain
with the Adams forces had been duly closed. Clay's rage was
ungovernable. Through the columns of the _National Intelligencer_ he
pronounced his unknown antagonist "a base and infamous calumniator, a
dastard and a liar," called upon him to "unveil himself," and declared
that he would hold him responsible "to all the laws which govern and
regulate men of honor."