The autobiography of Martin Van Buren

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ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

American Historical Association

?;

POt

THE YEAR 1918

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. II

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN
EDITED BY JOHN Q. FITCPATRJCK

# •** . a

• » «• »* * »* " '

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1920

7 73. Si
743448

Washington, D. C, /t*w€ 0, 1919.
To the Executive Council of the American Historical Association,

Gentlemen: In recommending to you for publication the Auto-
biography of Martin Van Buren, the Historical Manuscripts Com-
mission begs leave to acknowledge the public spirit of Mrs. Smith
Thompson Van Buren, of Fishkill, N. Y., who placed this valuable
document in the Library of Congress, and the courteous assistance
of the Library, which offers a typewritten copy of it supplemented
with an introduction and notes prepared by a member of the staff.
Very respectfully yours,

Justin H. Smith, Chairman
2

y, v «#

r*:

•-•

• •• ••

• •• • •

*,• • • • •

PREFATORY NOTE.

The autobiography of Martin Van Buren was presented to the
Library of Congress by Mrs. Smith Thompson Van Buren, of Fish-
'kill, New York, in 1906. At the same time the Van Buren Papers
were presented to the Library by Mrs. Smith Thompson Van Buren
and Dr. and Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish Morris, of New York City. A
Calendar of the Papers was published by the Library in 1910.

The Autobiography is the manuscript copy, in seven folio vol-
umes (1247 pages), made by Smith Thompson Van Buren, the son
and literary executor of the President, from Van Buren's original
draft. Portions of Volumes VI and VII are in another hand, and
the last fifteen pages of the manuscript have many changes and
corrections by Van Buren himself.

The first two hundred and fifty-nine pages of this copy were
edited by Mr. Worthington C. Ford, formerly Chief of the Manu-
script Division, Library of Congress. The lettered footnotes are
Van Buren's own; the chapter divisions and numbered notes are
the editor's.

The Autobiography is written with engaging frankness, and the
insight it affords to the mental processes of a master politician is
deeply interesting. Van Buren's desire to be scrupulously fair in
his estimates is evident, and, if he did not always succeed, his fail-
ures are not discreditable. Though the Autobiography does not
compel the revision of established historical judgments, it yet pre-
sents authority for much in our political history hitherto somewhat
conjectural and records political motives and activities of the period
in an illuminating and suggestive manner.

In analyzing men and measures, Van Buren all unconsciously
paints a picture of himself and it is a truthful and worthy portrait.
It is impossible to read the Autobiography through without greatly
regretting that it was not carried beyond the point it reaches.

As a contribution to the political history of the United States, its
presentation of facts is too valuable to be ignored safely by the
conscientious investigator.

J. C. Fitzpatmck,
Assistant Chief, Manuscript Division*

Library of Congress.

8

FOURTEENTH REPORT OF THE HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS

COMMISSION

Junk 4, 1919

JUSTIN H. SMITH, Chairman

DICE R. ANDERSON GAILLARD HUNT

Mas. AMOS G. DRAPER CHARLES H. LINCOLN

LOGAN ESAREY MILO M. QUAIFE

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN
Edited by JOHN C. FITZPATBICE

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN.

CHAPTEBL

Villa Falangola,
Sorrento, June 81, 1854*

° At the age of seventy one, and in a foreign land, I commence a sketch
of the principal events of my life. I enter upon this work in the hope
of being yet able to redeem promises exacted from me by friends on
whose judgments and sagacity I have been accustomed to rely. I
need not now speak of the extent to which an earlier compliance
with their wishes has been prevented by an unaffected diffidence to
assume that the scenes, of which they desire to perpetuate the mem-
ory, will be found to possess sufficient interest to justify such a no-,
tice. That their opinions in regard to that question have not been
biased by the partiality of their ardent friendship is hardly to be
supposed, yet it ought not, perhaps, to surprise any that they should
have thdught that not a few of our contemporaries and successors
would be interested, and, possibly, the young men of the country
benefited, by a true and frank account of the rise and progress of
one, who, without the aid of powerful family connexions, and with
but few of the adventitious facilities for the acquisition of political
power had been elevated by his Countrymen to a succession of official
trusts, not exceeded, perhaps, either in number, in dignity or in re-
sponsibility by any that have ever been committed to the hands of
one man — consisting of the respective offices of Surrogate of his
County, State Senator, Attorney General of the State of New York,
Regent of the University, Member of a Convention to revise the
Constitution of the State, Governor of the State, Senator in Con-
gress for two terms, Secretary of State of the United States, Minis-
ter to England, Vice President, and President of the United States.

As it is not improbable that much of the solicitude manifested
by my friends, in connection with this work, has grown out of
their feelings and opinions in regard to transactions of 1840 and
1844, in which my interests were supposed to be deeply involved,
it may not be amiss that I should say a few words on those sub-
jects in advance.
• ' —^ — — i ■ ■ ■ i i .in . « II.. i i^»— ^ ^— ■ ^ —

• MB. Book I, IK 1.

8 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

The Presidential Canvass of 1840, and its attending occurrences,
are at this moment, without reasonable doubt, subjects of regret
with ninety-nine hundredths of the sober minded and well in-
formed people of the United States. No one of that number can
now hesitate in believing that the scenes thro' which the Country
passed in that great political whirlwind were discreditable to our
Institutions and could not fail, if often repeated, to lead to their
subversion. Indeed nothing could have better served to justify
and strengthen our reliance upon the sober second-thought of our
People, than the sense so widely entertained of those transactions
as soon as the passions that produced them had subsided, and the
fact that no attempt has been since made to revive them. It is the
duty of every sincere friend to those Institutions to regard with
forbearance whatever took place at a period & under circumstances
to so great a degree unfavorable to the diffusion of truth & to a
correct appreciation of public measures*

The defeat of my nomination for re-election in 1844, after it

had been demanded by Constituencies represented by out of

(the whole number of Electors of President and Vice Presi-
dent) was the result of an intrigue that had its origin exclusively
in the Presidential aspirations of individuals, aided at its inception
by prejudices, unjust I hope, but such as the long continued exercise
of political power seldom, if ever, fails to generate, and only
finally made successful by the co-operation of the slave power,
subsequently & adroitly brought to the assistance of designs al-
ready matured.

Upon both of these topicks I shall of course have more to say
hereafter. For the present, it is sufficient to declare, as I do with
entire sincerity that I have never entertained the thought that a
majority of the People designed to deal unjustly with me on either
occasion. Errors were doubtless committed on all sides, delusions
set on foot which there was not time to dissipate and means, de-
signed for good ends, perverted to bad purposes. But neither of
these events, important as they were have ever planted in my breast
a single root of bitterness against the People at large, and it affords
me equal satisfaction to say that the reconciling influence of Time,
with the consciousness that I had already enjoyed a larger share
of popular favor than I could think myself entitled to, have brought
me to look with complacency, at least, upon the conduct of the in-
dividual actors in those stirring scenes.

My feelings towards a People, with whom I have had so many
and such interesting relations are consequently, now, & I trust will
continue to be those of gratitude and respect. What I may write
will not therefore proceed, as is often the case with those whose

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIK VAN BUBEN. 9

public career has been abruptly closed, from a wounded spirit, seek-
ing self -vindication, but will, on the contrary be under the control
of a judgment which satisfies me that I ought to be, as my feelings
lead me to be, at peace with all the world. I have besides imbibed a
large share of Mr. Jefferson's repugnance to " provings & f endings
of personal character.9' So strong has this feeling been that it has
induced me. over and over again, to wait for the tardy but certain
effects of time to vindicate me from unjust censure, when I had
the means at my command for the prompt & effectual refutation.

After abandoning a direct attempt to go on with this work,
commenced more than a year ago, I employed some of my leisure
moments in the collection of materials. These from the irresolu-
tion under which I laboured did not seem to promise results of
much value, beyond a temporary relief from the self reproach which
was caused by past neglect. Hoping to arrive at a better mood on
the course of my travels, I have brought these with me & to them
has fortunately been added a complete analysis of the Political
History of New York by Judge Hammond, made for me by my
much beloved & lamented son Martin, who had, as I find from his
papers, with the affectionate forethought that characterized him,
devoted much of ° his time to similar occupations in anticipation of
my possible wants & wishes. This supplies me with the chrono-
logical order of early events, which I have found to be, at this
distance from my papers, an indispensable requisite.

With these scanty preparations, but under the stimulus imparted
by high health, the exhilaration of this beautiful situation and
salubrious climate in the mountains of Sorrento, and the thought-
stirring vicinage of Vesuvius, the promontory of Misenum, the
classic Bay of Baiae, the island of Capri, and the exhumed cities
of Pompeii and Herculaneum, I have once more determined to
overcome that disinclination to mental efforts which has thro9 life
been n^y besetting infirmity, and to enter with spirit upon the ac-
complishment of a task, the performance of which I have hitherto
had too much reason to regard with feelings of despair.

My family was from Holland, without a single intermarriage
with one of different extraction from the time of the arrival of the
first emigrant to that of the marriage of my eldest son, embracing a
period of over two centuries and including six generations.1 I spent
a few weeks in Holland, after the abrupt close of my brief mission
to England in 1832, and was very kindly received by the King,

William I. He informed me that a gentleman of my name was at

i --_ - - - —

• MS. I, p. ft.

1 The record of the family of Martin Van Buren has been traced by Frank J. ConkUng,
who published It In the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. xxrill, pp.
121 and 207.— W. C. F.

10 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

one time Minister of Foreign Affairs under one of his ancestors;
that the name was derived from the town of Buren, in the neigh-
bourhood of Utrecht,1 which was formerly an Earldom, and from
which by the marriage of one of his forefathers, he derived one of
•his present titles — that of Count Buren. Of the fact which he sug-
gested that my family was from the same stock I have neither knowl-
edge or belief, or, I may add concern, nor do I feel any temptation
to claim family relationship with a branch of the Van Burens of
Holland as the family is literally extinct, even though its head had
the honor of connecting her name with that of Nassau/

All I know of my ancestors commences with the first emigrant
from Holland who came over in 1638, and settled in what is now
called Eensselaer County in the State of New York. His son,
[Marten], my great Grandfather, moved to Kinderhook and set-
tled on lands conveyed to him in 1669, by a Deed in my possession,
given pursuant to his father's will by Derick Wessels, of Albany,
a distinguished man in his day, as his father's part of a patent
granted nominally to Wessels, but for the benefit of his co-pro-
prietors.2 He and his son Martin and grand-son Abraham (my
father) lived and died — the latter at the advanced age of 82— on
the lands thus acquired. They were all farmers, cultivating the
soil themselves for a livelihood, holding respectable positions in
society and sustaining throughout unblemished characters. My
mother's maiden name was Goes,8 a name also favorably known in
Dutch annals, and she was regarded by all who knew her as liber-
ally endowed with the qualities & virtues that adorn the female
character. My father was an unassuming amiable man who was
never known to have an enemy. Utterly devoid of the spirit of

1 The village of Buren is in the Province of Gelderland. — W. C. F.

* Finding it in my way on my second visit to Holland in 1854, I paid a visit to the
ancient town of Buren. I found it a pleasant little place containing a population of
about seven hundred souls. On inquiry I found that there were yet three of the name
left & I sent for the eldest. He took me to the place where Castle Buren, as represented
on the map, had stood, and showed the ground yet bearing traces of a fortified place & of
its appropriate environs. He pointed out the lands ft houses which had belonged to
the Earldom, but which had all been sold by the French during their dominion in Hol-
land, and were now occupied, doubtless to their great improvement, by the owners of
the soil. The grounds belonging to the Castle were purchased & are now owned by the
Corporation. The family had become extinct & their bones had been within a year,
for reasons he assigned, removed from a previous place of interment and reburied within
a small yard near the spot where the Castle stood, surrounded by an evergreen hedge,
and shaded by a weeping willow In the centre, to the expense of which, he said, the King
had contributed liberally. A spot had been reserved for my guide, not he said, as a
relation, but as the oldest of the name in the town.

•Cornells Maessen, the first of the line, sailed for America in the vessel Rentsa-
laerticyck in the summer of 1631, bringing his wife, Catalyntje Martense, and a son.
Marten. They settled on the Van Renssalaer property at a place called Papsknee, on the
east side of the Hudson tllver, near Greenbush. A generation appears to have been
omitted in this account, for the son of Maessen, Marten, did not remove to Kinderhook.
The son of Marten, Pieter Martense, removed to that place, and his son, Marten, was
the grandfather of the President.— W. C. F.

• Maria Goes [Hoes] widow of Johannes Van Alen. — W. C. F.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUBEN. 11

accumulation, his property, originally moderate, was gradually re-
duced until he could but illy afford to bestow the necessary means
upon the education of his children. My advantages, in that re-
spect, were therefore limited to those afforded by the village academy
& I was at a very early age (I believe not more than fifteen or
sixteen), placed in a lawyers office where I remained for several
years. It has thro' life been to me a source of regret that I had not
pursued the course so often successfully adopted by our New Eng-
land young men under like circumstances, — that is to spend a por-
tion of their time in teaching the lower branches of learning, and,
with the means thus obtained, to acquire access for themselves to
the highest

My mind might have lost a portion of its vivacity, in the plodding
habits formed by such a course, but it could not have failed to acquire
in the elements of strength supplied by a good education much
more than it lost In place of the studies by which I would thus
have given employment to an uncommonly active mind I adopted
at a very early age the practice of appearing as Counsel before
Arbitrators and inferior tribunals and my success was such as
to give rise to exaggerated impressions that were brought before
the public in the course of my after political career. Altho' my
mind was in this way severely and usefully disciplined for the
examination and discussion of facts, & the practice in that respect
was eminently useful, yet the tendency of the course of training was
adverse to deep study, and gave an early direction and character
to my reading that I was never able to change. Instead of laying
up stores of useful knowledge, I read for amusement and trusted
to my facility for acquiring necessary information when occasions
for its use presented themselves. I was born with a sanguine tem-
perament, the mental features of which as described by Dr. Mayo
(the well known English Surgeon and author) "are a disposition
ardent, hasty and impetuous; the spirits high and buoyant, a ca-
pacity for intellectual exertions of the strongest kind or highest
flight, but often capricious and ill sustained," in contradistinction
from those of the "mixed or equal temperament" which is, he says,
"well disposed towards great and continually renewed exertions.".
I feel free to say that I have never been able to overcome the tend-
encies ascribed to the former.

How often have I felt the necessity of a regular course of reading
to enable me to maintain the reputation I had acquired and to sus-
tain me in my conflicts with able and better educated men, and re-
solved to enter upon it without further delay ! But ever in a whirl
of excitement, and absorbed by the cares attached to the new public
stations to which I was successively elevated I was sure to fall back,

12 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

after a few spasmodic efforts, to my old habit of reading light
matters0 to relieve the mind and to raise it out of the ruts in which
long thinking on one class of subjects is so apt to sink it, leaving the
weightier matters of the law, as well as those that appertained to
public affairs to the period when it became indispensable to grapple
with them. I am now amazed that with such disadvantages I should
have been able to pass through such contests as it has been my lot to
encounter with so few discomfitures. Much adroitness was often
necessary to avoid appearing in debate until I had been able to
make myself master of the subject under discussion. That remark-
able man John Randolph, in one of his morbid moods, wrote a series
of letters to General Jackson in which he assailed Mr. Calhoun with
great severity and at the same time laboured to divert the General
from a purpose he attributed to him — that of making me his suc-
cessor. These General Jackson, as was his habit in regard to all
private letters designed to sow tares between us, sent to me for my
perusal : Among many curious and characteristic observations in re-
gard to myself he said that in his long experience in public life he
had scarcely ever met with a single prominent man less informed
than myself upon great questions when they were first pre-
sented, or who understood them better when I came to their
discussion. I remember well the General's hearty laugh when he
heard me subscribe to the justice of the description. Few can have
been more entirely indebted for whatever success may at any time
have crowned intellectual efforts to uncultivated nature than myself,
yet I do not remember the occasion when I succeeded in satisfying
my friends that I did not feel that I could have done much better
if I had possessed better advantages of Education and study. Hence
my resolutions revived at almost every period of my life to become a
severe student — resolutions which were frustrated, if not, as the
Apostle says of sin, by a war in my members, certainly by one in
my unconquerable mental habits.

I cannot pass from the subject of my early professional career
in inferior tribunals without a caution to my young friends, the
circumstances of whose start in life may resemble my own, against
the adoption of a similar course. The temptation to anticipate pro-
fessional fame is a strong one, and my success, humble as it has been,
is well calculated to mislead young men of genius and ambition.
Whatever the degree of that success may have been they may be
assured that it would have been much greater and more substantial
if like many others, who may not have succeeded as well, I had first
acquired a sound education and stored my mind with useful knowl-

° MS. i, p. 10.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 18

edge. After those invaluable objects are substantially accomplished,
many advantages may be derived from the practice I pursued ; but
if those acquisitions do not precede its adoption they will in all
probability never be made.

I was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court in the Fall of
1803, and gave my first vote in the ensuing spring in the celebrated
Gubernatorial election between Aaron Burr, and Morgan Lewis.
Altho' I had for some time before been entrusted with professional
business, and, as a zealous politician, represented my county at the
age of nineteen in a District Convention held at Troy, which nom-
inated John P. Van Ness for Congress, yet both my professional
and political career can only be considered as commenced at this
period. The families which had hitherto taken the lead in the
politics of my native town were the Van Ness on the Republican,
and the Van Schaack and the Silvester on the Federal side. They
had been opposed to each other, as Whigs and Tories in the Revolu-
tion, and they imbibed the prejudices and resentments engendered by
Civil War; they had also been arrayed in adverse ranks in all the
political divisions that had subsequently arisen, but by a remark-
able combination of circumstances I was, at my first appearance on
the political stage, placed in direct opposition to those influential
families and their friends as a united body, and experienced a full
share in the intolerance that characterized the times.

Mr. Silvester,1 in whose office I had been placed as a student.
was a just and honorable man. Such was also the character of
his venerable father, and indeed of all the members of his family.
°HiB Uncles, the Van Schaacks, and their numerous connexions,
including the widely known and justly respected Peter Van Schaack.
were persons of much reputation and distinction. But they were
all ardent politicians, and some of them very violent in their feelings.
Efforts to divert me from my determined course were not wanting.
I will refer to but one of them. After the election of 1798 or '9.
when I was between sixteen and seventeen years of age, Elisha
Williams, who in the sequel became my principal professional com-
petitor, arrived in the village, and announced the success of the fed-
eral candidates, of whom Peter Silvester, the father of my instructor
and one of the purest men I ever knew, was one. There followed,
of course, a gathering of the faithful — a firing of cannon and all
the usual methods of rejoicing over political success, continuing
until night. It was noticed that I did not participate in these
expressions, and whilst a collection of choice spirits, (of whom
an elder half-brother of mine was one) were drinking their wine
and singing "Hail Columbia!" and other patriotic songs in an

» Frauds Silverier. ° H8. I, p. 15.

14 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

upper room, Cornelius Silvester, a brother of my instructor, a
merchant, and a generous, noble hearted man, having observed the
state of my feelings, came out and pressed me earnestly to join them.
Having declined his invitation, which was given with delicacy and
kindness, I retired to his store, where I slept in the absence of his
clerk. Some time after midnight I heard a knocking at the door,
and on opening it, admitted Mr. Silvester himself. At his instance
I returned to my bed, and he placed himself by its side, and for
more than an hour occupied himself in presenting the reasons
which ought to induce me to adopt the politicks of the Federal
party, and solicited me to do so with a degree of earnestness and
obvious concern for my welfare which I could not but respect.

After hearing him out, I replied calmly that I appreciated thor-
oughly the kindness of his feelings, and was well satisfied of the
purity of his motives, but that my course had been settled after much
reflection, and could not be changed. He paused a moment, and then
took my hand and said he would never trouble me again on the sub-
ject, and would always remain my friend. As was quite natural my
insensibility to repeated remonstrances and solicitations and the ac-
tive part which I thus early took against them in party politics en-
gendered heart burning with all and occasional tho' slight bickerings
between Mr. Silvester and myself which rendered my situation dis-
agreeable, and determined me to seek another place to complete my
studies. Mr. Van Ness succeeded in his election to Congress, married
an heiress at Washington, and returned to Kinderhook in high
feather. His father, altho' a man of wealth had been disappointed
in his son's first progress in life and, being withal a very severe man,
had withheld from him all advances not indispensable to his support.
So poor were both of us, that when I went to Troy to sustain his
nomination, I had to borrow the amount necessary to defray my ex-
pences. Being now in very affluent circumstances, and conscious of
the increasing embarrassment of my situation in Mr. Silvester's of-
fice, he pressed me to enter one of the prominent law offices in the
city of New York, and offered to loan me the necessary funds, to be
repaid when I was able. I accepted the offer, went to New York,
and entered temporarily, the office of his brother William P. Van
Ness, intending to look about me before selecting an office of the
character we contemplated. Mr. W. P. Van Ness treated me kindly,
and altho' he had but little business, as I found so much the more
opportunity for study I remained with him to the end of my Clerk-
ship. It becoming necessary for Mr. Van Ness to advance large sums
to relieve estates on which his wife owned mortgages from prior in-
cumbrances he was only able to fulfill his promise to me to the trifling
extent of Forty dollars, but tendered his pledge to re-imburse any

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 15

temporary accommodation I might obtain from other sources; but
at this juncture my half brother stepped forward and loaned me all
I wanted. The prompt return of the forty dollars to Mr. Van Ness
closed our pecuniary relations in advance of the change that soon
after took place in those of a personal and political character.

The war between Colonel Burr, and the Clintonians was then
raging with its greatest severity, and the contest which closed the
political career of the former took place in the ensuing spring.
Mr. William P. Van Ness carried me occasionally to visit Colonel
Burr at Richmond Hill, and I met him sometimes at Mr. Van
Ness's house. He treated me with much attention, and my sym-
pathies were excited by his subsequent position. Having entered
upon the practice of my profession in my native town, under very
favorable circumstances and already acquired the reputation of an
active politician, the course I would take in the election became a
question of considerable local interest The relation in which I
had stood to the Van Ness family, with my known, personal par-
tiality for Colonel Burr, created so strong an impression that I
would support him, that my friends have often in later years been
called upon to defend me against the charge of having been a Burr-
ite. In reply to a friendly and very proper letter from William P.
Van Ness I stated to him the grounds upon which I had decided to
support the Republican candidate Morgan Lewis. These letters are
still among my papers.1 Notwithstanding this, Mr. John P. Van
Ness came from Washington to attend the election, and re-opened
the matter to me. I explained to him at our first interview the
stand I had taken, and the grounds of it. He however continued
the discussion for several days, until not finding me disposed to yield,
he stopped abruptly in the street, and said, with emphasis, "I see,
Sir, that you are determined upon your course." I replied, "Yes,
Sir ! I told you so at the beginning.'9 He immediately said " Good
morning, Sir ! " with a very grave look and tone, turned on his heel,
and walked off. From that moment our friendship terminated, and
our social relations even were suspended for nearly twenty years.
We encountered each other in the newspapers and at the polls, and
when I offered my vote, the first I ever gave, his father, Peter Van
Ness, and Peter Van Schaack, who had been, as I have already said,
at variance since the Revolution, but were now both ardent sup-
porters of Col. Burr, came forward, arm in arm, accompanied by
the son of the latter, who, with their approbation, challenged my
vote. Altho' the inspectors declared themselves satisfied, I was com-
pelled to take the oath prescribed by law — an indignity which at the

*WQUam P. Van New to Van Buren, 22 February, 1804, and Van Buren's reply, 13
March, 1804.

16 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

next election I retaliated upon young Van Schaack in a way as
technically lawful as his own, but which stung him and his friends
too deeply to be soon forgotten.

Peter Van Ness and Peter Van Schaack whose combined influence
frowned so harshly upon the commencement of my political career
were men of no common mark. Judge Van Ness commenced life
in the humble but respectable trade of a wheelwright, with very
little education, «and yet by the force of a strong intellect and an
indomitable spirit, he raised himself to high positions as well in
the government as in the society in which he lived. As early as
the French War in 1756, and at the age of nineteen, he commanded
a company, by their own choice, and served with them in Canada.
He afterwards commanded a Regiment at the capture of Burgoyne
in 1777. He was a prominent member, perhaps the most so, of the
Committee of Public Safety for his County, during the Revolu-
tionary War, State Senator, Member of the Council of Appoint-
ment, Member of the Convention for the Adoption of the Consti-
tution, and First Judge of his County, which office he held at the
time of his death. He was intolerant in his political opinion and
arbitrary in his disposition. The traditions of the neighbourhood,
in which he lived and died, abound with anecdotes of his fiery temper
and personal courage, and in the epitaph on his tombstone, erected
at Lindenwald, forty years after his death, and after the place had
been some time mine, he is described by his eldest son, General John
P. Van Ness, as " an honest brave man, who feared nothing but his
God." My opposition to° his views, which he regarded as a species
of treason in a stripling and a member of a family with whom he
had been connected at marriage and had been always intimate, pro-
duced during the canvass unpleasant collisions between us that made
it difficult to treat him with the respect due to his years and posi-
tion, and his death occurred too soon after those exciting scenes to
give his anger time to subside. In that interval I had but one meet-
ing with him, and that under circumstances that I had reason to
believe did not aggravate his prejudice. His son William, having
been the second of Col. Burr in his duel with Gen. Hamilton, which
took place soon after the election, finding it prudent to leave the
city of New York after the result was known came to his father's
house at Kinderhook.

He informed me by a friendly note, of his desire to go to Albany,
and to consult with me, before going, in regard to his right to be
bailed if he should be arrested there, and for that purpose asked me
to call on him at his father's house. Happy in the opportunity thus
afforded to shew him that our differences in regard to the election

• MS. i, » 20.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 17

had made none in my friendly feelings towards him I started at
once for his father's residence without a thought of the existing rela-
tions between the old gentleman and myself. As I approached the
porch of the house built and then owned and occupied by Judge Van
Ness, I perceived that the lower half of the old-fashioned front door
which was divided through the middle (a style greatly favored by
our Dutch ancestors) was closed, and the upper open, at which the
Judge was seated close to and with his back against the lower door,
for the benefit of the light, reading a newspaper. Hearing my steps
he looked around and perceiving me, instantly resumed his reading
in a manner that precluded me from addressing him. The door for
explanation, as well as that for entrance, being thus closed upon me,
and not feeling disposed to retreat, I seized the knocker which was
hanging near his head, and gave it a somewhat emphasized rap, and
as I did so I saw a smile upon his countenance of which my position
afforded me a profile view. His son answered the summons imme-
diately, spoke to his father, (who passed into the drawing room
without looking behind him) and opened the door for ma He pro-
posed a walk to the neighboring bank of the creek to prevent inter-
ruption from visitors. We passed thro' the Hall, and, as we left
the house by the back door, he apologized to me for having forgot-
ten the relations between his father and myself, which would have
made it more proper for him to come to me. I told him he was not
to blame, for, in the pre-occuption of the moment, I had forgotten
them myself, but thought the circumstances bid fair to improve our
intercourse, and then described the old gentleman's irrepressible
amusement at the free use I had made of the knocker. He laughed
and said that he had no doubt his father was pleased with the way,
so much in character with his own decisive temper, in which I had
extricated myself from the embarrassment in which he had placed
me. The Judge died in the succeeding month of December, pos-
sessed of considerable wealth. The estate on which he had long
resided, and on which he was buried, was originally settled by a
family who were relations of my father. It was sold at the close
of the Revolutionary War to pay the debts of the then head of the
family, and purchased by the Judge. He devised it to his son
William, in whose hands it went thro' a similar process, and was
purchased by one of his creditors who sold it to me. In the many
alterations and improvements I have made in the house I have pre-
served the old double-door, and its knocker, as interesting memorials
of my last interview with its orignal owner.

During my long official residence at Washington, very courteous
relations were maintained with my old friend Gen. John P, Van

127488°— vol 2— 20 2

18 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Ness, but he by no means liked my political principles. My course
in regard to the currency and particularly in respect to the Banks
of the District of Columbia, in one of which he was deeply interested,
displeased him so much, as to induce him to come to our county in
1840, to speak and electioneer against my re-election. Having, at an
early day, obtained my permission to erect a monument over his
father's grave, he came up for that purpose, not a great while before
his death, but with an evident resolution that our intercourse should
be of the most reserved character. Altho' the business he had in
hand would detain him some days, he declined my invitation to stay
with me, and, at first, every other advance on my part to facilitate
his operations. I notwithstanding directed my people to give him
all the assistance he needed, and on the second day he consented to
diile with me. He did the same on each succeeding day, and left me
when his work was finished with feelings as kind as those which
existed at the commencement of our acquaintance. We visited the
tomb together on the last day of his stay and he read aloud the
inscription on the monument, and when he came to the words com-
memorating his father's bravery, which I have elsewhere quoted, he
turned to me and said emphatically " You, Sir, know that this is
true ; " to which I very heartily and sincerely assented. The Gen-
eral died shortly afterwards. I did not see him again. I have
thought this brief notice due to a gentleman with whom I was at the
commencement of my career so closely connected, and who was in
every sense a remarkable man.

Peter Van Schaack was a native of Kinderhook. His family was
among its first settlers, and generally independent in their circum-
stances. He was a graduate of Columbia College and had every fa-
cility afforded him for improvement.' Of these he did not fail to
avail himself and came to be extensively and justly regarded as a
finished scholar as well as a learned Counsellor. Having studied the
Common law thoroughly as a science and made himself master of its
general principles, their application to particular cases was to him
always a matter of pleasant entertainment rather than of labour. A
diffidence which he could not overcome prevented him from becoming
a successful advocate, but his legal opinions were generally respected.
He was through life, excepting the period of the War of the Revolu-
tion, the friend and close companion of Jay, Benson, and Sedgwick,
but those ties were suspended by the course he took in that great
struggle. They became prominent and efficient Whigs, while his
principles made him a Tory. The correspondence between Mr. Jay
and himself, while they stood in that position of antagonism, which
is published in a very creditable life of Mr. Van Schaack, written by
his son, does high and enduring honor to both parties. He was ban-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTTREN. 19

ished, and resided in England until the close of the War. When he
returned Mr. Jay met him at the wharf and gave him a cordial and
generous reception. He resumed the practice of his profession and
in the progress of time became once more united in political principle
with 43ov . Jay and the other friends I have named in the ranks of
the federal party. Altho' he occupied an eminent position at the Bar
and in Society for half a century following he was never elected to
any public office, nor was he to my knowledge ever a candidate for
one. He lived in times and in locations which would have been fa-
vorable to his election, if he had desired it, but his sight became grad-
ually impaired, ending in total blindness. That circumstance and
feelings of delicacy connected with his course in the Revolution kept
him out of the Arena, as a candidate, but did not prevent him from
being a thorough partisan.

His prejudices against me in early life were of the rankest kind,
but being frequently associated as counsel in important professional
business, in which our feelings were deeply enlisted, we came to
understand and to like each other better. For -a series of years
before his death our relations were of a friendly character — politics
always excepted. In respect to the latter we never made an ap-
proach toward accord, and but a few years before his death, he
went, old and blind as he was, to the Polls to vote against me, in
my canvass for the office of Governor of New York, and in -favor
of a gentleman whom I knew he did not like, personally, half as
well as he liked me.1 My faith in the capacity of the masses of the
People of our Country to govern themselves, and in their general
integrity in the exercise of that function, was very decided and
was more and more strengthened as my intercourse with them ex-
tended.0 Of this he had, to use the mildest term, very little. The
limited extent to which his nature would allow him to entertain it
was, at an early and critical period, overthrown, and the severe
penalties inflicted upon his unbelief, doubtless gave to his feelings
in this regard a character of harshness. Differing so widely at the
starting point, our views became more divergent at every step we
took in politics, as well in regard. to men as to measures. On my
first return from England I visited Kinderhook, and hearing that
he was lying hopelessly ill, I was on the point of starting to see
him, when his son came. with an invitation from him that I should
do so; and I was deeply impressed with the solemnity of the inter-
view. I found him lying on a temporary bed in his library, where
he desired to die, and where I had so often seen him in the full
possession and exercise of hia powerful mental faculties. As soon

'Van Buren'B opponents were 8mlth Thompson and Solomon Southwick, the latter
running on the anti-Masonic ticket. — W. C. F.

• MS. I, p. 25. /

/

20 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOF.

as I entered he had himself raised in his bed, extended his hand to
me and expressed his satisfaction at seeing me. He said that he
was going through his last change, and on my expressing a hope
that such might not prove to be the case, he stopped me, and said
" No !" he had lived out the full measure of his days, and could not
be too thankful that his mental faculties had been preserved till his
last momenta It so happened that I had made myself familiar
with the place of his residence during his exile in London, and he
listened with interest to my description of its present condition.
He spoke kindly and considerately of the relations that had existed
between us, and I was struck with his evident desire to make the
civil things his gentlemanly disposition induced him to say con-
form strictly to the fact, without reviving unpleasant recollections.
In bidding me farewell forever he said " I am happy, Sir, to think
that we have always been " — friends he seemed about to add, but,
pausing a moment, he continued — " that you always came to see me
when you visited Kinderhook" In a day or two I heard that this
distinguished man had ceased to live.

CHAPTER IL

I remained in the practice of the law twenty five years, and until
I entered upon the duties of the office of Governor, since which I
have never appeared in a professional capacity before any judicial
tribunal, comprising from my admission to the present time a
period of fifty one years. For my business I was to a marked extent
indebted to the publick at large, having received but little from the
Mercantile interest or from Corporations, and none from the great
landed aristocracies of the country. It was notwithstanding fully
equal to my desires and far beyond my most sanguine expectations.
I was not worth a shilling when I commenced my professional career.
I have never since owed a debt that I could not pay on demand nor
known what it is to want money, and I retired from the practice
of my profession with means adequate to my own support, and to
leave to my children, not large estates, but as much as I think it for
their advantage to receive. The cases in which I was employed em-
braced not only the ordinary subjects of litigation between man
and man in communities like that in which 1 resided but extended
to the most intricate and important causes that arose during the last
fifteen or twenty years of my practice. In the management of these
I was repeatedly associated with and opposed to such men as Richard
Harrison, Aaron Burr, Thomas Addis Emmett, Daniel Webster,
John Wells, John V. Henry, Peter Van Schaack, Abraham Van
Vechten, David B. Ogden, Samuel A. Talcott and Elisha Williams —
a galaxy of great lawyers scarcely equalled in the professional ranks
of any country.

Elisha Williams, altho' ten years my senior was my professional
antagonist thro' the whole of my professional career. We were for
a long succession of years employed in almost every cause that was
tried at the Bar of Columbia County, where we both resided, and
almost always on opposite sides. We were at the same time promi-
nent leaders in our respective political parties, and both warm par-
tisans. To the danger of imbibing personal prejudice from these
prolific sources was added that which threatened the discharge of
adverse duties in cases embittered by the strong personal antipathies
of the parties to the litigation ; and yet, with a constant indulgence
in what is called loose, and means liberal practice, we never had, to
my recollection, a motion before the Court for relief against techni-
cal or formal advantages taken on either side. I invariably en-
countered him with more apprehension at the Circuits than any of

21

22 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

the great men I have named, and I am sure I speak but the opinion
of his professional contemporaries when I say that he was the great-
est nisi-priw lawyer of the New York Bar. It seemed scarcely pos-
sible to excel his skill in the examination of witnesses or his ad-
dresses to the Jury, but with these his ambition seemed satisfied; for
arguments at the Term he was seldom well prepared and far less
successful On closing our last professional concern after my re-
tirement he expressed to me by letter his great satisfaction that in
a practice so peculiarly exciting as ours had been we had never any
cause for personal complaint in our professional proceedings and
tendered me assurances of his respect and esteem, feelings ^jhich
were very cordially reciprocated on my part.

The briefest sketch of the incidents of such a professional career
as mine has been would yet be too long for insertion here, assuming
that they would be of sufficient interest so long after their occurence,
to justify it. They must therefore, with one or two exceptions, be
left to the judicial reports, and to the traditions of the times. The
exceptions, as will be seen, have more than professional relations.

My employment as Counsel to contest the title of the Livingston
family to the Manor which bears their name, has been a fruitful
scource of misrepresentation of both my professional and political
conduct, and I will therefore be excused for placing that matter
upon its true ground. Did the subject possess no other interest than
my own vindication from unmerited aspersions I would, on the prin-
ciple by which I am governed in the preparation of this Memoir,
pass it by. But a brief and true statement of a matter which has, at
intervals for nearly a century produced bitter litigation and violence,
making repeated appeals to military aid necessary to the preserva-
tion of the public order, and in regard to which the acts of dis-
tinguished individuals have been brought in question, cannot be with-
out interest.

Robert Livingston, in the year 1684, obtained a Patent from
the Crown for a strip of Land on the Eastern shore of the
North (or Hudson) River, stretching from the Northern to the
Southern Boundary of the Manor, as it is now held, and extending
into the woods so far as to contain Eighteen Hundred acres, with
a reference to monuments at each end of the strip, which are now
the North and South bounds of the Patent. A short time after-
wards he obtained another Patent for what was then and has ever
since been known as Tackkanic (Taghkanie?) Flats lying East of the
first Tract, and supposed to contain eight hundred Morghens of
land. Both grants contained definite bounds and distinct quantities.
In 1686 he obtained a Patent of Confirmation, which recites the two
previous Patents, and states that the tracts described in them lie

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIK VAN BUKEN. 23

adjacent to each other. This Patent contains apt words granting
and confirming to him and to his heirs the said Tracts of land,
therein represented to have been previously granted and now de-
scribed by exterior bounds, referring to natural objects, which bounds
included the present Manor. In point of fact the lands embraced
in the two first Patents lay from eighteen to twenty miles apart
from each other, and the intermediate lands constitute the principal
part of the present Manor, amounting to some acres,

whilst the tracts contained in the original Patents amount to be-
tween three and four thousand. That this representation was the
act of the applicant for the Patent and that it was grossly untrue
are undeniable facts. They have never been controverted because
they could not be denied, and there is not the slightest doubt that if
the Government at °Home had become apprised of the glaring
falsity upon which the Patent of Confirmation was granted, and
had, within a proper time, instituted proceedings to vacate it, the
Patent would have been declared void. Why it was not done, and
why this indirect course was originally pursued by Mr. Livingston,
and why he did not afterwards apply for and obtain an original
Patent not referring to and wholly independent of those which were
tainted with the fraud, are questions which will probably never be
solved. The regulations in force in regard to the quantify for
which grants to individuals were authorized when the first Patents
were granted, the footing on which he stood with the Government
at the different periods when they were issued, and a natural re-
pugnance to an acknowledgment of the original Error may each
have had their influence in controlling his course, and there may
have been inducements of which we have no knowledge or suspicion.
But instead of adopting the course I have referred to, Mr. Liv-
ingston made it the business of his life, as it has been that of his
heirs, to uphold the tainted title by a succession of acts on the part
of the Crown, by its Colonial Government, and on the part of the
State Authority after the Revolution, to strengthen the Patent of
Confirmation, and his claim under it.

The fact of the misrepresentation and the fraud involved in it
was open to the tenants, and the ground readily taken that no after
acts, bottomed on that original fraud could render the title valid.
This state of things gave rise to periodical agitations and repeated
outbreakings among the tenants from about the year 1740 to the
present time; one or more arose before I was born, one whilst I
was a student at law, one whilst I was at the Bar, and one after
1 left it. When I was retained by the Committee who represented
the Tenants, I gave the main opinion in writing in which I held,

* MS. I, p. 80.

24 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

First, that the Patent of 1686 (the first which covered the Manor)
was void on account of the fraudulent misrepresentation it con-
tained and on which it was founded, and was not made valid by
the subsequent Patents which recited it, and were, in that respect,
avowedly designed as Patents of Confirmation only ; and Secondly,
That the effect of the possession of the claimants under it and of
the statutes of limitation in barring the rights of the State was
a question of greater difficulty, in regard to which I must not be
understood as encouraging them with a prospect of a favorable
result. A suit to try titles was brought by Thomas Addis Emmett
as Attorney General on behalf of the State, but before it could
be brought to trial, he was displaced from office by a political
change, and succeeded by Abraham Van Vechten. The Committee
not believing that they could be properly prepared at the first
Circuit for which the cause was noticed for trial, in which opinion
their counsel, including Mr. Emmett, (whom they had retained
after his removal) concurred, and assuming that their wishes for
a postponement until the next Circuit would, under the circum-
stances, be respected, took no preparatory steps. These views and
wishes were communicated to Mr. Van Vechten, on his arrival at
Hudson, who declined to comply with them, and decided to pro-
ceed in the trial. The Committee protested against this decision,
and refused to take any part in the investigation. The trial, vir-
tually an ex-parte proceeding, resulted in a verdict for the defend-
ants. No farther steps were taken whilst I was at the Bar, but the
matter was, as is well known, subsequently revived and bitterly
contested.

Whilst tiie proceedings first referred to were going on, I was
called upon by Gen. Jacob B. Van Rensselaer, accompanied by Mr.
Williams, and informed that a report was in circulation on the
Manor, that he had said on the floor of the House of Assembly, in
a debate on a petition of the tenants, "that the tenants were not
fit to govern themselves, and deserved to have a Master" — that
this report was doing him great injury in the matter of his re-
election, and that, as I could not believe that he had said so, he
wished me to authorize the Newspaper to contradict the report in
my name as the most effectual way of putting it down. I asked
him whether he had any suspicion that the report had been in any
degree countenanced by me. He replied, — " not the slightest " — that
he had fully satisfied himself upon that point. I then told him
that he had done me but justice in that regard, that I had never
heard of the report before, and had no hesitation in saying to him
and to Mr. Williams that I believed him to be a man of too much
good sense to make such a remark, and this I thought would be

AUTOBIOGRAPHY Otf MABTIN VAN BTTEEN. 25

the general opinion. But I added that their press had been for a
long time and was at that very moment teeming with the most
outrageous calumnies against me on the same general subject charg-
ing me with things which he could not but be satisfied were false,
but that I heard of no attempts on his part or that of his friends to
check their course; that I would point out the libels to which I
alluded, shew him their falsity, if that were necessary, and that the
moment I found him interfering in my behalf, as he wished me to
do for him, I would with pleasure comply with his wishes; — until
then I must decline to do so. He refused to connect other matters
with his request and was as persistent in making it as I was in de-
clining it. He then gave me notice that he would call a meet-
ing of, the People of the Manor towns, on a day and at a place
he named, at which meeting he would charge me with writing a
letter during the preceding winter (as he had been credibly in-
formed was the case), to a member of the Legislature — Mr. Whal-
lon advising him to stave off action on the Tenant's petition until
after the Spring elections, with a view to securing the favourable
effect on those elections of the pendency of the matter. I assured
him that his information was entirely false, and offered to give
him a letter, authorizing Mr. Whallon to furnish him with copies
of any letters I had written to him, or to obtain copies for him
myself. He declined the offer and called his meeting. I sent a
messenger to the place with a letter, addressed to the Chairman
of the meeting narrating what had taken place between the Gen-
eral and myself — giving the fullest contradiction to the revelation
he proposed to make, and requesting to have my letter read to the
meeting. The Chairman put my communication in his pocket, and
allowed Gen. Van Rensselaer to make his statement — without say-
ing one word to the meeeting about its receipt or contents.

When informed of this I published a card in the Newspapers and
in Hand bills, denouncing in the strongest terms the falsity of the
General's accusations, and called a meeting at the same place for
the purpose of making the same denial in person. I gave the Gen-
eral notice of the time, place, and object of the meeting with an invi-
tation to attend. When my friend Mr. Morell, and myself arrived
at the place of meeting we found a very large assemblage of people,
and among them General Van Rensselaer, Mr. Williams and several
members of the Livingston family and their Agents. As soon as the
meeting was organized I rose and stated my object in calling it —
submitted to it certified copies of the only letters I had written to
Mr. Whallon— denied the charge upon which the General had ar-
raigned me before them and called upon him to maintain it if he
could. He stood in a remote part of the room, but did not then
speak or shew any disposition to do so. After a pause I rose again,

/

26 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

and, repeating what bad transpired, claimed that his continued
silence must under the circumstances be regarded by the meeting as
a confession that his charge was untrue. He then came forward,
greatly agitated, and made an earnest appeal to the meeting, which
he concluded by pledging himself that if I would commence a suit
against him, he would, as the words were not actionable, deposit in
Court five hundred dollars, as stipulated damages, to be forfeited if
he did not prove the charge. I promised to comply with the sug-
gestion, and contented myself with asking the meeting to remember
my prediction that the Deposit would never be made. After the
close of the Election I called upon him to redeem his promise, when
he replied that he had, at the time, limited the period within which
the call was to be made, and as that had expired he now declined to
make the Deposit; a declaration which the whole assembly before
whom his pledge had been given knew to be unfounded. The pub-
lication of our correspondence closed the affair between the General
and myself. I also brought a libel suit against the Editor1 of the
federal newspaper for a still broader ° and libelous impeachment of
my conduct and motives in the Manor controversy. This I ceased
to prosecute on the application of Mr. Williams made by a letter in
which he disclaimed for the Editor a design to accuse me of any-
thing beyond or inconsistent with my professional rights and duties,
claiming only that my opinions were wrong and led to injurious
results.

I make these explanations in view of the extent to which these
questions between Landlord and Tenant have in later times been
made the subject of political agitation — leading to such debauchery
of the publick mind as to enable it to hear without apparent shock,
of the extension of Executive pardon to persons convicted of the
darkest crimes growing out of such agitations, under circumstances
justifying deep suspicion of being designed to operate upon their
suffrages and the suffrages of their friends. The time has I hope
never been when my mind would not have revolted at the mere con-
templation of such dealings with such subjects, and I am quite
unwilling to have any acts of mine confounded with those we have
witnessed in more recent times.

I am induced to speak of another matter connected with my pro-
fessional life because it relates to the only personal dispute I ever
had which led to the extremity to which it was pursued. At the
Columbia Circuit in the year 181 [?] we brought to a final and
favorable decision, so far as related to the Courts of law, the long
existing controversy in regard to the effect of a Patent, in which

many of the Dutch families (and mine among them) w re inter*

-■ ■ ■

1 Francis Stebbins, editor of the Northern Whig, published In Hudson. — W. C. F.
* MS. I, p. 85.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 27

ested, and which Mr. Van Schaack had had under his professional
care and management since the year 1772. Being very much dis-
satisfied with the testimony of a surveyor, who had formerly been
on our side but was now against us, I thought it but fair, as I was
entitled to the closing speech, to give him notice of the attack I in-
tended to make upon his credibility and the grounds of it, to afford
the opposing Counsel an opportunity of sustaining him. Among
the latter was John Suyjlam, a young gentleman from another
county and then rapidly rising in professional fame, and also high
in the confidence and esteem of the federal party. When I came to
that part of the case he interrupted me and used offensive expres-
sions, to which I replied hastily and still more offensively. No
farther notice was taken of the matter on that or the next day, but on
the third a dinner was given by General Van Rensselaer, at
Claverack, to a large party of distinguished gentlemen of the federal
party, including Mr. Suydam and also General Harry Livingston, a
valorous old gentleman, who owed me much ill will and acknowledged
the debt with no more reserve than that with which he strove to pay
it I am far from saying or even believing that the affair between
Mr. Suydam and myself was made the subject of particular action
at that dinner; but it gave Mr. Suydam a better opportunity than
he had yet had to see to what extent I was an eye-sore to the Mag-
nates of the County, and exposed him to the temptation of raising
himself in their estimation by becoming the instrument of my
humiliation. On the succeeding morning I was called from my seat
in Court by Thomas P. Grosvenor (who had been one of the guests
at the entertainment referred to) and by him presented with a chal-
lenge from Mr. Suydam. Mr* Grosvenor was the brother-in-law
of Mr. Williams and a man of decided talent and distinction in pub-
lick life: he became afterwards a prominent member of Congress,
had a personal affair with Mr. Calhoun, and died at Baltimore. He
expressed his desire to accommodate the matter in which I believe
he was sincere, as, altho' a man of extreme violence in politics, he was
not wanting in generous impulses, and proceeded to state how he
thought the affair might be arranged without discredit on either side.
T thanked him for his good disposition, but had no difficulty in
showing him that the reciprocal declarations he suggested would
be directly inconsistent with what I had said of Mr. Suydam, and
concluded by telling him that I had no course but to accept the invi-
tation, and would give him a formal answer, through my friend Mr.
Morell, after the adjournment of the Court No one entertains a
more contemptuous opinion of the bravery of the Duel field than
myself, or holds the practice in less respect, but I deemed it indis-
pensable to the maintenance of my position to follow the bad ex-
amples which publick opinion had sanctioned if not required. I

28 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

therefore delivered my acceptance to Mr. Morell on my returning
from Court. He reported to me the next morning that Mr. Grosve-
nor irritated by the incessant remonstrances of his friends against
his agency in the affair, had refused to have any intercourse with
him upon the subject, and had tendered to him any responsibility
that he chose to demand ; that he had then called on Mr. Suydam
and offered him my reply which he refused to receive unless it came
thro9 Mr. Grosvenor. I requested him to see Mr. Suydam imme-
diately and to propose to him, in my name, that we should agree
to dispense with the farther action of both of our friends and appoint
others as the only way in which the difficulty that had arisen could
be obviated. He executed the commission and returned with a verbal
answer from Mr. Suydam that he could not, under the circumstances,
consent to dispense with Mr. Grosvenor's services. I went imme-
diately to his hotel and posted him, and the affair finally evaporated
in newspaper publications and recognizances to keep the peace.1 For
some years there was no intercourse between us, tho' a disposition
to restore friendly relations was quite apparent on his part, and at
length meeting at dinner, while attending Court in a neighbouring
county, and sitting opposite to each other, he asked me to pass the
wine which stood before me, and I met the overture with an invita-
tion to take a glass with me which he accepted " with pleasure ", and
we walked arm-in-arm to the Court house to our mutual gratifica-
tion and the astonishment of our friends. He soon after joined our
side in politicks, was elected to the [State] Senate as a Democrat,
became my zealous friend and supporter and remained so till he
died, sincerely lamented by all who knew him, and by none more
than myself, as a man of noble impulses, honorable character and
decided talent.

Earnestly engaged in a successful and lucrative practice, I had
no desire to be a candidate for an elective office, nor did I become one
until the Spring of 1812, when I was forced into that position by
circumstances with which I could not deal differently. But from
my boyhood I had been a zealous partisan, supporting with all my
power the administrations of Jefferson and Madison — including the
Embargo and other restrictive measures, — had acted with the great
body of the Republican party in supporting the election of Morgan
Lewis against Aaron Burr for Governor, and subsequently that of
Daniel D. Tompkins against Governor Lewis2 for the same office,
sustained the prorogation of the Legislature by Governor Tomp-
kins on the ground of the use of corrupt means to obtain the charter
of the bank of America, and had exerted myself, as far as I could,

*Two notes of this affair are In the Van Buren Papers, November 25, 1811, and
February 17, 1812. — W. C. F.
• In 1807.— W. C. F.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUBEX. 29

to arrest the bank mania of the times by which the State was dis-
honored and its best interests impaired. It is a curious coincidence
in my pnblick career that notwithstanding my devotion to politicks,
my first nomination for an elective office as well as that for the last
I held, should both have been brought about by the unfriendly acts
of those who chose to regard themselves as rivals without being, at
the moment, anticipated by myself. There were several highly
respectable citizens who aspired to the nomination to fill the va-
cancy in the office of State Senator which occurred in my District
in 1812, but I was not of the number. I was .unwilling to permit
the possession of such an office or any other cause to interfere with
the prosecution of my profession, to which I was warmly attached,
and the circumstance that there had not then been so young a man
as myself elected to the Senate prevented me from even thinking
of it. William P. Van Ness, in whose office I had studied law, was
one of the aspirants. He had succeeded to the title and possession
of his father's place at Kinderhook and Mr. John C. Hogeboom and
myself had prevailed upon Governor Tompkins to relieve him, by
pardon, from the disfranchisement to which he had become liable
as a second of Colonel Burr in the duel with General Hamilton.
He had solicited my support but received for answer that I consid-
ered Mr. ° Hogeboom best entitled to the place. To this he assented
and assured me that he should do nothing to prevent his selection.
Not long afterwards and while Mr. Hogeboom and myself were
spending a few days at Albany, we accidentally discovered that Mr.
Van Ness (who had accompanied us to the city) was at that mo-
ment prosecuting a complicated intrigue to defeat our wishes in the
matter — whatever they might be. Indignant at the information we
had received, and mortified that in a matter in regard to which, as
it proved, neither of us had any personal desires, we should have
been thus treated, we immediately started for home determined to
defeat the machinations that had been set on foot with so much
secrecy and had already been in part executed. On our way from
Albany Mr. Hogeboom, for the first time, informed me that the
state of his private business would not admit of his being a can-
didate,— that he had consulted with our friends at Albany, — that
they all thought it important that I should be in the Senate, and
that Mr. De Witt Clinton was particularly desirous that I should
be sent. I objected to the proposition for reasons already referred
to, with sincerity and earnestness. He entreated me not to come
to a final conclusion until he could have a full opportunity to place
the subject in all its bearings before me, and prevailed upon me
to stop at his house for the night that we might talk the matter

^ m i ■ i - i_ — ■ ' ■ ■■ m ■ ■ m ■

•MS. I, p. 40,

30 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

over more fully. In the course of the evening he informed me more
particularly of the views taken of the matter by Mr. Clinton, and
remonstrated earnestly against a refusal to comply with the wishes
of my friends. I agreed to give him a final answer in the morning
when, satisfied that there was but one ground on which I could
with propriety decline, I informed him that altho' I had not heard
so I thought it very probable that Mr. Robert Jenkins, a highly
respected citizen of Hudson, might, if the nomination was to come
from that city, desire to have it; that if he did so desire, as I had but
recently become a resident of Hudson I could not think of entering
into competition with him; that I should on reaching home com-
municate to Mr. Jenkins' friends without reserve all that had passed
between us, and that if they did not desire the nomination for Mr.
Jenkins I would not oppose the wises of my friends, but if they did
I must insist on being excused. To this he consented and we parted.
On my arrival I found that there also the city delegates had already
been chosen and that I had been placed at their head, with three other
gentlemen, the particular friends of Mr. R. Jenkins, of whom his
brother, Mr. Seth Jenkins, was one. I immediately asked an in-
terview with those gentlemen at my own house, in which I stated
to them all that had passed between Mr. Hogeboom and myself —
my own disinclination to be a candidate — and my determination to
refuse the nomination if they desired to bring Mr. Jenkins forward,
and I begged them to inform me frankly of their wishes. From their
conversation I inferred that I was mistaken in supposing they en-
tertained the views I had anticipated, and that they concurred in
the opinion of Mr. Hogeboom that I could not refuse to run. Find-
ing myself thus committed as I supposed to a contest with Mr. Van
Ness only for the nomination, I thought it important in view of
the transaction at Kinderhook to have the attention of the Party
immediately directed to the subject by a call of the Convention.

Some days after the publication of the Call, Judge Wager, a po-
litical friend from the country called at my office and said, " I learn
that you intend to have the Senator taken from Hudson " — to which
I replied, in a tone which under such circumstances gentlemen who
suppose themselves referred to usually employ. He responded that I
need not speak so modestly as it was not to me but to Robert Jenkins
that he referred. I told him that he was mistaken upon that point,
as Mr. Jenkins did not wish the nomination, on hearing which he
informed me, to my amazement, that my co-delegate Seth Jenkins
had within the hour applied to him to support his brother, and
had, in reply to a suggestion from him about me, referred to my
youth and recent settlement in the city as reasons why I ought
not to be selected. Satisfied from the character of my informant

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 31

that there could be no mistake on his part I immediately addressed
notes to the three gentlemen of the Committee inviting them to
meet me in the evening. They came to my house at the time sup-
pointed and I repeated to them what had passed at our previous
interview, as I have stated it here, and then asked whether my
statement was correct. Mr. Setfa Jenkins (who was the spokes-
man throughout) answered affirmatively, but added that they had
not at any time expressed themselves to the effect I had inferred,
altho' he freely admitted that my inference from what had been
said was, under the circumstances, as right and fair as if they had ex-
pressed themselves to that effect in terms. I then mentioned his con-
versation on that day with Judge Wager, my account of which he
admitted to be correct I then asked him with much feeling on
what possible ground he could justify himself in treating me in
so ungenerous a manner. He replied promptly that he would not
attempt to deny that their course had in appearance been both dis-
ingenuous and unkind, but he affirmed solemly that it had not
proceeded from unfriendly motives, but that they had been con-
trolled by circumstances which he might some day explain to me.
and placed in a situation that put it out of their power to act
otherwise and that they would have no reason to complain of
any course I thought proper to take. I replied that they had
left mexno other choice than to obtain the nomination if in my
power, which I should assuredly do, and we parted. The remain-
ing members of the Committee were both honorable and upright
men, incapable of an unworthy design. Mr. Jenkins had many
of the good qualities of his race, but had besides an innate passion
for political intrigue, and as I have almost always found to be
the case with men subject to that infirmity, was neither skillful
in his schemes or successful in their execution. His subsequent ex-
planation was that he had entered into an arrangement with Mr.
Van Ness that they would combine their strength against me, as-
suming that I would be a candidate, and leave it to the convention
to decide between his brother and Van Ness, and that he had been
obliged to promise the latter that he would hold no communication
with me upon the subject until they met again. But why such
an understanding precluded him from saying what would cer-
tainly exclude me from the canvass he could never explain without
conceding that they were certain of their game, and that they had
a farther object, viz; to break down my influence in the county,
which he was not willing to admit

The contest excited great interest, and the Convention was the
most imposing in numbers and character that had ever been held in
the county. The republican portion of the Livingston family sup-

32 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

ported Edward [P.] Livingston, and combined their opposition to
me with the supporters of Jenkins and Van Ness, each willing that
the convention should nominate either of them so that I should be
excluded. I was chosen by a majority over all of them on the first
ballot. The election was severely contested. The federalists sup-
ported Mr. Livingston, who had also a spurious republican nomina-
tion. Against me were arrayed the entire federal party, the Lewis-
ites, the Burrites, and the supporters of the Bank of America, who
had obtained its charter at a previous session of the Legislature, but
designed to procure from the next a reduction of the bonus they had
been obliged to promise to the State — a project they were well satis-
fied would be opposed by me. Our Senatorial district then embraced
a quarter of the State. Mr. Livingston and myself were the only
candidates in the field, and I was successful by a majority of less
than two hundred, the whole number of votes given being about
Forty thousand. Altho' this was the actual result, much delay and
many unfavorable reports and contradictions preceded the final an-
nunciation of my political birth and baptism.

The annual election under the old Constitution took place in the
last week of April, and the Supreme Court of the State commenced
its spring session at the city of New York in the first week of May.
Thither flocked all the leading lawyers of the State, who were, in those
days more even than now, also its prominent politicians, fringing
with them the results of the elections in their several counties; we
had then neither railroads, nor electric telegraphs, and the first week
or two of the Term was generally spent in anxious expectation and
digestion of election reports. My district was mainly0 composed
of River Counties, lying on both sides of the North River, and there-
fore among the first to be heard from; still, when I left Hudson to
attend the Term, it was generally conceded that I had been defeated.
Whilst I was arranging my luggage and my papers, my opponents,
headed by the leading men of my county, were celebrating their
supposed victory at the Hotel on the opposite side of the street,
and when I left my door the most jubilant among them appeared
on the piazza and shed upon me, at parting, the light of their beam-
ing countenances. On the steamboat I met the well known Ebenezer
Foot, an able lawyer and remarkable man of the day, always before
that time a Democrat, but then seduced from my side thro' the in-
fluence of the Bank, who professed to sympathize with me in my
defeat. While passing Catskill I perceived the tall figure of my
brother-in-law, Judge Cantine,1 towering above the crowd, and point-
ing his finger at a small boat that was making towards us. When it

Q MB. I, p. 45. l Mooes J. Cwitlne.— W, C. F,

AUTOBIOGBAPHY Of MARTIN VAN BUBBN. 38

reached us a letter was brought to me containing a canvass of the
old republican county of Delaware which shewed that my majority
in that county had been understated, and was in fact sufficient to
render my election certain. I handed the letter to my sympathizing
friend Counsellor Foot, whose countenance, notoriously not hand-
some, supplied an amusing commentary upon his recent condolences.
When the steamer arrived at New York, early on Sunday morning,
Judge William W. Van Ness of the Supreme Court, a very distin-
guished man, of whom I will have to speak hereafter, and Barent
Gardinier, a famous federal member of Congress during the War of
1812, were standing arm in arm, on the wharf, and recognizing
Thomas J. Oakley on the boat, they hailed him, and demanded to
know the result of the election for Senator in the Middle District-
His characteristic reply was that " Van Buren was on board, and
they should ask him." The Judge only said " Come Gardinier, let
us go," and they walked off without farther question, but meeting
afterwards with a citizen of Rockland County, who gave him a can-
vass of its election different from the one theretofore conceded to
be correct, he came to my lodgings, and asked me what would be
the result if Rockland had given the vote he named, to which I re-
plied that in that case Mr. Livingston was certainly elected. He
gave me the name of his informant and kindly assured me that the
information might be relied on. Having received the official Can*
vass from the county of Rockland, the next morning, I reciprocated
Judge Van Ness' polite attention, by enclosing it in a note which
was delivered to him, whilst seated on the Bench, by that great man,
in his way, High Constable Hays, and this ended all question on
the subject.

From this period to the expiration of my Presidential Term I
occupied, without the intermission of a year, responsible official po-
sitions either in the state or federal governments, two thirds of the
time in the latter,— positions which made it my duty to take active
part in the discussion and settlement of almost every public ques-
tion, in conjunction with or in opposition to many of the distin-
guished public men of the day.

It is of those questions, and of the measures produced by them, —
of the parts taken in regard to them by myself and by my con-
temporaries, with my views of their characters and dispositions, that
I propose to speak. I design to state as well how those subjects
presented themselves to me at the time, as how far my first impres-
sions have been changed or modified by subsequent experience or re-
flection.

I would shew myself unfit for the performance of this task if I
were not deeply sensible of the obstacles to its satisfactory exeou-

127488°— vol 2— 20 8

34 AJCEBICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

tion. To check the indulgence in egotism, to which human nature
is so prone, especially when it has the temptation and the excuse
of an auto-biography, so far as to make what is said endurable; to
pronounce justly and impartially on matters in which we have been
ourselves implicated and to speak with equal truth and candour of
contemporaries, whether they have been bound to us by political
agreement and personal ties, or separated from us by the lines and
perhaps by the asperities of party — are difficult things. My best
efforts will however not be wanting to accomplish these objects, and
my confidence in my ability to do so is founded on qualifications
of the heart rather than of the mind. My political opponents, at
every stage of my public life, have with great unanimity, and with
no more than justice, conceded to me a rare exemption from that
personal ill will which party differences are apt to engender, nor is
my breast now the abiding place of those morbid feelings and ad-
hesive prejudices so often cherished by public men who have been
thwarted in their career. I feel that I have made efforts in sup-
port of right principles which have failed, at times, either of being
rightly understood or justly appreciated : a thing that has happened
to every man who has aspired to an influence in the State. Yet it
would be unjust in me not to admit, as I have elsewhere and always
done, that my share of public honors has been greater than I could
think myself entitled to by public services. The excess must be
credited to the generosity of political friends, seldom very accu-
rately proportioned to the merits of their favorites.

My confidence in the integrity of public opinion is at this moment
as strong as it ever was, and my heart assures me that there lives not
now and has not lived in our country a public man to whom I am
not disposed to do justice. I may be mistaken as to facts and con-
clusions and I may overrate my ability to be impartial, but no
ingenuous mind shall read what I write without acknowledging the
purity of my intentions. I claim to be tolerably well acquainted
with the workings of the human heart, and if I am not satisfied at
the conclusion that the fruits of my present labours will bear this
test, I will destroy them.

Accounts of personal transactions with delineations of individual
peculiarities of mind and manners constitute the usual staple of
works of this description. It might seem on first view that in regard
to political Memoirs it would afford more interest to explain the
nature of the great questions that occupied the public mind, and to
re-examine the discussions that grew out of them, during the period
embraced by the writer. But such an impression must I think lose
its force when it is considered that at the time when such memoirs
are usually prepared those questions have generally been finally

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YAK BUREN. 35

settled in public opinion, have lost their importance or have been
exhausted of their interest by re-iterated argumentation. The apathy
and indifference which in such cases succeed to great interest, almost
in proportion to its previous intensity, must be familiar to all observ-
ing minds. But whilst our concern in public questions is thus, in
the nature of things, doomed to die away, it is very different in
regard to the conduct and motives of distinguished individuals who
took part in them. These seem never to lose their fascination, and
hence our curiosity is seldom wearied by recitals of events of even
little importance, before unknown, in the lives of men who acquired
notoriety in their day. Hence also a great part of our interest in
accounts of stirring scenes which we know to be fictitious. The most
attractive as well as the proper study of mankind is man — not only
to gratify our curiosity but by instructing us in the nature and dis-
positions of our fellow men, to increase our ability to perform well
and successfully our own parts in the great drama of life.

CHAPTER III.

My Senatorial term commenced at a most critical period both of
the State and Nation. War had been declared against Great Britain
shortly after my election, and New York, as a frontier State, was
destined to bear the brunt of the contest. Her extended frontier, as
well by land as by sea, and the defenceless condition of both, cast
a heavy responsibility on her Legislature. The Presidential elec-
tion was close at hand, and the State had, with great unanimity
put one of her most distinguished citizens in nomination for that
high office. In addition to these grave matters, the Bank mania was
at its highest point, and the State violently excited by the employ-
ment of the most profligate means for its gratification.

Neither the first nor the last of these subjects could cause me the
slightest embarrassment. I had, as a citizen, given my ardent sup-
port to the preventive measures recommended by Jefferson and Madi-
son, and regarded the declaration of war as a step indispensable to
the maintenance of our National honor. No consideration, personal
or political, could therefore withhold me from giving my aid to its
vigorous prosecution. I was always opposed to the multiplication
of banks, and throughout my eight years' service in the State Senate,
voted against every application for a bank charter, save one at Buf-
falo, the object of which was to aid in repairing the losses sustained
by the destruction of that town by the enemy, and justified as being
in some sense a war measure.

Still more hostile to the bank corruptions so prevalent at the time,
and against which I had successfully struggled in my election,
nothing could be more congenial to my feelings and opinions than a
cordial co-operation with all efforts to arrest the increase of banks,
and to expose the guilty authors of those corruptions to the execra-
tion of the People.

My course in respect to the Presidential Question was, on the
other hand, beset with serious difficulties. Mr. Madison had been
nominated for re-election by a majority of the members of Congress
— (then the usual method of making such nominations) and he was
admitted by the Republicans, of every sort, to be an honest man and
an accomplished Statesman. The Republican members of the New
York Legislature had, however, before I became a member of that
body, as I have already said, with great unanimity, presented Mr.
Clinton as the opposing candidate, and had asked and obtained his

36

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 07 MARTIN VAST BUREH. 87

assent to the proceeding. The impending danger of War,° and a
supposed superior capacity on the part of Mr. Clinton to meet such
a Crisis were among the reasons assigned for his nomination. To
New Yorkers it was urged that the Legislature having placed him
in his then position, and no change having taken place save the
actual declaration of War, the anticipation of which was one of the
main reasons for his nomination, they owed it to their own and his
honor to give him the vote of the State. I took my seat .in the Senate
for the first time at the Extra-session of the Legislature, held for
the choice of Presidential Electors, and it was claimed that I stood
in a position to which these considerations applied. I yielded to
their influence, but did so with undisguised reluctance, and with a
determination, understood by all, that nothing should prevent me
from giving my votes and influence in favor of a vigorous prosecu-
tion of the War. Judge Hammond, in his Political History of New
York, places my motives upon the true ground.1 That I acted in
strict conformity to the wishes of my immediate constituents there
was no doubt, and it is equally true that I conscientiously believed
that I was acting in the line of my duty. But now, when the excite-
ments of the day have passed away, and personal predilections have
lost their influence upon the question, I am free to say that we all
committed a great error. The rejection by the People of the Presi-
dent who had recommended the War, in the absence of any act to
show his incompetency, would have done more injury to the public
service than could have been counter-balanced by the alleged supe-
rior qualifications of Mr. Clinton for the crisis. This consideration
should have induced Governor Clinton to decline the State nomina-
tion, after the declaration of War, notwithstanding the ground upon
which he had been put forward, and to unite with his friends in the
support of Mr. Madison. His failure to do so was fatal to his na-
tional aspirations, and many of his friends destroyed their political
influence by adding disparagements of the War to their opposition
to the candidate by whom its declaration had been recommended.
But I reasoned differently then, or I might perhaps say more cor-
rectly, felt differently, for my personal attachment to Mr. Clinton was
strong and probably too much influenced my judgment. My course
however, although wrong, was thus far entitled to the merit of dis-
interestedness of motive, that I embarked in his support without a
hope of success. Having heard of some remarks of mine indicative
of this state of mind, addressed to a mutual and ardent friend at
that very session, he called on me and said : " I hear that you de-
spair of the election.'9 I admitted that I had made the observation

* MB. I, p. 60. l Volume I, 821.— W. C. F.

38 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

to which he alluded, and proceeded to explain my views upon the
subject, which were in substance, that after what had taken place in
the spring, we had no other course to pursue than to give the vote of
the State to him, but that I fully believed it would be unavailing.
He then shewed me a calculation very favorable to his election, made
by a noted politician, that did not change my opinion though it had
evidently produced a strong impression on him.

Mr. Clinton had not on account of particular circumstances
expected my support. These I will briefly state as they afford an
illustration of the danger of acting upon inferences be they ever so
plausible and the propriety of prompt explanations between political
friends.

Whilst Judge Ambrose Spencer and myself were sitting together,
one evening, in the porch of Judge Richardson's house, in Auburn,
Cayuga County, (at which place the former was holding a Circuit
Court which I was attending as Counsel) 2 our letters were brought
to us containing news of the death of Attorney General Hildreth.1
The Judge after a moments reflection, turned to me and said — u You
ought to be Hildreth 's successor " — and at once tendered me his sup-
port I thanked him cordially, but expressed an apprehension that
there were older members of the profession among our political
friends who would think themselves slighted by the appointment of
so young a man. He controverted the supposition with his usual
earnestness, and I promised to think of the matter. The Judge and
myself were at the time upon very good terms, but in the then
scarcely perceptible but still existing division in our party, between
himself and the friends of Clinton I ranked among the latter, and
I did not like to take a step in the matter suggested by Judge
Spencer without consulting Mr. Clinton. On my return home I
wrote to Mr. Richard Riker, then a confidential friend of Mr. Clin-
ton, informing him of what had passed between the Judge and
myself, and requesting him to converse with Mr. Clinton and to let
me know his opinion upon the subject. I also asked him to say to
Mr. Clinton that if he thought I was too young or if he desired the
appointment of some other friend he should have no embarrassment
about saying so, and might rest assured that I would be perfectly
satisfied. Mr. Riker informed me at once that Mr. Clinton was
anxiously desirous of my appointment, and asked me to make no
objections to having my name placed before the Council of Appoint-
ment. An Extra-meeting of that body was called to fill the vacancy
in the summer of 1812, and a friend, [Richard Riker] with my con-
sent, called on and broached the subject to Alderman Gilbert, a
leading member of the Council, and a particular friend of Mr. Clin-

i Matthias B. Hildreth, of Johnstown. — W. C. F.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIK VAN BUREN. 39

ton.1 My friend found him reserved and indisposed to converse
farther on the subject than courtesy required. Inferring from the
report of this conversation that Mr. Clinton had changed his views,
I requested my friend to return at once and inform Mr. Gilbert that
I wished my name to be considered as withdrawn.

When I saw the appointment of Thomas Addis Emmet an-
nounced I was confirmed in the correctness of my inference, and
from that moment to the meeting of the Legislature for the choice
of Electors I received no explanation either from Mr, Clinton or
Mr. Biker. Knowing the friendly relations existing between Mr.
Clinton and Mr. Emmet, and sensible of the partiality for him on
the part of our Irish citizens, I would at the latest moment have
consented to the appointment of Mr. Emmet if Mr. Clinton had
informed me of his wishes, but I felt injured by his silence.

After the Electors were chosen, in a manner and with a result
very gratifying to him, Mr. Clinton asked me to spend the evening
with him. Other visitors were denied admission, and whilst we
were at tea he introduced the subject of the appointment to the
office of Attorney General, and said he feared that I had thought
hardly of him in regard to it. I explained my feelings to him as
I have done above, and he then assured me in a very solemn man-
ner that he had no agency, direct or indirect, in causing the ap-
pointment of Mr. Emmet. He admitted that from Mr. Gilbert's
conduct and from the fact that the Council were all his particular
friends, I had a right to draw the inferences I had drawn, but
that they were nevertheless entirely unfounded. Although bound
to believe from this explanation that Mr. Clinton had not himself
taken any part in the matter, I could not yet dismiss from my mind
the impression that the affair had been so managed by some of
his friends as to produce the result without connecting him with it
This subject will again be noticed by me.

A brief relation of the interior history of a contest which ex-
cited great attention and effort at the time, and has never been
forgotten in the States may even now, not be without interest. The
friends of Mr. Clinton, in whom I confided and with whom I con-
sulted, decided at the beginning to avoid throughout any inter-
course or arrangement with the federalists in regard to their
course. If we could get the vote of the state for him, without
entering into or sanctioning a concerted coalition with them he

1 The members of the Council of Appointment were William W. Gilbert, of the southern ;
Johannes Bruyn, of the middle ; Henry Yates, Jnn, of the eastern ; and Francis A. Blood-
good, of the western districts. " This council was decidedly Clintonian ; but the party
decrees having been carried into effect by the preceding council, little remained to be
done by this. Such appointments, however as were made, were made in accordance with
the wishes and views of Mr. Clinton.0 Hammond History of Political Parties in the
8tat» of New York, I, 804.— W. C F.

40 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

should have it. If not, the matter should be allowed to shape its
own course. All we desired therefore was to place a ticket of
Electors before the joint Convention of the two houses of the Legis-
lature, in whole or in part (according0 to the action of the Madi-
sonians) favorable to Mr. Clinton, and to leave it to the option of
the Federalists, without explanation or solicitation, either to vote
for it, or to elect their own, if they could, by the aid of the Madi-
sonians, or to make themselves a Madisonian ticket and elect that
by combining their votes with those of the friends of Mr. Madison.
One of these courses they would be obliged to pursue. We had a
majority in the Senate over both Federalists and Madisonians, and
of course the power of forming as we pleased one of the tickets to
be submitted to the joint convention. The Federalists had a simi-
lar preponderance in the lower house, with, of course, like power.

The question between us and the Madisonians in regard to the
composition of the Republican Ticket could only be settled in Cau-
cus, where we had a decided majority over them. The venerable
Judge Taylor, always before and soon after again a Clintonian,
though now warmly opposed to him, was, on my motion, made
Chairman of the Caucus. We offered at once to give them a portion
of the ticket equal to their proportion of representatives in the
Legislature compared with ours, and to elect the Ticket by our
joint vote. This offer was peremptorily and perseveringly refused,
and no proposition made in lieu of it that had even a shew of
fairness to support it After a very protracted discussion, and
when it had become evident that no equitable compromise could
be effected, I moved that an entire Clintonian ticket should be
nominated. The Chairman called me to him and asked under
great excitement whether I intended to persist in that motion. I
replied "Certainly! unless the Madisonians will accept of a rea-
sonable portion of the ticket." Upon this the Veteran put his
large brimmed hat that was lying by his side, on his head, rose from
the chair without another word to the meeting, called out "Lew!
Boy ! " to his servant, and in a few moments the jingling of his
sleigh bells notified us that he was on his way home. Judge Hum-
phreys, of Onandaga, was, after a brief pause, called to the chair,
and my motion was adopted by a decided majority — after which
matters proceeded quietly to their consummation. Two tickets
only were before the joint meeting of the two houses, to wit, the
Clintonian from the Senate, and the Federal from the House of
Assembly; the Madisonian being driven to a choice between them.
Many of them voted blank ballots, and some thirty six out of sixty

• MS. If p. 55.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 41

one (the whole number of their members) voted for our ticket and
elected it1

Whatever objection may have existed against our support of
Mr. Clinton, none can, I think, be made against the manner in which
our determined course was carried out. We acted upon a principle
that we believed to be sound, avowed it openly and sustained it
firmly. So free were we from intriguing with the Federalists, that
no charge or insinuation to that effect has ever been made even
against me, whose whole life has been since so closely canvassed
for matters of accusation by an untiring throng of opponents.

The session having been called for the purpose of appointing
Electors only, no other business was done. Altho' the youngest
man, and one of the youngest members of the body, I was placed
at the head of the Committee to report the answer of the Senate
to the Governor's Speech, which having been adopted and presented,
the Legislature adjourned to the 1st day of January 1813.

There were occurrences prior in date, but connected with these
transactions, which from their relation to distinguished individ-
uals and the light they shed upon the private history of the times,
are not without interest. A short time before the Extra session,
William King, of Maine, an enterprising and not over-scrupulous
politician, visited Albany to prevail upon the friends of Mr. Clinton,
to withdraw his name from the Canvass. He very naturally ad-
dressed himself to Judge Ambrose Spencer, the brother-in-law of Mr.
Clinton, and to Judge Taylor, an ancient friend and adherent of his
family. These gentlemen addressed a letter to Mr. Biker, advising a
compliance with the suggestion of Mr. King. The advice was good
but badly received by Mr. Clinton who regarded King as an emissary
of the Administration at Washington, sent to tamper with his
friends, and became indignant at this evidence of his success. It is
quite certain that Mr. Madison knew nothing of the affair, and the
mission, most probably, had its origin in Mr. King's passion for in-
trigue, stimulated by the hope of increasing his influence with the
Administration.

The "American Citizen " a newspaper then edited by William
Lucius Rose, and previously by the more famous James Cheetham,
after the letter to Hiker, commenced a series of pungent and well
written attacks upon Judge Spencer, entitled the " Ambrosiad." In
these the Judge's early life on his father's farm at Ancram, was,
with other matters, lampooned in Mr. Clinton's happiest style. I
happened to be at the time attending a Term of the Supreme Court

tB«e Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 821. —
w. c. jr.

42 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

at New York, and lodged at the same house* with the Judge and
General John Armstrong, then Secretary of War under Madison,
who had been Judge Spencer's early and constant friend, and was
supposed to have been instrumental in inducing him to secede from
the Federal ranks. The General had been quite as constant in his
enmity to Mr. Clinton, and was the conceded author of a pamphlet
attacking his private character, in which he referred to the u rubric
of his countenance " as " indicating the Deity he adored ! " and to his
friends as the "Brotherhood of hope" — ; a pamphlet that shewed
by its talent and bitterness that the pen that had indited the " New-
burgh letters " at the close of the Revolutionary War, had lost none
of its pungency or venom. His disposition was eminently pugna-
cious, and he did not attempt to conceal either his satisfaction at
the rupture between the distinguished brothers-in-law, or his indis-
position to appease the quarrel.

The fourth number of the "Ambrosiad" was announced for the
next day. Seeing the extent to which the Judge was annoyed by
these provoking Articles, and regretting, in common with most of
our political friends, the schism that had arisen between two of our
strongest men, I visited Mr. Clinton in the evening in the hope of
being able to prevent its appearance. He received me kindly, but
was at first very reserved in his conversation. I found no diffi-
culty in attributing this unusual circumstance to an apprehension
that he had offended me in the affair of the Attorney Generalship,
and a consequent belief that I was no longer his friend — an impres-
sion doubtless greatly strengthened by the fact of my intimacy with
Spencer and Armstrong. I introduced the subject of the Presi-
dential election first ; assigned the reasons by which I was influenced,
as I have done here, expressed my regret that the Republican mem-
bers had placed him in the position he occupied, but closed with an
avowal of my determination to sustain him in the contest, and to vote
for Electors favourable to him. He was evidently both disappointed
and gratified by my communication, listened readily to what I had
to say upon the subject that occasioned my visit and spoke of it with-
out reserve, save only that he professed entire ignorance of the Au-
thor of the "Ambrosiad." This I was satisfied he did not expect
me to believe. He assured me that I was mistaken as to Judge
Spencer's regret at the separation, — that he had with his eye open
and to subserve his own personal ends gone into the support of Mr.
Madison, and had it not in his power to return. I did not concur
in that opinion, but urged strongly the inutility of these attacks upon
either supposition, and earnestly invoked his interference for their

* A popular boarding house kept by Mrs. Keese, on the north corner of Broadway and
Wall Street*.

AtTTOBIOOfcAPHY 03? MARtfltt VAN BtJREN. 43

suppression. At this stage of our conversation his friend Preserved
Fish, entered, remained a short time, and left us under the impres-
sion that we desired to be alone; Mr. Clinton followed him out of
the room, and remained out some minutes. On his return I rose
to depart when he referred again to the subject, repeating much of
what he had said in regard to the state of Judge Spencer's mind, but
expressed a hope that Mr. Rose might be induced to suspend the
publication of the "Ambrosiad " at least long enough to satisfy me
that there was no use in forbearance. He said this in a way that
convinced me that he had commissioned Mr. Fish to procure such
a suspension. On the following morning there was of course much
curiosity to see the "Citizen," and Mr. Boss1 of Newburgh, a State
Senator, and a friend to both Clinton and Spencer went to the
Barber's shop— that immemorial news market — for that purpose.
We were all assembled at breakfast when he returned ° and he was
immediately interrogated as to the contents of the "Citizen." He
replied that the promised number was not in it, or alluded to. Arm-
strong promptly demanded " What is in it? " and on being told that
the paper contained Biker's answer to Judges Spencer and Tay-
lor, which was very severe, exclaimed "Ah ! only a change of dish !
Good policy that! Tomorrow we shall have the "Ambrosiad"
again!" Upon this Judge Spencer said with emphasis and con-
siderable formality that it was quite immaterial whether the abusive
article did or did not appear, as Mr. Clinton had already gone too
far to make his future course of any consequence in regard to their
personal relations. It never occurred to me to speak to Mr. Clinton
upon the subject during the short period of our subsequent intimacy
hut I never doubted that some one of the company at the table, which
was numerous, informed him of Judge Spencer's observation. The
suspended number appeared a few days afterwards and was fol-
lowed by articles from the same pen, published at Albany as well
as New York, in which the Judge's feelings were cruelly lacerated.
These were in turn resented by him in verbal denunciations of un-
equaled harshness. In this way a 'furious warfare between them
was kept up for about three years disgraceful to their personal re-
lations and in the highest degree discreditable to political contro-
versy.

Mr. Madison was elected to the Presidency by a large majority ; a
result well calculated to call into vigorous action the energies of the
country and to show to the enemy that the War was national. The
dispositions of nearly all the Republican members of the Legisla-
ture were in favor of aiding the Federal Government in support of
the War by all the means in their power. The course of the federal

1 William Ross. ° MS. I, p. 60.

44 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

majority in the House of Assembly was, on the other hand, one of
uncompromising, and, it is not too much to say, of reckless opposition.
All hopes of peace had disappeared, and the National Government
was in want of means. State co-operation was the readiest aid that
presented itself, and a resolution was offered in the Senate, propos-
ing a loan by the State to the National Treasury of half a million of
Dollars, which I supported. After a violent debate, in which Morgan
Lewis and Erastus Boot took active and honorable parts, it passed
the Senate by a party vote, but was rejected by a similar division
in the lower House. The same course was pursued by the latter body
in respect to every measure of the Senate designed for the support
of the War. These differences led to repeated public conferences
between the two Houses, in which their respective views were pre-
sented by Committees, chosen by the majorities in each, in the pres-
ence of multitudes of the People. I was on every occasion a member
of the Committee on the part of the Senate; and although these de-
bates in no instance produced the change of a vote in either House,
they exerted a very salutary influence upon the public mind. The
feelings of the members, as also of the audience, frequently became
highly excited. On one occasion Judge Hager,1 an honest German
and Republican Senator from Schoharie, stepped forward, at the
close of my speech, and carried away by his feelings, embraced and
kissed me, and thanked me in the presence of the two Houses. A
Committee of the Republicans of Albany called on me, by appoint-
ment the same evening for a copy of my speech for publication,
which I could not give them as I had spoken from a few hasty
notes and had not time to write it out.

The Bank of America, which had obtained its charter at the
previous session, now applied for a reduction of the bonus it had
stipulated to pay to the State. This had purposely been made larger
than they could afford to pay to screen the members who voted
for the Charter, from the resentments of their constituents. The
subject produced a violent debate, and the failure of the project
in the Senate was, for a time, probable. Whilst I was speaking on
a motion I had made for its rejection, the Chairman, Mr. Parris,1
fell back on his seat from an attack of vertigo, and the Senate was
forced to adjourn. On the following morning the Senate received
information of the death of Chancellor Livingston, with an invita-
tion to attend his funeral. This caused an adjournment for two
days, during which time the lobby succeeded in securing votes
enough to make the passage of the bill certain.8

1 Henry Hager. — W. C. F.
■ Daniel Parris.— W. C. F.

"See Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 806. —
W. C F.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAST BUBBN. 45

The election of United States Senator, which caused a final
political separation between Mr. Clinton and myself was made at
this session. I was alarmed by the confidence shewn by the Federal-
ists in the election of Rufus King, notwithstanding the Republican
majority in the Legislature, and was induced to suspect an intrigue
between them and a portion of Mr. Clinton's friends to secure the
votes of the latter for Mr. King. These gentlemen had voted for
the Bank of America, and, to divert public attention from their de-
linquency in that regard, were, on all occasions, the loudest in their
devotion to Mr. Clinton. Finding them reserved in conversation
on the Senatorial question, I called on Mr. Clinton, apprised him
of my suspicions and remonstrated earnestly against what I feared
would be their course. I urged that the election of Mr. King by
their votes would expose his (Mr. C's) friends to the suspicion of
having intrigued with the Federalists, and having promised them
the SenHtorship as a consideration for their votes in his favor for
the Presidency, and insisted that we had a right to ask his active
interference to protect us against such a result. He concurred with
me entirely as to the great impropriety of such a step on the part
of any of his friends, assured me in so earnest a manner that my
suspicions were unfounded, and promised his attention to the sub-
ject so readily, that I returned to my room not only satisfied of
my error, but under no small degree of self reproach. To increase
the certainty of our getting the votes of all his friends, I made my-
self instrumental in securing the nomination of James W. Wilkin
as our Candidate, an old friend of Mr. Clinton and the Chairman
of the Legislative Convention by which he had been nominated for
the Presidency. At the viva-voce nomination in each House every
Republican member then acting with the party named Mr. Wilkin,
and he received a majority of the entire Legislature. The House
having a majority of Federalists nominated Mr. King and the
Senate Mr. Wilkin. When the balloting commenced in joint- meet-
ing, Buggies Hubbard a Senator, and always an enthusiastic friend
of Mr. Clinton, asked me to write his ballot and to accompany him
to the Chair to see him deposit it in the box. Supposing him to be
influenced by the suspicions entertained by myself, I assured him
that they were groundless, and that all would be right. He shook
his head, and said " I ask you but a small* favor and I hope you
will not refuse to grant it"

Moved by the earnestness of his manner I wrote his ballot and
saw him put it in the box. When the ballots were counted it ap-
peared that Gen. Wilkin was defeated. There was immediately a
report put in circulation that the few Lewisites in the Legislature
(who put in blank ballots) had voted for King. Knowing the in-

46 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

timacy that had existed between Mr. Hubbard and the men I origi-
nally suspected I was morally certain that they had acted as I
feared they would act. When we returned to the Senate chamber,
Mr. Clinton approached me and said " I hope you no longer enter-
tain the suspicion you spoke of." My reply was " No ! " at which
he expressed his satisfaction. I then said gravely, "Mr. Clinton,
you must not misunderstand me. My suspicions have become con-
victions. I know that the men I pointed out to you have done this
deed." He replied, under evident excitement, that he believed I did
them great injustice; and at that moment the Secretary apprised
him that they were waiting for him to organize the Senate. He took
the chair, made his Report, and adjourned the body.1

Nothing further passed between us until the day the evening of
which had been appointed for holding the Republican caucus for
the nomination of candidates for the offices of Governor and Lieu-
tenant Governor, when at a brief interview, held at my request, I
referred to the business of the evening. He asked what I supposed
would be done. I told him an attempt would be made to nominate
Judge Taylor in his place as Lieut. Governor. In reply to his en-
quiry as to my opinion of the result of such an attempt, I told him
that it was my intention, if he did not object, to propose his name
for a re-nomination, but that I thought there was reason to fear,
from the prevalent feeling in the party, that it would be rejected,
upon which he asked quickly whether I would submit to the nomina-
tion of Taylor. I answered, as promptly, "Certainly!0 if it is
fairly made." After a moment's pause he bowed respectfully, left
me, and resumed the Chair. From that day we never met as polit-
ical friends, altho' our personal relations afterwards became familiar
and kind and continued so till his death. In the caucus there was a
great deal of feeling exhibited; an apparent determination on the
part of the majority to vote against his nomination, but, so far as
I could see, a general disposition to bring the question to that result
without giving unnecessary offense. For some time no one seemed
inclined to move in the matter. At length a motion was made for
the joint nomination of Tompkins and Taylor, the first for Gov-
ernor and the last for Lieut-Governor. As the motion was not ac-
companied by any remarks I was obliged to introduce the subject
myself, which I did in a speech of considerable length which was
listened to with interest and received with kindness. I referred to
the dissatisfaction that prevailed in our ranks in consequence of the
recent appointment of Senator, admitted that from all I knew on
the subject I felt obliged to concur in that sentiment; that I had
notwithstanding brought my own mind to the conclusion that it

* 8ee Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, V, 291. — W. C. F. ° MS. I, p. 65.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIK VAN BUREN. 47

would be expedient in view of the condition of the country and of
the honorable position that Mr. Clinton had long occupied in the
party to tender him a renomination; that I would do this under
a full conviction that Mr. Clinton would not accept the nomination
unless he was sincerely desirous to act with us in the future; that
our party was powerful and had always been magnanimous; that
I would be gratified if a majority of the meeting should concur with
me in these sentiments, but that if I was so unfortunate as to fail
in this, I would support cheerfully and heartily the candidate of
their choice. I then moved to substitute the name of Mr. Clinton
for that of Judge Taylor. I was followed by the gallant Gen.
Leavenworth, of the Assembly, who, tho' a law-partner and warm
friend of Gen. Boot, who was at that time a leader of the opposi-
tion to Clinton, supported my motion in a very impressive speech.
He appreciated and applauded the grounds on which I had proposed
the re-nomination, and sustained them with a zeal and earnestness
that obtained for him credit and a kind reception from all present.
My recollection is very distinct of the favorable impression made
upon me by the absence of anything like violent attack upon Mr.
Clinton. Upon the ballot Mr. Clinton received sixteen votes, and
Taylor thirty two. Tompkins and Taylor were then nominated, and
a Committee having been appointed to prepare an Address to the
People, I was made Chairman and wrote the Address.1 It contained
a full review of the matters in controversy between Great Britain
and ourselves, and was extensively published at the time and after-
wards and very well received by the public Judge Spencer in the
warmth and I should add in the excess of his admiration called it
a second Declaration of Independence.

The Federalists nominated Stephen Van Bensselaer for Governor
and James Huntington for Lieut. Governor. A number of Mr.
Clinton's prominent friends, including such names as those of Gen-
erals German and Van Courtlandt came out with an address in
which they severely censured the administration of Mr. Madison,
and protested against the support of Tompkins. My course on the
occasion caused a final political separation between my early friend
John C. Hogeboom and myself. He was a clear headed and strong
minded man, and always an ardent friend of Mr. Clinton, who cor-
dially reciprocated his regard. He had taken an early interest in
my success, and I fortunately had it in my power to make him ample
returns for his friendly offices before his death. We had a warm
correspondence upon the subject of supporting Tompkins which
ended in a settled difference of opinion. When he saw that I was

designated to write the Address, he came to Albany to dissuade me

* ^ ^ ^^^— ■ ' — ^— » ■ — ^ — i^— ~— in ■!■ i »

lThe autograph draft of thia Address is In the Van Buren Papers in the Library of
Congress under data of 1818, March.

48 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

from doing so. He insisted that the prominent part I was taking
in favor of Tompkins was inconsistent with the friendly relations
that had so long existed between Mr. Clinton, himself and myself,
and that a proper respect for those relations demanded that my posi-
tion, if not that of a Neutral, should at least be one of great reserve.
I assured him that neither Mr. Clinton nor himself could feel more
strongly than myself in regard to those relations but that I could
not allow them to control my action in the way he proposed ; that
the support of Tompkins was the support of the War — in which
cause I was engaged with all my heart and all my mind, and to which
all my energies should be applied regardless of personal conse-
quences. Seeing that he could not divert me from the course I had
determined to pursue, he left me under great excitement and forth-
with commenced a warfare embracing affairs of business as well as
politics, that lasted for several years. Family connexion— my
brother having married his daughter — and his advancing years ulti-
mately brought him to a better state of feeling, which I eagerly
reciprocated and our personal relations continued thence forward
friendly during his life.

I was well aware of the inconsistency of my offer to support Mr.
Clinton for re-election to the office of Lieut. Governor with the con-
clusive opinions I then entertained of his course in relation to the
appointment of Senator, and with the bad treatment I believed
myself to have received from him individually. But lingering at-
tachments and the dread of being supposed capable of abandoning
an old friend, and a great man in the then depressed state of his
political fortunes had, I am free to confess, more influence upon
my course than political justice or perhaps, to some extent at least,
than a proper self respect. This disinclination to abandon a politi-
cal friend in adversity has been with me a prevailing sentiment, and
has been strengthened instead of weakened by the prevalence of a
contrary disposition on the part of many from whom I had ex-
pected better things. I cannot bring my mind to the conclusion that
Mr. Clinton himself entered into, or directly sanctioned such an
understanding with the Federalists as that I have referred to, but I
had at the time no doubt that, in the state of mind to which the
loss of the Presidential election had brought him, aggravated by the
apparent hopelessness of his ever regaining the confidence of the Re-
publican Party, he suffered, by not attempting to prevent it, a suffi-
cient number of his friends to deceive the party with which they
professed to act, and to turn the election in favor of Mr. King. Judge
Hammond1 thinks that the Clintonian votes for Mr. King were
promised to the Federalists by Thomas and South wick, the agents of

' Political History of New York.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 49

the Bank of America, to promote the passage of its charter. It is
very possible that the Federalists, altho' they would have supported
that bill in any event, imposed this tribute upon the agents. Thomas
was a man of great address, and very unscrupulous. He may have
managed the whole affair without letting Mr. Clinton know any-
thing about it. The supposition is not in harmony with cotempo-
raneous and following events — but may notwithstanding be true. In-
structed by a subsequent disclosure (applicable also to Mr. Clinton)
how easy it is to be mistaken in similar matters, I pass from the
subject without expressing or even entertaining a decided opinion
in regard to it.1

The election of 1813 fortunately continued in his place the patri-
otic Tompkins but the federalists again succeeded in obtaining a
majority in the House of Assembly. We were therefore doomed to
struggle thro' another session without the ability to render any essen-
tial aid to the public cause. The indecorous violence of their answer
to the Governor's speech (then the authentic exponent of party
feelings) and of their speeches in support of it, exceeded those of the
last session. They perseveringly refused to concur in any measure
designed to support the war, and the session wore away in unavailing
efforts on our part to strengthen the national arm, and in public
conferences, in which the People took an increased interest, and
which, tho' still fruitless in the Legislature, had a happy effect in
preparing the public mind for the election of 1814. The spirit that
actuated our opponents in the Assembly governed also the action of
the same party in Congress, and in mo6t if not all the State Legis-
latures, but most violently in the Eastern States. There matters
were apparently in rapid progress which would tender to the Fed-
eral Government the alternative of a discreditable peace or a separa-
tion of the Union. It is believed that the subsequent peace alone,
the news of which met the agents pf the Hartford Convention on
their way to Washington, saved that section from the full develop-
ment of a treasonable design.

This humiliating state of things was discouraging to the sup-
porters of the War, but they did not despair. To remove as far as
possible the general gloom, a meeting was called of the members of the
Legislature,0 the Republicans of Albany, and those from the country
who might then be at the seat of Government. It convened at the
Capitol on the evening of April 14th 1814, and was well attended,
altho' I can never forget the painful anxiety and apparent despond-

1 Clinton, however, did conduct an Intrigue with the Federalists in New York and in
other States. The atory la told in the memorandum printed in Life and Correspond-
ence of Eofna King, V, 204 and subsequent pages. Some additional facts are given in
Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 315.— W. C. F.

• MS. I, p. 70.

127488°— vol 2—20 4

50 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

cncy visible on the countenances of those who composed it. I en-
deavoured to revive their spirits and rekindle their confidence in a
speech of considerable length. Whilst speaking I was struck with
the excited countenance of a stranger to me, wearing a fur cap and
not distant from me in the crowd. When I closed, he took off his
cap and without moving from his position, made a speech which by
the remarkable sweetness of his voice, the grace and ease of his elo-
cution, and the sanguine and inspiriting character of his remarks
produced a thrilling effect upon the meeting. I soon ascertained
that this was Peter E. Livingston, the son-in-law of Chancellor Liv-
ingston, who had that evening arrived in Albany as the Chancellor's
agent to oppose Governor Ogden's petition to the Legislature.
I thanked him heartily for his opportune and effective speech, and
have not suffered the favorable impression he made upon me that
night to be effaced by his subsequent unfriendly dispositions. As
soon as he closed I offered a series of Resolutions, which were passed
by acclamation, and the meeting broke up in excellent spirits.

I give a few brief extracts from the Resolutions to shew the
temper of the time, and the plainness of speech by which it was
characterized :

At this interesting period of onr National Affairs, when our government is
combating with a wily, vindictive, and sanguinary foe ; when domestic disaffec-
tion and foreign partialities present their callous fronts at every comer and
when the present hopes and future prospects of the people of New York are
to be tested by the exercise of the elective franchise, — at a period of such
anxiety and solicitude this meeting composed of citizens from almost every
section of the State take the liberty of publicly expressing their sentiments on
the subject.

That " every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle " — that on
the various operations of government with which the public welfare are
connected an honest difference of opinion may exist — that when those differ-
ences are discussed and the principles of contending parties [sought to be] are
supported with candor, fairness and moderation, the very discord which is
thus produced, may in a government like ours, be conducive to the public
good— we cheerfully admit

But that when on the other hand, the opposition clearly evince, that all their
clamors are the result of predetermined and Immutable hostility that, as
between their own government and the open enemies of the land, they dare,
n« circumstances may require, unblusbingly justify excuse or palliate the
conduct of the latter and falsify, calumniate and condemn that of the
former; when too In the means which are used to effect such unhallowed
purposes, they are alike indifferent to the salutary provisions of the Constitu-
tion, to the requisitions of national interest, or the obvious dictates of national
honor — that at such a time it is the duty of every sound patriot, to do his
utmost to arrest their guilty career, and to rescue from their aspiring grasp
his bleeding country — no good man will deny.

To prove that such has been the conduct, and that such are and have been the
views of the party in this country which styles itself Federal — that their

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUBEN. 51

"history is a history of repeated Injuries and usurpations all having for
their [direct] object," either the subjection of the rights and interests of their
country to her ancient and unceasing foe, or a base prostitution of its fair
fame for selfish and ambitious purposes "let facts be submitted to an in-
telligent and patriotic people."

Their opposition for the last thirteen years, has been universal, malignant
and unceasing: their opposition was equally virulent when our country was
basking in the sunshine of unparalleled prosperity, as it has been while her
political horizon has been obscured by the clouds of adversity:

They opposed the abolition of [direct and] internal taxes when those taxes
were rendered unnecessary by the general prosperity of the country: they
opposed the imposition of the same taxes when their imposition became
necessary to the maintenance of our National honor :

They opposed the reduction of the National debt, when the means of its
reduction were in the power of the government : they opposed the increase of
the national debt, when its increase, or an abandonment of every attribute of
a free people, had become our only alternative: they clamored much on
account of the aggressions on our commerce by the belligerents, and their
Merchants presented petition after petition, and memorial after memorial, to
Congress, that they should vindicate our commercial rights: they have uni-
formly calumniated and opposed every measure of the government adopted
for their vindication or support: they opposed [and evaded] all commercial
restrictions on the ground of their inefflcacy, and that war, and war alone
was the proper course for government to pursue, and on this subject they
triumphantly declared "that the Administration could not be kicked into a
war " : they opposed the war when it was declared on the ground that it was
Impolitic, unjust, and unnecessary:

They have always claimed to be the friends of order and the constitution,
and as such friends of order and the constitution, their opposition to govern-
ment, in the prosecution of the present just and necessary war, has been
characterized by acts of violence, degeneracy and depravity without a parallel
In the history of any civilized government on earth.

To enumerate the various acts with which the feelings of the American
people have been wounded and Insulted, the occasion will not admit of: Let
their most prominent acts therefore, be alone considered. While the [un-
divided] combined power of the enemy and his savage allies has been directed
against us, and our frontiers drenched with blood of unoffending women and
children, the undivided powers of the opposition have been exerted

To destroy all confidence between the people and their government.

To misrepresent the latter, and to deceive, distract and cajole the former.

To deprive the government of the two great sinews of war — men and money : —
preventing enlistments by discountenancing and calumniating both officers and
soldiers —

Defeating the necessary loans, by attempting to shake the confidence of the
people In the stability of the government :

To render the war odious and unpopular —

By the most flagrant perversions of the matters in controversy, and the
pretensions of our government ;

By the most criminal justification of the conduct of the enemy and the
vilest extenuation of all their enormities ;

To parallze the arm of the government and frighten the weak and timid
from its support —

By exciting insurrection and rebellion in the east ;

52 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

By openly threatening a dissolution of the union, and laboring incessantly
to sow the seeds of Jealousy and disunion between the northern and southern
states; and

By exercising in each state the same unworthy means as are practised by
them throughout the union.

For while in this State they profess great solicitude for the sufferings of our
citizens on the frontiers ; they have inveterately opposed the raising a volunteer
corps for their defence unless under the disgraceful stipulation. — that they
shall not annoy the enemy — while also they seek to hide the deformity of their
conduct in relation to our army, by professing attachment to the naval service ;
we find them opposing, with disgusting violence, a bill to encourage privateer-
ing, which passed the Senate of this State, but was negatived by the Assembly,
because it had for its object to' harass the enemy.

But we forbear the disgusting enumeration of acts so evincive of a deplorable
degeneracy of a great portion of the American people, so well calculated to
continue the war into which our country has been driven — to tarnish our
national character and (unless successfully resisted) to drive our government
to an injurious and disgraceful peace.

Therefore Resolved, That while we congratulate our fellow citizens on the
happy revival of the feelings, sentiments, and spirit of the revolution which is
every where manifesting itself; and our republican brethren in particular, on
the heart cheering zeal and unanimity which pervades their ranks, which prom-
ises the total overthrow of that Antl American spirit which disguised under the
specious garb of Federalism, has too long preyed upon the vitals of the nation —
which excites a lively hope that the councils of this great and powerful state
will speedily be wholly rescued from the hands of those who have disgraced
them —

We warmly and earnestly conjure our Republican brethren, by the regard
they have for their own rights; by the love they bear their country, and by the
names of the departed worthies of the revolution, to be up and doing, and so to
act that at the termination of the contest, each of them may triumphantly
exclaim — " I have fought a good tight, I have finished my course — I have kept
the faith." *

Daniel Wabneb Cha'n

P G Childs Se&ry.

1 A copy of the Notes and Resolutions of this meeting, together with Van Buren> auto-
graph draft of the Resolutions, are In the Van Buren Papers, 1814, April 14.

CHAPTER IV.

The election of 1814 which followed in a few weeks was the most
important of any ever held in the State, and resulted in the complete
humiliation of our opponents by a triumph that gladdened the
heart of every patriot in the land. We, for the first time since
the declaration of War elected not only a large majority of our
Members of Congress, but majorities also in both Houses of the
Legislature, and thus secured our ascendancy in every branch of
the Government. In the succeeding month of August the enemy
captured the city of Washington, burned the Capitol and other
public buildings, and drove the President and his Cabinet from the
Seat of Government. The regret occasioned by this event — this
desecration of our most consecrated spot by the ruthless tread of
hostile steps — was in no small degree relieved by the knowledge
that New York had been rescued from the hands of an unrelenting
faction, and might now be relied on to furnish efficient aid to the
general Cause.

The attention of the friends of the Country in all directions was
therefore turned to Tompkins and the great State over which he
presided. He did not disappoint their expectations but called an
Extra-Session of the Legislature in the month of August,1 and
spread before it in an eloquent and patriotic Speech the actual
condition of the Country — invoking its aid to support the National
Arm. Never did a Legislative body assemble under circumstances
of deeper interest, never one more solemnly impressed with a sense
of the responsibilities resting upon it, never one more firmly and
disinterestedly resolved to discharge all its duties. I was again
appointed Chairman of the Committee on the Governor's Speech,
and reported an answer which was adopted in the senate by acclama-
tion and which I insert here.

The Answer of the Senate to the Speech of His Excellency the Govebnob.

Sib,

The Senate at the close of their last session indulged with your Excellency
In the pleasing expectation, that before this period the blessings of peace would
have been restored to their country on terms consistent with its honor &
Interest They are however by subsequent events reluctantly compelled to bear
testimony to the insincerity of the professions on which those reasonable ex-
pectations were founded.

They have seen the enemy, while indulging in the vain hope that those pro-
fessions would lead us into fancied but fatal Impressions of security, applying

* The legislature met September 26, 1914.— W. C. F.

63

64 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

his energies to a vigorous prosecution of the war, and they have seen too with
regret although not with dismay, that after having thus added duplicity to
outrage, he has conducted the contest in a manner in the last degree disgrace-
ful to a civilized nation & totally repugnant to the established rules of legiti-
mate warfare.

That he is actuated by the most malignant hostility — that during the present
season he contemplated the most extensive injury to the future welfare of oar
beloved country, if not the destruction of its constitution & the consequent
prostration of our excellent political Institutions — that intoxicated by the re-
cent events in Europe which have given to the political complexion of the world
a new character, and seduced by his unlimited confidence In the invincibility
of his Legions, he fondly hoped to carry victory into the very heart of the
country & by the wide spread desolation which should mark his course to
compel the American people if not to acknowledge the legitimacy of his
authority at least to recognize & admit the supremacy of his power — rou&t
be obvious to all.

The Senate therefore in common with your excellency and as they hope the
whole American people " cannot but exult that thus far we have sustained the
shock with firmness & gathered laurels from the strife" — that although he
has succeeded in penetrating to the Capital & In the conflagrations of the
monuments of art with which by the enterprise & public spirit of the nation
it had been adorned, his success has before this time been embittered with the
reflection that by their blaze he has kindled a flame of patriotism, which
prevades every section of the union, by which he has been seriously scorched
at Baltimore, & which threatens his compleat annihilation at every assailable
point of the union to which his ambition or his resentment may lead him.

The Senate have witnessed with the same emotions, with the same enthusi-
astic admiration evinced by your excellency the brilliant exploits achieved by
our army & navy during the present campaign — achievements, which in their
consequences have been so immediately & extensively beneficial to our frontier
citizens, achievements which will not lose in the comparison with the most
gallant efforts of the veterans of the old world — exploits that have pierced the
gloom which for a season obscured our political horizon & dispelled the fearful
forebodings which past disasters had excited — exploits which have fully main-
tained if not enhanced the proud & enviable fame of our gallant tars — which
have covered the actors in those bright scenes with never fading laurels and
which will until public gratitude ceases to be a public virtue ensure the highest
testimonials which a free people can yield to freemen — unceasing reverence for
the memory of those who have died on the field of honor & acts of unceasing
gratitude & esteem towards their noble survivors.

The Senate have seen with great satisfaction the prompt & efficacious meas-
ures adopted by your excellency to avert the dangers which impended [?] the
State, and believing as they do that whatever excess of executive authority may
have been indulged in, it has been not only exclusively Intended for the promo-
tion of the general good but was moreover rendered indispensible by the im-
perious nature of existing circumstances — they cannot doubt but that the acts
to which your excellency has referred will be such as to command their appro-
bation & support

The Senate cannot forego the opportunity afforded them of uniting with your
excellency, in an expression of the high satisfaction with which they have
observed the increasing unanimity & noble ardour in our countries cause which
pervades almost the whole community.

That on questions of local policy and the fitness of men for public stations
we should ever be exempt from differences of opinion was not to be expected,

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 55

divisions like those are inseparable from the blessings of our free constitution
and although sometimes carryed to excess & made to produce a virulence &
malignity which all good men must deplore, they are notwithstanding productive
of much national good. But to have supposed that a people jealous of their
rights & proud of their national character could, on the question of resisting the
aggressions of the open enemies of the land— aggressions which have polluted
the soil & which threaten the demolition of those fair fabrics which have been
consecrated to freedom by the Blood & sufferings of their fathers — that on a
question of such vital moment, so well calculated to excite all the patriotism,
to arouse all the Spirit & to call into vigorous action all the latent energies of
the nation — they would long continue to waste their strength in criminal and
unprofitable collisions would have been a base libel on their character.

While therefore the Senate will at all times do all that in them lies to
frustrate the efforts, to defeat the projects & to expose to public obloquy &
reproach the conduct of all those who destitute of that noble love of country
which should characterise Americans at this perilous crisis of our affairs, who
preferring the Interests of party to those of their country, or actuated by
motives more deeply criminal, shall attempt to aid the foe by heaping un-
founded calumnies on the constituted authorities of the Country, or shall
seek to excite distraction & alarm in the councils of the nation or in any
other way attempt to paralize the arm of government, yet freely sensible
that M every difference of opinion is not a difference in principle" they will
on all occasions feel it to be their duty as it is their wish to afford to the
meritorious soldier his due reward, without regard to sect or party.

The great Interest which the State of New York has in the prosecution &
termination of the controversy in which our country is involved, the high
destiny to which her local situation, the extent of her resources, the liberality
of her legislature & the ardor of her sons may lead her, have been duly
appreciated by your excellency. The Senate pledge their best exertion to
realize those great & well founded expectations and relying on the Justice of
our cause for the approvement of a Just God they cannot but flatter them-
selves, that in due season the American arms will be crowned with compleat
success & the mild reign of peace be restored to our now oppressed & bleeding
country.1

Among the first proceedings was my introduction of the "Classi-
fication Bill" — prepared by myself after full consultation with our
friends in both Houses, and let me add, in justice to one who, with
a capacity scarcely inferior to any, failed so sadly in the estimation
of his Countrymen, after availing myself also of the military expe-
rience of Aaron Burr who was then at Albany. This Bill author-
ized the Governor to call into actual service Twelve Thousand of the
State Militia, to be taken from or recruited by Classes to be formed
out of the free white male inhabitants of the State, over the age
of 18 years, according to their respective estates, abilities and cir-
cumstances. If any Class failed to produce an able bodied man, any
member of the class might furnish him, and thereby entitle himself
to the sum of Two Hundred Dollars, to be raised by assessment from
the whole class, according to the appraisement or valuation ap-

1 From the autograph draft by Van Buren In the Van Buren Papers, Library of Con-
gress. The speech is printed In the Journal of the New York Senate under date of
October 4, 1814, and waa presented to the Governor October 5.

56 AMEBICAN HISTORICAL ASSOClAttOtf.

pended to the Enrolment, and if a man was not thus produced the
Bill contained other stringent provisions to enable the proper offi-
cer to procure him, at the expense of the class in default, upon the
same principle. The troops thus raised were to supply to that extent
calls by the Federal Government upon the State Militia. The object
was not only to improve the character of the aid rendered to the
service, under calls for Militia, by the superior efficiency of troops
thus raised over undisciplined recruits, but also to render the con-
tributions of the People to Militia Service more proportionate to
their interests and Means that was the case under the then existing
law. The Bill proceeded upon the principle that all expenses in-
curred, or burdens imposed to preserve domestic order or to
repel invasion should be borne as nearly as possible by each
citizen proportionately to his interests, pecuniary as well as per-
sonal, in the benefits to be thus secured : in other words to apply to
the Militia Service the principle that has always prevailed in regard
to the support of the Army and Navy. The Bill excited the indigna-
tion of the wealthy classes generally, and particularly of those
among them who were opposed to the War, and I was of course
grossly abused by their mouth-pieces — so much so that in my own.
County the federal press advised its readers to withhold the courte-
sies of life from so bad a man. On one occasion I was accosted in
the street by my great professional antagonist, Elisha Williams,
(then a member of the House of Assembly) with this character-
istic remark, — "Van Buren, my federal friends are such fools

as to believe" that you are in earnest with your Conscription Bill,
and mean to carry it through, and I cannot convince them to the
contrary." I told him that his friends were right, and that I was
surprised to find that they understood me better than he, who ought
to know me best. He raised both hands in amazement and replied
that he had always regarded me as a man of too much sense to get
into such a scrape.

We fought the Bill through against the violent opposition of the
Federalists aided by General Root, who denounced it with great bit-
terness.1* His opposition was, however, much more than counterbal-
anced by the manly and vigorous support of several of the [Federal-
ist?] Senators. General Scott sent a copy of the Bill to Mr. Monroe,
then Secretary of War, and it was believed to have entered into the
composition of a somewhat similar plan that he recommended to
Congress.8 Governor Tompkins waited till the regular. Winter ses-
sion to obtain some amendments necessary to facilitate its execution,

* The bill became a law October 24, 1814.— W. C. P.

* Monroe's measure may be studied from his " Explanatory observations " and other
papers In the State Papers, Military Affairs, I, 615, and in Henry Adams, History of
the United States, VIII, 264.— W. C ff.

AT7T0BI00EAPHY OF MAMTtf VAN BTJBEff. 57

upon points which had been overlooked in our anxiety to establish
the principle; I applied at the opening of the session for a Commit-
tee, and we were engaged upon the subject when the Express ar-
rived bringing the news of peace. The original draft of the Bill, in
my handwriting, is filed among the archives of the Senate, with the
following endorsement: —

The original classification Bill — to be preserved as a Memento of the Patriot-
ism, Intelligence and Firmness of the Legislature of 1814-16.

M. V. Buben.
Filed, Feb7 21" 1815

The additional results of the active patriotism of the Republican
members were Bills to raise the pay of the Militia while in the
service of the United States, — to Encourage Privateering — to raise a
Corps of Sea fencibles, — and to raise two Regiments of colored men.
These laws were Jrighly approved at Washington, and President'
Madison, to testify the sense of the national administration of the
high stand taken by New York, offered to Governor Tompkins the
office of Secretary of State,1 made vacant by [the transfer of James
Monroe to the War Department]

Although surrounded by difficulties which were calculated to dis-
turb the strongest nerves and constantly obliged to jeopard his
private fortune by personal responsibilities, indispensably assumed
for the public service, and thereby laying the foundation for the de-
struction of his future peace of mind, he [Tompkins] declined an
appointment which was then regarded as the stepping stone to the
Presidency. The reason assigned for his declension was his convic-
tion that he could, during the continuance of the War, be of more
service to the country in the position of Governor of New York, than
in that of Secretary of State. There is no doubt that this was the
only consideration that determined his conduct, and it presented an
instance of pure and self sacrificing patriotism, rarely equalled and
certainly not surpassed by any single act during the War.

Chancellor Kent objected, in the Council of Revision, to the
Classification Bill, the Bill to raise a ° corps of sea-f encibles, and the
Bill to encourage Privateering, and delivered an Opinion, which
savoured more than was deemed suitable to the occasion of an ap-
peal to popular prejudices. My friend Col. Samuel Young, who had
commenced his legislative career at the previous session, with much
promise, and was now Speaker of the Assembly, answered and suc-
cessfully refuted the Chancellor's objections to the Classification
Act in one or two able numbers published in the Albany Argus, over
the signature- of " Juris consuttus" The Chancellor replied over

i offer made September 29, 1814.— W. C. F. ♦ MS. I, Jk 75.

58 AXERICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

that of "Amicus Curiae" Col. Young, having confined himself
principally to the Classification Bill, I took op the subject of the
Chancellor's objections to the Bill to encourage Privateering, over
the signature of "Amicus Juris consultus" Finding that he had in*
volved himself in a controversy uncongenial with his amiable and
generally pacific disposition, the Chancellor retired with a Card,
indicative of a sense of discomfiture. This was replied to by Amicus
Juris Consultus, in the same form, and the discussion was closed.

The Chancellor's second and last number in reply to Juris Con-
sultus appeared on the 28th of November 1814, and concluded with
the following sentence; — "The public attention appears now to
be properly awakened to the all important merits of our Conscription
Policy. I am a great friend to the freedom and utility of public
discussion, and I have no doubt it will be found now, as it has in
all former times, that a free press is the great guardian of civil
Liberty. So fully do I believe in its efficiency that if the Consti-
tution was subverted and tyranny seated on the throne,
surrounded by her sycophants, her parasites, her informers, her
guards, her assassins and her executioners, a free press would restore
the one and overturn the other."

The first number of Amicus Juris Consul tus appeared on the next
day, and the Chancellors card (which will be found with it), on
the second day following.

I have deemed the portion of these papers in my possession worthy
of preservation, and they accompany this Memoir.1 not on account
of their merits, but from higher considerations. The spirit with
which the publick mind influenced and supported the legislation
referred to, when regarded in connection with the actual position
and pretensions of the enemy, afford, I cannot but think, a most
gratifying exhibition of the character of our People under circum-
stances more trying than any to which our Country has been ex-
posed since the War of the Revolution. - The sacking of Washing-
ton— that wanton act of barbarity — and the temporary dispersion
of the Government, have already been spoken of. These had been
followed up by a formal announcement to the President by the
British naval Commander on our coast upon pretences of the most
unfounded character, that he intended to employ the forces under
his direction " in destroying and laying waste such towns and dis-
tricts on our coast as might be found assailable.'* By despatches
received from our Ministers at Ghent (during the brief Extra-ses-
sion at which these laws were passed, and this objection interposed)
it appears that the demands of the Enemy were as follows:

1 In the Van Boren Papers under dates of Nov. and Dee. 1814.

• Cochrane to Monroe, August 18, 1814 — before the sacking of Washington. — W. C F.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BtTREN. 69

1st That their Indian Allies should be embraced in the treaty, and
a boundary line between them and us permanently settled, beyond
which we should not be permitted to purchase any land, or exercise
jurisdiction; and a line was proposed by which the United States
would have deprived themselves of the jurisdiction of at least one
third of their original territory, including large portions of the
population of Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois Territories, and which
would also have annulled several Treaties we had made with the
Indian Tribes by which the Indian Title to several millions of acres
of land had been extinguished ; and this article was declared to be a
sine qua non to a Treaty of Peace:

2d. That the entire military command of the Lakes, from Ontario
to Erie, inclusive, in the form of an exclusive right to maintain naval
armaments upon them and military Posts on their shores should be
secured to Great Britain; the British Commissioners declining to
answer, for the present, the question whether this was also to be
regarded as a sine qua non for the reason that they had already
proposed one article of that character :

3d. That there should be a cession of as much of the territory of
Maine as might be necessary for a direct communication between
Halifax and Quebeck :

4th. That our Fishermen should no longer have the right to dry
their fish on the coast of New Foundland ; and

5th. That a new Boundary should be run between them and us
from Lake Superior to the Mississippi.1

The indignation excited by these atrocious acts and insolent de-
mands was intense, and soon satisfied the enemy that their crimes
were also great blunders. It was at this crisis that Hufus King
and other distinguished federalists withdrew their opposition
to the War, and cast the weight of their influence on the side of
their own Country,2 and in our Legislature — hitherto, and still to a
great extent, the hot-bed of faction — there were not wanting symp-
toms of relaxation.

Col. Benton, in his recent able work, places the subject of the
conclusion of peace, without any stipulation of the subject of Im-
pressment, upon its true grounds. That question was better dis-
posed of than it would have been by any stipulation. We would
now regard it as inconsistent with our national honor to ask or
receive any promise on that point as the price of peace. The world
knows that any action based upon such pretension in respect to our
sailors would be tantamount to a declaration of War. During her
recent war with Russia Great Britain has wisely taken a step in

1 flee Henry Adams, History of the United States, lx, 17. — W. C. F.
•Bee a memorandum, dated October, 1814, on the policy of the Federalists In the Life
snd Correspondence of Rufns King, V, 422. — W. C. F.

60 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION,

advance upon the general subject of maritime rights,1 and there
is no reason to apprehend that any similar questions will ever again
be the cause of War between two Nations which have such strong
inducements to be at peace.

Our exemption from further molestation in these respects is one
of the results of the War of 1812 and one of the many reasons why
that event should be regarded as having been of more advantage
to us than any that has occurred since the adoption of the Federal
Constitution.

I cannot allow myself to pass from the subject of the demands of
the British Government without congratulating my countrymen on
the dignity and immense power that the United States have ac-
quired since that day. What nation in the world would now deem
it either wise or safe to propose to us such terms as indispensable
conditions to a treaty of peace ? Not one.

The laws to which the Chancellor objected were passed in the
Assembly by a vote of nearly three fourths, and, in the Senate,
of about two thirds. In addition to this a Resolution passed the
Assembly unanimously and was concurred in by the Senate, with
equal cordiality, declaring "that the House of Assembly of the
State of New York view with mingled emotions of surprise and
indignation the extravagant and disgraceful terms proposed by
the British Commissioners at Ghent; that however ardently they
might desire the restoration of peace to their country, they would
never consent to receive it at the sacrifice of National honor and
dignity." But it was seen with pain and regret that a very slight
portion, if any, of these feelings had reached the breast of the
Chancellor, or it would perhaps be nearer the truth to say, of those
by whose counsels his political course was greatly influenced. Ob-
jections founded on exclusively constitutional grounds, expressed
with moderation, and accompanied by circumstances indicative of
regret that official duty prevented a different conclusion, would
doubtless have been received in a liberal and indulgent spirit, but
the construction and temper of his Opinion closed the door against
any such inferences, and the fact, charged at the time and never
denied that he furnished a copy for the newspapers, shewed that it
originated in a partizan spirit. It was under these circumstances
that Col. Young and myself, both young men, then only in the second
year of our public service, stepped forward and arraigned the con-
duct of the Chancellor at the bar of publick opinion in terms that
we would, in a different state of things, have never thought of em-
ploying. If anything were wanting besides what appears in the

lThls refers to the declaration adopted In April, 1856, by a congress of several mari-
time Powers assembled at Paris. The position of the United States is given In Wharton,
Digest of the International Law of the United States, X, 842. — W. C. F.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF M ARTIST VAN BTJBEN. 61

articles written by me to shew the absence of any personal ill will on
my part, it will be abundantly furnished by the following circum-
stances. The Chancellor, shortly afterwards, determined to abstain
from all participation in party politics, and wrote a letter to that
effect to his friend Josiah Ogden Hoffman, which was published.
As soon as it appeared I wrote an article for the Argus, the original
draft of which is still among my papers,1 and the portion of which
relating to this subject was as follows: —

Mr. Btjel. — I hope you will not fail to lay before your readers the
very interesting letter from Chancellor Kent to Mr. Hoffman. It
cannot fail to be gratifying to every real friend to the Judiciary.
They have witnessed with regret the unceasing attempts which have
been for some time making by his Judicial friends to draw him,
with them, into all the petty intrigues of a Cabal which keeps the
state in commotion, in the hope that if they could not derive a full
excuse from his participation, they would at least divide the odium
by his community. The determination to withdraw himself from
the party dissensions of the day, and to devote his time and atten-
tion to the studies and duties of his office, expressed in this letter, is
as it should be. His distinguished merits have been a subject of
general admiration, and not unfrequently, it is feared, of sinister
commendation. It is however but bare justice to him to say that
among the list of worthies who have at periods filled our highest
Judicial Offices, many of whom have descended to the tomb, accom-
panied by the benedictions of their fellow citizens, there has not been
one who for spotless purity and exemplary industry in the discharge
of his Judicial duties, has excelled the present Chancellor. There is
no Equity Tribunal in this Country organized like our Court of
Chancery ; not one in which a single Judge ° possesses such extensive
powers, and it is a source of just pride and satisfaction, that without
subjecting ourselves to the charge of arrogance we can safely chal-
lenge a comparison in point of learning, industry and all the quali-
ties requisite for a Judge, between the present incumbent and the
brightest luminaries of the law throughout the Union. As such his
character is the property of the State, and should be guarded against
encroachments with the utmost jealousy, and as such too it is doubly
important that by his total exclusion from the angry conflicts of
party (with which ftiis State is yet, for a season, doomed to be
afflicted,) all obstacles to yielding him our united and cheerful ap-
plause should be removed ; so that when Virginians, without regard
to party, expatiate on the distinguished talents of their Marshall, —
when our Eastern brethren dwell with enthusiasm on the memory
of their justly celebrated Parsons and boast of the erudition of

1 Not found among the Van Buren Papers. ° MS. I, jk 80.

62 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

their Story, we too may be able to point to a Judicial character, on
which New York reposes her claims to a fair equality with the
proudest of her sister States.

A steady adherence to the resolution contained in this letter is all
that is necessary to secure this great End — every thing but that is
already done. The Republicans of the State do not desire, nor would
they approve the active co-operation of the Judges of our superior
Courts in those party strifes which our free political institutions
must and will produce. The utmost of their wish is to see them
" devote their time <md attention to the studies and duties of their
office." Let Chancellor Kent therefore persevere in his praise-
worthy determination, and at the appointed day when, by the im-
perious provision of our Constitution, the high powers which have
been delegated to him must be surrendered, he will find that that
Party which can neither be intimidated by oppression, seduced by
corruption, nor circumvented by artifice, is not wanting in liberality
even to political opponents, — but there is no class of men who take
more pleasure than they in bestowing the unbought and freewill offer-
ing of their approbation and support upon official merit.

While passing down the river on the morning after the appear-
ance of my Card I met on the steamboat with a very clever lady and
devoted friend of the Chancellor, who charged me with cruelty in
exciting him to the extent she had herself witnessed that morning;
and, which made it worse, she said, he was very far from being my
enemy. I replied that she could not herself have seen the Card
she referred to, or a person of her good sense would have perceived
that the writer, whoever he might be, was none other than a true
friend of the Chancellor. This profession in respect to my own
feelings was entirely sincere. From my first acquaintance with him,
until his death, I entertained for him sentiments of true esteem and
great respect If it is not a compliment too broad to be paid to any
man, considering the frailty of human nature, and the bad influences
to which the best are exposed at times, through their passions, I
would say that I do not believe that he ever, in his long and honor-
able career, did an act, whatever may have been its error, that he at
least did not conscientiously think to be right I was first pre-
sented to him on my return home from the city of New York, where
I had been studying law, at the Columbian Circuit which he was
holding. He was sitting in the shade after the labours of the sum-
mer's day surrounded by a group composed of William P. Van
Ness, Elisha Williams, Thomas P. Grosvenor, and others, who were
greatly excited in consequence of some political occurrence, and
were giving vent to their feelings in the severest terms. They retired
one after another, and when he and myself were about the only

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUREN. 63

persons present he rose from his seat and exclaimed, " Oh ! these poli-
ticians ! What trouble and vexation do they not cause ! for myself
I have been content to eat my cake in peace," and, tapping me on
the shoulder, added — " don't you think that is the wisest course,
young man ! " Almost, if not quite the last time I had the pleasure
of meeting him, was nearly forty years afterwards in New York
and in the street, on my way home from Washington, after the ex-
piration of my Presidential Term. He took both my hands, ex-
pressed his great satisfaction in having met me, and insisted on my
acccpnpanying him to his house which was near at hand; and on
my consenting to do so, he said at once, " I have to ask your pardon,
Sir, for the part I have taken in assisting to turn you out, and put-
ting a man in your place, who is wholly unfit for it. I pledge you
my honor, Sir, that I was then wholly ignorant of the fact, but now
I know all about it ! ' You made a very good President ; I did not
approve "of all you did — but you did nothing of which either of us
has reason to be ashamed ; and we ought not to have turned you out,
without placing a more competent man in your place, and in that
matter I was sadly deceived, and I have, ever since I understood
it, desired an opportunity to say to you what I now say ! " I found
it impossible to stop him until we had reached his house, when he
introduced me to Mrs. Kent, and repeated to her what he had said
to me. I spent an agreeable hour with him and parted with a
promise on his part that he would pay me a visit in the country.

In my experience of men I have never known three men who
received so nearly the same stamp from the hand of Nature as James
Madison, Bushrod Washington and James Kent. In the simplicity,
sincerity and inoffensiveness of their dispositions they were identi-
cal; each owned a delightful cheerfulness of temperament and an
unvarying desire to develop that heaven-born quality in others.
With a buoyancy of spirits and manners sometimes bordering on
levity, they never for a moment hazarded the respect of their friends
or of those about them. Mr. Madison's life having been devoted to
politicks he was more reserved in regard to public affairs, but upon
all other subjects they spoke their sentiments with the simplicity
and directness of children. Kent possessed more genius and learning
than his brother Judge, but Washington's mind was of a highly
respectable order. Mr. Emmet, in speaking to me of Kent, said that
he was a learned and able Judge — but a poor Jury-man. The justice
of this distinction frequently occurred to me. Elevated to the Bench
at an early age, and ardently devoted to domestic life, he had
mixed but little with the world and was proportionally disqualified
to sift and weigh testimony. This was strikingly exhibited at the
commencement of his official duties as Chancellor. Being obliged in

64 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

most cases to decide both law and fact, and too liable to be led into
extremes, by his detestation of fraud, several of his first decrees
failed to stand the test of i^view in the Court for the Correction of
Errors. At the first or second Term of that Court, not fewer than
six of his Decrees (speaking from memory) were reversed with the
concurrence of his former brethren of the Supreme Court. Having
occasion to call at his office the next morning on professional busi-
ness, he» displayed, in my presence, what, in almost any other man,
would have been regarded as undignified violence of temper and
manner, but would not, to one who knew him well, bear any -such
construction. The reversals of the preceding day having been re-
ferred to, he broke out into a mock tirade against the Judges, to the
following effect ; — " They are unfit for their places, Mr. Van Buren ;
You know that they are ! Spencer and Van Ness are able enough,
but instead of studying their cases they devote their time to poli-
ticks! You know that, as well as I do! As to Judge Yates" —
raising his hands — " I need say nothing! Ton should roll hdm> back
to Schenectady!" (an allusion to Judge Y's personal appearance,
borrowed from Mr. Clinton,) — "Andlw to my cousin Pi*att! He is
only fit to be Head Deacon to a Presbyterian Church, and for nothing
else ! " *

The memories of the older members of the Bar must abound in
the recollection of similar ebullitions. On one occasion when I was
present at his Chambers, a young attorney was applying for admis-
sion as Solicitor in Chancery. Finding (as was very evident) that
he could not bring his case within the rules, he referred to the ad-
mission under similar circumstances of an attorney from a neigh-
bouring city whose rough manners were notorious. Before he had
finished his statement His Honor interrupted him in the following
strain — " I deny it ! Sir ! It is not true ! I did not admit him !
He broke in ! How would you keep such a fellow out! — But you
are a gentleman, and must not try to imitate such a bad example.
Wait till ° the proper time and I will admit you with pleasure." At
an earlier period he had been holding a tedious Circuit in Columbia,
and, on the last day, tried an action for an assault and battery on a

1 " To tell you the truth, I am discouraged and heartbroken. The judges have pre-
vailed on the Court of Errors to reverse all my best decisions. They have reversed Frost
v. Beekman, the Methodist Episcopal Church v. Jacques, Anderson v. Boyd, and others.
After such devastation, what courage ought I to have to study and write elaborate opin-
ions? There are but two sides to every case, and I am so unfortunate as always to take
the wrong side. I never felt more disgusted with the judges in all my life, and I ex-
pressed myself to Judge Piatt in a way to mortify and offend him. According to my
present feelings and sentiments, I will never consent to publish another opinion, and 1
have taken and removed out of sight and out of my office into another room my three
volumes of Chancery Reports. They were too fearful when standing before my eyes.*'
.fames Kent to William Johnson, April, 1820. Kent, Memoirs and Letters of James Kent,
p. 18a — W. C. P.

° MS. I, p. 80.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 65

negro. It appeared that the negro's conduct had been improper, and
the Jury gave him only six cents damages. He had brought an-
other suit against another defendant for the same assault that was
also on the Calendar, but had been passed. The Plaintiff wished to
have it tried at the close of the circuit and the Judge refused, saying
that he had had his chance, but on the representation of Plaintiff's
counsel that his client was poor and would be liable to heavy costs, the
Judge consented, with an admonition to the Counsel that if he did
not recover more than six cents in the other cause he would not give
him a certificate to entitle him to costs. The Clerk commenced call-
ing the Jury, when the Judge looked at his watch and exclaimed,
" Stop, Clerk ! I'll be hanged if I will try the other Cause ! The
Negro was saucy and deserved to be whipped! Crier! adjourn the
Court!"

127488°— vol 2—20 6

CHAPTER V.

The return of peace naturally revived rival aspirations for political
distinction which had been in some degree suspended, on the Re-
publican side, by the engrossing cares and responsibilities of the War.

The question in regard to Gen. [Obadiah] German's successor in
the Senate of the United States took the lead in our State affairs.
The personal and political relations between Judge Spencer and
myself had been harmonious during the War; more so than ever
before, and, I regret to be obliged to add, than they ever were
afterwards. He was exceedingly anxious for the appointment of
his old friend Gen. Armstrong, and pressed me with his accus-
tomed earnestness to unite in his support. I could not consent to
this proposal, but offered at once and with entire sincerity to sup-
port the Judge himself. He expressed his gratification at this offer,
but declined becoming a Candidate, on the ground that his pur-
suits had not been of a character to qualify him for the place; and
he did not discontinue his efforts to induce me to go for his friend. At
our last interview that took place at his own house and by appoint-
ment, he submitted to me a great number of letters received by him
from different parts of the state in favor of Gen. Armstrong to re-
fute the opinion I had expressed that his efforts in favor of the
General might prove a failure. I had, before this interview, come
to the conclusion to support Nathan Sanford, of which fact I then
apprised the Judge. He was somewhat excited, but received the
communication in a much better spirit than was usual with him
when his wishes were opposed, repeated his entire confidence in
Gen. Armstrong's success, and expressed a hope that our difference
would be an amiable one. Understanding his disposition and satis-
fied that when he found that he might fail in his design he would
not be able to persevere in the liberal feelings he then professed, I
deemed it an act of prudence to look out in season for the means
of self defense. The Council of Appointment was in those days
the only secure citadel of political strength to its possessors, and to
that my attention was directed. In regular course Mr. Sanford
would be selected for that Council from the Southern District;
Ruggles Hubbard was the only Republican Senator from the Eastern
District, and must therefore be chosen; with them and my friend
Lucas Elmendorff from my own — the Middle District — we would
have three out of the four members, and might feel ourselves safe
from persecution for the act of rebellion we meditated against
06

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTTREN. 67

Judge Spencer's long acknowledged supremacy. These we had
the power, to elect, but at the Meeting of the Legislature Mr. San-
ford declined a place in the Council, and recommended the selec-
tion of Judge [Jonathan] Dayton. By this act Col. Young, one of
the most efficient of his supporters, was sacrificed to Spencer's re-
sentment, as would have been the case with myself if I had had no
other reliance than on Mr. Sanford's support. Dayton, Elmendorff,
Hubbard and Col. [Farrand] Stranahan (a friend of the Judge)
were chosen for the Council.1 Judge Spencer continued for a sea-
son to support General Armstrong with great spirit but was finally
compelled to abandon his case as hopeless. He then brought for-
ward the name of his friend Elisha Jenkins but with no better
success. Finally his own name was introduced into the Canvass,
and the matter treated by his friends as if the only question was
whether he would consent to take the office. When he was proposed
in the Caucus, gentlemen who had dined in company with him but
a few hours before made conflicting statements in regard to his
willingness to take the place.8 This produced a motion on the part
of one of his friends that a committee should wait on him to ascer-
tain whether he would serve if appointed. I opposed this motion,
and cautioned his friends to reflect that the appointment of such a
Committee would be tantamount to a declaration that a majority
were in his favor — which I was very confident was not the case — and
that if they should prove to be mistaken on this point they would
practice a cruel deception upon their friend if they should obtain
his consent. The motion was however persisted in and lost I then
moved for a recess of one hour, to give the Judge's friends an op-
portunity to consult him if they were so disposed. They availed
themselves of it, reported his declension to stand as a Candidate,8
and Mr. Sanford was nominated without an organized opposition.

Whilst we were proceeding in the election on the following day,
Judge Woodworth came into the Senate Chamber, and directing
Sanford's attention to him I said "There is the man who will be
used by Judge Spencer to punish me for what we are now doing."
When the Senate adjourned Woodworth stepped towards Sanford
and myself, and invited us to drive to our lodgings in his sleigh,
and on our way proposed a visit at his house. While there he was
vociferous in his exultation at the triumph we had obtained over an
" influence " (referring to Spencer) which had, he said, ruled the
State too long. After we parted from him, Mr. Sanford asked me
whether I did not regret the injustice I had done a friend. I an-

1 The election occurred February 1, 1815. — W. C. F.

* Hammond says (I, 393, note) that It was Van Bnren who stated that he did not
believe Judge Spencer would consent to be a candidate. — W. C F.

•" Because he would not put himself in competition with so young a man as San-
ford.**— (Hammond, I, 893 note).— W. C. F.

68 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

swered in the negative, and told him that Woodworth knew nothing
of the matter yet, but that the Judge would send for him in the
evening and obtain his consent to be a candidate against me for the
office of Attorney General. The desire of the party that I should
be appointed to that office was so general that until that time no
other name had been spoken of. The movement, as I told Sanford,
would be founded oijl the assumption that Stranahan would certainly
go with the Judge ; that Hubbard who was a near relative of Wood-
worth, and had been to some extent brought up by him, could be
easily induced to vote for him, and that Spencer's influence with,
the Governor, aided by the fact that considerable uneasiness had
arisen between the latter and myself in respect to local appointments
in my county, would be sufficient to induce him to give the casting
vote against me.

A few days afterwards the Governor gave his first State dinner
at which were present most of the parties to the political broil then
in embryo, except myself — confined to my own quarters by a severe
cold. In the evening Sanford and Buggies [Hubbard] called at my
room, in much excitement, and informed me that the Governor had
shown them before they left him, Woodworth's application for the
office of Attorney General, and had also told them that when the
application was presented Woodworth had given him to understand
that his friends contemplated the passage of a law for the appoint-
ment of two additional Judges of the Supreme Court, and that if
my friends would sustain that measure and allow the appointment of
Judges and Attorney General to proceed pari passu he would accept
the office of Judge and withdraw his application for the Attorney
Generalship. Mr. Hubbard knowing that he was to be in the Coun-
cil and apprehending ° that he might be embarrassed by an applica-
tion from Woodworth had written me a letter expressing his prefer-
ence for me for the office in question and pledging himself to vote
in my favor. This he thought would furnish him with a satisfactory
answer to all importunities. I took this letter from my desk, and
after reminding Mr. Sanford of my anticipations, explained its con-
tents and pointing out to Mr. Hubbard the impropriety of writing
it offered to return it to him with a declaration that I should insist
on his voting for Woodworth, and on his refusing to receive it, I
threw it into the fire. I then told him that I was opposed to the
proposed increase on the Bench upon principle, and that if I were
not I could never consent to support the measure after so profligate
a proposition had been attached to it, and requested Mr. Hubbard
to inform Woodworth that if a movement in that direction was made
in the Senate by any of his friends, I would repeat from my place

• MS. IP in 00.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAK BUREN. 69

his declarations to the Governor, and denounce the proposed arrange-
ment as corrupt. Ruggles Hubbard was a noble hearted, enthusiastic
and confiding young man and through these qualities he was liable
sometimes to be misled by designings persons, whilst his motives were
always honest and generous.1 He was a zealous friend of mine, and
as I have already said he was nearly connected with Woodworth
(his sister having been Woodworth's first wife, I believe) and I was
unwilling that he should gratify his feelings at the expense of a
rupture with his relative. I therefore in the presence of Mr. San-
ford, repeated my desire that he would take the course I had at first
recommended. He answered that he was desirous to preserve the
friendship of Mr. Woodworth, and could not at the moment say how
far he might be induced to go to serve him, but that nothing on earth
could induce him to give a vote that would defeat my appointment.
After urging him farther on the point we parted. A few days later
he called at my room in high spirits and told me that he had un-
bosomed himself to Governor Tompkins who had readily relieved
him by the assurance that if there was a tie in the Council he would
be glad of the opportunity to give the casting vote in my favor be-
cause he thought me entitled to the place and because he knew that
the People desired that I should have it.

The practice of the Council had always been to meet at the Gov-
ernor's Boom, and to commence and finish their proceedings there.
It was now proposed and agreed to that they should first meet at
their own rooms in the city, and agree upon what they were to do,
and then go to the Governor's office to record their decisions. The
design doubtless was to lessen the influence of the Governor, but
this was not suspected by Elmendorff and Dayton. A more active
or a more indomitable spirit than Judge Spencer's never existed.
Deeply offended by the choice of Senator, and seeing in the result,
as he thought, a design on the part of the young men of the party
to cast off his control over its action, he had determined not to con-
tent himself with my defeat, but had carefully prepared a blow with
which to assail us in an unexpected quarter.

I was engaged to dine with my old friend Matthew Gregory on
the day appointed for the first meeting of the Council, and on my
way to his house I met Hubbard. Seeing in his speaking counten-
ance indications of distress I enquired after the cause, and, in reply,
he gave me a history of the proceedings of the Council at their in-
formal meeting, which had just broken up. On my nomination there
had been a tie; Elmendorff and Dayton voting for me, and Stran-
ahan and himself for Woodworth, but Col. Young's nomination, as
Secretary of State, in respect to which no question had been raised

* A different character 1b given by Hammond, I, 8861, note* — W. C F.

70 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

or was expected, had been defeated, and Elisha Jenkins had been
agreed upon. I begged him to go at once to Mr. Sanford and to
ask his interference. He answered that it would be useless, as Mr.
Dayton's pride had been assailed and his mind prejudiced by insinua-
tions that he was Sanford's representative in the Council, and any
appeal from that quarter would therefore do more harm than good ;
and any attempt to arrest the appointment in the afternoon, at the
regular meeting of the Council, he thought would be unavailing —
so that all he had to do was to apprise CoL Young of what had been
done. Judge Spencer had furthermore quietly operated upon Mr.
Elmendorff , who had acted with him so long that he could not refuse
to gratify him in regard to the appointment of his friend Jenkins,
as a sort of peace offering for the Judge's disappointment on the
question of Senator. Wounded by this result I was sufficiently rest-
less at the dinner table to attract the attention of the Company, who
very naturally attributed my anxiety to my own affair. While seek-
ing relief, as men often do under such circumstances, by looking out
of the window, I saw Hubbard on his way to the Council. The
sight of him suggested an idea which I put into instant execution.
Calling Judge Atwater (a brother Senator) from the table to the
hall, I informed him of the condition of things, and begged him to
follow Hubbard, who was still in view, and to ask him from me to
nominate Peter B. Porter for Secretary of State,1 the moment the
Council was organized, and to persist in his nomination until he
had a vote upon it. Atwater returned and reported that he had over-
taken Hubbard at the Governor's door, and that he had promised to
do what was requested. I then asked the Judge to go to the Eagle
Tavern, where Porter had only arrived the evening before, to inform
him of what had been done, to ask him to accept, and, if he did not,
as we supposed, desire the place, to hold the office until we could re-
cover our ground, and obtain the appointment of Young. He did
so, and Porter readily consented. The Council remained in session
until midnight, occupied almost every moment of the time with so-
licitations and remonstrances, addressed to Hubbard by his col-
leagues, to induce him to withdraw his nomination. When they
found every attempt of that character unavailing Porter was ap-
pointed by a unanimous vote. The General had fought gallantly
in the War, and on his arrival at Albany became the lion of the day.
Jenkins, on the other hand, had held a lucrative appointment in the
Commissary Department, without personal exposure to danger.

I was right in supposing that the Council would not venture
to reject Porter, under such circumstances, in favor of Jenkins.
The appointment was, of course, a surprise upon every body, and

* In place of Jacob Ratten Van Renaselaer, removed. — W. C. F.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 07 MABTIK YAK BUREN. 71

a source of deep mortification to Judge Spencer. The appointment
of Jenkins under existing circumstances was an affair he had an-
ticipated with delight and exultation, the expression of which would
have speedily followed the action of the Council. Governor Tomp-
kins was in favor of Young, and told me afterwards that he had
heard from one of the members what had been agreed upon at the
informal meeting and was much mortified by it He said that at
that moment he was called out to receive Gen. Strong, of Vermont,
who had served with distinction in the War, and that he detained
his visitor longer than he would otherwise have done to gain time
for reflection, in the hope of being able to devise some scheme to
save Young; but he returned to the Council without a plan, when
Hubbard's motion presented him with a way to escape. Porter
held the office for a year, and resigned it whilst I was detained at
Hudson by sickness in my family, when Young was again dis-
appointed thro' influences of which I need not speak.

The Governor deferred giving his casting vote upon the appoint-
ment of Attorney General until another day, when he promised to
give it at his office in the Capitol. When that day arrived, Judge
Woodworth and myself were invited to dine with his brother-in-
law, the Patroon ; and Woodworth came late to dinner, having waited
to ascertain the result of the Governor's action. When he came in
Gen. Van Rensselaer, who knew in advance, asked him provokingly
who was Attorney General; a question that he was obviously not
happy to answer.1

Peter B. Porter was a man of prepossessing personal appearance,
good address and fine mind. He was fortunate and, in no inconsider-
able degree, successful as well in the field as in our national Coun-
cils during the War, and yet he was at no time popular with the
masses. The reason was a general conviction that the acquisition
of wealth was his master passion, to which every other was made

1 Mr. Van Vechten was, of course, removed from the office of attorney general, and
Mr. Van Buren was appointed his successor. Thin appointment was made, by the casting
vote of the governor. Mr. Elmendorff and Mr. Dayton voted for Mr. Van Buren, and
Messrs. Stranahan and Hubbard for Mr. John Woodworth. The circumstance is too
trifling to deserve notice, except as an evidence of a jealous feeling which then began to
exist between Judge Spencer and Mr. Van Buren. I do not Impute the vote of Hubbard
to the influence of Judge Spencer. Mr. H. was from Troy, and Judge Woodworth had
many and powerful friends in that place, and in Mr. Hubbard's district. This accounts
well enough for the vote of Mr. Hubbard. But Stranahan had no personal partialities
nor any influential friends, in his district, in favor of Woodworth ; on the contrary, they
were for Van Buren. The truth is, Stranahan, at that period of his political life, was
much if not entirely, devoted to the views of Judge Spencer. I apprehend that Judge
Spencer perceived that Mr. Van Buren was acquiring a greater influence in the State
than the judge desired he should possess, and, therefore, persuaded Mr. Stranahan to
endeavor to defeat his appointment. From this period, down to 1817, when Mr. Clinton
was nominated for governor, Mr. Van Buren and Judge Spencer, though both of them
acting with the Republican party, and in good faith too, were very much inclined to
thwart the individual views of each other." Hammond, History of Political Parties In
the State of New York, I, 392.— W. C. P.

72 AMERICAN" HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

subsidiary. A partial illustration of this trait was exhibited in a
transaction with which I was connected. Whilst we were holding
the respective offices of Secretary of State and Attorney General, he
proposed to me to unite with him in the purchase of an outstanding
Class Bight with a view to its location on Goat Island, at the head
of the Niagara falls. I assented, and advanced him half the* con-
sideration money. The location was made, and no opposition or
objection was raised to the completion of the title. But when it was
found necessary to have the proceedings confirmed by the Commis-
sioners of the Land Office, of which Board we were members, the
objection to our being parties to any speculation that required such
a step presented itself to my mind. I stated it to him and he laughed
at ° what he called my fastidiousness, at the same time saying that
if I persisted in it he would be too happy to return me my money —
about a thousand dollars — and to take the whole purchase himself.
I did persist, and he made a very considerable fortune out of the
transaction.

Judge Spencer's feelings were somewhat soothed by his success in
obtaining the removal of DeWitt Clinton from the office of Mayor of
New York. Mr. Hammond * is right in assuming that I took no part
in that matter. My friend Mr. Elmendorff could not have been in-
duced to vote for it by any other consideration than his desire to save
the Governor from the necessity of giving the casting vote — other-
wise unavoidable, as Hubbard could not be brought to vote for the
removal.

Mr. Clinton retired to his place at Flushing, to which he had often
been sentenced in advance by Judge Spencer during their quarrel.
Here he rusticated for two years, when strange to say he was recalled
to public life mainly thro' the instrumentality of his imperious
brother-in-law.

Mr. Elmendorff was always an anti-Federal politician without
variableness or the shadow of turning, and an old school Dutchman,
immovable, obstinate and imperturbably good natured. He was a
member of Congress as far back as the days of William Cobbet in the
United States, and received from that caustic censor the sobriquet of
" The bird of wisdom."

The opening of the session of 1816 was marked by one of those
occurrences that shew the facility with which men acting as a body,
are led to confound power with right, and to do things that in their
individual capacity they would regard as disgraceful. Experience
has demonstrated that whenever distinterested justice is obtained
from one Community — whether a great nation or a petty municipal-
ity— in behalf of another, it is due to the individuality and conse-

• MS. I, p. 95. » Political HUrtory of New York, I, 397.— W. C. F.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 78

quent responsibility of those who act for it ; the substitution of mo-
tives of selfish advantage for those of fairness and right is the char-
acteristic of souless corporations of all kinds, and political parties
are very liable to become similarly demoralized.

At the election for members of the House of Assembly in Ontario
County, Henry Fellows, the federal, was clearly chosen over Peter
Allen, the republican candidate, if a few votes, in returning which the
proper officer had abbreviated his name and written " Hen. Fellows ",
were allowed to him. The Clerk of the County, being a mere ministerial
officer, gave the certificate of election to Allen, who appeared and
was qualified, as there was no proper tribunal for the decision of the
question until the House was organized. The moment that was
done, Fellows applied to be admitted. That his right would be ulti-
mately established no one doubted, but the question was whether
the investigation should take place before or after the choice of the
Council of Appointment. With Allen's vote we could get the
Council — if Fellows was first admitted, it would be against us. It
is difficult to realize the idea that a great party would allow itself
to take advantage of an accidental circumstance such as I have
described, to secure to itself a patronage then supposed to amount
to a million of dollars. But we did it, and there was not the slightest
dotubt that the other side would have done the same thing if the
circumstances had been reversed. Fellows was admitted to his seat
immediately after the choice of the Council, with only one dissenting
voice. Although not a member of that house I was quite as much to
blame in the matter as if I had aided the step directly, as I was
pressed forward by my political associates to take a more active
part in that body than was proper; so much so that Peter A. Jay, a
federal leader in the Assembly, of fine talents and great personal
worth, having occasion in debate to refer to a democratic member
with whom I happened at the moment to be conversing, and affecting
to forget his parliamentary designation, exclaimed, "I mean the
gentleman who always speaks with the Attorney General at his
elbow !" My then recent insurrection against him would prevent my
attempting to screen my own delinquency, under the sanction and,
of course, hearty co-operation of my quondam friend Judge Spencer,
in the whole affair. The case was in truth one of those abuses of
power to which parties are subject, but which I am sure I could never
again be induced to countenance.1

I was at this time [1816] re-elected to the State Senate by a large
majority, notwithstanding a factious opposition in our ranks by
Judge Spencer's connections — acting however without his approba-
tion. No one sooner perceived than himself that the political sceptre

lThls political Incident ia fully described in Hammond, I, 412. 8ee also Life and
Correspondence of Rufus King, V, 501. — W. C. P.

74 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

that he had swayed so long in State affairs was dropping from his
hand, and finding his power threatened by a body of spirited young
men on whom his arts of seduction and intimidation had been equally
tried in vain, he looked about for assistance* With this object he
turned his attention, as no man but himself would have thought of
doing, to Mr. Clinton. It was said, and I believe truly, that he con-
sulted Gen. Armstrong on the point and that the latter remon-
strated earnestly against the proposed step. I met him on the steamer
on our way to attend the Term of the Supreme Court at New York,
shortly after my re-election, when he took me aside immediately
and assured me that so far from having countenanced the opposition
of his friends to my election he had done all he could to prevent it.
I begged him to give himself no uneasiness on the point as my friend
Chief Justice Thompson had informed me to the same effect during
the canvass, and I was very certain besides that he was wholly in-
capable of such conduct. He then proceeded to remark upon the
happy results of the election throughout the State, and the uses we
ought to make of our success; spoke of healing wounds and the im-
portance and advantage of an harmonious party. Having had an
inkling of what was in the wind I could, without difficulty, place
the true construction on such unusual observations from him. I
replied therefore that no one knew better than himself how well such
sentiments corresponded with my own, and that he might safely
count on my co-operation in all measures directed to that end, pro-
vided that they did not lead to such abrupt changes in our conduct
and opinions, without a corresponding change in circumstances, as
might impair the confidence of the People in our sincerity and cause
them to believe that we were making a game of politicks, and play-
ing it to serve our personal purposes. He said, certainly! that
should be borne in mind, and the subject was dropped, but without
the slightest idea on his part of abandoning his purpose; that he
never did, when his mind was once set on a favorite object. We
lodged at the same house in New York, and the matter alluded to on
the steamboat furnished the occasion of many early walks together
on the Battery. Finding that he could not prevail on me to become
a party to the Movement he contemplated, he one morning halted
suddenly in our promenade and facing me, exclaimed, with some
feeling, "Why, You are a strange man! When I wanted to have
Mr. Clinton removed, you were, in point of fact, opposed to it, and
now that I want to bring him back you are opposed to that also ! "
I replied that I was not opposed to Mr. Clinton's restoration to the
confidence of the party if it was brought about naturally, and facili-
tated by his own conduct, but that I could neither approve nor co-
operate in the sudden and unwise way in which he proposed to bring
it about, which could not fail, I thought, to have the effect I had

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJBEN. 75

alluded to in our first conversation. We were invited a few days
after this to dine with Jacob Barker, then a great banker in New
York, afterwards a lawyer in New Orleans, and everywhere and in
every situation an extraordinary man, and always my personal friend
altho' never my co-adjutor.

From his habitual devotion to Judge Spencer and his ambition to
take part in such affairs, I was quite sure that this was a movement
in furtherance of the Judge's project, and that we should meet
Mr. Clinton at the dinner. On my way to the residence of Mr.
Barker, in Beekman street, accompanied by Chief Justice Thompson
and Judge Yates, I asked them whom they expected to meet. They
mentioned several names, to which I added that of De Witt Clinton.
" Why, Spencer is to be there ! " exclaimed they, and " that is the
very reason!9' I responded. I then explained to them what was
going on, which surprised them greatly. Mr. Clinton was the only
guest present when we arrived. He had come in from the country,
and I observed was plainly and rather carelessly dressed. We met
him and were received by him very kindly. After a few moments
Judge Spencer made his appearance, which caused some embarrass-
ment on the part of all present. . Although there was no direct
recognition between him and Mr. Clinton, neither °any conversa-
tion at the table between them, addressed to each other, they talked
at each other through the rest of us in subdued and conciliatory
terms. They had an interview in the evening of the same day, as I
have always understood, at the residence of Dr. John A. Graham,
and were formally reconciled. On the Friday following the Chief
Justice called on me and informed me that, as the Court were to
adjourn on Saturday, Judge Spencer had taken leave of his brethren
and was going to Albany that afternoon. As the Legislature were
to meet on the succeeding Monday for the choice of Presidential
Electors we conceived his object and sending my papers to a friend
by the hand of the Chief Justice, I packed my trunk and met the
Judge and Mr. Clinton on the steamboat. Their familiar intercourse
was matter of amazement to the uninitiated. Mr. Clinton left the
boat at Newburgh, and I believe only made his appearance on it as
an expedient demonstration preparatory to what was contemplated
further. Very soon after he had left us Judge Spencer invited me
to an interview in the small after cabin, when he opened his budget
He proposed that Chief Justice Thompson and Mr. Clinton should
be placed on the Electoral Ticket as Electors for the state at large ;
that I might say which should stand first, and that he would pledge
himself that Mr. Clinton should vote for Monroe for President and
for Tompkins for Vice President. When I declined to come into

•MS. I, p. 100.

76 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

the arrangement he became much excited, and said that my unwill-
ingness to confer a mere formal distinction of that character on
Mr. Clmton betrayed a violence of party feeling that he could not
have expected from me. I replied, without recriminations, that he
misunderstood my motives; that if there were no ulterior purpose,
I would not object 4x> the choice of Mr. Clinton as he proposed, but
that I believed it was his intention to bring Mr. Clinton forward as
the candidate for Governor, to supply the vacancy that was expected
to arise from the election of Gov. Tompkins to the Vice Presidency ;
and that as I would be opposed to that step he would think me
weak indeed if I were to consent to a preliminary arrangement
designed to promote it.1

Of course, if he had no such intention my course would be different.
He was too truthful to deny this, and immediately turned the con-
versation upon the main question. He asked me, with his peculiarly
emphatic manner, why I opposed the nomination of Mr. Clinton,

*" I understand that our Mr. Clinton has failed in the project, which he had formed of
being one of the Electors of this State. He was at Albany, and with a view of reconciling
himself to his old Friends and Party, as well as to advance a step in the accomplishment
of his desire to succeed Tompkins as Governor, he made exertions to be put at the head
of the Electoral Ticket ; but on a vote in caucus failed by a large majority against him."
Rufus King to Christopher Gore, 22 November, 1816. Life and Correspondence of Bufua
King, vi, 36.

The short session of the Legislature in the fall of 1816 had shown the Republicans to
be divided between the Clinton lane, of whom Judge Spencer was the recognised leader, and
the followers of Tompkins and Van Buren, of whom James Emott said that they were
" professing to be the true republican party, willing to support caucus nominations and to
do all the things necessary to promote the views of the holy father [Monroe] at Washing-
ton, but in fact led by Van Buren and a few young men who mean to make the adminis-
tration at Washington as well as the good people of thlB State, subservient to their
particular views, which are in part ambitious but in main interested." It was with the
Idea of breaking the growing influence of Tompkins and Van Buren that Judge Spencer
favored the advancement of Clinton and became reconciled to him. It was said .that
Clinton had given a pledge to vote for Monroe and Tompkins if his name were placed first
on the electoral ticket. Seeing that such a concession would give the Impression that
Clinton had become firmly reconciled to the party and was pledged to support all its
views and principles, Van Buren opposed it, and succeeded in defeating it. The Clin-
tonlans cried out that they had been " outmanaged," while their opponents boasted their
superior strength and talent.

By removing Tompkins to the Vice Presidency the chair of the governor must be filled.
Hammond describes the three distinct schemes entertained by Van Buren for defeating the
project of making Clinton governor: 1. That Tompkins should hold both offices and be
Governor of New York as well as Vice President ; 2, that the Lieutenant Governor should
act until the regular gubernatorial election of 1810, a plan opposed by the Clintonians,
who claimed that the Lieutenant Governor could act only until the next " annual " elec-
tion ; and 3, to obtain a majority in the legislative caucus and nominate an opponent to
Clinton. After the resignation of Tompkins, which occurred a few days before March 4,
1817. a measure passed the Legislature providing for the election of a successor, and Van
Buren voted in Its favor. It was thought to have been adopted "not so much to satisfy
the terms and intent of the Constitution as the whims and expectations of the people.'*
The question of succession was practically determined when the Clinton men obtained con-
trol of the Council, February 13, 1817. Walter Bowne, John Noyes, John I. Prendergast
and Henry Bloom formed the new Council, and only Bowne was opposed to Clinton.
Hammond says " This was a great point gained, and It seems to me Mr. Van Buren and
Gov. Tompkins, If they possessed the power, should have prevented this. Whether they
made any systematic effort to do so, I am not advised/* Van Buren attributes the loss of
the Council to the " inaction ** of Governor Tompkins. — W. C. F.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURRN. 77

and, after several earnest and impressive remarks, said he would be
responsible for Mr. Clinton's good conduct towards me and my
friends. I replied with a like proffer of responsibility in favor of
Chief Justice Thompson, whom we then thought of nominating, on
which Judge .Spencer contracted his brow, rapped his snuff-box, as
he was wont to do when highly excited, and exclaimed " There, Sir,
you have touched a cord that vibrates to my heart 1 I was not
ignorant that I expose my conduct to unfavorable criticism by my
sudden reconciliation with Mr. Clinton, so soon after our violent
quarrel and the many severe things I have said of him, and I am
not sure that I could have brought my mind to that point had I not
known that it was your intention to bring that man forward, against
whom I have cause for resentment that neither time nor circum-
stances can appease ! " I knew very well, without farther explana-
tion, what he referred to.

The discussion between the Judge and myself terminated amicably
but fruitlessly. On our approach to Albany he resumed the sub-
ject, spoke of his certain success with the Legislature, of the sure
restoration of Mr. Clinton to power, ultimately, of his kind feelings
towards me, of my age and prospects, and of the influence upon my
future success of my course on this occasion. He continued these
remarks until the moment 6t parting.

We met several times at the rooms of the Members, but had too
much self respect to indulge in disputations on the subject in their
presence. One or the other always retired, and left the field to his
opponent, and we never had any difficulty in deciding whose turn
it was to do so. A few hours before the Caucus he told me that they
would certainly have a majority of twenty; and I asked him whether
he would do us the honor to visit the Senate Chamber when we ap-
pointed the Electors, which was to be done on the next day. He
leplied " Certainly ! " I had no doubt that he had received promises
from several, who, tho' in their hearts for Mr. Clinton, were not yet
prepared to support him openly.

As soon as the Caucus was organized I submitted two propositions:
one, that the Members from each Congressional District should name
the Elector for their district, and another that the two Electors for
the State at large should be selected — one from the Southern and the
other from the Western District. The first was the usual mode, and
to the second there was no objection, as both Mr. Clinton and our
candidate, Col. Rutgers, resided in the Southern District. They
therefore both passed with perfect unanimity. As soon as' the mem-
bers had made and reported their district selections, I moved
promptly that the two Electors from the State at large should be
designated in the same way — the one by the members from the South-

78 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION".

em District, and the other by the members from the West. As £he
members from the Southern district were nearly unanimous against
Mr. Clinton, this proposition produced a perfect ferment in the
meeting. The Clintonian leaders sprang to their feet, and contended
with each other for precedence in denouncing the proposition, which
they characterized by all sorts of hard names. They said that it was
aimed at Mr. Clinton — as if it could have had any other aim — that
it was unusual and unfair. A motion was made to amend it, so as
to provide for a vote for the two Electors by ballot. Speech after
speech followed on their side — our friends naturally waiting for mo
to defend my own proposition, and I to let the storm spend itself.

At the first pause I demanded the attention of the meeting as the
mover of the resolution, which I ought, in common courtesy, to have
been permitted to explain before it was so grossly assailed. The lead-
ers of the opposition finding that they had been too hasty, more read-
ily acquiesced in giving me a fair hearing. I then stated my object to
be to bring the question of Mr. Clinton's appointment to a test by the
viva-voce vote of the meeting ; that everybody knew that if my reso-
lution was adopted he would be excluded — those who were for his
exclusion voting for the resolution and those who were in favor of
his appointment voting against it; that in ordinary cases there
might be no great objection to a vote by ballot, although it was always
preferable that those who represented others should vote openly, and
in this case there were circumstances that made the obligation to vote
openly imperative. No one could doubt that when we were elected
large majorities of our respective constituencies were decidedly
against Mr. Clinton, and the proposition to give him the proposed
proof of the restored confidence of the party was an affair of yester-
day— brought forward without consulting the People or the possibil-
ity of consulting them. I was bound to presume, from the well
known sentiments of our constituents, that the result of our vote
would be the same whether we voted by ballot, or viva voce and in
either case against Mr. Clinton, but if it should happen to turn out
otherwise, there would, of necessity, be great excitements in the
State — thousands would think that a March had been stolen on the
party — there would of course be a desire to know who had done it —
suspicion would be spread over the State, and the meeting owed it to
itself to save each member from the consequences of the acts of
others, which could only be done by an open vote on the resolution.
If a majority of the Meeting were in favor of appointing Mr. Clin-
ton, and should say so in an open and manly way, I would cheerfully
submit to the decision, but no right-minded man could, upon reflec-
tion, desire such a result without being at the same time willing to
bear the responsibility of it. After pressing these and similar con-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUREN. 79

siderations upon the meeting I resumed my seat, and after a few short
speeches on the other side, the names of the members were called, and
the resolution was adopted by a majority of nineteen, and our Elec-
tors were appointed.

Judge Spencer did not keep his promise to come to the Senate
the next day, but appeared on the day after jaded and dispirited.
He had not, however, the slightest idea of giving up the contest,
but complained bitterly of the feeble manner in which their cause
had been sustained in thcT Caucus, although he said that while they
submitted to their present defeat, they would contest the nomina-
tion ° for Governor in the same way next winter and that he trusted
that we would also acquiesce if they succeeded, to which I readily
agreed.

Legislative caucuses were then, as has been shown, the regular
mode of nomination, but, feeling doubtful of their success, the Clin-
tonians commenced, at an early day, to elect delegates from the
Counties represented in the Legislature by federalists, intending
to claim seats for them in the nominating Convention.1 We fol-
lowed their example, but in those contests they had one advantage
over us that we could neither prevent nor, in general, resist. The
federalists, except a small section called "the high minded" (who
brought but little aid from the masses) were favorable to Mr. Clin-
ton. Having lost all confidence in their own success, and feeling
assured that Mr. Clinton must ultimately come over to them, in
addition to their indirect assistance of his Cause, which we felt
everywhere, they sent to our Convention obscure men of their own
who had no distinctive political character. In this way we were
defeated in a large majority of the federal counties. They also
obtained a preponderating influence, when the Legislature met, tho'
not an absolute control, over the new Council of Appointment, in
consequence of the inaction of Governor Tompkins, arising from
his situation as a candidate for the Vice Presidency, and in a short
time they obtained a complete ascendancy in respect to all new ap-
pointments.

Several meetings were held to establish regulations for the organi-
zation of the nominating convention, and notwithstanding the masa
of influence that was brought to bear against us, the Clintonians had
not yet obtained a majority of the Legislative Members. We resisted
the admission of delegates not members of either House on the
ground of precedent, and of the charge of federal interference, in

• MS. I, p. 105.

»8ee Hammond, History of Political Parties In the State of New York, I, 437.-—

80 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION*.

regard to which we fortified ourselves with well authenticated facts.1
After a protracted debate at one of these preliminary meetings, with
the reluctant assent of our friends, I proposed to abandon the elec-
tions that had been made, and to elect the delegates anew on the same
day in each county, at a time to be fixed, and in case of such an
arrangement being agreed to, to consent to their admission. This
reasonable offer was violently opposed, and motion after motion made
for an adjournment, which we were able to vote down. At mid-
night, Judge [Moak?] Swart, the Chairman, a family connection of
mine, and a very upright man, but one of the Congressional pro-
testers against the nomination of Mr. Monroe, and every inch a Clin-
tonian, decided that the motion to adjourn was carried. Upon being
asked to state the vote on the motion, he replied, with great sim-
plicity, " Fifty odd to forty odd ! " As this was rather too indefinite
to be satisfactory, we demanded that the names of the members
should be called and the vote taken more exactly. This was done and
the result declared to be a tie. We finally consented to .an adjourn-
ment. At the next meeting our proposition was accepted. The dele-
gates were again elected, and as Mr. Clinton had undoubtedly made
some favourable advance in public opinion, and tl\e same influences
were again applied, the election resulted as before. My own, the
adjoining county and the small county of Broome were the only
federal counties in the State that returned anti-Clintonian delegates.
Then ensued one of those stampedes that sometimes occur in all
political associations; men running from a defeated party like rats
from a falling house. A number of instances, some amusing and some
distressing, were presented of individuals, once ranking among the
firmest, now abandoning us under various but generally flimsy pre-
tences. With both wind and tide in his favor and the Council of
Appointment, that most formidable element of political strength
in those days, to a very great extent under his control, Judge Spen-
cer soon made a " practicable breach " in our Legislative defences.
After much difficulty we had settled down upon Judge Yates, with
his knowledge and virtual consent, as our Candidate, and his brother
Spencer immediately set himself at work to induce or force Yates to
decline, and succeeded. Only a few days before the Convention the
latter invited me to his room, and told me that he must decline. He
was apparently entering upon explanations more or less elaborate,
when feeling indignant as well as grieved by his conduct but with-
out asperity of manner, I said to him that itj was unnecessary to
give himself that trouble, as we had prepared ourselves for the

*The real point was whether the counties which were represented by Federalists in
the Legislature should send delegates to the nominating convention. By resisting the
admission of delegates " not members of either House " those Federalist counties wouUJ
be without representation, and the Clinton support decreased. — W. C. F.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 81

contingency, and would not be embarrassed by his declension. I
then shewed him a letter from a friend of Gen. Peter B. Porter,
giving his assent to be our candidate, if we desired it, and left him.
I had before this communicated my apprehension on the point of
Yates' firmness to Chief Justice Thompson, who scouted the idea.
At our separate caucus a Senator from the Southern district, Mr.
Crosby, with whom opposition to Mr. Clinton was an absorbing
passion, presented his venerable and imposing figure to the meet-
ing, and expressed a desire to ask a few questions of Mr. Van
Buren, if he had no objections to answer them. On receiving a
satisfactory assurance he asked for my opinion of the probable
result of the approaching Convention. I gave him my impression
in regard to our numbers, and my reasons for fearing that these
would, under the circumstances, be diminished rather than in-
creased, and that consequently we must be defeated. This, he said,
was his own opinion, and he then desired to know whether in such
an event I was willing to retire, with others similarly disposed, and
to put Gen. Porter in nomination. I answered promply and de-
cidedly, " No ! " and after stating the part that we had taken in get-
ting up the convention, and our consequent obligation to acquiesce
in the result, added that if we could be found capable of opposing
its decision for no other reason than because we found ourselves in
a minority, our bad faith would reducei us from our present ele-
vated position as the main body, justly so regarded, of the Repub-
lican party of the State, to that of a faction, like the Burrites and
Lewisites, which struggled for short seasons and then disappeared
from the stage ; but that if, on the other hand, we calmly pursued
a steady and consistent course — upholding the time honored usages
of the party and submitting to all that was done under them, until
wc could regain the ascendancy in the usual way — and if Mr.
Clinton should, notwithstanding, subject his administration to
federal influences, as we all supposed he would, and as I thought
he would not be able to avoid doing even if he were so disposed,
we would soon have the power to overthrow it, and to re-establish
the Republican party upon its ancient foundations. These views, I
added, were founded upon the assumption that the convention would
be organized with tolerable firmness, but if the majority committed,
in its organization, some act of violence, some palpable Outrage that
would be apparent to all, I would consider the binding character
of their proceedings destroyed, and would in that case, and only in
that case, unite with those who might be so disposed, retire from
the Convention, and appeal to the People thro' the nomination of
Gen. Porter. Mr. Crosby then asked me to specify what I would
regard as a proceeding authorizing the step he had proposed. I
127483°— vol 2—20 6

82 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

answered that there were several cases of disputed seats in the
Convention, all of which, except one, might, I thought, be decided
against us without furnishing a ground of complaint of the char-
acter required. The exception was that of the Dutchess County
delegation. There were serious objections to the regularity of the
choice of our delegates, but for the admission of the Clintonian
delegates there was no ground or pretence whatever. If the con-
vention rejected our delegates and admitted the others I would
be ready for opposition. Mr. Crosby, who religiously believed that
there was nothing the Clintonian majority would not do to obtain
power, declared himself entirely satisfied, and our caucus dissolved.1

In deciding on the representation from Dutchess the Convention
took up first the case of our delegates and rejected them. It then
proceeded to consider the claims of the Clintonian delegation, and
the leading members from the Federal counties, such as Gideon
Granger, John Woodworth, and Nathan Williams, made animated
speeches in favor of their admission.

Our friends generally, and I among the rest, deeming the de-
cision certain, took up our hats to repair to the Senate Chamber to
nominate Porter, but the affair was destined to a different denoue-
ment. Perley Keyes, a Senator on our side, and, tho' a plain farmer,
a man of very rare sagacity, and Dr. Sargeant, long a distinguished
Republican member, a sincere man, but drawn by special circum-
stances into the Clintonian ranks where he had become a leader,
lodged at the same hotel. After the separate caucuses, which had
both been held with closed doors, broke up, Senator Keyes invited
the Doctor to a friendly consultation, and communicated to him
confidentially what we had decided to do, and the latter agreed to
exert all his power to prevent a rupture in the party by rejecting
both sets of delegates from the county of Dutchess. I saw them
together several times behind the Speaker's chair, during the debate,
but had no idea of the subject of their conversation ; Keys, it after-
wards appeared, having sought these interviews to strengthen the
Doctor's nerves under the violent0 outpourings that came from his
side. Dr. Sargent waited until the debate was drawing to a close,
when he made, as he was very capable of doing, an able and effective
speech against the admission of their delegates, dwelling mainly on
the probability that their admission might break up the convention,
and the folly of thus endangering the cause, when they had a
sufficient majority of undisputed votes. Not one of the newly elected
delegates voted with him, but he carried a sufficient number of those

1 The convention was ehld at the Capitol 25 March, 1817. ° MS. I, p. 110.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 83

who belonged to his party in the Legislature to carry the question.
The next morning the principal part of the New York delegation,
including a man of so much moderation as John T. Irving, called
on me and insisted, without assigning any new reasons, that I
should still unite with them in nominating an opposing candidate.
The reception that I gave to this application offended them, and my
political candle was thus lighted at both ends. Mr. Clinton was
nominated and elected by an immense majority.

CHAPTER VI.

The Year 1817 was distinguished by the first and settled commit-
ment of the State to the Canal policy that has since been prosecuted
with such signal success. It is not to be denied that a large majority
of the prominent men of the political party to which I belonged were
very decidedly opposed to this policy. They regarded it, with few
exceptions, as impracticable, and as brought forward principally
thro' the influence of Mr. Clinton, at the most depressed period of
his political career, with views rather to his own than to the interest
of the State. As to the first objection there was room doubtless for
an honest difference of opinion, but it must also be admitted that
their prejudice against Mr. Clinton, personal and political, in some
degree disqualified them from forming a safe opinion upon the sub-
ject. I did not in the least doubt that Mr. Clinton hoped to advance
his political interests by the agitation of the question, but I could
not concur with my friends in finding in that conviction sufficient
ground for opposing the measure itself, if its prosecution should ap-
pear to me practicable and beneficial to the State. A Bill authoriz-
ing the commencement of the Erie Canal passed the House of Assem-
bly at the previous session and came to the Senate near the close of it.
The necessary information not having in my opinion been obtained
to justify its passage I moved, successfully, that all the clauses of
the Bill that authorized the commencement of the work should be
stricken out, leaving only the section making an appropriation for
further surveys and estimates. Mr. Loomis, a Western Senator, and
friend of Mr. Clinton, but moderate in his politics, and an ardent
advocate of the Canal, on its own merits, admitted that the views I
had expressed in support of my motion were entirely correct. I be-
lieve that he voted with us, but am certain that he was content with
the result, and I well remember the satisfaction he expressed that I
had not fallen into the error so prevalent in both parties — that of
looking upon the measure with eyes chiefly directed to its political
bearings.

When the Bill was before us at the next session the necessary
information had been obtained, and Judge Hammond (in his Politi-
cal History) does me simple justice in the credit he concedes to me
for the influence I exerted to secure its passage.1 My brother-in-law,

1Tbls measure was adopted In the Tlouse by a vote of 64 to 36, the majority being
composed mainly of the followers of Clinton and some Federalists. In the Senate the
bill received 18 votes In its favor, and 0 in opposition. " There were five senators who
were zealous anti-Cllntonians who voted for the bill. Perhaps it Is not too much to
say, that this result was produced by the efficient and able efforts of Mr. Van Buren,
who was an early friend of the measure." Hammond, History of Political Parties In
the State of New York, I, 441.— W, C. F,

84

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 85

Senator Cantine, a very ardent politician, and a pure man in public
and in private life, supported it earnestly. I believe our adverse
votes would have caused its failure, but am quite certain that we
could, if so inclined, have defeated it with the greatest ease. I made
an elaborate speech in its favor, of which a report was attempted but
acknowledged by its author Col. Stone,1 (a life long political oppo-
nent) to be very imperfect — for which he assigned complimentary
reasons, saying that he had found it difficult to report me generally
from the rapidity and animation with which I spoke, and that on
this occasion he was led to abandon the attempt by the great interest
he felt in the speech, and his gratification at its character.

I perhaps pressed the subject with greater earnestness because a
large majority of my political friends differed from me, and some
blamed my course. Mr. Clinton was in the Senate Chamber, and
listened very attentively throughout, and altho' it was only a few
weeks after he had obtained the nomination for Governor, which I
had so zealously opposed, and our personal intercourse was very
reserved, he approached me, when I took my seat, shook hands with
me, and expressed his gratification in the strongest terms. From
that period to the end of my employment in the service of the State,
I supported with fidelity and zeal every measure calculated to ad-
vance its Canal policy, and opposed as zealously, every attempt to
prostitute that great interest to party purposes.

My shrewd friend, Senator Keyes, who was opposed to the Bill,
informed me that he intended to offer an amendment providing for
a branch canal from the main trunk to Oswego, in which place I
was largely interested, and that the success of the amendment must
depend upon my vote. I remonstrated with him on the unkindness
of his course in seeking to connect my action upon so important a
subject with my private interest, but told him that I should assuredly
vote against the amendment on that ground, if there was no other.
He notwithstanding offered it; I voted against it, and it was de-
feated. The construction of that branch many years afterwards
proved of great advantage to the interests both of Oswego and of
the State.

After the signal triumph of Judge Spencer in forcing the nomi-
nation of Mr. Clinton upon the party I did. not much regret the
necessity that presented itself to encounter him again at this session
in one of those political skirmishes for which his passion was in-
nate and insatiable, and in which, if I often succeeded, it was be-
cause I consulted my judgement more and my temper less, and be-
cause I took greater care to be right. In consequence of our respect-

1 William L. Stone, conductor of the Albany Daily Advertiser, a leading federal news-
paper, and later editor of the Commercial Advertiser of New York City. — W. C. P.

86 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

able force in numbers and the preponderance of talent in our Sena-
torial ranks, conceded by Judge Hammond in his Political His-
tory,1 at the time of Mr. Clinton's election, we were not long in se-
curing a majority in that body, which, tho' generally willing to sup-
port such of Mr. Clinton's measures as were not in themselves ob-
jectionable, could not be regarded as politically friendly to him. If
matters were left to their natural course it was not likely that his
friends could improve his condition in this respect, and it was
not strange therefore that an administration that owed its existence
to extraneous means, should find itself compelled to resort to sim-
ilar appliances for its support. A case for this sort of interference
was presented in this its first year.

The seats of Mr. [William] Ross, of Orange County, a Clintonian,
and of my friend Mr. Cantine, of Greene, became vacant and were
to be filled at the next election. The particular counties in each
District from which candidates for Senatorial vacancies should be
taken were then designated at the seat of Government by the repre-
sentatives of the District in both branches of the Legislature. The
counties already named were fairly entitled to be, and would, under
ordinary circumstances, have been selected, but such a result would
have left things precisely as they stood, the one being favorable
and the other adverse to Mr. Clinton. A project was therefore
started by Judge Spencer to give to the county of Otsego, already
represented by Judge Hammond, a Clintonian, another Senator, to
the exclusion of Greene, on the pretence that by a critical examina-
tion of the relative population of the counties composing the Dis-
trict, Otsego was better entitled to two Senators than Greene to one.
On my way to the meeting of the representatives of the District at
the Capitol, I was confidentially informed by a personal friend who
generally acted with the Clintonians, that there had been private
meetings of the members on that side, attended by Judge Spencer,
in which it was agreed to give the vacancies to Orange and Otsego.
I met Mr. Ross, at the door of the Senate, in the act of leaving the
place of our meeting, called him aside, and denounced in strong
terms the intrigue of which I had just been informed. He said he
had nothing to do with the affair. I told him that could not well

1 " Mr. Van Buren, of course, felt a deep Interest in the choice of the council of appoint-
ment. His object would not be accomplished if men were placed in the council, a major.
Ity of whom were decidedly hostile to the governor. In that case the public would lm_
pute all the errors which might be committed, to the council, and judge of the executive
by his speeches. Nor was he willing that Mr. Clinton should have a council which
would accord with him in all his views, and be subservient to his wishes. It would, he
thought, be more desirable to form a council which the governor could not control, but
for whose acts the public would hold him responsible. In other words, Mr. Van Buren
wished to create a council which should be nominally Clintonian, but which, at the
same time, should be really hostile to the governor. Partly by management, and partly
by accident, a council of the character last described, was actually chosen." Hammond,
History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 457.— W. C. F.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 87

be reconciled with the fact that some of the meetings had been held
in his room ; that if the perpetration of this outrage was persevered
in we would not support him, and that he knew us well enough
to judge whether we would keep our word. He showed confusion
and alarm. Our meeting was soon after organized by placing Gen.
Belknap of Orange in the Chair — a warm friend of Mr. Clinton and
a very upright man. Judge Hammond, who was the leader on the
Clintonian side, and whom, judging from the candour and integrity
exhibited in his History of the times, it must have caused Judge
Spencer some labour to bring into the support of the contemplated
arrangement, moved that one of the Senatorial candidates should be
taken from Orange, in regard to which there was no dispute. I
moved to amend by adding Greene for the other, so that the question
should be taken on both vacancies at the same time. Judge Ham-
mond assigned plausible reasons against this course, without ad-
mitting that there was any opposition to Greene, and without know-
ing that I had been apprised of their plans. After skirmishing in
this way long enough to be satisfied that he did not mean to be more
explicit, I made a full statement of the information I had received,
challenged a denial of its correctness,0 and receiving none, de-
nounced the projected scheme in decorous but severe terms, as a
proof of a determination to break up the party. Mr. Hammond
was not, as he says himself, an expert debater, and discomposed by a
statement of facts, not complimentary to the fairness of those with
whom he was acting, entered with evident embarrassment upon the
exhibition of his statistics in regard to the population of the coun-
ties, and other pretences that had been constructed by the movers
in the plot. We scouted all his calculations as indicating a chaffer-
ing disposition inconsistent with that confidence and fraternal feel-
ing which had in time past characterized the action of the party.
We affirmed that the treatment of the small counties, that consti-
tuted nearly half the district, had always been of the most liberal
character, and that not an instance could be cited in which a double
representation in the Senate had been given to a large county, as
long as there was in the district a small county not represented, and
finally we exclaimed against the propriety of a separate and private
understanding by a portion of a political brotherhood about to as-
semble to promote the common cause, pledging itself to a particular
course without hearing what the rest had to say against it

Gen. Belknap, the Chairman, very unexpectedly to all, rose from his
seat, and, tho' no speaker, said in impressive terms that he had at-
tended the meeting alluded to, and had promised to vote for the
exclusion of Greene, but that he was now satisfied that he had done

0 MS. I, p. 115.

88 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

wrong, and that he would vote for my amendment. Mr. Throop
from Chenango, who had been a clerk in my office, but was a zealous
Clintonian, next made an elaborate explanation of his present views
and his reasons for not voting as he had pledged himself to vote.
Whilst he was speaking, Hammond turned to me and said, " Would
you believe it, Sir! That young man has been one of the chief
Agents in getting up this business ! " When the vote was taken
my motion to include Greene was carried by a large majority. I was
detained in the Senate Chamber longer than the rest, and when I
went out I found a solitary individual, walking to and fro on the
Capitol Porch, whom in the uncertain light of the hour I did not
at first recognize, but I soon made him out, by his habit of humming
over the head of his cane, to be Dr. Davis, one of the Orange county
representatives. I approached him, and asked him what kept him
there at that time of night. He answered, with a hearty laugh, that
he was positively afraid to go home ; that Judge Spencer was wait-
ing for him at his room, and he did not know how to explain their
defeat, as they came to the meeting with a pledged vote of two thirds
in their favor, and had been defeated by about the same number!
I advised him to tell the Judge that their cause was not an honest one,
and that was the reason of its failure.1

Gov. Clinton's inauguration was quite an imposing affair, as I
understood, and conducted in excellent taste. Having, contrary to
my usual course in such cases, agreed, on the suggestion of Judge
Thompson, not to attend, I did not witness it, and was accordingly
very much surprised to hear afterwards, that the latter was present,
with his family, and that my absence had in consequence been more
noticed than it might otherwise have been. This act, so inconsistent
with his general conduct, was caused by an influence which in its
usual and appropriate sphere is generally both benignant and auspi-
cious, but when exerted in the uncongenial paths of politicks is rarely
happy and always out of place. Knowing the Chief Justice to be,

1 This incident of the senatorial election is more fully described by Hammond :
"Before the middle district convention adjourned, it was resolved to appoint a com-
mittee to draft an address to the electors of the district, on the subject of the approach-
ing election. Mr. Van Buren was appointed chairman of that committee. Another
person agreeing with him in political views, and myself, were of that committee. He
drew an address, in which he reviewed the political contest between the two parties
during the late war, and most soundly abused our old political opponents. The poop
federalists, who were so far from being dangerous, that they had no idea of opposing
our candidates, be they who they might, very justly might have complained of this treat-
ment as illiberal, if not cruel. But on the part of Mr. Van Buren, the measure was
politic and judicious. If the Clintonian republicans refused to sign the address, then
it was evidence of what was charged against them, — a secret understanding with the
federalists, — if they signed It, then the federalists might be told, that they had no more
to expect from one class of the republicans than from another, for both had joined!
in the uncalled for denunciations against them. The address eventually was signed
indiscriminately by all the republican members." Hammond, History of Political Parties
in the State of New York, I, 471.— W. C. P.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 89

when left to himself a perfectly straight-forward man, I did not, as
I would have been justifiable in doing, break off my intercourse with
him, but contented myself with making him sensible of the injustice
he had done me, without asking or receiving explanations.

A few evenings afterwards I was visited by Gen. Solomon Van
Rensselaer, the Adjutant-General, who brought me a message from
Gov. Clinton to the effect that there was nothing in his feelings
towards me that would prevent on his part the maintenance of
friendly relations, and that he sincerely hoped that such would be
the case ; that he did not of course expect me to support any of his
measures which I did not approve, but would be happy to find that I
judged his administration fairly. I reciprocated these friendly assur-
ances with much cordiality, and requested the General to say to the
Governor that all I asked of him was such an administration of the
Government as would satisfy our old political friends that he desired
to sustain the Republican party of the State, in which event I could
make myself useful to it, and would take great pleasure in doing so.
I felt the awkwardness of sending such a response through a high-
toned federalist, but thought it due as well to the Governor as to
myself, to make him understand my position correctly. He and
Judge Spencer might, at that time, by their joint influence, have pre-
vailed upon two of the four members composing the Council of Ap-
pointment to consent to my removal from the office of .Attorney Gen-
eral, and thus might have effected it by his casting vote. By omitting
to make the attempt between July 1818, when he entered upon
the duties of his office, and January 1819, when a new Council was
chosen, he proved the sincerity of his professions made thro' Gen.
Van Rensselaer. Of the new Council not a single member could
have been induced to vote for my removal, and by the next — the only
one in which his friends obtained a majority — I was removed.1

At the meeting of the Legislature in 1819 the Rubicon was passed
by the Clintonians and a speedy separation of the party made cer-
tain. They decided to support for Speaker of the House of As-
sembly, Obadiah German, a Senator in Congress during the War,
and its violent opponent. He was to our friends the most obnoxious
man in the Clintonian ranks. It had for a series of years been the
practice of the Republican members to meet in the Senate Chamber,
and to select, by a majority, the individual to be voted for as
Speaker, and the choice thus made was always regarded as binding

lThe new council was composed of Yates, Barnum, F. William Rom

and George Rosencrantz. It waa elected with the aid of Federalist votes, only John
A. King, Dner and Carman being opposed. These decided not to vote for the Clinto-
nian council because of the treatment of the senatorial question by Governor Clinton.
It was supposed that the Governor waa hostile to the re-election of Rufus King, and
this supposition waa confirmed when Judge Spencer waa put forward as the candidate
of the governors party. — W. C. F.

90 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

on the party. Owing, in some degree, to mismanagement, partly to
the unpopularity of German, and, to a small extent, to the absence
of members, we obtained a majority in the Caucus, and nominated
Mr. [William] Thompson, of Seneca, for Speaker. This result
astounded Mr. Clinton and his friends, who from having ridiculed
the idea of opposition to German were now filled with consternation.
Instead of uniting in the choice of Thompson, as they should have
done (the place not being one of primary importance) they decided
in the excitement and confusion of the time to elect, and did elect
German, by a union with the federalists.1

The effect was electrical, and from one end of the State to the
other there was a revulsion of feeling in the minds of Republicans
inclining them to join hands at the Governor's expence. This gen-
eral sensation brought to Albany Jacob Barker, of whom I have al-
ready spoken, and who was always set in active motion by a crisis,
as had been shown on many occasions during the War. He possessed
the full confidence of Judge Spencer, and a large share of that of
the Governor and of his new friend Judge William W. Van Ness.
Barker confirmed the worst accounts they had received from the
counties and impressed them strongly with the necessity of taking
some step that might subdue the excitement, or at least divert the
public mind from the subject. A vacancy had been produced on the
Bench of the Supreme Court, and the coup d'etat proposed by Barker
was that the Governor should nominate me to the Council for the
Judgeship without enquiring whether I would or would not accept
it. I have before described the relations that always existed be-
tween Barker and myself. He came to me, after a full consultation
with the three gentlemen I have named, and first requiring and ob-
taining my promise that I would say nothing in regard to my own
feelings upon the matter he was about to lay before me, proceeded
to inform me fully of his plan, to which, he said, all the gentlemen
referred to had assented. His argument was that whether I accepted
cr not, it would be sufficient to repel the charge of Mr. Clinton's sub-
serviency to federal influence ; and if I accepted it would remove me
from a place where I was very troublesome, to one where I could
exert less political influence. The only difficulty, he told me, arose
from a promise the Governor had made to appoint Mr. [John]
Woodworth, but that they thought could be overcome.

He subsequently described to me an interview between Judge
Spencer and Woodworth, the object of which was to induce the latter
to relieve the Governor from his promise, the particulars of which
were too characteristic of the parties to require, with me, any other
proof of their authenticity. But Mr. Woodworth stood fast on his

*A full account of this election is given in Hammond, History of Political Parties in
the State of New York, I, 477.— W. C. P.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAK BUBEN. 91

bond. The interference of his brother-in-law, Gen. Stephen Van
Rensselaer was next called into action, but with no better success.
They were all greatly dissatisfied with this pertinacious selfishness,
but the Governor, having received a personal favor from him, ful-
filled his promise and nominated Woodworth. It is probable that
when the result was found to be inevitable the proposition spoken of
by Judge Hammond of appointing two additional Judges, and my-
self as one of them, was proposed by Mr. Barker, and abandoned
on being opposed ° by Judge Spencer and the Governor.1 I have
no idea that either of these gentlemen knew that I had been apprised
of these circumstances, or that they would have been much dissatis-
fied with the fact if they had known it.

The blunder of the administration in regard to the choice of
Speaker, was, shortly after, followed by an event that served to
strengthen us greatly. A vacancy occurred in the Board of Canal
Commissioners, and I was told by a federal member of the House of
Assembly, opposed to Mr. Clinton, and who subsequently became a
member of the party known as " the high-minded," that if we would
bring forward a candidate against Ephriam Hart the Clintonian
candidate, who was not acceptable to him and his friends, there
would be found votes enough on the joint-ballot to secure his elec-
tion. I proposed my friend Henry Seymour, father of the present
Governor [Horatio Seymour] to whom he at once agreed. On the
joint-ballot, we, to the surprise and deep regret of the Governor and
his friends, elected Mr. Seymour by a majority of one vote.2 This
gave us a majority in the Canal Board and I am quite confident that
we derived more advantage from the patronage and influence attached
to it than the Governor obtained from the Council of Appointment,
which was embarrassed by the circumstance that it had to minister
to the cravings of a party composed of discordant materials.

While things were going on in this way, I one day received, in
court, a note from Judge Spencer, written on the Bench, saying that
he desired a private interview that evening, and would meet me either
at his house, or at mine, or at the residence of his son-in-law. I
returned an answer before he left the bench that I would come to his
house in the evening.

The state of party-feelings at the time may be inferred from the
fact that we were both sensible that it was necessary to make our
interview strictly private to prevent its being used by mischevious
persons to foment jealousies among our friends. He received me
very kindly at the door, introduced me into his library, and turned
the key. He soon disclosed his object by expressing a strong desire

* Ms. I, p. 120.

1 Hammond, History of Political Parties In the State of New York, I, 490. — W. C. F.

8 Hammond, History of Political Parties In the State of New York, I, 405.— W. C. F.

92 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION',

to have the harrassing distraction in the party healed, and he had
sought this interview to ascertain whether a candid talk with me
might not lead, in some unexceptionable way, to the accomplish-
ment of that result He had not been able to digest any plan of his
own, and was throughout, what was very unusual with him, em-
barrassed by his consciousness of the difficulties that surrounded the
subject. I was pleased to find that the idea of any action on my part
separated from my political friends, did not, at any time, appear to
have entered his mind, and I observed to him that while my con-
victions of the impossibility of carrying his wishes into effect were
very strong, I need give him no assurances in regard to my personal
feelings and inclinations, as he had shown his sense of them by ask-
ing the interview. Among many other things, I urged the difficulty
of bringing the Republicans on our side, and for whom we claimed
that they constituted the main body of the party, to unite in the
support of an Administration by which Judge William W. Van Ness,
Elisha Williams, and many other prominent federalists were recog-
nized as political and confidential friends and advisers. I could con-
ceive of no way in which this objection could be obviated, that the
Governor would feel himself at liberty to adopt; professions and
assurances however honestly made, would, in the present state of
political feeling, pass for very little, and nothing short of an open
rupture with those gentlemen would inspire even the well-disposed
on our side with confidence in any arrangement we might adopt
Mr. Clinton having received two Speakers and a Council of Appoint-
ment at the hands of those gentlemen could not now shake them
off to conciliate old friends even if he could bring his own feelings
to such a step. He admitted the difficulties that beset their path in
that regard, and felt them the more sensibly as Judge Van Ness,
whom he once heartily disliked, had by this time conciliated his
esteem — and Judge Spencer was as sincere in his friendships as he
was thorough in his aversions.

After conversing until a late hour we seemed both satisfied that
nothing effectual could be done to further the object of our con-
sultation, and were about to part, when he said that there was
another subject on which he wished to speak, but was embarassed
as to the manner of introducing it lest he might be misunderstood,
and give offence where certainly none was intended. He proceeded
to describe the pressure that had for a long time been made upon
Mr. Clinton for my removal and the force that these applications
derived from the circumstance that I was regarded as the leader
of the opposition to his administration. I interfered at this stage
of his remarks by begging him to permit me to anticipate what he
desired to say which as I presumed was that if my opposition was
continued the Governor would feet himself obliged to consent to

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 93

my removal. I then observed that as this was not intended as a
menace, of which I had not the slightest suspicion, and which he
earnestly disclaimed, I could have no objection to its introduction ;
that I was not sorry it had been introduced, as I had for some time
been anxious to be fully understood by the Governor and himself
upon the point. I said that I had obtained my office from the same
source from which the Governor had derived his place, and was
earlier in possession. I sustained him in the leading measure of
his Administration, — that of Internal Improvements— but it was
complained that I was taking measures to prevent his re-election.
This I had a right to do, and I denied that he had any authority
to use his power, derived as it was, to coerce me into his support.
But at the same time I admitted that these views, had, by the course
of events, and conduct of parties, come to be regarded as mere
abstractions; — that I was by no means certain that I would act
upon them myself if our cases were reversed ; — that I had for a long
time regarded the loss of my office, when the Governor obtained the
power to remove me, as the probable consequence of my persistence
in the course I felt it my duty to pursue, and that he might rest
assured that he would hear of no personal complaints from me or
my friends on account of my removal.

Judge Spencer acknowledged emphatically the liberality of my
feelings, and the regret he would experience if matters took the di-
rection referred to, (in which I did not doubt his sincerity, for not-
withstanding occasional exhibitions of great violence, he was cap-
able of generous impulses) — and said, as I rose to leave him that/
he was happy we had met, because altho' we had accomplished noth-
ing upon the main subject, our conversation could not fail to give a
milder tone to our future differences.

The session terminated without any change in the posture of polit-
ical affairs, but also without my removal taking place. In the heat
of summer I received an order from the Governor to attend the Dela-
ware Circuit, and to take part in a laborious and difficult trial for
Murder in Delaware County, and meeting him the next day, at the
Canal Board, he asked me whether I had received his order. I an-
swered affirmatively but enquired whether he thought it quite fair
as matters stood, (alluding to the called meeting of the Council of
Appointment, and the expectation of my removal during my absence)
to send me in such weather upon such a service, and proposed to him
to consent that I should employ Counsel on the spot, at the expense
of the State. He understood my allusion, and colouring, said, " No I
Great interest is felt in the case, and the public will be disappointed
if you do not go!"

Before the adjournment of the Legislature I said to Gen. German,
in a jocose way, that his friend the Governor gave the State a great

94 AMERICAN HISTORICAL. ASSOCIATION*.

deal of trouble, that his adherents ought to apply to Mr. Monroe to
send him on some distinguished foreign mission, and that he would
be strongly tempted to unite in the measure, to which he made some
reply, in a similar vein. On my return from the Delaware circuit
I met the General on his way from New York, where the Council
of Appointment was is session, to his residence in Chenango. He
left his carriage, came to me and saluted me very cordially. I asked
him the news — what was the Council about, and has it made a new
Attorney General? He replied "Not yet? and then referred to
our former conversation, and said he had felt desirous to see me in
the hope of being able in some way to arrest the divisions that were
spreading in the party. I replied by giving to that conversation its
true character, but adding seriously that if the Governor was will-
ing to accept a foreign mission, I for one, would be happy to see
him get it. He said "No, No." — on which I told him at once, but in
kindness, that for anything else it was too late; that the Governor
must either put us down, or be put out himself; that as matters
stood the leading men of both parties would only discredit them-
selves with tite People by attempting to patch up a truce. "Well," re-
plied he, "it requires no prophet to tell us which of those results
will happen" — and we separated. I have always supposed that the
General had asked them to delay the removal until he could see me,
and that he wrote to New York from the nearest post-office, after
our interview, as I received my supersedeas almost immediately
thereafter.1

Chief Justice Thompson, having received the ° appointment of
Secretary of the Navy, and there being besides strong objections
to his nomination for Governor on the part of some of our best men,
we determined, before the Legislature separated, informally, to
bring forward Vice President Tompkins. All admitted the Chief
Justice to be honest and sincere but it was thought that he did not
understand the feeling of the party sufficiently, and might quarrel
with it before his term of office expired. Although I had been very
instrumental in giving him the political prominence he possessed, I

*"In July [1810] the Council met again. Although the removal of minor office hold-
ing Bucktail8 and the appointment of Cllntonlans had been very general; yet Mr. Van
Buren, who stood at the head of the opposition to the Governor, and led on the attack,
had been allowed to hold one of the most important, influential and at that time lucra-
tive offices in the State, the office of Attorney General, undisturbed. It was urged that
this inconsistency in the conduct of the administration ought to be obviated ; and after
much and long hesitation the Council removed him, and appointed Thomas J. Oakley in
his place . . . Mr. Van Buren, according to the maxim which before had, and since has
governed his political conduct, had no right to complain, and In fact, I believe, he did
not ; but an outcry was of course raised in the newspapers, on account of the removal
of a republican from an important office, and the appointment of a federalist In his
place." Hammond, History of Political Parties In the State of New York, I, 507. Oakley
was the Dick Shift >f the Bucktail Bards. — W. C. F.

* MS. I, p. 125,

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. . 95

came to pretty much the same conclusion — for many reasons, one of
which I will mention by way of illustration. We went together to
the Delaware Circuit — in which county Gen. Boot lived and then
exercised undisputed and indisputable political sway — and on our
way I expressed a hope to the Chief Justice that he would shut his
eyes to the General's foibles, and treat him kindly. For a few days
their intercourse was mutually satisfactory — so much so that the
latter confessed to me that there were good points about Thompson
of which he had not before been sensible; but before the Circuit
closed his prejudices were more than ever aroused and I could not
even prevail on him to take a respectable leave of the Chief Justice.
The knowledge of our intention in regard to the Vice President
was the signal for opposition to the settlement of that portion of
his accounts for War expenditures that had to be audited by the
States officers before it could be allowed at Washington. Until
then all went on smoothly and his accounts would have been with-
out a doubt, but for that circumstance, satisfactorily settled. He
soon came to an open rupture with the Comptroller Mclntyre (a
zealous friend of the Governor) who made an appeal to the public
in the form of an official letter, signed as Comptroller, and addressed
to the Vice President1 I went to the residence of the latter at
Staten Island, as well to obtain his consent to J)e our candidate, as
to tender all the aid in my power in preparing an answer to the
Comptroller's letter, with copies of which the State had been in-
undated. I soon found that he was strongly impressed with the idea
that I wanted the nomination myself, and persisted in declining,
until I alluded in terms to his motive, and gave him assurances of
his error which he could not but believe, when he consented to our
wishes. But when we came to the examination of his papers I
found him, in comparison with what he had been, exceedingly
helpless. Conscious of his integrity in all things — sensible of the
great services he had rendered to the country at periods of its ut-
most need, and of the disinterestedness of his motives, (which had
been strikingly displayed by his refusal to be drawn from his Post,
by the temptation of the office of Secretary of State) his feelings
had not been callous or his resolution strong enough to enable him
to bear up against the injustice, the ingratitude and the calumny
of which he was now made the victim. He could not speak on the
subject of his accounts with composure, or look at Mclntyre's letter
without loathing. When told of the indispensable necessity of giv-
ing to those matters prompt and thorough Attention, he said, he
could not help it, and throwing down a bunch of Keys, exclaimed,
u There are the keys of my private papers, without reserve — here is

1 A letter to his Excellency Daniel D. Tompkins, late governor of the State of New
York. The answer was entitled : A Letter to Archibald Mclntyre, comptroller of the
State of New York. It ran through two editions. — W. C. F.

96 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

my friend Mr. Leake — he knows a good deal about the papers and
will cheerfully give you all the aid in his power, and, when you
want explanations come to me."

On examining his private letter-book I found a correspondence
between him and Thomas Addis Emmett containing an offer of
the office of Attorney General, and its acceptance. I immediately
went to the garden where he was, with the book in my hand, and
said to him " Vice President, I find here that you were the author
of an appointment that I have always attributed to Mr. Clinton,"
and showed him the correspondence. He replied "Certainly, Gov.
Clinton knew nothing of the matter. I wanted to have Thomas and
Southwick convicted of the bribery they practiced on the passage
of the Bill to incorporate the Bank of America, and thought you
too young for that service; and I knew besides that you would
come to the office early enough."

The knowledge of the injustice that I had for so many years
done to Mr. Clinton in this regard distressed me and made me after-
wards more cautious how I trusted to mere inferences in important
matters. There was then an impassable political gulf between us,
and no suitable opportunity was presented for explanation, but I
am sure this discovery had its influence on my dispositions towards
him at another and very critical period of his life.

In the course of my early interviews with the Vice President I
imbibed a suspicion that the habit of intemperance, to which he,
in the end, fell a melancholy victim, had commenced its fatal rav-
ages upon him. The Secretary of the Navy, (Thompson) whose
son had married the Vice President's daughter had taken a cottage
for the summer on the island, but was absent from home when I
arrived. On his first visit I proposed a walk, and in reply to his
question as to the condition in which I found the Vice President's
papers, I answered " So far, very well, but there is another matter
that has afflicted me more." I then asked him whether it had ever
occurred to him that our friend was becoming intemperate. He
paused a moment, and replied, with more feeling than was common
to his nature, but with his habitual truthfulness, that he could not
say that the idea had not at times passed thro' his mind, but that
he had watched him as closely as he could, with propriety, and satis-
fied himself that his indulgence was temporary, occasioned by his
troubles, and would soon wear off, I hinted at the fearful respon-
sibility I was assuming in pressing his nomination if it should
turn out differently. He concurred very fully in this and said that
he trusted I knew him too well not to be satisfied that he would
be the last person to advise me to persevere if he thought there was
any real danger, and that he would not fail, if my apprehensions
were realized, to step forward, and share the responsibility with me.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURRN. 97

This relieved my mind, but I prepared, notwithstanding, an anony-
mous letter to the Vice President which I intended to put in the
post-office, when I reached the city, but my courage, which was
never yet equal to such a performance failed, and when I got to
New York I destroyed it.

I soon found not only satisfactory but highly creditable explana-
tions of transactions that figured largely in the Comptroller's letter,
in the federal presses, and in the pamphlets which the enemies of the
Vice President had written on the subject of his accounts. When my
examination was finished and he was delighted with the case he
was about to present, I was pleased to witness the revival of his
spirits and, with them, of his adroitness, tact and power. He pro-
posed to read his Reply first at a private meeting of the most dis-
tinguished of his personal and political friends — a step of the utility
of which I became very sensible when I found that these numerous
gentlemen, after having been thus consulted, identified themselves,
in some degree, with the document, and were as much interested in
its success, as they could have been if they had themselves written
it. My experience on this occasion had its influence in inducing me
ever afterwards to submit my own papers destined for publication to
the widest inspection of my friends, with liberal permission to
suggest improvements, and unaffected dissatisfaction if they failed
to avail themselves of it. There was one, and only one point on
which the Vice President and myself differed, and that will show
the effect that injustice had produced on a mind naturally the most
disinterested and self-denying, by tempting him contrary to the
usage of his life, to become the trumpeter of his own glory. I de-
sired to give the largest share of credit for results that had in fact
been produced by his individual efforts and sacrifices, to the
patriotism of the People, but he thought he had acted on that prin-
ciple long enough, and that the time had arrived when he ought to
claim what belonged to him. His version of the matter was inserted
in the letter, with an engagement on his part, to state to the meeting
our difference of opinion on the point, when he reached it, and to
abide by their decision. When I looked at the list of persons he had
prepared to compose the meeting I was amused with the complexion
of some of its parts, and yet nothing could have been more judicious
than such a selection. At the door of the place of meeting I met
Martin S. Wilkins, the Vice President's class-mate and early friend,
who, altho' an honest man in all respects, was substantially a
monarchist in his politics. Recognizing him, in the obscure light
of evening, and notwithstanding my previous knowledge that he
was to be one of the company, I said, u Mr. Wilkins you have made
some strange mistake in coming here !"

127483*— vol 2—20 7

98 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION*.

"Not at all," he answered, "is not this the house of Jonathan
Thompson?"

"YesI" said I — ''but there is to be a democratic meeting hero
tonight" (that term having come into use instead of Republican)
" and I am very sure that you do not go to such gatherings."

" That is true enough " replied Wilkins, " I don't care a d — n for
your democracy, but I take an interest in the success of honest men,
and believe my old schoolmate Daniel D. Tompkins to be one, and
I come here to-night to be confirmed in that opinion ! "

The Vice President made some very impressive remarks illustrat-
ing the truth of the statement upon the expediency of publishing,
on which he and I had differed — justifying the inferences he had
drawn, and strengthening the propriety of his position and con-
cluding with the declaration that the time had arrived when he ought
to do himself justice. Forming their0 opinion upon these grounds
only, there appeared to be a general sentiment in the meeting that I
was wrong, followed by a remonstrance with me for my opposition.
In reply I dwelt for a short time on the danger of a man who had
always 'been so modest in speaking of his own merits changing his
character in that regard, particularly under his present circum-
stances, which as they stood were well calculated to excite public
sympathy; but when I came to describe the uses that Mr. Clinton's
caustic and busy pen would make of such seeming self adulation, in
a degree at the expense of the People, and at a moment when we
were seeking their favor, there was a change of sentiment, except on
the part of Mr. Wilkins, who contended that this flattering the

People was all stuff, and that the better way was to tell the truth

and abide the consequences. The rest advised the Vice President to
yield for the sake of policy — notwithstanding the truth of what he
proposed to say — which he did with a good grace. The letter was
received with the greatest favor, and embarrassed Governor Clinton
and his friends exceedingly.

The country was filled with the most exaggerated reports in re-
gard to the claims preferred against the State by the Vice President.
I offered a resolution, early in the next session, calling on the Comp-
troller to report the claims made, whether the accounts had been
settled according to the provisions of an act passed at the last ses-
sion,1 (before it was suspected that he would be a candidate) and if
not, the reason for the omission. That officer sent in an elaborate
reply which was referred to our committee. We made a report,
simple and unvarnished, stating the whole case in a way to be easily
understood by the People, and accompanied it by a Bill directing the
Comptroller to pay to the Vice President Eleven Thousand Dollars,

• MS. I, p. 130.

1 8esslon Laws of 1810, p. 286. See Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State
of New York, I, 508.— W. C. F.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTTN VAN BUBBN. 99

as the balance fully due to him from the State. When this Bill was
before the Senate I made a Speech that was very extensively pub*
lished and was entirely satisfactory to the friends of the Vice Presi-
dent1 Gideon Granger, the Post Master General under Mr. Madi-
son, who had been elected to the Senate from the Western District,
was expected to reply, but did not do so, nor was any answer made,
and the Bill passed the Senate by a vote of two to one. To prevent
the influence of his silence, it was said and published that Mr.
Granger had temporarily lost his voice by a severe cold; which was
partially true, but from the sympathy of which he gave unmistak-
able signs, whilst listening with respectful and undivided attention
to the recital of Tompkins' services, persecutions and sufferings, I
inferred a better reason for his disinclination to speak against him,
and gave him credit for his forbearance. Mr. Lot, a Member from
Long Island, and an ardent friend, was so far moved by the same
cause that he wept like a child and was obliged to leave the chamber.

The Vice President arrived at Albany from Washington about
this time, and was received by our friends with wild enthusiasm. A
meeting * composed of the Democratic members of the Legislature,
and citizens in great numbers and from all parts of the State, and
over which I presided, was, a short time afterwards, held at the Capi-
tol, by which Tompkins was nominated as a Candidate for Governor
with great unanimity and enthusiasm.8 After an unusually animated
contest in which each party exerted itself to the utmost, Mr. Clinton
was re-elected by a small majority, but neither of the results I pro-
posed to Gen. German occurred : we did not turn the Governor out,
nor did he put us down. Although we lost our Governor we chose
a Legislature by which I was appointed a Senator in Congress, and
which turned Mclntyre out of the office of Comptroller, in which
he had worked so hard against us.

Several "Other stirring events transpired at the session of 1820. Mr.
Clinton called the attention of the Legislature, in his speech, to the
Missouri Question, and recommended action upon that subject. I
was not favourable to his recommendation, but unwilling to give
him the advantage of wielding so powerful an influence against us
as it would have proved to be, if we had opposed it. Incessant at-
tempts were made by his friends to place me in that attitude. Per-
mission was asked, and given, to use my name in a notice signed by

1 Speech in the Senate of New Pork, on the Act to carry into effect the Act of 18th
April, 1819, for the settlement of the late Governor's accounts. Albany, 1820. — W. C. P.

8 Feb. 22, 1820. In an account of the meeting, written by John A. King to Rufus King,
he said: "A well written address and Resolutions were then submitted by Mr. Van
Buren, the chairman to the meeting, and were adopted with long and repeated cheering."—
W. C. P.

'The question of Tompkins' accounts remained open until after the election, and un-
doubtedly played some part in defeating him. In November, 1820, a measure was Intro-
duced, and passed without opposition, ending the controversy by enabling the accounts
to be balanced. — W. C. P.

100 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

the most respectable citizens of Albany, of all parties, calling a meet-
ing to take the sense of the People on the subject. I was necessarily
absent, on a foreign circuit, when the meeting was held, and refused
my assent to their proceedings when they were presented to me, be-
cause they bore on their face the stamp of political and partisan
designs. A letter was written to me by the gentleman who obtained
permission to use my name, evidently intended for publication but it
was deemed inexpedient to publish my answer when they received it.1
When the Resolution was acted upon in the Senate there was neither
debate nor a call of the Ayes and Noes ; and it was silently passed.
I was in my seat and would have voted for it if a formal vote had been
taken and I always afterwards therefore admitted my share of re-
sponsibility for its passage. It may be said that in overlooking the
bearings of the question upon the happiness of the People for whom
Congress were acting, and allowing myself to be influenced by a
desire to prevent the Governor from making political capital out of
his recommendation, I placed myself on the same footing with him.
As to motives I can only say that I state mine truly; that I acted on
the defensive, and that I had no hand in bringing the matter forward.

The re-election of Mr. Bufus King to the United States Senate
was another feature of this session that excited much feeling and
not a little surprise from the circumstance that it was unanimously
made by men, most of whom opposed him at the preceding session.
An appointment had been attempted then and failed because of the
three candidates brought forward respectively by the Clintonians,
Republicans and Federalists neither could obtain a majority of the
whole vote, necessary to obtain a majority in either House; the
strength of the Democrats and Clintonians being nearly equal, and
divided between Col. Young and John C. Spencer.2

In the recess I became, I believe for the first time, acquainted
personally with Mr. King, and from my connection with the defense
of Vice President Tompkins, in which the subject was noticed, be-
came also better informed of his patriotic course in support of the
War after the capture of Washington, and his urgent appeal to the
Vice President, then Governor, to assume every responsibility and
to trust for indemnity to the justice of his Country. Influenced by

1 Henry F. Jones, Jan. 19, 1S20, to Van Buren and draft of Van Buren's answer, Jan.
21, are In the Van Buren Papers.

» The three candidates proposed were John C. Spencer by the Clintonians, Samuel
Young, by the republicans or " Bucktalls " and Rufus King, by the federalltsts. " In the
assembly Mr. Spencer received fifty four votes, Mr. Young forty four, and Mr. King
thirty four. Some of the members, who, on the resolution, voted for Col. Young, when
the resolution was lost, voted for Mr. King. The whole number of republican votes, in
both houses, for Col. Young, were fifty seven, while those given to Mr. Spencer were
sixty four; showing evidently, at that time, a republican majority in the legislature in
favor of Mr. Clinton ; but the preponderance of talent was decidedly with the Bucktalls,"
Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 486. The details of
the proceedings are told in John A. King to Rufus King, February 2, 1819. Life and
Correspondence of Rufus King, VI, 202.— W. C P.

AOTOBIOGBAPHY Of AfcbmK VAK BTJREff. 101

these considerations, and doubtless stimulated by a desire to obtain
for Tompkins the votes and support of that-Seotfop of the federalists
called "the high-minded" — then supposed to'Wgtnte influential —
I resolved, before the meeting of the Legislature^ to support his
re-election. To this end, I prepared, under the pressure*" bf my
numerous other avocations, a Pamphlet in his favor, whicfi f sab-
mitted to the examination of Mr. William L. Marcy, by whom lt'^rHd
much improved, from which circumstance Judge Hammond, in somfe
degree correctly describes it as our joint production. The pamphlet
was sent to the Members before they left home, and had, it was
believed, considerable effect upon their opinions. It was signed
"A Member of the Legislature" but generally understood, and not
denied, to come from me. With the exception of a few members of
the delegation from the city of New York, who never forgave my
refusal to unite in an adverse nomination to Mr. Clinton, the vote
of the Legislature was unanimous in favor of Mr. King's re-election.
No one supposed for a moment that Mr. Clinton and his friends
were otherwise than hostile to the measure, but it was well under-
stood that they voted for it for the same reason which they charged
influenced us; that of gathering strength for the Gubernatorial
election. The part I took in the affair was a stereotyped charge
against me for the remainder of my political career, brought forward
by different parties and factions in turn as the shifting phases of
party politics made it their cue to lay hold of the subject. That
good natured but most unscrupulous politician, Major Noah, then
the Editor of the National Advocate, applied for and obtained a
confidential communication of my views on the subject as necessary
to the proper discharge of his editorial duties. When he became,
in the progress of time, opposed to me, he furnished to my enemies
for publication extracts from my letter, shamefully garbled, but
even in that state harmless. In 1840, when he felt rather friendly
again, he, to my amusement, offered the letter to a political friend to
save himself from the importunities of the Whig Committee of Rich-
mond, who he said were anxious to obtain it, having evidently for-
gotten the roguish use he had himself, years before, made of its
contents.1

1 This letter Is printed on p. 188 of the Autobiography. The autograph draft 1b In the
Van Bnren Papers. Rufus King gracefully noted his Indebtedness to Van Buren, In the
following extract of a letter to John A. King, January 14, 1820: "The part taken by
Mr. Van Buren has Indeed been most liberal, and as I conceive at the risk of impair*
lng his high standing and influence among his political friends ; do not fail therefore to
inform him that I can never be insensible of his generosity and that no occasion can ar-
rive, that I shall not be ready to prove to him the personal respect k esteem with
which he has inspired me." Two months later (March 18) he wrote : "To the Vice
President I am not a little indebted for the support without which Mr. Clinton and his'
federal friends would have succeeded in degrading me. To Van Buren more especially
am I most particularly obliged ; whose views and principles, as far as I have understood
them, deserve my hearty approbation." — W. C. F.

102 AMERICAN mSTOMOAL ASSOCIATION.

The election of 1820 jilted in the choice of a Democratic ma-
jority in the Houspifc Assembly, and we availed ourselves of our full
possession of J&tftfbranches of the Legislature, at the Extra session
called for \he #di5ice of Presidential Electors in the fall of that year,
to pa^jKBiJl providing for a Convention to amend the ° Constitution
wgf *<£>£» State, which was rejected in the Council of Revision by the
. /;. Citing vote of Gov. Clinton.1 Two friendly Judges, Piatt and Van
**.; :**Jfess, were absent on their circuits; Chancellor Kent and Judge
Spencer were known to be against the Bill, and the vote of Judge
Woodworth, who had been recently nominated by Governor Clinton
was confidently counted on to save the latter from the necessity of
giving the casting vote. To the surprise of every one, and the in-
dignation of the Clintonians, he voted with Judge Yates, and thus
produced the tie.8 A law was passed early in the winter session
to submit the question of Convention or No Convention to the Peo-
ple in the spring, who decided in favor of holding it by a majority
of seventy thousand.

• MS. I, p. 135.

1 In the session of 1817-18 Ogden Edwards, of New York, brought a Mil into the
assembly for calling a State convention to consider such parts of the constitution as
related to the appointment of offices. The object was to substitute for the council of
appointment some other method of appointing officers. Hammond advised Clinton to
adopt the suggestion and couple with It an alteration and extension of the right of
suffrage. "All men had become disgusted with the appointing power, under the old
constitution, and so universal was the opinion that a change ought to be made, that
I was satisfied that the council of appointment could not much longer form a part
of our governmental machinery. The right of suffrage, too, was more restricted in
this State than In any other of the northern or middle States ; and I was satisfied
that public opinion, In a State so" highly democratic, would not much longer endure
the restriction" (Hammond, I, 469). Although Clinton controlled one branch of the
legislature and could have directed the course of the question he refused to support it,
presumably on the ground that the project had originated in the opposition. Edward's
bill was rejected.

The Idea of a convention was not abandoned by those opposed to Clinton, and his
re-election in 1820 produced the necessary unanimity. Local meetings were held ad*
vocating a convention, and the democrats, " perceiving that the only sure means " of get-
ting rid of Clinton was by changing some of the methods of government, " availed them-
selves, with great skill and adroitness, of the propensity of the people for an alter- j
atlon of the constitution to effect that object/' It was to be a convention with un-
restricted powers, not confined only to the machinery of appointments. Clinton was i
now in favor of the plan, and wished the question of calling a convention to be sub- i
mitted to the people; bat the democrats were in a majority in both houses of the '
Legislature, and passed a measure providing for a convention, the results of which |
were to be submitted to the people for confirmation or rejection. The Clintonians
feared that It was the purpose of those favoring a convention of unlimited powers to
abolish the existing judiciary system, and introduce a new one not containing the pres-
ent judges and chancellor, who had created a prejudice by their political activities,
(■aining confidence in their ability to manage the convention after their own wishes, i
they yielded and joined in favoring the movement. The bill was thrown ont by the i
Council of Revision, as related by Van Buren. To overcome the opposition of the i
Council some leading Federalists proposed to have the Council of Appointment ap- I
point three additional judges, and if experience should show there were then too many '
judges, a convention might be called to modify the Judiciary department so as to " In- |
sure an unpolitical tribunal." Rufus King refused to give his support to this sugges- |
tlon, and it was never seriously discussed. — W. C. F. |

1 The same story, with other details, Is told by Hammond, History of Political Parties |

in the State of New York, I, 545.— W. C. F.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BTJKEN. 108

These circumstances seemed to overthrow the popularity of the
Governor, already greatly shaken, and induced his friends to advise
him to retire to private life at the end of his term, as he decided
to do. The Assembly also chose at the Extra-session a new Council
of Appointment of which Skinner, Bowne, and Evans were mem-
bers.1 Evans came to Albany, an honest and intelligent young man
from the Western District as a Clintonian, but being disgusted with
his Associates in the Legislature, he sought me out, in one of our
Caucuses, before they separated from us and when their leaders were
trying, against our opposition, to obtain an adjournment, and told
me that he had lost all confidence in the men with whom he was
acting, and asked me to consent to an adjournment, which I cheer-
fully did, from which time to the end of his life he was my fast and
active friend politically and personally.

*ThlA election was held on November 8, 1820. The full conncll was Walter Bowne
of the southern district, John T. Moore, of the middle, Boger Skinner of the eastern,
and David E. Evans, of the western. The Clinton candidates were Townsend, Ross,
Frothingham and Barstow. Skinner was at this time United States Judge of the
northern district of New York, as well as a member of the State Senate. — W. C F.

CHAPTER VII.

The first question that presented itself at the ensuing winter session
was that of filling the vacancy in the office of United States Sena-
tor, occasioned by the expiration of Mr. Sanford's term. Our
friends came to Albany in the opinion that the time had arrived
when my services ought to be transferred to the Federal government.
Mr. Sanford received a few votes in Caucus, but on the appointment
every democratic member voted for me, while he received the votes
of the Clintonians. I had neither solicited the place nor taken a
single step to promote my election, but was gratified by the distinc-
tion. My old professional opponent, Elisha Williams, then in the
Legislature, offered to support me in return for my having once sus-
tained him against one of my political friends, in a matter by which
the fortune of his family was made; I told him that he was mis-
taken in supposing that he was under any obligation to me, as I had
only done in that case what I thought was right — but that I was
pleased with his sense of the act, and had certainly no objections to
his easing his mind by returning the supposed favor, which would
be better done by voting with his federal friends for Mr. Sanford.
This amused him very much and induced him to say in the House, in
his own way, that he thought I was the fittest man for Senator, but as
he was the very incarnation of old Federalism, I would not let him
vote for me, and he therefore voted for Sanford.1

In April 1820, some forty gentlemen, of the federal party, most
of them young men of talent and all occupying respectable positions
in society, came out with an Address in which they insisted that no
" high-minded federalist " would support Clinton. The use of this
expression obtained for them the designation of " the high-minded "
in the political nomenclature of the times, while their demonstration
against the Governor secured for them from his friends the less
flattering sobriquet of "the forty thieves."* John Duer was their
ablest man, but his Federalism was so deeply dyed as to neutralize

1 The caucus for the purpose of naming a candidate for the United States Senate was
held on February 1, 1821. Sanford was nominated by Mr. Romalne, of New York, and
Mr. Eldred, of Otsego, brought forward the name of Van Buren. No charges of neglect
of duty or want of loyalty to the party were made against Sanford, and, it was urged,
that to set him aside without cause, would be equivalent to a vote of censure, seal his
political usefulness, and destroy his political character in the public estimation. His
great knowledge and experience in commercial affairs peculiarity fitted him to repre-
sent the State in the Senate. Col. Young acted as Van Buren's advocate, saying that
with Rufus King in the Senate the commercial matters would have proper attention,
and on a ballot Van Buren received 58 votes against 24 for his opponent. A resolution
was adopted expressive of the confidence of the meeting in Sanford, as balm to his
wounded feelings. — W. C. F.

• A list of the forty who signed the address of April 14, 1820, will be found in Ham-
mond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 529. — W. C. F.

104

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YAK BUBEN. 105

all his efforts to become a democrat. The sons of Rufus King were
prominent members. The whole number were indeed Mr. King's
devoted friends, and his advancement was the object nearest their
hearts. Their opposition to Mr. Clinton, to whom they allowed no
credit for the support his friends had given to Mr. King, was cor-
dially reciprocated. • Tompkins was not to their taste as a candidate
for Governor, but when his nomination was decided on they supported
him with zeal and fidelity.

Pleased with their society and with the spirited manner in which
they sustained their position, I became more intimate with them than
was the case with any other prominent democrat, and formed sincere
attachments to several of their number. Our friendly relations were
strengthened by the early stand I took in favor of Mr. King, and
their conviction that he was principally indebted for his election to
that circumstance, as they well knew that the friends of Mr. Clinton
would not otherwise have supported him. My partiality for them
produced heart-burnings on the part of many democratic young men,
which, in regard to some, were never entirely removed. Federalists
from their birth, and of the oldest and strictest sect; they could not
make much impression by their efforts upon the democratic ranks,
and failing to draw after them those from whom they had separated,
their success was not equal to their expectations, neither were they
treated by our party with the consideration which they thought they
deserved. Resentments engendered on the first moments of separa-
tion between political associates are always accessible to the mollify-
ing influences of former sympathies not entirely extinguished, and
the recollection of common struggles and triumphs in the old cause
paves the way for re-union. These are more efficient when the cause
is one in which they or their ancestors have acquired distinction.
Most of these gentlemen had from early manhood, enjoyed high and
influential position in what was called good society, and the sup-
position that they expected to occupy, on that account, greater con-
sideration in the democratic organization was not acceptable in that
quarter. There was a warm concurrence in feeling and opinion
between us upon the point that brought us together— opposition to
Mr. Clinton — but in regard to other matters we were far from enter-
taining similar views. Upon some of the latter we were called to act
together at a period when the ardour of our first embraces had in
some degree subsided. The first occasion of that description was
presented by the Convention for the Revision of the State Con-
stitution, which met at Albany in August 1821.1

The County of Albany, where I resided, being then hopelessly
federal, the democrats of the large agricultural county of Otsego

'The convention assembled at Albany August 28, 1821, and did not close Its sessions
till November 10.— W. C. F.

1

106 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

elected me to the Convention without even apprising me of their
intention.

The federalists insisted, and generally believed that we main-
tained our ascendency in power mainly thro* the influence of the
Council of Appointment^ and were therefore feverishly anxious for
its abolition. Convinced by full experience that the possession and
distribution of patronage did us more harm than good, as a party.
I early determined to advocate its diffusion to the widest extent
that should be found practical and consistent with the public in-
terest. When asked by the President of the Convention (Tomp-
kins) on what Committee he should place me, I replied, on that
"on the appointing power". Not understanding, or rather mis-
understanding my object, he smiled, but complied with my wish.
The fact that I was placed at the head of that Committee 1 strength-
ened the opinions of the federal members and made them quite con-
fident that an effort was to be made to preserve the Council of Ap-
pointment in a form perhaps changed but of unabated efficiency.
The President gave me an excellent Committee, embracing how-
ever, but under proper control, some of the most violent denouncers
of the Convention. Among these was Judge Ogden Edwards, of
the New York delegation, an honest, capable and well-meaning'
man, but always overflowing with political prejudices. His dis-
position in this respect was vouched for by his own father, as re-
lated to me by my friend, Roger Skinner, who, on his return from
a visit to Connecticut, his native state, told me that he had met the
celebrated Pierpoint Edwards, the father of Ogden, and that he
had added to the usual enquiries about his son the question whether
" he had got through damning De Witt Clinton yet?"

I rather mischievously delayed calling my Committee together
until the suspicions I have referred to had time to mature. When we
were assembled I proposed to call on each member for his general
opinions upon the subject committed to us. Mr. Edwards imme-
diately suggested that the Chairman should give his views first. This
I declined to do, on the ground that such a course would be contrary
to parliamentary usage, according to which the Chairman is regarded
as a mediator, and, to some extent, an umpire between the conflicting
opinions of the Committee.

The process I proposed was then entered upon, and when finished
I deferred giving my own views until the next meeting. At that
meeting I submitted my propositions which were in substance.

1st To abolish the existing Council of Appointment without sub-
stituting any similar institution in its place;

»The full committee contained Martin Van Buren, Btrdseye, Collin*

Jesse Buel, Child, Ogden Edwards, and Bhlnelander. — W. C. F.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BXTREN. 10*7

2nd To provide for the election of all military officers by the choice
of Companies, Regiments and Brigades;

°3d To give the appointment of high Judicial Officers to the Gov-
ernor and Senate, and

4th To provide for the choice of all other Officers, save only Jus-
tices of the Peace, by the People, either through appointment by the
Legislature, or by direct election. The Justices of the Peace, as Judi-
cial Officers, ought not, I said, to be elected, but to bring them as near
to the People as possible and avoid the objections to their election, I
proposed that two lists should be made in each county, one by the
Board of Supervisors (who were themselves elected by the People
in each town) and the other by the county court Judges ; whenever
these two lists agreed the choice should be complete, and whenever
they differed the Governor should select the Justices from them.

The jealous members of the Committee were not only disappointed,
but some of them confounded by my propositions. They went so
far beyond their expectations, in distributing the patronage of the
Government, and in removing the grounds upon which they expected
the battle in regard to the appointing power to be fought, as to
draw from some the charge of radicalism. The question in regard
to Justices of the Peace was the only remaining point on which
speeches that had been prepared, in expectation of a different report,
could be directed. My recommendations were substantially adopted
by the Committee, but the portion of them relating to the choice of
Justices was violently assailed in the Convention by the federal mem-
bers and also by the "high-minded" gentlemen. I stated frankly
the principle upon which that part of my report was founded, and
that I considered it a fair subject for differences of opinion. The
questions were whether the spirit of the rule, to which every body
then assented, that the higher Judicial Officers ought not to be elected
should be respected in providing for the choice of Justices of the
Peace ; and, if so, whether the mode proposed by the Committee for
their selection was the best

Mr. Rufus King attacked the proposition with great earnestness,
and scarcely concealed acrimony. After enumerating a few objec-
tions to its practical operation, he took up the subject of the old
Council of Appointment, and denounced it as a machine that had in
times past been used and abused to monopolize central power. Al-
though his remarks were not directly aimed at me or at my friends,
they were, I thought, sufficiently susceptible of that construction to
require notice from me.

I replied at considerable length and with some warmth and in
the course of my remarks alluded delicately but intelligibly to one

° M8. I, p. 140.

108 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION.

of the uses that had been made of what he denounced as the Central
Power of which he had not complained. This affair caused a re-
serve in our personal intercourse which continued for some time, and
until the period arrived when our franking privilege as United States
Senators commenced. He then came to my seat and announced the
fact to me as a matter that might have escaped my notice, and at the
same time pressed me to dine with him.

After dinner he proposed a walk, and in the course of it spoke
feelingly of the collisions which political life almost unavoidably
produced between the best of friends, and the inquietude growing
out of them, and said that the best remedy he had discovered was to
forget and forgive— to sleep upon the matter, and rising in the morn-
ing to wash, shave, put on fresh linen, and think no more of it Un-
derstanding the object of these suggestions, I also came to the con-
clusion to dismiss the subject from my thoughts, and our personal re-
lations resumed their previous footing.

Some time afterwards, and during the session of the Convention,
an editorial article appeared in the Argus remarking upon this and
other differences of opinion between this section and the great body
of our party — admitting that to some extent they had been antici-
pated as likely to occur in the course of time, but saying that it was
not expected that they would present themselves so soon. When I
came into the Convention, John Duer, in a courteous and not un-
friendly manner, repeated to me the closing words — * wot so soon " —
w:th significant emphasis. This led to a farther conversation in
which I admitted that the article spoke my sentiments. We dined
together at his brother's lodgings with a few mutual friends, and
had an animated conversation upon points in regard to which we
entertained diverse views, in the course of which, becoming con-
vinced that there were radical differences in our feelings and opin-
ions which must prevent us from long acting together, I involuntarily
struck my hand upon the table with unusual earnestness, when he
instantly turned to me, and said '' that is the indication of a grave
conclusion ! May I know what it is, Sir ? " I laughed at his inter-
pretation and turned the conversation into a different channel.

These occurrences produced distrust, but no personal hostility, or
even determination to separate. That was brought to pass by the
ensuing Presidential election, and the influences it called into action.
A large majority of the Democrats supported Crawford, the rest
dividing upon Adams and Clay. The " high-minded " espoused the
cause of Mr. Adams zealously, and the feelings produced, or rather
revived by that contest carried them back into the federal ranks, —
then called National Republicans — where the survivors are still
serving as Whigs.

CHAPTER VIII.

All personal intercourse between Charles King, Editor of the New
York American, and myself was for many years broken off. After
he had retired from the Editorial profession, and had, I believe,
received the appointment of President of Columbia College, we hap-
pened to meet at an entertainment given at the opening of a new
Club House in New York. He approached me and entered into a
familiar conversation upon the topicks of the day. So long a time
had elapsed since I had seen him that I took him for his brother
James * and reciprocated his address very cordially, but the idea of
my mistake soon occurring to me the conversation gradually stiff-
ened on my part, and he, perceiving and understanding it, rather
abruptly but gradually withdrew. My son, Col. Van Buren, stand-
ing at some distance, and witnessing and comprehending the whole
scene, advanced towards me as Mr. King walked away, and said " I
saw that you did not at first recognize your old friend Charles."
I confessed that I had not, but as it had ever been my practice to
continue the war as long as my adversary desired it, but always to
be prepared for peace, I sought him out, and renewed a friendly
intercourse that has since been uninterrupted.

Thus disappeared from the political stage a party which, though
small in numbers produced nearly or quite as great an impression
as its predecessor and counterpart, in respect to size, the Burrites — in
their day distinguished by the name of the " Little Band." The
latter were heard and felt through the pamphlet of "Aristides"
written by William P. Van Ness.2 — a production of great celebrity in
its time, — the Morning Chronicle, edited by Peter Irving, elder
brother of Washington Irving, and the " Corrector," a stinging little
sheet, edited by a number of young men and to which, I believe
Washington Irving was a contributor. The New York American,
edited with great ability, and a series of clever publications, of
which " Dick Shift " * (supposed to have been written by John Duer )
was the most piquant, were the oracles of the " high-minded." The
Burrites were headed by Aaron Burr, and the sons of Alexander
Hamilton were prominent members of the " high minded " party.

To the latter belonged indisputably the paternity of one public
measure, namely the attempt to impeach William W. Van Ness,
one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, for receiving a bribe from

1 James Gore King.

' An examination of the Tarlooa charges exhibited against Aaron Burr, Vice-President of
the United Statea, and a Development of the Characters and Views of his Political
Opponents. By Aristides. 1803. — W. C. F.

* See the letter from Johnston Verplanck to Van Buren, December 25, 1819, in the Van
Bnren Papers.— W. C. F.

100

110 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

the Bank of America, to secure the assent of the Council of Revision,
of which the Judges were then members, to the act of incorporation.
The fact that the Bank obtained its charter thro' the most daring and
unscrupulous bribery practiced upon various persons, occupying0
different positions in the public service, is undeniable. The matter
was investigated with great solemnity by a Committee of the House
of Assembly, appointed on the motion of Erastus Root, upon the
exhibition of the charge made by the Editors of the New York
American, Charles King, Johnston Verplanck and James A. Hamil-
ton, over their own signatures. The Judge appeared before the
Committee, supported by an imposing array of Counsel, and the
principal part of the session was occupied with the examination.1
The Committee finally reported that there was no ground for the
interference of the House, but the public mind did not respond
favorably to the conclusions of the report. The consciousness of
this fact preyed upon the Judge's spirits, and hurried him to a
premature grave.

Judge Van Ness was by nature the ablest man among his asso-
ciates in public life. His facilities for early improvement had been
but limited, and he had no taste for deep study ; the brilliant repu-
tation he established as a lawyer and Judge was therefore mainly
founded on the raw materials with which nature had liberally en-
dowed him. His personal figure was imposing and his manners
peculiarly fascinating — so much so that even his enemies courted
his society. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of
1821, which was the last public station he held. In that body a
proposition was introduced by Gov. Tompkins, and supported by
Erastus Root and a host of other democrats, to vacate the offices of
the Chancellor and Justices of the Supreme Court by the new Con-
stitution. Although the Convention had the power to do this, it
had certainly not been expected by the Legislature or the People that
such a step would be taken. Sincerely desirous to secure the respect
and sanction of the public for our proceedings and opposed upon
principle to a course so proscriptive, I threw myself in the breach
against the weight of my party and opposed the proposition. To
neutralize the prejudices of friends, and to conciliate moderate men,
whilst resisting a measure, the success of which threatened all that
remained of the former greatness of Judge Van Ness, I deemed it
a fit if not a necessary occasion to allude to our past relations. This
was done in a speech delivered in his presence, from which the fol-
lowing in an extract:

The Judicial officer who could not be reached in either of those ways, ought
not to be touched. There were, therefore, no public reasons for the measure,

• MS. I, p. 145.

1 See Proceedings of the Committee appointed to inquire into the official Conduct ot
William W. Van Ness, New York, 1820. — W. C. F.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. Ill

and If not, then why are we to adopt it? Certainly not from personal
feelings. If personal feelings could or ought to influence us against the In-
dividual who would probably be most affected by the adoption of this amend-
ment, Mr. Van Buren supposed that he above all others would be excused for
Indulging them. He could with truth say, that he had through his whole
life been assailed from that quarter, with hostility, political, professional and
personal — hostility which had been the most keen, active and unyielding. But,
sir, said he, am I on that account, to avail myself of my situation as a repre-
sentative of the people, sent here to make a constitution for them and their
posterity, and to Indulge my individual resentments in the prostration of my
private and political adversary. He hoped it was unnecessary for him to say,
that he should forever despise himself if he could be capable of such conduct.
He also hoped that that sentiment was not confined to himself alone, and that
the Convention would not ruin its character and credit, by proceeding to such
extremities.1

A sufficient number of my political friends voted with me to de-
feat the proposition. The Chancellor and three of the Judges were
members of the Convention. The latter left soon after to hold the
Term at Utica, and the democratic portion of the Convention, no
longer irritated by the active intermeddling of Judges Spencer and
Van Ness in matters supposed to have partisan tendencies, was los-
ing the memory of my rebellion against party discipline and of the
whole subject; but the return of those gentlemen with renewed ar-
dour to their work of political intrigue caused a new proposition,
sufficiently varied in form to evade the parliamentary rule, to be
promptly introduced by a lay member, and procured for it a vigor-
ous support. I felt that I could now do no more than give a silent
vote against the measure. The proposition was adopted, the offices
of the Judges were vacated, a new Governor was elected before the
time arrived to fill the vacancies, and neither Spencer nor Van Ness
were renominated. They both resumed the practice of their profes-
sion, but his misfortunes preying upon Van Ness9 proud spirit his
health failed, and he went to South Carolina in the hope of re-estab-
lishing it, but there, soon after, died at the house of his connexion,
Mr. Bay, a highly respectable resident of Charleston. I was inform-
ed by Mr. Bay, many years afterwards, that, in the closing scenes of
his life, the Judge spoke often and feelingly of his political and per-
sonal controversies, and that whilst he referred with much severity
to the conduct of some of those with whom he had been in collision,
he took pains to say that he should die without complaint or bitter-
ness against me, who, altho' among the most uniform of his oppo-
nents, had always treated him frankly and fairly. His unfriendliness
throughout his public life did not prevent my sincere sympathy with
him when he fell, and with his friends in their prayers over his
ashes.

1 Reports of the New York State Convention, 1821 (Carter and Stone), p. 635.

112 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

A new Constitution was adopted by the Convention providing for
increased action on the part of the People themselves in the manage-
ment of public affairs, and liberalizing and elevating the political
institutions of the State to the standard required by the advances
made by public opinion in that direction.

I have noticed the part that I took in regard to two questions that
were acted upon by the Convention because they were more or less
complicated with other matters. To do as much in reference to all,
would require more space than I think it would be proper to dfevote
to the subjects here. There was scarcely any question raised in the
discussion of which I did not participate to a greater or less extent,
and those discussions as well as the votes that followed them are to
be found reported in the official proceedings and published accounts
of the 'doings of the Convention, which publications, altho' not accu-
rate throughout, are sufficiently so for all important purposes.

On one point only will I add a few words of explanation, because
it has been the subject of much remark, and of much partizan misrep-
resentation.

At one stage of our proceedings I was alarmed at the ground taken
by a number of my political friends upon the question of suffrage.
They seemed willing to go at once from a greatly restricted suffrage
to one having but the appearance of restriction, which I considered
very hazardous as well to our institutions as to the success of the work
of the Convention. I preferred to move upon this truly important
point step by step, and to advance as we should find ourselves justified
by experience. The partizan policy of advocating extreme measures
of seeming popularity, trusting that somebody else would prevent
their adoption, or that perchance they might not work as badly, if
adopted, as my reason anticipated, has never, I can conscientiously
say, been mine. I therefore exerted myself to moderate the extreme
views of my friends, and, when necessary, to oppose them until the
suffrage was established on what I deemed safe and reasonable
grounds. For this, and upon the ground of expressions loosely and
inaccurately reported I was for many years much censured, but, I
believe, not injured, because the People saw the soundness of my
motive even thro' the distorted and false views in which, for sinister
purposes, the subject was presented to them.

The new Constitution was approved and adopted by an immense
majority of the People.1 Judge Joseph C. Yates was elected Gov-
ernor, under its provisions, without opposition, Governor Clinton
retiring to private life, and I soon after took my seat in the Senate
of the United States.

1 The result showed 75,422 rotes in favor of the Constitution and 41,497 votes against
or a majority of 33,925 on the side of adoption. — W. C. F.

CHAPTER IX.

The transfer from the State to the Federal Service has generally
been considered as a discharge from responsibility for the manage-
ment of the affairs of the former, but neither friends nor foes would
permit such a result in my case. The first had claims upon my
gratitude and good offices that I was not inclined to disregard, and
the latter found or fancied a party benefit in charging me with
influencing the action of the State Government from Washington
thro' the agency of representatives at home to whom they gave the
name of the " Albany Regency."

The inconvenience, to say the least of it, of this ubiquitous re-
sponsibility was strikingly and very disagreeably illustrated by
bringing me very early into disfavour with the new Governor whose
nomination I had preferred and aided in effecting. Judge Yates
was an honest man, possessed of a good understanding, who always
designed to do what he thought was right. He warded off too strict
a scrutiny into his mental capacities by a dignified and prudent re-
serve— a policy that long practice had made a second nature. He
had been strongly tempted,, by his marriage connections, to depart
from the simplicity of life and manners characteristic of his race.
His first wife was a Kane, a family which almost without exception
was distinguished for the personal beauty of its members, and their
natural dignity of carriage, and which had made considerable ad-
vances towards the establishment of a sort of family aristocracy be-
fore it gave way under the pressure of adverse circumstances. His
second wife, with whom he acquired a good estate, was a De Lancey,
a powerful family at the commencement of the revolution, jealousy
of whose superior position at Court was said to have had great in-
fluence in inducing the Livingstons, and other families who figured
in that contest, to espouse the popular side. My acquaintance with
Mrs. Yates has led me to regard her as a good woman of superior
mind and sedulous in the performance of duty. I paid the Judge a
visit at Schenectady at the time when we were preparing to bring
him forward as a candidate for Governor, in company with several
of the " high-minded " gentlemen to whom he was very partial.
While we were at dinner the conversation was mischievously turned
by one of the guests for his own amusement to a matter in regard to
which our host ° and myself had, in past times, stood in opposition

* MS. i, p. ISO.
127483°— vol 2—20 8 113

114 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

to each otfrer. The Judge promptly and courteously said in reference
to it, "Ah ! that was at a time when I did not understand Mr. Van
Buren as well as I do now ! " On which Mrs. Yates turned to her
husband, and asked with unaffected simplicity whether he was sure
that he understood me now! The question of course was received
with a general burst of laughter, and not having the slightest idea
of incivility or unfriendliness, she began to apprehend that she had
shown both — an apprehension that it cost me no small effort to efface
from her mind. The circumstance slight as it was, strengthened
my impression that she was not in all respects well adapted to the
office of guarding her husband against the effects of a suspicious
temperament, which had been always an obstacle to his advancement,
and was the principal cause of his failure in public life.

On my way to Washington, in the fall preceding the Judge's
assumption of his official duties, I remained some time in New York
winding up professional concerns at the November Term of the
Supreme Court. Many of my friends were there in the prosecution
of their professional engagements, and some were doubtless brought
there by their fondness for political gossip, and by a desire to take
leave of me. I had not been long in Washington before I learned,
thro' a source entitled to my confidence, that the Governor-elect had
been told that I had assembled my friends in a private meeting at
New York, at which we had marked out a course for the Governor
to pursue as the indispensable condition of our support. There was
of course not a word of truth in this story, and under ordinary cir-
cumstances I would have taken no notice of it. But I knew the
Governor's disposition, and that he was surrounded by men in whom
I had little confidence, who owed me no good will and who had
personal objects which they might hope to promote by Availing
themselves in this form of an infirmity to which they knew him to
be subject. I therefore determined to address myself to him di-
rectly, and to make a serious effort not only to disabuse his mind
upon the particular point, but to prevent the recurrence of similar
misunderstandings. In the propriety of this course, Mr. King, to
whom I mentioned the subject, fully concurred, and I wrote a letter
to the Governor in which I referred to the story I have mentioned
as a vile falsehood, expressed my apprehension that other misrep-
resentations of the same character would be made by bad men for
selfish purposes, avowed my disinclination to the slightest personal
interference in affairs which had, with my hearty approbation, been
committed to his hands, and closed with what appeared to me a clear
and conclusive argument to show that I could have no possible inter-
ests that would be benefitted by his overthrow and an assurance that
the first wish of my heart was that he might sustain himself success-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 115

fully and honorably in his responsible position. With most men
this would have been sufficient, but as to him the soil was too favor-
able to the rank growth of the seed I endeavoured to eradicate and
the sowers were too numerous and industrious to admit of any
success to my efforts. He had weakened his position by his jealousy
to an extent that enabled the friends of Col. Young to nominate the
latter in his place during the succeeding winter. Irritated by this
result and distrusting almost every body he was induced to take an
official step which I will have occasion to refer to hereafter, and
which finally prostrated him as a public man.

I entered the Senate of the United States in December 1821, at
the commencement of Mr. Monroe's second Presidential Term. John
Gaillard, of South Carolina, was then, as he had been for many
years, President pro tern, of that body. I need add nothing to the
eloquent description given of his character by Col. Benton, in his
Thirty Years' View, except the expression of my full concurrence
in what has been so well said. I was first placed on both the Judi-
ciary and Finance Committees, and soon succeeded to the Chairman-
ship of the former, a compliment to so young a man, on his first
appearance in the Senate, which I could not fail to appreciate.

There was at this period a perfect calm in the public mind upon
political subjects, and the Administration continued the course it
had pursued during the previous term, unlike any since that of Wash-
ington, without an organized opposition. The important questions
that occupied the attention of Congress during the Presidency of
Mr. Monroe were those of Internal Improvements by the Federal
Government and a Protective Tariff. Stronger proof could not bo
required of the capacity of our system of Government to deal with
difficult public questions, and the strength it derives from that
source, than the fact that those disturbing questions, which (particu-
larly the latter) semed, in the hottest day of their agiation, to
threaten the continuance of the Union, in so brief a period not only
ceased to inflame the People, but, in the sense in which they were
then advocated and opposed, have become virtually obsolete. It is
also worthy of remark that neither of these great questions originated
with the Administration, or were regarded as Administration Meas-
ures. They found their origin in other sources and were called into
existence by other considerations than those of Executive recom-
mendation.

Mr. Monroe was universally regarded as the last of that class of
Statesmen to which the country had invariably theretofore looked
for Presidential candidates. This fact was sufficient to bring for-
ward for the succession the names of those of the succeeding genera-
tion who deemed themselves, or were deemed by their friends, as
possessing sufficient claims to the distinction.

116 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

The most prominent of these were Clay, Calhoun, Crawford and
Adams. I name Messrs. Clay and Calhoun first because, from very
nearly the beginning of Mr. Monroe's Administration, their respec-
tive courses were most definitely shaped to that end.

Mr. Clay was Speaker of the House of Representatives, had re-
turned with edat from his Mission of Peace, and enjoyed an exten-
sive popularity with uncommon facilities for its enlargement.

Mr. Calhoun was Secretary of War, the undoubted favorite of the
President, and in point of talent, industry and the art of winning
popular regard scarcely inferior to Mr. Clay.

A better field for the display of political ability and tact than
that presented to these distinguished gentlemen could not have been
imagined. The old Federal Party, yet strong in numbers and rich
in its traditions, had been reduced to a low condition by the course
it had taken in regard to the War. Its former leaders, either from
policy or conviction, acquiesced in the condemnation that had been
pronounced upon it, and the future allegiance of its members seemed
to be offered as spoils of conquest to democratic aspirants to the
Presidency.

Relaxation of the rigors of party discipline and acts of amnesty
in favor of vanquished federalists — splendid schemes of Internal
Improvement at the expense of the Federal Treasury with munifi-
cent bounties in the form of encouragements to Domestic Industry
to the North, the East, and the West, were the popular appeals and
blandishments with which Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun, each secure
in his position at home, entered into the Presidential Canvass.
Hence the continued Agitation of all of these questions from near
the beginning to the end of Mr. Monroe's Administration — leaving
them at its close as unsettled as they were at any stage of their dis-
cussion and as it was expedient to Presidential aspirants that they
should be. These topicks for a political campaign were wisely se-
lected, and produced apparently extensive effects upon the public
mind. The great States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New
York, with the entire West, swallowed the baits that were held out
to them under such alluring disguises, in which they were joined by
the Eastern States as soon as our Yankee brethren saw that the
protective policy had acquired a sufficient hold upon the country to
make it safe for them to divert their superior skill and industry
from Commerce to Manufactures. So irresistible did the current
seem to have become that even Gen. Jackson, with all his repug-
nance to equivocation and all his fearlessness of responsibility, was
fain, when he was brought into the Presidential Canvass, to take
refuge under the idea of a "judicious tariff."

These, as I have said, altho' the prominent Measures acted upon,
could not be regarded as among those of Mr. Monroe's Administra-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIff VAN BUBEN. 117

tion. Although he knew that the protective policy was supported
by several members of his Cabinet, he never recommended it in his
Messages and he interposed his Veto against a Bill for the repair
of the Cumberland Road in a message in which the whole subject, so
far as it related to the exercise of Federal jurisdiction over the
territory embraced, was elaborately discussed.

The Cumberland Road was established under the Presidency of
Mr. Jefferson, and whilst Mr. Gallatin0 was Secretary of the
Treasury. It was originally contemplated to be made out of the
avails arising from the sales of the public lands, and was established
to promote such sales. But Congress soon fell into the habit of
anticipating the receipts from that source by appropriations from
the Treasury and this [practice] had been almost annually repeated
for more than twenty years and had received the Executive approval
from Jefferson and Madison.

The jurisdiction by the Federal Government, which constituted
the foundation of Mr. Monroe's objection had never been exercised ;
but he was, I think, quite right in assuming that the establishment
and support of the Road involved the claim of a right to its exer-
cise and therefore fairly presented the constitutional question upon
which he took, as to that point, the true ground. The Bill came up
soon after I had taken my seat in the Senate and I voted for it
rather on the ground of its paternity and the subsequent acquiesence
in it, than from an examination of the subject. The whole matter
was afterwards very thoroughly investigated by me when I found
reason to regret that vote and to take not only an early opportunity
to avow my error but also a decided stand against the claim in both
aspects of Jurisdiction and Appropriation.

The unavoidable and improper conflict of jurisdiction between the
Federal and State authorities that must arise from the establishment
of the Internal Improvement System advocated by its friends, was
apparent, and the objections arising from that source was insuper-
able. Pressed by the force of this argument the friends of the Road
almost always shunned the discussion of that branch of the subject
and insisted that the Federal Government could exercise a salutary
agency in the matter by appropriations of money without cessions of
jurisdiction. This power was fully conceded by Mr. Monroe, and the
exercise of it was sure in the end to impoverish the National Treasury
by improvident grants to private companies and State works, and to
corrupt Federal legislation by the opportunities it would present for
favoritism. I shall hereafter have occasion to speak as well of the
part I took in this matter subsequently, as of the total and, I hope,
final overthrow of the principle.

•MS. I, p. 155.

118 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

The subject of Piracy became prominent in the discussions of the
Senate, and I made a speech upon it.

Several Amendments of the Constitution, in regard to the election
of President and Vice President were also offered and discussed.
Upon one introduced by Gov. Dickerson of New Jersey, and hence
called the New Jersey Plan, proposing to district the States, I deliv-
ered a Speech of which I have only the preparatory notes ; these may
be found to contain suggestions of some interest and are given in *

The wise disposition of our People to deal prudently with matters
touching the safe action of their political system in times past is
strikingly illustrated, in view of the inadequacy of the provisions
of the Constitution and laws for the government of Congress in can-
vassing the votes for President and Vice President, by the success
with which they have avoided difficulties for so long a period upon a
point in which their feelings are always so deeply excited. Appre-
hensive of danger from this source at the election of 1824r-5, when,
from the number of Candidates, it was generally assumed that the
election would come to the House, the Senate instructed its Judiciary
Committee to consider the subject and to report thereon. After con-
sulting with the older and more experienced Senators, I reported a
Bill supplying omissions in the old law, which passed the Senate but
failed in the House. As the law is still in the same imperfect State,
and the matter may some day become one of considerable interest, the
notes of my Speech upon the Bill, which were furnished to me by the
Reporter, but have never been published, are given in 1

1 In the Van Buren Papers, under date of December 29, 1823.

CHAPTER X.

The period covered by Mr. Monroe's Administration was made
memorable by the canvass for the succession to which I have alluded.
and by his efforts to bring about a fusion of Parties.

Mr. Monroe's character was that of an honest man, with fair, but
not very marked capacities, who, through life, performed every
duty that devolved upon him with scrupulous fidelity. He had
been honorably connected with our Revolutionary Contest, and from
the beginning of our party divisions was found in the same ranks
with Jefferson and his friends, although, like Mr. Madison, he was,
while perfectly sincere, yet from a difference in temperament, neither
so earnest nor so eager in his devotion to their common cause. But
two circumstances occurred, at early periods in his political career,
well calculated to stir his feelings and to whet his political zeal.

Having been appointed Minister to France by Washington he
was recalled under circumstances implying dissatisfaction. He
appealed to the People for his vindication in a publicatioa of some
length, characterized, as it has appeared to me, by great fairness.

The second matter alluded to was as follows: — a man by the
name of Reynolds having, on several occasions, thrown out in-
timations that he was possessed of information that would inculpate
criminally the administration of the Treasury Department by Alex-
ander Hamilton, Congress appointed a Committee of Investigation
consisting of Monroe, Venable and Leiper.1

Knowing that the relations between himself and Reynolds would
require explanations which it would not be agreeable to offer on
a public investigation, Hamilton invited the Committee to an in-
formal meeting at his own office, and there made to them a confi-
dential communication shewing that his connection with Reynolds
grew out of a criminal intercourse between himself and Mrs. Rey-
nolds, in all probability begun with the connivance of her husband,
and ended; after the lapse of a certain time, in the pretended dis-
covery by him, and the pecuniary extortions, under menaces of ex-
posure, common to such cases. This statement was accompanied by
the exhibition of a series of letters, receipts for money and other
papers, placing its truth beyond all doubt. The Committee re-
ported that the imputation was groundless, and the subject soon
passed from the public mind ; but a history of the United States sub-
sequently appeared written by the well known James Thomas Cal-

1 Congress did not appoint a committee. An informal Investigation was made by
Speaker Predk. A. Muhlenberg, James Monroe and Abraham Venable. Leiper was not
in Congress until 1829.

119

120 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

lender, in which the charge of peculation against Gen- Hamilton
was repeated with much solemnity. The latter sent the publica-
tion to Mr. Monroe, and made a respectful and friendly application
to him to be relieved, thro' his agency, from the odium of the charge
by a statement that would have that effect. Party spirit ran high,
and Mr. Monroe omitted to comply with this request. This omission
drew from Gen. Hamilton a letter that was not a challenge absolute
or conditional in its terms, and contained no expression from which
an intention to make it the prelude to a challenge could be positively
assumed, but no one doubted on reading it that such was the Gen-
eral's ultimate expectation. This was answered by Mr. Monroe with
a few but slight words of explanation in regard to the course he
had adopted, and with a declaration in conclusion — from all that
appeared in the correspondence, quite abrupt, — that if the General's
letter was intended to convey a demand for personal satisfaction his
friend Col. Burr was authorized to make the necessary arrangements.
Gen. Hamilton denied that such was the intention of his letter, but
said, in reply, that if an invitation to the field was intended to be
conveyed by Col. Monroe's letter he should not decline it, and his
friend Major Jackson was authorized to make the arrangements that
would in that event become necessary. Mr. Monroe disclaimed such
an intention, and the affair was terminated by a letter from Gen.
Hamilton which concluded with a declaration that he did not regard
the case as one calling for the resort that had been referred to.

Gen. Hamilton, thinking that the only way to wipe off the re-
proach that it was attempted to fasten upon his official character,
published to the World, a complete history of the transactions, in-
cluding all the documents submitted to the Committee, and the cor-
respondence with Monroe, in a Pamphlet written with much feeling
and signal ability.1 This having been done without consultation with
his friends, they took unwearied pains to suppress the publication,
deeming it neither necessary nor expedient. But few copies es-
caped their efforts, and one of these was sent to me, many years ago,
as a curiosity by an old gentleman whose antiquarian tastes led him
to collect and preserve such things, but I have °not seen it for a long
time, and what I have stated is from a recollection of its contents.

I read it at an early period of my life with great interest, and
could not but be strongly and favorably impressed by the readiness
with which Gen. Hamilton exposed his moral character to just cen-
sure and the feelings of his family to the greatest annoyance, while

1 Observations on Certain Documents contained in Noa. V and VI of The History of the
United States for the Year 1796, in which the charge of speculation against Alexander
Hamilton, late Secretary of the Treasury, is fully refuted. Written by himself. Phila.
Printed for John Fenno, by John Bloren, 1797.

• MS. I, p. 160.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUREN. 121

vindicating his official conduct from unmerited reproach. But not-
withstanding my partiality for his personal character, and my con-
fidence in his courage, I could not resist the conclusion, on reading
the correspondence, that Colonel Monroe's disorderly inversion of
the regular steps of such affairs, by his bull-dog avowal of a readi-
ness to fight before he was challenged, having divested the contest of
its formal chivalry and dignity, induced the General to bring it to
a different result from that which he had at first contemplated.

It is not unlikely that these collisions with gentlemen at the head
of the Federal Government, whilst they afforded a useful stimulus
to Mr. Monroe's partizan zeal, attracted towards him, under the
political excitements of the periods when they occurred, a larger
share of popular attention and led to more numerous public employ-
ments, than, not being either a good speaker or a good writer, or
remarkable for any striking accomplishment, he might otherwise
have enjoyed. Having, besides, been born and reared on the red
clay grounds of the Old Dominion, so celebrated for the production
of Presidents, it is quite natural that he should, at an early period,
have come to the conclusion that to be among the successors of Wash-
ington would not exceed his deserts. That he did not think his own
pretentions unreasonably postponed by the preference given to Jef-
ferson, his senior in years and whose claims upon the confidence and
favor of his country were incomparably superior to his own, I can
well imagine. But it became a very different affair when the day
arrived for the choice of Mr. Jefferson's successor, and when the
dwellers on the red soil could hardly believe it possible that the
other portions of the Union would be sufficiently self-denying to
acquiesce in any further selections from that already highly favored
spot. It is well known that Mr. Monroe's feelings were deeply
soured by the choice of Mr. Madison for the succession through the
influence of Mr. Jefferson — not seen or heard or exerted by improper
means but not the less effectual. The celebrated Protest of John
Randolph and his associates, — for a long time distinguished by the
cognomen of "the Protesters," — was made in the interest of Mr.
Monroe, and long and bitter were their denunciations of the latter
for accepting office under Mr. Madison. Jefferson and Madison,
placable, just and sincere, were doubtless desirous that their neigh-
bour and friend with whom they had long been associated in the
public service, and whom they respected and esteemed, should enjoy
the same high distinction which had been conferred on themselves,
if that could be effected without doing violence to the feelings of the
rest of the country. But, with the exception of a single act, they
trusted the result to the well known and oft experienced partiality of
the Republican Party for the distinguished men of the Ancient Do-
minion. The office of Secretary of State had become a stepping

122 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

stone to the Presidency, so much so that Mr. Clay, at a subsequent
period and in an unhappy moment, spoke of the selection of Presi-
dential Candidates from that station as following " safe precedents"
Mr. Madison had, as has already been said, with that single hearted-
ness and high sense of justice that formed a part of his character,
offered the place to Governor Tompkins as a proof of the estimation
in which he held his patriotic and useful services.

Gov. Tompkins' declension and the consequent selection of Mr.
Monroe, in all probability, controuled the question of the succession to
Mr. Madison.

I visited Washington during the session and enjoyed good oppor-
tunities to observe the movements that were on foot. The friends of
Clay, Lowndes, Calhoun, Cheves and others of less note evidently
looked to their respective favorites as not yet ready for the course,
but expected them to become so by the end of Mr. Monroe's term,
and were unwilling that the place should be pre-occupied by one of
their contemporaries. Crawford, also, but not so clearly, fell within
the scope of these considerations.

Mr. Crawford was by far the strongest of these aspirants, and
might perhaps have been nominated, if his friends had taken open
and unqualified ground in his favor. But they were seriously di-
vided in regard to the policy of such a course. Many of them, in-
fluenced by an apprehension that decided opposition tovMr. Monroe
might be unsuccessful and injurious to Crawford's future prospects,
were disposed to leave the question to be decided by time and
chance.

The nomination of Gov. Tompkins for the Vice Presidency was
generally favored, and I never understood that he expected or de-
sired that his friends should attempt to bring him forward for the
Presidency, nor could any efforts in that direction have been suc-
cessful.

Notwithstanding this inaction on the part of rivals, Mr. Monroe
obtained only a very small majority in the Congressional Caucus ; a
result not soothing to his feelings. The Republican Party was great-
ly in the ascendant, and Monroe and Tompkins were elected by a
large majority.

The Partv which had raised Jefferson and Madison to the Presi-
dency elected Mr. Monroe under the expectation that his Adminis-
tration would be similar in its political aspects to those of his prede-
cessors. The People of the United States had, during both of
those Administrations, been divided into two and only two great
political parties. It is not necessary and would only serve to render
complex the views intended to be expressed to make any reference
here to the particular character and tendency of their conflicting

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 123

principles. For the present it needs only to be stated that in the ranks
of one or the other of these parties were arrayed almost all the Peo-
ple who took an interest in the management of public affairs. These
differences were first developed in Congress and in Society during
the last term of Gen. Washington's administration, had a partial
and comparatively silent influence in the election of his successor,
but were openly proclaimed and maintained with much earnestness
during that successor's entire administration. The result of this
conflict of opinions was the expulsion of John Adams from the office
of President and the election of Thomas Jefferson in his place. Not
intolerant by nature Mr. Jefferson made an ineffectual effort to allay
the warmth of these party differences and to prevent them from in-
vading and poisoning the personal relations of individuals. But,
true to his trust, he not only administered the government upon the
principles for which a majority of the People had shown their pref-
erence, but he carried the spirit of that preference into his appoint-
ments to office to an extent sufficient to establish the predominance of
those principles in every branch of the public service. This he did,
not by way of punishing obnoxious opinions, or to gratify personal
antipathies, but to give full effect to the will of the majority, sub-
mission to which he regarded as the vital principle of our Govern-
ment. Mr. Madison, elected by the same Party, tho' proverbial for
his amiable temper and for the absence of any thing like a prescrip-
tive disposition, pursued the same course, and upon the same prin-
ciple— the performance of a public trust in regard to the tenjis of
which there was no room for doubt.

The Administrations of Jefferson and Madison, embracing a period
of sixteen years, were, from first to last, opposed by the federal
party with a degree of violence unsurpassed in modern times. From
this statement one of two conclusions must result. Either the con-
duct of these two parties which had been kept on foot so long, been
sustained with such determined zeal and under such patriotic pro-
fessions and had created distinctions that became the badges of
families — transmitted ° from father to son — was a series of shame-
less impostures, covering mere struggles for power and patronage;
or there were differences of opinion and principle between them
of the greatest character, to which their respective devotion and ac-
tive service could not be relaxed with safety or abandoned without
dishonor. We should, I think, be doing great injustice to our prede-
cessors if we doubted for a moment the sincerity of those differences, or
the honesty with which they were entertained at least by the masses
on both sides. The majority of the People, the sovereign power
in our Government, had again and again, and on every occasion

° MS. I, p. 165.

124 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

since those differences of opinion had been distinctly disclosed, de-
cided them in favor of the Republican creed. That creed required
only that unity among its friends should be preserved to make
it the ark of their political safety. The Country had been pros-
perous and happy under its sway, and has been so through our whole
history excepting only the period when it was convulsed and con-
founded by the criminal intrigues and commercial disturbances of
the Bank of the United States. To maintain that unity became the
obligation of him whom its supporters had elevated to the highest
place among its guardians. Jefferson and Madison so interpreted
their duty. On the other hand, Mr. Monroe, at the commencement
of his second term, took the ground openly, and maintained it
against all remonstrances, that no difference should be made by
the Government in the distribution of its patronage and confidence
on account of the political opinions and course of applicants. The
question was distinctly brought before him for decision by the
Republican representatives from the states of Pennsylvania and
New York, in cases that had deeply excited the feelings of their
constituents and in which those constituents had very formally and
decidedly expressed their opinions.

If the movement grew out of a belief that an actual dissolution of
the federal party was likely to take place or could be produced by
the course that was adopted, it showed little acquaintance with the
nature of Parties to suppose that a political association that had
existed so long, that had so many traditions to appeal to its pride,
and so many grievances, real and fancied, to cry out for redress,
could be disbanded by means of personal fevors from the Execu-
tive or by the connivance of any of its leaders. Such has not been
the fate of long established political parties in any country. Their
course may be qualified and their pretentions abated for a season
by ill success, but the cohesive influences and innate qualities which
originally united them remain with the mass and spring up in
their former vigour with the return of propitious skies. Of this
truth we need no more striking illustrations than are furnished by
our own experience. Without going into the details of events fa-
miliar to all, I need only say that during the very " Era of good
feelings," the federal party, under the names of federal republicans
and whigs, elected their President over those old republicans Will-
iam H. Crawford, Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun — have,
since his time, twice elected old school federalists — have possessed
the most effective portions of the power of the Federal Government
during their respective terms, with the exception, (if it was one) of
the politically episodical administration of Vice President Tyli

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 125

and are at this time in power in the government of almost every
free state. We shall find as a general rule that among the native
inhabitants of each State, the politics of families who were fed-
eralists during the War of 1812, are the same now — holding, for the
most part, under the name of Whigs, to the political opinions and
governed by the feelings of their ancestors.

I have been led to take a more extended notice of this subject by
my repugnance to a species of cant against Parties in which too many
are apt to indulge when their own side is out of power and to forget
when they come in. I have not, I think, been considered even by
opponents as particularly rancorous in my party prejudices, and
might not perhaps have anything to apprehend from a comparison,
in this respect, with my cotemporaries. But knowing, as all men of
sense know, that political parties are inseparable from free govern-
ments, and that in many and material respects they are highly useful
to the country, I never could bring myself for party purposes to
deprecate their existence. Doubtless excesses frequently attend them
and produce many evils, but not so many as are prevented by the
maintenance of their organization and vigilance. The disposition to
abuse power, so deeply planted in the human heart, can by no other
means be more effectually checked ; and it has always therefore struck
me as more honorable and manly and more in harmony with the
character of our People and of our Institutions to deal with the sub-
ject of Political Parties in a sincerer and wiser spirit — to recognize
their necessity, to give them the credit they deserve, and to devote
ourselves to improve and to elevate the principles and objects of our
own and to support it ingenuously and faithfully.

Two affairs grew out of the agitation of Mr. Monroe's fusion
policy which from their relation to prominent individuals and the
developments of character they produced, may be considered of suf-
ficient interest to be described here.

In no state in the Union was party discipline in so palmy a condi-
tion at this period as in New York, and a vacancy about to occur
in the office of Post Master at Albany, the Capitol of the State, pre-
sented to the Administration a fitting, if it was not also a desirable
opportunity for the inauguration of the policy in regard to appoint-
ments by which it had determined to be governed.1 Van Rensselaer
was, notwithstanding, appointed. Among the papers published at
the time of and in connection with this affair was a letter addressed

lIt had evidently been the Intention of Mr. Van Bnren to give an account of the
controversy over the appointment of Solomon Van Rensselaer to be postmaster at Albany
in place of Solomon Southwlck, removed for defalcation. Tbe Federal side is well given
in Hn. Catharina Van Rensselaer Bonney's " Legacy of Historical Gleanings/' I, 368. —

W. (*• V»

126 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION".

by Vice President Tompkins and myself to the Republicans at Al-
bany, which contained the following:

That you will be disappointed and mortified we can readily believe, but we
trust that you will not be disheartened. While there are no men in this country
more inured to political sufferings than the Republicans of New York, there are
none who have stronger reason to be satisfied of the irrepressible energy of the
Democratic party, and that no abuse of its confidence can long remain beyond
its reach and plenary correction.

It would have been impossible at any moment during the admin-
istrations of Jefferson and Madison, or at any period since that of
John Quincy Adams, to have comprehended the degree of odium
brought upon me by this language within the precincts of the White
House and in most of the circles, political and social, of Washington.
The noisy revels of bacchanalians in the Inner Sanctuary could not
be more unwelcome sounds to devout worshippers than was this peal
of the party tocsin in the ears of those who glorified the " Era of
Good Feeling."

Whilst this excitement was at its highest point I took a trip to
Richmond, Virginia, and visited Spencer Roane whom I had never
seen but long known, by reputation, as a hearty and bold Republican
of the old ° School. I found him to my great regret on a bed of sick-
ness, from which, although he lived some time, he never rose. But
in all other respects he was the man I expected to meet — a root and
branch Democrat, clear headed, honest hearted, and always able and
ready to defend the right regardless of personal consequences. He
caused his large form to be raised in his bed, and disregarding the
remonstrances of his family he insisted in talking with me for sev-
eral hours. He at once referred to the Albany Post Office Question,
told me that he had read all the papers in the case and thought that
we were perfectly right in the grounds we had assumed. He con-
demned in unqualified terms the course pursued by Mr. Monroe,
spoke freely of past events in his career, and of his apprehensions
that he would, if elected, be governed by the views he had avowed.

Mr. Roane referred, with much earnestness, to the course of the
Supreme Court, under the lead of Chief Justice Marshall, in under-
mining some of the most valuable clauses of the Constitution to sup-
port the pretensions of the Bank of the United States, and placed
in my hands a series of papers upon the subject from the Richmond
Enquirer, written by himself over the signature of Algernon Sidney.

On taking my leave of him I referred to the manner in which he
had arranged the busts of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe in his
room, and said that if there had been anything of the courtier in his
character he would have placed Mr. Monroe, he being the actual
President, at the head instead of the foot. He replied with empha-

• MS. I, p. 170.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIK VAN BUREN. 127

sis, " No ! No ! No man ranks before Tom Jefferson in my house !
They stand Sir, in the order of my Confidence and of my affection 1 "

The other matter to which I allude as an incident of the history
of the fusion scheme, was a Pennsylvania affair. Mr. Monroe and
his cabinet appeared to have determined to take the bull by the
horns — a plan worthy of the strength and standing of the members
who abetted his favorite policy. New York and Pennsylvania were
not only the largest and most influential states in the Union, but
also, perhaps, the most devoted to the maintenance of existing polit-
ical organizations, and especially did this sentiment prevail in the
Western Judicial District of Pennsylvania,

If the republicans of those States could be seduced or forced into
an acquiesence in the fusion policy, there would have been the best
reason to anticipate its success everywhere. A vacancy occurring in
the office of Marshal for the Judicial District referred to presented
a fair opportunity for a display of the Administration scheme in re-
gard to appointments, parallel to that of the Albany Post Office. A
man by the name of Irish — an out and out federalist — was one of
the Candidates. His application was of course earnestly opposed
by the republicans, and proofs of their opposition in the shape of
protests from the members of the state Legislature and from State
officers, from their Representatives in Congress and from private
persons innumerable, were laid before the President, but without
avail. Irish was nominated to the Senate and the nomination was
confirmed. Although I happened not to have opened my lips on
the question of the passage of this nomination in secret session, yet,
as it was generally my lot to be held on such occasions justly or un-
justly to some measure of responsibility, my quasi friend David B.
Ogden circulated a report that I had made a most violent and Jacob-
inical speech against it, and thus disturbed the sensibilities of my
personal friends among the federalists, of whom I always numbered
many. Mr. Ogden was a sound lawyer and possessed a vigorous
intellect, but although an amiable man naturally, he was a violent
politician and liable to " welcome fancies for facts " in matters hav-
ing partizan relations.

CHAPTER XI.

Before I enter upon the engrossing subject at Washington, during
Mr. Monroe's last term, to wit, the election of his successor, I will
give a brief account of my senatorial debut. .

A Bill for the confirmation of the title of Mr. Cox of Philadelphia
to an extensive territory in Louisiana called the Maison Rouge Tract
was referred to our Committee. Having from unaffected timidity
and ° respect for the body of which I was so new a member, with-
held myself from debate until an advanoed period of the session, I
determined to make my first appearance on the floor upon this Bill.
To this end I gave to its merits a thorough examination, and be-
came satisfied that it ought not to pass. James Brown, an old and
prominent Senator and lawyer from Louisiana, being an early and
warm friend of Mr. Cox,* and very decidedly in favor of his claim,
Mrs. Brown brought to the Senate Chamber several distinguished
ladies, among whom were Mrs. Cox and Mrs. Johnston, the wife
of his colleague, (now Mrs. Gilpin, of Philadelphia) to hear her
husband's speech.

It being my business as Chairman of the Committee to open the
matter to the Senate, and to state the objections to the Bill, I rose
for that purpose, and very soon met with a regular " break down " —
as such catastrophes to young speakers are called. However strange
it may appear in view of my previous public and professional career,
it is nevertheless true that timidity in entering upon debate in every
new situation in which I have been placed, and consequent embarrass-
ment in its first stages, have been infirmities to which I have been
subject in every period of my life. Finding that I could not pro-
ceed I made my retreat with as good a grace as possible and resumed
my seat.

Mr. Brown was a respectable, tho' not, in my estimation, a very
strong man. He had been long at the bar in Louisiana, where the
lands in question were situated, was familiar with the Civil Law —
which was in force there — with the laws and ordinances of the
Colonies and the Statute laws of the State, all of which had a bear-
ing upon the validity of this title, and was withal an easy speaker,
plausible in his manner and much inclined to sarcasm. I can never
forget either the triumphant air with which he threw himself into

• MS. I, p. 176.
128

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 129

the debate, or the irritating condescension with which he explained
the causes of my failure. This he did by enlarging upon the differ-
ence in the legal systems of Louisiana and New York, particularly
in respect to the prevalence of the Civil law, and by obligingly
expressing his confidence that if the question had arisen in my own
section of the country I would doubtless have done it fuller justice —
only regretting that I should have allowed myself to make up so
confident an opinion against so valid a claim without a better
understanding of its merits. He then proceeded in a long discus-
sion of the points involved in the claim; but he had done more to
prejudice the passage of the Bill in his opening remarks than his
subsequent argument, able as it undoubtedly was, could remedy. He
had totally extinguished the timidity by which my capacities had
been for the moment paralyzed, and had excited in its place a glow
of feeling and an anxiety for the reply which public speakers will
appreciate. He soon perceived the mischief he had done, and which
the vote confirmed in the rejection of the Bill by a large majority,
altho9 it had passed the Senate at a previous session with only six
votes against it.

When I resumed my seat Father Macon,1 as he was called in the
Senate, came to my place and shaking me cordially by the hand,
thanked me for the service that I had rendered to the public, and
said he had always believed the matter to be af dishonest concern.
The Bill to confirm the title having thus failed, another was intro-
duced, or the old one modified to make it a Bill granting leave to
implead the United States and to try the question at law. So
bad had the character of the claim become in consequence of this
discussion that it failed* even in that form. It was with the Judi-
ciary Committee an annual visitor, acted upon at almost every ses-
sion and invariably rejected. The Committee were at one time
nearly or quite unanimous against it; changes in its members, per-
sonal influence and solicitations of the worthy claimant and his
numerous friends, and those various considerations which are often
successfully brought to bear on the decision of Congress in regard
to private claims, after a time brought me into a minority in the
Committee, but not in the Senate. In the session of 1827-S, when
I had reason to expect that my friends would takef me from the
body, I told my friend, Mr. Seymour, of Vermont,2 a member of
the Committee, who was in favor of the Bill and had charge of it,
and who had made a report in its behalf, that I had a presentiment
that I should die before the next session, and submitted to him the
expediency of deferring the action of the Senate upon it until that
period. Understanding my meaning he adopted my suggestion.

1 Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina. * Horatio Seymour.

127483°— vol 2—20 9

180 AMEBIOA2T HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Twenty-six years have since elapsed, and the claim has been
through that period and I learn now still is the subject of legal in-
vestigation.

The late Mr. Cox, the claimant, a worthy citizen of Philadelphia
with some peculiarities in his disposition, retained to a very late
period his dislike towards me on account of my persevering and ob-
stinate opposition. I remember on one occasion meeting him on
board of a steamboat when he was not a little amazed at my civil
salutation, and while I was President he called at the White House
and, in a manner somewhat confused, told me that he called to dis-
charge what he regarded as the duty of every citizen — to pay his
respects to the Chief Magistrate of the country. I thanked him as
President, and added in the kindest spirit that I had allowed myself
to hope that other feelings might have formed a part of his induce-
ments, but that it was not for me to quarrel with his motives, so
long as they were of so justifiable a character. This interview en-
tirely removed the asperity of his feelings, and when I visited Phila^
delphia after my retirement and a short time before his death, he
evinced towards me the most cordial friendship.

The reappointment of Mr. King did not, in its consequences, I am
inclined to think, realize the anticipations of either of us. It is not
possible that any such proceeding could have been freer from pre-
concerted arrangement or intrigue of any description. I am quite
sure that I never exchanged a previous word with Mr. King upon
the subject of his appointment, or that I required or received any
assurance or intimations from his friends or from anybody else
in regard to his political action if appointed. He was therefore
at perfect liberty to pursue any course his conscience dictated, so
far as we were concerned. Yet I must admit that I expected in view
of the general condition of the country in regard to party politics,
and the changes that had taken place in his own relations with his
party, in consequence of the patriotic course he had pursued in re-
spect to the War after the destruction of the Capitol, to find in him
a disposition to look with more complacency on the success of demo-
cratic measures and democratic men than proved to be the case.

But I did not allow, this to excite in my breast any unkind feel-
ings towards him. He was, altho' yet in the full possession of his
faculties, between twenty five and thirty years my senior — had oc-
cupied with0 distinguished credit a succession of high public sta-
tions, and might be disposed, with good motives and friendly views,
to turn to my advantage the stores of knowledge and experience
he had acquired. So long as the means te employed were unexcep-
tionable and his efforts to turn my mind to conformity with his own

• MS. I, p. 180.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTTBEN. 131

were conducted with becoming delicacy, I could not be annoyed by
them — and he shewed himself incapable of acting otherwise.

I arrived at Washington almost without a preference between the
Candidates for the succession, save that I was strongly inclined to
regard Mr. Adams as excluded by the political bias and opinions
by which I thought he would be governed. Both Mr. Clay and Mr.
Calhoun were personally more agreeable and prepossessing in their
manners, and I regarded Mr. Crawford, from our first acquaintance,
as an honest and true man — an opinion which I never found reason
to change. His friends seemed more anxious to preserve the unity
of the Republican party, and on that account I imbibed an early in-
clination to give him the preference. But feeling that I was not
acting for myself alone, but for many confiding friends at home, I

deferred coming to a conclusion upon the subject until I could have
an opportunity to advise with them during the recess.

Mr. King and myself made our approaches to Washington, in the
succeeding fall, very leisurely — remaining some days at Philadelphia
and also at Baltimore. We were treated with much kindness at
both places and spent our time very agreeably. • The Presidential
Question was introduced by him in the course of our journey, and
discussed on his part in our daily walks, and on most occasions not
otherwise pre-occupied, ' with much earnestness. He spoke hand-
somely of Mr. Crawford and without special disparagement of either
of the candidates, and placed his preference solely on the ground of
the influence which the subject of slavery had exerted and was likely
to exert in future on the administration of the Federal Government.
In the course of several conversations he spoke of the long periods
during which the office of President had been held by citizens of the
slave States and the power they had thus possessed to elevate the
public men of their own section and to depress others, and he dis-
cussed their claims to this preponderance — comparing the talents,
native and acquired, of the People of the different sections, the serv-
ices, they had respectively rendered toward the establishment of
our independence, and the extent of their respective interests most
affected by the action of the Federal Government. He did not re-
gard Mr. Adams as particularly well adapted to be the leader in
such an issue, but he was placed in a condition to make him the best
we had ; he was by no means sanguine in regard to his success — a
question he thought of inferior importance to the opening of the
proposed issue, which he firmly believed when once fairly started
must speedily succeed.

In the course of these protracted reasonings I acted the part of
listener rather than that of a contestant. Respect for their source
and the eloquence and earnestness with which they were made
secured from me a close and interested attention, but they did not

132 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

make the desired impression. My opinion was very decided that
the Southern States had dealt with the subject of slavery, down to
that period, in a wise and liberal spirit, and that they owed the dis-
proportionate influence which they had possessed in the Federal
Government to other causes than to the concentration of feeling and
effort produced by that interest I was therefore unwilling to give
so controlling an influence in the Presidential election to the con-
siderations advanced by Mr. King, and I communicated this conclu-
sion to him with delicacy and unfeigned respect for his character,
and we proceeded on our journey without change in our feelings,
much less in our social relations.

As I acted at the time on the opinion I have mentioned, and as
there has subsequently been, in my judgment, a wide departure from
the policy which then commanded my approval, which has also in
its turn governed my action, I will here give my views of the matter
as it then stood, leaving the consideration of the change and its
consequences to its proper period and place.

At the time when the oppression of the Mother-Country com-
pelled our ancestors to resort to arms for the defence of their libera
ties, the condition of the old Thirteen States was not materially dif-
ferent, in respect to the institution of Slavery, from that which ex-
isted at the period of which we are speaking. In those where it still
exists, it had been so deeply planted as to forbid the hope of seeing
it eradicated except thro5 Providential means not then discoverable
by human intelligence ; whilst in those which are now free from it, it
had obtained but a slight hold upon the interests or upon the habits
and feelings of the inhabitants — none that would not be sure to
yield to wise and prudent legislation. But no obstacle was found
to arise from the difference in their condition in respect to the ex-
istence of slavery, to their cordial and devoted union in the struggle
which, by the blessing of God, resulted in the establishment of our
national independence.

No sooner had that great end and aim of all their secrifioes and
sufferings been accomplished than the leading men — those who
swayed the councils of the States in which slavery existed and still
continues to exist, on all sides a race of great and good men — pro-
ceeded to the consideration of this difference in regard to slavery
in the condition of the states, and the possible consequences which it
might in time produce. They took up the subject with earnestness
and sincerity and with a determination to deal with it justly and
thoroughly. They foresaw that the day was not distant when slav-
ery would have ceased to exist in a majority of the states; that its
abolition would in all probability produce a more rapid increase in
the population of the non-slaveholding States ; that this would con-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 133

throe in a constantly augmenting ratio; that questions would arise
as to the relative value of free and slave labor and as to the degree
of encouragement to which each was entitled, and they apprehended
that these might lead to invectives against the institution of slavery,
which the changed condition of States would naturally increase, and
that in this way the subject itself would come to be regarded as one
of political power, creating sectional parties and in the end over-
throwing the glorious fabric which had been raised by the joint
labors of all, if these sad results were not prevented by timely and
comprehensive measures.

They did not apprehend a disposition on the part of their North-
ern and Eastern brethren to disturb the domestic peace of the States
in which slavery had long and fixedly existed, by interference with
the subject within their 'borders. This would have been a desecration
of the fraternal spirit of the Revolution so gross that their pure
breasts could not harbor a suspicion of it. They never doubted that
ample Constitutional protection for the possession and use of this
portion of their property would be secured to them, and that was all
that they required.

The spread of slavery and the increase of slave States was the
source and the only source from which trouble was apprehended.

The advance of liberty — the sign under which they had fought and
by which they conquered — and the growth and maintenance of free
institutions were the objects of that Revolution from which they had
just emerged. The existence and continuance of slavery in so many
of the States was a sad qualification of these noble aims and glorious
results^— but it was impossible, positively and abolutely impossible to
avoid it, and its existence was without fault on the part of those who
had inherited it from ancestors many of whom were as little respon-
sible for its creation.

Shall the exceptional feature in the free system about to be organ-
ized be enlarged? Shall the influence and action of the Federal
Government be employed for the multiplication of slave States, or
to discourage their increase ?

These were the questions that presented themselves to all patri-
otic and thinking minds before and at the period of the adoption
of the Constitution; and it is an historical truth, worthy of all
honor, that the great preponderance of opinion on the part of all
that was imposing in character and venerable in authority in what
are still the Slave States was in favor of a course most in harmony
with the principles of the Revolution — that of discountenancing the
increase of Slave States. Such men as George Washington,
Thomas Jefferson, Patrick0 Henry, George Mason, James Madison

• MS. 1, p. 186.

134 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

and other patriotic citizens did not hesitate to express their repug-
nance to slavery, their regrets at its existence, their desire to see
it lessened and abolished, if possible, by proper means, and not
only their unwillingness to contribute to its extension, but their
readiness to co-operate in proper measures to limit its farther
spread by the increase of free states.

They were wise and experienced men and knew that such a sub-
ject could not be trusted to professions or acts which would be open
to different constructions, and could only be safely dealt with by
such measures as must carry conviction to the most prejudiced minds
because they went directly to the accomplishment of their object

From such considerations and from such sources issued the Act
of July 1787 for the government of the North Western Territory.
By this Memorable Act its author and supporters intended not only
to provide effectually for the peace and safety of their beloved
country, but to repel, as far as was in their power, the suspicion of
their fidelity to the cause of freedom which their enemies had at-
tempted to fix upon them. Whether we regard the source from
which it originated, the support it received* on its passage, or its
efficiency in promoting the great object of its enactment, this Law
deserves a plqfe in our National Archives side by side with the
Declaration of Independence and the Federal Constitution. At-
tempts have been made to deprive Mr. Jefferson of the credit of
this great measure, as there have been cavillers against every truth
of history however firmly established. Nothing can be more certain
than that it was to his master mind that the country is indebted
for its conception, and to his perseverance in its support seconded
by the Legislature of Virginia and the old Congress for its com-
pletion.

By its provisions the North Western Territory which was, in the
hands of Virginia, slave territory, was set apart for the creation of
six new states — the precise number of the slave states then, to all ap-
pearance, destined to remain such — and it was made an irrevocable
condition of the cession that slavery should never be tolerated within
their boundaries. The Executive and Legislative Departments of the
State of Virginia, and the prominent men of the State, of all parties,
lent their aid to promote the measure and it passed the old Congress
by the unanimous vote of the Representatives from the slave-holding
states. Its adaptation to exigencies of the occasion to the promo-
tion of the policy of which I have spoken are too obvious to require a
single remark. It embraced all the vacant territory of the United
States which was at all likely to be converted into Slave States and
promised to balance the influence of the irredeemable slave holding
states in the Federal Councils— leaving the progress of Emancipation

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARXIST VAN BTJBEN. 135

in the Middle and Northern States to work out a preponderance of
s free states qualified, to a limited extent, by the new states that might
be made out of vacant territories still belonging to the States of
North Carolina and Georgia by divisions of those states.

The Act was passed but a short time previous to the meeting of the
Convention * which framed the Federal Constitution and its patriotic
promoters were not disappointed in the character and extent of the
influence which a measure so wise and liberal was destined to exert
upon the other members of the Confederacy. They found them ready
to secure the citizens of the Southern States in the full enjoyment of
the rights they claimed as slave holders by adequate constitutional
guarantees and the Southern members of the Convention reciprocated
that disposition by their significant consent that the word slavery
should not be used in the Constitution, and with the exception of the
members from South Carolina and Georgia they insisted that the
Slave trade should be forthwith abolished. The prolongation of the
period for its suppression was, it is well known, the consideration
given, in pursuance of an arrangement between the members last men-
tioned and some of our Eastern brethren, for the right in Congress
to pass Navigation Acts.

The six new States provided for by the ordinance of 1787 have
all been admitted into the Union as free States, according to its
provisions, and have now a representation in the U. S. Senate exactly
equal to that of the six Slave States of the old Confederacy and a

representation in the House of Representatives of members to

members, the present representation of the latter. As late as

the year 1809, the territory of Indiana, under a momentary delusion
in regard to her best interests, applied to Congress for temporary
relief from the prohibition of the Ordinance against slavery. The
petition was referred to a Committee of which John Randolph, dis-
tinguished for his devotion to Southern rights, interests and feelings,
was Chairman, reported against promptly and firmly and the report
acquiesced in with perfect unanimity by his Southern associates.
Add to all this the Declaratory Act of Congress by which the Slave
trade was declared Piracy, in the passage of which Southern men
took the most prominent part, and we have a series of Acts all
showing the absence of anything like a desire to advance their
political power by the spread of Slavery or the increase of Slave
States.

What subsequent steps have been taken bearing upon the relative
powers of the slave and free states, before the agitation of the
Missouri Question, and how far do they afford evidence of a different
design!

'Van Buren confused the adoption of the Constitution by the Convention, September
17, 1787, with the date of convening which was May 14.

136 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Tennessee had been cut off from North Carolina — made a State
and admitted into the Union as had been the case with Vermont and

i

Maine taken from the states of New York and Massachusetts. Geor-
gia had oeded her vacant lands to the Federal Government for a
stipulation to be relieved from the occupation of certain Indian
tribes, out of which lands the states of Alabama and Mississippi had
been carved. The Floridas and Louisiana had been purchased, and
the state of Louisiana had been admitted into the Union. These
were all proceedings, except the purchase, anticipated by the acts
of the Government, and neither they nor the purchase last men-
tioned afforded indications of a design to increase, or exclusively
aggrandize the slave interest or power, nor were they at the periods
when they occurred, to my knowledge, objected to on that ground.
It may have been otherwise in respect to Louisiana, on the part of
some of our Eastern people, but their objections were not very ear-
nestly insisted on. These purchases were not in contemplation when
thd Ordinance of 1787 was passed. The settlement of the Valley of
the Mississippi made the acquisition of the Mouths of that Biver
a state necessity which could not be disregarded or much longer
delayed without hazarding the peace of the Country or the sta-
bility of the Union. The admission of Louisiana as a slave state
necessarily resulted from the stipulations in favor of the inhabi-
tants which the treaty unavoidably contained. I firmly believe that
if Mr. Jefferson had thought it practicable to acquire the territory
and to obtain its admission as a State without such stipulations, he
would have made the attempt. His whole course upon the subject
of slavery warrants this opinion. If the existence of slavery in the
state was an insuperable objection with the Northern states they
had only to withhold their assent from the treaty and the whole
proceeding would have fallen to the ground. But the paramount
necessity for the purchase banished that consideration from their
minds, if it existed there to any considerable extent — which in the
then state of public feeling upon the subject is not very probable.

The territory was too large for a single state, and a portion of it
comparatively thinly settled, but by a congenial population, was set
off as a separate Territory by the name of Missouri. Eight years
afterwards the latter applied to be admitted as a state, having in
the mean time acquired a sufficient number of inhabitants. Having
grown up as a slave territory under the territorial laws, and her
people being then, for the most part, slaveholders, Missouri claimed
to be admitted as a Slave State and had framed her Constitution ac-
cordingly. On that ground — that is because her constitution recog-
nized and sanctioned the existence of slavery within her borders —
her admission into the Union as a state was opposed by large por-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 187

tions of the Northern people. This opposition they had the right to
make. Thinking that it would be for the interest of the new State
that she should be free, and thinking also that from the smallness
of her population, and the limited number of slaves within the terri-
tory— even now not large — the State would find not more difficulty
in relieving itself from the existence of slavery than many of the
Northern states had experienced, they had a right to press those
considerations upon0 the applicant by all fair and proper means.
If the unbiased opinion of Missouri could now be obtained I should
not be surprised to find it one of regret that she had not yielded to
that opposition and made herself a non-slave holding state.

The opposition that was made to the admission of Missouri takes
its character from the motives by which it was actuated and the
manner in which it was conducted. That opposition was unexcep-
tionable where it arose from an honest conviction that the pre-
vious abolition of slavery within her territory would be advan-
tageous to her, and that the admission of more slave states into the
Union would be adverse to its welfare, and where no improper means
were employed to carry out these views; but where it was, on the
oontntry, the fruit of an outside policy — where the principal design
was to produce political and partisan effect by seizing on the ques-
tion as an opportunity to bring the politics of the slave states and
the standing of their supporters in the free states into disrepute
through inflammatory assaults upon the institution of slavery, which
we are under constitutional obligations to respect in the states where
it exists, — the opposition was culpably factious. Disguise the mat-
ter as we may such agitation must, in the light of reason and jus-
tice, be regarded as alike offensive to the spirit and derogatory to
the memories of the Revolution. If our participation in the pro-
tection which the Federal Constitution extends to the institution
of slavery had become intolerable to us, and we had satisfied our-
selves that the interests of humanity would gain more by our re-
lease from that obligation than they would 1og6 by a dissolution of
the Union, there was one way in which we could obtain an honorable
discharge aiid that was by tendering to our brethren of the slave
holding states a peaceable and voluntary dissolution of that Union
which our Ancestors had formed with them under a different state
of feeling. To hold on to its advantages and at the same time to
lessen if not destroy through the agency of such agitations, that se-
curity to their slave property which was one of the principal bene-
fits promised to them by its adoption, was the reverse of such a
course.

• MS. I, p. 190.

188 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

From all that I saw of it I could not divest my mind that such
was the intention of the movement against the admission of Mis-
souri on the part of its leaders. I thought so then — I think so
still. I feel less embarrassed in speaking of it thus freely because
I have always admitted my share of the responsibility so far as
the New York Resolutions went— but no farther. Although I did
not actually vote for them I allowed myself to be prevented by po-
litical and partisan considerations, which have been heretofore al-
luded to, from meeting them by open opposition.

While it. affords me no satisfaction to say this I would the more
regret the necessity of this sacrifice to the truth of history if I
did not also know that at a later period and at a critical period, too,
for the South the Northern States stepped forward and screened
her from the assaults of the abolitionists in a manner and to an
extent that called forth the strongest expressions of approbation
and thankfulness from the Slave States, with acknowledgment that
more could not have been done or desired. What return has been
made for this conduct on our part will be seen in the sequel. All I
wish is that the simple truth of these matters should be told.

In confirmation of the statement of my own feelings at the time
of the Missouri agitation, I now for the first time publish two letters
written at that period ; one addressed to William A. Duer, recently
President of Columbia College, — (The letter to Mr. Duer has been
mislaid.) a zealous and active friend of Mr. King and of his ap-
pointment as Senator — and the other to Major M. M. Noah, at the
time Editor of the National Advocate in the city of New York. The
occasion of the latter epistle and certain circumstances in its history
have been heretofore related.1

Letter to M. M. Noah, Esqr>

"Hudson Dec. 17, 1819.

Dr Sib

Your letter has reached me here in the midst of a Circuit and I have but
time to say a word to you on the Interesting points you speak of. Advise
Thompson by no means to have such a meeting — it would as yon say set an
example for Mr. Clinton for which he would give the world. The dire necessity
to which he will be subjected of resorting to such nominations gaUs him to the
quick. Such a measure would therefore be intolerable in us, and I am aston-
ished that any discreet man should dream of it Make yourself perfectly easy
on the subject of the nomination. If such designs as you speak of exist they
are perfectly harmless. There is the most unprecedented unanimity on the sub-
ject among Republicans. Tompkins will be the man unless he himself declines.
Let the few Individuals who entertain different views talk on, but don't notice
them in your paper. They will soon be lost in the general mass. I should
sorely regret to find any flagging the subject of Mr. King In New York. We

»Page 101 of the Autobiography.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 189

are committed to his support. It is both wise and honest, and we must have no
fluttering in our course. The Republicans of the State expect it and are ready
for it I know that such is the case. There was not in the Senate a dissenting
voice that I could find. Mr. King's views towards us are honorable and cor-
rect The Missouri Question conceals so far as he is concerned no plot and we
shall give it a true direction. You know what the feelings and views of our
friends were when I left New York, and you know what we then concluded to
do. My Considerations x &c and the aspect of the Argus will shew you that we
have entered on the work in earnest We cannot therefore look back. Our
fair, consistent and manly course has raised our party in the estimation of all,
and its contrast with that of our opponents has cast much contempt on theirs.
Let us not therefore have any halting, but come out I beseech you manfully on
the subject and I will put my head on its propriety." * * *

At the time of my conversation with Mr. King, the Missouri
Question had been settled — most of the Candidates were slave-hold-
ers, and there was scarcely a ripple on the political waters produced
by slavery agitation.

It was not surprising that Mr. King and myself should differ upon
this point as we viewed it from opposite positions. Although not in
the Country during the administration of the elder Adams and per-
haps not approving of all its measures, he nevertheless sympathized
with its conductors and had through life been the political friend
and associate of its principal supporters. He had regarded its over-
throw and the election of Mr. Jefferson as national misfortunes. He
had been in opposition — respectful indeed but not the less decided —
to the administrations of Jefferson and Madison during the sixteen
years of their continuance, with the exception of the support he gave
to the War after the sacking of Washington. With his political feel-
ings moderated by time and circumstances, he was still, as I found
upon a nearer approach, on all essential points, the same old fash-
ioned federalist that he had been from the start. Under a bias so
potent he was wholly unwilling to allow, indeed incapable of believ-
ing that the lodgment which Jefferson's political principles had ac-
quired and was likely to maintain in the minds of the People, in
preference to those of his own school, was well deserved on public
grounds, and he was ready to attribute it to the unanimity of the
slave states caused by the slave interest or by the " black strap " as
he called it. His feelings against the institution as a philanthropist
were thus stimulated by the prejudices of the politician, and he was
by their combined influence induced to embark with so much earnest-
ness in the Missouri agitation.

°My feelings were of a very different character. My earliest
political recollections were those of the day when I exulted at the

1 Consideration* in favor of the appointment of Bufas King — a pamphlet of 82 pp.
(Dec., 1819). A copy is In the Toner Collection, Library of Congress. See the long
extracts published in Holland's Life of Van Bnren (Hartford, 1830), p. 129.

* M& I, p. 195.

140 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

election of Mr. Jefferson, as the triumph of a good cause over an
Administration and Party, who were as I thought subverting the
principles upon which the Revolution was founded and fastening
upon the Country a system which tho' different in form was neverthe-
less animated by a policy in the acquisition and use of political power
akin to that which our ancestors had overthrown. I had ever since
regarded the continued success of Mr. Jefferson's policy as the result
of the superiority of the principles he introduced into the adminis-
tration of the Government over those of his predecessor, and was sin-
cerely desirous that they should continue to prevail in the Federal
Councils. I had not, as I have before stated, sympathized in the Mis-
souri Agitation because I could not conceal from myself the fact, to
which all we saw and heard bore testimony, that its moving springs
were rather political than philanthropies!, and because I thought
nothing had arisen that would justify us in making the subject of
slavery a matter of political controversy.

These conflicting views, coloring all our conversations, soon con-
vinced us of the parts we were to take in the Presidential election.
I announced by intention to support Mr.' Crawford soon after my
arrival at Washington, and Mr. King was, from the beginning, the
known friend of Mr. Adams. But this difference did not then pro-
duce the slightest effect upon our social or friendly relations. We
messed together during the session, and notwithstanding the dis-
parity in our years, which was still greater between some others of
our associates and himself, our social intercourse was not only unem-
barrassed, but so genial and entertaining as to have kept a pleasant
and lasting place in my memory.

A circumstance occurred in the succeeding recess affecting me per-
sonally that served to draw forth his friendly regard. Chief Jus-
tice Thompson, having been transferred to the Navy Department,1
disposed to testify his sense of the intimate relations that so long
existed between us, inquired of me by letter whether I would accept
the office of Judge on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United
States, to supply the vacancy caused by the death of Brockholst Liv-
ingston. My impression, upon receiving the letter, was decidedly
against the acceptance of the offer, but on mentioning the subject to
Mr. King he took very earnest ground in favor of my accepting it,
and begged me not to decline, as it was my intention to do imme-
diately, until we could give the subject a fuller consideration. At
subsequent interviews he prevailed upon me to consent to the ap-
pointment Having felt myself called upon to oppose an Act of
Mr. Monroe's administration in regard to an appointment in which
a large portion of my constituents was interested, I informed the

1 Smith Thompson transferred In April, 1828.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 07 MARTIN VAN BUREN. 141

Secretary that if the President was disposed to confer the office upon
me I would accept it, but I was desirous that it should be understood
as having been done exclusively on public grounds, as I had no desire
for the position and could not consent to be regarded as an appli-
cant for it. Mr. King wrote of his own accord to Mr. Adams, who
took a friendly part in the matter.

From some source * which I never perfectly understood obstacles
were thrown in the way of the appointment and considerable delay
intervened. An expression in one of the Secretary's letters induced
me to repeat my request that in whatever he said or did in the mat-
ter, I relied upon his friendship to prevent me from appearing be-
fore the President as an applicant for the office. After a while I
received a letter from him asking me whether, after what had hap-
pened between us, I thought he could with propriety take the office
himself. Mr. King had taken much interest in the subject and was
much displeased with the conduct of Secretary Thompson. He
thought I ought to leave him to his own course ; but feeling best sat-
isfied with an avoidance of the appointment, I wrote to him at once
absolving him from any obligation to myself and advising him to
take the place, for which, by the way, he was as eminently qualified
as he was unfit for political life.

Now, altho' I was very sensible that one inducement with Mr.
King, on this occasion, was a willingness to withdraw me from the
Presidential canvass, I was yet perfectly satisfied that he sincerely
thought the appointment a desirable one, and that it could not be
otherwise than beneficial to me to accept it. I was not therefore dis-
posed to undervalue the zealous and friendly part that he took in
the matter, because his success would favor other objects in which
he felt an interest and which he was quite justifiable in seeking to
advance by such means.

•On referring to my correspondence with Secretary Thompson, to which I could not
have access when the above was written, I find that, previously to the offer of his in-
fluence in obtaining the Judgeship for me, he had solicited in his straight forward way
my support of himself for the Presidency, and had become not a little impatient of my
silence. This circumstance, which, from the slight Impression that It made on me, had
altogether escaped from my memory, may throw some light upon the course and dis-
position of the judicial appointment after it was ascertained that my Inclinations In
regard to the Presidential Question were not in that direction. I cannot say that I
have at this moment any decided opinion as to the source from whence the obstacles
arose which prevented my appointment. The correspondence which accompanies this
Memoir will be found to possess Interest from the light it throws upon the ways of men
and of several distinguished individuals in particular. I have myself fancied on read-
lag It now that I could discover traces of views and feelings on the part of others
which from the unsuspicious character of my mind did not occur to me at the time.

CHAPTEK XH.

° My notice of the Presidential election of 1824r-5 will be confined
mainly to the State of New York. An unforeseen occurrence gave
the principal part of her electoral rote to Mr, Adams, and an acci-
dental circumstance, bearing upon that vote, turned the question
finally in his favor in the House of Representatives.

By the law of the State, passed at a very early period, the Electors
of President and Vice President were directed to be appointed by
the Legislature. The election of members of the latter body in 1823
was held with direct reference to the Presidential question and re-
sulted in the choice of a very decided majority supposed to be and
which was, at the time, favorable to the election of William H.
Crawford. The friends of the other Candidates, recognizing their
defeat, demanded a second trial. A transaction something like this
occurred in 1800 — the object being to defeat Mr. Jefferson. After
a Legislature had been chosen known to be favorable to him an ap-
plication was made to Gov. Jay (as appears from his Life, by his
son,) by a prominent federalist, to call the old legislature, whcee time
had not expired, to choose the Presidential electors, which Mr. Jay
very properly refused to entertain.

The movement now made was of a far more plausible character.
It was demanded that the Electors should be chosen by the People, in-
stead of being appointed by the Legislature, as had been the pre-
vious usage and as the existing law directed. The unreasonableness
of this demand under the circumstances was apparent, but its rejec-
tion was nevertheless a matter of great delicacy. It was an awkward
affair for a party which prided itself on being most in favor of em-
ploying the direct agency of the People in the conduct of public
affairs, to refuse such an application when there was yet time enough
to accede to it and to carry it into effect. It seemed, at least, in thus
refusing, to place itself in a false position. Our opponents pressed
this view of the subject with much earnestness and considerable
influence. But I have never doubted that we would have been able
to sustain ourselves before the country if it had not been for a very
unexpected and badly advised step taken by our friends at the mo-

* MS. Book II, p. 1.
142

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YAK BUREN. 148

meni when the Legislature adjourned to the Extra-session for the
choice of electors.

Gov. Clinton had listened to the advice of his friends and had
avowed his determination not to be a candidate for re-election — his
chance of success being regarded by them as hopeless. He did not
lack troops of devoted personal adherents, but his failure to main-
tain his position in the favor of the People, under the auspicious
circumstances which had attended his public service, even when
strengthened by the complete success of the Erie Canal — a measure
to which his name was so closely and meritoriously linked — induced
them to think that he did not possess the faculty of making himself
generally and permanently acceptable to the People under any state
of affairs. They had therefore employed themselves in. looking for
an office or employment for him which would be adequate for his
support, of sufficient dignity and independent of the popular vote.
He had confessedly done more than any other man to secure the suc-
cess of the great Public Work to which I have referred. The office
of President of the Canal Board which had been conferred on him
at an early day had no salary attached to it nor did he receive any
compensation for his services. Having the best right to be regarded
as the founder of the Work, that post as a mark of distinction only,
without reference to his usefulness in the performance of its duties,
was justly due to him.

Such being the state of things Mr. Clinton was removed by a vote
of the Legislature, on the last day of the session,1 without notice or
specific complaint.

It has been truly said that this removal " operated like an elec-
tric shock upon the whole community." It secured to Mr. Clinton
a full measure of what he had never before possessed — the sympa-
thies of the People. The friends of Mr. Adams, generally, in the
Legislature and their leaders Wheaton and Tallmadge 2 voted for the
removal, but we had the majority — the motion came from our side—
and ours was the responsibility.

A public meeting was forthwith held at the Capitol, at which the
measure was severely denounced. Similar meetings followed in
every part of the State, and an excitement in the public mind was
produced which disinclined it to receive dispassionately the ex-
planations of our conduct in refusing to pass the electoral law. Our
excuses for declining to fight a battle over again that we had once
fairly won, which, but for this disturbing question would have been
favorably heard by the majority, would not be listened to by an
irritated community.

* April 12, 1824. — W. C. F. * Henry Wheaton and James Tallmadge.

144 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Mr. Clinton's re-election to the office of Governor was the redress
that instantaneously presented itself to the minds of the masses.
The people's party" — a temporary faction generated by the re-
fusal of our friends to pass the Electoral law and most of whose mem-
bers in the Legislature had voted for his removal — could not pie-
vent his nomination at a State Convention in the call of which they
had united. The current of public feeling, overwhelmingly in his
favor, carried him in by the largest majority ever given in the
state. So violent was the excitement that when I, to whom the
removal had occasioned much regret and who had no knowledge,
being in Washington, of the intention to make it, made my appear-
ance at the polls the shout of " Regency ! Regency ! " was raised by
the crowd and my vote was challenged by some dozen persona The
efforts sincerely made by the Board of Inspectors and by some of
Mr. Clinton's most attached friends to get the challenge withdrawn
were ineffectual, and I was obliged to take the prescribed oath. The
first returns from the Western Counties were astounding, but at a
meeting of a few friends, held at my lodgings, we canvassed the
State and still claimed success. On the following morning, how-
ever, my excellent friend Judge Roger Skinner came into my room
and furnished me with returns shewing that we had been, as I have
stated, completely routed.

A feeling of bitter personal hostility towards Gov. Clinton —
foreign to his generous nature, but for which he thought he had
adequate grounds — had made Judge Skinner more instrumental in
accomplishing the removal of Mr. Clinton than any other of our
friends. Knowing that if informed of the design I would have
done what I could to prevent it, he took especial pains to keep it
from me and laughed at the apprehensions I expressed on being in-
formed of the act. He was standing at the window, tapping the
glass with his fingers, whilst I was taking my breakfast with what
° appetite his news had left me. I could not resist saying to him —
14 1 hope, Judge, you are now satisfied that there is such a thing
in politics as killing a man too dead/" an observation sufficiently
absurd to the general ear, but full of significance and matter for
painful reflection to him. He left the room immediately without
saying a word. Conscious that I had wounded him deeply I fol-
lowed him, to his lodgings, begged his forgiveness with perfect
sincerity and succeeded in obtaining it. But nothing could soothe
the pang inflicted on his heart by Mr. Clinton's success and by
the conviction that he had contributed to it. His health, always
delicate, gave way, and he died not long after in my apns. He was
among the worthiest and most valued of my friends, and I long

• MS. II, p. 5.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 145

and deeply mourned his loss. He was the second person whose death
was obviously hastened by grief and mortification at Mr. Clinton's
success. The other was Judge1 Crosby, Senator from Westchester
County, of whom I have already spoken in connection with Mr. Clin-
ton's nomination three years before.

To those familiar with the action of public bodies under the in-
fluence of panic it cannot be necessary to enlarge upon the injuri-
ous effects produced by these election results, received at the time
that the Legislature was in session for the sole purpose of appoint-
ing Presidential Electors. Gen. Peter B. Porter, a sagacious man,
well versed in political management and, tho' never popular himself,
very capable of influencing others, was at the head of Mr. Clay's
friends. His ablest associate and co-worker was John Cramer, a
veteran politician, who had been one of the Electors at Mr. Jefferson's
second election, had almost ever since been in public life, lived on
political intrigue, and having been familiar with legislative corrup-
tions was consequently well acquainted with the worst portion of the
members and the ways by which they might be operated upon. Fol-
lowing the example of their Principal their first step was to prevent
a Caucus, in which, if its decision was adhered to, we would have
been entirely safe. In this step they would not have succeeded but
for the fact that the election had deprived us of the prestige which
the long possession of power had given us. They coalesced with the
friends of Mr. Adams, and this union enabled them to hold out rea-
sonable expectations of a share in the favors of the new Government
to members friendly to Mr. Crawford. The two sections made a
regular bargain for the division of the Electoral ticket and succeeded,
but so close was the vote that only thirty-two electors out of •thirty-
six were chosen on the first ballot. On the second ballot four of our
ticket were elected, by which result Mr. Clay was excluded from the
House of Representatives and Mr. Crawford's name was returned
to it as one of the three highest.

We had formed our ticket upon a principle that brought on it
several of Mr. Clay's supporters, equal in number to the share they
were to have under their arrangement with the friends of Mr. Adams,
and four of these were lost. Although I did not suspect it at the
time, I had reason subsequently to believe that these were intention-
ally lost from a desire on the part of the Adams men to exclude Mr.
Clay from the House.

Our Governor in office, Judge Yates, and our new candidate for
that station at the election, Col. Young, — two very honest men but
impracticable politicians, — did each their part in breaking down the

1 Darius Crosby.
127483°— vol 2—20 10

146 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

party by which the one had been and the other hoped to be elected.

I have already alluded to. the unfounded prejudices in regard to
myself which had unhappily been created in the breast of the former.
These were not removed in the Recess, and I left home for Washington
in December, 1823, in the full "belief that we were destined to en-
counter his opposition upon the Presidential question in the shape
of the recommendation, in his second Message (January 1824) to
alter the mode of appointing electors,1 and I remained under that
impression until I heard that document read under the following
circumstances.

My colleague, Mr. King, resting confidently upon the almost uni-
versal impression that such must be its character, manifested more
curiosity for its arrival than I either shewed or felt. It was brought
to us at the close of our mess dinner at which were present our
mutual friends Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer, Messrs. Andrew Steven-
son, Louis McLane & others. Mr. King immediately proposed that
it should be read aloud, And Mr. Stevenson was, I think, designated
as the reader. Mr. King folded his handkerchief on the table before
him and resting his arms upon it, as was his habit, his complacent
countenance indicated the confidence and satisfaction with which he
prepared himself to hear the welcome tidings. The ordinary topics
of the Message were run over hurriedly until the reader came to the
interesting subject of the choice of electors, when, to the amazement
of all, we were favored with a string of generalities studiedly am-
biguous, but susceptible of only one interpretation which was that in
his Excellency's opinion it would be better to leave the law as it

» The paragraph In the Governor's message read as follows :

" The choice of electors of president and vice-president, has excited much animadver-
sion throughout the nation ; and It is to be regretted, that a uniform rule on this sub-
ject la not prescribed by the constitution of the United States. It is manifest, that
tho manner of electing may have an essential effect on the power and Influence of a
state, with regard to the presidential question, by either dividing the votes, or enabling
the state with greater certainty to give an united vote ; and until a uniform rule is In-
grafted In the constitution of the United States, the manner of electing will continue to
fluctuate, and no alteration made by any one state will produce a material change in
the various modes now existing throughout the union. In some states the people will
vote by a general ticket ; in some by districts, and in others by the legislature ; and no
practical remedy probably does exist, competent to remove the evil effectually, except by
an amendment to the national constitution.

"Although this state has heretofore sanctioned an attempt to accomplish that im-
portant object, which proved unsuccessful, the measure on that account should not be
abandoned ; and as the subject has recently been brought before congress. It is to be
expected that another opportunity will shortly be presented for the legislature of this
state to sanction an amendment, not only establishing a uniform rule in the choice of
electors, but also securing the desirable object of directing such choice to be made by
the people. A more propitious period of evincing its propriety and consequently afford-
ing a more favorable prospect of obtaining a constitutional number of the states to
assent to It I am inclined to think has not presented itself since the organization of
the government. Persuaded that you as the representatives of a free people, will only
be influenced by reason and true patriotism, it is submitted to your wisdom and dis-
cretion, whether, under existing circumstances, the present manner of choosing electors
ought, at this time, to be changed." — W. C. P.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 147

stood. A lowering frown chased the smiles from Mr. King's face,
and being observed by all produced an unpleasant pause, interrupted
by himself when, turning to me, he said " I think, Mr. Van Buren,
that Mr. Crawford's friends ought to send the Governor a drawing
of the Vice President's Chair." I asked for his reason. " Because "
said he, " I presume they have promised its possession to him." I
replied with some feeling, but respectfully, that I could not of course
say what had been promised him by the friends of the other candi-
dates, but that I was quite sure that Mr. Crawford's friends had
held out to him no allurements. u I hope so ! " on his part, and " I
hnow so ! " on mine followed in rapid succession, when he picked up
his handkerchief and walked out of the room. Mr. King was en-
titled to credit for his government of a naturally warm temper. We
saw no more of him that evening nor did he come to the breakfast
table in the morning, but at night following he pressed me to ac-
company him to a party given by the French Minister, which I did.
On our way he said what was proper in regard to the unpleasant
occurrence of the day before, and at the party he shamed my un-
proinpt gallantry by dropping on his knee, in my presence, to retie
her loosened shoe-string for a very interesting young lady — the grand
daughter of Mr. Jefferson and my warm friend — a duty that his
greater age should have devolved upon me.

How Gov. Yates' mind had reached a conclusion so unexpected
by all of us I never ascertained, fte lost a renomination and before
I left Washington I had the mortification to see his proclamation
calling an extra session of the Legislature in August to reconsider
the subject of the Electoral law.1 This served to increase the agita-
tion in the public mind caused by Mr. Clinton's removal but gave
us little farther trouble, our majority not having then been disturbed
as it was afterwards by the tornado of Mr. Clinton's election. I
wrote a communication for the Argus to shew the impropriety of the
call, and our friends in the Legislature, on the motion of Mr.2 Flagg,
resolved that nothing had arisen in the Recess to justify the call under
the Constitution and adjourned.

1 In April, 1824, in caucus Yates received only 45 votes and Young CO. The un-
popularity of Yates was said to have been due to his opposition to an electoral law.
Hammond writes* (II. 16G) : " He pursuaded himself that the party in favor of that
measure, which he knew was composed as well of the Clintonians as the people's men,
were so much divided in opinion about the selection of a gubernatorial candidate,
that if he were to place himself in an attitude which would enable them with any
decent regard to consistency to support him as their candidate, in all probability they
would do so; or If In this view of the case he was mistaken — if he was to come out
publicly In favor of the measure which had recently excited so much attention — it would
create such confusion in the ranks of the supporters of Col. Young, as would, in all
probability, defeat a rival for whom it cannot be supposed he entertained much affection.
It must have been under some such Impressions, that, contrary to the expectations, and
to the surprise of all parties, on the 2nd day of June he issued a proclamation requir-
ing an extra session of the legislature on the 2nd day of August." — W. C. F.

'Azariah C. Flagg.

148 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Gov. Yates9 future political prospects were by this act totally de-
stroyed. Col. Young, who obtained the nomination for Governor on
our side, not aware of Mr. Clay's want of strength with the rank
and file of the party in the state, allowed himself, in an evil hour,
to be persuaded to come out with a Card substantially avowing his
preference for that gentleman's elevation to the Presidency. This
disgusted the Republicans by thousands and I had great difficulty
to prevent a meeting at the Capitol to renounce his nomination.

These antecedent weaknesses and disastrous results were relieved
by a single amusing feature, and that was the very characteristic
tho' somewhat irreverent reply of Gov. Yates to his relative, John
Van Ness Yates, then Secretary of State, who, designing to console
him in his adversity, said to him, "Well, after all, Governor, one
thing is true of you that cannot be said of any of your Predecessors.
You are the only Governor who came in unanimously !" "Yes, John,
by G — ," was the reply, u and, it may be added, who went out unani-
mously!"

CHAPTER XIII.

I left Albany for Washington as completely broken down a poli-
tician as my bitterest enemies could desire. On board of the small
steamer that took us to the larger one that waited for her passengers
below the overslaugh it was my luck to meet Mrs. Clinton (the Gov-
ernor's wife) and her brother James Jones, The latter said to me
whilst we were ° seated at the breakfast table, "Now is the time
admirably fitted for a settlement of all difficulties between Mr. Clin-
ton and yourself." I thanked him for his friendly suggestion — the
sincerity of which I did not in the least doubt — but replied that my
fortunes were at too low an ebb to be made the subject of a compro-
mise, and that when they improved a little I would remember his
generous offer.

I stopped^at New York only long enough to pay the bets I had lost
on the State election and then went on for the first time without Mr:
King. I was dissatisfied with his course in the election, with which I
had no right to meddle ; but, as I was not in a mood to form a very
correct estimate of my rights in that regard, I indulged my feelings.
1 found at New York the good old Patroon Van Kenssalaer, who with
the Dutch pertinacity and fidelity saw in my distressed political for-
tunes a reason for sticking to me and insisted on our journeying
together. At Philadelphia we were overtaken by Mr. King who said,
in his peculiar way, that he had been enquired of by his servant
William "why it was that Mr. Van Buren had for the first time
passed on without calling," and that the only answer he could make
to William's natural question was that he knew of no reason and did
not believe that a good one existed. I muttered some civil explana-
tion that explained nothing and when we reached Washington Messrs.
Van Kensselaer, Mctane, Cuthbert1 and myself took a furnished
house and Mr. King joined a mess at the Hotel; our accustomed
social relations were, however, in most other respects, maintained.

The Presidential canvass in the House of Representatives soon
commenced and was carried on to its close with intense feeling and
interest. I obtained a meeting of the friends of Crawford in the
New York delegation and proposed to them in a few remarks that
we should abstain to the end from taking a part in favor of either
of the three gentlemen returned to the House — Jackson, Adams or

" MS. II, p. 10.

» Stephen Van Rensselaer of New York, Louis McLane of Maryland, and Alfred
Cuthbert of Georgia.

149

150 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Clay [Crawford]. I assured them that there was no danger that an
election would not be made by others and that if the friends of Mr.
Crawford stood aloof from the intrigues which such a . contest
would produce unavoidably they would form a nucleus around which
the qld Kepublicans of the Union might rally if the new Administra-
tion did not act upon their principles as we apprehended would be
the case. They resolved with perfect unanimity to pursue that
course, and I do not believe that a single individual of our number
ever thought of departing from it: certainly not one did so depart.
Judge Hammond was therefore misinformed in regard to their in-
tention to vote in any event for Mr. Adams.1

On one occasion Francis Johnson, of Kentucky, a prominent sup-
porter of Mr. Clay, called, by appointment, upon Mr. McLane and
myself, and in a long conversation endeavoured to prevail upon us to
unite with the friends of Mr. Clay in making Mr. Adams President.
Finding us unyielding, and standing with his hand on the door he
said that with our aid that result could be easily realized and that he
was not absolutely certain but thought that they could accomplish
it without our assistance. I stepped to the door and said " I think
that very possible, but, Mr. Johnson, I beg you to remember what
I now say to you — if you do so you sign Mr. Clay's political death
warrant. He will never become President be your motives as pure
as you claim them to be." He was a light hearted man and not apt
to take anything gravely, but replied with a sensibility unusual to
him that I might be right, but yet that he believed they would do
it and trust to the purity of their intentions for their justification.
The friends of Crawford lacked but one of being half of the New,
York delegation, so that the diversion of a single vote from Mr.
Adams would produce a tie. Gen. Van Rensselaer was, through
his first wife, a brother-in-law to Gen. Hamilton, and had, at an
early age, imbibed his dislike to the Adamses. He at no time en-
tertained the idea of voting for Mr. Adams and communicated his
views to me at an early period and without reserve. On the morning
of the Election he came to my room and told me he had some thought
of voting for Gen. Jackson, and asked me whether it would make any
difference in the general result, adding that as he had uniformly told
me that he intended to vote for Crawford he did not think it proper
to change his determination without letting me know it. I told him
that as his vote could not benefit Mr. Crawford it was of no im-
portance to us whether it was given to him or to Gen. Jackson, but
submitted whether, as his intention was known to others as well as
myself, there was an adequate motive for subjecting himself to the
imputation of fickleness of purpose by a change which would pro-

i Hammond, Political History of New York,. II, 177.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 161

duce no beneficial result to any one. He reflected a moment and
then said I was right and that he would adhere to Crawford. When
he arrived at the Capitol Messrs. Clay and Webster had an animated
conversation with him in the Speaker's room. The first intimation
I had of the hesitation they produced in his mind was a message
from Mr. McLane, through Mr. Archer,1 that Mr. Van Rensselaer had
been staggered by the representations of those gentlemen, accom-
panied by a request that I would come to the House and talk to him.
I refused to do so on the ground that I had no right to interfere with
his action in that way ; the communications that had passed between
him and myself having all been voluntary on his part and the great
disparity in our ages rendering any attempt to influence him at such
a moment indelicate and inadmissible. Mr. Archer fully concurred
in these views, but in a few minutes returned with a request of the
same character, and from the same source, of increased urgency. I
consented to go into the House, and if Mr. Van Rensselaer, of his own
accord, addressed me upon the subject to do what I could to dissuade
him from the course it was feared he would take.

As I entered the Chamber Mr. Cuthbert met me and said that it
was not necessary that I should do anything in the matter, as Mr.
Van Rensselaer had that moment assured him that he certainly
would not vote for Mr. Adams on the first ballot. I remained to
see the voting which took place presently afterwards, and was pained
to witness Mr. Van Rensselaer's obvious agitation and distress.
When the votes of the New York delegation were counted it was
found that Mr. Adams had a majority of one. The vote of the state
was of course given to him and he was elected. Mr. Van Rensselaer
at once admitted that he had voted for Mr. Adams and thus changed
the anticipated result. The excitement was of course very great,
and I hurried to our lodgings to prevent a breach between him and
Mr. McLane. I found the General and Cuthbert sitting at opposite
ends of the sofa, both much excited tho' not a word had passed be-
tween them. As I entered the former said "Well, Mr. Van Buren,
you saw that I could not hold out ! " I replied that I had no doubt
he had done what he conscientiously believed to be right, that was
enough and I hoped the subject would now be dismissed from our
minds. I then went to Mr. McLane's room and found him still more
stirred up and it required the greatest effort on my part and
a plenary exercise of Gen. Van Rensselaer's amiability to prevent
a breaking up of our Mess.

Gen. James Hamilton, of South Carolina, had enquired of me in
the morning what would be the result of the vote of our state and
I assured him as I was fully authorized to do, that it would be a

* WUlSam S, Archer, of Virginia.

152 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

tie. It had be$n ascertained that one of the Maryland delegation
would, on the second ballot, vote for Gen. Jackson, and would con-
tinue to do so. This would cause Mr. Adams' vote to fall short two
of the number required by the Constitution, and it was confidently
calculated that rather than submit to a failure to make an election,
a sufficient? number of his supporters would feel themselves con-
strained to go for Gen. Jackson, who had received a large plurality
of the popular vote. This calculation was broken and every hope
dissipated by Gen. Van Rensselaer's sudden and unforeseen change.
The excitement caused by it was therefore not surprising.

I had asked no explanations of the General nor did I intend to
do so, as I was satisfied he could not give any that it would be
agreeable to him to make. But an evening or two after the election,
whilst on our way to visit Mrs. Decatur,1 he volunteered an expla-
nation which he did not make confidential but of which I did not
speak until a long time afterwards, and, to the best of my recollec-
tion, for the first time to Mr. Clay. He said that after what had
pa^ed between us he felt it to be due to me that he should explain
the change in his vote which I had so little reason to expect. He
then proceeded to inform me that when he arrived at the Capitol
Mr. Clay invited him to the Speaker's room where he found Mr.
Webster; that they took the ground that the question of election or
no election would depend upon his vote : that they portrayed to him
the consequences that would in all probability result from a disor-
ganization of the Government, and referred in very impressive
terms to the great stake he had in the preservation of order from
his° large estate, and kindred considerations. He said that his mind
was much disturbed by these views which he had not before re-
garded in so serious a light, but that he returned to the Chamber
determined not to vote for Mr. Adams on the first ballot whatever
he might be induced to do ultimately if their anticipations of a
failure to make an election should prove to be well founded. He
took his seat fully resolved to vote for Mr. Crawford, but, before
the box reached him, he dropped his head upon the edge of his desk
and made a brief appeal to his Maker for his guidance in the mat-
ter— a practice he frequently observed on great emergencies — and
when he removed his hand from his eyes he saw on the floor di-
rectly below him a ticket bearing the name of John Quincy Adams.
This occurrence, at a moment of great excitement and anxiety, he
was led to regard as an answer to his appeal, and taking up the
ticket he put it in the box. In this way it was that Mr. Adams
was made President.

1 Mrs. Stephen Decatur. * MS. II, p. 15.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 153

When I spent some days with Mr. Clay at Ashland, upon his invi-
tation in 1842, he rallied me considerably upon the General's vote,
and spoke of the labor it had cost him to correct the heresies I had
sown in his mind. Altho' there was, as I have said, no injunction of
secrecy upon the General's communication and it was not impossible
that he omitted it to enable me to satisfy my friends in regard to
his conduct, I yet felt a delicacy in speaking of it on account of its
peculiar character, and therefore submitted in silence to Mr. Clay's
pleasantry. Upon his visit to me in 1849, he happened one evening
to recur to the subject, when I told him that I had on a former
occasion omitted to place that matter before him in its true light
from a feeling of doubt in regard to the effect that a true relation of
the subject might have upon the reputation of a man whom we
both esteemed so highly, but that upon farther reflection I had come
to the conclusion that as it would be only strengthened in the point
upon which his merit was most conspicuous and real, that of sincere
piety and honesty, I felt that there could be no objection to my giv-
ing him the General's explanation of his vote in his own words, to
which he listened with great interest.

I joined the immense throng at Mr. Adams' house on the day of
the Inauguration and after paying my respects to him passed on to
the White House to take leave of the retiring President. I found
Mr. Monroe literally alone, and was as usual kindly received. I re-
mained an hour without being joined by a single individual, when I
parted from him for the last time. Owing to an early and some-
what excited difference in opinion upon what I could not but regard
as an unfortunate point in his administration, our relations had
never been confidential. I nevertheless always respected and es-
teemed him. Although not possessed of remarkable talents, he passed
through an almost unequalled number of responsible public employ-
ments without leaving a stain upon his character.

Near the close of this session I was pained to witness once more
the extent to which advancing years had impaired the power of self-
control for which my worthy colleague had been much distinguished.
This exhibition was the more distressing on account of the place
where it occurred. The Society of Shakers, residents of my native
county, sent to me their petition to Congress praying to be allowed"
exemption from military services and from other duties which con-
flicted with their religious faith. I presented the Petition with
a brief reference to the characters of the petitioners and moved that
it should be referred to the Committee on the Militia. Mr. King im-
mediately rose, made for him, a very violent attack on the appli-
cants, as a band of fanatics, and ended by a motion to lay the
Petition on the table, adding that it would be but justly treated were
it thrown under the table.

154 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

There was something so extraordinary, so unexpected and to all
present so amazing in his concluding remarks, as they related to
myself, that they failed to disturb my own temper. I was thus
enabled to describe very calmly, in reply, the true character and
condition of the petitioners, — concurring in the condemnation by
my colleague of their religious views, but giving them credit for
their charities, their sobriety and their industry, — claiming for them
the common right to petition Congress for a redress of grievances
even tho' they were not real, — stating what I considered due to my-
self in the matter, and concluding with a declaration of my inten-
tion, for reasons which the Senate would not fail to appreciate, to
postpone all comments upon the treatment which the petitioners had
received from my colleague until it should appear that he persisted
in his opposition to my motion in the spirit which had been exhibited.
The Senate was evidently relieved by the direction thus given to the
subject, and after a moment's pause, without farther remarks from
any quarter, met the motion to commit by an emphatic aye without
a single negative vote.

The occurrence produced a suspension of personal intercourse be-
tween us, but Mr. King's good sense and correct feeling soon put an
end to it. Within a day of two thereafter he approached me at the
adjournment of the Senate and proposed to take a seat in my car-
riage. On our way from the Capitol he expressed his great regret
on account of the occurrence which I have described, — his strong
feelings against the Shakers having caused him to overlook what
was due to myself. He apprised me of his intention to leave Wash-
ington in a day or two, never again to resume his seat in the Senate,
and said that he would embrace that opportunity to make his ac-
knowledgments for the respect and kindness with which I had treated
him.. He regarded it as a remarkable circumstance that we should
have passed as opponents thro' so exciting a Presidential canvass as
that which had just closed without more incidents to disturb our
feelings and to threaten our friendship than the few which had un-
happily arisen, and that he owed it to me to say, before we parted,
how sensible he was that we were in a very great degree indebted
for that exemption to my amiable disposition and self command;
and he concluded by pressing me earnestly to pay him a visit on my
return home after the adjournment.

I need not speak of the extent to which my feelings were allayed
by this seasonable and kind explanation. I visited him on my re-
turn and was received with his usual cordiality. He said that some
of his friends had told him that I would not keep my promise to
come to him, but that he understood me better than they did, to
which I might have added that there were not a few of mine who

AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF MARTItf VAN BUREN. 155

censured me for doing so. Some time afterwards I received a letter
from Mr. King informing me of his acceptance of the Mission to
England, tendered to him by Mr. Adams. I assured him in reply
of my gratification that he had found himself in a situation to
accept a place so honorable and for the duties of which he was so
well qualified, and wished him very sincerely a successful mission
and safe return. His health, however, soon failed and in about a
year he came home an invalid. I called at his home in the city,
and he directed that I should be admitted, but his old servant William
informed me that he was very ill and suggested the propriety of
deferring my visit for a day or two, in which I acquiesced. He grew
. rapidly worse and shortly after died, and I was thus prevented from
seeing him again.

Mr. King's career as a public man, tho' it failed to fulfill the expec-
tations which were justified by its early promise, was highly distin-
guished. He was appointed a Senator in Congress by the state of
Massachusetts as early as 178-, and also a delegate to represent that
State in the Convention which framed the present Constitution of
the United States, was made Minister to England by Gen. Washing-
ton in 1796, and represented the country at that court until the acces-
sion of Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency, when he requested his recall,
was twice elected to the U. S. Senate by the state of New York, to
which he had removed, and was actually one of its representatives in
that body when he was nominated by Mr. Adams and appointed to
the English Mission. In politics he was from first to last a federalist
of the Hamilton school. The only material difference between him
and his old associates arose from a diversity of sentiment not upon
any general principle but in regard to the extent to which upon a
particular occasion and a special question ° their country required an
intermission of party. He understood too well the working of the
public mind not to know that, after the sacking of the Capitol by the
enemy, the War, whatever might have been its previous character,
must become national, and that those who failed to support it would
fall under the ban of popular opinion. Viewing the matter in this
light and moved also by a genuine partriotic impulse he dissented
from the course pursued by his party in that crisis, arrayed himself
on the side of his country and zealously sustained the Government.
This gave him a position in the public estimation which was denied
to the mass of his former associates and contributed largely to his
re-election to the Senate. A man of sound sense and good taste,
having through the greater part of his life associated with eminent
men, as well in Europe as in his own Country, he had acquired a

thorough knowledge of what belonged to the proprieties of every

•^ — — ^ »^ i^— — .» .^— ^— ■ — ~— — — ~-^— — ■ ^^— ■ ■ ■ .■

* MS. II, p. 20.

156 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

situation in which he was placed, and possessing withal a natural
dignify of manner was well fitted to adorn high public stations. Mr.
Jefferson, comparing him intellectually with others, spoke of Mr.
King as a " plausible man." Although I did not consider his mind
remarkable either for vigor or comprehensiveness, it yet struck me
that this remark did not do justice to it. Plausible he certainly was,
but he was also always impressive, at times eloquent and forcible.
He generally selected one or two of the principal points presented
by any subject under discussion, and applying to their elucidation all
the power of his mind, seldom failed to do them ample justice. He
never attempted what Hamilton scarcely ever omitted to do-^to fol-
low the subject into all its legitimate bearings and bringing into view
the collateral issues which sprung out of it and were logically entitled
to influence its solution, to bend the whole matter to a great point
most favorable to his argument, — a practice that caused Callender to
say of him that " he beat his guinea into an acre of gold leaf." If Mr.
King had attempted this I think he would have failed.

l. j

CHAPTER XIV.

Although far advanced in Federal politics I must not lose sight
of those of my own state. I will therefore, before I touch upon the
course of the Adams Administration, notice the most interesting por-
tions of her political history anterior to the very sudden and la-
mented death of Gov. Clinton. His prospects were never more
promising than in the early part of the year 1825. His triumphant
election as Governor of the largest state in the Union by the greatest
majority she had ever given to any candidate, produced by a wide
spread conviction in the public mind that he had suffered great in-
justice, required only ordinary tact and discretion on his part to en-
sure a continuing prosperity. The Erie Canal — the success of which
was his richest source of strength in the state — was completed this
season, and in the month of November a few days previous to the
state election, the mingling of the waters of the Atlantic and of the
Lakes was celebrated through the country lying between them. The
re-election of Mr. Adams was considered, from his well understood
want of popularity, highly improbable $ Mr. Clay, by accepting the
office of Secretary of State, had for the time put himself out of the
line of competitors for the Presidency ; Mr. Crawford had been with-
drawn from public life by indisposition; the sanguine efforts in
behalf of Mr. Calhoun had proved signally abortive, and the lead-
ing politicians inclined to the opinion that Gen. Jackson's strength
could not stand the test of a four years exposure to the public scrutiny.
Under such favoring circumstances it was not surprising that Mr.
Clinton and his friends should have regarded his chances for the
Presidency as better than those of any other aspirant, yet strange as
it may seem, it is nevertheless true that the popular impulse in his
favor recently so strong was at the time of his great Canal celebra-
tion already subsiding, and the elaborate demonstrations of joy at
the completion of that work coldly received by the mass of the
People. Having, as they considered, justly rebuked the violence of
his opponents, they seemed disposed to leave his future fortunes to
his own management and to the course of events.

I did not accompany the Cortege from Buffalo to New York, but
joined in the procession at Albany and attended the public dinner
given on the occasion. My companion, in the former ceremonial,
was J. W. Taylor, who was a few weeks afterwards chosen Speaker
of the House of Representatives. Satisfied by my own observation

157

158 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

•

and by the accounts I had received from different parts of the state
that the injurious effects upon the harmony and efficiency of our
own party by the combined agitation of Mr. Clinton's removal and
the Electoral question had substantially spent themselves, I replied
to Taylor's observations in regard to the imposing character of Mr.
Clinton's position by pronouncing a very confident opinion that we
should defeat him in the elections for the legislature to be held
within a few days. He expressed his surprise at my delusion and
repeated the conversation to Gen. Van Rensselaer. The latter in-
formed me that he had told the Governor what I had said to Taylor,
who had assured him that there was but one senatorial district in
the state in which we stood the slightest chance, and that the ma-
jority against us in the House of Assembly would be overwhelming.
Gen. Van Rensselaer was evidently distressed by my confidence in
a different result for tho' perhaps liking me personally quite as well
as he liked the Governor, he was on political grounds desirous that
the latter should be sustained.

We elected three of the eight Senators, and a decided majority
in the House of Assembly. Although in this election the Demo-
cratic party acted in undisguised opposition to Gov. Clinton it is an
undoubted fact that their prejudices against him had then already
considerably abated. Their distaste for Mr. Adams — a strong and
I believe well founded belief that the Governor sympathized in that
feeling — and the fact that many of the leading friends of Mr. Adams
in the state and a large proportion of the members elected to the
Legislature on the same ticket with Mr. Clinton at the election of
1824, were as hostile to him as they were to us, contributed to that
change. Informal conferences took place at Albany, during the
session of the Legislature of 1825-6, between prominent democrats
and some of the friends of the Governor with a view to bring this
feeling to practical results. The Governor nominated his connexion
by marriage, Samuel Jones, always before a zealous Federalist, to
the office of Chancellor, and the Senate, in which our friends were
1 largely in the majority confirmed the nomination promptly and
unanimously. It was expected that he would give an indication that
lie reciprocated the feelings of returning good will which had been,
in various ways, manifested, and the nomination of Mr. Redfield1
for the office of Circuit Judge was looked to as the proof of such dis-
position. He was believed to be personally favorable to this meas-
ure, but there was a lion in his path. Although he had obtained his
election by temporary secessions from the democratic ranks the great
body of his supporters was composed of the remains of the old fed-
eral party and they never could be taught the wisdom or expediency
. ■ ■ i. i . « i

1 Reman J. Redfield.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BTTBEK. 159

of foregoing the full enjoyment of present power with a view to fu-
ture advantages. He disappointed the wishes of our side, but se-
lected a democratic adherent the least obnoxious to us.

The sayings and doings of this winter, altho' they ameliorated
the prejudices against Mr. Clinton in the Democratic ranks, and
excited friendly feelings in the breasts of many which did not
altogether subside during the brief remainder of his life, yet car-
ried conviction to the democratic mind, on the whole, that he had
become so connected with the federalists by the support he had
received from them, by social intercourse and latterly by family
ties — all cemented by a common antipathy against the ascendency
of Southern principles in our National Councils, as to render his
support by us impossible without our0 consent to an amalgamation
of parties in the state — which was deemed neither possible nor de-
sirable. I had a long and friendly conversation, neither private
nor confidential, with Gov. Clinton, on my way to Washington, at
the house of a mutual friend, to which we were both invited, and
returned in the Spring with a sincere desire that he should be re-
elected without opposition. My views were confined to that single
object. I had long been thoroughly convinced that his entangle-
ments with the federalists would always present an insuperable ob-
stacle to anything like the re-establishment of old political rela-
tions between him and the democratic party. As an individual I
was influenced by feelings of personal kindness and not a little
by a consciousness of the unintentional injustice I had done him in
the matter of the appointment of Attorney General ; as a member
of the democratic party I felt that his re-election without a contest
would be a compliment that would go far to efface the severity of
their treatment of him in his removal from the Canal Board, and I
saw no adequate motive and some embarrassment in a contest for
Governor in the then state of National politics. I have heretofore
mentioned Dr. Cooper,1 then President of Columbia College in
South Carolina. He was son-in-law of the celebrated Dr. Priestly,2
and himself in many respects a remarkable man. Mr. Jefferson
expressed his regrets to me that they could not avail themselves of
his services as President of the University of Virginia, on account
of objections that were raised by many of the Trustees to his re-
ligious views, as he thought him by far the fittest man he knew of
for the place. The active, probably violent part he took in politics

during the administration of John Adams subjected him to indict-
ment and trial under the sedition act, and he was on conviction
sentenced to suffer imprisonment and to pay a fine of, I believe,

• MS. IT, p. 25. « Thomas Cooper. » Joseph Priestly.

160 AMERICAN HISTORICAL. ASSOCIATION.

four hundred dollars. The imprisonment he endured, and I intro-
duced and supported a Bill to refund to him tha amount of the
fine — which has, I believe, been since refunded. This induced him
to write me several friendly letters, continued to a period when, as
he expressed it, he had not, in Quaker phrase, " freedom " to vote for
me for President however much he esteemed me personally. One
of these letters was written during the administration of John
Quincy Adams, on the subject of the candidate to be brought for-
ward against him. He expressed great respect and much good
will towards Mr. Clinton and could see but one objection to him,
and that was an apprehension, expressed in his usual strong style,
that Mr. C. would be too much under the influence of the clergy — an
apprehension founded upon an address then recently delivered by
him before the Bible. Society. Coming up the river in the same
boat with Mr. Clinton shortly after its receipt, I informed him that
I had a letter from the Doctor in which he was particularly men-
tioned in connection with the Presidency, but that as he might not
be pleased with its contents I would not offer to shew it to him — but
would do so if he desired it. He was well acquainted with the Doc-
tor's character and I handed him the letter at his request. He col-
oured as he read it, but smiled and said that there was no ground
for the apprehension.

Doctor Cooper came north the same summer and brought me a
letter of introduction from Thomas Addis Emmett. I invited Mr.
Clinton to meet him at dinner, and the latter was much pleased with
the originality and invariable force of the Doctor's observations.

Mr. Clinton was, in a little more than a year afterwards, forever
removed from the political stage by the hand of death, and the Demo-
crats of South Carolina took early ground in favor of Gen. Jackson.
To this Dr. Cooper was earnestly opposed insisting that it would be
far better in them to go for the re-election of Mr. Adams and giving
reasons for his opinion which were characteristic of the man. These
were that if they intended to carry their opposition to a protective
tariff to the extent contemplated by them, as to which as a nullifier
he trusted that there would be no flinching, Gen. Jackson was the last
man they should think of for the Presidency because he would be
very apt to hang them, whilst they might hope to intimidate Mr.
Adams.

Having reason to apprehend that the impression thatj there might
be no opposition to the re-election of Gov. Clinton was causing con-
siderable uneasiness among our political friends I made diligent
enquiries in regard to their dispositions and to that end visited sev-
eral parts of the state. The result was an entire conviction that any
attempt to prevent a counter-nomination would produce serious dis-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTTREN.' 161

cord in oar own ranks and ought not therefore to be made. A consid-
erable number of our delegates on their way to the Herkimer conven-
tion met together at my house. Among them were Silas Wright and
Perley Keyes, two of the most influential leaders of the party. Find-
ing after the lapse of some time, that no one introduced the subject
of their Convention about to be held, and understanding the cause of
their reserve, I introduced it myself by observing that it was an
extraordinary circumstance that we should have been so long to-
gether without a word being said in regard to the business they had
been appointed to perform. The ice being thus broken Mr. Keyes
expressed a desire to hear my views upon the subject. These were
given without reserve. Commencing with an admission that I would
myself have preferred acquiescence in the re-election of Gov. Clinton
and the reasons for that preference, I proceeded to inform them of
the enquiries I had made and the result of them, which was that I
was satisfied that a nomination could not be omitted without seri-
ously distracting our party and that I could not urge that course in
view of such a consequence. They were relieved and gratified by this
explanation, assuring me that there was great unanimity among our
friends in favor of a nomination, that they had heard with regret
that I was averse to it, and one of the delegation told me that the
meeting at which he was appointed had gone 90 far as to advise him
and his colleagues to nominate one of themselves, if they could get no
other candidate.

On being asked whom they had thought of as a candidate they
without a dissenting voice named Gen. William Paulding of West-
chester. I expressed the greatest respect for Gen. Paulding saying
that I would with pleasure make him Governor if it was in my
power to do so, but that there were, in my judgment, strong objec-
tions to his nomination. The place of his residence and his well
known participation in the feelings of his neighbors, adverse to
the construction of the Erie Canal, would alone make his selection
inexpedient. But there was another and strange as it might seem
to them a still more formidable objection. I alluded to the report
already extensively circulated that the General was the subject of
a singular monomania in regard to his physical condition— one well
adapted to be made the subject of ridicule. Knowing Mr. Clinton's
proclivity to that species of assault, and having on several occa-
sions witnessed his ability to make it effectual, L feared that he would
turn this report into a weapon for that purpose and whether true or
false that it would be in his hands very damaging against one who
was from other causes a weak candidate. These remarks naturally
led to a call upon me to name a candidate more likely to be success-
full. I replied that since I had changed my views in regard to a

127483°— vol 2—20 11

162 * AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

nomination I had reflected much upon that question as one likely to
involve our future success. as a party and that I had come to a con-
clusion to which I was quite sure they would not upon first impres-
sions agree, but I desired that they would hear me patiently and
then do as they thought best I confessed that in making my se-
lection I had looked beyond the election of a Governor, and had
been materially influenced by a deep sense of the disastrous conse-
quences that would follow anything like a signal defeat in the pres-
ent condition of National politics and so near a Presidential election
in which I hoped to see the democracy of New York act an impor-
tant part. °I said that I had never known an occasion on which I
was so willing as at present to make sacrifices to availability, or one
on which that point was entitled to so much consideration ; — that it
should be remembered that we had been overwhelmed at the previous
election of Governor by a union between the friends of Clinton,
Adams and Clay, for although our candidate Col. Young, had on the
eve of the election declared for Mr. Clay and had received the votes
of a few of his supporters, most of them had acted upon the prin-
ciple which on such occasions usually controls the action of minor
factions, that of striking at the strongest, and had voted for Clin-
ton to put down Crawford; — that a similar union between the
friends of Adams, Clay, Jackson and Calhoun had broken us down
in the Presidential election ; — that Mr. Adams had offered Mr. Clin-
ton the first seat in his Cabinet, which upon his declension was given
to Mr. Clay, and that there was, at the moment when I spoke, ap-
parently, a more cordial union between the friends of Clinton,
Adams and Clay than existed in 1824, and, if we so acted as to com-
pel them to go together, that something like the same result might be
produced. It was well understood that we intended to support Gen.
Jackson, and I urged that if we nominated a candidate who was
avowedly in his favor we would present to those three political in-
terests the same inducements they had in 1824 to coalesce, but that
having good reasons to believe that the apparent union between the
friends of Clinton on the one hand, and those of Adams and Clay,
now identified, on the other, was a hollow one, if we nominated a
candidate whom the latter would regard as their friend, and would
therefore favour or be only suspected of favoring by his election,
we would drive a wedge into that union that would sever it forever.
I then named William B. Rochester as the man whose nomination
would produce that result. His father had been a partner in business
with the father [-in-law] of Mr. Clay, and he was at that moment on
his return from a Mission which had been conferred on him through
Mr. Clay's influence. He was also, as I remarked, eligibly situated

• MS. II, p. 30.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUKBX. 168

in regard to the Canal, had so conducted himself as to avoid creat-
ing strong prejudices on the part of our friends, and altho' we might
have some trouble with him if elected we should probably succeed
in electing reliable men to all the other Departments of the Govern-
ment and in that event would be able to prevent him from doing
much injury to our cause. I believed him honest and had obtained
a small appointment for him from the General Government, and
was personally very partial to him although I did not suppose that
I could influence him against the wishes of Mr. Clay.

My exposition made a favorable impression upon the majority
of my auditors, but Wright and Keyes remained immovable.1 They
would consent to take Rochester for Lieutenant Governor, but his
nomination for Governor, all other considerations apart, would be
such a surprise upon the public that it would for that reason fail.
They held to the old rule of a regular progression, and could not
believe in the policy of starting a new man for so important a place.
The objection had no weight with me but they persisted in it
I called those gentlemen back after the others left, and begged them
to think the matter over again on their way to Herkimer and to sac-
rifice their prejudices against Mr. Clay, which I knew lay at the
bottom of their opposition, to the demands of the crisis.

William L. Marcy, then Adjutant General of the State, having
official business with Gov. Clinton on the following day was asked
what his friends would do at Herkimer, and on his replying that
they would probably make a nomination, the Governor exclaimed,
in a lively tone, "Gen. Paulding, I suppose !" On being informed
that it might be Rochester, Marcy told me that he sobered down
and became thoughtful to a degree that embarrassed the latter and
induced him to propose to postpone their business, to which the
Governor readily assented. Although not apt to place a very
high estimate upon the influence of his opponents, Gov. Clinton
saw at a glance the direction in which such a nomination would
point and the danger that would flow from it Keyes and Wright
acknowledged to me afterwards that they saw the matter in the
same light before they got to Herkimer and used their influence upon
their arrival to secure the nomination of Rochester which was
made. The matter worked as we anticipated. The nomination
was reputed to have been made through the influence of the National
Administration, and that report received no contradiction from
Washington. The frail cord that united the latter with the Clinton-
ians was snapped, and could never have been reunited if Mr. Clinton
had lived. For many days after the election, Rochester was sup-
posed to have succeeded, and Gov. Clinton was finally found to

1 Sllaa Wright, Jr., and Perley Keyes.

158 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

•

and by the accounts I had received from different parts of the state
that the injurious effects upon the harmony and efficiency of our
own party by the combined agitation of Mr. Clinton's removal and
the Electoral question had substantially spent themselves, I replied
to Taylor's observations in regard to the imposing character of Mr.
Clinton's position by pronouncing a very confident opinion that we
should defeat him in the elections for the legislature to be held
within a few days. He expressed his surprise at my delusion and
repeated the conversation to Gen. Van Rensselaer. The latter in-
formed me that he had told the Governor what I had said to Taylor,
who had assured him that there was but one senatorial district in
the state in which we stood the slightest chance, and that the ma-
jority against us in the House of Assembly would be overwhelming.
Gen. Van Rensselaer was evidently distressed by my confidence in
a different result for tho' perhaps liking me personally quite as well
as he liked the Governor, he was on political grounds desirous that
the latter should be sustained.

We elected three of the eight Senators, and a decided majority
in the House of Assembly. Although in this election the Demo-
cratic party acted in undisguised opposition to Gov. Clinton it is an
undoubted fact that their prejudices against him had then already
considerably abated. Their distaste for Mr. Adams — a strong and
I believe well founded belief that the Governor sympathized in that
feeling — and the fact that many of the leading friends of Mr. Adams
in the state and a large proportion of the members elected to the
Legislature on the same ticket with Mr. Clinton at the election of
1824, were as hostile to him as they were to us, contributed to that
change. Informal conferences took place at Albany, during the
session of the Legislature of 1825-6, between prominent democrats
and some of the friends of the Governor with a view to bring this
feeling to practical results. The Governor nominated his connexion
by marriage, Samuel Jones, always before a zealous Federalist, to
the office of Chancellor, and the Senate, in which our friends were
1 largely in the majority confirmed the nomination promptly and
unanimously. It was expected that he would give an indication that
he reciprocated the feelings of returning good will which had been,
in various ways, manifested, and the nomination of Mr. Rcdfield1
for the office of Circuit Judge was looked to as the proof of such dis-
position. He was believed to be personally favorable to this meas-
ure, but there was a lion in his path. Although he had obtained his
election by temporary secessions from the democratic ranks the great
body of his supporters was composed of the remains of the old fed-
eral party and they never could be taught the wisdom or expediency
. — - — ■ ■ >

1 ncman J. Red field.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YAK BUREN. 159

of foregoing the full enjoyment of present power with a view to fu-
ture advantages. He disappointed the wishes of our side, but se-
lected a democratic adherent the least obnoxious to us.

The sayings and doings of this winter, altho' they ameliorated
the prejudices against Mr. Clinton in the Democratic ranks, and
excited friendly feelings in the breasts of many which did not
altogether subside during the brief remainder of his life, yet car-
ried conviction to the democratic mind, on the whole, that he had
become so connected with the federalists by the support he had
received from them, by social intercourse and latterly by family
ties — all cemented by a common antipathy against the ascendency
of Southern principles in our National Councils, as to render his
support by us impossible without our° consent to an amalgamation
of parties in the state — which was deemed neither possible nor de-
sirable. I had a long and friendly conversation, neither private
nor confidential, with Gov. Clinton, on my way to Washington, at
the house of a mutual friend, to which we were both invited, and
returned in the Spring with a sincere desire that he should be re-
elected without opposition. My views were confined to that single
object. I had long been thoroughly convinced that his entangle-
ments with the federalists would always present an insuperable ob-
stacle to anything like the re-establishment of old political rela-
tions between him and the democratic party. As an individual I
was influenced by feelings of personal kindness and not a little
by a consciousness of the unintentional injustice I had done him in
the matter of the appointment of Attorney General; as a member
of the democratic party I felt that his re-election without a contest
would be a compliment that would go far to efface the severity of
their treatment of him in his removal from the Canal Board, and I
saw no adequate motive and some embarrassment in a contest for
Governor in the then state of National politics. I have heretofore
mentioned Dr. Cooper,1 then President of Columbia College in
South Carolina. He was son-in-law of the celebrated Dr. Priestly,2
and himself in many respects a remarkable man. Mr. Jefferson
expressed his regrets to me that they could not avail themselves of
his services as President of the University of Virginia, on account
of objections that were raised by many of the Trustees to his re-
ligious views, as he thought him by far the fittest man he knew of
for the place. The active, probably violent part he took in politics

during the administration of John Adams subjected him to indict-
ment and trial under the sedition act, and he was on conviction
sentenced to suffer imprisonment and to pay a fine of, I believe,

• MS. IT, p. 25. * Thomas Cooper. ■ Joseph Trfestly.

166 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

§

The public mind at Washington was deeply agitated by the news
of the Governor's sudden death. Political rivalry, so rife at the
moment, was hushed for a season and rooted prejudices displaced
by feelings of sincere regret. The silencing of animosity and the
awakening of charity and sympathy in the human heart in the
presence of death is always a grateful subject of contemplation to
the benevolent mind, and when these effects are produced by the
sudden close of a prominent and influential public life, while yet in
mid career, it is no less matter of satisfaction to the patriot. At a
meeting of the representatives in Congress from the State of New
York, convened for the purpose of expressing their feelings on this
occasion, the following remarks were made by me,1 which I here
insert from a report published at the time.

The honorable Martin Van Buren of the Senate addressed the meeting
nearly in the following words :

Mr. Chairman : We have met to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of
our late Governor and distinguished fellow-citizen, De Witt Clinton. Some
of our brethren have been so kind as to ask me to prepare a suitable expres-
sion of our feelings: and I have, in pursuance of their wishes, drawn up
what has occurred to me, as proper to be said on the occasion. Before I sub-
mit it to the consideration of the meeting, I beg leave to be indulged in a few
brief remarks. I can say nothing of the deceased that is not familiar to you
all. To all he was personally known, and to many of us intimately and
familiarly, from our earliest infancy. The high order of his talents, the untir-
ing zeal and great success with which those talents have, through a series
of years, been devoted to the prosecution of plans of great public utility, are
also known to you aU; and by all I am satisfied duly appreciated. The
subject can derive no additional interest or importance from any eulogy of
mine. AU other considerations out of view, the single fact that the greatest
public improvement of the age in which we live was commenced under the
guidance of his counsels, and splendidly accomplished under his Immediate
auspices, is of itself sufficient to fill the ambition of any man, and to give
glory to any name. But, as has been Justly said, his life and character and
conduct have become the property of the historian, and there is no reason
to doubt that history will do him justice. The triumph of his talent and pa-
triotism cannot fail to become monuments of high and enduring fame. We
cannot indeed but remember that in our own public career, collisions of opinion
and action, at once extensive, earnest and enduring, have arisen between the
deceased and many of us. For myself, sir, it gives me a deep-felt, though
melancholy, satisfaction, to know, and more so to be conscious that the
deceased also felt and acknowledged, that our political differences have been
wholly free from that most venomous and corroding of all poisons — personal
hatred. But in other respects it is now immaterial what was the character
of those collisions. They have been turned to nothing, and less than nothing,
by the event we deplore, and I doubt not that we will, with one voice and
one heart, yield to his memory the well deserved tribute of our respect of his

1 Oakley's note to Van Buren Feb. 18, 1828, suggesting that the latter take the lead
In the matter Is in the Van Buren Papers in the Library of Congress. The remarks are
from The National Journal, Washington, D. C, Feb. 22, 1828. The meeting was held
In the Capitol, Feb. 19.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 167

name and oar wannest gratitude for his great and signal service. For myself,
fdr, so strong, so sincere and so engrossing is that feeling, that I, who whilst
living never no never envied him anything; now that he has fallen, am
greatly tempted to envy him his grave with its honours.

Of this the most afflicting of all bereavements that has fallen upon his
wretched and despondent family, what shall I say? Nothing — their grief is too
sacred for description — Justice can alone be done to it by those deep and
silent, but agonizing feelings which on their account pervade every bosom.

Mr. Van Buren then submitted the following resolution :

The Delegation from the Sta^te of New York to the Senate and House of
Representatives of the Congress of the United States, having been informed
of the sudden death of De Witt Clinton, late Governor of that State, feel it
due to the occasion, as well as to their own feelings, to unite with the people
they represent, in expressing their deep and sincere sorrow for a dispensation
of Providence which has, in the midst of active usefulness, cut off from the
service of that State, whose proudest ornament he was, a great man, who
has won and richly deserved the reputation of a distinguished public bene-
factor.

Sensibly impressed with respect for the memory of the illustrious dead, they
will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days; and they request
that a copy of these, their proceedings, be communicated to the family of the
deceased, with an assurance of their condolence at the greatest bereavement
that could have befallen them on this side the grave.

After a lapse of more than a quarter of a century and after hav-
ing enjoyed the highest political distinctions known to our system,
I can truly say that I feel upon the subject now as I expressed my-
self then.

Mr. Clinton's political advancement did not realize either the antic-
ipations of his early friends or perhaps his own expectations. But
he left traces upon the times in which he lived which were made
indelible by his connection* with the great Public Work of his pe-
riod— the Erie Canal. In all the relations of private life his con-
duct and character were, if not faultless, certainly without just
reproach. His social habits for a season excited the apprehensions
of his friends and were made the subject of unfavorable censure
by his opponents, but the former were dispelled and the latter refuted
-before he died. His talents are admitted to have been of a high
order and were favorably exhibited in his writings; his speeches
also were carefully and well constructed but delivered in an awk-
ward and unimpressive manner. He never enjoyed extensive popu-
larity with the masses, altho' there can be no doubt of his desire
to acquire it, and the failure of his efforts in that direction has been
variously accounted for. His official communications were filled,
sometimes overloaded, with expositions and recommendations of
measures which he thought calculated to subserve public and ad-
vance private interests. His friends generally attributed his want
of popularity to the stateliness and seeming hauteur of his man-

168 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

ners, but when the limited extent of his personal intercourse with
the People is considered the correctness of this interpretation of re-
sults so diffused may well be doubted.

In this matter of personal popularity the working of the public
mind is often inscrutable. In one respect only doe6 it appear to be
subject to rule, namely in the application of a closer scrutiny by the
People to the motives of public men than to their actions. When
one is presented to them possessed of an ardent temperament who
adopts their cause, as they think, from sympathy and sincerely re-
gards their interests as his own, they return sympathy for sympathy
with equal sincerity and are always ready to place the most favorable
constructions upon his actions and slow to withdraw their confidence
however exceptionable his conduct in many respects may be. But
when a politician fails to make this impression — when they on the
contrary are led to regard him as one who only takes the popular side
of public questions from motives of policy their hearts seem closed
against him, they look upon his wisest measures with distrust, and are
apt to give him up at the first adverse turn in his affairs. The
process by which they arrive at one or the other of these conclusions
is not easily described. Feeling has of course more to do with it
than reason, yet, tho' sometimes wrong, it must be admitted that
they are much oftener right in their discriminations. Jefferson and
Jackson were favorites of the character I have described, and justly
so. Clinton was not. For his conduct in regard to the Erie Canal
he received from the public all the credit to which he was entitled
notwithstanding the unfavorable criticisms that were made as to his
motives — criticisms of which we would not have heard if that great
public service had been rendered by either of the statesmen I have
referred to. A striking illustration of the truth of this view was
furnished by the fact that when he was for the last time a candidate
for popular suffrages he was not as well supported by the people on
the line of the Erie Canal (making allowances for their political
preferences) as his competitor, a young man who had rendered no aid
to that great enterprise deserving to be mentioned in comparison
with his own.

CHAPTER XV.

Circumstances occurred in the summer of this year which from
their1 bearing upon a great public question are deserving of notice.
The annual petition of the manufacturers to Congress for increased
protection, presented at the previous session, resulted in the report
of what was called the ° Woollens' Bill. Having promised to accom-
pany a friend on a visit to the Congressional Cemetery, I was absent
from the Senate when the Bill was reached and rejected by the cast-
ing vote of Vice President Calhoun. My absence was assumed to
have been intentional and was made the ground for the usual news-
paper vituperation, according to which my delinquency was greatly
aggravated by my accompanying Gen. Hamilton and Col. Drayton
to South Carolina at the close of the session. Whilst at Charleston
I received a letter from Comptroller Marcy urging my immediate
return to arrest the use that our opponents were making of the ma-
terials with which I had thus supplied them. Having had some
experience of his propensity to croak% and being withal not ready to
comply with his unreasonable request, I replied that if my standing
at home was not sufficient to protect me against such assaults it was
not worth preserving and that I should not hasten my return for
such a purpose. On my way homewards I learned at West Point
from a reliable authority that the Tariff champion Mallary had in-
formed his friends that it was the intention of the Protectionists to
denounce my course at a State Tariff Convention which was to meet
at Albany within a week or two, and that my old friend the Patroon1
had agreed to preside at the meeting. I immediately determined to
face the assemblage and to speak for myself, but without communi-
cating my intention to a single friend.

To the very able exposition of the system and the persistent
assaults upon its injustice and impolicy by the New York Evening
Post, the country is more indebted for its final overthrow, in this
state at least, than to any other single influence.

On the morning of the Tariff meeting at the Capitol I sent for
my friends Benjamin Knower and Charles E. Dudley, and for the
first time informed them of my intentions and asked them to accom-
pany me. They vehemently remonstrated against the proposed
step and told me that they had been reliably informed of the inten-
tion to pass a vote of censure upon my course in regard to the

" MS. U, p. 40. » Stephen Van EenMelaer.

109

170 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Woollens Bill,1 and that altho' there would be many of my political
friends at the meeting, a very large majority would be enemies who
would, avail themselves of my presence to make the proceeding more
humiliating. I agreed with their opinion as to the meditated as-
sault, but observed that it would not be contained in the Report
of the Committee, as well to save the feelings of my friends at the
Commencement as because the managers would know that Gen. Van
Rensselaer would not make himself a party to such a Report by a
Committee of his appointing, and that as the censure, for these rea-
sons, would doubtless be reserved for a motion to amend, at "the
close of the proceedings, if I could unexpectedly appear before them
after the organization of £he meeting I would take my chance for
what was done afterwards. They still objected, but were of course
willing to go with me, and after ascertaining, by a messenger dis-
patched for that purpose, that the assemblage was organized for its
work we repaired to the Capitol.

My appearance 'occasioned evident surprise. The good Patroon
who presided asked me to take a seat by his side, which I respect-
/fully declined, and chose an eligible position in the crowd. At
the end of every speech the eyes of the assemblage were directed
towards me, but I waited until every one had spoken who desired to
do so, and I then addressed the meeting for nearly two hours. Some
of the speeches previously made contained or insinuated enough to
justify me in regarding myself as accused of delinquency in the
matter of the Woollens Bill and thus to open the whole subject.
I was listened to throughout with silent but respectful attention.
During the whole time my friend Knower sat directly before and
with his eyes fixed upon me, and when I spoke of the injustice
that had been done to me he was so much moved as to attract the
attention of the meeting. He was then extensively engaged in the
purchase of wool, but being a Republican of the old school and
withal a singularly upright man and sincere friend, those fine qual-r
ities had not yet. been affected by the ardent pursuit of money. At
a later period he separated from many of his early friends, myself
among the rest, in consequence of their anti-tariff opinions, but a
short time before his death he addressed me a letter replete with
the sentiments and the spirit of his best days.

At the close of my speech Mr. J. Townsend a son-in-law of Judge
Spencer and a rich manufacturer, expressed a desire to pass a vote of
thanks to me for it, but some of his more sagacious associates, who
did not think as favorably of its probable effect, interfered and over-
ruled him. The meeting dissolved without anything being further

lA bill for the "Alteration of the actff Imposing duties on imports" introduced Jaa
27, 1827, by Rollln C. Mallary, of Vermont, and designed to amend the tariff of 1824.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUREN. 171

said or done, and we moved down State Street from the Capitol
with every indication of exultation on the part of my friends at its
denouement, and of dejection on the other side.

Mr. Knower came to me in the evening and told me that, on his
way home from the Capitol, Mr. Wood, one of his wool buyers
and a sensible man, said to him — ''Mr. Knower 1 that was a very
able speech 1 " " Yes, very able ! " he answered. "Mr. Knower ! "
again said Mr. Wood, after a considerable pause, — " on which side
of the Tariff question was it? " ° "That is the very point I was
thinking about when you first spoke to me, Mr. Wood!" replied
Knower.

I have frequently been told and have always believed that I ren-
dered much service to the cause of truth by that speech, but this
conversation between two intelligent and interested men would
seem to indicate that directness on all points had not been its most
prominent feature.

In the course of my remarks I had referred to the fact, by way
of putting myself in good company, that the Chairman of the
Meeting, my very good friend the JPatroon, had been also absent
from his seat in the House of Representatives when the Woolen's
Bill passed that body. The recollection of this fact, and especially
my reference to it, had made him quite uneasy in a position which,
as I understood, he had promised, even before he left Washington,
to occupy altho' he had not been apprised of thfe intention to assail
me. In the evening, being desirous to see how he had relished
the proceedings, I proposed to Gen. Thomas Pinckney, of South
Carolina, who had called upon me, a visit to the Manor House.
We found Gen. Van Rensselaer in the act of giving Mrs. Van Rens-
selaer an account of the meeting and our arrival created an em-
barrassment, unpleasantly obvious to both of us, that made me
regret that we had interrupted him.

I had sustained the protective policy by my votes and speeches
under instructions of the Legislature, but the more I became ac-
quainted with its true character and with the views of its advocates
the more my repugnance to it became strengthened. Compelled to
regard it is a system equally unwise and illiberal, kept on foot by
politicians to secure the support of a class of men whose selfish
appetite increased by indulgence, I became sincerely solicitous for
its overthrow ; but experience having shewn that it had acquired, by
the plausible pretences upon which it was sustained, a hold upon the
public mind which could only be loosened by degrees and by means
which would not rouse the prejudices of its supporters, I determined
to assail it in that form. Whatever may be thought of the morality

9 MS. II, p. 40.

172 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

of such a conclusion it was to my mind quite clear that an obstinate
error like this/ fostered by positive private gains to a busy few and
promises of individual advantages to large and influential classes
could in no other way be successfully combatted, and I considered it
a case in which the end would justify means so little exceptionable.
President Jackson pursued a similar course, and, as I know, for
similar reasons, in his Maysville Veto.1 The great influence which
that Message exerted in overthrowing the entire system of Internal
Improvement by the Federal Government, altho' it was only directed
against a part, is universally conceded. How much was done to-
wards correcting public sentiment on the subject of high tariffs in our
state by the course I pursued, it is not for me to say. Governor
Marcy, who will not, by those who knew him, be remembered as a
flatterer even of his best friends notwithstanding this instance of
exaggerated praise, in a letter to me some months after this period,
referring to his solicitude as to the political effect that must be pro-
duced by the tariff feeling and his apprehension that it had disturbed
his relations with Mr. Wright, wrote as follows :

There was last spring a more than half formed opinion that you was hostile
to the Tariff ; this opinion was settling down into a conviction accompanied with
some excitement and was doing (or rather was about to) infinite mischief to
the cause of Genl Jackson in this State, when, at the most auspicious moment
that political sagacity ever selected, and by the most successful effort that
talent ever made, you destroyed in the speech you made at the Capitol all the
works which long premeditated mischief had contrived* and the Industry of
political enemies had been many months employed, to raise up for the prostra-
tion of yourself and the cause you had espoused."

In every subsequent National canvass until my final retirement
from public life my Woollen's Speech (as it was called) was made
a prominent subject of a partizan agitation. It was denounced by
my opponents at the South as proof of my being a Protectionist and
by those at the North as proof of my hostility to the system. So fre-
quent and continued were the applications for explanations that I
was obliged to have an edition of the speech published for the benefit
of my friends at the South. At the north its drift and design were
soon understood and in the end favorably appreciated*

In the fall of this year Thomas Addis Emmett was seized with
paralysis whilst engaged in the trial of a cause, and died almost im-
mediately. I was one of the opposing counsel in the cause, and as
the court adjourned on the preceding day he [Emmett] expressed to
me his surprise that we had kept our suit — the claim of Bishop
Inglis, of Nova Scotia, to the immense estate called the Sailor's Snug
Harbor— on foot so long, but added that we could not prolong its life

* Message of May 27, 1830, with veto of bill authorising a subscription of stock In
the Maysville, Washington, Paris and Lexington Turnpike Company.

'This letter, Marcy to Van Buren, 1828, Jan. 29, Is the Van Buren Papers la the
Library of Congress.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 178

beyond twelve o'clock of the next day. When that time arrived I
followed him from the bar to the stove, whither he had been called by
an acquaintance, and said " Well, Mr. Emmett, the hour has come and
we are alive yet I" u Yes," he answered — " but you cannot live much
longer 1 " Immediately after my return to my seat David B. Ogden
said to me " Look at Emmett !, He is going to have a fitl " I looked
and replied that it was a mistake. In a few moments he repeated
the alarm more emphatically. I went to Chief Justice Thompson,
before whom the cause was tried, and informed him of Mr. Ogden's
suspicions. The Judge observed Mr. Emmett closely, and replied
pleasantly "No I No! Ogden is mistaken— his under lip hangs a
little lower than usual, but that is natural to him when he is writ-
ing t " At that instant and as I turned towards my seat I saw Mr.
Emmett reel in his chair and extend his hand towards a neighbour-
ing pillar. I endeavoured to intercept his fall but without success;
he was carried to his house and died in a few hours.1

I had considerable professional intercourse with Mr. Emmett,
admired his talents, and always found him liberal, honorable and
just. His conduct and character as a public man are known to the
country. He soon lived down the censures and hatred which pur-
sued him in his emigration and were for a season troublesome, and
died universally lamented as an honest man and faithful citizen.

There were circumstances in the life of my ill fated friend
Samuel A* Talcott, connected with the- same trial in the course of
which Mr. Emmett died, which lead me to take here a brief notice
of his brilliant yet melancholy career. About the year 1819 I
chanced to see a number of articles in a western newspaper criticis-
ing and censuring my course in regard to a public question, the
marked ability of which caused me to make enquiries in respect to
their paternity. I soon ascertained that they were written by Mr.
Talcott, a young federal lawyer of Oneida County whom I had
never seen. Happening afterwards to be on the same boat with him,
on our way to attend the Supreme Court at New York, I sought and
made his acquaintance, and finding him undetermined, on our ar-
rival, where to lodge, I invited him to accompany me to the Parke
Place Hotel where I usually staid, to which he consented. The
house being very full I ordered a bed in my room for his temporary
accommodation. This arrangement led to frequent conversations
which impressed me with the highest opinion of his character and
intellectual endowments. I told him one day, between jest and
earnest, that he was misplaced in the political field, and that he
ought to be on our side. At the moment I had not the least idea
that any consequence would flow from the remark, but I soon dis-

» Not. 27, 1827.

174 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

covered that he had thought seriously upon the subject, and was
desirous to talk farther with me about it I gave him a very un-
reserved account of my own political opinions and, as far as I un-
derstood them, of those of the mass of my party, and pointed out
to him the reasons why his chances for fame and public usefulness
would be increased by joining us ; but advised him at the same time
to come to no hasty conclusion — to think the matter over deliber-
ately at home, and, if he found his way so clear as to afford a
reasonable confidence that the change when made would be satis*
factory and permanent, to make it — if not, to stay where he was,
for X had too much respect for him. to wish him to adopt a time
serving policy.

Some weeks after this I received a letter from him informing
me of his intention to attend a democratic meeting and to avow
his adhesion to our party and that I might rest assured that he
had not come to the conclusion without a solemn resolution that
in politics as it was his first so it would be his last change.

His great talents soon made him conspicuous' in our ranks and
as early as the year 1821 he was appointed Attorney General of
the State in the place of my successor in that office Thomas J.
Oakley. The selection of so young a man and so recent a con-
vert from the federal side drew down considerable censure upon the
Council of Appointment from disappointed candidates and their
friends and not a small portion of it was diverted against myself
on the suspicion, better founded than usual, that I had exerted
myself in his favor. I felt no uneasiness about this, as I was cer-
tain that it would soon satisfy all disinterested friends that it was
the best selection that could have been made. This he accomplished
in a short time and very thoroughly, and whilst the man, who had
busied himself in an unavailing effort to get up a Legislative meet-
ing to denounce us for making a federal appointment, himself joined
the other side, young Talcott attained a solid popularity in our
party and an eminent professional standing.

But these bright prospects were destined to be early blasted by
habits of intemperance, which grew upon him with fearful rapidity,
and filled the hearts of his friends with sorrow. The wane of his
professional fortunes, before his fall, was protracted by the respect
which he inspired as a man and by the admiration which he com-
pelled by his remarkable professional talents and acquirements.
After the fell disease had made great progress his clients, unwilling
to dispense with his services, often resorted to the expedient of en-
listing the good offices of some mutual friend to remain with him
and to keep him for a time from the intoxicating bowl. Many in-
stances of this were known to me of which I will notice a few. Under

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAK BT7REX. 175

feuch training (which he perfectly understood and aided as far as
his infirm nature would allow) he made an argument in the Su-
preme ° Court of the United States which called forth the strongest
applause of Chief Justice Marshall and all his brethren, greatly
excited a numerous and intelligent audience and attracted the atten-
tion of the country to an almost unprecedented extent.

In a very important trial between the State of New York and
John Jacob Astor, in which Chancellor Kent, Mr. Webster and my-
self were employed as Counsel on behalf of the State, and Mr. Tal-
rott represented it as Attorney General, it became necessary to have
a consultation in regard to several difficult questions of law which
arose in the case. We agreed to meet at the Chancellor's office in
Greenwich street, and Mr. Talcott was to call for me on his way
down to the appointed rendezvous. When he arrived at my room
I was shocked to find that he was very much intoxicated and taking
his arm I led him past Rector street, down which lay our direct
route, as far as the Battery, and there walked with him to and fro
for a long time and beyond the hour fixed for our meeting. When
in one of our turns we came to the gate which was nearest the
Chancellor's residence, he looked me in the face and, expressing by
a smile his consciousness of my object, said — "I think it will do
now !" " Well," I replied, " if you think so we will go !"

The other gentlemen had been waiting for us and he at once pro-
ceeded, as his official station required, to state the several questions
in their order, the difficulties of each, and the manner in which he
thought it best to deal with them. He did this in so full, able and
vivid a manner, as to leave us nothing to do but to adopt his recom-
mendations. After he left us to fulfill an appointment, the Chan-
cellor and Mr. Webster expressed very earnestly their admiration
of the general accuracy of his views, the simple power of his lan-
guage, and his extraordinary familiarity with questions as abstruse
and difficult as any in legal science. They referred also with deli-
cacy and obvious sincerity to their regret at hearing of the un-
favorable impressions which existed in regard to .his habits, but
not one of them dreamed of the narrow escape they had just had
from an exhibition of them.

In the suit on the trial of which Emmett fell, which was, as I have
mentioned, an action brought by Bishop Inglis of Nova Scotia for
the recovery of real estate in the city of New York, even then of
great value and now worth several millions of dollars, Talcott was
one of his associate counsel. The Bishop claimed as heir at ]aw of
the last owner, Mr. Randall, and the defendant claimed under his
will, by which the whole property was devised as a charity for the
support and comfort of aged and infirm seamen. We contested this

• MS. ii, p. 50.

176 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

devise as illegal and had, for reasons not necessary to be stated here,
satisfied ourselves that if we could obtain possession of the property
we would have no difficulty in maintaining it During the early
stages of the trial, Talcott was in an unfit state to come into court,
and his associates under the lead of Emmett, desirous to avoid the
issue on the validity of the devise, had for several days managed
the defence in a way which shewed a determination to rely on their
possession as a sufficient bar to our claim. On the day before the
sad occurrence that filled us all with sorrow, Talcott walked into court,
looking fresh and well, and took his seat among his associates.
After some conversation between them Mr. Emmett asked the indul-
gence of the Court while they retired for consultation, and gave as a
reason that they had until that moment been deprived of the assist-
ance of Mr. Talcott by his indisposition. As they walked out I said
to Mr. Ogden, my associate, that I was quite sure that Talcott would
induce them to produce the will, but he thought that the opposite
policy had been too firmly settled. The first thing after their return
was Mr. Emmett's offering the will in evidence.

We were defeated and I had the curiosity immediately after the
trial was ended to ask the Chief Justice what he would have thought
of the cause if they had not introduced the will. He replied that,
assuming from the course pursued by the defendant's counsel that
they did not mean to rely upon it, he had considered the cause in
that light, and had come to a very decided conclusion that they
could not prevent our recovery on the strength of their possession.
I have therefore ever thought that the chances were at least equal
that if Talcott had not come into court that large estate would
have gone in a different direction.

Within an hour after the fall of Mr. Emmett I took a long walk
with Talcott and pressed upon his attention the vacancy in the pro-
fession now certain to be created in New York by Mr. Emmett's
death, and the fact that he was the most able man in the state to
fill it. After talking some time I paused and added that there
was but one obstacle to his success, and that he must understand
what I alluded to. He said he did well understand! I exclaimed
with vehemence — -"is it not possible to remove that?" — to which
he answered characteristically, "I can try!" He moved to the city
and endeavoured to break the hold of his insidious enemy, but in
vain. In the course of a few years he became an inmate of the
Hospital for the Insane where he died. Thus perished, alas ! how
ingloriously, a mind of the highest order; a counsellor of well earned
and brilliant distinction — the best black-letter lawyer I ever knew — ;
a man of the purest personal character and friend the most sin-
cere.

CHAPTER XVI.

Of the action of the Federal Government during the adminis-
tration of Mr. Monroe I have nothing farther to say, but I cannot
pass without noticing two visits I made to Virginia during his
last term, the incidents of which were interesting to me and the
relation of them may be somewhat so to others. It seems unavoid-
able in writings of this land to make oneself to a great extent
the hero of the narrative, although the offensive intrusion of " the
eternal I " is as disagreeable to me as it can be to the reader. I
doubt not that when Mr. Jefferson feelingly exclaims in his auto-'
biography, that he U tired of speaking of himself, he disclosed
the true reason why that work was not continued to its proper
termination: and I am continually tempted by the 'same induce-
ment to bring my story to an abrupt close.

I paid my first visit to Mount Vernon on the invitation of Judge
Bushrod Washington to spend Christmas with him, accompanied
by Gen. C. F. Mercer who had bqen the bearer of the invitation.
A closer acquaintance confirmed my impressions of the purity of
the Judge's character, and I was agreeably surprised by the vi-
vacity of his disposition. His mental qualifications were of a highly
respectable order, and united to the simplicity and frankness of
his manners made his society peculiarly agreeable, and his cordial
hbspitality assisted by the Herberts,1 Mrs. Washington's nephews
.who besides their other accomplishments sang remarkably well,
made ours a merry Christmas. Mrs. Washington had been a long
time bed-ridden, but the singing drew her to the head of the stair
case and it was delightful to see how much this circumstance ex-
cited the Judge's sensibilities and added to. the general hilarity.
In the course of the evening we availed ourselves of the fine weather
to take a stroll on the lawn, and leaving the young people to their
amusements he led the way to a covered walk in the adjoining
grove. I spoke of the extent to which my interest in the beautiful
scene about us was enhanced by the associations, to which he as-
sented and added that my observation reminded him of an occasion
when he paced that walk as we were now doing, but with a more
troubled heart.

"I received" said he, "a letter from the General" (his invari-
able synonym for his uncle) "in the spring before his death re*

'Judge Washington'** nephew*, Bushrod W. and Noblet Herbert.
127483°— VOL 2—20 12 1 77

178 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

questing Mr. Marshall, as he always called the future Chief Justice,
and myself to come to Mount Vernon. The court was sitting and
a compliance with his request of course inconveninent, but it never
occurred ° to either of us to postpone his business to our own. Our
brethren of the bar readily acquiesced in a postponement of our
causes, and we started, as was the fashion of the time, on horseback
and with no other wardrobe that what we carried on our persons.
I mention the latter circumstance because of an accident to which
equestrians are peculiarly liable, having occurred to Mr. Marshall,
which frequently exposed to view the nether extremity of his shirt,
causing infinite amusement on the journey and much embarrassment
at Mount Vernon. On pur arrival in the evening, the General took
me into the library and informed me that he wished Mr. Marshall
and myself to offer for Congress at the approaching election — Mr.
'Marshall for Henrico district and myself for Westmoreland. As I
resided in Richmond, altho' my property lay in Westmoreland,
it might be safest, he said, to make a partial removal there to satisfy
the law, which could not give me much trouble.

"Having explained his wishes and briefly assigned his reasons
he desired me to break the matter to Mr. Marshall so that he could
have our answer at supper. I called Mr. Marshall out, and on this
walk we had our consultation. We had of course the strongest
possible desire to conform to the General's wishes, but could not
bring our minds to any other conclusion than that to do so in this
instance would be destructive of our prospects in the pursuit we
preferred, and injurious to our families. Altho' it was not so with
Marshall, I was myself deeply conscious of an unfitness for politi-
cal life. It was made my duty to state our objections to the Gen-
eral which I did very earnestly. He heard me through without
interruption, and then answered in his usual grave and emphatic
way — "Bushrod, it must be done!" With this I returned to my
friend, still lingering in this grove in painful suspense. We re-
sumed our walk and finally agreed that me must comply with the
General's wishes at all hazards. We returned to him and informed
him of our assent to his proposition. He expressed his satisfaction
in very kind terms and said that he was sensible of the inconvenience
to which a compliance with his views might subject us, but was
certain that he had asked nothing from us which he would not have
done himself if our situations had been reversed. We left Mount
Vernon early in the morning and returned to Richmond with feel-
ings of great anxiety.

" I had entered upon the steps deemed advisable to qualify myself
to represent Westmoreland when I received a letter from the Secre-

• MS. II, p. 55.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN" BTJREN. 179

tary of State informing me that President Adams had appointed me
one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, and
I was advised by the same letter that a circuit court was to be held
in Georgia in so short a time that it would be necessary to start im-
mediately for that state if I accepted the office. I took the official
oath immediately, threw myself into the stage coach, proceeded to
Georgia and informed the General from that place of what I had
done and my reasons for doing it."

General Washington died in the month of December in the same
year.1 Marshall offered for the Henrico district, was elected and
made his justly admired speech in defence of the administration for
its course in the case of Jonathan Bobbins, which raised him at once
to the first rank in that body. He was appointed Secretary of State
by Mr. Adams, on the removal of Timothy Pickering, and, just before
the end of his term, Chief Justice of the United States.

I listened to the Judge's narrative with interest but with a painful
sense of the danger to which it showed that Gen. Washington had
been exposed of becoming involved in the conflicts of party, at that
moment as violent as they have ever been, — a danger from which,
in the inscrutable providence of God, he had been withdrawn by an
early and otherwise premature death. No man entertained a sounder
sense of what belonged to his position, possessed more self command
or could be more ready to sacrifice personal feelings to the public
good than Gen. Washington. These high traits had all been strik-
ingly exhibited in the course of the trying years of his administration,
as well as in his subsequent retirement. Nor was it possible that any
extent of personal irritation could ever bring his mind to sanction
public measures that he did not conscientiously believe would be
beneficial to the country. He was yet a man, and as such subject
to some extent to the passions and infirmities of his nature, and the
state of his feelings described by Judge Washington at a period and
under circumstances so inauspicious to their continued restraint, gives
us reason to apprehend that had he lived longer his wise and self
imposed reserve would have been farther and farther relaxed until
he would have become more deeply involved in the angry conflicts
of party than was to be desired in one who at that moment possessed,
with rare if any exception, the warm affections and the respect of the
whole country.

Who can think without pain upon the consequences of his with-
drawal from that enviable position which made the sacred appella-
tion of Father of his Country so acceptable to all his countrymen
and the loss of which would have robbed not only our History but
Human Nature itself of one of the brightest glories of both. Who

* December 14, 1798.

180 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

that has been enabled to comprehend the violence of party spirit —
to know that the influences neither of religion nor of kindred nor of
any other earthly relation or situation have sufficient strength to
avert animosities or denunciations between partisan belligerents, can
regret that Washington's fair fame was snatched from farther ex-
posure to that fiery ordeal, or can hesitate to acknowledge that the
goodness of Providence which had, for his own and his Country's
welfare, directed all his actions through his most useful and brilliant
life, was scarcely less signally displayed in his death.

CHAPTER XVII.

In the course of the winter of 1824, preceding the Presidential elec-
tion, Ninian Edwards, one of the Senators in Congress from the
state of Illinois, set in motion the famous A. B. plot, by causing to
be published in the "Washington Republican," newspaper, several
articles signed with those initials, in which Mr. Crawford was
charged with culpable mismanagement of the public funds at dif-
ferent and remote points in the Western Country. Having thus
sown his seed, he obtained from Mr. Monroe the appointment of
Minister to Mexico, and after the nomination had been confirmed
and his commission delivered him, he sent to the Speaker of the
House of Representatives copies of those articles, with a letter avow-
ing himself the author of them and affirming that the charges they
contained could be supported by legal proofs if the House directed
their investigation. At this stage in the proceedings and a short
time before the close of the session he started on his Mission, as-
suming from the nature of his charges and the remoteness of the
places frpm which the testimony was to be obtained that the mat-
ter could only be acted on in the recess, and intending that Mr.
Crawford's friends instead of giving their attention to the election
should find their time engrossed for the few months which yet re-
mained before it was to take place in defending him before a commit-
tee of investigation.

Governor Floyd of Virginia, a political friend of Mr. Crawford,
moved instantly for such a committee, and one was selected by Mr.
Speaker Clay (himself a rival candidate) with equal delicacy and
discretion. It was composed of seven of the most respectable mem-
bers of the House, viz : Gov. Floyd, and Mr. Randolph, of Virginia,
and Mr. Owen, of Alabama, friends of Crawford, Daniel Webster
and John W. Tayler, supporters of Adams, Edward Livingston, who
was in favor of Gen. Jackson, and °Gen. McArthur, of Ohio, a
friend of Clay.

The public mind was greatly shocked by the ruthlessness of the
attack and was prepared to find it unfounded as well because of the
conduct and reputation of its author as of Mr. Crawford's exemplary
character. The Committee seemed similarly impressed and entered
upon the immediate investigation and conducted it throughout in a
spirit and with a degree of impartiality that reflected the highest

— — — — _—___- _ _ ___ — _ ________ _____

• 110. II, ik 60.

18]

182 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION".

honor upon themselves and upon the Speaker by whom they had
been selected. Mr. Crawford was at the time confined by a disease
which had brought him to death's door and deprived him almost
entirely of the use of his eyes during the whole investigation. His
friends were of course ready to render any assistance not inconsistent
with the proprieties of their positions, but the laboring oar was in
the hands of his Chief Clerk, Asbury Dickins, who discharged his
duties with fidelity and consummate ability. The Defence, which was
almost altogether prepared by Dickins, drew forth loud and earnest
applause from friends and foes. Whilst it left no matter of fact or
argument unattended to, it did not contain a single harsh comment
upon the conduct of Mr. Crawford's accuser, a feature which I was
very desirous it should possess and to which I took some pains to
reconcile our friends who were naturally excited and justly indig-
nant.

The Committee immediately despatched the Sergeant at Arms
after Edwards, who pursued him fifteen hundred miles on his way
to Mexico. Edwards had left the prosecution of the case in the
hands of his son-in-law, Mr. Cook, then a member of Congress, and
holding in his hands the vote of Illinois upon the Presidential ques-
tion in the House — where it was almost certain it would have to
be decided, and with the cunning and unscrupulousness which char-
acterised all his actions in the matter he evidently placed great re-
liance on that circumstance; but in this too he was disappointed.
The Committee satisfied themselves of the utter falsity of the charges
before Edward's return and, to prevent him from injuring Mr.
Crawford in the public estimation at so critical a period, made and
published a report,1 in part, exonerating his conduct from the
slightest impeachment. They however thought it proper to give
Edwards an opportunity to be heard and to that end adjourned
to meet again after the close of the session, when he was examined,
but proved nothing to change the character of the report which
was reaffirmed. He resigned his appointment and sank into an
inglorious retirement #

Our friends being desirous that I should remain at Washington
until the Committee reassembled, I spent the intervening time after
the adjournment of Congress in making a visit I had long con*
templated to Mr. Jefferson, accompanied by Gov. Mahlon Dicker-
son. Altho9 suffering at the time from the pressure of pecuniary em-
barrassments, brought upon him by responsibilities incurred for an
old friend, Mr. Jefferson received us with unaffected cordiality, and
exerted himself cheerfully and heartily to make our visit agree-
able. He had known and highly esteemed Gov. Dickenson when

1 Report of select committee of the House, 18th Cong., 1st sees., vol. 6, No. 12a

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIK YAK BT7BEK. 188

he resided at Philadelphia during the most stormy period of the
administration of John Adams, and he referred in a lively but tol-
erant spirit to many scenes of those stirring times, in not a few of
which the Governor had himself been an actor, — such as his ac-
companying Dr. Cooper (of whom I have spoken) arm in arm to
prison upon his conviction under the sedition law, altho9 at the time
Recorder of the City, — and to various exciting articles which had
appeared in the Aurora, newspaper, supposed to have been written
by Gov. Dickerson. The gratification of the latter in finding the
most interesting events of his early political life thus brought step
by step under a sort of commendatory review was unconcealed and
pleasant to witness. On the next and subsequent days, leaving the
Governor to be entertained by our host's grand-daughter, an ac-
complished and very agreeable young lady, now Mrs. Coolidge,1
of Boston, (whose future husband paid his first visit to her while
we were at Monticello) we employed our mornings in drives about
the neighbourhood, during which it may well be imagined with
how much satisfaction I listened to Mr. Jefferson's conversation.
His imposing appearance as he sat uncovered — never wearing his
hat except when he left the carriage and often not then — and the
earnest and impressive manner in 'which he spoke of men and
things, are yet as fresh in my recollection as if they were experiences
of yesterday. I have often reproached myself for having omitted
to make memoranda of his original and always forcible observa-
tions and never more than at the present moment. Uppermost
in my mind is the recollection of his exemption from the slightest
remains of party or personal prejudice against those from whom
he had differed during the stormy period of his public life. Those
who like myself had an opportunity to witness his remarkable free-
dom from the common reproach of political differences would find
it difficult to doubt the sincerity of the liberal views he expressed
in his Inaugural Address in regard to parties and partisan con-
tests.

The bank of the United States was at this time in the plenitude
of its power, and Mr. Jefferson was much disturbed by the sanc-
tions which its pretentions received from the decisions of the Su-
preme Court, under the lead of Chief Justice Marshall, which he
regarded as tending to the subversion of the republican principles
of the Government He expressed his belief that the life tenure
of their offices was calculated to turn the minds of the Judges in
that direction, and that the attention of our young men could not
be more usefully employed than in considering the most effectual
protection against the evils which threatened the Country frpni

>Mii» Baton WaylM Randolph, late Mn. Joaepfa GooUdgfc

\

184 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

that source. He spoke of the power of Impeachment with great
severity not only as a mockery in itself, but as having exercised an
influence in preventing a resort to a more thorough remedy, which
he thought was only to be found in a change in the tenure of the
judicial office. Annual appointments, as in the New England states,
were, he thought, the best, but he would be content with four or
even six years, and trust to experience for future reductions. Fresh
from the Bar, and to some extent at least under the influence of
professional prejudices, I remember to have thought his views ex-
tremely radical, but I have lived to subscribe to their general cor-
rectness.

In a speech in the Senate delivered years ago1 I referred to the
Bank of the United States as having been the great pioneer of con-
stitutional encroachments, and our subsequent experience has con-
firmed the justice of the remark. It is worthy of notice that since
that Institution has happily ceased to exist we have not only been
exempted from any such overwhelming pecuniary convulsion as
those caused by it, but the Supreme Court has occupied itself with
its legitimate duties — the administration of justice between man and
man — without being, as formerly, constantly assailed by applica-
tions for latitudinarian constructions of the constitution in support
of enormous corporate pretensions. We might, perhaps, have ex-
pected that in such a calm even Mr. Jefferson's alarm, if he had lived
to see it, would at least in some degree have subsided; but this
state of things can only be expected to last until a similar or equally
strong interest is brought under discussion of a character to excite
the whole country and to enlist the sympathies of a majority of the
Court and requiring the intervention of that high tribunal to sus-
tain its unconstitutional assumptions by unauthorized and unre-
strained construction. Whether the institution of domestic slavery is
destined to be such an interest remains to be seen. The experi-
ence of ages proves that with exceptions too few to impair the rule,
men can not be held to the performance0 of delegated political trust
without a continued and practical responsibility to those for whose
benefit it is conferred. The theory of the independence of the Sov-
ereign in the case of the Judges in England, which we have copied,
entirely fails when applied to u& There} they are rendered inde-
pendent of the Crown to secure their fidelity to the public against
the influence of the power to which they owe their appointment
here their life-tenure renders them independent of the People for
whose service they are appointed. Irresponsible power of itself ex-

* " Substance of Mr. Van Bnren's observation* in the Senate " (Feb. 12-13, 1828] a
pamphlet of 16 pp. in which two speeches are welded Into one. Is in the Van Bares
Papers. Cf. Congressional Debate*. It. 1 : 818, 888.

* Me. II, p.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTlK VAlfT BUBEN. 185

cites distrust, and sooner or later causes, on the part of its possessor,
an impatience of popular control and, in the sequel, a desire to coun-
teract popular will. The only effectual and safe remedy will be to
amend the constitution so as to make the office elective, and thus
compel the Judges, like the incumbents of the Executive and Legis-
lative departments, to come before the people at stated and reason-
able periods for a renewal of their commissions. ~

The subject of Internal Improvements by the General Government
was another matter which occupied Mr. Jefferson's attention and
caused him much concern. He spoke of it, with some feeling, as a
mode of wasting the public revenues, without the probability of
adequate returns, and involving violations of the constitution injuri-
ous to the interests it professed to advance, and expressed his appro-
bation of the course I was pursuing in regard to the system in flatter-
ing terms.

I derived the highest gratification from observing that his devo-
tion to the public interest, tho9 an octogenarian and oppressed by
private griefs, was as ardent as it had been in his palmiest days.
Standing upon the very brink of the grave, and forever excluded
from any interest in the management of public concerns that was
not common to all his fellow citizens, he seemed never to tire in his
review of the past and in explanations of the grounds of his appre-
hensions for the future, both obviously for my benefit. In relation
to himself he was very reserved — taking only the slightest allowable
notice of his agency in the transactions of which he spoke. Happen-
ing to notice a volume in his library labelled curtly and emphatic-
ally— " Libels " — I opened it and found its contents to consist en-
tirely of articles abusive of himself, cut out of the Newspapers; and
shewing it to him he laughed heartily over the brochure, and said
that it had been his good fortune thro9 life to be^ in an unusual
degree, indifferent to the groundless attacks to which public men
were exposed. My inquiries in regard to individuals who had been
prominent actors on the political stage in his day, were naturally
as frequent as was consistent with propriety, and his replies were
prompt and made with apparent sincerity and absolute fairness. Of
Gen. Washington and of his memory he invariable spoke with undis-
guised regard and reverence. The views he took of his political

character and career are fully stated in his letter to me of the , to

which I shall have occasion presently to refer. The residence so near
to each other of two such men, and the change which had taken place
in their political relations presented an irresistible opportunity to
mischievous busy-bodies, and no effort of theirs or of political rivalry
or private enmity was omitted to impress Gen. Washington with a
belief of Mr. Jefferson's ill will towards him. In speaking to me, in
the letter I have mentioned, of the feelings of the old republicans,

186 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

himself included, towards Gen. Washington, he uses this eloquent
and, on its face, truthful language :

He lived too stibrt a time after and too much withdrawn from Information
to correct the views into which he had been deluded,. and the continued assidu-
ities of the party drew him into the vortex of their intemperate career, sep-
arated him still further from his real friends, and excited him to actions and
expressions of dissatisfaction which grieved them hut could not loosen their
affection from him. They would not suffer the temporary aberration to
weigh against the Imnieasureable merits of his life, and altho' they tumbled
his seducers from their places they preserved his memory embalmed in their
hearts with undiminished love and devotion,- and there it forever will remain
embalmed, in entire oblivion of every temporary thing which might cloud the
glories of his splendid life.1

If anything could be required to establish the truth of this state-
ment in regard to Mr. Jefferson himself it would be sufficient to
refer to the fact that all the great statesmen, his contemporaries, have
gone hence, and that their papers have been ransacked and pub-
lished without reserve, as well as his own, by friends and foes,
and that not a fragment has been found to cast a doubt upon it.

Observing that in describing party movements he almost always
said u The republicans " pursued this course, and "Hamilton " that—
not naming the federalists as a party, except by the designation of
a sole representative, I brought this peculiarity to his attention. He
said it was a habit that he had fallen into at an early period from
regarding almost every party demonstration during the adminis-
trations preceding his own, as coming directly or indirectly from
Hamilton. He spoke of him frequently and always without pre-
judice or ill will, regarding him as a man of generous feelings and
sincere in his political opinions. In answer to my question whether
Hamilton participated in some step that he condemned, he replied —
u No ! He was* above such things ! " His political principles Mr.
Jefferson condemned without reserve, save only their sincerity, re-
garding them in their tendency and effects as more anti-republican
than those of any of his contemporaries.

Mr. Jefferson's account of the humble position from which Pat-
rick Henry raised himself to eminence and the limited means of
education and study with which he had been able to make a never
to be forgotten impression upon the age in which he lived, inter-
ested me exceedingly. He described his agency in facilitating Mr.
Henry's admission to the Bar, which was, in substance, that hap-
pening to be in the vicinity of the residence of Mr. Henry who
was then a clerk in a small country store, the latter called upon
him and asked him to use his influence with Mr. Wythe and Mr.

*A signed draft of this letter, dated June 29, 1824, by Jefferson, is la the Jefferson
Papers, Library of Congress. Ser. 1, v. 14, 298.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAK BTJREBT. 187

Pendleton to induce them to unite with him in giving a certificate
of qualification which was necessary to enable Mr. Henry to pro-
cure a license to practice law. In reply to Mr. Jefferson's enquiry
in regard to the extent of his legal studies, Henry acknowledged
that it was but very recently that he had resolved to ask admission
to the Bar, and that he had not as yet opened a law book, but
offered to pledge his honor that he would not practice until he
had pursued the proper course of study. It was upon that assur-
ance that they consented to give him a certificate, and Mr. Jefferson
added that such was Henry's aversion to reading that he did not
believe that he had ever read the whole of any book! Taking up
a volume of Blair's lectures, one day at Monticello, and glancing over
a page or two, Henry exclaimed " this is a very sensible book and
if you will lend it to me I think I will read it." On his returning
it months afterwards Mr. Jefferson, as a matter of curiosity, asked
him whether he had read it through, and he acknowledged that he
had not. In Mr. Jefferson's Autobiography, published by Congress,
will be found a statement of similar import. Yet such was the
strength and acuteness of his intellectual powers and so impressive
and efficient his native eloquence, that of all the able men of whom
Virginia then boasted there was not one whose speeches produced
as great effect as did those of Patrick Henry. Mr. Jefferson did
full justice to his services in the Legislature during the Revolu-
tionary. War, and in the State Convention for the adoption of the
Federal Constitution, and° described to me the singular effects
produced by some of his addresses to juries. When the eminent
position he attained as an orator as well at the Bar as in the public
councils is considered in connection with the circumstances under
which he was admitted to practice (as to the main facts in regard
to which I am certain of having stated them correctly) it presents a
most remarkable illustration of the power of genius unaided by
education.

Our host pressed us with much earnestness to remain a few days
longer, when we proposed to leave, and in reply to my excuse for
returning to Washington, the desire to be in season for the meeting
of the A. B. Committee, he said that his experience justified him
in assuring me that a few days would make no difference in that
respect, as I found to be true enough. When parting from him
he said he would take the liberty of an old man to give us some
advice upon the subject of being in a hurry. The first fifty years
of his life had been harassed by the habit of thinking it indispensa-
ble that things should be done at a certain time and engagements
kept to the moment; but upon summing up results he had found

• MS. II, p. 70.

188 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

that his punctuality had proved a losing business and that in a
thousand instances things would have gone on rather better if he
had given himself more latitude, and that subsequently he had
adopted a different, and as the result had satisfied him, a wiser
rule. Hoping that we would do likewise he bid us an affectionate
farewell. In Gov. Dickerson he had met an old friend whom he
had proved in the times which were then and long afterwards not
inaptly called the "Reign of Terror," and whom he had not ex-
pected to see again, and for me he manifested a regard which I
might safely construe into an approbation of my public course,
and I could not fail to be highly gratified by such an assurance
from one whose character, conduct and principles formed my beau
ideal of thorough patriotism and accomplished statesmanship.

I had spoken of a political pamphlet by Timothy Pickering1
which, as appeared by the newspapers, had just made its appear-
ance and Mr. Jefferson requested me to send him a copy — which I
did. A few weeks afterwards I received the letter from him to
which reference had already been made, and which accompanies
these memoirs. I am sure that no intelligent mind can peruse it
without being deeply interested by its graphic views of circum-
stances and events not generally understood and in which no Amer-
ican citizen can fail to take the deepest interest

I visited the elder Adams, at Quincy, the next summer after I
was at Monticello, and I do not recollect ever to have seen .a more
striking and venerable figure than he appeared at that day. The
traces of advanced age were more perceptible in him than in Mr.
Jefferson, but did not appear to affect him either in mind or body,
beyond the unavoidable infirmities of the decline of life. He re-
ceived me kindly, and during the short period that I felt myself
justified in occupying his attention conversed with uniform good
sense, and a degree of animation and decision seldom witnessed in
so old a man. *

The Adamses, including that public spirited patriot Samuel
Adams, were an extraordinary race and made indelible impressions
on the times in which they lived. John Adams was, in the estima-
tion of his successful rival, the most effective orator of the Revolu-
tion— a post of danger as well as of honor, as was shewn by the ex-
ception of his name, among others, from the offers of pardon which
the Crown, from time to time, tendered to her rebellious subjects.

I need hardly say that his greatness was not without alloy, but
happily for his country the defects of his character did not affect
his usefullness until after her independence had been established.

'A Review of the Correspondence between the Hon. John Adams, late president of the
United States and the late Wm. Cunningham, esquire * * * by Timothy Pickering.
(Salem, 1824.) A copy is in the Library of Congress.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREK. 189

«

Whatever these defects may have been, one thing was at all times
clear, as Dr. Franklin, in a brief sketch of his character (quoted be-
low and not designed, as a whole, to be particularly complimentary)
said, "he was always honest," and so were Samuel and John Quincy
Adams. Indeed such, to their honor be it said, has, with very rare
exceptions, been the character of our high public functionaries at all
periods. In the times of John Adams the political atmosphere had
been so thoroughly purified by the Revolutionary fires that no man,
whatever his talent or his services, who was wanting in that the
first qualification for public trusts could have been sustained for
a day. Arnold was corrupted by the enemy, and scorn will never
cease to designate, with her unmoving finger, his infamy. Edmund
Randolph who possessed the confidence of Washington and Jeffer-
son, and was appointed by the former Secretary of State when the
latter resigned, ranking among the highest in personal position and
in talent, was unhappily exposed to suspicion as to his official integ-
rity, and he fell at once to rise no more. An attempt was made to
attach suspicion to the acts of Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of
the Treasury — as I have heretofore described. We have seen at
what a sacrifice he vindicated the purity of his official conduct, and
manifested his sense of the indispensable necessity of such a vindi-
cation whenever it should be questioned.

It is always hazardous for one whose judgments are deductions
from what he reads to pass upon the personal characters of public
men, yet it is the motive and sincerity with which this is done
which makes it excusable or otherwise. My own impression has
always been that Mr. Adams's subsequent failure in public life
was, in no considerable degree, owing to an overweening self esteem
and consequent impatience under honors conferred on his cotem-
poraries. Frequent exhibitions of this feeling, with — not too high,
certainly — but perhaps too exclusive an appreciation of his own
services, were, I cannot but think, among the causes of his un-
popularity. It was this, doubtless, which gave a feverish character
to his relations with Dr. Franklin, during their residence in Europe.
The same causes produced wider and still more injurious effects
on his return to the United States. The attention of public men,
engrossed during the War by the enemy, was diverted by the peace
and more closely directed towards each other, and anticipated
rivalries doubtless added keenness to those examinations. The
previous friendly relations between himself and Mr. Jefferson were,
not improbably, then weakened and suspended : with Hamilton, who
was himself not deficient in the same quality, he was soon in open
hostility: he looked down upon Hancock, and an impression was
made upon the minds of many that he yielded, with less complacency

190 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION.

than the other leading men of his day, to the universal preference
accorded to Washington. These well known circumstances, in con-
nection with his after expressed admiration of the English system,
always excepting its corruptions, gave rise to the imputation, un-
doubtedly unjust, that his resistance to the Crown did not arise
so much from opposition to Monarchy in the abstract as to a natural
preference for the House of Braintree over that of Hanover.

The election at which he was chosen President passed off without
anything like a partizan canvass. The seeds of future party di-
visions had begun to sprout at the seat of Government, but in the
country at large these divisions were yet unseen and unfelt. The
election was suffered to drift to its conclusion without serious ef-
forts to control its direction. In Mr. Madison's correspondence
may be found a letter from Mrw Jefferson, authorizing °Mr. Madi-
son to announce to the House of Representatives if the vote proved
to be equal, as it nearly turned out to be, as the earnest desire of
the writer that Mr. Adams might be preferred.1 Mr. Adams was
a man of strong feelings and those to which I have particularly
alluded had lost none of their force by his long previous occupation
pf an office without patronage or power. Mr. Jefferson tells us that
consultations between them on public affairs, tho' at first invited,
were in the end studiously avoided, and we know that his relations
with Washington were not free from embarrassment. The latter
had, as Commander in Chief of the Provisional Army, recommended
for Major Generals Hamilton, Pinckney and Knox; Mr. Adams
made the appointments, but was induced, it was supposed by his
prejudices against Hamilton, to reverse the order by placing Knox
first and Hamilton, last. Washington, as might have been antici-
pated, took exception to this arrangement of the names and in-
sisted upon the order he had proposed, which was finally adopted.
I need not say that such a transaction could not pass to its con-
summation without offending the feelings of both.

Of Mr. Adams' support of the Alien and Sedition laws I have
elsewhere spoken. These laws were the legitimate fruits of prin-
ciples which Hamilton had instilled into the federal party yet the
largest share of public odium they excited fell upon the head of
Adams. Divisions arose in that party and Hamilton took ground,
covert at first but finally avowed against his reelection. Fearless
in spirit and bold in movement the President removed from the
office of Secretary of State that remarkable man Timothy Pickering
who had been appointed by Washington, but whom he suspected of

• MS. II, p. 76.

1 Dec. 17, 1790. In the Madison Papers, Library of Congress, It is printed In Ford's
Works of Jefferson. (N. Y. 1904), v. 8, 254.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIK VAN BUBEET. 191

being too much influenced by Hamilton, and threw himself upon
the country for support.

Public services have their stipulated rewards, and all beyond,
the People proudly regard as reserved for free-will offerings.
Nothing is so likely to offend and repel their confidence as appeals
for their support which wear the appearance of claims of right on
the part of the applicant Mr. Adams found it difficult, consti-
tuted as he was, to make any to which his enemies could not cause
that objection to be plausibly set up. He was consequently never
popular save during the war of the Revolution, when his appeals
to the People were for their own interests and defence, and under
the weight of this personal and administrational unpopularity,
which his Revolutionary services could not surmount, he not only
fell himself but drew down upon his party imperishable odium.

In a letter from Dr. Franklin to Robert R. Livingston, the Sec*
retary of Foreign Affairs to the Congress, dated " Passy 22d. July,
1783," he alludes to Mr. Adams as follows :

• • * It is therefore I write this, to put you on your guard (believing
it my duty, though I know that I hazard by it a mortal enmity) and to cau-
tion you respecting the Insinuations of this gentleman against this Court, and
the instances he supposes of their ill will to us, which I take to be as imaginary
as I know his fancies to be that Count de Vergennes and myself are con-
tinually plotting against him, and employing the news writers of Europe to
depreciate his character Ac. But as Shakespeare says, "Trifles light as
air" Ac I am persuaded however that he means well for his jcountry, is
always an honest man, often a wise one, but some times, and in some things,
absolutely out of his senses.1

In the recently published Life and Works of John Adams, his
grandson, the author and compiler, has incorporated in the Diary
of Mr. Adams a paper left by him entitled' " Travels and Negotia-
tions9', which appears to have been commenced in December 1806,
and from which the following is extracted :

Dr. Franklin, one of my colleagues, is so generally known that I shall not
attempt a sketch of his character at present. That he was a great genius, a
great wit, a great humorist, a great satirist, and a great politician is certain.
That he was a great philosopher, a great moralist, and a great statesman is
more questionable. (Vol. Ill, p. 139.)

Whether the venerable diarist, when the above was written, had
been apprised of the notice which had been taken of him by his
renowned and equally venerable co-negotiator we can never know.
Its resemblance to an excusable retort courteous is certainly not a
little striking.

To return to the commencement of the administration of John
Quincy Adams, efforts were made by its friends to excite public

lIn the Department of State, Continental Congress Mas. It is printed in Wharton,
Diplo. Coma, (Washington, 1889), ▼. 6, 580.

192 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

odium against its opponents by charging that their opposition was
personal, predetermined, and made without reference to public
measures. In this they were aided by an unwise and somewhat
inflammatory declaration attributed to one of the South Carolina
members. In point of fact our opposition commenced at the thres-
hold of the new administration but our course was nevertheless not
justly deserving of the imputations that were cast upon it. The
fact that the election of Mr. Adams had been made against the
known wishes of a majority of the People was at least sufficient to
justify us in standing aloof until we were officially informed of
the views and principles in the administration of the Government
by which the President-elect would be guided. The vote of non-
concurrence in the nomination of Mr. Clay as Secretary of State,
was confined to a portion only of our friends and avowedly given
on personal grounds. Beyond that nothing was done until the de-
livery of the Inaugural Address in which the new President dis-
closed the principles of his administration — principles of which
neither he nor his Cabinet expected our support

Mr. Adams was an honest man, not only incorruptible himself,
but, as I have before said (and in these days it cannot be too often
said or too favorably remembered) an enemy to venality in
every department of the public service. He loved his country,
desired to serve it usefully and was properly ambitious of the honor
of doing so. At a time and under circumstances highly creditable
to his patriotism he left his party and came to the support of Mr.
Jefferson's administration. Knowing that in voting for the em-
bargo he opposed the opinion of his State he resigned the place
of Senator in Congress which he held by her appointment and
was, in the following year, sent as Minister to Russia by Mr. Madi-
son. He occupied several prominent public stations abroad during
Mr. Madison's administration and was recalled at the commence-
ment of Mr. Monroe's term to take the leading position in his cab-
inet. The appropriate duties of these high offices, commencing
very soon after his rupture with the federalists and continuing
through the entire administrations erf Madison and Monroe, he dis-
charged not only with great ability but with equal fidelity and
honor. He doubtless embraced fully and sympathized cordially in
the feelings and opinions of Jefferson, Madison and the republican
party, by which they had been elected and by which alone the admin-
istrations were sustained, on the subject of the War with England.
The same may be said in regard to most if not all the public ques-
tions that arose out of our foreign relations between the imposition
of the embargo and the close of Mr. Monroe's Government.

But such we are bound to believe was not the case in respect to
the political creed of the old republican party on the subjects of the

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIK VAST BUBEN. 198

proper and only legitimate objects for the institution of govern-
ments among men, and the purposes for which they should be em-
ployed,— of the true theory of our complex Federal and State
system in its operation upon domestic affairs, and the uses for which
they were respectively framed and could only be rightly applied,
and of the binding effects of written constitutions; a creed which
having caused .the Revolution subsequently, in the same spirit and
significancy, triumphed in 1800, °and was throughout faithfully
sustained by Jefferson, and, with a solitary exception, by Madison.
The influence which that party had exerted in the overthrow of the
Founder of his House was not calculated to conciliate the feelings
of a man- of Mr. Adams' temperament. He had too much • self
respect to profess that, on these points his original views of opinions
which had met with his warmest opposition in the early part of his
political career had undergone any change. He therefore em-
braced with avidity and supported with zeal the project of Mr.
Monroe to obliterate the inauspicious party distinctions of the past
and to bury the recollection of their causes and effects in a sepulchre
proposed by himself — to wit in "the receptacle of things lost on
earth."

With such feelings and amidst the distractions and consequent
temporary overthrow of the republicans he was elevated to the
Presidency. The condition of parties at that moment, the feelings
that pervaded them and the effects produced by the preliminary
steps and subsequent measures of the new Administration are mat-
ters of interesting review, at least to one who had opportunities to
judge of them correctly and thinks himself able to speak of them
with reasonable impartiality.

The election of the son of the statesman whom the ancestors of
some among them had deemed it such a triumph to overthrow in
the great civil struggle of 1800 — a son believed to be imbued with
many of the strong prejudices and obnoxious opinions of his
father — as the first fruit of their own distractions, was a source
of keen regret to the old republicans, save the comparatively few
who had decided to follow the fortunes of Mr. Clay. The power
which the old federal party had exerted in the recent contest and
the alacrity and exulting spirit with which its votaries rallied to the
standard of Mr. Adams as to a complete restoration of their influ-
ence in the Government, soon satisfied those who had yielded to the
idea of the extinction of that party of their delusion — a convic-
tion mingled with self reproach. These latter, attached as strongly

as ever to the principles of their own party, and convinced by their

• ■ ■ ■ ■ " '■ .' '

° M8. II, p. 80.
127488°— vol 2—20 13

194 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

unexpected defeat of the continued necessity of organisation to
make them ascendant, became early desirous for its restoration. Al-
ways under similar circumstances, the rank and file of a political
party, taught by adversity the folly of their divisions, look to a
discontinuance of them to soothe its mortification, and long delays
in accomplishing a cordial reconciliation are invariably attributed
to the policy and ambition of leaders. In the present case- the
difficulties of this kind were not formidable, as the friends of Mr.
Clay were readily made scape-goats for all delinquencies. A short
interval to soften the minor irritations produced by the asperities
of the canvass, and an outside pressure from the successful candi-
date were alone necessary to the formation of a hearty and effective
union between the friends and supporters of Jackson, Crawford
and Calhoun. That pressure was quickly applied by Mr. Adams
in his Inaugural Address. Believing that the steps that had been
taken to break up old party organizations had been successful, a
large portion of that paper 'was employed in demonstrating and
applauding the result. The merits and demerits of the two great
politipal parties which had divided the opinions of our country
were, in felicitous terms, placed upon a footing of equality; the
policy of our Government towards foreign nations was assumed
to have been their principal source; the catastrophe of the French
Revolution and our subsequent peace with Great Britain were al-
luded to as having uprooted the baneful weed of party strife; no
differences of principle, it was declared, either in relation to the
theory of government or to our foreign intercourse, had since ex-
isted sufficient to sustain a continued combination of parties; ani-
mosities growing out of political contention had consequently, he
said, been assuaged and the most discordant elements of public
opinion blended into harmony.

The scattered members of one of those great parties, of that, too,
which when united had for a series of years possessed the confidence
of the country and been intrusted with the administration of the
government, but which had now been defeated mainly by the con-
certed action of its old opponents — could not be expected to listen
with complacency to this description, by their successful rival, of a
state of things which they had discovered to be " a delusion and a
snare." But this was not all: the new President announced among
the subjects of Federal legislation which he favored that of Internal
Improvement by means of Roads and Canals. He admitted that
some diversity of opinion had prevailed in regard to the power of
Congress over the subject, but it was alleged that a great advance
had taken place in public sentiment in favor of the power and con-
fident hope was expressed that its extent and limitation would soon

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 195

be established to the satisfaction of all, and "every speculative
scruple solved by practical public blessings.'9

In his first annual Message he dwelt with much earnestness and
at great length on the same subject — pressed the transcendant im-
portance of the policy recommended and the obligation to promote
it, and recommended to the persevering consideration of Congress
" the general principle in a more enlarged extent ;" embraced among
several other specified objects a University and Astronomical Ob-
servatories, describing the latter as " light houses of the skies ! * — a
name sufficiently felicitous in regard to the subject, but indiscreetly
used as conceded by his friends in reference to the circumstances
under which he spoke, — and closed with an admonition as to the
consequences of attempting to excuse our failure in duty by pro-
claiming to the world that we had allowed ourselves " to be paralized
by the will of our Constituents."

These papers were written with the ability for which Mr. Adams's
pen was justly distinguished. They were filled with well- wrought
encomiums on the Federal Constitution, plausible definitions of the
grants and limits of powers between the General and State Govern-
ments, and eloquent injunctions in favor of their faithful observ-
ance ; and yet not one of the followers of the old Republican faith —
no intelligent friend of the reserved rights of the states could fail
to see in them the most ultra latitudinarian doctrines. The expres-
sions which I have quoted, and especially that in which he spoke of
the Representatives allowing themselves to be palsied by the will
of their constituents, tho' couched in terms of professional ambiguity,
were well calculated to strengthen that conclusion. Even Hamilton,
who had always been placed at the head of the latitudinarians,
whflst avowing, in the ingenuousness of his nature, his admiration
of the British Constitution, admitted that the establishment of a
monarchy here ought not to be attempted because it would be
against the known wishes of the people, while it was the duty of
their representatives to conduct the government on the principles
elected by the constituency.

Mr. Adams's description of the then state of public opinion in
respect to the constitutional power of Congress over the subject of
Internal Improvements was, in the main and particularly in
respect of those who had constituted the great body of the Repub-
lican party, very incorrect. It was true that several prominent
Republicans had, after the peace, entered warmly into the support
of that system, evidently under the impression that0 it was the
path to the confidence and support of the people, and there were of
course not a few, in every section of the country, who, stimulated by

m*-*i

* MS. II, p. 86.

196 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

self interest, were willing to have their " speculative scruples solved "
by so-called, " practical public blessings." But the thinking and
disinterested minds of the party, as well as the mass who were influ-
enced by their counsels, continued to regard the claim of this power
as dangerous heresy and to oppose it Hy every effort — an opposition
of which the Journals of the National Legislature through several
administrations furnish abundant evidence.

I never entertained a moment's doubt, after the delivery of the
Inaugural Address, of the speedy reunion of the Republican party —
excepting the personal adherents of Mr. Clay, but including a
majority of its former supporters in the eastern states who had been
drawn off to Mr. Adams by the consideration of *his being an eastern
man.

It suited the policy of the friends of the Administration, taking
advantage of an article in the Albany Argus, newspaper, which was
published without my knowledge and in well understood opposition
to my opinions, and of the near expiration of my Senatorial term, to
charge me, through their presses, with a concealment of my views
in regard to the new government until I might secure my reelection.:
hence the imputation of nanrcorwmittalimi which became thence
forward the parrot-note of my adversaries throughout my public
career always applied to my sayings and writings except when it
was supposed that more injury could be done by attributing to me
the sentiments which I meant to express. My son, CoL Van Buren,
on his return from the campaign in Mexico, described to me an inci-
dent amusingly illustrative of the tenacity with which this party
catch-word of more than twenty years maintained its place in the
vocabulary of those who had been accustomed to use it At the
hottest moment of the battle of Monterey, when it required all* the
circumspection of Gen. Taylor and his staff to avoid the cannonade
of the enemy, directed against the position they occupied, Col.
Bayjie Peyton rode up to the General with a message from Gen.
Worth who was stationed on the opposite side of the city. Having
made his communication, he added that a letter had been found in
the pocket of a dead cavalry officer from Santa Anna in regard to
whose movements and plans there was great uncertainly and of
course great interest. " Well," said the General, " which way is he
moving? " "Upon that point" replied the Colonel, "his letter is
quite Van Buren-ish and leaves us altogether in the dark ! " Gen.
Taylor, who knew enough of party politics to recognise a portion
of its vocabulary so notorious, and to his credit as a soldier very
little more, turned to my son at his side and said, somewhat sharply,
"CoL Peyton, allow me to introduce you to my aid Major Van
Buren." Peyton, altho' a violent political partisan, was a generous

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 197

hearted man and had, in the excitement of the moment, been un-
mindful of my son's presence. Regardless of the constant saluta-
tions to the company of the enemy's artillery he insisted on acquit-
ting himself on the spot of intentional want of courtesy, either to-
wards him or myself — for whom he protested, notwithstanding
political difference, he had always entertained the kindest and most
respectful feelings; which was doubtless true, and he was of course
readily excused upon the single condition that he would allow my son
to give me the benefit of a hearty laugh by describing the scene to me.
There was never perhaps a more unfounded imputation, and no
two men in the country were less in doubt in respect to my course
than Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay. They understood too well my feel-
ings on the subject of Mr. Monroe's fusion policy which they both
promoted, and they had seen too much of my opposition to the
principles and measures which they knew would become leading
features of their administration to expect me to sustain it. I feel
that I can say with truth that throughout my political career it
was my invariable desire to have my opinions upon public questions
distinctly known. I publicly answered, without hesitation or un-
willingness, more questions put to me by opponents whom#I knew
to have sinister purposes in putting them and whose predetermined
votes were not to be affected by any assurances or explanations,
than have been answered by all the Candidates for the Presidency
together from the commencement of the Government to this day.
Notwithstanding that these are by-gone affairs, in their time of very
limited importance and now of none, yet in view of the extraor-
dinary success of this partisan accusation and of its striking illus-
tration of the power of the Press, I will record the- proof of its
original falsity which has at this late date accidentally fallen under
my notice. In looking over some old papers for another object, I
accidentally laid my hand on a letter from Mr. Croswell, at the
time Editor of the Albany Argu*9 in which the article in that news-
paper which was so confidently attributed to my dictation and
which gave rise to the charge of my pursuing a non-committal
policy in regard to the administration of Mr. Adams, is directly
referred to. The letter is dated April 3d, 1826, and the following
extract is all that it contains upon the subject:

• • * I must ask you not to be surprised at the tenor of the leading
editorial article of this morning. It has not been written without deliberation.
The truth is, whilst there Is an increasing aversion towards Mr. Adams
amongst the Republicans of the State, there Is a great aversion on their part
to any collision with the administration which shall drive them to the sup-
port of Mr. Clinton, or that shall force them to encounter the hostility of
both. They prefer, for the present, at least, to stand in the capacity of
lookers on, believing that the natural hostility between A and C will be
certain of shewing itself, and the sooner if we afford them no other aliment

198 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION.

than themselves. It is for this reason and because it is beHeved that little
advantage and very great evil may arise from a contrary course that we
propose to let the National politics alone.1

The italicising in the above extract is my own. It thus appears
that the position assumed by my friends at Albany was taken with-
out my previous knowledge, and to shew how inconsistent it was
with my known opinions and acts it is only necessary to say that
I spent the month of March immediately preceding the date of the
letter in earnest and active participation with the opposition in
the Senate in their efforts to defeat the Panama Mission, and the
month of April, in which it was written, in resisting the project
of the Administration in respect to the Judiciary Bill. The former
was its favorite measure, whilst it acquiesced in the loss of the
latter rather than agree to the Jeffersonian restriction of the act
of 1802, confining the residence of the Judges to their circuits,
(upon which we insisted) notwithstanding our assent to the num-
ber of Judges which they proposed, and of which they had the
appointment, or rather nomination.

My views in regard to the then next Presidential election were
formally asked by that estimable man and inflexible old Republican,
Judge William Smith, of South Carolina in an interview which
I had with him at Boston, within three months after the commence-
ment of Mr. Adams's Administration. I informed him that as
Mr.° Crawford was removed from further competition by the state
of his health my next candidate would be Andrew Jackson. To
his questions in regard to the probability of success and to the
safety with which we might rely on the General's present political
opinions — his confidence on the latter point having been shaken
by the famous letter to Mr. Monroe2 and by the incidents of the
last election, — I answered that by adding the General's personal
popularity to the strength of the old Republican party which
still acted together and for the maintenance of which the Judge
and myself had been strenuous colaborers, we might, I thought,
be able to compete successfully with the power and patronage of
the Administration, then in the zenith of its prosperity; that
we had abundant evidence that the General was at an earlier period
well grounded in the principles of our party, and that we must
trust to good fortune and to the effects of favorable associations
for the removal of the rust they had contracted, in his case, by
a protracted non-user and the prejudicial effects in that regard
of his military life.

1 Edwin Croswell to Van Buren, Apr. 3, 1826, in the Van Buren Papers. It is In-
dorsed : M Origin of the non-committal charge, M. V. B. 1842."

•MS. II, p. 90.

'Jackson's letter of Oct 23, 1816, and a certified copy of Monroe's reply, Dec 14, to
this and the Jackson letter of Nov. 12 are in the Jackson Papers, Library of Congress.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY* OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 199

Pleased with these views the Judge asked my consent to speak
of them freely as coming from me, which was readily given, and
he entered upon their support with characteristic spirit It was
at my suggestion that Gen. Jackson afterwards offered to Judge
Smith a seat on the Bench of the Supreme Court of the United
States, which he declined.

From that period to the election there never was a moment in
which my intention to oppose the reelection of Mr. Adams was not
universally known, notwithstanding which fact the Administration
presses succeeded extensively in imposing the non-committal fic-
tion upon the credulity of their readers. I spent a few hours, not
long since, with Mr. Walsh, formerly Editor and Proprietor of
the National Register? (a journal politically opposed to me, pub-
lished in Philadelphia) and with his amiable family, at their resi-
dence, in Paris, and we all laughed heartily together at his allu-
sions to some of the absurd anecdotes which the party spirit of
that day had put in circulation on this point. Among many others
of equal pretensions to truth he related this: — a bet was offered
by one partisan to another that the latter could not put to me a
question on any subject to which he would receive a definitive an-
swer, which was accepted and the question asked was whether I
concurred in the general opinion that the sun rose in the East; my
answer having been that I presumed the fact was. according to the
common impression, but, as I invariable slept until after sun-rise,
I could not speak from my own knowledge. Mr. Walsh heard this re-
ported by persons who believed it to be true : — a strong illustration
of the influence of a party press and of the fatuity of a blind party
spirit

The acceptance by the President, in behalf of the United States,
of an invitation received from the American States of Spanish origin
to send a Minister to represent us at their proposed Congress at
Panama, was the first great measure of Mr. Adams's administration.
This extra-territorial action of the Executive branch of the Gov-
ernment, being without precedent in its history, contrary to the
scope and spirit of the Constitution and at variance with one of
the most prominent recommendations of the Father of his Country
in regard to our foreign policy, presented the first tangible point
for the opposition which had been anticipated and could not have
been avoided without an abandonment of cherished principles and
which there was in truth .no disposition to avoid.

Mr. Calhoun had, to use his own words, " taken a perfectly neutral
position between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Adams," and there was not
a little curiosity to learn what his course would be towards the

» The National Gasette and Literary Register, edited by Robert Walsh.

200 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Administration after these developments of its views. I called
upon him, at his residence in Georgetown, at the commencement of
the session and found him as decidedly hostile to the Panama Mis-
sion as I was myself. Although nothing to that effect was then
said there was also an obvious concurrence in opinion between us
that opposition to so prominent a measure of the Administration
could not fail to lead to an ultimate union of efforts for its over-
throw. This followed and from that period to the election of Gen.
Jackson there was a general agreement in action between us, except
in regard to the Tariff policy of which I have already spoken.

The Panama Mission was a very imposing measure and well cal-
culated, on first impressions, to be very popular. An assemblage
of the free states of a Hemisphere by their representatives in one
Congress, to deliberate upon the most effectual means to protect
their own sovereignties, to advance the great cause of free govern-
ments and, thro' their instrumentality > the dignity and the happi-
ness of their people, in contrast with, and, in some degree, at least,
in antagonism to the so-called "Holy Alliance" of the absolute
Governments of another Hemisphere, assembled in another Con-
gress to maintain and promote their despotic sway over the minds
of men, was a scheme apparently well planned to captivate republi-
can citizens. It seemed also well devised to soothe the public mind,
to lessen the irritation unexpectedly produced by angry discussions
during the recess growing out of the appointment of Mr. Clay and
the doctrines broached in the Inaugural Address, and to bury the
recollection of former discrepancies in the views of the leaders of
the Administration by presenting them to the Country as the cor-
dially united and enthusiastic advocates of a noble National under-
taking. Indeed, no project could have been better adapted to pro-
duce the latter result, for attempts to dazzle the public mind by
gala-day measures of that description formed the ruling passion
of Mr. Clay's political life to which he sacrificed bright prospects
that could doubtless have been easily realized by simpler means.

Yet it was not difficult to show that the scheme was ill-advised and
could not fail if carried out to cause incalculable evils to the Coun-
try. The first question was in regard to the point at which the assault
should be commenced — whether in the Senate, on the nomination of
the Ministers, or in the House on the appropriation for their salaries.
Our greatest strength, in regard to talent as well as comparative
numbers being in the Senate, that body was selected as the principal
field of contest The nomination of Ministers was referred to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs of which Nathaniel Macon was Chair-
man, who made an able report against the mission.1 Our objection

1 Executive Proceedings * * * on * * * the mission to the*Congrew at Pan-
ama, 1820, Jan. Id. S. Does., 19th Cong., 1st seas., No. 68 p. 57.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 201

being to the measure and not to the men nominated as Ministers, and
therefore wholly unprecedented, I thought it a case in which the
discussion should be public and introduced a resolution, which was
adopted, to that effect " unless in the opinion of the President, the
publication of documents, necessary to be referred to in debate,
would be prejudicial to existing negotiations."

Mr. Adams, on receiving a copy of the resolution, refused to give
the opinion respectfully asked by the Senate, not. content with that,
he, in his return message, said he would leave it to the Senate itself,
(who were of course to a great extent ignorant of existing negotia-
tions) to decide " the question of an unexampled departure from its
own usages, and upon motives, of which, not being himself informed,
he ° did not feel himself competent to decide." This refusal, and the
unauthorized allusion to and virtual condemnation of our motives
gave great offense to the Senate, and was the first act of discourtesy
in a series of proceedings which produced unprecedented excitement
and ill-blood as well in the Senate as in the Country. A retaliatory
movement was proposed, but as the original resolution had been
introduced by me, our friends conceded to me, in a great degrdfe, the
suggestion of any action to be adopted on our part. I was sensible
of the importance of the proposed opportunity to repel the censure
that was cast upon us for obstructing the passage of a measure repre-
sented by the Administration press to be eminently patriotic, but my
anxiety to avoid anything that might be construed as a factious
opposition was so strong as to induce me to prefer to waive it, which
was accordingly done.

The discussions occupied several weeks and became earnest and
sometimes violent. After unmistakable indications of effects pro-
duced by Governmental influence, the nominations were confirmed
by a vote of 24 to 20,1 and the measure received the sanction of both
Houses of Congress, but it was undeniably thoroughly discredited
with the Country by the opposition it had received. The Ministers
went out but they found no Congress. Several of the Treaties among
the South American States authorizing it were not ratified by them,
nor were any other steps taken to carry the plan into effect.

This general abandonment of the grand enterprise by its putative
fathers, together with suspicious signs in the correspondence, satis-
fied me that altho' it had been apparently organized in South Amer-

*MB. II, p. 95.

1Witb Van Buren voted Findlay of Pennsylvania, Chandler and Holmes of Maine,
Woodbury of New Hampshire, Dickerson of New Jersey, and Kane of Illinois, making
•eren Northern and twelve Southern senator.'*. Against Van Buren were eight sena-
tor! from 81ave States, Barton of Missouri, Boullgny and Johnston of Louisiana, Cham-
ber! of Alabama, Clayton and Van Dyke of Delaware, Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky
and Smith of Maryland. It was an incipient but a true party division. — Shepard, Martin

Van Buren, American Statesmen Series (Boston and New York, 1899), p, 181.

|
i

202 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

ica, the inspiration which suggested it was of Washington origin.
Mr. Adams, in his next annual Message, sang a graceful requiem over
the lost project, accompanied by exculpatory observations to which,
as no danger of resurrection was apprehended, there was no reply.
A copy of a speech delivered by me on the subject will be found
in -1

1 The pemphlet, edition of Van Buren's speech, Washington City, Gales & Beaton, 1828,
41 pp. 8° is in the Van Buren Papers under date of March 14.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The proposition for the Mission to Panama was accompanied by
a measure not less obnoxious to public feeling and alike indicative
of great ignorance of the current of public sentiment on the part
of the President and his Secretary of State, or a recklessness in
encountering it in the prosecution of favorite schemes inconsistent
with the character of prudent statesmen! That which* we have just
described was pressed upon the Country in open disregard of a
familiar principle in our foreign policy,. the observance of which
had been coeval with our Government and which had acquired a
permanent and favorable lodgment in the public mind. The measure
now referred to was the concession to Great Britain by treaty
stipulation of the Eight of Search to prevent the1 prosecution of
the slave trade under our flag, a pretension against which, when
attempted to be put in practice for the purpose of recovering British
seamen from our service, we had waged a war — the cause of which
was yet fresh in the recollection of the People, as well as the irri-
tations produced by it.

We opposed the treaty and defeated it by a decided vote.* The
condition of the Country in its foreign and domestic relations was
so favorable at this time that with discreet men at the head of the
Government, and ordinary prudence in the conduct of its affairs,
there could not have been the slightest doubt of the success of the
Administration, but unfortunately, as well for the Country as for
themselves, neither Mr. Adams nor Mr. Clay were either discreet
by nature or instilled by experience with a proper appreciation of
the humble virtue of prudence in the direction of public business.
Munificently endowed with genius and talents, their passion for
brilliant effects, of which I have spoken as peculiar to Mr. Clay
but which was common to both, was not crowned with a degree
of success proportionate to the hazard of its indulgence. In the
career of the military leader this is often otherwise, but in the
administration . of civil affairs statesmen of sober judgment and

1 The Convention with Great Britain was Anally disposed of by the Senate May 22,
1824. The votes on the various amendments are given in the Executive Journal of
the 8enate (Washington, 1828) V. 8, pp. 880-887. As ratified, by a vote of 29 to 13,
tbe convention was well nigh worthless as a means of suppressing the American slave
trade. For the final end of this negotiation see Clay's letter to Addington, Apr. 6, 1825,
In American State Papers, Foreign 6, No. 414, p. 788.

203

204 AMEBICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

i
i

• i

prudence though possessed of less shining talents are generally the
most prosperous.

Among other occurrences at the seat of Government during this
stirring period the duel between Mr. Clay and Mr. John Randolph
produced by a denunciation of the Administration on the floor of
the Senate, by the latter, as a " coalition between the puritan and
the blackleg " was one of the most exciting. In his " Thirty Years'
View," Colonel Benton has given an account— clever and impar-
tial— of this affair. The subject was frequently adverted to by
Mr. Randolph during our rides together and the details recited
in his peculiar way. He invariably admitted that laying out of
view the place where the offensive words were spoken and its im-
munities, whidi he said he had waived as far as he could, Mr. Clay
had incurred no blame in calling him to the field. On one occa-
sion he told me that the latter had been six years in bringing his
mind to that point, during which he had, on several occasions, fur-
nished him ground for such a step, but as he had always given
the offense in a way that left it optional with Mr. Clay to give
the matter thai) direction or to let it pass, he had taken the lat-
ter course. Perhaps no man ever lived more qualified to do such
a thing successfully than Randolph. He insisted that he at no
time intended to take Mr. Clay's life and assigned as a reason
his respect for Mrs. Clay and his unwillingness to make her unhappy,
but he admitted that, after certain occurrences, he had determined
to wound him in the leg — his failure to accomplish which design
he attributed to an anxiety' to avoid the kneepa/n, to hit which he
regarded as murder/

Mr. Randolph's intemperate speeches during the whole of the
Panama discussion attracted a large share of the public attention,
and the Vice President was much censured by portions of the public
press for omitting to call him to order. Randolph justified himself
on the ground that a corrupt and tyranical administration could not
be overthrown without violence, and quoted in his defence the
text of scripture which says "the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth
violence and the violent take it by force.'9 Mr. Calhoun held that
he did not possess the power to call a senator to order, as the
rules conferred that power on the members of the body only —
that he could not claim it by implication, and that as he was not
placed oyer the body by their own choice or responsible to them, he
ought not in so delicate a matter to act upon doubtful authority.
He therefore, very properly called upon the Senate to express its
opinion upon the subject, and to confer the power upon him by their
rules if they wished him to exercise it and if they concurred with
him in supposing that he did not already possess it This led to
an elaborate discussion of the question and of the true construe-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIK VAN BUSEK. 205

lion of the Constitution in regard to implied powers, in which I

took part and delivered a speech which will be found in .*

Mr. Randolph* was in every way a most extraordinary man, and
occupied wherever he went a large share of public attention. There

was not a session of Congress during his years service as a

member in which his sayings and doings did not contribute the
principal staple of the political gossip at Washington. This was
particularly the case at the commencement of Mr. Adams's ad-
ministration, when he appeared for the first time in the Senate
where his whole course was one of annoyance to his opponents and
of not a little uneasiness to his friends. He spoke day in and day
out, and sometimes for several successive days, upon matters and
things in general having political and personal bearings but not
always even directed to the business before the Senate — an abuse
in which others have since been largely participant, but in which
perhaps there has never been so great an offender. His speeches
attracted great attention from the severity of his invectives, the
piquancy of his sarcasms, the ° piercing intonation of his voice and
his peculiarly expressive gesticulation. He could launch imputa-
tions by a look, a shake of his long figure, or a shrug of his
shoulders, accompanied by a few otherwise commonplace words,
which it would require in others a long harangue to express. These
rare oratorical accomplishments were never suffered to grow rusty
for want of use, and he kept us in constant apprehension that he
would still further thin our ranks in the Senate, already some-
what weeded by Executive favours, by the character of the stimu-
lus with which he was in the habit of urging the sluggish zeal of
some of our brethren. He had for some time been desirous to take
in hand the case of John Holmes, of Maine, whose party fidelity
was doubted by his associates long before he quitted them, and
Randolph at length found a more justifiable ground for his assault
than he could have anticipated. Holmes had made a speech which
Bandolph thought bore upon its face satisfactory evidence of being
designed to propitiate the Administration, and either in it, or in
some collateral remarks, had spoken of the Vice President and
himself as personal friends. Bandolph, finding these remarks in
the papers, called the attention of the Senate to the subject, denied
the right of Mr. Holmes or any other person to define his personal
relations in delicate and guarded terms but in a way entirely
respectful to that Senator, and, as an excuse for not saying what
lie now said when the remark was made, explained that he had
not heard it and presumed, it^ust have been made whilst he was

* See Holland's Life of Van Buren (Hartford, 1886) p. 279 for a long extract of this
speech and note to pi 104 " Substance of Mr. Van Bnren*s observation* in the Senate/'

• MB. II, p, 100.

206 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

out of the Senate. Holmes, thrown off his guard by the courteous
manner in which Randolph had excused his omission to notice the
circumstance on the spot, not only insisted that Randolph was in
his seat, but that he heard the remarks to which he now took ex-
ception, and evinced a degree of pertinacity in doing so which
amounted to rudeness. From the moment that Randolph under-
stood such to be the drift of Holmes' remarks, his face assumed
its sternest expression, and he sat stiffly in his chair with folded
arms, manifestly tortured with suppressed rage. On Holmes' re-
suming his seat, he rose and recapitulated, with a self possession
that surprised us, what had occurred — shewed the length he had
gone to satisfy thef Senator from Maine that he had no cause of
complaint in the matter referred to and the persistence of that
Senator in an attempt to impeach his veracity. Having done this
in a cold and nnimpassioned manner, his appearance and style
suddenly changed, and he charged Holmes with a premeditated
design to make a personal attack upon him as a peace offering to
the Administration, and a prelude to his political apostacy, and
proceeded in an assault the most severely personal that had per-
haps ever been heard within that chamber and seeming at the
moment to annihilate his antagonist.

Altho' of course there were repeated cries of " Order ! Order !"
there was no specific and responsible call, and, if there had been,
his words were so skillfully chosen and his peculiar gestures con-
tributed so largely to the conveyance of the most offensive imputa-
tions, that a Senator calling him to order would have found the
greatest difficulty in writing down, as the rule required, the disor-
derly words on which the motion could be founded. The Senate im-
mediately adjourned under great excitement Randolph came to me
and insisted that I should go home and dine with him, and on our
way to his lodgings I remonstrated with him on his course in break-
ing down our party strength, admitted that Holmes had given him
a fair excuse for a reply of great severity, but not for an attack like
that he had made which would unavoidably drive him from our
ranks. " I deny that," he vehemently replied, u I have not driven
him away.- He was already a deserter in his heart;. if you examine
the body you will find that the wound is in the back/"

1 could not at the time account for the respectful And mild char-
acter of his preliminary explanations to Holmes, as I knew the state
of his feelings towards him, but was in the en$ satisfied that it was
a part of his design to make sure of his victim by first putting him
as far as possible in the wrong. This affair was the cause of an
extraordinary scene in the Senate a few days afterwards*

Mr. Randolph's speeches became more and more annoying, to the
Administration and its friends, in and out of the Senate, and yet

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAST BTTBEN. 207

no one seemed willing to incur the responsibility of calling him
to order. I inferred from circumstances a design on the part of the
administration Senators to administer a corrective to Mr. Randolph
by severally quitting their seats when he was speaking to an extent
sufficient to leave the Senate without a quorum. This was practicable
as the call of the House, usual in the other branch of Congress, was
unknown in our body. Having engaged one day to dine with my
friend Gen. Van Rensselaer at an hour earlier than the ordinary
adjournment of the Senate, I gave Randolph notice in the morning
of the necessity I should be under of leaving whilst he was speaking
and of my desire to avoid setting such an example on account of my
suspicion as to the game of our opponents. He promised to close his
speech in season, but did not. Whey my hour arrived I held up my
watch, and he pointed to the door. I left and the example was
quickly followed by the members of the opposition ; in a very short
time the flag of the Senate was lowered and the body adjourned for
want of a quorum. This unusual proceeding having been once
adopted — was soon to a considerable extent, converted into a prac-
tice, to the great annoyance of Randolph whose vanity was wounded
by an apparent indifference* to his speeches which he had seldom ex- *
perienced and was little able to brook. The circumstance sensibly
increased the bitterness of his denunciations and finally led to that
which caused the duel between himself and Mr. Clay whose im-
patient spirit could no longer endure the invectives which were
incessantly hurled at him by Randolph.

He [Randolph] visited Virginia soon after and whilst there became
satisfied that his chance for a reelection was far from favorable.
This increased the acerbity of his temper, and he returned to Wash-
ington with a determination to leave it for England almost immedi-
ately. He sent a message to me, on his arrival, asking me to call upon
him at his old quarters. Being engaged in the Senate, it was not in
my power to do so before the adjournment, of which I informed him
by a note, adding also that I should expect him to dine with me,
When I reached his lodgings I entered what I supposed to be his bed-
room, but which proved to be that of Mark Alexander, a member of
the House from Virginia. I found Randolph booted and spurred,
stretched at full length on his colleague's bed, and fast asleep, with
his letters and papers scattered about him. I was so much inter-
ested in the appearance of his tall and gaunt figure, extending be-
yond the foot of the bed, and in observing the striking resemblance
of his features to the Indian race, from which it was his pride to
claim descent, that some moments elapsed before I could make up
my mind to awaken him. When we reached my lodgings and found
that the members of the Diplomatic Corps were expected guests,

208 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION.

some of whom indeed had already arrived, he for a few moments
insisted on returning, but, as I had foreseen, he was easily induced
to abandon that idea, and I could not have afforded my company
a greater treat than was furnished by his presence. He took the
parole at once, and kept it till a late hour, talking upon a great
variety of subjects with more than his usual ability and with the
most entertaining raciness and originality. He began the meal with
calling for toast-water, pleading that wine was too string for him,
but yielding to the excitement of conversation and the grateful con-
sciousness of appreciative listeners he gradually advanced through
wine and water to wine, brandy and water and, before he left, to
clear brandy. After the company retired he sat with me 'till long
after midnight describing the condition of things in Virginia, and
his reasons for apprehending his defeat at the Senatorial election.
Mr. Tyler, who had 'till that time always been in the Republican
ranks, wojild, he said, be brought forward as a Candidate or sup-
ported0 by his enemies and his explanation of the causes which
would induce a sufficient number of Republican members to vote
with them, brought into view the hostility which had at different
periods of his life existed between himself and Jefferson, Madison,
Monroe and others and of which he gave me graphic and very in-
teresting accounts. Having engaged no lodgings, in consequence of
a determination, as he declared, never again to "have any in that
corrupt hole" (as he called Washington), I sent my servant out to
find a bed for him and afterwards to conduct him to it.

On the following morning he appeared in the Senate, dressed with
unusual care and apparently in excellent spirits, having ordered his
carriage to be sent to the Capitol, with his luggage, at noon, to con-
vey him to Baltimore. Mr. Calhoun had, at his instance, appointed
him a member of the Committee on Rules and his object, in coming
to the Senate, was to report one or two very proper amendments to
the standing rules of the body.

Mr. Holmes had manifested more sensibility in regard to Ran-
dolph's attack upon him that was supposed to belong to his nature,
and his inflamed appearance after it, in the Senate excited the appre-
hensions of his friends in regard to his habits. His excitement on
the morning referred to was greater than usnal and he carried a
huge cane which indicated that he meditated or expected a personal
attack. He took the floor immediately after Randolph resumed his
seat and read from a paper a series of amendments of the Rules
which he proposed. These with scarcely an exception referred to
acts with which Randolph had been charged and which it was pro-
posed thereafter to prohibit. Among them was one declaring it a

• MS. II, p. 105.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BtJREN. 200

violation of order in a Senator to make personal references to gentle-
men who had been introduced on the floor of the Senate by other
Senators. Mr. Russell,1 of Boston, Editor of the Colwmbim Cmti-
nel, a newspaper which had made a reckless opposition to the War
of 1812, had been so introduced during the session, and Randolph
had attracted the attention of the body to him by a general and
seemingly not personal reference to a notorious feature in his polit-
ical career; it was at that occurrence that the proposed amendment
was aimed.

Immediately after Holmes finished the reading of his propositions,
Randolph asked Mr. Tazewell, "his colleague, to take the clerk's seat,
and to write, as he dictated, a series of amendments to them " in the
form of instructions to the Committee,"— designed as answers to
them by successive recriminations. Mr. Tazewell, one of the best
tempered men I ever knew, complied, and when the proposition
which I have particularized was reached, under the impression that
Russell had been introduced by Holmes, Randolph dictated the dec-
laration, as an amendment, that the " personal reference " which it
was now designed to stigmatize as disorderly was no more than a
suitable reproof of the Senator who was so wanting in a sense of
what was due to the dignity of the Senate and to his own character
as to introduce such a man within the Bar !

At this point the affair received an unexpected complication.
Senator Lloyd of Massachusetts, a man of undoubted courage, who
felt no insurmountable scruples upon the subject of private com-
bat, and between whom and Randolph there had already occurred
some newspaper sparring, sprang to his feet the moment the offen-
sive words were uttered, announced himself as the Senator who
had introduced Russell, repelled with great vehemence every as-
sault upon that gentleman, whom he pronounced to be quite equal
in respectability to Randolph himself, and indignantly shaking his
closed hand at the latter, declared his readiness to give him satis-
faction there or elsewhere ! Randolph, entirely taken by surprise,
sought an opportunity to explain, and disclaimed all hostile feelings
towards Lloyd ; but the latter could neither be appeased or silenced
and continued his miiflttory gestures and denunciations with unr
diminished vehemence. In this condition of things Mr. King, of
Alabama, called both the Senators to order, and Mr. Calhoun re-
quested him to reduce the objectionable words to writing, as re-
quired by the Rules. Sensible of the difficulty of committing to
paper expressions used in such a squabble, which was yet going
on, Mr. King declined to do so, and in the excitement of the moment
said abruptly, that he would not! Mr. Calhoun, anxious from

1 Benjamin Xtauell.
127488°— vol 2—20 14

210 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION".

what had passed, to do his whole duty when a case occurred within
the Rules, rose from his seat and, pale with agitation, said "The
Chair orders the Senator from Alabama to reduce the words to
writing." The Senate at this moment presented a striking tableau —
Calhoun, King, Lloyd And Randolph on their feet, intensely ex-
cited, and every Senator present inclining from political and per-
sonal sympathy to take sides in the fray — when the last moved
deliberately from his place, which was on the extreme outer range
of seats, and passed in front of the Chair to the door, exclaiming
as he walked along, "I will have no more of this! I am off for
England! Good bye, Tazewell! Good bye, Van Bur en I They are
all against me! They are all against me Tazewell, in Virginia
too ! " — and still uttering these words the- doors of the Senate closed
behind him.

The Vice President and Messrs. Lloyd and King resumed their
seats: Mr. Tazewell returned to his place leaving his unfinished
papers on the Clerk's desk and for a little while nothing was said
or done. A sense of relief from the excitement in which Randolph
lived and moved and had his being, as his native element, prevailed,
and the Senate after a pause took up the order of the day without,
either then or at any future time, giving further attention to the
proposed amendments/

• This account of these proceedings is according to my best recollection of them, which
is unusually fresh, as the subject Is one to which my attention has been frequently
directed, and of which I have often spoken. Mr. Tazewell's officiating as Secretary is
entirely lelt out in the published proceedings, a point in which I know I cannot be mis-
taken, and a form given to the whole proceedings in some respects more consistent with
the dignity of the body, about which the gentlemen charged with the publication of the
details were always, much to their credit, very solicitous. Some allowance is certainly
due to that consideration, in Judging of the partial, and not very Important, differences
between their account and mine, which I cannot but think conveys with substantial
accuracy their true character.

• •

CHAPTER XIX.

An act for the relief of the officers of the Army of the Revolution
in relation to their half -pay became a law about this time, and upon
its passage I delivered the speech which will be found in *

Its merits will doubtless be found to fall below the reputation it
acquired, yet I derived as much satisfaction from the effect it was
believed to have produced as from anything in my legislative expe-
rience. The Bill had been long under discussion, ^nd the Senate
bad adjourned on the previous day on my motion, which constituted
a notice according to usage that it was my intention to address the
Senate upon the subject. Before the hour arrived for taking up the
order of the day my friends pressed me not to speak as the Senate
had been sufficiently canvassed to make the defeat of the Bill cer-
tain. Louis McLane of Delaware, a member of the Senate, and a
son of one of the officers for whose relief it was the object of the
measure to provide, backed this advice so earnestly that I was in-
duced to yield to it. When the Bill was announced the Vice Presi-
dent turned his eyes towards my seat ancPseeing no intention on my
part, or on that of any other Senator to speak, rose and stated that
the question would be on final passage and was in the act of taking
the sense of the Senate upon it when two ladies, friends of mine,
who had come to the Senate to hear me, shook their fans at me in
token of their disappointment and I rose from my seat intending to
go to them with an apology. The Vice President assuming that I
rose to speak aflpounoed "the Senator for New York" and, suddenly
changing my mind, I proceeded to address the Senate, at length, in
favor of the Bill.

When I had concluded, Gov. Branch,9 of North Carolina, an
impulsive but always honest man, who had been violently opposed to
the proposed0 measure, moved to adjourn the question saying that
views of the subject had been presented which were new and upon
which he desired an apportunity to reflect. His colleague, the
venerable Macon, scouted the idea of an adjournment, said that
a good speech had undoubtedly been made, but that lawyers knew
how to make good speeches on either side of any question, and
hoped that the Senate would without further debate proceed to the
vote and reject the Bill.

1 Gales and 8eaton*s Register of Debates, under date of Jan. 28, 1828, vol. 4, pt 1,
187-182.
'John Branch.
* MS. II, p. 110.

211

212 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION".

Gov. Branch replied with feeling that his coarse in regard to it
was well known, that he had several times spoken against it, but that
he had no other feeling in the matter than a desire to do right and
that unless the views which had now been taken of the subject were
satisfactorily refuted, he would, if driven to the vote, support the
Bill. This declaration produced an adjournment It was soon dis-
covered that others had also given way and a proposition was sub-
mitted to us the next morning that if we would accept certain amend-
ments, of a character not very objectionable, a sufficient number
would change their votes to secure a majority. We consented Mid
the Bill became a law1 — gladdening the hearts of many yet sur-
viving soldiery of the Revolution and of the descendants of their
departed brottiers-in-arms, by the appropriation of large sums of
money in satisfaction of their just claims.

Imprisonment for debt, the rigour of which had been greatly
relaxed by state laws, being still in force against debtors to the
United States, attracted a considerable portion of the attention of
the Congress. My own efforts for its abolition commenced in the
State Legislature at an early period of my connection with that
body and were continued in the Senate of the United States in con-
junction with Col. Richard M. Johnson, whose truly philanthropic
feelings made him an enthusiast in the cause.

My plan from the beginning was :

1st To provide for the most searching inquiries into the prop-
erty of the debtor, however invested, and to arm the creditor with
all necessary facilities to secure the application of it to the pay-
ment of his debts ; and

2d To punish fraudulent concealments as crimes, by confinement,
upon executions, to the walls of the prison. * (ft

Those facilities being secured to the creditor, I regarded every
other lien on the body of his debtor as alike inhuman and immoral,
and advocated a repeal of the law by which it was authorized.
The subsequent adoption of these views of the subject and the
extent to which a practice, that had become, by inflicting punish-
ment upon misfortune, the opprobrium of the age, has accordingly
been abrogated, is highly honorable to the country. Although a
professional man, not wanting in esprit du corps, I yet must admit
that this great reform is perhaps indebted for its success less to
our lawyers and merchants than to almost any other class. I goner-
ally found them the most obdurate and inflexible in their adherence
to the old system arising rather from the force of habit than from
less humane or less liberal dispositions. The merchant had been
educated to look upon the security founded on the fear of imprison-

1 Approved Feb. 12, 1828,

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 218

ment as a vital element in a well regulated credit system, and the
lawyer had been blinded to the immorality of such liens by the long
and frequent enforcement of them under the sanction and with the
cooperation of the Courts. But all such ideas and arguments have
been exploded by the steady progress of liberal opinions, and there
are none now who would more cordially resist the restoration of
imprisonment for debt, in the absence of fraud, than those classes.
So certain and so generous indeed is now the indulgence of the
American Merchant to his unfortunate debtor as to place him in
that respect in a more creditable position than is occupied by his
mercantile cotemporaries in any part of the world.

The subject of a Bankrupt Law was also seriously agitated in
the Senate whilst I was a member of that body. The abuses prac-
tised under the law of 1800 not only led to its speedy repeal but
attracted a degree of odium to the system itself which prevented
its reenactment until 184- ; a spasmodic effort was then made to
close up the appalling chasm which had been made in the business
relations of the Country through the instrumentality of a Bankrupt
law, which, so soon as it had effected a sort of general jail delivery,
was, like its predecessor, sent to an early and ignominious grave.

During that long interval there had been several unsuccessful
attempts to revive the system. Mr. Hayne,1 of South Carolina, who
had moved in the matter previously, introduced, upon leave, at the
commencement of the session of 1827 UA Bill, to establish a uni-
form system of Bankruptcy throughout the United States." It
contained the usual provisions applicable to merchants and traders,
and also a section (the 93d) extending to all classes, whether traders
or not, upon the principle of an Insolvent law, and was referred
to a select committee composed of Messrs. Hayne, Berrien, Silsbee,
Smith of Maryland, Johnson of Kentucky, Sandford ' and myself.

The proceedings of this Committee and the action of the Senate
upon them have been kept fresh in my recollection by the striking
exhibitions they afforded of the working of that spirit of rivalry
so common to political life and so influential in the business of
legislation. The leading and most active friends of the proposed
Bill were Col. Hayne, the Chairman of the Committee, and Judge
Berrien/ of Georgia. They were co-adjutors in politics and among
the foremost in organising and forwarding the Party then in course
of development which had for its objects the overthrow of the
existing Administration and the election of Gen. Jackson. Col.
Hayne possessed a lively imagination and an intelligent and dis-

* Robert Y. Hayne.

• Nathaniel Silsbee of Maemchosetta ; Samuel Smith, Richard M. Johnson, and Nathan
Sandford, of New York.

'John Macpheraon Berrien.

214 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

criminating mind. Judge Berrien was not less highly favored in
both respects, and had besides, acquired a greater Wariness in debate
by a long and more busy professional life. They were both am-
bitious and looked forward, as they had a right to do, to high rank
in the party of which they were members.

When called upon in the Commitee for my opinion of the Bill,
I declared myself ready to rote for a Bankrupt law proper, appli-
cable to merchants and traders, but opposed to the ninety-third
section as unauthorized by the Constitution and in every respect
inexpedient. I was prepared to assign the reasons which had
brought my mind to those conclusions but was prevented from doing
so by finding no disposition such as I had anticipated, on the part
of the leading supporters of the measure in its original shape, to
make me a convert to their opinions. The sense of the Committee
was at once taken and a majority declared in favor of the whole
Bill. Differences of opinion in regard to the disputed section were
regarded with indulgence as results which had been expected, and
dissentients were referred to the Senate Chamber for the explana-
tion and vindication of their views.

I was certainly somewhat piqued at this course but having wit-
nessed similar proceedings among political friends when acting upon
subjects supposed to be of great interest in the public mind I de-
termined to be no further influenced by it than to give the Bill a
more thorough examination after stating more distinctly to the
committee my intention to° oppose it if the objectionable clause
was retained. I went to the Senate intending to confine myself
to a simple and brief statement of the ground I occupied, notwith-
standing that I had, as I believed, made myself master of the sub-
ject and notwithstanding the feelings produced by my construc-
tion of the course pursued in the committee. I came to this con-
clusion because my support even of the constitutional parts of the
Bill was little more than an acquiescence in the opinions and wishes
of my friends — my own impressions being then as they have been
since that the frauds inseparable from the execution of a national
bankrupt system are likely to outweigh its advantages and I could
therefore feel no great solicitude for its passage. Besides I feared
that I could not present the encroachment of the ninety-third sec-
tion upon a state sovereignty in its details and in the proportions
which the subject allowed without mortifying the pride of my
southern friends by holding them up to their constituents as un-
faithful to a principle which was the corner stone of our Party and
particularly so regarded in the states they represented.

• MS. II, p. IIS.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 215

A motion was made by Gov. Branch to strike out the 93d section,
and upon this and other motions a debate ensued which occupied the
Senate for more than a week. When the question was about to be
taken I made the brief statement I contemplated, and which ap-
pears in the Congressional Debates. The motion failed, and the
section was retained by a vote which indicated the passage of the
whole Bill, but a motion to reconsider was made the next morning
by Senator Barton of Missouri, who had upon more reflection
changed his opinion and was now against the section. On this mo-
tion the debate wa§ renewed embracing the whole subject and in
the course of it the principles I had briefly advanced were reviewed
to an extent that made it my duty to sustain them. I thereupon
delivered a speech of considerable length which was not published
for the reasons assigned by Gales & Seaton in their volume of the
debates of that session, but which I have always regarded as the
most successful of my senatorial efforts.1 Whatever may have been
its merits, or its lack of them, there was no difference of opinion
as to its effects upon the disposition of the question. It placed the
provisions of the ninety-third section in lights that had not before
occurred to many of those who sustained it and made them anxious
to get rid of it without an immediate change of votes. They be-
came in consequence disaffected to the Bill, and, although the vote
on the section was substantially the same as before, the whole Bill
was rejected by a vote of 25 to IS. On motion of Col. Hayne it
was recommitted to the select Committee with instructions to strike
out the obnoxious section, and in that form reported to the Senate
where protracted efforts were made for its passage, but without

UpoA the conclusion of my speech the Senate adjourned and
before I had left my seat Messrs. Hayne and Berrien approached
me with vehement complaints of the course things had taken and
of my agency in producing it. I proposed to them to join me in
the carriage and to talk the matter over on our way to our lodgings.
Our conversation was of that eager and earnest character usual to
Southern men when highly excited. Judge Berrien being asked
to specify the ground of his complaint said that I had taken them
by surprise — not having given them reason to expect that I would
oppose the ninety-third section in debate altho' I had disapproved
of it. CoL Hayne, however, without waiting for my reply, ex-

1 Van Buren spoke on the bill on Jan. 23, 25, 26, and 27 and again on Feb. 1, 1827.
The survtrlng portions of these speeches are In Galen and Beaton's Register of Debates,
toL 8, 82, 104, 119, 121, 160 and 226. The principal speech was delivered on Jan. 27
and under that date Gales and Seaton (3, 160) explain that this and Van Buren's pre-
ceding speeches are not reported because their reports, forwarded to Van Buren for
revision, were mislaid by him. Van Buren's auto-notes for his speech are In the Van.
Buren Papers under date of Jan. 23, 1827.

216 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

claimed that he felt bound to admit on the contrary that I had
given them distinct notice that I would make active opposition to
the Bill if that section was retained: — "But what I complained
of " said he, " is that Mr. Van Buren did not state his objections,
which now appear to have been of so grave a character, that he
did not make an effort to convince us of their importance and give
us such information upon the subject that we might have been
prepared either to admit their weight or to rebut them."

I at once admitted that this complaint would have been well
founded had not circumstances occurred which excused me from
doing what he suggested, and informed them that I attended the
Committee intending to give them a candid account of the [my]
reasons but their attitude compelled me to think that they did not
desire me to do it. We could not agree entirely as to all the facts
on which my opinion was founded, but my statement evidently modi-
fied their complaints. In the subsequent discussions Col. Hayne
made no further attempt to sustain the ninety-third section nor did
Judge Berrien make material reference to it otherwise than to repel
as unfounded the charge he attributed to me of a want of proper
respect on his part for state rights.

Although the Judge and myself were afterwards members of Gen.
Jackson's Cabinet and our personal relations were always respect-
ful they were never confidential nor particularly cordial. From my
first acquaintance with him I felt that the cultivation and mainten-
ance of such an intercourse with him would be impracticable, a
sentiment which surprised me because it was inconsistent with the
general current of my disposition and indeed then for the first time
entertained. I refer to the fact only on account of its singularity
and not in a spirit of complaint, as the fault, if any existed, may as
likely have been with myself as with him.

Col. Hayne I always regarded as a fair and generous hearted man.
His course towards me on the question of my nomination as Minister
to England, unjust as it was, did not change this opinion. I found
no difficulty in attributing it to other influences than the unbiased
dictates of his own heart. He was an improving man and if his
life had been spared would doubtless have risen to still higher dis-
tinction, at least in his own state. He possessed a tolerably good
opinion of his own capacity, but whatever may have been the degree
of this estimate of himself it was not sufficient to blind his eyes to
what was passing about him. The Senate was at that time com-
posed of much older men that at present, who were at least not
less able. One consequence of their long experience in public life
was that they spoke less for effect and sometimes discussed questions
of considerable importance with seeming carelessness and compara-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEK. 217

tive feebleness. Newly appointed Senators often spent portions of
the session previous to the 4th of March on which they were entitled
to take their seats at Washington and much of the time in the Senate
Chamber preparatory to becoming actors themselves, and I seldom
failed to discover in the faces of the younger men of this class a
disappointment in the character and proceedings of the body to
which they had been chosen ; a feeling which frequently inspired them
with a degree of confidence and self-sufficiency on their first appear-
ance which the 'Senate always understood and seldom omitted to
correct in a way alike efficacious and decorous. Col. Hayne was a
marked subject of this feeling as he was also of the appliances de-
signed to remove it. He entered at once into the debates and without
the slightest embarrassment spoke fluently, intelligibly, sometimes
forcibly but often without the slightest effect. Whilst he was him-
self treated with proper respect, motions, arguments and opinions
which he deemed very conclusive, were sometimes disposed of in a
summary and unceremonious way not [at] all consistent with the
weight to ° which he deemed them entitled. In short, altho' no one
appeared to be specially disposed to thwart him there was an in-
visible but continual filling of his pockets with lead by which his
career was seriously obstructed. His disappointment was always
seen in his expressive countenance and once to my knowledge spoken
out No one informed him of the cause, but he did not fail to dis-
cover it himself, or to take promptly the steps to remedy the evil.
From originating propositions himself he became obviously desirous
to follow the lead of others — instead of the usual confident * and em-
cathedra way of advancing his opinions they were now expressed
with diffidence in moderate terms with well conceived expressions of
deference to those of the elder and more experienced members of
the Senate. The change was observed and appreciated. He had not
only thereafter no more reason than any other member of the Senate
to complain of its want of consideration for what he said or did,
but he contracted a habit of acting and speaking in the body which
was of great value to him there and would have been equally useful
to him in any after stage of public life.

The revulsion in trade and business of every description in 1837
produced a clamor for a revival of the Bankrupt system from large
portions of the people who had ruined themselves by their own
improvidence. Among the many questions put to me by my op-
ponents in the canvass of 1840 — numerous enough to fill a volume—
and answered notwithstanding the silence in which by their advice
their own candidate was shrouded, there were several calling for
my opinion upon that subject. I took in my replies the same

• MS. II, p. 120.

218 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION.

ground that I occupied on the occasion of which I have been speak-
ing and in so doing was not unaware of the costly sacrifice I made
of votes which I would otherwise have received.

The subject of the Judicial system of the United States and its
improvement was also elaborately discussed at this session. The
increase of the number of states and the inability of the Judges
to do equal justice to all made some alteration in the existing or-
ganization of the courts a matter of. high necessity. Several plans
were considered one of which I will notice here because I think
it involves a principle of great importance and because after re-
peated ineffectual efforts for its establishment it seems yet to have
supporters in and out of Congress and will in all probability be
again proposed. This arrangement separates the Justices of the
Supreme Court from the performance of circuit duties and de-
volves them upon circuit Judges, to be appointed for that purpose,
or upon the district Judges.

Although the attempt to require by law that the Judges of the
Supreme Court in the event of the establishment of such a system,
should reside at the seat of Government has not to my knowledge
been actually made yet its propriety has been sustained in Con-
gressional discussions and it is moreover generally conceded that
that consequence would naturally follow without lqgal require-
ment. The struggle for the accomplishment of this object, seldom
avowed but always meant, may be traced through our legislative
history for more than half a century. The Act of 1789, first or-
ganizing the Judicial system of the United States, authorized the
Judges to make temporary allotments of the Circuits among them-
selves, but made no provision in respect to their places of residence.
So the law remained until the celebrated Act of 1801, passed at
the close of the administration of the elder Adams, which provided
for an entire reorganization of the system. It converted the Su-
preme Court into a Court of Appeals, relieved its Judges from
Circuit duties and directed the appointment of nineteen Circuit
Judges for their performance.

The appointment of so large a number of officers for life by an
administration from which the People had already withdrawn their
confidence, and the extension of the Judiciary so far beyond the
wants of the public service, aided by the extraordinary excitement
of the period, drew down upon that Act and its authors the greatest
public odium. The incoming administration of Mr. Jefferson pro-
cured the repeal of the law, the abolition of the offices of the new
Judges, and the substantial reestablishment of the old system. The
talents of the federal party then most conspicuous, were employed
in brilliant but vain efforts to resist these measures. Their enactment

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 219

was denounced as a violation of the Constitution and was held up to
the People, in the forum and in the press, as the first fruits of vic-
torious jacobinism. But these exertions were unavailing. The sys-
tem then in substance restored has ever once prevailed and still
exists because it is the best of which the subject is susceptible.

But one material alteration of the former system was made, and
that was upon the point to which I have referred.

Mr. Jefferson and his associates in the Government saw, as they
believed, in the bold measure of their retiring opponents the extent
to which the latter counted upon the Judicial power as a political
engine, and they saw in the Judiciary the only portion of our politi-
cal system that was virtually irresponsible to the People. They
knew that the possessors of such a power must in the sequel by the
workings of the human heart and the irresistible law of human na-
ture be hostile to the principles upon which the Government should
be conducted and by which its Republican spirit could be alone up-
held. Although the law they were about to repeal did not require
the Judges to reside at the seat of Government, they could not doubt
that such would be the effect and was probably the design of its pro-
visions, of which they foresaw the evil political consequences, and
they applied the only remedy within their reach in providing by law
that the Judges should reside within their respective circuits. The
only exception of this rule was in relation to the state of Virginia.
That state had two judges on the Bench, Chief Justice Marshall and
Justice Washington. In deference to the Father of his Country the
case of Judge Washington was excepted from the otherwise general
provision, and he was not withdrawn from Mount Vernon. Seven
years afterwards when the appointment of an additional Judge
became necessary for Ohio the dame provision was adopted and has
been preserved in every subsequent law by which the system had been
extended to meet the growing exigencies of the service.

But it has not been preserved without a struggle. On the occa-
sion of the proposed appointment of three new Judges, during the
administration of the younger Adams, the adoption of a clause com-
pelling them to reside in their respective circuits was one of two
questions upon which the Houses of Congress differed and through-
their non-concurrence in which the Bill was lost. The proposition
of the House of Representatives was reported and sustained by Mr.
Webster, and that of the Senate by myself. Portions of my obser-
vations at the time upon the subject will be found in .*

It will be perceived by the remarks here referred to that I have
subsequently changed my opinion in regard to the proper tenure of

1 Van Bursa's entire speech, which was deUvered Apr. 7, 1826, Is In Gales and Beaton's
Register of Debates, toI. 2, pt 1, 410-428.

220 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Judicial officers. Some of the reasons for this change are elsewhere
stated. It was founded on observation and reflection and without
prejudice. The tide of public opinion on the subjects of the juris-
diction of the Federal courts and the term for which their Judges
should hold their offices ° has had its ebbs and floods, and it is my
firm belief that the time is not far distant when these questions will
be more seriously agitated.

The future fortunes of Mr. Clay became dependent in a very great
degree upon the success of Mr. Adams. This consideration added to
his views of the public interest, enlisted all his faculties in the
struggle. The contest between Mr. Adams and Gen. Jackson, who
was with great unanimity selected as the republican candidate, was
an arduous one, but was not, after the lapse of a year, considered of
doubtful result on our side. The common rally of the old Repub-
licans in favor of the General caused many Federalists, who had
supported him in the last trial, to leave him now, and with the
exception of a few prominent men in different states the masses of
that party went cordially for Mr. Adams. But a zealous union be-
tween that portion of the republican party who, adhering to its
usages, had shown themselves willing to sacrifice personal prefer-
ences to its harmony, the numerous supporters of Gen. Jackson in
the preceding election who constituted the majority in several of
the states, and the friends of Mr. Calhoun, who controlled South
Carolina and were formidable in many other states, encouraged by
the tried popularity of their candidate, and strengthened by the mis-
management of the administration was too powerful to be resisted,
and Jackson and Calhoun were elected to the offices of President
and Vice President by large majorities.

The same fall my friends called on me to stand as their candi-
date for Governor of New York with a degree of unanimity and
earnestness that did not admit of a refusal, and I was elected by
a plurality of more than 80,000 over my quondam friend Smith
Thompson, who was run for the office without resigning his seat on
the bench of the Supreme Court The anti-ma9onic excitement,
which is too well understood to require explanation, made its first
political demonstration at this election. The criminal transactions 1
which produced it were perpetrated in the midst of a district of
country in the Western part of the state which since the War of
1812 had been strongly on the republican side in party politics,
and owing to this circumstance and to the fact that dislike of
secret societies had always formed a more marked feature of our
creed, the sincere converts to the new party were principally drawn
from our ranks. The votes given for Mr. Southwick, the anti-

.^ i^ an- aBBMa— a^ a»as— aM^ ««^ H^ ■— ^— — ^— •— »

• M8. II, pi 125.

1 The abduction and probable murder of William Morgan in the faU of 1826.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUKEN. 221

masonic candidate for Governor, exceeding in number the majority
by which I was elected over Judge Thompson, were almost exclu-
sively given in this region and at least two-thirds of them taken
from our side.

I entered upon the duties of the office of Governor early in
January, and sent a Message to the Legislature which convened
at the same time. I received soon after a letter from John Ran-
dolph communicating his own and Nathaniel Macon's congratula-
tions upon the character of that paper. Few men were better in-
structed in the principles of the republican party than Mr. Ran-
dolph and there was not one on whose good opinion I placed a
higher value than on that of the venerable Macon.

I held the office of Governor only 1 days and during that

short period succeeded in obtaining the action of the Legislature on
three subjects in which I felt great interest. These consisted of
adequate measures, first, to protect the public and more particularly
the laboring classes, who were most concerned in a sound currency
because they were the most dependent upon it and the least able to
detect what was otherwise, from losses through bank failure; second,
to prevent as far as possible the use of money at the elections, and
third to abolish a particular monopoly8 and thereby to relieve a
valuable portion of the business of the community from unneces-
sary and therefore injurious interference on the part of Government.

Of my consistent opposition to the multiplication of banks and
my readiness to suppress and punish the frauds they have com-
mitted on the public I have before spoken. I think in these respects
the record will not produce the evidence of any man having gone
beyond me, be the merit great or small. Thoroughly satisfied of the
hopelessness of the task of putting a stop to the improper increase
of banks I turned my attention to the consideration of the most
effective measures to protect the most helpless against losses by their
failures. Joshua Forman, of Onondaga county, a plain but prac-
tical and far-seeing man, apprised of my general views in the mat-
ter, submitted for my consideration a plan for the accomplishment
of my object of which I thought favorably and which contained in
a rough state many of the features of the Safety Fund System which
was finally adopted.* I opened communications with those whom I
regarded as the most competent and trustworthy bankers of New
York and Albany and submitted to them the project of Mr. For.
man with my own views of the subject, and after full discussion we

i From Jan. 1, 1829, to Mar. 12, 48 days.

• The bank monopoly, created by the practice of the State accepting a money bonna
for a bank charter.

• Fonnan'a letter dated Jan. 24, 1829, ia in the Van Buren Papers,

222 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

settled upon the plan ultimately submitted to and adopted by the
Legislature. Having an abiding faith in the wisdom and efficacy
of the system, if honestly administered, I have requested my friend,
Major Flagg,1 who as Comptroller of the State had much to do
with its administration, and in whose statements all who knew him
will confide, to give me a brief statement of its workings through-
out. His reply will be found

The law which I assisted in framing to restrain the use of money
in elections is still, I believe, on the statute books, and no one can
doubt its sufficiency if the provisions were fairly executed. I exerted
myself to the uttermost before I left Albany and afterwards from
Washington, by letters to induce my political friends to take a strong
stand in its support at the first election after its passage urging
upon them considerations founded on the unprincipled character
of the practices it was intended to suppress, the special obligation
upon them to abstain from and resist such practices as claiming a
purer political faith than their opponents and finally the inferior
motive of expediency. I assured them that experience had satis-
factorily established the fact that as to the two great parties which
divided the country the spontaneous feelings of a large majority
of the People were on our side ; that whenever we were defeated the
result could generally be traced to specific and extraneous causes;
that with this truth before our eyes nothing could be more unwise
in us than to tolerate practices which exerted an influence upon the
elections in utter disregard of the conduct or principles of the re-
spective parties or of the unbiased inclinations of the People; that
in the use of money the struggle was altogether unequal — the banks,
incorporated companies of all descriptions and the monied interest
being generally against them and able to raise more dollars than they
could cents and that whilst they paid out their driblets their adver-
saries, emboldened by their participation, would carry all before
them by the lavish expenditure of thousands.

I urged them in view of these and other similar considerations
to forbear the use of money themselves, to appoint at their town
meetings a committee whose duty it should be to attend the polls
and to institute prosecution in every case where they had reason
to believe that the law had been violated. But my efforts were un-
availing. Not a single committee was appointed or any efforts to
my knowledge made to carry the law into effect. It has stood °
as a dead letter on the statute book ever since. Excuses were given
by some of my friends that its provisions were too stringent and
that they could .not carry an election without violating some of

1 Asarlah Catting: Flagg. His statement Is missing from the Van Buren Papers.
° MS. II, p. 180.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 223

#

them. Partisans have since waded through seas of corruption in
the profligate use of money in elections — neither side has been
free of offense although nine tenths of the effects produced have
without doubt enured to the benefit of our opponents.

I have ever advocated the abolition of patronage that was not
acquired for the despatch of public business and limiting the in-
terference of the Government in the business concerns of the People
to cases of actual necessity, and [have been] an enemy to monopoly
in any form. Our state being eminently commercial a large and very
valuable portion of its trade was carried on through the medium of
sales by auction. The exclusive right of making such sales had, from
the commencement of the Government, been conferred on officers
called auctioneers, appointed and commissioned like the other officers
of the Government. Appointments of this nature were like others
usually given by both parties to their political supporters, but as
meritorious politicians are neither necessarily or even usually good
men of business or possessed of the means required to carry on
business to advantage, they fell into the habit of transferring their
official rights to those* who were more fortunate in those respects
for a share of the profits. A species of official brokerage was thus
kept on foot and sanctioned from the necessity of the case discredit-
able to the administration of public affairs.

Looking upon the creation of these offices as an extension of pat-
ronage by Government to be a case where it was neither necessary
nor advantageous, and upon the exclusive privileges attached to
them as an injurious monopoly, and satisfied that the business would
be better attended to when left to those who had no other claims
to be employed than those which arose from established character
and proved capacity I recommended to the Legislature to abolish
the offices and to throw the business open to public competition.
This was promptly done, and the results have satisfactorily vindi-
cated the wisdom of the policy.

CHAPTER XX.

°I received a letter from Gen. Jackson, soon after his arrival
at Washington, offering me the place of Secretary of State of the
United States *— a wholly unsolicited $ep. I had expressed no desire
to receive that or any other appointment at his hands, either to
him or to any other person and I have every reason to believe that
no advances to that end were ever made on the part of my personal
friends. He said in a published letter : " I called him [Mr. V. B.] to
the Department of State influenced by the general wish and expecta-
tion of the republican party throughout the Union." This position,
like every other office or nomination save one, bestowed upon me
in the course of my long public life, came to me without interference
on my part, direct or indirect, and in the execution of the well under-
stood wish of the great majority of the political party of which I

Jwas a member. My election to the New York State Senate, the first
elective office I ever held, was the exception referred to. The cir-
cumstances under which I then felt myself constrained to interfere
personally in support of a nomination, which I not only did not
wish but stood ready to decline, have been unreservedly stated in ah

# earlier part of this work. With that single exception my observance
of that abstinence from personal efforts to acquire political advance-
ment, which was once inexorably demanded by the habits and feel-
ings of Northern people, has been uniform. On the most interesting
occasion of all — when my acts and motives were most unsparingly
assailed — that of my acceptance of the Presidential nomination, I
flung before my opponents, including a large number whom I had
been constrained, by views of public duty, to make such, altho' pre-
viously close and confidential friends, a challenge upon this theme,
to which it will be admitted no one would have ventured to resort,
at such a time, who was not well assured of his invulnerable position.
My second nomination for the State Senate was made with per-
fect unanimity. The opposition made to my appointment as Attor-
ney General, under the State Government, in 1815, was an indi-
vidual effort by Judge Spencer, whose influence in such matters
had before been irresistible, to punish me for refusing to sustain
his views in relation to the choice of U. S. Senator, by defeating
an appointment against which there was not, until that attempt,
a known dissentient in the party to which we both belonged; an
appointment by the way, of which he was, at an earlier period,

• MS. Ill, p. 1.

1 This letter, Feb. 15, 1829, is in the Van Boxen Papers.
224

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 225

the first to suggest the fitness and of which he was an advocate until
his favor was changed into hostility in the way I have stated. The
principal features of that affair have been described already and
I will only add here the Gov. Tompkins delayed his casting vote,
at the Council, between Judge Wbodworth and myself — giving to
it a quasi-public character by announcing it at the Capitol — and
declared in giving it that he decided the question in my favor be-
cause he believed me to be competent to discharge the duties of the
office and because he knew that my appointment was confidently
expected by the party by which he had himself been elected. To
this it may with truth be added that there was at the moment some
coolness between the Governor and myself growing out of his ap-
pointments in my county, and that altho9 the question upon the tie
vote of the Council was pending before him some days, he was not
approached upon the subject either by myself or by any of my
f riencls, to my knowledge or belief. Having been removed from
the office of Attorney General under circumstances already noticed
1 was, upon the return of my political friends to power, appointed
XL S. Senator, without disagreement among them. After the ex-
piration of six years, my re-nomination in caucas was made with
great unanimity and received no opposition in the Legislature save
from my political opponents. My nomination for the office of
Governor was also made without opposition, and against my wishes,
by a State Convention. Of my appointment as Secretary of State
I have just spoken, and to that of Minister to England there was no
dissent, save by the antagonists of my party. I was made a candi-
date for the office of Vice-President of the United States in pursu-
ance of the spontaneous and united demand of the democracy of the
Nation ; a complimentary vote was given in Convention to two other
gentlemen by the delegates of their respective States, who were, in
point of fact, as friendly to my selection as were those who advocated
it from the first, but the nomination was forthwith made unanimous
in form as it was in the wishes of the mass of the democratic party.

I received my nomination as the democratic candidate for the
office of President of the United States from the National Demo-
cratic Convention of 1835* and again, after a four years incumbency,

♦ At the election, following this nomination, I was deprived of the votes of the States
of Tennessee, Georgia and even of that of the thoroghly democratic State of Alabama,
by a combination between the friends of Jndge White, of Tennessee, and of Mr. Calhoan
with the undivided opposition to President Jackson's administration In those States.
The Judge had not been a candidate before the convention. He was naturally honest,
aJhto' open to prejudices, and more self-willed by far than General Jackson himself.
When Major Baton quitted the War Department I advised the President to offer the
place to Judge White, and, as his own family had left him, in consequence of the Baton
imbroglio, I was particularly desirous that he should invite the Judge also, who was
then a widower, to reside with him, with which he complied. Knowing the Judge only
as the active and open friend of Gen. Jackson, I was not a little struck by the care and

127488°— vol 2—20 15

226 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

from a similar convention in 1840, by the votes of every member of
those bodies. Defeated in 1840, thro' well understood causes, the
great majority of the democratic masses rallied for the restoration

■ ■ ■ — ^^^— — ^»- ■ M ^^^— ^^^^— ■ ■ «i ■ m ^— — ■ ■ ■ — *—<— — <^— ^— ■■■■■ ■■■■■ — ^ ^ i^^^— ^^^^^

circumspection which the latter evinced in every step he took in the matter, but when
Judge White declined and I became better acquainted with the personal feeling of both
parties, I had no difficulty In understanding what before appeared inexplicable. I had
no special claims upon the Judge, but It cost him a .great effort to separate from the
General, who admonished him, as well as his wife (after his second marriage). In his
usual unreserved and emphatic way, of the consequences of the step he was about
to take. But Mr. Bell, of Tennessee, chosen Speaker of the House over Mr. Polk, by
the votes of the opposition and of democratic members disaffected towards the Jackson
administration, and Mr. Webster, by his attentions particularly to a member of the
Judge's family as well as to him, overcame his scruples.

I have always believed that if I had possessed a tithe of the skill in subtle manage-
ment and of the spirit of intrigue, so liberally charged upon me by my opponents, and
upon the strength of which they gave me the title of " magician," I could have turned
aside the opposition which sprang from that source without much difficulty. Mr.
Speaker Bell, ttao' not one of Judge White's closest friends, doubtless controlled his
action in the matter by force of superior capacity and knowledge. He had a^ passion
for political intrigue and occupied at the moment a position of difficulty and hazard
from the circumstances attending his elevation to the chair. I received frequent hints
of a desire on his part to hold a confidential conversation with me and was one day
Invited to dine with a mutual friend well disposed to his advancement; informed (be-
fore hand) that the Speaker would be the only other gentleman Invited, I expected that
the subject of the Presidential election would be introduced and could easily imagine
the shape of the suggestions that would be made. Bell and Polk were at the head of
rival interests in Tennessee, and the treatment they might respectively expect to receive
from the new administration, if I should be elected, was a matter of Interest to both.
After the ladies retired, the subject was, as I had foreseen, introduced, but a severe tooth-
ache compelled me to decline the conversation and to retire almost Immediately. We
separated with the significant expression, by the Speaker, of a hope that I might not
have a tooth-ache when we should meet again. This occurred shortly after the com-
mencement of the session of Congress of 1834-5. Some days thereafter, and on the
last day of December, when Mr. Adams delivered before Congress, his address on the
Life and Character of Lafayette, another attempt to converse upon the matter was
made. The Senate repairing to the Representative Chamber, I, as the presiding officer
of that body, was of course placed by the side of the Speaker. He Introduced the sub-
ject by an expression of his regret that the republican party was to be divided by the
nomination of Judge White and the satisfaction he would derive from an amicamW
adjustment of the matter, and proceeded to say that such progress had been mader
and such a point reached as made it Indispensable that whatever was to be done to
arrest it should be done immediately. Determined from the beginning to make no ex-
planations as to the course I would pursue If elected, In regard to personal interests.
I put a civil end to the conversation by a few general remarks in regard to the duty
that the friends of Judge White owed to the republican cause and my convictions that
they could not so far forget it, as well as their interest, as to disregard both by the.
course indicated, and closed with an observation on the speech which was being delivered
in front of us.

Struck by the peculiarity of the time and occasion selected by the Speaker for this
communication I turned with greater interest to the correspondence between Judge
White and the Tennessee delegation (Mr. Bell being one of them), soon after published,
and found that It was only on the previous evening that the delegation had obtained his
consent to the use of his name and that there was therefore great reason for the urgency
manifested, arising from the necessity for speedy action.

It was Immediately afterwards announced in the Tennessee newspaper, which was
regarded as the Judge's organ, that his name would not be withdrawn, and the sequel
is known. His resignation as Senator and final retirement from public life, conscious
of the extent to which he had been deceived and used, and sick of politics, followed
immediately upon the result of the election.

When his old colleague, Mr. Grundy, reached Washington, I inquired after the Judge
and was answered by that facetious and worthy man as follows: "You ask me how he
spends his time ! I will tell you : — he sits all the day long in the chimney corner, spit-
ting tobacco juice by the gallon, cursing everything and everybody, except his Creator,—
but thinking devilish hard of Him ! " Note by Van Buren.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTTK YAK BTJBEK. 227

of their overthrown principles, by the instrumentality of my re-
elevation to ° the Presidency. More than three fourths of the States
instructed their delegates either in express terms, or thro9 unmis-
takable avowals of their preferences, to vote for my nomination.
Their wishes were, however, defeated at the Baltimore Convention
by the intrigues of politicians of which a brief notice will be taken
at the proper place.

The unqualified resolutions of respect and confidence adopted with
entire unanimity, by both branches of the Legislature of New York,
on my resignation of the office of Governor, with the feelings of
personal regard manifested by the citizens of Albany, without dis-
tinction of parties, was the first let up in party violence that I had
ever experienced. These exhibitions of friendly and liberal senti-
ments, coming, to a considerable extent from men between whom
and myself there had been, for about a quarter of a century, a cease-
less partisan contest, always more or less acrimonious, affected me
deeply — I need not say, most agreeably ; not solely on my individual
account but on account also of the evidence they presented that
there lies at the bottom of our party divisions a mass of kind and
generous feelings, on all sides, waiting only fit occasions for their
display.

On my way out of the city I paid my last visit to the venerable
John Taylor, then supposed to be on his death-bed ; a sad anticipa-
tion which was soon realized. Gov. Taylor was no ordinary man.
From a comparatively obscure condition in life he had by his own
unaided efforts raised himself to a position of much influence in
the Government, and to the first rank in society. From the begin-
ning a devoted personal and political friend of George Clinton he
nevertheless cultivated friendly and social relations with General
Schuyler, General Hamilton and many other distinguished federal-
ists, and there were, for many years, few private tables at which
leading and eminent men of opposing politics were more frequently
assembled than at his — none certainly at which a generous and
elegant hospitality was more liberally dispensed, a gratification in
which an ample estate, acquired by his own industry and without
reproach, enabled him freely to indulge himself.

On my first entrance upon public life he heard me with great
kindness, and altho' we had been occasionally at issue in the State
legislature and sometimes quite warmly, I never had reason to
apprehend thftt those collisions had produced any change in his
personal feelings towards me. The most important as well as the
most exciting occasion on which we came in conflict related to the
course we respectively pursued in regard to Gov. De Witt Clinton.

* M&. Ill, ik 5.

228 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

He opposed, as has been related, the election of that gentleman
for the Presidency in 1812. In doing so it must now be admitted
that he acted a wiser part than I did, and I have before referred
to the apparent asperity with which, on that occasion, he resented
my course in the State Caucus. But, as I have also mentioned,
his disposition towards Governor Clinton was subsequently entirely
changed, and when the latter became finally separated from the
republican party, Gov. Taylor's long indulged partiality for the
Clintons proved too strong to prevent him from adopting the same
course. From that period to the day of his death we were opposed
to each other in politics, but there never was a time when my feel-
ings towards him were not of the kindest character and if I could
ever have doubted his cordial reciprocation of them such doubts
would have been effectually removed by our last interview.

Apprised of my intention to call on him he had caused himself
to be supported in a sitting position and was attended only by his
adopted daughter, Mrs. Cooper, one of the very best of women.9
Taking my hand, at first, in both of his own and retaining his hold
by one until I left, with every sign of regard, he referred briefly
and impressively to his own hopeless condition and to the extreme
improbability of our ever meeting again in life, and then spoke,
earnestly and feelingly, of our past relations, of the length of time
during which we had acted together in the service of the State,
of the occasions on which we had taken different views of the public
interest and of the momentary excitements they had produced,
dwelt upon the respect and kindness I had extended to him at all
times, and assured me in very gratifying words of the favorable
opinions he had formed of my character. He then adverted to
the subject of the journey upon which I had started, the new duties
upon which I was about to enter, and in flattering terms, to results
which might be anticipated from them if my future course was as
discreet as the past had appeared to him to have been, and, with
the expression of a sincere wish that my future life might be a
happy one and that my political career might be crowned with com-
plete success, he bade me a final and affectionate farewell.

I need not say how cordially I reciprocated the assurances of
respect and regard with which the dying patriot honored me, nor
will I attempt to describe the satisfaction I derived from the circum-
stance that my residence at Albany, theretofore so stormy and harass-
ing, had been closed by an interview which, in every respect save that
it was destined to be the last, was so truly gratifying.

My health had been reduced by the pressure of business to a state
which rendered travelling painful, and the irksomeness of my jour-

» MS. Ill, p. 10.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURKN. 229

ney was not a little aggravated by the accounts which I received
from friends whom I met on my way of the condition of things at
Washington. Mr, Woodbury arrived at New York after I had
retired for the night, and knowing that I was to leave early in the
morning, he obtained permission to see me in my bed-chamber. His
enumeration of the friends who were dissatisfied with the forma-
tion of the Cabinet, and the dispositions they had indicated, was
rendered more imposing by my knowledge of his usual discretion in
speaking of such things. Yet whilst I placed much confidence in
his good sense and regard to truth, I was well apprised of the extent
of his disappointment in not having been himself selected for the
Cabinet, as he, perhaps, ought to have been, and was therefore in-
clined to make liberal deductions from his description on account of
the natural effects of such a condition of mind upon the views of
most menu At Philadelphia I had a long and gloomy interview
with Mr. and Mrs. Livingston also just from Washington, Mr. Liv-
ingston's situation was, in one respect, the reverse of Woodbury's, as
he held in his pocket President Jackson's unconditional offer of the
mission to France — the only place he desired to occupy. Yet their
description of the unpromising state of things at the White House
was notwithstanding still more emphasized than the first, especially
in regard to matters which were peculiarly within the range of
female cognisance and which, tho' not of the highest, are still of
considerable importance. On probing the sources of their somewhat
dismal forebodings to the bottom, I was gratified to discover that.
Mr. Livingston's confidence in the strong sense, perfect purity and
unconquerable firmness of the President, which I had all along re-
garded as the promising features of his character with reference to
his new position, had not suffered any abatement. He was as well
satisfied as he ever had been that no man or set of men could ever
lead the General to do an unworthy action, and that his willing-
ness to hear and respect counsel from those who might be better
instructed than himself, in respect to particular points, might under
all circumstances be relied on. An apprehension, founded on the
assumption that an influence was exerted over the President which
would, in the natural course of things, in respect to the social phases
of the Presidential Mansion, lead to degradation and contempt in
the eyes of foreigners and of good society in general, was found to
be the principal source of their fears. They informed me at the
same time of the offer of the Mission to France and of their confident
expectation that Mr. Livingston would be able to accept it. It was
therefore only necessary to refer to the probability that they would
be the persons most exposed to annoyances at a foreign court, from
any scandal that might obtain circulation upon that point, to lead
me to the inference that their description was an exaggerated one,

230 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

made such to induce me to take early and effective steps to prevent
or to remedy the evils they apprehended.

Thus far were those intelligent and estimable people from fore-
seeing what soon became obvious to qualified observers, that Presi-
dent Jackson's receptions at the Presidential Mansion would cer-
tainly not be considered inferior, either in the cost or brilliancy of
his entertainments or in the grace and dignity with which his guests
were received, as well by himself as by the female members of his
family, or in the genuine hospitality which they dispensed, to those
of any of his most distinguished predecessors.

But my strongest "pose" was reserved for my arrival at New
Castle. As our boat approached the wharf at that place I recog-
nized among the crowd, as I expected to do, my particular friend
Mr. McLane, with disappointment and deep mortification stamped
upon every line of his intelligent countenance. His personal antici-
pations in regard to the composition of the Cabinet had been higher
and, as he and his friends supposed, better founded than those of Mr.
Woodbury. He took my arm as I stepped on shore and proposed
that we should walk on in advance of the stagecoach, which was
sufficiently delayed to give us a tramp, not a little fatiguing to me
in my state of health, but which gave him a fair opportunity to
relieve his mind, so far as that could be done by " unpacking his
heart with words." He took the parole at once and kept it until
the coach overtook us. In the course of his. excited harangue, for
such it literally was, he described, in the earnest and energetic man-
ner usual with him when deeply moved, the degraded condition to
which he thought the administration already reduced thro' the ad-
vice of the evil counsellors by whofa General Jackson was sur-
rounded, and in conclusion referred to a letter that he had written
to me at Albany immediately after the selection of the Cabinet.
In that letter, after saying that such a Cabinet required no comment
and that he could not see how it could command public confidence,
and raising a series of objections to the official arrangement, he sub-
mitted to my reflections whether the interests of my friends and of
the Country required of me the sacrifice of assisting in an attempt to
repair its defects and to give strength to the administration, or
whether I should not rather remain in my elevated position in the
State of New York and leave these strange occurrences to run their
course. As I had already resigned the office of Governor, to which
he referred in his letter, he now spoke, with obvious hesitation, in
respect to my throwing up that of Secretary of State, not recom-
mending such a course specifically but giving most emphatic assur-
ances of the indispensable necessity of great changes in the existing
organization of the Government as the only way by which that
step could be avoided without subjecting myself to great discredit

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 281

There were unfortunately many others who had been prominent
and active in the support of General Jackson's election scarcely less
dissatisfied with the Cabinet selections. Hie best known and most
influential politicians of this description in Virginia and in South
Carolina very generally shared in that feeling; and what made this
matter more embarrassing to myself was the fact that they consti-
tuted a class with whom my relations both personal and political
had been the closest, who passed as my zealous friends and who
had been from the beginning and to a man, in favor of my being
placed at the head of the new Cabinet General Hamilton, of South
Carolina, a very prominent man amongst them, told my friend Cam-
breleng, as he informed me by letter before I left Albany, that " if
T went into the Cabinet I would cut my throat." There was prob-
ably not one of these malcontents more disappointed than myself
by the composition of the administration. I had been, perhaps, at
too great a distance to be conveniently consulted on the subject ° by
the President elect, if he had been that way disposed, but my atten-
tion had been throughout directed to other quarters. Except Mr.
Ingham, the new Secretary of the Treasury, I had not heard that
either of the successful gentlemen had been proposed for the Cabi-
net before I received the news of their selection. It was besides not
in my power to regard some of them, though deficient neither in
character nor in social or general respectability, as well adapted to
a satisfactory performance off the duties to which they had been
appointed. Thus situated I could not allow any considerations not
involving a sacrifice of personal honor to prevent my acceptance of
the President's invitation, and I continued my progress to the seat
of Government with the same determination with which I had left
Albany, that of contributing all in my power to secure the success
of the administration. '

It was after dark when I reached Washington and the coach had
barely arrived at the hotel before it was surrouned by a crowd of ap-
plicants for office whose cases had been deferred until the Cabinet
should be full. They followed me into and filled my room, where,
from a sofa on which my health compelled me to lie, I informed them
that it was my intention to pay my respects to the President within
an hour, until the expiration of which time I would listen patiently
to any thing they desired to say. They proceeded accordingly to
communicate their respective wishes, and when it became necessary
to close the interview I informed them that I would carefully ex-
amine the papers in such cases as belonged to my department and
would endeavor to do justice to their applications, but that I was in-
disposed to see persons who desired appointments seeking them in

* ms in, p. is.

232 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

person at the seat of Government and disinclined to report in favor
of such as did not leave their cases to the justice of the President
and go home.

A solitary lamp in the vestibule and a single candle in the Presi-
dent's office gave no promise of the cordiality with which I was,
notwithstanding, greeted by General Jackson on my visit to the
White House. I found no one with him except his intimate friend
Major Lewis. His health was poor, and his spirits depressed as
well by his recent bereavement of his wife as by the trials of per-
sonal and political friendship which he had been obliged to en-
counter in the organization of his Cabinet. This was our first meet-
ing as political friends and it was certainly a peculiar feature in that
interview and no insignificant illustration of his nature that he
received with most affectionate eagerness, at the very threshold of
his administration, the individual destined to occupy the first place
in his confidence, of whose character his only opportunities to learn
anything by personal observation had been presented during periods
of active political hostility.

He soon noticed my exhaustion from sickness and travel and, con-
siderately postponing all business to an appointed hour of the next
day, recommended me to my bed.

From that night to the day of his death the relations, sometimes
official, always political and personal, were inviolably maintained
between that noble old man and myself, the cordial and confidential
character of which can never have been surpassed among public
men. The history of those associations I propose to relate and to
accompany it with an unreserved publication of our entire corre-
spondence. But before entering upon this work it may be useful
that I should give a succinct account of our personal and political
intercourse from the commencement of our acquaintance to the time
of his elevation to the Presidency.

I was presented to General Jackson for the first time, at Wash-
ington in the winter of 1815-16, whilst on a visit to that city, to
which- place he had been called by the exciting contest that grew
out of his Seminole campaign. Partaking of the extraordinary in-
terest which he inspired wherever he went I sought an introduc-
tion to him at the very moment of his departure for Tennessee, and
did not see him again until I met him, in 1828, on the floor of the
Senate of the United States, of which body he had become a member.
Although we agreed better in our fundamental opinions and prin-
ciples than I. did with many with whom I was acting, it so happened
that we had taken different sides on occasions of an exciting charac-
ter. He visited New York at a period when the contest between
Gov. DeWitt Clinton and a majority of the republican party of that

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUKEN. 233

State stood at fever-heat, and having been invited to a public din-
ner by the Tammany Society, which constituted one of the leading
interests in opposition to Mr. Clinton, he gave a toast, when called
upon, highly complimentary to that gentleman. We were of course
very much stirred up at being thus snubbed, as we considered it,
by the gallant General,— more so doubtless than the occasion called
for. He not only was no politician, but was, at that time, openly
and zealously advocating the mitigation if not the entire suppres-
sion of party divisions amongst us. It may be very well doubted
whether he made himself at all acquainted with the nature or extent
of the controversy in which he seemed to take a part. We invited
him as a meritorious Chief who had rendered the Country great serv-
ice, we could not think him capable of offering an insult to his
entertainers, we could well afford to allow the right of opinion
in its fullest latitude, and there was, it must now be confessed,
enough in the character and public services of Mr. Clinton to jus-
tify the General's admiration and respect, even admitting the im-
putation of political infidelity which we preferred against him to
have been well founded. The General was, moreover, in those days,
as I have just intimated, an advocate of Mr. Monroe's amalgama-
tion policy, which we, on the other hand, regarded as the gross
delusion which it proved to be, — an opinion in which Jackson, be-
fore the end of his first Presidential term, not only cordially con-
curred but was inclined at times to carry too far in the opposite
direction.

He made his appearance in the Senate in the double character
of one of the Senators from Tennessee and her candidate for the
office of President of the United States, and among those who op-
posed his election to the latter place there was scarcely one more
actively and zealously employed than myself; an opposition which
extended alike to1 Mr. Adams and to himself and which was neither
relaxed nor intermitted until the final settlement of the question
by the House of Representatives. But these differences did not
produce the slightest trace; of ill blood between us. Our personal
intercourse from the day we met in the Senate to the end of the
severe Presidential canvass of 1824, was, on the contrary uniformly
kind and courteous, altho' circumstances occurred which, unex-
plained, were well calculated to put his self-control at least for the
moment, to severe tests.

In November 1816, after Mr. Monroe's elevation to the* Presi-
dency had become certain, General Jackson wrote a friendly letter
to him in respect to the' formation of his Cabinet1

•

> See note to jk 108 ante.

2S4 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

•

In that letter he said : — " Every thing depends upon the selection
of your ministry. Now is the time to exterminate that monster
called party-spirit." Whatever may then have been the real state
of Mr. Monroe's feelings in respect to the General's advice, he did
not deem its immediate adoption either safe or prudent. He had
been elected as the nominee of a party caucus and as the successor
of two Presidents in whose support0 a similar agency had been
employed. To have pursued a course like that" recommended to
him by General Jackson, under such circumstances, and in the then
state of public opinion, could not have failed to prove disastrous
to his administration. He therefore wrote to the General an elab-
orate answer, complimenting his liberality but pointing out the
inexpediency of the course he had proposed. In 1821-2, when his
first term was about to expire and his re-election for the second
had been carried, with only a single electoral vote against him in
the whole Country, Mr. Monroe became, as I have elsewhere fully
described, ready and anxious to carry into effect the policy recom-
mended to him by the General four years before. The course pur-
sued by his administration to that end was contrary to the general
sentiment of the republicans and was met with particular and very
marked hostility at two points, as we have seen, to wit: in New
York and Pennsylvania; the demonstrations against the Presi-
dent's policy in the former state growing out of the appointment
of a postmaster at Albany and of the nomination of Irish,1' an out
and out federalist, for the office of Marshal of the Western District
of Pennsylvania, in the latter.

Both of the Pennsylvania Senators remonstrated earnestly with
Mr. Monroe against this nomination on the express ground that
it was made in the execution of that amalgamation policy to
which they and their State were opposed. It was notwithstanding
made and they carried the question to the Senate, where it was
thoroughly canvassed, and by which body * the nomination was
rejected by a vote of 26 to 14 ; the dissentients being, of course, and
to a man, republicans. To silence the opposition of Pennsylvania,
the President, in the course of his discussions with the Senators from
that State, read to them the letter received in 1816 from General
Jackson who was already looked upon as a probable candidate for
the Presidency and understood to be the favorite of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Monroe also, as it subsequently appeared, read the letter to
several other members of Congress to remove their Objections to
the policy he was pursuing. As the letter was shewn to the Pennsyl-
vania Senators, in connection with the performance of their public
duties, and in no sense confidentially, they both spoke of the sub-

* MS. Ill, p. 20. « William B. IrlBh.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIK VAN BUREN. 235

ject without reserve. The interest of the public in the matter of
coarse increased with the improvement of the General's prospects
of success and the affair soon got into the newspapers and caused
a great sensation, particularly in the Western District of Pennsyl-
vania, which was the stronghold and headquarters of the demo-
cratic party of that State and already much excited by it. The
Crawford newspapers circulated far and near the charge that Jack-
son had written such a letter. The papers which supported Jackson,
well aware that, if written, it could not be successfully defended in
that State, denied that the General had written or that Mr. Monroe
had received any letter of the kind.

Messrs. Lowrie and Findley,1 the Senators, were called out from
all parts of the State. Findlay, who was in favor of Jackson, re-
fused to say what he knew whilst Lowrie, who was a Crawford
man, although he had taken no steps towards a publication of the
facts, stated them publicly and truly. George Krehmer, the ever
active friend of Gen. Jackson, applied to Mr. Monroe for infor-
mation and he authorized him to say that it was false that the Gen-
eral had ever written to him such a letter as Krehmer described.
Gen. Jackson substantially authorized Krehmer to say the same
thing, declaring at the same time that he had reserved no copy
of the letter and spoke only from memory. These denials were
literally well founded because Krehmer's description of the letter
was materially variant from the letter itself.

A protracted correspondence ensued, the parties to which were
the President, his son-in-law, Mr. Hay, Gen. Jackson and Mr.
Lowrie. The latter removed the technical grounds upon which
these denials were founded by setting forth the contents of the
letter according to his recollection of them and as he had declared
them to be and called, in respectful terms, upon Mr. Monroe to
publish Gen. Jackson's letter, a demand which he thought him-
self entitled to make as it had been shewn to him to influence his
course in the performance of a public duty and without reserve.
Mr. Monroe refused to explain. Lowrie was thus brought in
collision, upon a question of veracity, with two of the most power-
ful men in the Country, and the Jackson newspapers, as well as
those in favor of other candidates, regarding Crawford as the
strongest rival of their respective favorites and desiring therefore
to reduce his strength, attacked him [Lowrie] with much violence.
My opportunities to become acquainted with his [Lowrie] character
were, very ample and I never met with a more upright and virtuous
man in the course of my life.

Whilst the affair was in this condition, Mr. Lowrie's mail was one
morning laid upon his desk, by one of the pages of the Senate, at a

* Walter Lowrie and William Findlay.

236 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

moment when my attention happened to be directed towards him.
Sitting next to him I perceived that, on opening one of his letters,
he turned very pale. To my enquiry as to the cause he replied quickly
" See this!", and on examining the letter we found, to our amaze-
ment, that it enclosed a copy of Mr. Monroe's reply to the letter
from Gen. Jackson which the former had shewn to himself and
Findlay. The copy was partly in Mr. Monroe's handwriting and the
residue in that of his son-in-law, Mr. Hay, who had published several
violent attacks upon Lowrie. It sustained everything that had been
said by the latter and was accompanied by a brief anonymous note
to the effect that the writer had been induced to send it to him by
seeing the injustice which he was suffering.

Struck by the delicacy of the affair in all its aspects and by a sense
of the extent to which the possession of such a paper, in the absence
of a satisfactory explanation as to the maimer in which it had come
to Mr. Lowrie's hands, might be made to increase his embarrass-
ments, I held the letter in my hand and beckoned to Mr. Macon to
come to my seat. He did so immediately when I informed him of
its contents, that I had seen Mr. Lowrie receive and open it, that he
had immediately placed the enclosure in my hands and that Mr.
Lowrie and myself asked the favor of him to take the papers into
his possession, to authorize Mr. Lowrie to state publicly that they
were in his keeping and to refer those who desired to see them to
him for that purpose. Of the character of that venerable and just
man, whose fame was and is co-extensive with our Country and
whom all who^ knew him honored and esteemed for his exemplary
purity, I have already spoken. There was perhaps no feature more
marked in his long and creditable life than his freedom from the
personal contentions to which public men are so often exposed. Pur-
suing the even tenor of his way he seldom meddled in other men's
affairs or became a party to their quarrels, but on this occasion, and
without hesitation he replied, — -"Yes! yes! Give them to me.
Lowrie is an honest young man — he has had great injustice done
him. Give me the papers and I will stand by him be the conse-
quences what they may." I gave him the letter, which had upon
it the Richmond', Va., post mark, and which with its enclosures, he
placed in the inner pocket of his coat, buttoning it up tightly as he
walked away to his seat.

Lowrie immediately apprised Mr. Monroe by a note that he was
in possession of a copy of his reply to Gen. Jackson's letter and of the
maimer in which it had come into his hands. He avowed his inten-
tion to keep it as a protection against the charges which had been
made against him, to a considerable extent with Mr. Monroe's co-
operation, and urged him again to relieve him from the painful di-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YAK BUREN. 237

lemma in which he was placed, by the publication of Jackson's let-
ter; a document which Mr. Monroe had dedicated to public use by
employing it as an excuse for his official course, to which act and
its subsequent denial the difficulties in which Lowrie had been in-
volved were fairly attributable. He also sent his friends Judge
Baldwin and Speaker Stevenson1 to the President to ascertain
whether he had received his note and what he intended to do in the
premises. Mr. Monroe's reply on both occasions was simply that he
had not decided to take any further steps in the matter. °By this
new phase of the controversy in which Lowrie had heretofore had
the worst in consequence of the weight and power of his opponents,
the tables were turned against them. His friends justified his reten-
tion of the letter on the ground of its necessity to his defense in a
matter in which it was now evident to all that he was the injured
party and no proceedings could have been instituted to compel its
surrender which would not disclose its contents. Nor was the dissat-
isfaction of General Jackson with the course that had been pursued,
which had been obvious from the beginning, at all diminished by
the turn it had now taken. When he gave the advice in question he
was Commander-in-Chief of the Army, with a soldier's antipathy
to party politics and not regarding himself, in all probability, as
within the range of Presidential candidates. When, several years
after it was written, the use was made of his letter which produced
all this evil, he was very likely to become one and was actually nomi-
nated by his State a few months afterwards, and his strongest sup-
port was believed to be in Pennsylvania, where the doctrines he was
charged with advancing were especially unacceptable, quite as much
so as in any State in the Union, and where from the circumstances
of the case the knowledge of their having been so advanced was in a
fair way to be brought to every man's door. Besides the great and
well understood change in his position, he may have entertained a
different opinion upon the point, as was certainly the case after-
wards. All these things were open to Mr. Monroe's observation and
reflection and it is difficult to believe that General Jackson was
otherwise than dissatisfied that the President should have overlooked
or disregarded them, when, after the lapse of years and without
even asking his consent, he employed the advice given him in the way
and under the circumstances, I have described.

Doubtless in other respects the course that the matter had taken
was very galling to the General. He hated concealments. There
was no trait in his character more obvious to others or more proudly
and justly asserted by himself than his fearlessness in declarin

* Henry Baldwin of Connecticut and Andrew Stevenson. * MS. Ill, p. 25.

238 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION".

his opinions and his readiness to bear any responsibility attaching
to the avowal of them. With the knowledge that I now have of
him, in that respect, I can well understand the mortification he
endured from seeming to be privy and consenting to an evasion
in regard to his opinions, and the correspondence between him and
Mr. Monroe plainly discloses the existence of this chagrin.

Mr. Krehmer once more stepped forward and addressed him on
the subject In the General's reply, which was throughout respect-
ful to Lowrie, after saying that his correspondence with Mr. Monroe
was private and confidential, although denying the version of hi**
letter which he erroneously understood Mr. Lowrie to have given
to it, he broke through the entanglements into which he had suf-
fered himself to be drawn by a species of special pleading foreign
to his nature and habits by admitting that his advice to Mr. Monroe
had been to select for his Cabinet " men of probity and talents with-
out regard to party." This was the substance of the advice con-
tained in his letter to the President now expressed with more caution
and in a way well calculated to make favorable impressions on the
minds of large portions of the People.

Having thus relieved himself from the quibbles that had been
resorted to in his behalf by inferior minds, he said, " My opinions
and sentiments such as they have been written or expressed, at any
time, each and every one are at all times welcome to. In public
or in private letters I but breathe the sentiments I feel and which
my judgment sanctions, and no disposition will ever be entertained
by me either to disguise or suppress them."

He also informed Mr. Krehmer that Mr. Monroe had placed all
his letters, at his own instance, in the hands of Major Eaton, with
a view to their immediate publication. They were published and
everything alleged by Mr. Lowrie in regard to the contents of the
one read to him was fully sustained by the letter itself, and his
course was not only fully vindicated before the Country but left
impressions on the minds of his brother Senators which sought and
soon found an opportunity for their gratification by his election to
the profitable and honorable office of Secretary of the Senate. This
place he held for many years during the most exciting periods in
our political history and discharged its duties with credit to himself
and to the satisfaction of every member of the body; at least I
never heard the slightest complaint, from any source, of his official
conduct and I have no doubt that he might have continued in the
position, if he had desired it, to the present day. It was in refer-
ence to him that John Randolph uttered the witty paradox, which
contained an undisputed truth, ''that altho' he could neither read
nor write he was the best clerk that any public body was ever

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 239

favored with ! " His reading was certainly not of the best and his
penmanship egregious, but there was in him beside punctuality, in-
dustry and order, a personal amiability which won the hearts, and
a firm integrity and sound sense which commanded the respect, and
confidence of all the Senators.

His seat, while Senator, was, as I have said, next to mine and
that of General Jackson directly before us. Altho? well advised of
the extent to which Mr. Lowrie had been sustained and counselled
by me thro' the trying positions in which he had been placed, the
General seldom took his seat in the morning, especially whilst the
matters of which I have been speaking were in progress, without
exchanging friendly salutations and shaking hands with both of
us* His respect for Lowrie was doubtless increased by the fact that
the latter called upon him the moment the affair was made public,
gave him an account of the contents of the letter read to him by
Mr. Monroe, as they afterwards appeared, justified himself in
speaking of the matter as he had done, but denied having had any
agency in bringing the matter into the newspapers. The General
was pleased with his candor and obvious sincerity and assured him
that he should never object to let the letter speak for itself by its
publication.

I had good reasons to know that he cherished feelings of warm
regard towards Mr. Lowrie to the last and, at the time, I was well
satisfied that the whole transaction, so far from exciting his prej-
udices against either impressed him most favorably towards both
of ua

Gen. Jackson's position in respect to the Tariff of 1891, acted
upon on the eve of the Presidential election, was an embarrassing
one. Pennsylvania, a strong tariff State, had been among the first
to embrace his cause and she had done so with great zeal and
power. A still larger portion of his strength was supposed to lie in
the Southern and South Western States, which were all anti-tariff.
He entered Congress with a general bias in favor of protection but
with several reservations, the most prominent among which was a de-
sire to limit Legislative encouragement to articles necessary to the de-
fence of the Country in time of War. Altho' averse to the prostitu-
tion of a question so deeply affecting the interests of the Country
by using it for mere partisan purposes, he was, at the same time,
unwilling to submit quietly to such an application of it by his
enemies to his own prejudice. His military career, peculiar and
difficult as was its character, had given him a spirit of watchfulness
in regard to the movements of his enemies which was revived by
the perplexing situation in which he found himself between Penn-
sylvania, his Northern head-quarters, and the anti-tariff States of
the South and stimulated into action by the obvious and persevering

240 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

efforts of his opponents to prejudice him, thro9 that channel, in the
estimation of both. In this dilemma, and following his natural and
always strong impulses to defeat the machinations of his enemies,
he assumed a position in regard to it more equivocal than any he
had ever occupied on any public question, if not the only one in
his career to which such an epithet could have been applied with
any shew of reason. He declared himself in favor of a " judicious
tariff " — an avowal that was no sooner published than Mr. Clay at-
tempted to scandalize it, for its ambiguity, by a characteristic shrug
of his shoulders, a toss of his head and the counter-declaration —
4; well, by , I am in favor of an injudicious tariff !"

The' Tariff Bill of 1824, as it came from the House and was re-
ported by the Senate Committee of Manufactures, contained a
clause imposing a duty of 4£ cents on every square yard of cotton
bagging imported into the United States — a provision understood
to have been specially designed to favor large establishments for
the manufacture of that0 article at Lexington, Kentucky. This
provision was particularly obnoxious to the cotton growing States
of Georgia, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and
Tennessee, upon whose votes the General's supporters relied with
confidence and the People of which, were among his most zealous
friends. The numerous supporters of.Mr. Calhoun in those States,
between whom and those of Mr. Clay — including the respective
Chiefs — there existed, at that time, the most bitter animosity, per-
sonal as well as political, united with the friends and supporters of
Mr. Crawford not only in opposing the entire bill but in denouncing
this part of it with special vehemance. They characterized it as a
tribute extorted from the cotton growing states to enrich Mr. Clay's
Kentucky pets, and the fact that those were the principal if not the
only manufacturers of cotton bagging in the United States gave
great force to their charges. These circumstances adding the force of
personal and partisan prejudices to a fixed hostility to the policy of
protection raised their oppugnancy to this particlar branch of it to
f overheat and led to frequent and earnest remonstrances against the
support that they feared General Jackson intended to give to it
They often called him from: his seat, and as that was directly in
front of mine and mine on the outside row, not a few of their con-
ferences unavoidably took place in my hearing.

The division of the Senate upon the Bill was known to be a
very close one and great pains were taken by its more zealous
friends to impress its supporters with a sense of the danger of
losing it if material amendments were permitted to pass that body.
The General so understood the matter and had made up his mind

• MS. Ill, p. 30.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 241

to go for the Bill, as it stood, notwithstanding his repugnance to
the cotton-bagging duty and the anxious wish of so many of his
friends that he and his colleague, Major Eaton, should cause its
rejection by their votes, which they had it in their power to do.

When the cotton-bagging clause was reached Mr. Maoon moved
to strike out altogether and when the ayes and noes were taken
upon that motion I, who had until that moment in obedience to
the wishes of my State, voted for the other parts of the Bill, an-
swered in the affirmative, in consequence of which the vote on strik-
ing out stood, ayes 28, noes 24; the General and his colleague both
voting with the majority. Perceiving at a glance that my course
threw the responsibility of the retention of the clause upon his
own, vote, he turned around and under evident excitement ex-
claimed—" You give way, Sir I " I replied, " No, Sir, I have been
from the beginning opposed to this clause and informed Gov.
Dickerson, when he reported the Bill, that I should vote against
it unless the duty was greatly reduced. Subsequent reflection led
me to regard this provision as an exceedingly exceptionable one
and I finally determined to oppose it in any shape, and so informed
the Governor.'' Before I had time to finish what I intended to
say he stopped me and earnestly asked my pardon for meddling
in a matter with which he had no right to interfere, declared that
however great might be his disappointment at my vote, which had
drawn from him, under the impulse of the moment, the remark
he had made, he ought not to have forgotten that that vote was
my own and thai he, at all events, had no right to call it in ques-
tion; and he pressed me, with much earnestness, to say that I was
satisfied with his apology, which I did.

The Senate almost immediately adjourned and the excitement
caused by the affair was even greater than could have been antici-
pated. The discontent of some among the offended friends of the
General soon found a vent As my candidate for the Presidency,
Mr. Crawford was a citizen of a cotton growing State they saw, in
the transaction, a plan to weaken their candidate and to strengthen
our own, his most formidable competitor, in those localities, and I
soon discovered, to my mortification, that a few of the friends of
Mr. Crawford had not been backward in countenancing that idea
by their encomiums upon the adroitness of the movement. I had
not been, however, actuated by any such motive or by any other feel-
ing than one of disgust at the nakedness and extravagance of the
proposed bonus to Companies which had been formed to make money,
which were without just claims to so large a share of Legislative

favor, but which there was every reason to believe were at the time
in the receipt of very liberal profits.

127483°— vol 2—20 16

242 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

So far was I from wishing to encrease Gen. Jackson's embarrass-
ments, of much of which I had been an involuntary witness, that I
had been on the contrary, so favorably impressed by his noble bear-
ing in that very matter and by the promptitude and good feeling
with which he atoned for his abrupt address to me, by his whole
conduct during the exciting scenes of the Lowrie correspondence,
and by his general bearing towards me, an undeviating opponent in
the Presidential canvass, that my first impulse, on perceiving the
excitement that had sprung up, was a desire to aid in relieving him.
In this state of mind I approached him, on his appearance in the
Senate, on the following morning, referred to the proceedings of the
previous day and to the construction placed upon them by some of
his friends and, to my great mortification, sanctioned, at least to
some extent, by a few of mine, admitted that under existing circum-
stances, I ought not to be surprised by such interpretations on the
part of zealous and excited politicians, but assured him that they
were nevertheless entirely unfounded. I then stated to him, more
fully than I was permitted to do on the previous day the extent and
character of my objections to the duty, reminded him that after the
Bill was reported to the Senate Mr. Macon, after so close a vote,
would undoubtedly renew his motion which would bring the ques-
tion up again after the expiration of a week or two, that I would not
be disappointed if other members by that time took the same view
of the matter that I had done and that I sincerely hoped that he
would be of the number.

As I anticipated the motion was thus renewed after the Bill had
been reported to the Senate from the Committee of the Whole;
[John] Holmes, of Maine, changed his vote, as did also Gen. Jackson,
and the clause was stricken out by a vote of 25 to 22. Gov. Dickerson,
the Chairman of the sub-Committee, made the greatest efforts to re-
store it, but with no other effert than to induce Mayor Eaton l the
General's colleague, who had made a speech in favor of the clause,
to vote against it also. The ferment among the General's cotton-
growing friends subsided, and the subject passed from the public
mind.

Of the failure to elect a President and the choice by the House
of Representatives at the next session of Congress I have already
spoken. Gen. Jackson resigned his seat in the Senate at its close
and retired to the Hermitage, where he awaited, with calmness and
dignity, the judgment of the People upon the conduct of the House
of Representatives. Nothing transpired during the session to change
or affect our relations either personal or political save the natural
tho' silent influence of a common defeat to increase mutual good
will and sympathy.

lJohn Henry Baton.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. ' 243

From the day we parted at Washington to the evening on which
I waited on him to enter upon the duties of the office to which he had
appointed me there had been no personal intercourse between us,
nor any correspondence or communication in any form, save a formal
letter from him introducing one of his friends, one or two letters
to him and the Nashville Committee in reply to calls for my opinion
as to the proper course to be pursued in respect to certain points in
the canvass,1 all of which will be found in\he correspondence here-
with published,9 his letter of invitation to become a member of his
Cabinet and my acceptance of it. The first information he received
of my determination to support him, which was early formed, could
therefore, as has been elsewhere stated, have been only derived from
the newspapers or from the letters of others.

1 A letter of Aug. 6, 1828, from W. B. Lewis asking for political advice is In the Van
Bureau Papers, but no letter of this nature from Van Buren is now to be found either
in the Van Buren or Jackson Papers.

«It was Van Buren's intention to accompany this autobiography with selected letters
from his papers an Intention he did not carry oat.

CHAPTER XXI.

On my arrival at Washington I found a very large number of
letters, addressed to me from different parts of the Country by
our friends, speaking of the state of public opinion in their re-
spective vicinities in relation to the formation of the Cabinet and
subsequent acts of the Administration. ° I will not give a detailed
description of their contents which were, without any exception
that I can remember, of the most gloomy character. This was per-
haps the natural result of the circumstances which attended the
beginning of the new Government. A very large majority of the
supporters of President Jackson in Congress and of the active
politicians who had been drawn to the seat of Government to wit-
ness the ceremonies of the Inauguration were deeply dissatisfied
with the first steps taken by the President of their choice. In very
many instances their discontent was aggravated by private griefs,
in more by the disappointment of friends for whose advancement
they were solicitous and in not a few by sincere and disinterested
sorrow in finding high anticipations dashed to the ground, as they
supposed, by the formation of a Cabinet of which as a whole, they
could not appit)ve. This influential mass embracing a large por-
tion of the respectability and talents of our party, in returning to
their respective States spread the opinion formed at Washington
broadcast throughout the Country. The views they took of the
matter and the opinions they had formed unhappily, to a great
and influential extent, flowed into ears prepared, not to say, pre-
disposed, to credit them. General Jackson was not the choice of
the politicians, as a body, of any considerable portion of the States.
Those of them who had enlisted in the support of his competitors
Crawford, Clay, Calhoun, for a season, and Adams, at the pre-
vious election, during that excited canvass had worked their minds
into the strongest convictions of the truth of the impressions they
had at the first imbibed of his unfitness for the place. These had
been to a great extent, worn off by the collisions and still greater
excitement of the recent election, leaving the subjects of them,
however, liable to be more easily carried away by the first ad-
verse current and they constituted the class to take active parts
on such occasions who look narrowlv into the action of men in
power and interfere with their proceedings thro' epistolary and
personal remonstrances.

• MS. Ill, p. 86.
2*4

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BURBN. 245

It was doubtless from this class of the President's constituents
that these complaints mainly proceeded. The judgment of the
masses was still in abeyance.

The duties imposed upon me in respect to these communica-
tions were of an extremely delicate and responsible character. Their
authors had' a right to expect that their views should be submitted
to the President whom they had assisted to elect and they could
not perhaps Tiave selected a more appropriate channel for that
purpose. They told their story " free, offhand " and the remon-
strances and advice were not always or indeed generally expressed in
terms which excluded the idea of reproach ; and the peculiar delicacy
of the task of submitting such to the President, by one whose relations
with him were of a character I have described mine to have been,
was not a little increased by the circumstances that for the most
part they came from men with whom I had been closely allied
in opposition to General Jackson, at the preceding election. My
personal association with him as a political [friend was of but a
few days standing and tho' cordial On both sides was not, for the
reasons I have. intimated, at first entirely free from the embarrass-
ments arising from antecedent events. I have moreover alluded
to his state of body and mind, ill adapted to exhibit his character
and disposition to the best advantage; still every thing that I saw
and heard of and from him impressed me in the strongest manner
with a conviction of his sincerity, integrity and straightforward
truthfulness.

I therefore determined to rely without reservation or hesitancy
upon those qualities, to submit in their strongest aspect the adverse
views of the course he was pursuing which were entertained by
many who had supported his election and to leave our future re-
lations to the judgment he should form upon the whole subject.

With these views I selected from the mass of letters referred to
and sent to the President one from Thomas Ritchie, the Editor of
the Richmond Enquirer, then regarded, and I doubt not correctly, as
my warm personal and political friend, who tho9 he had supported
General Jackson with much power and effect in the last election,
had, with myself, opposed him before and in a manner and under
circumstances calculated to excite in him for the moment, * strong
feelings of dissatisfaction. It was enclosed with a note from myself :

Martin Van Ruben to the President [Andrew Jackson].

My Dear Sib,

On my return from your house last evening, I found the enclosed among
some letters which I had not before been able to examine. Upon a careful con-
sideration of its contents I find It to be so evidently written for your perusal
as to make it something like a duty on my part to lay It before you; and
1 do that the more readily from an entire consciousness that you wish to

246 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

learn all that may be said with decency in respect to your administration by
those interested in its success. I have known Mr. Ritchie long and intimately
and am well satisfied that there is not a man of purer public spirit In the
Country. The disinterestedness of his views with the great ability that has
characterized his paper have given it an influence infinitely greater than any
other press in the Union. Whatever you may think of the wisdom or Justice
of the opinions expressed by such a man I am quite sure that they will
receive from you a liberal and respectful consideration.

Not being certain, from the great press that is made upon me, that I shall
be able to see you today, I have thought proper to enclose it and will receive
it again at your perfect leisure
Yrs. affectionately

March 31st, 1829. M. V. B.1

The President.

Thomas Ritchie to M. Van Bttben.
Deab Sib,

This is in all probability the last letter I shall have the honor of addressing
you for many years to come. Our respective situations, though vastly dif-
ferent from each other, make such a correspondence delicate on both sides.
A Secretary of State has his own duties to perform, and so has an Editor
however humble he may be. I need.not be more explicit, but I cannot reconcile
it to myself to remain altogether silent amid the scenes which I have wit-
nessed. You are the only member of the administration with whom I am ac-
quainted. I therefore address myself to you. If there be anything in this
letter which you may think it proper to submit to (Sen. Jackson you are au-
thorized to lay it before him, — and him only. In truth I would have addressed
myself directly to him, but for my anxiety to preserve even the appearance
of that respect which I sincerely feel for his character and himself.

You, Sir, or perhaps Gen. Jackson, if he should see this letter, may charge
the writer with arrogance, impertinence, call it what you will, for intruding
my opinion, unasked and unacceptable upon the grave matters of which it
proposes to treat. I am content to abide by your severest censures, as I am
satisfied with my own motives. This letter is dictated by the most friendly
feelings. It is from a sincere desire that you should be possessed of the state
of public opinion in this part of the Country that I break thro* all the rules
of etiquette.

You know how anxiously I desired the election of General Jackson. My
most Intimate friends have witnessed the joy which his success inspired. I
regarded [it] not simply as the downfall of a party which had corrupted the
purity of elections and abused its power for its own little purposes, but as a new
epoch in the history of our Country, — as opening a bright prospect of wise and
constitutional principles. I need not say, Sir, that I had nothing to gain except
as one of ten millions of people. I have nothing to ask, — the administration
has nothing to offer which I will accept

Why this bright prospect is somewhat clouded over within the short space
of thirty days I will not enter into a long recapitulation to explain. I pass
over the Cabinet It has disappointed many of the sincerest of the President's
friends. In the same proportion, that it dispirited them has it raised the hopes
of their enemies. They have already raised the standard of opposition, and a
rival, who was abandoning all his views in utter despair, was immediately ani-
mated to enter the lists again. I do not speak at random when I make these
assertions. The admirable Inaugural Address, however, counteracted these

* In the Van Bursa Paper*.

f

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 24 1

effects ° in some degree. It gave us all additional spirits. But, I speak it with
profound regret, the subsequent appointments have thrown a cloud over our
friends which it will require some time and great wisdom to dispel. We are 1
sorry to see the personal friends of the President appointed ; we lament to see |
so many of the Editorial Corps favored with the patronage of the Administra- •
tlon. A single case would not have excited so much observation, — but it really
looks as if there were a systematic effort to reward Editorial Partisans, which
will have the effect of bringing the vaunted Liberty of the Press into a sort of
contempt. I make allowance for the situation of these gentlemen. I know
most of them are able and qualified. They have fought manfully to put out a
corrupt coalition — They have fought with the halter round their necks; and
not, as I have done, so much in the country of friends, as of enemies. I allow
for all these things, and still the truth, cannot be disguised that the press,
which shrinks like the sensitive plant from the touch of Executive Power, has
been heedlessly handled. Invade the freedom of the press and the freedom of
election, by showering patronage too much on Editors of newspapers and on
Members of Congress, and the rights of the People themselves are exposed to
imminent danger. I know that this was not the motive of such appointments ;
but I argue about effect*: effects too not to be brought about by this administra-
tion but by less worthy ones which are to succeed it

There is some difficulty under all new Administrations to know whom to
put out and whom to put in; and it is the right use of patronage under such
circumstances that constitutes one of the most delicate operations of Govern-
ment We should suppose that one pretty good rule was for the Chief Magistrate
to consider offices not as made for himself, the gratification of his own feelings
and the promotion of his own purposes, but as a public trust to be confided to
the most worthy. I throw out this suggestion because I have seen too much
stress laid upon the personal feelings of the President by some who did not
sufficiently estimate the high station which he occupies. There is another
thing. I go for reform, — but what is reform? Is it to turn out of office all
those who voted against him, or who decently preferred Mr. Adams? Or is it
not rather those who are incapable of discharging their duties, the drunken,
the ignorant the embezzler, the man who has abused his official facilities to
keep Gen. Jackson out or who are so wedded to the corruptions of office as to
set their faces against all reform? Is it not to abolish all unnecessary offices
and to curtail all unnecessary expenses? It surely Is not to put out a good
and experienced officer because he was a decent friend of J. Q. Adams, in
order to put In a heated partisan of the election of Gen. Jackson, which parti-
san chooses to dub himself on that account the friend of Reform. I trust that
such a spirit of Reform will not come near to us In Virginia. Should any one
be seeking the loaves and fishes of federal office in Virginia I hope the Admin-
istration will be very careful whom they may put out to serve such an office-
seeker. There is no man whom I would touch in this city.

The course of appointments at Washington is calculated to cool and alienate
some of our friends. The enemies of the Administration are on the alert They
are availing themselves of all our errors, while we are so situated that we are
unable to justify or defend them. You can scarcely conceive the uneasiness
which prevails. Will you excuse me for troubling you with the following Ex-
tract which I have received from Washington, from a profound observer of
men and things. He is a warm friend of the President — and no Virginian : —

" I can read the history of this Administration more clearly than I did the
late one and I was in no respect disappointed in my views respecting Its course

* MS. Ill, p. 40.

248 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

and termination. Under the profession of Reform changes will be made to the
public injury. Let the rule be once known and every man who was not an
active partizan of Gen. Jackson will be brought within it. A great number of
violent men, alike destitute, I fear, of principle and intelligence, will be thrown
into conspicuous positions, in the excitement, and placed in offices of trust.
High minded and talented men, in such a result, will, for a time, be thrown
into the shade. The contest will be for office and not for principle. This will
Impair the moral force of our institutions at home and abroad, and may
eventuate in their destruction.

" Should the present Administration go down,, as I fear it will, and should
.Clay come into power, on his system, I tremble for the Union. A scene of
violence, reckless of consequences will then be the order of the day. This is a
gloomy picture, and I wish to God I could persuade myself it is too highly
colored. I see and understand perfectly all the movements made."

My heart aches as I make this Extract Sincerely do I trust that its gloomy
anticipations may be defeated, and that Gen. Jackson may lay down his power
amid the loudest acclamations of a grateful people. I would do anything that
was honorable and proper to lead to this result But I have done.

I beg you to make no answer to this letter. I write in haste and with pain.
Perhaps I ought not to write it at all.

I am, Sir, resp*y

Thomas Ritchie.1

Mabch 27th 1829. ^

Gen. Jackson's note, returning to me the above letter, it will .be
seen bears date on the same day with my communication, to him and
was as follows:

President Jackson to M. Van Buren.1

1 have read the enclosed letter with attention and if the facts adverted to
would warrant the conclusion the objections would he well founded.

There has been as yet no important case of removal except that of General
Harrison ; and I am sure if Mr. Ritchie has read the instructions given to our
Ministers, who were sent to Panama, he must think the recall of General
Harrison not only a prudent measure but one which the interest of the Country
makes indispensably necessary. I have referred to the case of Gen. Harrison
only, because I cannot suppose Mr. Ritchie has any allusion to the auditors and
comptrollers, who were dismissed not so much on account of their politics as
for the want of moral honesty.

The gentleman who has been selected to supply the place of Genl Harrison
is, I believe, as well qualified, if not better, than any other who would have
undertaken the mission to that Country.

I would advise the answering of Mr. Ritchie's letter; and in the most
delicate manner to put him on his guard with respect to letter writers from
Washington. The letter he has extracted from, instead of being from my
friend must be from some disappoined office hunter — one who merely professes
to be my friend, or perhaps from a friend of Mr. Clay in disguise.

How could this letter writer know what changes were to be made? How
can he pretend to foretell, without knowing who are to be appointed, that
the changes will be injurious to the public interest? — You may assure Mr.
Ritchie that his Washington correspondent knows nothing of what will
be the course of the President on appointments, or he would have known

*In the Van Buren Paper*.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 249

that the President has not nor will he ever make an appointment but with
a view to the public good and the security of the fiscal concerns of the
nation. He never has, nor will he appoint a personal friend to office unless
by such appointment the public will be faithfully served I cannot suppose
Mr. Ritchie would have me proscribe my friends merely because they are
so. If my personal friends are qualified and patriotic why should I not be
permitted to bestow a few offices on them? For my own part I can see no
well founded objections to it In my Cabinet it is well known that there
is but one man with whom I have had an intimate and particular acquaint-
ance, tho' they are all my friends in whom I have the greatest confidence.
But even if it were as Mr. Ritchie supposes, I have only followed the ex-
amples of my illustrious predecessors, Washington and Jefferson. They
took from their own State bosom friends and placed them in the Cabinet.
Not only this but Genl Washington went even farther, — besides placing
two of his friends from Virginia near him, he brought into his Cabinet
GenT Hamilton with whom, if possible, he was upon more intimate terms
that I am with any member of my Cabinet

I have drawn your attention to these facts because I apprehend that our
friend Mr. Ritchie0 had not reflected upon the subject or he would not
have suffered himself to be so easily alarmed. I have, ' I assure you, none
of those fears and forebodings which appear to disturb the repose of Mr.
Ritchie and his Washington correspondent I repeat, it would be well for
you to write. Mr. Ritchie and endeavour to remove his apprehensions of diffi-
culty and danger. Say to him before he condemns the Tree he ought to
wait and see its fruit The people expect reform, they shall not be dis-
appointed; but it must be judiciously done and upon principle.
Yours respectfully

A. Jackson

March 31st 1829
Mr. Van Bother .

In pursuance of the President's suggestion I wrote to Mr. Ritchie

as follows: —

M. Van Buukn to Thomas Ritchie.

Private.

Washington April 1, 1829.

Deab Sib,

I am constrained by my respect for your opinions and esteem for your
personal character to disregard the delicate intimation at the close of your
letter, so far at least as to acknowledge its receipt and to say a few words
as to its contents and the direction I have given it

Owing to the great number of letters I found here at my arrival requiring
my attention yours did not fall under my observation until Monday evening.
After a careful examination of its contents I believed it was due as well to
the President as to yourself to submit It to his perusal, which was done
on Tuesday morning. He read It with the best feelings and, on returning it
to me, entered into a full explanation of the points to which you refer, with the
utmost deference to the opinions you have advanced and respect for their
author.

I express his sentiments when I say that it Is at all times most agreeable
to him to learn the candid opinions in relation to its course of those who
take as I know you do, an interest in the success of his administration, and

• MB. in, p. 45.

250 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

to explain, as far as time and circumstances will permit, the principles by
which every public act is regulated.

Disclaiming all reserve with those whom he respects, it would be perfectly
agreeable to him that you should be fully apprised of the motives and views
that have actuated him in making the appointments to which you refer, and
it will give me much pleasure should you visit this city (which I sincerely
hope you may be able to do) to make you acquainted with both, under a
sure conviction that you will admit the purity of the former if you cannot
fully concur in the Justness of the latter.

Your own good sense will satisfy you of the impracticability of avoiding
mistakes or giving any thing like universal satisfaction in the discharge of
that portion of the Executive duties which relates to appointments, par-
ticularly under existing circumstances. It is not in the wit of man to do so.
I have been here but a short time and cannot of my own knowledge say
anything as to past measures, but I have seen enough to satisfy me that no
man ever entered upon the duties of the Chief Magistrate of this or any other
Country with greater purity of purpose or a more entire devotion to the
honor of the Government and the welfare of the Country than did the present
incumbent, and I shall be grossly deceived if in the sequel, that is not the
opinion of the great body of the American People.

Hoping soon to have the pleasure of seeing you I have only to ask that
the coiltents of this as well as the fact that it has been written will be con-
fined to your own bosom, and to assure you of my great respect and regard.1

If to these and such as these disturbing and discouraging matters
be added the obstacles that were thrown into his path by means of
the Eaton embroglio, — a private and personal matter which only
acquired political consequence by its adaptation to the gratification
of resentments, springing out of the formation of the Cabinet, and,
as was supposed, to the elevation or depression of individuals in
high positions, — we will be able to estimate justly the adverse in-
fluences which surrounded President Jackson when he entered upon
his official duties.

Having as military commander abstained from frequent councils
of war, because he thought they were too apt to be used to screen
the General from a proper and often most salutary responsibility,
he carried something of the same feeling into his action as President.
His disinclination to Cabinet councils, springing in part from this
consideration was doubtless greatly strengthened by the circum-
stance that he foresaw, at an early day, the division that soon after
broke out among his constitutional advisors, from the source to
which I have alluded, and he fixed his course in the way he deemed
best adapted to neutralize its effects. But whatever may have been
his reasons the fact was that for a long time at least his practice
was to have interviews with the heads of departments separately
as often as was necessary to the proper discharge of the business
entrusted to them and to ask the opinions of the other members also
separately when he desired them upon questions not belonging to

1 Draft in the Van Buren Papers.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF KABTIK VAN BUREN. 251

their departments. One of the New York newspapers, friendly to
him, whose Editor had visited Washington in mid-summer, said,
and I have no reason to doubt, correctly, that down to that period
not a single Cabinet meeting had been had for the dispatch of
business.

Soon after my arrival I met him [the President] to talk over the
general concerns of the State Department The question that first
presented itself for consideration was the condition of our represen-
tation abroad, the expediency of changes, the extent to which it was
desirable to carry them Aid the persons to be appointed. As soon as
these points were broached he volunteered to say that he had com-
mitted a great mistake in respect to portions of them for which he
thought it was his duty to apologize, — that as he had selected me
to manage that branch of our national concerns I ought to have
been consulted in respect to the changes to be made and the selec-
tion of the ministers, — that instead of this, induced by considera-
tions which he stated and which were, tho' not consistent, as he
admitted, with the proper transaction of business, creditable to
his heart, he had disposed of the two most important Missions by
offering that to England to Mr. Tazewell * and the French Mission
to Mr. Livingston.2 Having been apprised by Mr. Livingston him-
self of these steps I was of course prepared to give my views in
respect to them, and admitting, as I did cheerfully, that there were
no two gentlemen in the circle of his friends better entitled to
such a compliment as he had paid them or in whose behalf my per-
sonal feelings would, on suitable occasions, be more cordially en-
listed, I yet felt bound to say that, having regard to the character
of the business to be attended to at those courts, viz: the settle-
ment of the long pending and greatly complicated questions be-
tween us and England in respect to the West India Trade and the
still older and scarcely less difficult and tedious subject of our
claims upon France, I had not been able to satisfy myself that he
had been fortunate in his selections. I assigned my reasons for
that opinion, at length, not, it is scarcely necessary to say, urging
anything against the public or private worth or general capacity
of either, but insisting that the public service in those respects
would be, in all probability, more successful if those Missions had
been entrusted to active young men whose reputation as Statesmen,
unlike those of Livingston and Tazewell, were yet to be established.
who would seize upon those questions which had so often baffled
the capacities of old diplomatists with the spirit and vigour of
youth and who would be sufficiently ambitious to encounter and
resist the rebuffs to which, on such oft debated points, they must

» Littleton W. TasewelL ■ Edward Livingston.

252 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

expect to be exposed and to submit to the drudgery thro9 which
final success could alone be hoped for.

He listened to me with marked attention and, when I had finished,
said, with much feeling, that his own subsequent reflection had caused
misgivings in respect to the adaptation of the gentlemen he had
selected for the particular concerns with which they were to be
charged and that the views I had expressed convinced him entirely
that his course, tho' well meant, had been an unwise one', adding that
nothing could afford him more satisfaction than to be able to recall
the offers he had made if he could do so in a way ° perfectly consist-
ent with what was due to his own honor and to the feelings of the
gentlemen to whom he had tendered them, which we were agreed
could not be done. But as his offers had neither been accepted nor re-
fused, tho' considerable time had elapsed since they had been made,
the prominence of the subjects referred to in the public mind and
the desire that would naturally be felt by the parties particularly in-
terested and by the friends of the Administration to see prompt and
effective measures adopted to remedy what the latter had regarded
as failures on the part of our predecessors, suggested the propriety
of writing to those gentlemen assigning the reasons for speedy action
and inviting them to give definite answers upon the point of accept-
ance and to be ready, if they accepted, to start upon their respective
missions as early as the first of August then next, which would leave
them four months for preparation. To this he cordially assented
and I promised to prepare the letters for his inspection.

The missions in respect to which changes were resolved upon at
that interview were those to England, France and Spain. For the
last he invited me to suggest a name. I proposed that of Mr. Wood-
bury,1 which he promptly accepted. He had served with him in the
Senate and as no member of the Cabinet had been taken from
New England he considered his location fortunate* I wrote to Mr.
Woodbury on the spot.2

In my letter I expressed a confident belief that " in the present
state of things his talents (of which no one had a higher opinion
than myself) would enable him to render essential service to the
Country and acquire great credit to himself and that I was author-
ized to say that the President embraced with pleasure, this, the earli-
est opportunity which circumstances had allowed him; to manifest
the high sense he entertained of his public services and of his (Mr.
Woodbury's) claims upon his personal respect and esteem."

Two weeks had not elapsed since I had parted from Mr. Wood-
bury, at New York, at midnight, with evidences, both ocular and
oral, of his serious disappointment, and feeling that the President

• MS. Ill, p. 50. * Levi Woodbury. * Apr. 7, 1829, Van Buren Papers.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 253

had made me the happy instrument of a good act in authorizing
the offer to him of so honorable a mission I looked with much com-
placency for the receipt of his answer, not doubting it would show
that the wounded spirit had been healed, in some degree, at least,
thro9 my agency.

It came, but not in the gratifying form I had anticipated, rather
as a damper upon my feelings. He was very anxious to do what he
could to "furnish the President with any influence in his power
towards the successful accomplishment of the policy of his admin-
istration, as thus far developed, and to obviate misapprehensions,
prejudices'* Ac; but it was doubtful whether he would be able' to
accept the mission, and he wanted information on certain named
points before he could decide. These related principally to the busi-
ness to be transacted in Spain — the time to elapse before he would
have to start on his Mission — when his salary would commence if he
accepted and how long he would be expected to remain abroad.

Without changing our opinions in respect to the strong points in
Mr. Woodbury's character or his capacity to make himself useful in
the public service, this answer occasioned both to the President and
myself no little surprise and disappointment. We could not help
seeing that the President's prompt offer, and the flattering terms in
which it had been conveyed, instead of being received as proof of our
respect and esteem for him had filled Mr. Woodbury with exaggerated
notions of our estimate of the importance to the administration that
he should be conciliated. Yet this was all a mistake. He was one of
the few prominent New England men who had withstood the sec-
tional current in favor of Mr. Adams and remained with us thro'
the election, for which reason, strengthened by the fact that the
Eastern States were not represented in the Cabinet, I was desirous,
sensible of his undoubted capacity, that he should receive an early
proof of the favor and confidence of the Executive ; but there could
not possibly have been a greater error than the supposition that, in
the matter of appointments, President Jackson was ever influenced
by any consideration like that here suggested. The conciliation of
individuals formed the smallest, perhaps too small a part of his
policy. His strength Jay with the masses and he knew it He first,
and, at least in all public questions, always tried to be right and when
he felt that he was so he apprehended little — sometimes perhaps too
little — from the opposition of prominent and powerful men; and
it must now be admitted that he seldom over-estimated the strength
he derived from the confidence and favor of the people and his con-
sequent ability to cope with his political opponents.

Mr. Woodbury's letter was the first answer to the President's offer
of important public employment after the organization of his Cabi-
net and it doubtless served to put him a little upon his mettle. It

254 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

besides presented a good opportunity for a brief expos£ of the course
which he intended to pursue in similar cases. I have only the rough
draft of my reply before me which I insert, as it furnishes from its
confidential character, reliable evidence of the principles upon which
the President acted in the discharge of his official duties.

To Levi Woodbubt.

v Private.

Mr dear Sib,

If you accept the President will expect you to leave the Country aa soon as a
due regard to your private affairs wUl allow, so that you ore not detained
beyond the first of August. Delay in the departure and dispatch in the return
of our Foreign Ministers was a vice of the late administration which we con-
demned then and must not practice now. The President will therefore expect
that the Ministers appointed by him shall proceed upon their missions in a
reasonable time and regulate the period of their return by the public interest
and not by their pleasure or personal convenience. If good cause exists for an
early return leave will of course be given but in the absence of special reasons
a return in a shorter period than four years will not be anticipated.

The President regards the Mission to Spain as the second in point of impor-
tance in the present condition of our foreign relations, and testifies that con-
viction by the fact of depriving himself of your services in your present highly
honorable and cesponsible situation.

Your salary will, in case of. acceptance, commence from the time you leave
your home including a visit to this city which will be regulated by the period
of your departure.

Hoping that your decision will be such as I cannot but think will redound
to your honor and advance the interests of the Country
I am, dear Sir,

Your friend and obd't serv't1

Mr. Woodbury's answer to this avowed his concurrence in the
general views it expressed and disclaimed all desire to have prin-
ciples so clearly conducive to* the public interests departed from on
his account. He said that if the Mission had been for a specific
object likely to be accomplished in a year or two, he would have
overcome all objections and accepted the offer, but that his family
were inflexibly opposed to accompanying him, that a large majority
of his friends were adverse to his leaving the Country for so long
a time, if at all, and as the mission was of a general character and
must probably last four years, or longer, he was constrained with
great reluctance to decline it. To put him entirely at his ease upon
the subject, by direction of the President, I informed him that his
letter had been submitted to the latter who found nothing in the
reasons assigned otherwise than satisfactory — that he regarded the
considerations upon whieh the declension had been placed as proper
to be taken into view and to control the decision, and that it was a
satisfaction to the President to know that one consequence of his

» Written in April, 1829.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 255

disappoinment would be to save to the councils of the nation the
advantages of Mr. Woodbury's talents and experience.1

In a subsequent letter,3 based on the preceding one, Mr. Wood-
bury assured the President of his entire willingness to fill any situa-
tion under the Government which would not, like the Mission to
Spain, require so long0 an absence from his family, and accom-
panied that announcement with a gloomy account of the disordered
condition of our own party and of the extraordinary activity with
which the opposition had already entered on the canvass for the
next Presidential election ; talked of resigning his seat in the Senate
and of retiring from public life, &c., &c, upon all of which Gen.
Jackson, in returning his letters to me, remarked in a note " that
he inferred that Mr. Woodbury over rated the value of the aid that
Mi?. Adams would be able to bring to Mr. Clay at the next Presi-
dential election and was more alarmed than the facts would war-
rant; that we had only to continue the course we have commenced,
take principle for our guide and public good our end, and the people
will sustain us."

In this brief note and in that relating to Ritchie's letter are to be
discovered the secret of the General's extraordinary popularity. Such
an abiding trust in the integrity of the people and in their fidelity
to those who are faithful to them, accompanied by a readiness to
spend and to be spent in their service, a willingness at all times to
sacrifice ease and comfort and if necessary to hazard his life for
their safety could not escape their knowledge or fail to secure their
love and gratitude. Since his character had become known to them
by a long series of self sacrificing acts they had not doubted that a
solicitude for their welfare most ardent and of never failing disin-
terestedness was deeply seated in his heart and ever present to his
mind. Nor was it surprising that this faith and these dispositions
constituted such marked features in his character. They were nat-
ural results of peculiar circumstances in his condition. No public man
was ever so highly elevated of whom it could be said with more
truth that he was one of the people. They were his blood relations
— the only blood relations he had in this or, as far as is yet known, in
any Country. No one stood nearer to him in that great natural tie
than another. The remarkable success which crowned his efforts in
their service had inspired him with a firm belief that to labour for
the good of the masses was a special mission assigned to him by
his Creator and no man was ever better disposed to work in his
vocation in season and out of season. It is not surprising that with
these convictions and dispositions he should have been so potent with
a sagacious and just people.

» May 3, 1829, Van Buren Papers. " May 18, 1829, ibid. ° MS. HI, p. 55.

256 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

I have not introduced these particulars by way of blame or still
less of disparagement but to give an inside view of the actions of
public men — a view which generally differs materially from that
which is seen by the public. The sequel of this work will shew how
much tljere was in* Mr. Woodbury's career deserving of the respect
and approbation of his Countrymen and of the support which both
Gen. Jackson and myself gave to him to the very close of our public
lives, notwithstanding striking peculiarities, I might almost say
obliquities, in his political course.

Mr. Tazewell, altho' willing to represent his State in. the Na-
tional Legislature, appeared to me to be as free from the love
of office as any man with whom I was associated in public life.
He came to the seat of Government very soon after my arrival and
I think before I wrote to him on the subject of the Mission to
England which had been tendered to him by the President* He
was he said unwilling to accept it unless he could satisfy himself
that by doing so he would have it in his power to render his
Country some signal service. Upon that point at least he seemed
to carry his heart in his hand, and left no room for misconstruc-
tion or doubt as to his sincerity. He had taken as Senator an active
part in the proceedings of Congress on the subject of the West India
Trade, but his hopes of a successful negotiation in respect to it
were not sanguine* In this state of mind his purpose in coming to
Washington was to ascertain whether it was at all probable that he
would be able to exert an influence in behalf of the repeal or modi-
fication of the corn laws, and to place the question of his accept-
ance upon the result of that enquiry. He announced that deter-
mination to the President and myself but we could not with truth
give him any encouragement upon the point and told him so with-
out reserve. Being well acquainted with the British Minister at
Washington, Sir Charles B. Vaughan, and appreciating the sincerity
and frankness of his character, he expressed a desire to see and
consult with him upon it to which we saw no objections. He car-
ried, I think, a letter from me expressive of his dears and of the
President's approbation of the proposed interview, but Sir Charles
expressed so confidently his conviction of the utter hopelessness
of the proposed attempt that Mr. Taiewell returned and declined
the Mission.

I remember well how much pleasure and relief, amid our cares
and vexations we experienced from the candid, unselfish and public
spirited disposition shewn by him in these interviews. At the
next session of Congress Mr. Tazewell embarked, or, I might per-
haps with truth say, was drawn by his personal and political as-
sociations into a violent opposition to the Treaty with the Sublime

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 257

Porte for the navigation of the Black Sea by American vessels —
the occasion of the first overt act of Mr. Calhoun's opposition to
the Administration of President Jackson. In this I, having con-
ducted the negotiation, thought) him wrong and it was well under*
stood that his State, although interposing no specific complaint,
did not approve of his course; but whatever may have been the
degree of credit or discredit due to his conduct on the latter occasion
I have never forgotten his rare and admirable 'bearing on that to
which I have first referred, and I take much pleasure in making this
record of the transaction to which it related.

Satisfied that he had been too hasty in respect to the appoint-
ments to England and France, General Jackson informed me that,
it it should become necessary to make new selections, he would
expect me to name the men and that, having confidence in my judg-
ment, it' was more than probable that he would adopt them.

Mr. Berrien, who had been appointed Attorney General, was,
at the moment, in Georgia arranging his private affairs prepara-
tory to his removal to the seat of Government Assuming that
he would prefer the place of Minister to England the President
authorized me to offer him an exchange of places and, on the as*
sumption that he would certainly consent to it, to offer the At-
torney Generalship to Mr. McLane, which was done without wait-
ing for Mr. Berrien's answer. Mr. McLane's reply addressed to
me in an unofficial letter, did not come up to my anticipation, but
the President was predisposed to regard it in the most favorable
light and I was too partial to him to scan his faults. He con-
fessed that he had not his own free consent to accept the place and
did so reluctantly, regarding it as a sacrifice to the interests of his
large family (which did not leave him at liberty to be fastidious,
or to consult his own inclinations) and to those of the cause and
of his friends; adding that "if he could have supposed the Presi-
dent intended to make any immediate provision for him he could
have suggested one much more desirable to himself and probably
equally so for him and all others. He thought moreover that he
(the President) had purchased the change in the office of Attorney
General at too great a price."

° Fortunately, as we supposed, for the gratification of our friend
McLane, the Attorney General decided to remain where he was, and
not doubting that it was the English Mission to which the former
referred as the place that would have been more desirable to him-
self and the arrangement probably equally satisfactory to all others,
I forthwith presented his name to the President who authorized me

• • MS. Ill, p. 60.

127483°— vol 2—20 17

258 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

to offer it to him. But we were destined to further disappointment.
From Mr. McLane's answer, addressed to me, a^ before unofficially,
it appeared that my letter had "embarrassed him;" that when he
wrote me the day before accepting the office of Attorney General
"he was not altogether without his fears that Mr. Berrien might
not assent to the change for what was so desirable to us and on
which account principally he had decided as he did, i. e. to be with
me in the Cabinet, and for that very reason the change might not
be agreeable to him." To this it was added, among other things,
that he hoped that his letter to the President however would shew
his disposition to consult his own and the honor of the administra-
tion, and thus " preserve my (his) chance for what I will frankly
tell you would make me happier than any other honor — the Bench."
Meantime, that chance not being impaired, the Mission to England,
he thought might be turned to even greater advantage, &c ; that con-
sidering moreover the impropriety of exposing you (me) and the
President to many rejected offers as to this Mission, at this period
of the administration and understanding from your (my) letter
that your (my) individual views are in favor of this determination
I will accept the Mission to England * * * "I must trust to
your friendship and sagacity to keep me in the mind of the President
and to give such a direction to this affair as may ultimately end
best for us all."

Upon the suggestion of my esteemed and noble hearted friend,
Capt. Jack Nicolson, of the Navy, I proposed the name of Wash-
ington Irving, who was then in England, for the place of Secretary
of Legation to the English Mission to the President and on obtain-
ing his assent I wrote to his brother Judge Irving * for his opinion
whether it would probably be acceptable, and receiving a favorable
answer, the appointment was forthwith made.

If Mr. Livingston manifested less indifference to the acquisition
of his place than Mr. Tazewell it was not because he estimated more
highly the distinction or craved the emoluments of office. The
enjoyment of official pomp and circumstance is, quoad the United
States, an Eastern or New England feeling and is still fostered
there by the ceremonies and forms incident to public authority.
My friend Woodbury, tho' too sagacious to waste much of his
earthly substance on account of it, yet took great satisfaction in
its indulgence when attainable without too much pecuniary sacri-
fice, and Webster's passion for it was of a still stronger type.
The latter was never more at home or in gayer spirit than when
playing the potentate within the circle and to the Qxtent of his
official possessions. The Southern people were remarkably free from

1 John Treat Irving.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YaN BUREN. 259

this weakness nor was there ever much of it in the Middle States.
Regarding Webster and Woodbury, from the North, and Marshall
and Tazewell, from the South, as examples of the extent of it in
their respective sections they represented in this respect antipodes
whom it would be difficult to imagine belonging to the same Country
and reared under the same Government.

Tazewell, altho' well educated and, in the beet sense of the term,
a gentleman, would not have been called a literary man, and I am
sure he derived more social enjoyment from his games at quoits with
Chief Justice Marshall, Gen. Wickham,1 Dr. Brockenborough 2 and
others like them at Richmond,0 or from dinners of sheeps-head with
his unceremonious but well bred friends and associates at Norfolk,
than he could promise himself abroad. To Mr. Livingston nothing
could be offered more agreeable than the opportunity and facility
for the cultivation of letters and the society of the highest living
authorities in art and science at Paris as the fruition of long
cherished anticipations of that character. Mrs. Livingston was
French by birth and education and possessed withal superior accom-
plishments and qualifications for the station to which she seemed des-
tined. Besides these circumstances the French Mission had long
been a source of honorable pride in his family, having been the
highest official distinction enjoyed by his distinguished brother
Chancellor Livingston, one of the Committee which reported the
Declaration of Independence; in after times it attracted to his own
to distinguish it from a worthy connexion of the same name the
sobriquet of French Edward.

But altho9 he did not lack inducements, worthy to be taken into
consideration in making up his own opinion, there were others en-
titled to more influence with the President. He had become satisfied
that altho9 no appointment could be made that in respect to his indi-
vidual feelings it would give him more pleasure to make and perhaps
none that would add more dignity to the Mission, the selection might
not prove to have been a fortunate one in view of the particular sub-
ject to be acted upon and which he was very desirous to adjust.

I opened a correspondence with Mr. Livington upon the subjects
of his acceptance of the Mission and the period of his departure
which resulted in his declension on account of the state of his private
affairs which required his presence in the United States to a later
period than any to which his departure could, in his own opinion,
be properly deferred. Subsequent transactions, to be hereafter re-
ferred to, would be sufficient to shew, if proof of the fact could be
thought necessary, that the result in no degree affected the friendly
relations which had long existed between him, the President and my-

•Jolm Wickham. 'Dr. William ? Brockenborough * MS. Ill, p. 65.

260 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION-.

self. His decision to decline was, on the contrary, conveyed to the
President in a letter which both in matter and manner were highly
honorable to him.1

By the invitation of the President I suggested a name for the
vacant mission — that of William C. Rives, of Virginia, to which
he readily agreed, and Mr. Rives promptly accepted the offer. Mr.
Livingston's letter to the President having been received by the
morning mail from the North I wrote to Mr. Rives by the Southern
mail on the same day. On the following morning Mr. Livingston
presented himself at my office and thinking it possible that he came
to withdraw his declension I informed him at once and in suitable
terms of what had been done on the previous day. Nothing appeared
during his short stay to confirm or disprove that suggestion, but I
have always been of the opinion that such had been his intention.

The President selected from several names presented for the Mis-
sion to Spain, which had been declined by Mr. Woodbury, that of
Gov. Van Ness,8 of Vermont, and he was commissioned accordingly.
Mr. Van Ness was a man of rare natural endowments and occupied
a position among the friends of the National Administration in
New England which entitled him to its favorable consideration.
My relations with his family had been for years of an unfriendly
character but I acquiesced cheerfully in his selection. The ap-
pointments of Mr. Preble8 to the Netherlands, Mr. Randolph4 to
Russia, and several Charges to other Countries having been agreed
upon subsequently, I entered upon a very full examination of the
condition of the public business at the different points to which
new Ministers were sent, the actual state and past history of unfin-
ished negotiations and the collection of materials for new instruc-
tions. Upon this work was bestowed between two and three of
the most laborious months of my whole life. Other matters, of
course, appertaining to the Department of State, occupied portions
of my attention. Communications between the President and For-
eign Ministers had been postponed till my arrival and I was grieved
to learn from a friendly and well informed source that impressions
adverse to the former had been made upon most of the members
of the Diplomatic Corps. Naturally inclined, from causes that need
not be stated, to side with the party least imbued with the demo-
cratic spirit of the Country, the members of that body have been
always predisposed to approach with distrust any Chief Magis-
trate elevated to power by that influence. The character of the
canvass which resulted in the election of Gen. Jackson and the

1 Livingston to Jackson, May 3, 1829, In the Van Buren Papers.
•Cornelius Peter Van Ness.
•William Pitt Preble.
'John Randolph, of Roanoke.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUBEN. 261

unprecedented extent to which the feelings of the masses of the
People had been enlisted in his favor had added much strength
to this bias. Apprehensions arising from that and kindred sources,
stimulated by the gossips of the Capital, a class to whose reports
diplomatists are always ready to listen, had, I found, grown to a
sort of panic An idea of the nature and prevalence of this feel-
ing may be formed by recurring to the interview between Mr. and
Mrs. Livingston and myself at Philadelphia. If persons of their
intelligence so well acquainted with Gen. Jackson, understanding
the many admirable and strong traits in his character and withal
sincerely solicitous for his success, could imbibe such gloomy views
of the state of affairs at the seat of Government, in respect to points
in which the Foreign Ministers took great interest, what must have
been those of the Ministers themselves, entertaining in advance the
apprehensions to which I have alluded.

I made it my business, without delay, to see Baron Huygens, the
Minister from Holland, with whom as a brother Dutchman I had
previously established very friendly relations, and Sir Charles R.
Vaughan, the British Envoy, with whom I had been for some time
also upon intimate and cordial terms, and to do what I could to
remove the unjust impressions of which I have spoken, and I met
with a degree of success which the elevated character of both had
given me good reason to anticipate. I next invited the Diplomatic
Corps, by direction of the President, to meet me in a body, at the
Executive Mansion with a view to their presentation and on the
evening before the day appointed for that purpose I sent the follow-
ing note

To the President.
Deab Sib

In conversation last evening with Mr. Huygens he made a suggestion which
I think deserves consideration. I mentioned to him, as I had before done to
Sir Charles Vaughan, that as the only object of the introduction tomorrow
was to relieve them and yourself from the embarrassments resulting from the
very irregular interviews which had previously taken place, it could not be
necessary to have anything like formal addresses. To this both assented and
Mr. Huygens added that an impression had been made in Europe of an un-
favorable character in respect to your dispositions in respect to our foreign
relations; that they (the Diplomatic Corps) had already seen sufficient to
relieve whatever apprehensions might have existed upon that point and were
U1 strongly disposed by their reports to do all in their power to effect the same

to result at their respective courts; that the invitation for to morrow was very
proper in itself and had been well received and that if you should choose to
submit a few observations to them of a general character and advancing only
the same sentiments as those contained in your inaugural address, it would,
be thought, enable them to do great good at homes,

I submit to you whether avoiding anything like a set speech, and without
designing it for any other publication than would be given to it by the Ministers,
in their reports, and by common fame, you might not say to them, with ad-

it-

ti-

er;

th

262 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

vantage, that the sentiments you expressed in your inaugural address in regard
to the foreign relations of the Country you now repeat to them; that your
opinion now is and always has been that the true Interests of this Country
would always be best consulted by preserving the relations of peace with all the
world, and an Intercourse founded upon principles of fair reciprocity ; that
you entered upon the trust committed to you without foreign prejudices or
predilections and with personal feelings of the most friendly character towards
every nation with whom we have intercourse, and that it should be your en-
deavour as It was your sincere desire to promote the° interests of your own
Country, without doing, injustice to the rights of others, by the most frank,
friendly and sincere negotiations.

I shall have the pleasure of seeing you either this evening or In the morning.
Yours truly

Sunday Morning

April 5th, 1829.

The attendance of the Ministers was full and after they had been
individually presented to the President he made them a, brief ad-
dress, expressing substantially the ideas which had been suggested,
which, delivered in the General's invariably happy and impressive
manner was received with the highest satisfaction and a copy having
been furnished to each, at their request, was forthwith forwarded to
their respective governments. The introduction was followed by
invitations to dinner and an entertainment, to say the least of it, not
inferior to those to which they had been accustomed, on similar oc-
casions, anywhere. The simple yet kindly old-school manners of
the host with the amicable assurances of his address and the unex-
ceptionable quality of his banquet made the most favorable impres-
sions upon the guests which they took no pains to conceal, and thus
the anxieties of these gentlemen were completely relieved and their
prejudices materially softened by the most approved diplomatic ma-
chinery.

Notwithstanding these auspicious signs of improvement in one
branch of the public service, circumstances soon occurred in another
by which my own continuance in the Cabinet was, for a brief period,
involved in difficulty and doubt.

The President made it a rule of his administration from which he
very rareiy departed, to bring all questions in respect to which he
had reason to anticipate opposition from his Cabinet, to a speedy
decision, — a practice, founded in good sense and an accurate knowl-
edge of human nature, which served to prevent the heart-burnings
and excitement which such differences in opinion, when often dis-
cussed and long kept on foot, seldom fail to engender. He had
doubtless, from a very early period, decided to appoint Samuel
Swartwout Collector of the Port of New York, and, without any-
thing having passed between us upon the subject, seemed to have

• MS. Ill, p. 70.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 263

expected opposition from me, certainly, and possibly from the Sec-
retary of the Treasury. He waited no longer than was made neces-
sary by his indispensable attention to other important points which
arose upon the complete organization of his Cabinet before that
matter was brought forward and first broached to me in the follow-
ing note :

April 20th, 1829.
Db. Sib

I have this morning sent to Mr. Ingham1 the papers in relation to the
New York Custom?, requesting him after he examines them to hand them
to you. Will you also have the goodness to look at them and give me your
opinion in writing on the relative merits of the several applicants specifying
at the same time the offices to which you would appoint them, and how
far the principles we have adopted would justify dismissals from office in
that Port? I wish now to act promptly on a subject which has a good deal
worried me.

In addition to the papers sent Mr. Ingham this morning I have a few
more confidential letters, for the most part in favor of Mr. Swartwout The
two Senators from New York, also, verbally recommended Mr. Swartwout.

I am, very respectfully Yrs &c

Andrew Jackson

Mr. Van Buben.

Although the General referred to the appointments in the Custom
House generally, that of Collector was the bone of contention by
which he had been worried. Upon examining the documents sent
me I found the President's files as was usually the case on similar
occasions, overburthened with recommendations in favor of Swart-
wout's appointment from persons too many of whom would have
been bad advisers under any circumstances and had no right to speak
for the friends of the administration in the City, and not a few of
whom had opposed us in the election, with scarcely a communica-
tion from those who were best entitled to be heard from on the sub-
ject.

After consulting with the Secretary of the Treasury I wrote to
our friends in New York apprising them of the danger of Swart-
wout's appointment unless they forthwith presented to the President
unequivocal evidence of the sense of the city and advising that the
Chamber of Commerce should be applied to for an expression of their
opinion, not doubting that they would, notwithstanding their gen-
eral political opposition to the administration, step forward, in a
case of such magnitude and endeavour to prevent the great evil
which I thought the appointment of Swartwout would be. I wrote
to our Senators Dudley and Sanf ord,2 to know whether they had rec-
ommended the act and received the fullest assurances from them that
the, President had been deceived upon that point. Having taken

1 Samuel D. Ingram. * Charles E. Dudley and Nathan San ford.

264 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

these steps to secure an interference from the proper quarters, I pre-
pared an opinion, in compliance with the President's invitation,,
which filled several sheets, stating unreservedly the objections to th&
appointment of Swartwout and to the character of the recommenda-
tions in his case, and suggesting the names of John Ferguson or
Saul Alley for the office in question.
The following is an extract from my written opinion : —
I have known Mr. Swartwout for many years although not intimately. I
have always regarded him as a generous, warm-hearted, and high-spirited man,
influenced by kind feelings to his friends and have consequently never enter-
tained any other than friendly feelings towards him personally. Politically
he has never been and is not now in a situation to make his opinions the cause
of prejudice or solicitude with me. It is my clear and decided opinion (and
a firmer or better grounded conviction I never entertained in my life) that
the appointment of Mr. Swartwout to the office of Collector of the Port of New
York would not be in accordance with pubUc sentiment, the interests of the
Country or to the credit of the administration. Deeply impressed with the pe-
culiar importance of this appointment and anxious fully to discharge the duty
imposed upon me by your request, and by the relation in which I stand to you,
I feel it my duty to add that his selection would in my judgment be a measure
that would in the end be deeply lamented by every sincere and intelligent
friend of your administration throughout the Union.1

This opinion was dated April 23rd, and delivered to the Presi-
dent on the next morning.

The Secretary of the Treasury informed me that he had prepared
an opinion, coming to the same result, but as he did not seem dis-
posed to compare notes with me I did not press him to do so, and I
never saw the views he presented of the subject. During the even-
ing of the day on which our opinions had been delivered I received
the following notes:

Fbom the President.

April 24th, 1829.
Db Sib,

I have looked over your views and expositions as to the appointments in the
Customs of New York with great attention and care, and, with the best light*
afforded to my judgment, have settled in the determination to place Mr. Samuel
Swartwout in the office of Collector. It will be matter of regret to me If our
friends in New York shall complain of the selection, but from the strong and
highly respectable recommendations presented in his favor I cannot suspect
that any greater dissatisfaction will be produced than would be towards almost
any other who might be selected ; perfect and entire unanimity in appointments
is not to be expected.

Respecting Mr. Swartwout all agree, and many have spoken, that he is a
warm hearted, zealous and generous man, strictly honest and correct in all his
dealings and conduct ; none have impugned his ° integrity or honor. He is re-
puted to be poor, but as an honest man is " the noblest work of God," I cannot
recognise this as an objection to any man. Mr. Jefferson's rule " is he honest —
is he capable," I have always admired. This being the case of Mr. Swartwout,

> In the Van Buren Papers, April 23, 1829. ° MS. Ill, p. 75.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 265

from his recommendations, and it appearing that he can give the necessary

security required of him, I have thought proper to appoint him.

Your friend

Andrew Jackson

Mr. Van Buben.

Respecting the appointment at Nashville (Attorney) I shall leave that to you ;
fair reciprocity is always right, and as I have given you, in your State, a Collec-
tor, I leave you, in mine, to give us an Attorney ; asking nothing more than that
you will give us as Qualified a man. I have directed all the recommendations to
be sent you for the applicants for this office.

Yours, &c

Andrew Jackson

April 24th 1829
To the Sbc'y of State

These notes were accompanied by another informing me that
he had appointed my friend, James A. Hamilton, District At-
torney for the Southern District of New York. The President was
well warranted in assuming that I was friendly to Mr. Hamilton
and took an interest in his welfare. He carried a letter from me to
Gen. Jackson when he went to New Orleans in his company, as a
representative of the Tammany Society, to attend a celebration
of the successful result of the Presidential election, and, after my
appointment, I had also suggested his name to the President as
Acting Secretary of State, during the interval previous to my
arrival at Washington. But he was mistaken in supposing that I
wished Mr. Han^ilton to have or would have recommended him for
the appointment conferred upon him. I could not have done so
with justice to my political friends in New York and the appointee
was himself too well satisfied of this to broach the subject to me, if
he was advised of what was intended, of which I know nothing.
He was sitting by me when the President's notes were received and
they were instantly communicated to him. He said that he had not
anticipated his own appointment, or words to that effect, to whicli
I replied that he must be sensible that the difficulties of my position
growing out of the appointment of Swartwout, with reference to
the feelings of my New York friends, would be materially in-
creased by what had been done; he admitted that such might be
the case but added nothing further and I did not think that I had
a right to say more. If I had received the slightest intimation that
such a step was in contemplation my dissent would have been
promptly expressed, altho' jiot for reasons founded on a want
of integrity or capacity on his part. The General had doubtless
been induced to believe either from the facts to which I have alluded,
or thro' representations of Hamilton's friends, that his appoint-
ment would go far to reconcile me to that of Swartwout. I did not
think, as I have said, that I had a right, under the circumstances,

266 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION.

to ask him to decline, but so far as appearances could speak, he was
not left in doubt in respect to my mortification at the whole trans-
action.

I had been from the beginning aware of the strong preference
which Swartwout's apparently chivalrous character and engaging
manners had excited in the breast of the President, but I had not
anticipated nor was I at all prepared to witness its influence in.
so grave a form. The result came upon me at a moment when
my health was feeble and my spirits depressed, and, tho' I had
resisted all the reasonings that had been given to me, since my
appointment, by men whose friendship I did not in the least doubt,
my mind was not at ease in regard to my position. I took my hat
and walked the streets of Washington until a late hour of the night
deliberating whether I ought not to adopt the advice I had received
and to resign a post surrounded by such embarrassments, but I re-
turned to my lodgings and retired to my bed with my views in
respect to the path of duty painfully unsettled. I need scarcely
say that it was not by the possible consequences of a single appoint-
ment, important as that undoubtedly was, that I was induced to
raise the question which I canvassed with so much earnestness.
The evils I apprehended from a step of that character might, after
all, not occur, or might be limited in extent, but the feeling which
so deeply disturbed me arose from an apprehension, excited by
what had just occurred that my dissatisfied friends might prove
to have been right in their belief that persons Vho could never
possess my confidence had acquired an influence over the President's
mind which would force me to an ultimate resignation if they
retained it.

But the first impressions of the morning, always to me the clear-
est and the best, presented the subject in a light which, tho* not
divesting it of a few painful features, indicated the right way with
reasonable distinctness. I was satisfied that in deciding upon the
effect which this act of the President ought to have upon my own
course I could not properly go beyond the motives by which I
believed him to have been actuated. If I could think for a moment
that he had made the appointment with impressions of Swartwout's
character similar to my own my instant withdrawal was a matter
of duty, but if on the other hand I felt authorized to assume that
he had acted in good faith, under a sincere conviction that those
impressions on my part were unfounded, and that whilst he grati-
fied his personal predilections, he at the same time consulted well
the public interest, I could not make his a«t the ground of resig-
nation without pretending to rights which I did not possess. He
was alone responsible for it and had extended to me all the con-
sideration due to my position by asking and respectfully considering

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 267

my advice. To have claimed more might well have been thought
an encroachment on his Constitutional rights. A perseverance on
his part in acts of the same nature to an extent sufficient to shew,
beyond reasonable doubt, a radical and incurable defect in his char-
acter, would change the state of the question, but as matters stood
my first duty was to try to prevent a state of things so greatly to be
regretted and there was certainly much in the way the act in question
had been performed to encourage me in making such an effort.

There were moreover certain other considerations of much weight
in fa\jor of the course I decided to pursue. I could not help feeling
that my position was a peculiar one and that there were responsibili-
ties attached to it of a character widely different from those which
ordinarily attach to occupants of public stations, to explain which
I must take the risk of exposing myself to the charge of excessive
vanity — about the only reproach which my political enemies had
never laid at my door. No man ever attained to eminence in our
Country who was more exclusively the artificer of his own fortunes
than was General Jackson, or whose unsurpassed personal popularity
was founded to a greater extent upon the confidence of the People
in the integrity of his motives and in the value of his disinterested
services, unaided by extraneous or adventitious circumstances. In
respect to practical good sense, sound and ripe judgment, knowledge
of human nature, indomitable and incorruptible spirit and general
capacity for business a large majority of the People of the United
States relied upon him with the greatest confidence and with entire
justice. But of his experience in executive duties like those which
appertain to the office of President and of his habitual self control,
a matter of vital importance in that high station, many of his warm-
est supporters were not without lively apprehensions — a portion anx-
iously distrustful. Hence arose a general solicitude on the part of
his friends that he should have nearest to him in his Cabinet one to
whose qualifications and discretion, in those respects, they might
trust. The gratification of this desire was looked for, as the result
proved, with unusual unanimity, in my appointment as Secretary of
State, whether rightly or not is a question0 which, in this view of
the subject, it is not necessary to consider. Accordingly the result
of the election was no sooner known than there arose, spontaneously
throughout the Country, without respect to sections or cliques, a call
upon the new President from those who had raised him to power
for that appointment. To that expression there was no avowed
exception. I have heretofore quoted Gen. Jackson's published dec-
laration that he considered my name to have been placed before him
for the place to which he called me by the united voice of the politi-

* MS. III. p. 80.

268 AMEBICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

cal party by which he had himself been elected — a declaration often
repeated by him in conversation and in letters as well while the
formation of the Cabinet was in progress as subsequently. Thus
holding my post my reflections satisfied me that I was not at liberty
to withdraw from it without farther efforts to realize the wishes of
those who had given me this gratifying proof of their confidence.

Under these impressions I decided to remain and only asked the
consent of the President that I should inform my friends in New
York that the appointment of Swartwout had been made against
my earnest remonstrance and that of Hamilton without my knowl-
edge or desire. This he promptly gave in a letter which statM the
facts exactly and which he advised me to send to my friend Mr.
Cambreleng with permission to shew it to whom he pleased. Swart-
wout succeded in making himself a popular Collector and the Presi-
dent made occasional good-natured allusions to the apprehensions I
had exhibited on the* occasion of his appointment, speaking of the
matter as the greatest of the few mistakes he had known me to make*
After I had resigned the office of Secretary of State and whilst we
waited for the carriage in which he was about to accompany me a
part of the way to Baltimore he placed in my hand my protest
against Swartwout's appointment saying that it was a document
which would not read well hereafter when it is considered how great
was the error on which it was founded and begging me to take it
and destroy it, or to permit him to do so. Perceiving the kind feel-
ing in which the proceeding originated, I replied that I could not
consent to its destruction, that I was free to confess that appear-
ances favored his opinion but that the affair was not ended nor my
apprehensions removed; that, however, if he would permit me, I
would endorse upon it my sense of the kind motives which induced
him to return it and that I accepted it because I could not deny
the gratification which I knew he took in doing what he considered
a favor to his friends. I wrote the endorsement in the carriage, read
it to him and he laughed at my obstinacy/

The sad catastrophe which followed is well known. The subject
was never afterwards referred to between us. Even during my visit

•That my strong apprehensions were not confined to myself abundantly appears from
Mr. Cambreleng's reply to my letter notifying him of Swartwout's appointment, from
which I extract the concluding* paragraph : —

New York 88 April 18*9

My Dear Sir,

* + ** + **

I congratulate you that the appointments for New York are at an end — and now mark
me — If our Collector is not a defaulter in four years, I'll swallow the Treasury if it was
all coined in coppers.

Most sincerely Yours

C. C. Cambreleng.1
Honb,« M. Van Bcren

1 In the Van Buren Tapers.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 269

to the Hermitage in 1842 when most of the transactions of that and
still earlier periods interesting to himself were brought into re-
view in the course of our familiar and to me deeply interesting con-
versations this matter was studiously avoided. He did not refer to
it and I was too sensible of the extent of his disappointment and
mortification to do so myself.

At the hazard of being thought to descend to matters too unim-
portant I recur to the day after my arrival at Washington to men-
tion an incident which happened at that time. I do so because it
goes to show how little either the abuse that had been heaped on
both himself and Mrs. Jackson, to whom he was devotedly attached,
or the rupture of personal and political friendships caused by the
selection of his Cabinet, or the peculiar views of those by whom he
was surrounded and by whom he was supposed to be unduly influ-
enced, or all of them combined had weakened those just and hon-
ourable sentiments with which his nature was thoroughly imbued
and which never failed to show themselves when occasion offered.
His defeated competitor removed from the White House to Com-
modore Porter's place, on Meridian Hill, where he resided for some
time. Up to the time of my arrival no one connected with the new
administration, which had then been organized some six weeks, had
called upon Mr. Adams. On examining into the cause of this omis-
sion I found that it was considered due to the feelings of the Presi-
dent which had been deeply wounded -by an attack on Mrs. Jackson
that had appeared in the Washington Journal, a newspaper exten-
sively regarded as under the influence of Mr. Adama Not believing
that Gen. Jackson desired such a course to be pursued, and satisfied
as to what my own should be, I apprised him of my intention to
pay my respects to the ex-President, to which he instantly replied
that he was glad to hear it He said that the treatment which he
had too much reason to think he had received from Mr. Adams was
of such a character that he did not feel himself at liberty to over-
look it or he would long before have called upon him himself,
but this was his personal matter and his friends would best consult
his own wishes when they left its treatment to him alone* It was
his desire, he said, that those associated with him in the Govern-
ment should treat Mr. Adams with the respect that was due to him
and he was happy to find that I was about to set them so good an
example. The beneficial effects shed upon the new relations which
had been established between the President and myself by this mag-
nanimous course on his part may well be imagined.

I made my call and was very cordially received by Mr. Adams,
and I subsequently sent to him, from time to time, the despatches
relating to unfinished negotiations in the results of which he ex-
pressed particular interest, with such of the foreign newspapers as

270 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

he desired to read. When I left him he said he would give me a
hint that I might find useful which was that no secrets could be kept
in the State Department, but that on the contrary the foreign
Ministers were always certain in one way or another to get informa-
tion of any negotiation going on there in which their Governments
felt an interest.

The first negotiation we instituted was one with the Sublime Porte
for the establishment of commercial relations between Turkey and
the United States, and the admission of American vessels to the
navigation of the Black Sea. Apprehensive that other powers might
interfere to our pre j udice I availed myself of Mr. Adams9 hint and
kept all the papers at my private rooms while the matter was in
progress. The negotiation was entirely successful and I embraced
an early opportunity to advise Mr. Adams of the proceeding and the
result, both of which he highly commended.

Encouraged by the General's remarks, I made a serious effort to
re-establish friendly relations between him and Mr. Adams, and for
a season with good prospect of success. Believing that the former
would be entirely safe in assuming that Mr. Adams had no previous
knowledge of the attack upon Mrs. Jackson, which had so much of-
fended him, I urged that it was his business as the victor to make
friendly advances and that moreover such was the course which the
public would expect from his character. The injury of which he
complained was one in regard to which he proved to be more impla-
cable than was the case as to any to which he had been subjected. I
finally prevailed upon him notwithstanding to promise me that he
would on some fitting occasion speak to Mr. Adams and offer him his
hand. The funeral of Doddridge, a member of Congress from Vir-
ginia, which I thought Mr. Adams by his partiality for the late mem-
ber, would attend struck me as likely to present an appropriate op-
portunity. For some reason I was not able to be present myself but
I made it my business to remind the General, before he started, of his
engagement which he promised to fulfil. Calling afterwards to as-
certain the result he told me, with obvious sincerity but with a smile
which I confessed to be irrepressible when I heard his report, that he
had approached Mr. Adams with a bona fide intention to offer him
his hand, but that the " old gentleman," as he called him, " observing
the movement, had assumed so ° pugrumous a look that he mas afraid
he would strike him if he came nearer!" I had no difficulty in ex-
plaining Mr. Adams' looks in a way to keep my proposition open
for further consideration. Sometime afterwards the General, Major
Donelson1 and myself were sitting at the dinner table, after the ladies
had retired, when one of us, perceiving a copy of a Congressional

° MS. Ill, p. 85. 1 Andrew Jackson Donelson.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 271

document on the mentelpiece, took it up and found it to be a report
made by Adams as Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture. As
the weather was unpropitious for walking and they were neither of
them wine-bibbers, I proposed that the Major should read the report
tfhich he accordingly entered upon. To my amazement the brochure
proved to be, under that cover, a labored, unjust and violent attack
upon the President and his administration. For a while he listened
with composure, occasionally interposing an expression of pity that
the author should have nourished such violent antipathies at his
time of life, but the charges became hotter and hotter and more and
more unjust, his patience became exhausted and he said, with con-
siderable vehemence, "Stop! Major, I will hear no more of it!" —
and then, after a moment's pause, he turned to me, with a perfectly
composed countenance, and added, "I hope, my dear Sir, that you
are satisfied that it will be best to give up the project you have so
much at heart."

I sincerely regretted that I was compelled to abandon the idea of
reconciliation between these gentlemen as is many personal qualities,
they were formed to like each other and were warm friends during
the General's Seminole difficulties — perhaps the most trying period of
his public life. Whatever differences of opinion may have existed in
regard to the propriety of his [Adams] appearance in the House of
Representatives or to the course he pursued there, no liberal mind
can fail to admire the spirit and indomitable firmness with which
he maintained opinions which he, doubtless, conscientiously believed
to be right altho' they were not always in harmony with those of
the House. On more than one of these occasions he presented a
full length portrait of " the old man eloquent " not often exhibited
to that body. One of those stirring and unpremeditated outbursts
will be long remembered. The occasion was a proposition to give
the President power to enforce our claims for indemnity against
France. Mr. Webster had wound up a violent attack in the Senate
upon the proposition by saying that he would not consent to give
the power asked for by President Jackson even if our quasi-enemy
were thundering at our doors ! Mr. Adams, with kindled eyes and
tremulous frame, closed an eloquent and forcible defense of the
proposition with a hearty denunciation of the unpatriotic avowal
which had been made in the other house and with the declaration,
at the top of his piercing voice, that the man who was capable of utter- ,
ing such a sentiment had but one step more to take, and that was
to meet the enemy at the door and to join him ! The excited feeling of
the House broke forth, for the first time in either Hall of our na-
tional Legislature, in a general clapping of hands.

Mr. Adams' general personal demeanour was not prepossessing.
He was on the contrary quite awkward, but he possessed one ac-

272 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

complishment for which those who had only seen his grave and
unamiable looking countenance of the morning and in public could
scarcely have given him credit, — he was, in a small and agreeable
party, one of the most entertaining table companions of his day.
Whilst the Presidential question was pending in the House of Rep-
resentatives, I was, one day, somewhat surprised to receive an invi-
tation from George Sullivan, of Boston, then temporarily residing
at Washington, to meet Mr. Adams and a small party at dinner.
On mentioning the circumstances to my friend, Forsyth,1 he told
me that Sullivan was electioneering for Mr. Adams, in a quiet way,
by thus bringing him under the observation of gentlemen who had
imbibed personal prejudices against him. He then informed me
of Mr. Adams's proficiency in that accomplishment to which I have
just referred and of which I was not before aware. I was not able
to avail myself of Mr. Sullivan's invitation, but, in after days, I
remembered the circumstance, and, as frequently as I felt myself
at liberty to do so, especially during my occupation of the White
House, I invited Mr. Adams to small round-table dinners and ad-
ways derived unqualified delight from his society and valuable in-
formation from his conversation.

But it is time to return from this long digression. Dismissing
from my mind, as far as possible, the feelings of mortification and
regret which had been caused by the great mistake the President
had unwittingly committed in the appointment of Swartwout, I
devoted myself to the preparation of instructions for the Ministers
to be sent to England, France, Spain and the Netherlands, besides
others of minor grades.

The negotiation with England, in respect to the trade between
the United States and her West India and North American Colo-
nies, by the previous administration had not only been brought to
an adverse close but had reached that result thro' much irritation
on both sides. That with France to obtain indemnity for spolia-
tions upon our commerce was in a condition apparently as hopeless
after having been discussed ad nauseam under successive adminis-
trations. With such difficult and grave matters in the front ground,
a thorough review not only of the original transactions out of which
existing questions had arisen but of the several steps which had
been taken by the parties towards their adjustment became indis-
pensable. By such a course only could I hope to raise points suffi-
ciently new and fresh, either in fact or in the manner of presenting
them, to revive interest that had become dormant or to induce
them to re-open questions which our adversaries affected to regard
as settled.

1 John Forsyth of Georgia.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 278

My labours upon this branch of my official duties were thus
spoken of in a contemporary publication : —

Oar unadjusted foreign relations have been placed in a fair train of settle-
ment The labor and devotion to the public service by which this has been
accomplished are not much known beyond the circle of the State Department.
The Secretary has been employed for weeks in succession, from morning till
sundown, in preparing dispatches and fitting out' missions, Involving the most
important interests of the Country. Frequently time has been snatched from
the night to accomplish these works in time for the departure of the foreign
Ministers. Since last March, four Ministers have been furnished with instruc-
tions involving much labor and unweary research in the preparation. Two of
these missions were particularly Important ; Mr. McLane, sent to England, and
Air. Rives commissioned to France. In addition to these foreign missions to
England, France, Spain, and Colombia, we learn that Mr. Preble, Minister to
the Netherlands, has just arrived at Washington preparatory to his departure
for that Country. This Mission involves interests of great Importance to the
state of Maine. The settlement of the North-east Boundary question, which
has been placed before the King of the Netherlands for his arbitration is now
in a fair way of reaching a termination. In a short time a functionary will be
sent out to Peru ; and others perhaps to the other South American governments.
Before the commencement of the next session of Congress, the Secretary of
State wiU have accomplished an immense quantity of public business, &c, Ac, Ac.1

The results of these labours were without reserve communicated
to Congress and thus subjected to the scrutiny and animadversions
of able and violent, not to say reckless opponents, anxious almost
without precedent, for the overthrow of the administration and
scarcely less sS to interpose obstacles in my path.

I am not aware that the construction or matter of those voluminous
instructions have -ever been unfavorably criticised with the single
exception of that portion of one of them which was selected as a
pretence for the rejection of my nomination as Minister to Eng-
land. * * •*

» Nile* Regiftter, Vol. 87, p. 172.

'Three and a half pages of the MS8. have been cut out at this point.

127483°— vol 2—20 18

CHAPTEK XXn.

•

The Ministers to England and France were despatched as early

as July and in the same public vessel. They arrived at the Courts

to which they were respectively accredited early in September and

entered upon the performance of their duties promptly and with

a degree of energy, industry and perseverance which was expected

from capable young men, covetous of fame and who felt that their

success in undertakings of such magnitude, which had long baffled

the efforts of numerous predecessors, could not fail to advance their

progress towards the great goal — the Presidency — towards which

their aspirations were as keen and perhaps as confidently directed
as those of their most ambitious cotemporaries. They each brought

to the accomplishment of the tasks assigned to them talents of a high
order, with habits of industry not easily broken down and spirits
not liable to be discouraged by slight obstacles. Speedy and com-
plete success followed on the part of each in respect to the leading
matters which had been committed to his care. Mr. McLane suc-
ceeded in bringing to a satisfactory conclusion, within ten months
from his presentation to the King, the negotiation in relation to
the trade between the United States and the English West India
and North American Colonies, a subject which had for many years
afforded matter of contention between the two governments and
had involved six separate negotiations. By that arrangement our
trade was placed on a footing more favorable than any on which
it had ever stood and our commerce and navigation in the Colonial
ports of Great Britain became entitled to every privilege allowed
to other nations. To the propriety of the settlement there was no
opposition on the part of the Senate, or in Congress or from any
other quarter. Mr. Hives' efforts were equally successful altho' the
period of the conclusion of his negotiation was somewhat longer
deferred in consequence of a change in the Government of France
and other causes.

It would be doing injustice to these gentlemen not to assign a
large share of credit for the success of these negotiations to their
personal exertions, but it would be doing at least equal injustice in
another quarter not to notice the extent to which we were indebted
for those results to the character of the new President, to the just
and liberal principles which he had, unexpectedly to the Sovereigns
of Europe, displayed in the developments of his foreign policy
and not a little, perhaps, to a prudent foresight of the consequences
274

i

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 275

of persevering injustice in their dealings with a man of his tem-
perament. The latter idea may be considered strengthened by the
fact that indemnity was almost immediately obtained from the
King of Denmark for claims of some twenty years standing and
long continued intercession on our part without the slightest change
of circumstances and by other instances of early success in our for-
eign affairs.

These prosperous negotiations so soon after its inauguration,
doubtless added greatly to the strength and credit of the new ad-
ministration, but its highest and most enduring honors were won
b}- the wisdom and successful prosecution of its domestic policy.
The leading points in that policy were:

First, the removal of the Indians from the vicinity of the white
population and their settlement beyond the Mississippi ;

Second, to put a stop to the abuses of the powers of the Fed-
eral Government in regard to internal improvements and to re-
strict its action upon the ° subject to measures both useful and con-
stitutional ;

Third, to oppose as well the re-incorporation of the existing
National Bank, as the establishment of any other equally unauthor-
ized by the Federal Constitution, and to substitute, in lieu of the aid
which had been derived from such institution in the management of
Ihe fiscal affairs of the Government, an agency which whilst consist-
ent with its authority would promise greater safety and greater
success in that branch of the public service; and

Fourth^ to arrest as far as possible the abuses that had crept into
the legislation of Congress upon the subject of protecting duties and
to restore it to the footing upon which it was placed at the commence-
ment of the Government by imposing no duties beyond what was
necessary for revenue and by assessing those in a way best adapted to
encourage our own labor.

These, tho' not the only, were the most prominent of the domestic
objects to which President Jackson, from the first moments of his
elevation to power, directed his attention and for the accomplishment
of which he sedulously employed the powers with which the People
had clothed him. He entered forthwith upon the execution of this
programme, kept it constantly in view, and labored to the end for
its completion with the energy and perseverance that formed so large
a part of his nature. Few men had less reason than himself to com-
plain that his official acts were not fairly appreciated by the great
body of the People for whose benefit they were performed. Seldom
if ever had he to contend, as is so often the case with public men,

with that lurking suspicion, common and perhaps natural to the

«■— — ■ I.. . . i ii ii.

* MS. III, p. 05.

276 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

public mind, that the most zealous and seemingly the most earnest
efforts for the public good have their origin in motives of personal
ambition or self interest. In the great transactions of his life the
masses doubted not that his only end and aim was their welfare and
happiness. Even those who dissented from the wisdom of his meas-
ures were, with -limited exceptions, ever ready to admit that he was
honest and meant well.

The almost invariable consequence was a full share of public
applause for the advantages he had the good fortune to secure to the
Country in the course of his official career. Yet I have always
thought and still think that the credit which has been awarded to
him for the effective aid he rendered to his Country by his policy
in respect to Indian Affairs and by the success with which it was
executed has fallen far short of his deserts.

Certainly no other subject was of greater importance than this,
whether we regard the extent to which were involved in its treat-
ment either the interests of humanity, our national character and the
character of our political institutions, or the peace and prosperity of
the Country.

It is not requisite here to enter on the question how far our first
encroachments upon the red men may be allowed to shelter them-
selves under the plea of a struggle between Civilization and Bar-
barism and to find excuse or palliation in the savage cruelties which
characterized the resistance made by the latter to the advance of
the former. By the events of the War of 1812 they had been re-
duced from powerful tribes or nations to absolute and otherwise
hopeless dependence upon the clemency and justice of the United
States. At the close of Mr. Monroe's administration they num-
bered some three hundred thousand souls, less than half of whom
occupied reservations and other lands within our national bounda-
ries, lying within nineteen different States and Territories. Altho'
the most untiring efforts had been made to that end yet all past ex-
perience had demonstrated not only that any exertions of the Gov-
ernment to fit them for incorporation with the whites as citizens,
thro9 instruction and civilization would prove abortive, but that the
course which had been pursued, that of buying their lands in detail
and thus bringing them in closer contact with the white man, tended
to hasten their demoralization and extinction. Under these adverse
circumstances the thinking and truly philanthropic minds of our
Country were directed to and their hopes for the future centered
upon the plan for their removal and permanent establishment upon
the most generous terms, on the public domain west of the Missis-
sippi, and beyond the bounds of the States and Territories, for assist-
ing them in forming a suitable Government, and for securing to

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBBN. 277

them ample protection against both domestic feuds and encroach-
ments from without.

To the execution of this policy there were obstacles of the gravest
kind ; not the least of these being that Beveral of the tribes claimed
and exercised the absolute right of self-government within the
bounds of the States in which they resided. They founded this
claim upon the fact that the U. S. Government at early periods in
it's existence had treated with them as with foreign powers and
upon the character of the Treaties it had made with them. This
claim was actually asserted and enforced only in the States of
Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, but if well founded it was of
equal efficacy in all the States in which any of the tribes were
situated. These States had all been admitted into the Union with
defined boundaries, including the Indians, and the sovereign author-
ity reserved to the States by the Federal Constitution over all within
their respective borders had been recognised and guaranteed by
the Federal Government; and, to increase the complications of the
subject, the latter had also, in some instances, bound itself for valu-
able considerations to extinguish the Indian titles within the state
as soon as that could be done on reasonable terms. It is not neces-
sary to enter upon an examination of the validity of the claim re-
ferred to on behalf of the Indians, as neither the Federal Govern-
ment, nor any Department of it entrusted with its powers ever con-
templated a removal of the tribes against their will, or the employ-
ment of force against them in any form, other than to subject them
to the laws of the several States to the same extent to which other
citizens were subjected to them. To do the latter if had solemnly
bound itself and it was always quite apparent that no serious at-
tempt could be made by it to sustain the Indians in their claims to
the right of self government by the exertion of military power
without producing a forcible collision between the General and
State authorities which might lead to the destruction of the con-
federacy and more surely to the extirpation of the Indians.

Mr. Monroe, in his last annual Message, referred to the desirable-
ness of their removal and pointed out, for their location, the terri-
tory they now occupy, which was then and has ever since been re-
garded as particularly well adapted to that purpose, and a little
more than a month before the termination of his presidency he sent '
to Congress a special Message advancing many sound and philan-
thropic arguments in favor of this policy, accompanied by a full
report, from the Secretary of War, of the facts necessary to safe
and judicious action by the Legislature. No farther steps were
taken towards the execution of the proposed plan and circumstances
unhappily soon occurred which threw increased difficulties in its
way. The Georgia Indians were divided upon the general question

278 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

and a large and influential portion of them decided to remain where
they were, never to sell any more of their lands to the Government,
and to live, for the future, under laws of their own enactment The
representatives of that State, at the close of the same session at
which Mr. Monroe's extra-message was sent in, charged, cm the
floor of Congress, that this state of things had been brought about
by the intrigues of the officers of the General Government and
openly questioned the good faith of the administration in the mat-
ter. These suspicions were doubtless increased and the excitement
of the parties in respect to them unduly inflamed by the hostile
feelings which had arisen between the Secretary of War (Mr.
Calhoun) and his numerous friends in South Carolina, on the one
part, and many of the promineiit and influential public men of
Georgia, on the other; feelings which retained their bitterness for
many years and extended their disturbing effects to other portions
of the Confederacy.

Such was the untoward condition of this great question when
Congress adjourned and the Chief Magistracy of the Country de-
volved on Mr. Adams. Of his desire to do what he thought best
as well for the Indians as for the United States, and, making due
allowances for his habitual distrust of the doctrine of State rights,
for the States also, there can be no doubt; but there is every reason
to believe that the policy of the plan of removal to the west of the
Mississippi, of which I have spoken, was, at that time at least, un-
favorably regarded by him. In the first three of his four annual
messages the subject was not even referred to. The Secretary of
War, Gov. Barbour, wrote ° a letter to the Chairman of the Com-
mittee on Indian Affairs,1 in answer to its application for aid and
advice upon the general subject, in which he discoursed at length
and eloquently upon the depressed condition to which the Indian
Tribes had been reduced and the strength of their claims on our
justice and generosity, and sketched a plan for their removal pur-
suant to the suggestions made in Mr.* Monroe's message. But no
one could read his letter without seeing that its entire drift was,
not to promote such removal, but to throw obstacles in the way of
anything like an effectual execution of that policy. It nowhere
appears that that letter was nut sanctioned by Mr. Adams and his
Cabinet, and, during the second year of that administration, the
Country was seriously threatened, as should have been foreseen,
with a hostile collision between the Federal and State authorities
upon the subject.

This mode of dealing with the matter, this ominous silence in
respect to it on the part of the new President, who had himself

• MS. Ill, p. 100.

1 Feb. 3, 1826. Amer. State Papers, Indian Affairs, v. 2, No. 231, p. 646.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 279

occupied a position next to Mr. Monroe in the preceding adminis-
tration, the severe denunciation by the Secretary of War of the
only way in which the Indians could, in ail human probability,
be induced to remove, when added to the encouragements to remain
which Mr. Forsyth, who was too wise and too honest to deal in
false surmises on so grave a subject, openly announced on the floor
of Congress that they had received from the under officers of the
late administration, induced, as it was natural to expect from their
influence, large portions of the Indians, sufficiently numerous and
powerful to defeat that policy, to decline all further overtures upon
the subject.

The result was a confederacy, openly formed between the power-
ful tribes of Creeks and Cherokees, scattered over the states of
Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, to prevent the sale of any more
lands by the members or officers of their respective tribes, and to
establish themselves permanently within those States. -

Other circumstances exasperated the feelings of the parties more
immediately concerned to a height which threatened the peace of
the Country. During the last year of Mr. Monroe's administration
a treaty was made with the Creeks in Georgia, by which their title
to all the lands they occupied within that State was extinguished.
A portion of them believed to have been encouraged by the disposi-
tions manifested toward them on the part of men in power, made
various objections to that treaty and resisted its execution. To
allay these dispositions a new treaty was made, during the first
year of the government of Mr. Adams, by which the former treaty
was declared to be annulled and some two or three hundred acres
of the land released by it were left out of the new treaty. Georgia
was of course greatly dissatisfied with this proceeding, not so much
on account of the value of the land attempted to be given back to
the Indians as because it defeated the policy of their removal from
the State for which she was most solicitous. She insisted that she
possessed a right to the soil and jurisdiction over the lands in the
occupancy of the Indians, subject only to the power of Congress
" to regulate commerce with the Indian tribes that she had a right
to legislate for them in all cases not within that exception ; that all
the right to them ever held by the Indians was legally extinguished
by the first treaty; that that extinguishment enured to her benefit
and that the Federal Government could not,« without her consent, an-
nul that treaty after it had been fully ratified. The dissenting
Indians contested all these points and claimed that Georgia had no
jurisdiction over them and that they could not be affected by any
acts of her legislation.

280 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION.

The legislature of Georgia passed a law in the form prescribed
by her Constitution, directing a survey of all the lands to which
the Indian title was extinguished by the first treaty. Learning that
the surveyors under the direction of the Governor of the State had
entered upon the execution of the duties assigned to them by the
law referred to, the Little Prince and other dissenting Chiefs of
the Creek Nation sent to the surveyor's camp a manifesto signed
by them, ordered the surveyors " not to stretch a chain over their
lands" and, upon the attempt of those functionaries to proceed,,
caused them to be arrested, and communicated the facts to the
President with a demand for the protection of the Federal Govern-
ment against further encroachment of the part of the state of
Georgia,

In the year 1802 Congress passed an act to regulate trade and
intercourse with the Indian tribes and to preserve peace on the
frontiers. It provided that if any citizen or other person, resident
in the United States, should make a settlement on lands belonging
to any Indian tribe, or should attempt to survey such lands, he or
they should forfeit one thousand dollars and be liable to impris-
onment for a period not exceeding six months. It furnished several
summary and very efficient means of enforcing the penalties for
such acts; 1st by civil process to be executed when necessary by the
Military power of the United States, in any state of the Union
where the offender could be found, and his trial and punishment
where found ; and 2d, by making it the duty of the military forces
of the Federal Government to arrest all persons found on such
Indian lands in violation of that act and to deliver them to the
Civil authorities of the United States in any one of the three ad-
joining states for trial and punishment.

The facts submitted to the President by the Creek Chiefs pre-
sented several very grave questions for his consideration in the first
instance viz : 1st, whether the case was of the character contemplated
by the act of 1802, and 2d, whether the claims set up by Georgia were
valid and whether there was anything peculiar to the conditions of
the Indians which exempted their lands from a liability to the au-
thority of the States that could not be questioned in regard to lands
owned by any other of her citizens.

The President took it upon himself to dispose of both of these
questions, decided then in favor of the Indians and informed Con-
gress, in a message, that he had no doubt of his authority to use
the military force in the case presented to him, but that he had
abstained from doing so in the first instance because the surveyors
ought not perhaps to be considered as solitary transgressors but
as the agents of a sovereign state, who would be sustained, it had

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 281

been intimated, by her utmost power, and thus a violent collision
might have occurred between the authorities of the two Govern-
ments if he had immediately used the military resources entrusted
to him. But he stated distinctly that, if the laws of the Union
remained unaltered, and the state of Georgia persevered in her en-
croachments upon the Indian territory, "a superadded obligation,
even higher than that of human authority, would compel the Ex-
ecutive of the United States to enforce the laws and fulfill the
duties of the nation by all the force committed for that purpose
to his charge."

He submitted to Congress whether any further legislation was
necessary to meet the emergency. None was suggested by him or
thought proper or necessary by Congress, but the excitement pro-
duced in that body by the Message was intense and the debates
were unusually bitter but without any results in the way of legisla-
tion. In the Senate the select Committee to whom the Message
was referred, composed in part of supporters of the Administra-
tion, unanimously reported a simple resolution, "that the Presi-
dent be respectfully requested to continue his exertions to obtain
from the Creek Indians a relinquishment of any claims to lands
within the state of Georgia," which passed without a dissenting
voice. But in the House, where the power of the Administration
was far greater, the debate and proceedings were intemperate on
both sides. The Committee appointed by the Speaker reported
against Georgia on all points and concluded with resolutions to
the effect that " it was expedient to obtain a cession of the Indian
lands within the limits of Georgia," but that until a cession is pro-
cured, the laws of the land as set forth in the Treaty of Wash-
ington (the second treaty) ought to be maintained by all neces-
sary constitutional and legal means. This report was made on the
last day of the session, too late, of course, to be acted upon, but was
ordered to be printed.

The Administration relieved itself before the next session of
Congress from all further embarrassments upon that particular
branch of the subject, greatly complicated by the President's incon-
siderate Message and the ground apparently taken by the House
Committee in his support, by another °treaty, extinguishing the
Indian title to the residue of the lands embraced in the first treaty
and excluded from the second. Treaties providing for their removal
to a limited extent were occasionally made with Indians willing to
go, but nothing very material was effected. Those who were unwill-
ing were, on the contrary, persevering in their efforts to induce their
brethren to remain. The Cherokees, a powerful tribe, composed to

* MS. Ill, p. 106.

282 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

a considerable extent of whites, some of them educated and instructed
in business affairs, taking the lead in carrying into effect the prin-
ciples for which they contended, proceeded to the establishment of
an Independent Government, framed as they insisted upon republi-
can principles, within the bounds of Georgia, and, at page 198 of
the 35th volume of Niles' Register, will be found a Message from
the principal Chiefs to the General Council of the Nation, after the
manner of the official communications from the President of the
United States. In it they recommended to the Council, as the imme-
diate representatives of the People, to send a memorial to Congress
advising that body to redeem its obligations to Georgia in some other
way than one based on the anticipation of further cessions of land
from them.

The conflicts thus occasioned between the state of Georgia and
the Cherokees can easily be conceived. These continued down to the
Presidential election in which Mr. Adams was defeated. In his last
Message he seems to have viewed the matter in a far different light
" When we have had," he says, " the rare good fortune of teaching
them (the Indians) the arts of civilization and the doctrines of
Christianity we have, unexpectedly found them forming in the midst
of ourselves communities claiming to be independent of ours and
rivals of sovereignty within the territories of the members of th*
Union. This state of things requires that a remedy should be pro-
vided which, while it shall do justice to those unfortunate children
of nature, may secure to the members of our federation the rights
of sovereignty and of soil," and for an outline of a project to that
effect he recommends to the consideration of Congress the report
of the Secretary of War. Turning to that document the reader
will find that the Secretary, Peter B. Porter, a sensible, practical
man, conversant with the Indian character and with Indian affairs,
recommends substantially the policy contended for by those who
supported the claims of Georgia, including the subjection of "all
who remain to the municipal laws of the State in which they re-
side."

This Message of Mr. Adams was prepared shortly after the elec-
tion in which his political fortunes had been wrecked and when
whatever hopes or plans he subsequently cherished, he considered
his public life as closed. He had, as we have seen strongly com-
mitted himself to different views. His friends in the House of Rep-
resentatives, where they constituted a majority, had sustained those
views in an able and animated report, they had converted the sub-
ject into a material for political agitation in the Presidential
canvass and had found it, at least so far as respected him, unavail-
ing. He now looked upon it with the eyes of a Statesman sincerely
desirous to set himself right with the Country and with posterity

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BXJRBN. 283

in regard to a matter which he could not but feel was one of the
deepest import, and thus considering it, it was impossible that he
should have failed to arrive at right conclusions. He directed his
attention to the point of greatest prominence and of greatest hazard —
the safety of the Union. There was a plausibility, founded exclu-
sively on the loose character of our dealings with the Indians dur-
ing the early period of our Government, in the pretension to politi-
cal power set up by them and on their behalf. He found our sys-
tem already an imperium in imperio, perhaps the most complicated
in the World, and of course requiring the utmost care and fore-
bearance in the administration of each, subjected in two of the
States to the establishment within their bounds of a third Govern-
ment claiming sovereign and independent political power, and, not
only so, but that we were menaced with the immediate establishment
of similar Governments in one or two other States, and exposed, if
these succeeded, to the erection of others like them in a dozen more,
and in all these cases one branch of the tripartite sovereignty was to
be lodged in savages and half-breeds. The question presented to his
mind by this state of facts was as to the probability not to say possi-
bility of our existing national confederation being upheld under
such a process — a confederation so essential not only to the welfare
and happiness of the peoples of the United States but in a very great
degree, to the interests of human liberty and the hopes of its con-
siderate friends throughout the worldj and to the escape of the In-
dians themselves from ultimate certain annihilation. Such was the
question, stripped of immaterial issues and mystifying verbiage
about which no sensible man, looking only to the good of the whole,
could it would seem, hesitate for a moment. Mr. Adams was satisfied
that the great hazards which environed it ought not to be encoun-
tered for the sake of a claim so immature and defective as that of the
Indians to self-government, and the language in which he admon-
ished Congress in his last Message of the necessity of a remedy for
the great evils with which the Country was threatened was that
of an enlightened and patriotic statesman.

Secretary Porter, in the report referred to by Mr. Adams said:
" If the policy of colonization be a wise one, and of this I believe
no one entertains a doubt, why not shape all our laws and treaties to
the attainment of that object, and impart to them an efficiency that
will be sure to effect it," and advised that all of the Indians who
would not emigrate should be subjected to the municipal laws of the
States.

If the President and his Secretary of War had spoken thus at
the commencement of his Administration and if he and his Cabinet
had done all in their power to shape the laws and treaties of the
Government to the promotion of the policy of Colonization, that great

284 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

work would have been accomplished in their day. But we have seen
that they did neither, and it was now too late to secure its success
under their auspices. When the Constitution makers of France
strove to reconcile the first Napoleon to an abridgment of his im-
mediate power by proposing to confer upon him authority to direct
what should be done after his decease he promptly refused the offer
for the reason that " a dead man was nothing in respect to power
whatever or whoever he may have been when alive.9' The same may
be said of a President whom a few short months will dispossess
of his station in obedience to the decree of the People. The sceptre
had departed from Mr. Adams when he promulgated the words
which I have quoted, the hopes of the supporters of his administra-
tion for restoration to power were then already turned to another
and their decision to the course they would take upon a question, in
respect to which the public mind was so liable to be excited, was for
partizan reasons, held in abeyance.

Substantially in the state which I have described, these matters
stood until Gen. Jackson, then President elect, became President in
fact; a state most unpromising for the colonization policy. He
forthwith devoted his utmost efforts to the remedy of this great
public evil and no man ever entered upon the execution of an of-
ficial duty with purer motives, firmer purpose or better qualifications
for its performance. It seemed a task providentially reserved for
one so admirably fitted for it by the elements of his character and
by his past experience.

Except perhaps the single subject of slavery there could not have
been one more liable to seizure and appropriation to their own
purposes by political and partizan agitators than that now under our
consideration. As the Christian religion had been the greatest
agent of civilization throughout the world, the Government could
not, in attempting to extend its blessings to the Indians, omit to
invoke the co-operation of the Christian ministry. Clerical mis-
sionaries were accordingly sent among them and the Country from
time to time heard of the great success which had attended their
labours of love. Clergymen are not over liberal as partners in
power over a subject to the management of which their agency
is admitted and they soon assumed the principal guardianship of
the Indians, holding themselves to protect them against oppression
whether it might proceed from individuals or from the Government
and authorized to weigh the measures of the latter and to condemn
them if they considered them worthy of censure. Accountability
to what is sometimes called the religious community — a class0
among us easily instigated to meddle in public affairs and seldom
free, on such occasions, from a uniform political bias, had thus

• MS. Ill, p. 110.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 285

become one of the responsibilities under which the President acted.
The Society of Friends was another large interest which claimed
the right to speak and seldom failed to make itself heard, in re-
spect to every movement of the Government that related to the
Indians and they too entertained apprehensions in regard to the
<-ourse to be expected from the "unbridled democracy" of which
President Jackson, was in their estimation, the favored leader.

It had become manifest that the removal of the Indians could not
be brought about by any measures of which the extension of the
laws of the State, with the approbation of the Federal Govern-
ment, over those who remained, after all proper means had been
exhausted to provide for their welfare in a suitable and safe new
home, did not form a part. That such measures would be disap-
proved of by the powerful classes of whom I have spoken was posi-
tively certain, and it had therefore become indispensable to their
success that their execution should devolve upon a man who was
willing, in the performance of his duties, to encounter that opposi-
tion— a qualification which had not yet been found in any President
after the necessity for such measures had occurred. It was scarcely
less necessary that he should be one whom experience had made
thoroughly conversant with the Indian character, not only knowing
them but being also well known by them as one who would do what
be promised, whether it was an act of liberality or of severity and
as one who, tho' not disposed to withhold from them any favors
that would promote their welfare and that could be extended con-
sistently with the safety of our institutions, would not fail, at the
.same time, to exert all the means lawfully within his reach to accom-
plish his object.

Gen. Jackson entered upon the consideration of this important
subject at the earliest practicable moment and strove for the accom-
plishment of his policy as long as there was reason to hope for suc-
cess, regardless of obstacles which would have discouraged less san-
guine minds. For the first time, I believe, since the establishment of
the Government, the subject of Indian affairs was specifically noticed
in the Inaugural Address. As he [the President] was emphatically
a practical man and felt that the matter must constitute one of the
leading concerns of his administration he thought the sooner public
attention was directed to it the better. Within three weeks after his
Inauguration having occasion to send a " talk " to the Creeks, in rela-
tion to the murder by some of their people of a white man. he intro-
duced to their consideration the subject of removal. He told them
that he had been made President and that he now addressed them as
their father and friend. He reminded them that in his talk to them
many years before he had spoken of the Country west of the Missis-
sippi as one where alone they could be preserved as a great nation

286 AMEBICAST HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

and he now advised them to go there. He assured them, however*
that if they chose to remain in Alabama, and to come under the laws
of that State, they might rely on his protection, that their lands
should be set off to them and their families in fee, and that they should
be secured in all the rights and privileges enjoyed by the white peo-
ple ; that his whole course towards them should be stamped with the
frankness and sincerity by which his dealings with the tribes had
always been distinguished and which a full experience had satisfied
him tf as the most likely to be successful in the end. He next caused
, the Indians in Georgia and Alabama to be officially informed that the
project of establishing independent Governments within the States
in which they resided would not be countenanced by the Executive.
This notice was, he said, due to them, and would, he hoped, have
the effect to nip in the bud the movement in that direction which
commenced in Mississippi, and to discourage such undertakings, if
they were contemplated, in the other States having Indians within
their bounds.

When Congress met he made to that body the most unreserved
communication of his views upon the whole subject in his Annual
Message. He placed the claims of the Indians upon our considera-
tion and favor on the grounds he thought they deserved to occupy,
and avowed his readiness to promote all constitutional and practi-
cable measures for their gratification. He then gave his reasons for
holding that their pretensions in respect to the organization of sep-
arate governments were unfounded, demonstrated their impracti-
cability, foreshadowed the ruinous results to our confederation that
would inevitably result from any attempt to establish such a right
in them by the power of the Federal Government, and concluded his
explanations with the following equally specific recommenda-
tions : — *

*The MS. here directs the inclusion of the following: As a means of effecting this
end, I suggest, for your consideration, the propriety of setting apart an ample district
West of the Mississippi, and without the limits of any State or Territory, now formed,
to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes, as long as they shall occupy it ; each tribe having
a distinct control over the portion designated for its use. There they may be secured
In the enjoyment of governments of their own choice, subject to no other control from
the United States than such as may be necessary to preserve peace on the frontier, and
between the several tribes. There the benevolent may endeavor to teach them the arts
of civilisation ; and by promoting union and harmony among them, to raise up an Inter-
esting commonwealth, destined to perpetuate the race, and to attest the humanity and
justice of this Government.

This emigration should be voluntary : for it would be as cruel as unjust to compel
the aborlginees to abandon the graves of their fathers, and seek a home in a distant
land. But they should be distinctly informed that, if they remain within the limits of
the States, they mast be subject to their laws. In return for their obedience, as indi-
viduals, they will, without doubt, be protected in the enjoyment of those possessions
which they have improved by their Industry. But it seems to me visionary to suppose
that, in this state of things, claims can be allowed on tracts of country on which they
have neither dwelt nor made improvements, merely because they have seen them from
the mountain, or passed them in the chase. Submitting to the laws of the States, and
receiving, like other cltlsens, protection In their persons and property, they will, ore
long, become merged in the mass of our population. — Jackson's 1st Annual Message.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 287

With the jnanly and unequivocal recantation by his predecessor
of the erroneous views he had at first entertained, and his virtual
adoption of the recommendation of his Secretary of War in favor
of the very measure Gen. Jackson now proposed, before him, and
considering that the political party from which alone he had any
reason to apprehend opposition to his policy had not only brought
the previous Administration into being but was yet fresh from a
great battle for its continuance in power, it is not surprising that
a man of Jackson's training, unversed in the ways of politicians,
should have counted upon a general concurrence in the praiseworthy
views he had disclosed upon a subject so interesting to humanity
and so important to the public interest. But he was soon furnished
with ample reasons to convince him that any hopes and anticipa-
tions of that character were mere delusions. That party knew,
as well as any future event of that nature could be known, of the
great contest with him on the Bank question which impended, and
eagerly seized the tempting opportunity presented by the Indian
difficulties to cripple his Administration in advance. Without sug-
gesting anything of their state in respect to the other branch of
the divine injunction, those partisans were certainly not as harm-
less as doves, and knowing full well that we had not as yet had no
President possessed of sufficient < moral courage to deal with that
subject in the way in which alone it could be wisely treated they
were slow to believe that this unfledged Statesman would be able
to do so successfully, and they determined not to forego the ad-
vantages it seemed to offer.

The first step was the passage of a law clothing the Executive with
adequate powers if the Indians consented to remove and the next
to obtain their consent to its execution. Without success in the
latter openly and fairly obtained, Gen. Jackson did not desire it in
the general object however important he considered it to the public
welfare.

The Committees on Indian Affairs in both Houses reported a
Bill, short, simple and comprehensive and then followed the death
struggle for its passage, for such, especially in the House of Bepre-
sentatives, it emphatically was. The Bill authorized the President
to cause so much of the territory of the United States, west of the
Mississippi, as he might judge necessary to be divided into a suit-
able number of Districts for the reception of such tribes or nations
of Indians as might choose to exchange the lands on which they
then resided and to remove there; to exchange such districts with
any tribe or nation, then residing within the limits of any State or
Territory, with which the United States had existing treaties, and
where the lands were owned by the United States or where the latter

288 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

were bound to the States to extinguish the Indian title; to make
compensation to the Indians for their improvements, and to pro-
vide all necessary aid for their removal and for their support for
one year afterwards, with suitable clauses securing the guarantee
and protection of the United States as recommended by the Presi-
dent in his Message.

When this Bill was taken up in the Senate, the body in which the
subject was first acted upon, Mr. [Theodore] Frelinghuysen, of New
Jersey, moved to add to it the following section :

Sec. 9. That until the said tribes or nations shall choose to remove, as by
this act is contemplated, they shall be protected in their present possessions, and
in the enjoyment of all their rights of territory and government, as heretofore
exercised and enjoyed, from all interruptions and encroachments.

The clause attempted to mark the nature and extent of the right
of self-government proposed to be reserved to the Indians by assum-
ing as a fact what was denied0 that it was a right they had " there-
tofore exercised and enjoyed." But the design in the use of the
phraseology employed was to make the proposition appear less rank
than it would if the right intended to be reserved was simply and
plainly set forth in the additional section. It was meant, as fully
appears from the debate, to test the principle as to the right of the
Indians to maintain independent political Governments within the
States in which they resided, under the belief that the movement
would involve the fate of the colonization policy and, if successful,
defeat it, as no one would for a moment believe that the Indians
would remove as long as the power of Congress stood pledged to sup-
port them in the exercise of that degree of sovereignty.

The Whig party (as the opposition was then called) rallied with
perfect unanimity in favor of Mr. Frelinghuysen's amendment and
against the Bill. A more persevering opposition to a public measure
had scarcely ever been made. Few men would now venture to
deny that it was a factious opposition waged to promote the in-
terests of party at the expence of the highest interests of the
Country, upon grounds which were not tenable and for avowed pur-
poses which were not practicable, — or, if practicable, could only
become so thro* the agency of the U. S. Army and the probable de-
struction of the Confederacy. The subject was discussed with brief
intermission, from the 9th to the 26th April, when the additional
section, offered by Frelinghuysen, was rejected, every whig Sen-
ator voting in favor of it as did also the only Jackson Senator from
Pennsylvania, and the Bill passed the Senate by a small majority
that Senator finally voting in its favor. The opposition did not
expect to defeat it in the Senate. The debate and proceedings in
that body having been principally designed for the effect they

* MS. Ill, p. 115.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VATT BTJBBN. 989

might produce on the public mind and, through that source, on the
popular branch of Congress. It was to the House of Representa-
tives that they looked as the theatre of triumph and the result
shewed that the y had very strong grounds for the confidence they
entertained of such a result. The majority of what were called
Jackson men in that body was sixty five, but it was in a great
degree composed of gentlemen who had shortly before professed
different politics from the mass of his supporters and thus were not
only new in the republican fellowship, but many of them not over
well instructed or very deeply imbued in the principles of the party
they had joined. This class of the General's friends were pecul-
iarly liable to be influenced by the dread of giving offence to
the Quakers and to the religious communities, and were prone
to communicate their apprehensions to their new associates. The
influence of this feeling was strikingly exhibited in the vote of the
delegation from Pennsylvania which, tho' more exposed than others
to a Quaker panic, was in other respects more relied upon on ac-
count of the very general and very strong attachment of her People
to General Jackson who, in a great degree, staked the success of his
administration upon this measure, Of her twenty six members (of
whom all but one were elected as Jackson men) only six voted for
the Bill, three of those subsequently voted against the previous
question because it would cut off an amendment, which went to
defeat the measure in a round about way, two of them were with
difficulty brought to the final vote, and such men as [James]
Buchanan' and [George G.] Leiper, the latter representing a Quaker
district, felt themselves constrained to shoot the pit. The same in*
fluences produced similar effects upon the representatives of other
States and the result was that after a debate as protracted and ex-
cited as any that had ever before taken place in that body, and not-
withstanding the large nominal preponderance in favor of the Ad-
ministration, the measure recommended by the President was carried
in the House by a majority of only four on a preliminary vote and of
five on its final passage.1

Congress had performed its duty by the enactment of the law, and
the Constitution as well as his oath of office imposed upon the Pres-
ident the obligation to see to its execution. Another opportunity was
thus presented to the opponents of his Administration to shew by
their actions that they placed a higher value upon the interests of
the Country and the welfare of the Indians than upon party con-
quests. But unfortunately for those, interests and for their own
highest good, altho' defeated in respect. to the passage of the Bill,

1 An act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians • • • and their
femoral wttt'oi the ri w MtertMippi. Approve*, -Ma? 28, 1880. •

127483°— vol 2—20 19

290 AMERICA* HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

they were too much encouraged by their extraordinary success in
making converts in the House of Representatives to heed such con-
siderations. They foresaw as they thought the political advantages
of the struggle which had been fomented by their unfounded pre*
tension to culminate in their triumph at the ensning Presidential
election, all unconscious of the utter overthrow of their hopes which
was gathering strength in the sober second thoughts of the People.
They set every engine in motion to throw obstructions in the way of
the President, and received a full measure of cooperation from their
usual auxiliaries in great crises, the Press, the Courts of law and,
last tho' far from least in power and influence, the Church.

If the question had been one of power simply the President
would have soon settled it, but he could not act effectively, nor did
he desire to do so, without the consent of the Indians and he was
both too wise and too just to take any steps to obtain that consent
which the good sense and good feeling of the Country would not
finally approve. Those who understood his diameter soon became
satisfied of this, but those who did not hoped to drive him to acts
of violence which would destroy his popularity. Hence they blamed
every thing he did, and responded to every act of resistance on the
part of the Indians and by such measures of co-operation as were
suited to the habits of civilized life.

The Cherokees refused to meet the President in Council to nego-
tiate upon the subject of their lands, and answered his invitation by
a legislative act denouncing the penalty of death against any one
of their nation who should attempt to sell their lands without the
assent of the National Council. In their Memorial to Congress,
rising in their pretensions, from the encouragement they received,
they claimed to be a Sovereign State independent as well of the
Federal Government as of Georgia, and as such one of their Chiefs
undertook to stop the mail on its passage over their lands and re-
sisted the exercise of criminal jurisdiction by that State [Georgia]
within their bounds.

Those portions of the Press favoring the pretensions of the In-
dians to the right of self-govenment were at the same time filled
with encomiastic accounts of the prudence of the Cherokees and of
their capacity for the discharge of its duties and denunciations of
the conduct of Georgia and of the President

Chief Justice Marshall issued a Citation to the State of Georgia
to appear before the Supreme Court, pursuant to a Writ of Error,
to shew cause why a judgment of a Superior Court of that State
against an individual for murder committed within the bounds of
that State, but on Cherokee territory, should not be corrected and
speedy justice done to the parties. The citation was communicated

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MABTIN VAN BUBEN. 291

to the Legislature by the Governor of Georgia with a declaration
that orders from the Supreme Court interfering with the decisions
of their State courts in such a matter, would so far as related to the
Executive Department, be disregarded and any attempt to enforce
them resisted with all the force the laws had placed at his command.
Thus were the pacific relations between the Federal Government
and one of the States of the Confederacy a second time endangered
by high functionaries of the former, but the danger was avoided
now, as at the first, by the firmness of the State authorities and an
abandonment of their avowed intentions on the part of the former.

Nothing further was done with the Writ of Error, but proceed-
ings to the same end were instituted in a different form. A Bill was
filed by Mr. Wirt, in the same Court, in favor of "The Cherokee
Nation against the State of Georgia," praying an injunction to re-
strain that State from executing the laws of the State within the
Cherokee territory.

Georgia refused to appear to the Summons or to have anything
to do with the proceedings. The hearing was therefore ex parte,
but the application was notwithstanding argued at great length
and, as the newspapers said, with great ability, by Messers. Wirt
and Sergeant, of course for the Cherokees. The Suit was brought
by them, claiming to be a " Foreign State" under the article of th6
Federal Constitution, defining the extent of the judicial power of
the Federal Government. The Supreme Court held, unanimously,
that their claim to be so regarded was manifestly untenable.1 Thus
ruling, there was, of course, an end of the proceeding. As the plain-
tiffs had no right to appear in that Court in the character they had
assumed for the purpose, they had no right to ask its opinion on
any point in the case they had presented. But Chief Justice Mar-
shall, who delivered the opinion of a majority of the Court, whilst
concurring with the Whole Bench that the Plaintiffs had no right
to bring the suit, went on notwithstanding, as he did in the famous
case of Marbury and Madison, to deliver an extra-judicial opinion,
upon one of the material points presented by the case, and declared
that u so much of the argument of counsel as was intended to prove
the character of the Cherokees as a State, as a distinct political
Society, separated from others, capable of managing their own
affairs, and governing itself % has, in the opinion of a majority of
the Judges, been completely successful." He intimated also that
u the mere question of right to their lands might perhaps be decided
by the Court in a proper case with proper parties ", but as the Bill
asked them to do more Ac they could not interfere. Not content

* Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, Peter*, 6, 1-80.

292 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

with this he was pleased to add that " if it was ° true that wrongs
had been inflicted on the Cherokee nation, and that still greater
were to be apprehended, that was not the tribunal to redress the
past or to prevent the future."

Justices Baldwin and Johnson1 delivered separate opinions, con*
curring in the only point the Court was competent to decide, but dis-
senting from all that was said beyond, Mr. Peters, the Reporter,
decided to publish the case immediately., separately from the volume
in which it would appear in the ordinary course, and to give (to use
his own .language) "Mr. WirVs great argument in behalf of the
Cherokee*, which had been taken down by stenographers employed
for the purpose/ "

Is it possible for an intelligent mind to doubt that the design of
these extraordinary proceedings, as well the extra-judicial decision
of the Court as the electioneering pamphlet gotten up by its Re-
porter, was the same, or that that design was to operate upon the
public mind adversely to Georgia and to the President?

The Cherokees, as they well might do, regarded the opinion of the
Court, on the great point in controversy between them and Georgia,
as expressed in their favor, and contended that the President was
bound by it and said so in an Address by their Chiefs and Head Men
to the People of the United States, which, with Mr. Peters' Report,
was published and scattered over the whole Country.

To sustain this suit it was necessary that two points, independent
of its merits, should be decided in their favor; 1st, that the Chero-
kees were a foreign State, in the sense of the Constitution, and, 2nd,
that the Supreme Court was competent so far to exercise the political
power as to enjoin the action of a State Government in the highest
exercise of its sovereignty. It required an extraordinary stretch of
charity to believe that their learned and intelligent counsel could
have entertained the slightest confidence in the tenability of either
position. The fact that the majority of a Court composed of their
political friends, honorable men but cherishing sympathies in favor
of the cause in which the great abilities of the counsel were em-
ployed as strong as their own, rejected both propositions without
hesitation, makes overwhelmingly against the good faith in which
the proceedings were instituted. They could not therefore complain
that their political opponents, as well as the cool judgment of many
whp were not politicians, regarded the whole proceedings as ficti-
tious, not to say factious, and designed for political effect; and it
was a source of deepest mortification that those who moved in it had,
\p\ the course of its prosecution, succeeded in obtaining the . indi-
rect countenance and aid of the Court thro' its expression, or, to

*> <*

MS. Ill, p. 120. * Henry Baldwin and William Johnson.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 298

speak more correctly, thro5 the expression by a majority of its mem-
bers of an extra-judicial and partizan opinion, than which the dif-
fusion of Peters9 report and Wirt's eloquent speech in favor of the
"poor Cherokees" (altho' objectionable as attempts to prostitute
judicial proceedings to electioneering purposes,) was far less painful.
But the political aid derived from impressions systematically
made on the religious community by the continued and deceptive agi-
tation of this matter was still greater. Missionaries had been sent
into the Cherokee Country, during the Administration of Mr. Adams,
by the American Board of Foreign Missions, who were to some
extent regarded as Agents of the Federal Government, and, as
such, exempted from the laws of Georgia forbidding white men
from residing among the Cherokees without a license from the
Governor. These men, partaking of the feelings which actuated
their friends at home, and not indisposed to acquire the notoriety
of political martyrdom in a political cause, busied themselves in the
question of removal. The Governor of Georgia asked for their
withdrawal and they were disavowed by the Federal Government
as persons in its service, but they nevertheless remained at their
posts. They were informed of the law and requested to depart,
and, on their refusing to do so, were arrested. Declining all offers
of accommodation which involved their leaving the Cherokee ter-
ritory, they were subjected to the operation of the law under which
they were convicted and imprisoned. It is scarcely possible now,
when the delusion has passed a*way, and when all see that the
course adopted was the wisest and best for the Indians, to realize
the extent to which many of our religious societies were agitated
and disturbed by the imprisonment of those missionaries, and there '
was no doubt that not less than eight or ten thousand voters, in
the state of New York alone, were controlled at the succeeding Pres-
idential election in the bestowal of their suffrages by that single
consideration. Gen. Jackson and myself were then candidates for
the offices of President and Vice-President and I cannot perhaps
give a more striking illustration of the force of that excitement
than by relating an occurrence which fell under my observation.
Passing, previous to the election, thro' the western part of our
state, where the pro-Cherokee feeling had been lashed to a great
height, I stopped for a night at the residence of a near and very
dear relative of my own — a lady of remarkable intelligence and
strength of character, and deeply imbued with religious feeling.
After I had retired to my room she entered it and after a kind
introduction and welcome soon proceeded to a spirited denuncia-
tion of our proceedings (for she associated me with the President)
towards the Cherokees in general and the Missionaries in particu-

294 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

lar, with the utmost severity consistent with what was due to her
sex and to her respect for myself, neither of which was she capable
of overlooking. Well aware of the tenacious grasp with which
her opinions, in matters of conscience, were held — a feature of
her character doubtless, in some degree, derived from the Huge-
notish blood which flowed in her veins, — and thinking the hour
unsuitable for the argument, I made but little answer to her charges,
and, on leaving the room, she said, yet holding the door in hand,
u Uncle! I must say to you that it is my earnest wish that you
may lose the election, as I believe that such a result ought to fol-
low such acts!"

When such feelings were in this way produced on such a mind
towards a relative for whose welfare she cherished a solicitude as
ardent* and as sincere as she did for any other human being, her
parents having been both, long before, removed from this world and
she having neither brother nor sister, it is not difficult to imagine
how strong must have been the influence of this subject in other cases.

Many other incidents of this great struggle, not less interesting
than those of which I have spoken, crowd upon my recollection, but
I do not feel at liberty to extend the space already appropriated to
the subject. It was my intention, in particular, to have set forth
more fully than I have yet done the admirable bearing and sound
statesmanship displayed by Gen. Jackson throughout this period, his
sincere and persevering efforts to bring the Cherokees into council,
his meetings with the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes, many of whom
had fought by his side in the war of 1812, his renewal to them and to
the Creeks of the advice he had given to the latter on the very point
under consideration, immediately after the disastrous battle of the
Horse Shoe, the restoration of the confidence of the tribes in the sin-
cerity of his friendship for them, his success in prevailing upon them
to conform to the policy of the Government by removing to the West,
and his influence upon the excited Georgians inducing them to ex-
hibit a mildness and a conciliatory spirit in their acts which became
matter of comment and surprise to their and his opponents. But I
must forego this design.

The day of election came on, not only under the unfavorable
circumstances I have described, but subject to the adverse and im-
pure influences of the Bank question and the excitement produced
by the President's veto. Gen. Jackson was notwithstanding re-
elected by an immense majority and the Councils of the nation so far
as their members could, under the Constitution, be reached by that
election, were replenished to overflowing with sincere friends to his
administration. The voice of the People produced what reason,
justice, and policy had demanded in vain. Defense, encouragement

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIK VAJT BUREN. 995

and support of the Cherokees in their political pretensions were no
longer insisted on by the anti-Jackson party. The idea of small
Indian sovereignties swayed by savage customs and councils, within
the borders of certain states of oar confederacy, was exploded. The
laws of the States according to the recommendation of Secretary
Porter, were shaped without hindrance, to the promotion of the
only rational policy— that of removing the Indians beyond the reach
of the bad influences inevitable from association and contention with
the white men. ° The President, forgetting or overlooking the ob-
stacles that had been thrown in his way, pursued his policy with his
Accustomed energy and perseverance, and his labors were ultimately
crowned with complete success. I say his labowrs for that great work
was emphatically the fruit of his own exertions. It was his judg-
ment, his experience, his indomitable vigour and unresting activity
that secured success. There was no measure, in the whole course of
his administration of which he was more exclusively the author than
this. His Secretary of War assisted to the extent of his power, he
advised freely with me on all occasions and gave such weight to my
advice, relating chiefly to the manner of doing what he thought
ought to be done, as he thought it deserved, which was never less
but frequently more than it was really entitled to, but his were the
mind, hand and spirit that controlled throughout

Gen. Jackson's success excited as it deserved the admiration and
applause of the wise and the good. He has received a large share of
the gratitude and praise of the American People for thq acts of
his life, both in the military and civil service of his Country, but,
in my opinion, there were none better entitled to such rewards than
those which affected the important subject of which I have spoken.
I may have considered it in more detail and at greater length than
was necessary, but I have been influenced by views which I thought
entitled to much force. The fact that what was done in this matter
was more exclusively his own doing than could be said of any other
measure of his administration and therefore furnishes a most
reliable illustration of his character, and the inadequacy of the
credit which these services have as yet received have been already
noticed. But there are higher motives for a thorough review of the
whole subject. Unlike histories of many great questions which agi-
tated the public mind in their day, the account I have here given
of the action of the Government and of political parties relates
to one which will, in all probability endure, in many important
general features, as long as the Government itself and which must
in all that time occupy and interest the minds and feelings of our
peoplq; to one, moreover, in respect to which we are, as a nation

* MS. Ill, p. 126.

296 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

responsible, in foro conscientiae, to the opinions of the greet family
of nations, as it involves the course we have pursued and shall pursue
towards a people comparatively weak, upon whom we were perhaps
in the beginning unjustifiable aggressors but of whom, in the progress
of time and events, we have become the guardians and, as we hope,
the benefactors. It has appeared to me that those to whose care
the character and interests of the United States as connected with
this subject, may hereafter be committed, cannot fail to be deeply
interested in if not materially benefitted by a true account of the
views, motives and transactions of their predecessors in regard to
it on an occasion so critical as was that which I have reviewed.

CHAPTER XXIII.

The next and scarcely less important subject to which President
Jackson gave his attention was that of internal improvements
under the authority of the Federal Government. Questions in
regard to it had constituted the staple of a very large proportion
of the debates in Congress for many years before his accession to
the Presidency; indeed, this had been the case, with brief inter*
missions, since the termination of the War of 1812. A race of
younger Statesmen, as has been before intimated, full of talents,
commendably ambitious to secure the confidence and not indis-
posed to enjoy the favors of the People, bad assigned to it a prom-
inent position among the blessings with which they promised to
improve and adorn the Country.

Mr. Gallatin,1 in 1808, in obedience to a resolution of the Senate,
at the preceding session, offered by Mr. Worthington,8 of Ohio,
made an elaborate report embracing the outlines of a general sys-
tem of .internal improvements, and the subject was again referred
to by Mr. Jefferson in his next and last message. Having, in a
previous message, declared the necessity of an addition to the
enumerated powers of Congress to authorize such works, he now
spoke of the disposition of a surplus revenue, the accumulation
of which he deemed probable, and asked whether it should be suf-
fered to remain unproductive in our vaults, be reduced, or be
" appropriated to the improvements of roads, canals, rivers, educa-
tion and other great foundations of prosperity and union under
the powers we may already possess, or such amendments of the
Constitution as might be approved by the States." Mr. Calhoun
is entitled to the credit, be that what it may, of having been the
first to bring the vexed question of Constitutional power before
Congress for its immediate decision. A glance at the then state
of the question in respect to the power of Congress over the sub-
ject will here be neither out of place nor without interest.

Alexander Hamilton, if not the sole author of the principle of
implied powers, stood at the head of those whose doctrines in regard
to the construction of the Constitution were considered the most
latitudinarian. His opinion in favor of the Bank of the United
States and his report on manufactures were the ample fountains
from which most if not all of these heresies proceeded. Without
their aid he regarded the Constitution as utterly impracticable and

* Albert Gallatin* * Thomas Worthington.

297

298 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

he therefore stretched his fertile imagination to the utmost to render
that principle as efficient as possible. Yet he disclaimed in express
terms powers in Congress to construct roads and canals, within the
States, with or without their consent. If there was ever room for
doubt upon that point, which there could not well be after his re-
port on manufactures, it has been fully cleared up by recent devel-
opments. By that report he carried the money power of the Gov-
ernment to an extent which did not admit of enlargement, and defined
it in terms so felicitously as to satisfy the wildest theorist. Speaking
of other powers, the exercise of which would be useful, he gave a
marked prominence to that we are considering : " Symptoms of atten-
tion to the improvement of inland navigation which had," he said,
" lately appeared in some quarters must fill with pleasure any heart
wanned with a true zeal for the prosperity of the Country. These
examples, it is to be hoped, will stimulate the exertions of the Gov-
ernment and citizens of every State. There can certainly be no ob-
ject more worthy of the cares of the local administrations, and it were
to be wished that there was 710 doubt of the power of the national
Government to lend its direct aid on a comprehensive plan? and he
then proceeds to shew why the thing could be better done by the
latter.

Such language coming from a man of his known dispositions can
receive but one construction, and in his letter to Mr. Dayton,1 eight
years afterwards, in which he drew up a programme of the steps
that ought, in his judgment, to be taken by the party in power, he
uses the following language : " an article ought to be proposed to
be added to the Constitution for empowering Congress to open
canals in all cases to which it may be necessary to conduct them
thro' two or more States or through the territory of a State and of
the United States." This letter, which has now, for the first time,
come to light thro' the publication of Hamilton's private papers
brings our knowledge of his opinion to the point of absolute cer-
tainty. He was not the man to go to the People or the States for
additional power if he believed that a claim to that which he de-
sired was at all tenable under the Constitution as it stood.

Mr. Calhoun's Bonus Bill, introduced at the first session after the
peace proposed to set apart and pledge the Bank Fund Bonus as a
* fund for constructing roads and canals and improving the navi-
gation of water courses in order Ac. Ac", and in his introductory
speech he treated the question of power as indubitable. Referring
to the circumstance that no measure of the kind had been ever before
introduced he attributed the omission to the adverse state of the
Country in regard to the finances and other causes and regarded

» Jonathan Dayton, 1790, In Hamilton'! Works, edited by John C. Hamilton (N. Y.,
1851) T. G, p. 883.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YAK BUREN. 299

Ids, as it in truth was, as a pioneer project. u To perfect the com-
munication from Maine to Louisiana, the connexion of the Lakes
with the Hudson River, to connect the great commercial points on
the Atlantic, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond,
Charleston and Savannah with the Western States and to perfect
the intercourse between the West and New Orleans" were among
the objects he contemplated. Even Timothy Pickering, altho' he
had no difficulty in finding excuses for supporting Mr. Calhoun's
Bill, could not refrain from expressing his dissent from the views
the latter had taken of the Constitution, which he thought too lati-
tudinarian : — " he did not admit the latitude ° of construction given
by the gentleman from South Carolina to the terms of the Constitu-
tion. He had quoted that part of the Constitution which said that
Congress had power " to lay and collect taxes, duties, imports and
excises" — for what purpose?, in order — "to>pay the debts and pro-
vide for the common defence and general welfare", and hence the
gentleman had inferred that as roads and canals would provide for
the common defence and general welfare therefore Congress had
power to make roads and canals. If this interpretation of the Con-
stitution be correct then the subsequent enumeration of powers was
superfluous, for the terms "to provide for the general welfare"
would embrace the following enumerated powers and every other
imaginable power the exercise of which would promote the general
welfare."

Mr. Clay, then Speaker, congratulated Mr. Calhoun on the honor of
having introduced the subject, and his Country on the advantages
she could not fail to derive from the measure proposed, and expressed
an unequivocal opinion in favor of its constitutionality. The Bill
was ably opposed by several and particularly that honest man and
pure patriot, Philip P. Barbour, of Virginia, by arguments which
Messrs. Clay and Calhoun in vain attempted to refute. It was, not-
withstanding, passed by a small majority in the House and a larger
in the Senate, after a specious amendment requiring the assent of the
States to the expenditure of the money within their respective bounds.

Mr. Madison, ill at ease, I cannot doubt, from having just before
given his assent to the re-establishment of a Bank, an act at variance
with principles vital to the Constitution, of which he, above all other
men, was entitled to the credit of having been their enlightened
expounder but which he had felt himself constrained to desert be-
cause he thought doubtless honestly, that the abuse of those principles
upon that point had acquired too deep and too strong root to be dis-
turbed, promptly interposed his veto. He did so perhaps the more
readily under an apprehension that this additional encroachment

* M8. Ill, IK 13a

'900 AMBRIOAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

upon the Constitution might have originated in his own f orgetfnlness
of the past In his veto Message, with the chastity and felicity of
expression in which he had no equal, he placed the unconstitution-
ality of the measure and the insufficiency of the Veil which had been
thrown over its character by the Senate, in the plainest possible
points of view. His message deprived the Bill of the majority it
had obtained in the House, in which it originated, but it did not
convince Clay, Calhoun or Webster, all of whom voted for it not-
withstanding the veto. Indeed Mr. Clay was so eager to place him-
self on record in favor of the abstract proposition of Constitutional
power that, altho' not obliged, as Speaker, to vote, there being no ti£,
he claimed the right to do so in that case. Mr. Calhoun was soon
after appointed Secretary of War by Mr. Monroe and retired from
Congress. In his first Report in that capacity he r

At the first session of the succeeding Congress the subject was
again brought forward by a Report from Professor Tucker,* Chair-
man of the Committee on Roads and Canals, a representative of the
State of Virginia, tho' not an adherent of her prevailing politics.
His Report sustained the constitutionality and expediency of such
measures as that which Mr. Madison's veto had defeated and con-
cluded with a Resolution in accordance with the Report. Mr. Clay,
in an elaborate and able speech supported the positions he had
before taken. This debate also brought more conspicuously into
public view William Lowndes, of South Carolina, a man whom from
the beginning of his public life, all regarded with much favor. Sev-
eral distinct resolutions were finally offered by Mr. Lowndes as a
substitute for that reported by the Committee. That which claimed
the right to appropriate money for the construction of post roads,
military and other roads and to make canals and for the improvement
of water courses passed by a majority of 15 in 164 votes. Those
which asserted a power to construct roads and canals necessary for
commerce between the States, to construct canals for military pur-
poses, were severally rejected by small majorities. Other proposi-
tions were presented but Mr. Lowndes, observing that the sense of
the House had been fully expressed in favor of the right to appro-
priate money for the construction of roads and canals and had thus
removed obstructions to propositions enftracing that object, moved
to lay the rest of the Report on the table, which motion prevailed.

1 A pencil note here states that space is left " for Calhoun's recommendations of
Internal Improvements in his first Report as Secretary of War." Van Buren*s recol-
lection is at fault Calhoun's first report as Secretary of War was Tery brief and did
not diBcuss this subject. His la$t annual report, December, 1824, dealt with the matter
in considerable fullness. For a good general account see Meigs' Life of Calhoun (N. Y.„
1917), t. 2, 246-G1 and, in the Works of Calhoun, his letter to Henry Clay, Speaker of
the House of Representatives, Jan. 14, 1810, Vol. V, pp. 40-54 ; also <&<&, pp. 142-6. .

* Henry St. George Tucker.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BT7ERN. 801

Mr. Lowndes views were throughout characterized by modesty,
candour and sincerity which commanded the respect of all and con-
ciliated for their author the esteem of those even who dissented from
their correctness. He admitted that public works, such as were
referred to, would in all probability be more economically and better
constructed when the fruit of individual enterprise, or when made
under the authority of the States, but roads and canals had, he said,
been objects of attention to Government in all Countries and they
were, in his opinion, necessary works of that description that would
never be constructed unless by the Federal Government, and sincerely
believing that Congress possessed the requisite power he was in favor
of having them made under its authority and at the expense of the
nation.

He was unhappily obliged to retire from public life at the age of
forty one and died, in January, 1828 an his way to Europe in pursuit
of health, lamented by all who had known him and having by his
honorable, just and distinguished tho' unobtrusive career impressed
the public mind with a very general belief that his chances for the
Presidency would have been, but for his early death, better than
those of any of his cotempotraries.

In respect to the extreme power over the subject of internal im-
provements—that of construction — this great effort in it* behalf
resulted in its complete overthrow. Even in respect to the power of
appropriation, the movement notwithstanding Mr. Lowndes' attempt
to swell the majority beyond its legitimate limits, could scarcely
be otherwise regarded than as a defeat or in any the most favourable
view, as a barren triumph.

Mr. Monroe, at the same session, re-affirmed, in his annual Mes-
sage, his adherence to the Virginia doctrines upon the question of
the power of Congress to construct roads and canals, and informed
that body in advance, very much to the annoyance of Mr. Clay,
whose position at the moment was one of quasi-opposition to the
Administration, that if they pressed a law for such a purpose he
would be constrained to object to its passage. But he did not say
or intimate, neither was there any reason to apprehend, nor is it
probable that he had changed his views in respect to any other por-
tions of those doctrines. A majority of only fifteen in a represen-
tation numbering more than two hundred, with a minority moved
by a single and sacred motive— to protect the Constitution — against
those who were in great part seeking the advancement of local ob-
jects which were in themselves well calculated to engender rivalries
and divisions, and with the impending danger of a Presidential
veto) offered but slight temptation to efforts for the establishment
of a system of internal improvements under the patronage of the
Federal Government.

804 AMERICA* HISTORICAL ASSOCIATED*.

But whatever may have been die origin of this change in Mr. Mem-
roe's constitutional views there was no room for question in respect to
its extent. The principles of the party in which he had been reared
had been commended to his preference not only by the circumstances
of his location and the character of his early associates, but by his
own habits of circumspection. Honest and considerate in his conduct
he was never the slave of momentary impulses but arrived at his con-
clusions by proverbially slow degrees after long and careful delibera-
tion. Mr. Webster exemplified his dispositions in this respect by an
amusing anecdote. It was, he said, the President's habit to write
on a slate the names of the candidates for prominent places, and after
the lists were completed, to rub out one name every day until only
one remained, when the slate, of course, was sent to the proper office
to have the commission made out

Fettma lente having thus been the rule of bin life, he seemed on
the occasion of which we are now writing, to have passed in the
twinkling of an eye from one extreme to another. The doctrine set
forth in the manifesto that accompanied his veto-Message on the
Cumberland Road B}11, in regard to the power of Congress to appro-
priate the national revenue, embraced all that Alexander Hamilton
had ever contended for. In his famous Report upon Manufactures
the latter in substance thus defines the power of the Federal Govern-
ment to raise money:

' These three qualifications excepted, (viz : that all duties, imposts and excises
shall be uniform throughout the United States, that no direct tax shall be laid
unless in proportion to the federal numbers of the different States and that no
tax or duty shall be laid on exports) the power to raise money is plenary and
indefinite, * * * and there seems to be no room for a doubt that whatever
concerns the general interests of learning, of agriculture, of manufactures and
of commerce comes within the sphere of the national councils as far as regards
an application of money.

Mr. Monroe explained his new position substantially as follows :

It is contended on the one side that as this is a Government of limited powers
it has no right to expend money except in the performance of acts authorized
by the other specific grants according to a strict construction of their powers;
♦ * * To this construction I was inclined In the more early stage of oar
Government; but on further reflection and observation my mind has under-
gone a change for reasons I will frankly unfold.

Then after speaking of the unqualified character of the power to
declare war and other powers, he says :

The power to raise money by taxes, duties, imposts and excises is alike un-
qualified, nor so do I see any check on the exercise of it other than that which
applies to the other powers— the responsibility of the. representative to his
constituents. * * * If we look to the q£her branch of this power — the
appropriation of the money thus raised, — we find that it is not less general
and unqualified than the power to raise it

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 805

He proceeds with an endeavour to prove, by a course of reason-
ing which he would once have himself pronounced more specious
than solid, that the framers of the Constitution, as well as those by
whom it was adopted, designed that both powers should be unquali-
fied. Few persons will contend that, in respect to the power to
raise and expend revenue, Hamilton went one iota farther than
Monroe. The language of the former was more graceful and capti-
vating but the latter took especial care that it was not more general
or far reaching.

Who, in former days, could have contemplated the possibility that
a Virginia President, one of the first members of the old republican
party and elected as such, would ever be brought to establish, so far
as an act of the Executive branch of the Federal Government was
capable of establishing it, one of the most ultra and, in practice,
likely to be one of the most dangerous principles ever advocated by
Alexander Hamilton, and that the individual thus acting would be
J antes Monroe between whom and Hamilton ° political differences
had ripened into personal hostility extending to the brink of per-
sonal combat) How strong must have been the influence which
could work such a change I The laxness of the times, in respect to
political consistency, in a great degree brought about by the agency
of Mr. Monroe himself, doubtless had much to do with it, but I have
always thought that political rivalry was not without its influence
in producing a result so remarkable and so much to be deprecated.

* Ma inf p. 14a

127483°— vol 2—20 20

CHAPTER XXIV.

When the Message and the accompanying papers were sent to Con-
gress little had been said of Gen. Jackson in connection with the
question of succession to Mr. Monroe and, especially in the early
part of the canvass, Mr. Adams' claims were but lightly regarded.
In 1817-18 Clay and Calhoun were most prominent among the heirs
apparent. Altho' exercising his usual prudence in the matter, Mr.
Monroe was notwithstanding well understood to prefer Mr. Calhoun*
The general conviction doubtless influenced to some extent Mr. Clay's
course towards the Administration. He first threw cold water on
the efforts to bring about an amalgamation of parties, and satirized,
with considerable severity, in one of his speeches, the attentions re*
ceived by the President, on a Northern tour, from the old federalists*
The Administration in turn for some time gave an equally inhospita-
ble reception to Mr. Clay's endeavours to bring about the recogni-
tion of South American Independence; but when, by the progress
of events, and the indications of public sentiment, efforts to arrest
that measure had become unsafe, it exerted itself to take the matter
out of Mr. Clay's hands by means of a virtual recommendation of it
by the President himself. I well remember Mr. Calhoun's exulting
remark when the Message on this subject and this effect of it were
alluded to : " Yes ! the fruit has now become ripe and may be safely
plucked ! " It was in this way that Mr. Clay was, as he supposed,
deprived of the credit he hoped to have acquired by his championship
of South American Independence. His was not a temperament long
to brook hostility open or covert His deep dissatisfaction with the
President's course in announcing in advance in his Annual Message
in December 1817, that he could not approve of a Bill authorizing the
construction of roads or canals, has been noticed. He spoke of it in
his great effort on that occasion as a step which if taken by the
Crown would have been regarded in England as a breach of the
privileges of Parliament and said that it deserved to be considered
here, whatever might have been the President's motive, as an attempt
to dictate to Congress. Altho' he treated the President throughout
with the respect due to his station he evidently did so at the sacrifice
of deeply seated feelings of a different character. When it is recol-
lected that the resolutions asserting the power of Congress on that
occasion were rejected by very small majorities he might well at-
tribute their defeat as he did to this out of the way tho' not posi-
306

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 307

lively irregular step of the President. The introduction by Mr.
Clay's (liter ego, Mr. Trimble,1 of the Bill authorizing the establish-
ment of toll-gates on the Cumberland Road may have originated
solely, or even chiefly in the impatience of Congress at the expences
of that Road and in a natural desire to relieve the Treasury from
further appropriations of money to keep it in repair: but I con-
fess that I did not see the movement in that light. To compell Mr.
Monroe, with the sanction of his Cabinet, not less than three of
whose members were contestants in expectancy for the Presidency, to
apply the the general principle to which he had volunteered an
avowal at the preceding session, of his continued adherence to the
pet public work of the West, or, by omitting to do so, to admit its
unsoundness, was a temptation too strong for a man like Mr. Clay
to resist. He had been baffled by the Administration in an object
in which I have no doubt that his feelings were earnestly engaged
and upon his success in which he had made large calculations and
his retort could hardly be regarded as a reckless one.

By the provisions of the Bill, which was carried through under
the lead of Mr. Trimble, — Mr. Clay having retired for one Congress,
but I need not add, having his eye on Washington, — the Adminis-
tration was driven to the alternative I have described. I am con-
Gdent that Mr. Monroe and the principal members of his Cabinet so
understood the movement. In resisting it Messrs. Adams, Crawford
and Calhoun acted as a unit, for altho' in regard to their political
aspirations each engineered for himself they were equally opposed to
Mr. Clay's pretensions. Nor was there then much difference in the
character of their personal relations with him, these not being in
either case very cordial ; perhaps the least so between Mr. Adams
and himself in consequence of their then recent and angry corre-
spondence in regard to occurences at Ohent. The movement was
met, as was to have been expected from men of their calibre, by
an act of a strong stamp, the extent and bearing of which Mr. Clay
can hardly have foreseen. The veto was promptly interposed, and
so far the Administration was successful, but by the accompanying
Presidential manifesto, Mr. Monroe, changing the opinions of his
whole previous life, exposed the national treasury to appropriations
to any extent for the construction of roads and canals and internal
improvements of every description.

Mr. Clay was not in a situation to take advantage of this re-
markable somersault of his opponents, for he at that time permitted
no man to go beyond him in latitudinarian constructions of the
Constitution. Of this the Administration was well aware, but it
forgot that he was not the only or the principal observer of its

» William A. Trimble, of Ohio.

808 AMERICAN HISTORICAL. ASSOCIATION".

course. It overlooked the circumstance in the eagerness of the
struggle, that there was yet a large segment of the old republican
party sufficient to form the nucleus for a subsequent successful rally,
which had not been carried away by the "era of good feeling,"
which tho' perhaps not much surprised, was sorely grieved by an
act of such flagrant backsliding on the part of the President of
their choice and who saw in it the fulfilment of the forebodings
which had been excited by his previous dalliance with the opposi-
tion. By the utter loss of the confidence of this class Mr. Monroe
and those for whose advancement he was desirous, doubtless sin-
cerely and honestly, sustained a far greater injury than any tem-
porary advantage over Mr. Clay could make good.

The veto was interposed near the close of the session and nothing
further was done upon the general subject but the struggle was re-
sumed at the earliest practicable moment.

Mr. Hemphill * as Chairman of the Committee on Roads and Canals
had, at the same session, reported a Bill to procure plans and surveys
preparatory to the establishment of a general system, but it was
not acted upon. At the beginning of the next he had that Bill
committed to the Committee of the Whole. It was considered,
and a motion by Mr. Barbour to strike out the first section, on con-
stitutional grounds, failed under the influence of the veto, and
the Bill would have passed but for a new move upon the political
chess board that prevented it. The legislation of Congress was
obviously upon the point of receiving the direction which was
designed to be given to it by Mr. Monroe's veto and the accompany-
ing expositions of his new opinions. The policy of the Adminis-
tration, that of abandoning the power of construction and of con-
fining the agency of the Federal Government to appropriations of
money in aid of Works constructed by the States, or by individuals
under their authority, — was on the point of triumphing over the
policy of Mr. Clay, which went far beyond it, when the Bill was
tabled on the motion of Mr. Hardin,2 of Kentucky, a friend of Mr.
Clay, and a motion to take it up afterwards refused by the strong
vote of 111 to 42, on which division seven of the nine Kentucky
members, all ardent advocates for internal improvements by the
General Government, together with several prominent Clayites from
the West, and from other parts of the Union, voted against further
action upon the subject; and nothing further was done during the
session of 1822-3.

In his annual Message, at the next0 session, 1828-4, President
Monroe came to the aid of the policy which his communication to
the previous Congress had been designed to install and which the

1 Joseph Hemphill. 'Benjamin Hardin. • MS. III, p. 146.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 809

closing movement on the subject at the last session seemed destined
to check, and reiterated his opinion in favor of the power of Con-
gress, recommending an appropriation for the employment of the
requisite number of Engineers to make the necessary preparatory
examinations for Canals connecting the Ohio with the Chesapeake
and also for connecting the waters of the Ohio with Lake Erie. Mr.
Hemphill reported his Bill and it was elaborately discussed. Mr.
Clay, who had been re-elected and again chosen Speaker, presented
himself at the very threshold of the debate, denied in toto the doc-
trines of the tte&^Message, insisted that if Congress had not the
right to cause those works to be constructed, it had no right to pay
for them or to appropriate money in aid of their construction,
claimed that the Constitutional question upon that point arose upon
this Bill and would be decided by it, &c. Ac* Mr. Hemphill, still
Chairman of the Committee on Roads and Canals, concurred in the
views expressed by Mr. Clay and advocated the passage of the Bill
on the same grounda The discussions were still more elaborate than
those of 1818, and drew out the power of the House. That pure and
inflexible sentinel on the ramparts of the Constitution, Philip P.
Barbour, moved again to strike out the first section of the Bill, on
the ground of a want of power in Congress to construct and a
consequent want of power to appropriate money for surveys. His
motion failed by a vote of 109 to 74, and the Bill was finally passed.
Nothing more was done upon the subject at that session, and so the
matter stood at the time of the Presidential election of 1824.

Making all reasonable allowance for the possibility that the ad-
mitted ardour of my political life may continue to influence my judg-
ment more than I imagine it does, I feel confident that no well
balanced mind can review the facts and circumstances to which I
have referred, — established as they are by the recorded testimony of
the actors themselves — without admitting the justness of my con-
clusion that the important principle contended for by the advocates
of internal improvements by the Federal Government was used by
its professed supporters as a political shuttle-cock which they tossed
backward or forward according to the feelings and exigencies of the
moment Advancing, receding or standing still, the acts of the
parties plainly appear now, when passion has subsided and when
their projects ' have been either abandoned or jostled aside by the
march of time and events, to have been controlled by partisan views
under cover of loud professions for the public good. Nor can this
charge be limited to those of whom we speak. It is a vice inseparable
from political conflicts that in a large majority of cases the interests
of parties and of those whose public fortunes they desire to advance
are consulted before those of the Country. It would perhaps not

810 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

t

be going too far to say that the exceptions are only when such a
course would so palpably disclose the real motive to the general pub-
lic as to defeat its purpose or when the direction of affairs falls to
the hand of a man who takes particular pride in the adoption of
measures commonly considered unpopular when he can satisfy his
own mind that he is promoting the public interest

The People having failed to elect a President, Mr. Adams was
raised to the head of the Government by the House of Representa-
tives, and Mr. Clay was placed at the head of his Cabinet. They
both held that Congress had power to cause to be constructed and
paid for out of the national revenue all such internal improvements
as would, in its judgment, be conducive to the common defence and
general welfare and we have never had reason to believe there was
a single dissentient from that opinion in the new Cabinet. There
was therefore no constitutional restraint upon the action of Con-
gress in this matter other than that which might be expected from
members of the old republican party who yet adhered to the prin-
ciples of their predecessors, but who constituted minorities in both
branches of the national Legislature. The results of this state of
things may well be imagined, especially by all who have had op-
portunities to observe the facility with which members of Congress
come to regard everything that can be carried home from the pub-
lic treasury as lawful spoil and the zeal with which they struggle
to secure the expenditure in their own districts of whatever can
be extracted from it. The execution of Hemphill's act, authoriz-
ing the President to cause surveys and plans for public works to
be made, exhibited a striking view of the character and tendency
of this disposition on the part of the representatives and their con-
stituents. So difficult was it for the War Department to satisfy
itself for the purpose of discrimination of the real character of dis-
tant claims to notice and so pressing the solicitations that every
corner of the Country was fast being surveyed preparatory to im-
provements of some kind, for the most part of a purely local char-
acter, and so flagrant did these abuses become that the wisest friends
of the system insisted, in its defence, that the law should be so al-
tered as to make a specific act of Congress necessary in each case.

The condition of things at the period of Gen. Jackson's elevation to
the Presidency was thus described in one of his annual Messages.
Speaking of the claim of power in Congress to make internal im-
provements within a State, with the right of jurisdiction sufficient
for its preservation, he says :

Yet we all know that notwithstanding these grave objections, this dangerous
doctrine was at one time apparently proceeding to its final establishment with
tearful rapidity. The desire to embark the Federal Government In works of
Internal Improvement prevailed in the highest degree during the first session

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BUREN. 811

of the first Congress that I had the honor to meet in my present situation, and
when the Bill authorizing a subscription on the part of the United States for
stock in the Maysvllle and Lexington turnpike company passed the two Houses,
there had been reported by the Committees on Internal Improvements, Bills
containing appropriations for such objects, inclusive of those for the Cumber-
land Road, and for harbours and light houses, to the amount of about one
hundred and six tnMUon* of dollars. In this amount was included authority to
the Secretary of the Treasury to subscribe for the stock of different companies
to a great extent and the residue was principally for the direct construction of
Uoads by this Government In addition to these projects which had been
presented to the two Houses under the sanction and recommendation of their
respective Committees on Internal Improvements, there were then still pending
before the Committees, and in memorials presented, but not referred, different
projects for works of a similar character, the expense of which cannot be
estimated with certainty tat may have exceeded one hmdred Millions of
dollars.1

Among the Bills referred to was one to authorize the construction
of a road from Buffalo to New Orleans which failed by a majority of
only fifteen, and was reconsidered by a majority of eight less than
two weeks before the interposition of the veto; besides numerous
other cases of corresponding magnitude.

1 Sixth annual menage, Dec. 2, 1884.

CHAPTER XXV.

The paints in our domestic concerns which at this time occupied
the largest share of President Jackson's personal attention were
the Bank and the removal of the Indians. The engrossing char-
acter of the latter has been already described and that of the
former will be exhibited in its turn. Having for several years
made the subject of Internal Improvements by the Federal Gov-
ernment my study, apprehensions of the evils their prosecution,
as the Constitution stood, might entail upon the Country had be-
come grave, and sincerely believing that the adverse current which
had set in that direction might and could only be arrested thro9
the General's extraordinary popularity I early and assiduously
pressed the matter upon his consideration. He embraced my sug-
gestions not only with alacrity but with that lively zeal with which
he received every proposition which he thought could be made
conducive to the public good. I propose to give a succinct account
6f the steps that proceeded from our conversations; and I will
first briefly notice some of the General's characteristic qualities by
which their advancement was essentially promoted. It is however
far from my intention to attempt a complete portraiture of indi-
vidual character. I am conscious that such attempts often, not
to say generally, manifest the° ambition of the author to shew
his skill in depicting a perfectly good or an absolutely bad char-
acter instead of a desire to portray his subject as he really was,
and that the picture, when finished is thus a reflection of his
imagination rather than a reliable representation of real life. I
hope to make the world better acquainted with the true character
of Andrew Jackson than it was before, but I design to do this
chiefly by correct reports of what he said and did on great occasions.

Although firm to the last degree in the execution of his resolution
when once formed, I never knew a man more free from conceit, or
one to whom it was to a greater extent a pleasure, as well as a
recognized duty, to listen patiently to what might be said to him upon
any subject under consideration until the time for action had arrived.
Akin to his disposition in this regard was his readiness to acknowl-
edge error whenever an occasion to do so was presented and a
willingness to give full credit to his co-actors on important occasions
without ever pausing to consider how much of the merit he awarded
was at the expense of that due to himself. In this spirit he received

* MS. Ill, p» 160.

312

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTTN VAN BUREN. 818

the aid of those associated with him in the public service in the
preparation^ the public documents that were issued under his name,
wholly indifferent in regard to the extent to which their participation
was known, solicitous only that they should be understood by those
to whom they were addresnd as a true record of his opinions, his
resolutions and his ads. Thai point secured he cared little either as
to the form of words in which they were expressed, or as to the
agency through which the particular exposition was concocted.

Neither, I need scarcely say, was he in the habit of talking, much
less of boasting of his own achievements. Content with the part ho
had actually taken in the conduct and solution of any important
public question and never having reason to complain of the opinions
formed and expressed of his acts by a large majority of his Country-
men he had neither a desire nor a motive to parade his own or to
shine in borrowed plumes. I have already spoken of Gen. Jackson's
early preference for the self-denying theory and strict-construction
doctrines of the old republican school and have also, I believe,
noticed the circumstance that when quite a young man and a younger
politician he chose rather to expose himself to the odium of recording
his name against a vote of confidence in and thanks to Gen. Wash-
ington than to suffer himself to be caught in the trap set for him
and his republican associates by Fisher Ames and company,1 The
design of that artifice was so to connect an approval of the measures
which the federalists in Congress had sustained and which the repub-
licans had opposed with an expression of the favorable sentiments
universally entertained towards Gen. Washington and his motives
in all things, as to put it out of the power of the latter to stand by
their avowed opinions without refusing to concur in that expression.
They snapped the cords with which it was thus attempted to fetter
them and Gen. Jackson's vote on that occasion was urged against him
when he became a candidate for the Presidency, some thirty years
after.

But the principle of internal improvements by the Federal Gov-
ernment, so far from being acted upon when he was first in Con-
gress, was, as has been seen, disavowed by the great leader of the
administration, and a large share of Gen. Jackson's time was spent
in the camp whilst the subject wae debated by the rising men of the
day from 1816 to 1628, when he re-appeared on the floor of Con-
gress. There was bnrides a peculiarity in his position at the latter
period which, tho1 it could not— as nothing could — lead him, to do
wrong when it became necessary to act, was nevertheless well calcu-
lated to lessen somewhat, for the moment at least, his active partici-
pation in this particular branch of legislation. To give to that

» For an account of this mo Parton't U/e of Jackaoo (N. Y., 1860), v. 1, 206-212.

314 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

peculiarity the weight to which it was entitled the reader must bear
in mind the influence exerted by Pennsylvania in bringing Gen.
Jackson forward for the Presidency, an influence which will not I
think be over-estimated when it is regarded as having controlled the
result; and this consideration deserves to be constantly remembered
whilst canvassing the merits of his subsequent course upon several
very important points.

Pennsylvania is in every sense of the word a great state and
worthy of high respect— great in her material resources and great in
the constant industry, the morality and general intelligence of her
People. When to the credit she derives from these sources is added
that which has naturally accrued from the moderate and sound
character of her general course it will be seen how well she has
deserved the honor shewn her by her sister States in the title with
which they have distinguished her of " the key stone of the arch of
the Union."

It is nevertheless true that she has for a long time presented a
favorable field for the agitation of political questions which ad-
dress themselves to special interests in the communities upon which
they are pressed. Internal Improvements by the Federal Govern-
ment, a high protective tariff and a Bank of the United States had,
for many years before Gen. Jackson's accession to the Presidency,
been regarded as favorite measures with the good people of Penn-
sylvania. In respect to the first, which is now the subject of our
consideration, both of the great Reports of the Committees on Roads
and Canals, at the period when it embraced a large share of the
attention of Congress, were from Pennsylvanians, — Mr. Wilson * and
Mr. Hemphill. Yet these measures and the question of the removal
of the Indians, which had so strongly excited their misdirected sym-
pathies, were destined to be the principal domestic subjects on which
Gen. Jackson's Administration, if he succeeded in the election, was
to be employed. With the two last, (the Bank and the Tariff) he
had made himself familiar and as to them his course was fixed; and,
foreseeing the necessity he would be under upon those points to
run counter to the wishes of his Pennsylvanian friends at the very
threshhold of his administration, it was natural that a man of his
generous temper, and of whose character fidelity to friendship was
the crowning grace, should have been desirous to avoid any addition
to the issues between himself and his no less generous supporters, as
far as that could be avoided without dereliction of duty.

It was under such circumstances, and never having made the
constitutional question in relation t6 the power of Congress over
the matter a subject of critical examination, that he voted in

» Henry Wilson.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 07 MABTIK TAN BUBEN. 815

1828-4 and 5, in favor of the acts " to provide for the necessary sur-
veys for roads and canals ", and " authorizing a subscription to the
stock of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company " and a few
other propositions of similar import, which votes were vehemently
urged, by his opponents, against his subsequent course.

My debut in Congress had not been free from a like discrepancy.
The bill providing for the erection of toll-gates on the Cumberland
Road came before us a few months after I had taken my seat in the
Senate of the United States and I gave a silent vote in favor of it.
Mr. Monroe's veto, which would have shed enduring honor on his
name, if he had suffered it to stand alone, brought me to instant and
thorough examination and reflection. It did not take me long to
satisfy myself that I had acted under a grave mistake and I em-
braced an early opportunity to acknowledge my error on the floor of
the Senate. Convinced also of the inexpediency as well as uncon-
stitutionality of the construction of works of interna! improvement
under the direct or indirect authority of the Federal Government, s6
long as the Constitution remained as it was I became earnestly
solicitous not only to arrest the course of legislation on the subject,
which was then making fearful progress, but to devise some way by
which it could be placed on a better and a safer footing. My name
will be found recorded against all the Bills which the General voted
for and I believe against every similar proposition subsequent to the
act to erect toll-gates on the Cumberland Road. I have now care-
fully examined the Journals of Congress and reviewed my official
acts to the close of my public life, and can, I think, safely challenge
a comparison with the straitest of the strict-construction sect in
regard to° a faithful adherence to the principles of that school, with
the single exception of which I have spoken. When I recall the
names of the many good and pure men who made themselves hon-
orably conspicuous in the support of those principles, particularly
among the Statesmen of Virginia and North Carolina, I am sensible
of the boldness of this proffer, but even then do not shrink from it.
Not content with steadily voting against all unauthorized measures
of the character referred to, and fearing from what was daily pass-
ing before my eyes, that it would not be long in the power of those
who were faithful to the principles of the Constitution to arrest or
even to check the torrent of reckless legislation which had set in so
powerfully, I proposed an amendment of the Constitution, the object
of which was to make that lawful which was then illicit and to pro-
tect the public interest against abuses by wholesome constitutional
restraints, and which I insert here, with the brief remarks with which

I introduced it:

— -»^— — ^_ ^— _^~ — . — — .. .-. . _ - . . _ _ . — . — •— — ~^ — . . .

• MS. Ill, p. 155.

$16 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Mr. Van Buren rose, in pursuance of notice given on Wednesday last, to

ask leave to introduce a joint resolution, proposing an amendment to the Consti-
tution of the United States, on the subject of the power of Congress to make
roads and canals. He said he was as much opposed as any man to frequent
alterations of the form of government under which we live, but he would make
no apology for bringing this matter before the Senate, in so Imposing a form
as that of an amendment to the Constitution. He would now do so, because he
wag entirely convinced that no one could dispassionately consider the present
state of the question, to which his resolution relates, without feeling the im-
perious necessity of some Constitutional provision on the subject It was
not his intention, at this time, to enter into the discussion of the matter; he
would only submit one or two general remarks in relation to It Of the Im-
portance of the question, it was not necessary' to speak. Suffice it to say that,
in its scope, it embraces the funds of the nation to an unlimited extent, and
in its result must affect, as far as the agency of the Federal Government was
concerned, the future internal improvement of a great and flourishing country-
Is the power to make roads and canals, within the States, now vested In the
Federal Government? Individuals, said Mr. V. B.f may give their impres-
sions, with their reasons for the various Ingenious constructions they put
upon the different parts of the Constitution, to make out that this power exists ;
but all candid men will admit that there are few questions more unsettled.
Whilst, in some States, the power is universally conceded, and its exercise
loudly required, in others, its existence Is as generally denied, and its ex-
ercise as ardently resisted. Is there cause to believe that, as the Constitution
now stands, a construction will obtain, which will be so far acquiesced in
as to be regarded and enforced as one of the established powers of the General
Government? He thought there was not For about twenty years, this sub-
ject had been one of constant and earnest discussion. Efforts have at various
times been made in Congress to exercise the power in question. They have
met sometimes with more, and sometimes with less, favor. Bills, containing
the assertion, and directing the exercise of this power, have passed the two
Houses, and been returned, with objections, by two successive Presidents, and
failed for want of the Constitutional majority. The last Congress and the
Executive were arrayed against each other, upon the question, and as far as
a recent vote of the other House may be regarded as evidence of the present
opinion of Congress, there is every reason to believe that such is now the case.
The Government has now been in operation rising of thirty years; and al-
though the subject has always been a matter of interest, no law clearly em*
bracing the power has ever yet been passed. There is, therefore, but little
reason to hope that, without some Constitutional provision, the question will
ever be settled. If the General Government has not now the power, Mr. V. B.
said that he for one thought that under suitable restriction^, they ought to
have it As to what those restrictions ought to be, there might and probably
would, be diversity of opinion. But, as to the abstract proposition, that as
much of the funds of the nation as could be raised, without oppression, and
as are not necessary to the discharge of existing and Indispensable demands
upon the Government, should be expended upon Internal Improvements, under
restrictions regarding the sovereignty and securing the equal interest of the
States, he presumed there would be little difference of opinion. He could not
but hope, that those who think the better construction of the Constitution is,
that Congress now have the power, would also consent to some amendment
They must at all events, admit that it is far from being a clear, and cer-
tainly not a settled matter, and in Tlew of the danger always attending the

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 317

exercise of a doubtful right by the Federal Government against the persevering
opposition of the several States, they would decide whether, instead of con-
testing this matter as it has been done for so many years, it would not be more
for the interest of the nation, as well as the credit of the Government, to place
the matter on well defined ground* There were many strong reasons why he
thought this course ought to be pursued, and which, at the proper time, he
would take the liberty to urge. For the present, he would simply add that,
independent of the collisions of State interests, which this power is more likely
than any other to produce, the exercise of it in the present state of the Con-
stitution, and with an Executive whose reading of it should be different from
that of the present and the two who last preceded him, could not fail to be
grossly unequal among the States ; because it is well known that there were
some States who have Invariably, and who will, as long as they prefer the
inviolability of the Constitution to their local interest, continue to oppose thu
exercise of this power with them. Without, therefore, the ability to prevent,
they would be excluded from the benefits of its exercise. The course now pro-
posed had been earnestly recommended to the last Congress by the present
Executive, and, when the subject came up for discussion, he would endeavor
to show that its adoption was called for by the best interests of the nation.

Leave was then granted, and Mr. Van Buren offered the following resolu-
tion, which was read, and passed to a second reading :

"Resolved, dcn That the following amendment of the Constitution of the
United States be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States:

" Congress shall have power to make roads and canals ; but all money appro-
priated for this purpose shall be apportioned among the several States accord-
ing to the last enumeration of their respective numbers, and applied to the
making and repairing of roads and canals within the several States, as Con-
gress may direct; but any State may consent to the appropriation by Con-
gress of its quota of such appropriation in the making or repairing of roads
and canals, without its own limits; no such road or canal shall, however, be
made within any State, without the consent of the Legislature thereof, and all
such money shall be so expended under their direction." *

In December, 1825, 1 submitted to the Senate, as a substitute for

the previous proposition, the following motion and the remarks that

follow :

" Raolved, That Congress does not possess the power to make Roads and
Canals within the respective States.

—"Resolved, That a select committee be appointed, with instructions to pre-
pare and report a Joint Resolution, for an amendment of the Constitution,
prescribing and defining the power Congress shall have over the subject of
Internal Improvements, and subjecting the same to such restrictions as shall
effectually protect the sovereignty of the respective States, and secure to them
a just distribution of the benefits resulting from all appropriations made for
that purpose."
In introducing these resolutions-
Mr. Van Buren said, that it would be recollected that he had, some days
since, given notice of his intention to ask for leave to Introduce a joint resolu-
tion, proposing an amendment of the Constitution on the subject of the power
of Congress over the subject of internal improvements. Upon the suggestion
of gentlemen who feel an Interest in the subject, and think the principal object
can, in that way, be better effected, he had consented so far to change the

» Jan. 22, 1824.— Annals of Congreu, 18th, 1st, Vol. I, p. 134.

818 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

course originally contemplated, by substituting resolutions expressive of the
sense of the Senate on the Constitution, as It now is, and proposing the appoint-
ment of a select committee to report upon the subject, under such instruction
as the Senate may think proper to give. Such resolutions he would now take
the liberty of submitting. He did not, of course, wish to press their immediate
consideration, but would call them up at as early a day as would comport with
the state of public business and the ordinary course of proceeding in the
Senate. He hoped he would be excused for expressing an earnest wish that the
conceded importance of the subject would Induce gentlemen to turn their atten-
tion to It as soon as they conveniently could, to the end that, when It was taken
up, it might be carried to a speedy decision, and not exposed to those unprofit-
able delays and postponements which had heretofore attended measures of a simi-
lar character, and ultimately prevented an expression of the sense of the Senate
on their merits. He deceived himself, if there was any matter in which, at this
moment, their constituents felt a more intense interest, than the question of
the rightful and probable agency of the General Government in the great work
of Internal Improvement. Whilst, in the States, measures of that description
had been harmonious in their progress, and, as far as the means of the States
would admit of, successful in their results, the condition of things here had
been of a very different character. From the first agitation of the subject, the
constitutional power of Congress to legislate upon the subject had been a
source of unbroken, and, frequently, angry and unpleasant controversy. The
time, he said, had never yet been, when all the branches of the .Legislative
Department were of the same opinion upon the question. Even those who
united In the sentiment as to the existence of the power, differed in almost
everything else in regard to it. Of its particular source in the Constitution,
Its extent and attributes, very different views were entertained by its friends.
There had not been anything in the experience of the past, nor was there any-
thing in the prospect of the future, on which a reasonable hope could be
founded, that this great subject could ever be satisfactorily adjusted by any
means short of an appeal to the States. The intimate connexion between the
prosperity of the country and works of the description referred to, would always
induce efforts to Induce the General Government to embark In them, and there
was but little reason to believe that its claim of power would ever be abandoned.
As little reason was there, in his judgment, to expect that the opposition to it
would ever be given up. The principles upon which that opposition is founded ;
the zeal and fidelity with which it has hitherto been sustained, preclude such
an expectation. If this view of the subject was a correct one, and it appeared
to him that it was, he respectfully submitted it as a matter of imperious duty,
on the part of Congress, to make a determined effort to have the question
settled in the only way which can be final — an amendment of the Constitution,
prescribing and defining what Congress may, and what they shall not do,
with the restrictions under which what Is allowed to them shall be done. It
appeared to him that not only every interest connected with the subject, but
the credit, if not safety, of our enviable political institutions, required that
course; for it must be evident to all reflecting men, that the reiterated com-
plaints of constitutional Infraction must tend to relax the confidence of the
People in the Government, and that such measures as may be undertaken upon
the subject must be constantly exposed to peril from the fluctuations of the
opinion of successive Legislatures. The subject, he said, had been viewed in
Ibis light by some of the best and ablest men the country has produced. As
early as 1906, the propriety of an appeal to the States upon the point in ques-
tion, had been suggested by Mr. Jefferson, in bis last message to Congress.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTOT VAN BUREN. 819

The same course had been recommended by Mr. Madison, and the recommenda-
tion repeated by Mr. Monroe.

As yet, no decided effort to effect this great object had been made ; he per-
mitted himself to hope that such effort would now be made. It was true, he
said, the subject had not been referred to by the present Executive, and the
reasons why he had not done so were apparent, from the communications he
has made to ua From those, It appeared that the President entertained opin-
ions, as to the power of Congress* which removed all difficulties upon the
subject. But Mr. V. B. said that, although that circumstance might possibly
diminish, it certainly did not obviate the necessity of now acting upon the
subject, as the Senate were not left to conjecture as to the fact, that there
existed a discordance of opinion between the Executive and portions, at least—
how large time would shew—of the other branches of the Legislative Depart*
ment Mr. V. B. said that, entertaining such views upon the subject, he had
felt it his duty to bring the subject thus early before the Senate, and when
the proper period for discussion arrived, would avail himself of their indul-
gence to assign his reasons for the course proposed.'

These movements excited the attention and received the appro-
bation of Mr. Jefferson and raised for the moment the drooping
spirits of many sincere State-rights men. It soon, however, be-
came evident that there was no reasonable hope for their success.
It was obvious that the Virginia and Kentucky doctrines of Ninety
Eight had been too successfully derided and contemned to leave,
at that moment the slightest ground of confidence in the adoption
of any such proposition. I therefore, after postponing its considera-
tion from year to year in the hope of more favorable indications,
suspended further efforts of that nature. But it will be seen that I
was not idle, and that my failure was not my fault I prepared,
after much reflection and laborious examination a brief2 for the
discussion of the subject, in which I take mora pride than in any
of my speeches and which, under the sincere tho' too probably, mis-
taken belief that I have not formed a partial estimate of it, I have
directed to be published with such of my speeches as those who
come after me may deem worthy of so much notice. If the mad
schemes of that day should ever be revived those who take a part in
defeating them may perhaps find in these notes useful suggestions.
They will at all events prove the deep interest that I took in the
matter and what follows will shew that in all probability they ex-
erted, altho' in a way very different from the one originally intended
for them, a salutary influence upon the great measure of relief to
the Country from the evils of spurious legislation upon this great
subject.

None but the men who were active and conspicuous in the serv-
ice of the Federal Government at that day, and of these now few

* Dec. 20, 1825. — Debates in Congress, 19th, 1st, Vol. II, p. 20.

9 This brief is not found either in the Van Bnren or the Jackson Papers in the Library
of Congress.

820 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

remain amongst us, can form any adequate opinion of the power
and influence which those who had embarked their political for-
tunes in attempts to commit the General Government irretrievably
to the promotion and construction of Internal Improvements, had
acquired both in Congress and among the most alert and enter-
prising portions of the People. The wild spirit of speculation, to
whose career our ever growing and ever moving population and
our expanded and expanding territory offered the fairest field, be-
came wilder over the prospect before it and the wits of Congress-
men were severely tasked in devising and causing to be surveyed and
brought forward under captivating disguises the thousand local
improvements with which they designed to dazzle and seduce their
constituents. It required an extraordinary degree of resolution in a
public man to attempt to resist a passion that had become so ramp-
ant, but this consideration might stimulate but could not discour-
age Gen. Jackson so long as he was convinced that the course
presented for his consideration was the path of duty. He was
unfeignedly grateful to Pennsylvania for what she had done for
him, he knew well that upon this question as upon those of the
removal of the Indians and of the Bank she had taken a lead in
the wrong direction, he was extremely loth to add another to the
great points upon which his duty would compel him to throw
himself in the way of her gratification, but for all and against
all such appeals and motives he promptly opposed the sugges-
tions of right, and the ever present and ever operative sense of an
official obligation superior to personal feeling.

He appreciated to their full extent the arguments in support of
the inexpediency of the legislation which he was asked to arrest,
whilst the Constitution remained unaltered, but preferred to meet
the question on constitutional grounds. No Cabinet councils were
called : not another member of the Cabinet was consulted before
his decision had become irrevocable. It was understood between us
that I should keep an eye upon the movements of Congress and
bring to his notice the first Bill upon which I might think his in-
terference would be preferable, and that when such a case was pre-
sented, we would take up the question of Constitutional power and
examine it deliberately and fully.

The Bill authorizing a subscription to the stock of the Maysville,
Washington, Paris and Lexington Turnpike-road Company ap-
peared to me to present the looked for occasion. Its local character
was incontestably established by the fact that the road commenced
and ended in the same State. It had passed the House and could
undoubtedly pass the Senate. The road was in Mr. Clay's own State
and Mr. Clay was, the General thought — whether rightfully or not
is now immaterial, — pressing the measure and the question it in-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAST BUBEN. 821

Tolved upon him rather for political effect than for public ends, and
it was his preference, in accordance with a sound military axiom to
make his enemy's territory the theatre of the war whenever that was
practicable.

I brought the subject to the President's notice during one of our
daily rides, immediately after the passage of the Bill by the House
and proposed to send him on our return the brief of which I have
spoken and of which I had before promised him a perusal. I had
myself no hesitation in respect to the course that ought to be pur-
sued and spoke of it accordingly. He received my suggestions favor-
ably, appeared sensible of the importance of the proposed step and
at parting begged mq not to delay sending him the brief — which was
done as soon as I got to my house.

Within five days after the passage of the Bill by the House of
Representatives I received from him the following note.

(Private.)

Mat 4th, 1880.
My Deab Sib,

I have been engaged to day as long as my head and eyes would permit, poring
over the manuscript you handed me ; as far as I have been able to decipher it
I think it one of the most lucid expositions of the Constitution and historical
accounts of the departure by Congress from its true principles that I have ever
met with.

It furnishes clear views upon the constitutional powers of Congress. The
inability of Congress under the Constitution to apply the funds of the Govern-
ment to private, not national purposes I never had a doubt of. The Kentucky
road bill involves this very power and I think it right boldly to meet it at the
threshold. With this object in view I wish to have an Interview with you and
consult upon this subject that the constitutional points may be arranged to bear
upon it with clearness so that the people may fully understand it
Can I see you this evening or Thursday morning?
Your friend

Andrew Jackson
Mr. Van Buxxn.

Those who take the trouble to refer to the manuscript will be able
to decide for themselves on the justice of the encomiums bestowed
upon it by the President. I returned the following answer with
which I have been furnished by Mr. Blair, to whom the General's
papers were entrusted by his will.1

° TO THE TbESIDENT.

My deab Sib.

I thank you for your favorable opinion of the notes. This matter has for a
few days past borne heavily on my mind, and brought it to the precise con-
clusion stated in your note. Under this impression I had actually commenced
throwing my ideas on paper to be submitted to you when I should get through,

* These papers are now in the Library of Congress. * MS. Ill, p. 160.

127483*— vol 2—20 21

322 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

to see whether it is not possible to defeat the aim of our adversaries in either
respect, viz; whether it be to draw you into the approval of a Bill most em-
phatically local, and thus endeavor to saddle you with the latitudinarlan
notions upon which the late administration acted, or to compel you to take a
stand against internal Improvements generally, and thus draw to their aid all
those who* are interested in the ten thousand schemes which events and the
course of the Government for a few past years have engendered. I think I
see land, and that it will be in our power to serve the Country and at the same
time counteract the machinations of those who mingle their selfish and am-
bitious views in the matter. We shall have time enough ; the Bill has not yec
passed the Senate and you have, you know, ten days after that

I want to see Mr. McDuffie this evening upon the subject of the outfits and
may not, therefore, call. I should prefer too to complete first the arrangement
of my ideas, and then we can take up the subject more satisfactorily.

Yours truly

M. Van Bttben

W. May tfh 18M.

I requested him some days after to obtain from the Secretary of
the Treasury the financial statement which accompanied the veto-
Message, and received in reply the following spirited note.

Private.

May 15th, 18S0
Dkab Sib,

Your note is received. I am happy that you have been looking at the pro-
ceedings of Congress. The appropriations now exceed the available funds in
the Treasury, and the estimates always exceed the real amount available. I
have Just called upon the Secretary of the Treasury for the amount of the
estimated available balance on the 1st January 1831.

The people expected reform retrenchment and economy in the administration
of this Government This was the cry from Maine to Louisiana, and instead of
these the great object of Congress, it would seem, is to make mine one of the
most extravagant administrations since the commencement of the Government
This must not be; The Federal Constitution must be obeyed, State-rights
preserved, our national debt must be paid, direct taxes and loans avoided and
the Federal union preserved. These are the objects I have in view, and regard-
less of all consequences, will carry into effect

Yr. friend ^ j^

Mr. V. B. Sec. of State.

Let me see you this evening or in the morning.

Not} one out of twenty of the opposition members believed that
President Jackson, notwithstanding his proverbial indifference to
the assumption of responsibility, in respect to measures he believed
to be right, would venture to veto an act for the internal improve-
ment of the Country in the then state of public opinion upon the
subject and after the votes he had so recently given in favor of
such acts. If they had thought otherwise they would not have
presented him a Bill so purely local in its character. Apprehensive
that they would, when his designs became known to them, change
their course in that respect, and avail themselves of the selfish

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 823

views and unsettled opinions of a sufficient number of those who
had been elected as Jackson men to substitute a Bill for a work more
national in its pretensions, I was extremely solicitous that nothing
should be said upon the subject until it should be too late for such
a step, and pressed that point upon the General. It was the only
one, I knew, that required to be pressed and it was, moreover, that
which I was persuaded would be the most difficult for him. He
was entirely unreserved in his public dealings — the People, he
thought, should know every thing and "give it to Blair * (or Blar
as he pronounced it) — was almost always his prompt direction when
ever any information was brought to him which affected or might
affect the public interest Apropos of which I was once told by
Major Donelson that, in relation to all affairs in which men were
alone concerned, the General was inveterately opposed to secrecy
excepting only when a duel was in the wind, on which occasions he
was a " counsellor — most still, most secret and most grave." Indeed
we were often alarmed at the exposed manner in which he kept his
letters and other private papers on his table, and ventured to remon-
strate with him on the subject, assuring him that for ten dol-
lars could induce a very clever but sinister looking mulatto in

the President's service to carry them to him over night; to which

suggestion the General replied u If will come here he shall

have the perusal of them for half the money." An occasion was soon
presented on which his habit in this respect involved him in some
embarrassment.

Col. Johnson,1 of Kentucky, was induced by Western members,
who had been alarmed by floating rumors, to sound the President
and if he found that there existed danger of such a result to re*
monstrate with him, in their names and his own, against a veto.
At the moment of his appearance the President and myself were
engaged in an examination of the exposfi of the state of the Treas-
ury to which I have referred, and alone. After a delay natural to
a man possessed as the Colonel was of much real delicacy of feel-
ing and having an awkward commission in hand, he said that he
had called at the instance of many friends to have some conver-
sation with the General upon a very delicate subject and was de-
terred from entering upon it by an apprehension that he might
give offense. He was kindly told to dismiss such fears, and as-
sured that as the President reposed unqualified confidence in his
friendship he could say nothing on any public matter that would
give offense. He then spoke of the rumors in circulation, of the
feelingB of the General's Western friends in regard to the sub-
ject of them, of his apprehensions of the uses that Mr. Clay would
make of a veto, and encouraged by the General's apparent interest,

1 Richard M. Johnson.

324 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

and warmed by his own, he extended his open hand and exclaimed
" General ! If this hand were an anvil on which the sledge hammer
of the smith was descending and a fly were to light upon it in
time to receive the blow he would not crush it more effectually
than you will crush your friends in Kentucky if you veto that
Bill ! " Gen, Jackson evidently excited by the bold figure and
energetic manner of Col. Johnson, rose from his seat and ad-
vanced towards the latter, who also quitted his chair, and the fol-
lowing questions and answers succeeded very rapidly : " Sir, have
you looked at the condition of the Treasury — at the amount of
money that it contains — at the appropriations already made by
Congress — at the amount of other unavoidable claims upon it?" —
"No! General, I have not! But there has always been money
enough to satisfy appropriations and I do not doubt there will
be now !"— " Well, I have, and this is the result," (repeating the
substance of the Treasury exhibit,) " and you see there is no money
to be expended as my friends desire. Now, I stand committed be-
fore the Country to pay off the National Debt, at the earliest prac-
ticable moment; this pledge I am determined to redeem, and I
cannot do this if I consent to encrease it without necessity. Are
you willing — are my friends willing to lay taxes to pay for internal
improvements? — for be assured I will not borrow a cent except in
cases of absolute necessity!" — "No!" replied the Colonel, "that
would be worse than a veto! "

These emphatic declarations delivered with unusual earnestness
and in that peculiarly impressive manner for which he was remark-
able when excited quite overcrowed the Colonel who picked up the
green bag which he usually carried during the ° session and mani-
fested a disposition to retreat. As he was about to leave I remarked
to him that he had evidently made up his mind that the General
had determined to veto the Bill at all events, but that when he re-
flected how much of the President's earnestness was occasioned by
his own strong speech and how natural it was for a man to become
excited when he has two sets of friends, in whom he has equal confi-
dence, urging him in different directions, he would be less confident
in his conclusion. Reminded by this observation that he had suf-
fered the guard which he had imposed on himself to be broken down
by the Colonel's sledge-hammer, the General told him that he was
giving the matter a thorough investigation and that their friends
might be assured that he would not make up his mind without
loking at every side of it, — that he was obliged to him for what
he had said and wished all his friends to speak to him as plainly,
&c. &c. The Colonel with his accustomed urbanity deported himself

0 MS. Ill, p. 16S.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTTKEN. 825

as if reassured and appeared to consider the case not so desperate
as he had at first imagined, but his manner was assumed for the
purpose of quieting my apprehensions which he perceived and under-
stood. When he returned to the House he replied to the eager
enquiries of his Western friends that the General had thanked hiift
and assured him that he would thoroughly examine the subject, but
his private opinion decidedly was that nothing less than a voice from
Heaven would prevent the old man from vetoing the Bill, and he
doubted whether that would !

Still so strong was the impression derived from Gen. Jackson's
habit of never concealing his views upon a subject on which his
mind was made up, that the incredulity of the members was but
slightly removed by the Colonel's report : what he would do in the
matter remained an open question to the last. The consequence was
that the importunities of his friends were increased, but as the
detailed account of Col. Johnson's embassy discouraged direct re*
monstrances with the President they were addressed to me, and
in my efforts to keep both sides quiet by statements of the difficulties
with which the subject was environed by reason of the conflicting
struggles of the friends of the Administration, I exposed my own
course to some suspicion or affected suspicion in the end. The Gen-
eral told me, on my return from England, that one of the charges
brought against me by Mr. Calhoun's friends, to justify the rejec-
tion of my nomination as Minister, was that I had been opposed
to the veto and had tried to prevent him from interposing it. He
named, in particular, Mr. Carson,1 of North Carolina, a peppery
young man, ardently attached to Mr. Calhoun and, for no other
reason that I knew of, very hostile to me, as one who had circulated
that report, and Baid that to silence him, he one day, took up a
pamphlet-copy of the veto-Message and holding it before him asked
him to look at it closely and see whether he could not discover my
likeness on every page.

The impression among the General's Western friends, that he
would destroy his popularity by a veto, was universal and prevailed
also extensively among those from the North. The Pennsylvania
members generally were rampant in their opposition and most of
them voted for the Bill after the veto was interposed. Being with
him to a very late hour the night before the Message was sent up, he
asked me to take an early breakfast with him, as Congress was on
the point of breaking up, and would therefore meet at an early hour.
In the morning I found our friends, Grundy, Barry, Eaton,* and
Lewis • at the table, wearing countenances to the last degree despond-

1 Samuel P. Carson.

* Felix Grundy, William T. Barry, and John H. Baton.

•William B. Lewis.

326 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

ing, occasioned, as I well knew, by their convictions of the injurious
effects that must result from the step about to be taken. On going
up stairs to his office, he leaning on my arm on account of his ex-
treme physical weakness, I observed that our friends were frightened.
•Yes," he replied, — ''but don't mind that! The thing is here"
(placing his hand on the breast-pocket of his coat)'9 and shall be
sent up as soon as Congress convenes."

It was sent up that morning and a scene ensued that baffled all our
calculations. If there was any sentiment among our opponents which
we knew to be universal, before the reading of the wfo-Message, it
was that it would prove the political death warrant of the Adminis-
tration and we were prepared to hear denunciations against the vio-
lence and destructive effects of the measure and the reckless insult
offered to the House by the President in sending it But no such
clamor arose, and the first and principal objection that was made
against the Message, when the reading was finished, and which was
persevered in to the end, was that it was " an electioneering docu-
ment" sent to Congress for political effect ! — and that the "hand of
the magician" was visible in every line of it !

It was indeed received with unbounded satisfaction by the great
body of the disinterested and genuine friends of the Administration
throughout the Country. At a public dinner given by the republi-
cans of Norfolk to John Randolph on the occasion of his departure
for Russia, the following toast was drunk standing and with cheers
three times three: — "The rejection of the Maysvitte Road Bill it
falls upon the ears like the music of other days." Some, whose
friendship for the Administration, if not completely alienated, had
certainly been greatly abated, felt obliged to praise it Col. Hayne,
of South Carolina, at the great Charleston dinner given to inaugu-
rate nullification, and thro9 its means to put that Administration to
the severest trial that any had ever been exposed to in our Country
spoke of the veto as "the most auspicious event which had taken
place in the history of the Country for years past" I refer but to
one other of those acceptable exhibitions of public feeling which per-
vaded the Union, tho' less imposing in form not less gratifying.
Col. Ramsay,1 one of the Representatives from Pennsylvania, an
excitable but honest man and true patriot, irritated almost beyond
endurance by the veto, followed us from the Capitol to the White
House, after the close of the session, and, presuming on the strength
of his friendship for the General, fairly upbraided him for his
course. The latter bore his reproaches, for such they really were
altho' intended only as a remonstrance which he thought allowable
in a devoted friend, with a degree of mildness that excited my ad-
miration, begging the dissatisfied representative to say no more upon

1 Robert Ramsay.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 827

the subject until he had seen his constituents and venturing to
prophesy that he would find them pleased with the veto. The
worthy Pennsylvanian received the intimation as an additional in-
jury and parted from us in an exceedingly had humor. A short
time afterwards, as I was one day approaching the President he
held up to me in an exultant manner, a paper which proved to be
a letter from our good friend Ramsay in which he announced the
confirmation of the General's prediction and acknowledged that, in
that case at least, the latter had known his constituents better than
he himself had known them.

And yet this measure was but the entering wedge to the course
of action by which that powerful combination known as the In-
ternal Improvement party was broken asunder and finally an-
nihilated. I have already given an extract from the President's
Message descriptive of its ramifications and extent at the period of
the veto. The power which a combined influence of that descrip-
tion, addressing itself to the strongest passion of man's nature and
wielded by a triumvirate of active and able young statesmen as a
means through which to achieve for themselves the glittering prize
of the Presidency, operating in conjunction with minor classes of
politicians, looking in the same general direction and backed by a
little army of cunning contractors, is capable of exerting in com-
munities so excitable as our own, can easily be imagined. The
danger in offending and the difficulty of resisting such an influence
were equally apparent. The utmost prudence was required in re-
spect to the ground that should be occupied by the President in the
first step that he was to take in the prosecution of the great reform
that he had in view. His own past course increased the necessity
of great circumspection at the start The votes he had given for
the survey-bill and for the appropriation in aid of the Chesapeake
and Delaware Canal, with his letter to the Governor of Indiana,
written during the canvass and referring to those votes as exponents
of his opinions were fresh in the recollections of the People. His
name was, in very deed, a tower of strength,0 but prudence as well
as sound principle dictated that their partiality should not be put
to an unreasonable test by the ground he now took, on an occasion
of intense interest, in a document which, as we all well knew, would
have to pass through the severest scrutiny.

In view of this state of things the veto-Message assumed the
following positions : —

1st. The construction of Internal Improvements under the author-
ity of the Federal Government was not authorized by the Consti-
tution.

0 MS. Ill, p. 170.

828 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

2nd. Altho' the true view of the Constitution in regard to the
power of appropriation was probably that taken in Madison's Re*
port concerning the alien and sedition laws, by which it was con-
fined to cases where the particular measure which the appropriation
was designed to promote was within the enumerated authorities
vested in Congress, yet every Administration of the Government
had, in respect to appropriations of money only adopted in practice
(several cases of which were mentioned) a more enlarged construc-
tion of the power. This course, it was supposed, had been so long
and so extensively persisted in as to render it difficult, if not im-
practicable, to bring the operations of the Government back to the
construction first referred to/ The Message nowhere admitted that
the more enlarged construction which had obtained so strong a-
foothold, was a true exposition of the Constitution, and it conceded
that its restriction against abuse, viz., that the works which might
be thus aided should be "of a general, not local — National, not
State" character, a disregard of which distinction would of neces-
sity lead to the subversion of the Federal System, was unsafe, arbi-
trary in its nature and inefficient.

3d. Although he might not feel it to be his duty to interpose the
Executive veto against the passage of Bills appropriating money
for the construction of such works as were authorized by the States,
and were National in their character the President did not wish
to be understood as assenting to the expediency of embarking the
General Government in a system of that kind at this time; but he
could, never give his approval to a measure having the character of
that under consideration, not being able to regard it in any other
light than as a measure of a purely local character; or if it could
be considered National no further distinction between the appro*
priate duties of the General and State Governments need be at-
tempted, for there could be no local interest that might not, under
such a construction, be denominated, with equal propriety, Na-
tional.

His veto was placed on that specific ground, and the rest of the
Message was principally taken up in discussing the propriety and
expediency of deferring all other action upon the subject, even of
appropriations for National works until the Public Debt should be
paid and amendments of the Constitution adopted by which such
appropriation could be protected against the abuses to which they
were exposed.

These positions, fairly interpreted, were not inconsistent with the
votes which Gen. Jackson had given in the capacity of Senator dur-
ing the Canvass of 1823-4. The Survey-Bill was in terms limited
to roads and canals which the President should deem of National
importance. Mr. Calhoun's Bonus Bill proposed to set aside a fund

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTI*.' YAK BTJREN. &29

for the construction of roads and canals, and still both he and Mr.
Clay contended that the constitutional question did not arise before
the specific bill was presented for the action of Congress. With
much more propriety could that be said of the Survey Bill. The
appropriation in aid of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal was
sustained on the ground of its being a work of national importance
and the Maysville veto did not expressly deny the constitutionality
of such appropriations. Whether that was one of such a character
or not was a question in respect to which, in the absence of consti-
tutional regulation, Gen. Jackson was obliged to exercise his discre-
tion. He did so in that case and voted for the Bill — he did the same
thing in the case of the Maysville Road and vetoed it. The pro-
piety of the veto was therefore reduced to the single question as to
the character of the road — was it national or local? — an issue on
which his opponents could not sustain themselves for a moment.
He was thus enabled to go to the Country with his views in favor
of suspending action even upon works of national importance until
the public debt was paid and constitutional amendments obtained,
to guard against otherwise unavoidable abuses, unembarrassed by
side issues of any description other than that to which I have last
referred and upon which his position was absolutely impregnable.

It was the consciousness of the soundness of the positions taken
in the wto-Message that produced the raving debates in the House
when it was first presented to that body, and it was doubtless a
similar consciousness that forced Mr. Clay in a speech on the Mes-
sage delivered at Cincinnati, shortly after its appearance, so far to
forget the proprieties of his position to compare the Message to
the paper sent by George III, during his insanity, which, tho' it
had his name attached to it, could not be said to have spoken his
sentiments, and to exclaim that he could not read it without hav-
ing the name of Talleyrand! Tallyrand! Talleyrand! continually
recurring to his mind. He could hardly have been aware of the
weight of testimony he bore in the latter exclamation in favor of
the Message on the score of talent and power. The reader will
judge for himself as to the degree of success with which the views
sketched in my note to the President of the 4th of May, before given,
were carried out.

A great step had been taken towards removing from Congress an
incubus which had for years weighed upon it in the shape of unr
availing effort to establish a useful system of internal improvement
under its auspices and by its authority. Whilst the time of that
body was wasted in unfruitful debates and its capacity for use-
fulness in the channels designed for its action by the Constitution
impaired, every thinking and fair minded man saw that to es-
tablish such a system previous amendments to the Constitution were

830 AIXERICAKT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

absolutely indispensable. A step in advance had been taken but
we knew very well that more was to be done and that other posi-
tions must be assumed to make that step available, and we devoted
ourselves without delay to a consideration of their character. Neither
of us laboring, it is but truth to say it, under vain conceits of
our self-sufficiency, I with the approbation of the President, sought
the best counsel that the Country afforded by opening a corre-
spondence on the subject with Mr. Madison. In his recent veto-
Message, the President had given a construction to Mr. Madison's
veto of Mr. Calhoun's Bonus Bill, of which we thought it fairly
suspectible altho' not with absolute certainty of our position. I
am free to admit that a floating impression existed in my mind
throughout that Mr. Madison might, altho' I could not well see
how, disavow that construction. I sincerely wished for such a
result and the wish was doubtless father to the thought I there-
fore sent him an early copy of the General's veto-Message, in a
way best calculated to elicit an expression of his views upon the
point without asking them. His first note shews the result and
as the residue of the correspondence explains the reasons for its
continuance I will make no apology for inserting all the letters
here. What such a man as Mr. MAdison has said upon a subject of so
much importance cannot be too carefully preserved and there is
clearly no reason for a continuance of the confidence in which hjs
letters were written and which has hitherto been observed.

Fbom Mb. Madison.1

J. Madison has duly received the copy of the President's Message forwarded
by Mr. Van Buren. In returning his thanks for this polite attention, he re-
grets the necessity of observing that the Message has not rightly conceived
the intention of J. M. in his Veto in 1817 on the Bill relating to Internal
Improvements. It was an object of the Veto to deny to Congress as well as
the appropriating power, as the executing and jurisdictional branches of it,
and it is believed that this was the general understanding at the time, and
has continued to be so, according to the references occasionally made to the
document. Whether the language employed duly conveyed the meaning of
which J. M. retains the consciousness is a question on which he does not
presume ° to judge for others.

Relying on the candor to which these remarks are addressed he tenders to
Mr. Van Buren renewed assurances of his high esteem and good wishes.

Montpelier, June 3, 1830.

To Mb. Madison.

Washington June 9th, 1880
Dear Sib,

I have shewn your note of the 3rd Inst to the President who requests me to
express his regret that he has misconceived your intentions in regard to your
veto on the Bill for Internal Improvements in 1817. As far as opportunities

1 Madison's draft is in the Madison Papers In the Library of Congress.
• MS. Ill, p. 175.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 881

place It In his power to correct the error In Informal conversation be will
not fall to do so, and should an occasion occur on which a more formal cor-
rection would be pertinent It will give him pleasure to make it, if advised
that that course would be preferred by you.

Win you excuse me for troubling you again upon this Interesting and per-
plexing subject? I am deeply sensible of the necessity of repose to one of
your advanced age and of the claims to its enjoyment which are founded
upon your past usefulness, but deriving confidence from your ready ac-
quiescence In my wishes on a former occasion I venture to Intrude once
more upon your retirement You have had some experience of the injurious
tendency of legislation upon this subject by Congress, but no one can have
an idea of the demoralising effect which for years past it has had upon
their proceedings without being on the spot and forming a part of the Gov-
ernment The President is deeply impressed with the importance of arrest-
ing its further progress and very willing to incur whatever responsibility he
can properly take upon himself to promote that object You have seen the
ground he has taken and can appreciate fully the position he occupies. It is
unnecessary for me to say to you that the matter cannot rest here but that
It will be necessary for him to go farther at the next session of Congress.

Among the points which will then come up for consideration will be the
following : 1st, the establishment of some rule which shall give the greatest prac-
ticable precision to the power of appropriating money for objects of general
concern ; 2d, a rule for the government of grants for light houses and the im-
provement of harbors and rivers which will avoid the objects which it is de-
sirable to exclude from the present action of Government and at the same
time to do what Is imperiously required by a due regard to the general com-
merce of the Country; 86% the expediency of refusing all appropriations for
internal improvements, (other <han those of the character last referred to if
they may be so called,) until the national debt is paid, as well on account of
the sufficiency of that motive, as to give time for the adoption of some con-
stitutional or other arrangement by which the whole subject may be placed on
better grounds, — an arrangement which will never be seriously attempted as
long as scattering appropriations are made and the scramble for them thereby
encouraged ; 4th, the strong objections which exist against subscriptions to the
stock of private companies by the United States.

There is no man more willing to hear with patience and to weigh with candor
the suggestions of those in whom he has confidence than the President The
relation in which I stand to him will give him the right to be furnished with
my views upon these matters and I need not say how much I would be bene-
fitted In forming and fortified In sustaining them by your friendly advice. I
ask it In confidence and will receive whatever your leisure and Inclination may
Induce you to say upon the subject under the same obligation.

Wishing to be kindly remembered to Mrs. Madison, I am dear Sir,

Very truly yours,1

Madison to Van Buben.9

Montpellier, July 5, 1830.

Deab Sib. — Your letter of June Oth came duly to hand. On the subject of

the discrepancy between the construction put by the message of the President

on the veto of 1817, and the Intention of Its author, the President will of

course consult his own view of the case. For myself, I am aware that the

1 Van Buren's draft is in the Van Buren Papers, the letter sent la In the Madison
Papers.
» Copies are In both the Madison and Van Buren Papers.

882 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

document must speak for itself, and that that intention can not be substituted
for the established rules of interpretation.

The several points on which you desire my ideas are necessarily vague, and
the observations on them can not well be otherwise. They are suggested by
a respect for your request, rather than by a hope that they can assist the
object of it.

" Point 1. The establishment of some rule which shall give the greatest prac-
ticable precision to the power of appropriating money to objects of general
concern."

The rule must refer, it is presumed, either to the objects of appropriation,
or to the apportionment of the money.

A specification of the objects of general concern in terms as definite as may
ne, seems to be the rule most applicable; thus Roads simply, if for all the
uses of Roads; or Roads, post and military, if limited to those uses; or post
roads only, if so limited: thus, Canals, either generally, or for specified uses:
so again Education, as limited to a university, or extended to seminaries of
other denominations.

As to the apportionment of the money, no rule can exclude Legislative dis-
cretion but that of distribution among the States according to their presumed
contributions; that Is, to their ratio of Representation In Congress. The ad-
vantages of this rule are its certainty, and Its apparent equity. The objec-
tions to It may be that, on one hand, it would Increase the comparative agency
of the Federal Government, and, on the other that the money might not be
expended on objects of general concern ; the Interests of particular States not
happening to coincide with the general interest In relation to improvements
within such States.

" 2. A rule for the Government of Grants for Light-houses, and the improve-
ment of Harbours and Rivers, which will avoid 'the objects which it is desirable
to exclude from the present action of the Government; and at the same time
do what is imperiously required by a regard to the general commerce of the
Country."

National grants In these cases seem to admit no possible rule of discrimina-
tion, but as the objects may be of a national or local character. The difficulty
lies In all cases where the degree and not the nature of the case, Is to govern.
In the extremes, the judgment is easily formed ; as between removing obstruc-
tions in the Mississippi, the highway of commerce for half the nation, and a
like operation, giving but little extension to the navigable use of a river, itself
of confined use. In the intermediate cases, legislative discretion, and, conse-
quently, legislative errors and partialities are unavoidable. Some controul is
attainable In doubtful cases, from preliminary investigations and reports by
disinterested and responsible agents.

In defraying the expense of internal improvements, strict justice would re-
quire that a part only and not the whole should be borne by the nation. Take
for examples the Harbours of New York and New Orleans. However important
in a commercial view they may be to the other portions of the Union, the States
to which they belong must derive a peculiar as well as a common advantage
from improvements made in them, and could afford therefore to combine with
grants from the common treasury, proportional contributions from their own.
On this principle it is that the practice has prevailed in the States (as it has
done with Congress) of dividing the expense of certain Improvements, between
the funds of the State, and the contribution of those locally interested in them.

Extravagant and disproportionate expenditures on Harbours, Light-houses
and other arrangements on the Seaboard ought certainly to be controuled as

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAX BUREN. 833

much as possible. But it seems not to be sufficiently recollected, that in rela-
tion to our foreign commerce, the burden and benefit of accommodating and
protecting it necessarily go together, and, must do so as long and as far as the
public revenue continues to be drawn thro* the Customhouse. Whatever gives
facility and security to navigation, cheapens Imports; and all who consume
them wherever residing are alike interested in what has that effect. If they
consume they ought as they now do to pay. If they do not consume, they do
not pay. The consumer in the most inland State derives the same advantage
from the necessary and prudent expenditures for the security of our foreign
navigation, as the consumer in a maritime State. Our local expenditures have
not of themselves a correspondent operation.

" 3. The expediency of refusing all appropriations for Internal improvements
(other than those of the character last referred to, If they can be so called)
until the national debt is paid; as well on account of the sufficiency of that
motive, as to give time for the adoption of some constitutional or other arrange-
ment by which the whole subject may be placed on better grounds ; an arrange-
ment which will never be seriously attempted as long as scattering appropria-
tions are made, and the scramble for them thereby encouraged."

The expediency of refusing appropriations, with a view to the previous dis-
charge of the public debt, Involves considerations which can be best weighed
and compared at the focus of lights on the subject A distant view like mine
can only suggest the remark, too vague to be of value, that a material delay
ought not to be incurred for objects not both Important and urgent; nor such
objects to be neglected in order to avoid an immaterial delay. This is, Indeed,
but the amount of the exception glanced at in your parenthesis.

The mortifying scenes connected with a surplus revenue are the natural off-
spring of a surplus; and cannot perhaps be entirely prevented by any plan of
appropriation which allows a scope to Legislative discretion. The evil will
have a powerful controul in the pervading dislike to taxes even the most indi-
rect The taxes lately repealed are an index of it. Were the whole revenue
expended on Internal Improvements drawn from direct taxation, there would be
danger of too much parsimony rather than too much profusion at the Treasury.

"4. The strong objections which exist against subscriptions to the stock of
private companies by the United States."

The objections are doubtless in many respects strong. Yet cases might
present themselves which might not be favored by the State, whilst the con-
curring agency of an Undertaking Company would be desirable In a national
view. There was a time it is said when the State of Delaware, influenced by
the profits of a Portage between the Delaware and Chesapeake, was unfriendly
to the Canal, now forming so important a link of internal communication be-
tween the North and the South. Undertakings by private companies carry with
them a presumptive evidence of utility, and the private stakes in them, some
security for economy in the execution, the want of which is the bane of public
undertakings. Still the importunities of private companies cannot be listened
to with more caution than prudence requires.

I have, as you know, never considered the powers claimed for Congress over
roads and canals, as within the grants of the Constitution. But such improve-
ments being justly ranked among the greatest advantages and best evidences of
good government ; and having, moreover, with us, the peculiar recommendation
of binding the several parts of the Union more firmly together, I have always
thought the power ought to be possessed by the common Government; which
commands the least unpopular; and most productive sources of revenue, and
can alone select Improvements with an eye to the national good. The States

836 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

debt is paid* and that; In the meanwhile, some general role for the action of
the Government In that respect ought to be established.

These suggestions were not necessary to the decision of the question then
before me; and were, I readily admit, intended to awake the attention and
draw forth the opinions and observations of our constituents, upon a subject
of the highest importance to their Interests, and one destined to exert a power-
ful Influence upon the future operations of our political system. I know of
no tribunal to which a public man in this Country, In a case of doubt and
difficulty, can appeal with greater advantage or more propriety than the judg-
ment of the people; and although I must necessarily, in the discharge of my
official duties, be governed by the dictates of my own judgment* I have no de-
sire to conceal my anxious wish to conform, as far as I can, to the views of
those for whom I act

All irregular expressions of public opinion are of necessity attended with
some doubt as to their accuracy; but, making full allowance on that account,
I can not, I think, deceive myself In believing that the acts referred to, as
well as the suggestions which I allowed myself to make, in relation to their
bearing upon the future operations of the Government, have been approved
by the great body of the people. That those whose Immediate pecuniary In-
terests are to be affected by proposed expenditures should shrink from the ap-
plication of a rule which prefers their more general and remote interests to
those which are personal and immediate, is to be expected. But even such
objections must, from the nature of our population, be but temporary in their
duration; and if it were otherwise our course should be the same; for the
time is yet, I hope, far distant when those intrusted with power to be exercised
for the good of the whole will consider it either honest or wise, to purchase
local favors at the sacrifice of principle and general good.

So understanding public sentiment and thoroughly satisfied that the best in-
terests of our common Country Imperiously require that the course which
I have recommended in this regard should be adopted, I have, upon the most
mature consideration, determined to pursue it.

It is due to candor as well as to my own feelings that I should express the
reluctance and anxiety which I must at all times experience in exercising the
undoubted right of the Executive to withhold his assent from bills on other
grounds than their constitutionality. That this right should not be exercised
on slight occasions, all will admit It is only in matters of deep Interest, when
the principle involved may be justly regarded as next in Importance to infrac-
tions of the Constitution itself, that such a step can be expected to meet with
the approbation of the people. Such an occasion do I conscientiously believe the
present to be. In the discharge of this delicate and highly responsible duty I
am sustained by the reflection that the exercise of this power has been deemed
consistent with the obligations of official duty by several of my predecessors;
and by the persuasion too, that whatever liberal institutions may have to fear
from the encroachments of Executive power, which has been every where the
cause of so much strife and bloody contention, but little danger is to be appre-
hended from a precedent by which that authority denies to itself the exercise of
powers that bring in their train influence and patronage of great extent ; and
thus excludes the operation of personal interests, every where the bane of
official trust, I derive, too, no small degree of satisfaction from the reflection,
that if I have mistaken the Interests and wishes of the people, the Constitution
affords the means of soon redressing the error, by selecting for the place their
favor has bestowed upon me a citizen whose opinions may accord with their
own. I trust, in the mean time, the Interests of the nation will be saved from

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTTN VAN BUKEN. 885

with a regret that I cannot make yon a more Important communication, I
renew the assurances of my great esteem and my cordial salutations.

Jambs Madison.
Mr. Yah Bubs*.

Having carefully observed the course of public opinion and being
satisfied that it had settled down decidedly in favor of the policy
of postponing all appropriations for works of internal improvement,
even for such as might fairly be deemed of a national character
until the public debt was paid,- as he had suggested in his veto-
Message, the President was prepared to take his own position upon
that point in his second annual Message in December of the same
year.9 Justice cannot be done to him without accompanying this
view of those important transactions with explanations which might,
under other circumstances be considered unnecessary. He first took
notice of the vote he had given, whilst Senator, in favor of the Chesa-
peake and Delaware Canal of which he spoke as follows :

In speaking of direct appropriations I mean not to Include a practice which
has obtained to some extent, and to which I have, in one Instance, In a different
capacity, given my assent — that of subscribing to the stock of private associa-
tions. Positive experience, and a more thorough consideration of the subject,
have convinced me of the Impropriety as well as inexpediency of such Invest-
ments. AU Improvements effected by the funds of the nation for general use
should be open to the enjoyment of all our fellow citizens, exempt from the
payment of tolls, or any° imposition of that character: The practice of thus
mingling the concerns of the Government with those of the States or of Indi-
viduals Is inconsistent with the object of its institution, and highly impolitic.
The successful operation of the federal system can only be preserved by confin-
ing it to the few and simple but yet important objects for which it was designed.
* * * The power which the General Government would acquire within the
several States by becoming the principal stockholder In corporations, con-
trolling every canal and each sixty or hundred miles of every Important road,
and giving a proportionate vote in all their elections, is almost Inconceivable
and, in my view, dangerous to the liberties of the people.

Having thus acknowledged with characteristic frankness the
change which his opinion had undergone on the point referred to, he
spoke with the same freedom of the general subject, and said, among
other things:

In my objections to the bills authorizing subscriptions to the Maysvllle and
Rockvllle Road Companies, I expressed my views fully in regard to the power
of Congress to construct roads and canals within a State, or to appropriate
money for improvements of a local character. I, at the same time, Intimated my
belief that the right to make appropriations for such as were of a national
character had been so generally acted upon and so long acquiesced in by the
Federal and State Governments, and the constituents of each, as to Justify
its exercise on the ground of continued nnd uninterrupted usage; but that It
was nevertheless, highly expedient that appropriations, even of that character,
should, with the exception made at the time, be deferred until the national

* Madison'* draft la in tha Madlaon Papers. » 1880. * If S. Ill, p. 180.

338 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Improvements by the Federal Government was — there is every
"reason to believe — forever withdrawn from the action of that Gov-
ernment. Not that any such consequence can be attributed to the
opinion or action of any man who may for a season be placed at
its head, for no one conversant with human nature or with the course
of political events will ever expect with confidence such a result
from such causes. The opinion I have expressed is founded on
more potent considerations. Every effort in the direction referred
to was certainly suspended for eleven years and other fields of exer-
tion in behalf of such works were soon found and occupied. To
a people as impulsive as ours eleven years of denial and delay are
almost equivalent to an eternal veto, and those who maintained
that the passion for Internal Improvements, so rampant at the seat
of the Federal Government at the commencement of the Jackson
administration, would seek other and constitutional directions for
its gratification, if that could be perseveringly denied to it there
for even a shorter period, stand justified by the event. All of the
works of that character which it was ever hoped might prove safe
and useful to the Country, have been made by or under the au-
thority of the State Governments. All motive for enlisting the
interference of the National Government for generations to come,
has thus been superseded. In the cases of wild and unprofitable or
speculative projects, losses, to the extent of many millions, which
the Treasury would have sustained if these works had been con-
structed under Federal authority, have fallen with a weight dimin-
ished by the vigilance inspired by private interest and by State
supervision, upon the shoulders of those who expected to make money
by them, instead of emptying the national coffers, to be recruited
by taxes collected from the mass of the people who would have de-
rived no exclusive advantages from their success.

We have had two administrations of the Federal Government whose
politics were of the Governmental-improvement stamp, but none
of the old projects have been brought forward — resolutions in favour
of Internal Improvements have been dropped from the partisan plat-
forms of the party that suported those administrations. The theory
and the practice — except as to cases not involved in the general ques-
tion— are both exploded as regards the action of the Federal Gov-
ernment and the signal advantages which the Country has reaped
from this result so far as they have not been now ref ered to will be
elsewhere noticed.

* MS. Ill, p. 185.

CHAPTER XXVI.

I have once or twice incidentally mentioned, an affair, under the
name of the Eaton-imbroglio, which, tho' in no proper sense politi-
cal, exerted perhaps a more injurious influence upon the management
of public affairs than could be ascribed to any of the disturbing ques-
tions of the excited period of which I write. Breaking out at the
very commencement of the administration, kept alive by feelings of
the bitterest character and soon directed to the acomplishment of
political as well as personal objects it maintained for two years a
foothold at the seat of the Federal Government, a plague to social
intercourse, destructive in many instances of private friendship, de-
ranging public business and for a season, at least, disparaging the
character of the Government. Except perhaps the disreputable
scenes that were witnessed in England, occasioned by the quarrel
between George IV and his unfortunate Queen, there has not been
seen in modern times so relentless and so reckless a foray upon all
those interests as that to which I refer. There, as here, time has
somewhat effaced the remembrance of scenes which, as a general rule,
are never so well treated as when they are delivered over to its de-
vouring tooth. That this should be the common fate of transactions
which reflect no credit on the living or the dead is certainly desirable,
but the gratification of such a wish is subject at all times to well set-
tled and unavoidable restrictions. History asserts her right — always
within the limitations of truth and decency — to make the follies,
vices, and crimes of an epoch, as well as its virtues and meritorious
achievements subservient to her high calling, which is to warn succ-
eeding generations as well as to attract them by examples; and indi-
viduals who defend themselves against attempted implication in
transactions which she must condemn or their friends who recognise
the duty of protecting their memories when they can no longer
speak for themselves, have at all times a right to probe such affairs
to their most secret depths in the pursuit of their objects.

Most gladly would I pass this subject without notice if the circum-
stances under which I write would permit me to do so. Altho' drawn
against my will into the very focus of the excitement and from first
to last exposed to its fury, I at no time regarded it with any other
feelings than those of pain and disgust; pain produced by daily
witnessing the anguish it caused to the President and disgust at the
uses made of a private matter as to which the general community
should have been left to the uninterrupted maintenance of its rights

339

340 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

and to the performance of its own duties. But standing in the rela-
tion of closest friendship to General Jackson whilst he lived, and
revering his memory I cannot be insensible to the unfavourable infer-
ences and surmises which would inevitably follow, if whilst profess-
ing to give a faithful account of his administration, I were to pass
over in silence an affair of which the immediate effect was to break
up his family circle, which in its consequences contributed largely to
the dissolution of his Cabinet, and for the part he took in which he
was arraigned before his constituents with much formality but with
undisguised rancor. Reasons against such a course thus urgent in
his case, have become imperative in regard to myself. Not only was
my responsibility for what was done in the matter held by my oppo-
nents to be at least co-extensive with that of the President, but in
addition to attacks thro' the public press and on the floor of the
Senate, which were visited upon both of us, a resolution was offered
to the latter body by Mr. Holmes, a Senator from the State of Maine,
for the appointment of a Committee to examine into my conduct in
the premises with authority to send for persons and to compel the
introduction of papers. It is true that the Senator offering it soon
abandoned his resolution for reasons the utter frivolousness of which
afforded abundant evidence of the unworthy motives by which he
had been governed in its introduction — a demonstration quite unnec-
essary to convince me, who had wintered and summered with him
and well understood the stuff of which he was made, that such was
its real origin and character. But his resolution stands upon the
record and would if there were no other reasons effectually preclude
me from omitting, in a sketch of my own life and times, a faithful
account of my course in the matter and as much of the conduct of
others as may be necessary to make that entirely intelligible. This
I shall endeavour to do with proper respect to every consideration
entitled to it and bearing upon the subject.

The dissatisfaction caused by Gen. Jackson's Cabinet arrange-
ments has been already referred to. This discontent was not con-
fined to a particular class, neither was it in all cases, occasioned by
precisely the same causes. Major Eaton was the son of a highly re-
spectable lady of Tennessee, a widow at the time of which I write,
much esteemed by Gen. Jackson, and her son also had strongly in-
gratiated himself in his regard and was the author, I think, of the
first formal history of the General's life. Major Lewis, Eaton's
brother-in-law, had long been an intimate personal friend of the
General, came with him to Washington and was for many years an
inmate of his family. The cast of the Cabinet carried a suspicion
to the minds of many of General Jackson's Tennessee friends, in-
cluding a majority of the representatives of that State in Congress,
that Eaton and Lewis had exerted a preponderating influence in its

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 841

construction. Their amor proprius was offended by this as they
thought it evinced an undeserved preference, and jealousies and en-
mities accordingly sprang up among his supporters in Tennessee
many of which were never healed. Major Donelson, a nephew of
Mrs. Jackson, whose wife was also her neice, and who had been from
his infancy a member of the General's family — a man moreover of
much more ability than he had credit for — partook largely of this
feeling. The seeds of dissatisfaction with and opposition to the
first act of the President were thus extensively and deeply sown not
only in his own State but in his immediate household*

There was another, perhaps I should say a higher class — a class
at all events moved by higher considerations and looking to graver
objects — which shared freely in the prevailing discontent. When
these latter came to canvass the materials of which the new Cabinet
was composed and the circumstances under which it was formed
they thought they saw in them the evidence of a design on the part
of ° the President-elect to counteract Presidential aspirations which
his popularity had caused to be suspended, but the realization of
which at the end of his first term, was confidently anticipated.

The hostile feelings towards the new Cabinet, at its start, enter*
tained by these branches of malcontents were, in variously modified
forms, extended to the President himself and, in the sequel, espe-
cially to the individual whose advancement was supposed — how cor*
rectly will be hereafter seen — to have been the main object in its
formation. It was not long before they found vent and thro' the
same channel. Major Eaton,1 the new Secretary of War had mar*
ried a young widow2 of much beauty and considerable smartness
in respect to whose relations with himself before marriage, and
whilst she was the wife of another, there had been unfavourable
reports, A question was on that account raised as to her fitness
for the social position otherwise due to the wife of a member of
the Cabinet, her un worthiness alleged, with various degrees of pub-
licity, and her exclusion from fashionable society insisted on. The
President whilst willing and at all times avowedly ready to open
the door to the severest scrutiny as to the facts, but confiding in
her innocence with a sincerity that no man doubted, resented these
doings, with the spirit and resolution natural to him on all occa-
sions, but especially when feeling called upon to defend his friends.
An issue was in this way and thus early formed between him and
respectable, numerous and very powerful portions of his supporters
which, independently of any question as to the wisdom, justice or
propriety of the ground assumed on either side, could not possibly

• MS. Ill, p. 190.

'John H. Baton.

- Margaret [Peggy] O'NeeJe, widow of Parser J. B. TlmberUke, U. B. N.

342 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

fail to generate ill-will and speedily to sever the amicable relations
which had until that time existed between them.

Congress was fortunately upon the eve of its adjournment when
this struggle commenced, and the President, the new1 Cabinet, the
officers of Government and the good people of Washington, or, per-
haps more correctly speaking, the fashionable society of Washing-
ton, with temporary visitors to the seat of Government, — not an in-
considerable number at the commencement of a new administration —
were the principal persons, before whom and by whom the question
of Mrs. Eaton's eligibility was in the first instance discussed and
acted upon. Beaching Washington some two months after the con-
troversy had commenced, and my appointment having in no degree
contributed to its occurrence, I was entirely uncommitted on my
arrival, but finding the traces of the feud too plain not to be intelli-
gible, in walks which it was my duty to frequent, and too disturbing
in their character to be disregarded, I felt the necessity of deciding
upon the course I ought to take in respect to it without unnecessary
delay. After looking at the matter in every aspect in which I
thought it deserved to be considered I decided, for reasons not now
necessary to assign, to make no distinction in my demeanour towards,
or in my intercourse with the families of the gentlemen whom the
President had, with the approbation of the Senate, selected as my
Cabinet associates, but to treat all with respect and kindness and not
to allow myself, by my own acts, to be mixed up in such a quarrel.
That others would do the latter office for me I thought not im-
probable but that I could not help ; I could only take care, and that
I resolved upon, that they should have no good grounds for their
impeachments. A' very eligible opportunity was soon presented to
make my intentions understood by Major Eaton and his particular
friends. An office-holder under the new regime, of no mean degree, a
clever fellow, in both the Yankee and the English sense of that word,
who by his own bonhommie and the social popularity of his amiable
family, by his generous tho' unostentatious hospitality, it is fair to
add by his qualifications for his official duties and last, tho' not
least, by his facile politics has succeeded in retaining his place (with
a single and short interruption) for the thirty years that have
passed since that day, paid me an early and somewhat significant
visit. He sided warmly with the lady and with her husband and
their friends and proceeded to enlighten me on the state of the
controversy, with full descriptions of the sayings and doings on
both sides of it. When he had freely unbosomed himself and well
nigh exhausted his budget of news I asked him, with unusual seri-
ousness to listen attentively to what I had to say to him. This, with
evident surprise, but politely and kindly he agreed to do. I then
remarked in substance that it had been my good fortune to be absent

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN V£ff BUREN. 848

when the disturbance to which he alluded was first developed, that
I was therefore in a better condition to control my feelings and
actions in regard to it than most of my associates in the Govern-
ment; that I sorely regretted its existence not only on account of its
tendency to destroy the pleasures of social intercourse between many
of us, but in view of what was far more important, its inevitable
effect to mar the success and security of the administration ; that I
knew nothing, nor had I heard of anything which would, in my
opinion, require on my part the line of conduct that was pursued (as
I was informed) by others in respect to Mrs. Eaton; that so long as
I continued to view the matter in that light I would treat the Secre-
tary of War and his family with the same respect and cordiality
that I manifested towards the other members of the Cabinet and
their families; that I should always stand ready to do anything in
my power to allay and if possible eradicate the bad spirit that un-
happily prevailed, but that I did not want to hear what was said
and done in the matter and finally I desired that he should under-
stand me as preferring not to talk about it

My visitor was clearly disappointed by the character of my
observations and seemed to think, altho' this idea was expressed
obscurely and with becoming respect, that I evinced a degree of
lukewarmness, in the matter, quite unexpected and perhaps not
justified by the circumstances, or else a want of confidence in him.
Understanding fully what was passing in his mind I first en-
deavoured to disabuse him of any suspicion of that kind by avow-
ing the favourable opinion I sincerely entertained of him person-
ally, and then remarked that there were occasions when a man
should reserve the exclusive right of judging in relation to his
proper course and conduct, that the one now the subject of our
conversation was of that nature, in my opinion, so far as I was
at all concerned, and that my conclusions in regard to it were
such as I thought due to my own self-respect and to my official
position. A man of the world and of good sense himself, he ap-
peared, as I thought, inclined to change his impressions and left
me in good humor.

I soon found, although nothing was said to me about it, that
he had communicated our conversation to the Secretary of War
and his immediate friends and especially to the President, from
whose manner of treating the subject, whenever it was introduced
in my presence, I inferred with pleasure his approbation of the
course I had marked out for myself.

The female members of the President's family were Mrs. Donel-
son, the wife of his private Secretary, and her cousin, Miss Easton,
both nieces of Mrs. Jackson and both excellent and highly esteemed

844 AMKBICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

ladies. Unaffected and graceful in manners, amiable and purely
feminine in disposition and character, and bright and self possessed
in conversation, they were fair representatives of the ladies of Ken-
tucky and Tennessee. Both alas! are now no more. On an occa-
sion when the name of Mrs. Eaton was accidentally and harmlessly
introduced, and which was shortly after my interview above de-
scribed, Mrs. Donelson, in the presence of her cousin, expressed her
surprise that whilst almost every tongue in the city was canvassing
that lady's merits and demerits die had never hoard me say any-
thing upon the subject, a remark the tone of which rather than the
substance conveyed, tho' gently, a complaint of my reserve. I was
under an engagement which called me away and had only time to
assure her that my silence had not arisen from an unwillingness to
talk with them upon the subject and that with her permission I
would do so upon the first favorable occasion. She took me at my
word and we fixed the time when I was to call upon them for that
purpose. When we met I was happy to be immediately relieved
from the embarrassment that seemed inseparable from the ° parties
to and the nature of our discussion, by a statement from Mrs. Don-
elson of the grounds on which she justified the course she was pur-
suing, which was a marked one and decidedly adverse to the lady
in question. She spoke of her as possessing a bad temper and a
meddlesome disposition and said that the latter had been so much
increased by her husband's elevation as to make her society too dis-
agreeable to be endured. She did not allude to any rumored impu-
tations upon her fame; she might not have believed them, she might
have omitted to notice them from motives of delicacy, or she might
have thought allusion to them unnecessary on account of the suf-
ficiency of those which she frankly acknowledged. Whether influ-
enced by the one or the other motive I had no desire to inquire but
took the matter up on the grounds on which she had placed it* For
the sake of the discussion only, I agreed, after a moments reflec-
tion, to admit that she was right in her views of Mrs. Eaton's char-
acter and disposition and proceeded to impress upon her that al-
though her reasons would excuse her from cultivating a close in-
timacy with that lady they neither required nor would justify her,
having regard to her position as the female head of her Uncle's
family, to decline her society to the extent to which die had gone,
and to caution her against being controlled in her course by persons
whom she esteemed, and who were entitled to her respect and regard,
but whose opinions upon that particular subject as I thought — in-
deed, as I was certain — were unduly influenced. It is unnecessary
to recapitulate my arguments: they were, in some respects, to her

• MS. Ill, p, 195.

/

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUBBN. 846

at least, of a more serious character than any that she had previously
allowed to be taken into her consideration ; they related to the situa-
tion of her Uncle, whom she dearly loved, to the difficulties he had
to contend with in the performance of his public duties, to the value
he placed upon the peace and harmony of his family and the misery
he suffered in seeing them destroyed by an affair in respect to which
she certainly knew that he acted a sincere part, and to the extent
to which her course sanctioned imputations of a graver character
both upon the lady in question and upon himself for sustaining her,
which were used by his enemies to injure him; Ac. &c. Before I
had concluded Miss Easton who had sought to hide her emotions
by gradually withdrawing herself from sight in the embrasure of
the window, sobbed aloud, and I preceived that Mrs. Donelson be-
sides being deeply agitated was also offended by my allusions to the
probability that she had been unduly influenced by others upon
such a subject. I rose from my seat, begging her to excuse whatever
I might, under the excitement of the moment, have said to hurt her
feelings, but perfectly satisfied that they were too far committed to
be reached by anything I could urge, and I asked her permission to
drop the subject. To this she assented, acknowledging that she had
been momentarily ruffled by some of my remarks but assuring me
that she was not offended with me.

Our conference did not produce the slightest change in our sub-
sequent relations. I stood, upon her invitation, as one of the spon-
sors in baptism of her daughter, and her bearing towards me con-
tinued respectful and kind to the day of her lamented death.

I became convinced that Mrs. Donelson's earnest feelings on this
occasion and in reference to this affair were less the effects of any-
thing that she had heard or believed than of natural sympathy
with her husband who was deeply interested in the quarrel — dif- ■
fering widely in opinion and feeling from his Uncle, the Presi-
dent. As evidence of his great excitement at this time he after-
wards told me that his dislike to me during the progress of these
transactions had become so strong that " he could have drowned me
with a drop of water." The relations between the General and
his family grew every day more complicated and embarrassed until
Major Donelson and his family quitted the White House and re-
turned to Tennessee and his place as private Secretary was supplied
by the appointment of Mr. N. P. Trist.

It is a fact worthy of notice that altho' I was well acquainted
with Major Donelson's views and sentiments in respect to the Eaton
matters and his temporary leaning towards Mr. Calhoun and his
friends I never suspected him of having entertained feelings of
personal hostility towards myself until I received from him the
letter which follows, many years afterwards and heard from his

846 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

own lips the explanations of its import which I have given above.
Desiring to offer some proof of my great respect and sincere es-
teem to the General at parting and having the opinion of the Major's
talents which I have already expressed, I decided, soon after my
election to offer the latter a place in my Cabinet, and apprised them
both of that intention. But having consulted a discreet and dis-
interested friend from the same quarter of the Union in respect
to the opinion likely to be formed there of the propriety of such a
step I was led to doubt its expediency. My friend doubted neither
the Major's capacity nor his integrity but thought that the appoint-
ment would cause a surprise on the part of the public and would
be regarded as an advancement disproportioned to the stations he
had before occupied. I suggested the doubt to the General (who had
not asked the appointment) and found that the same idea had
passed through his own mind, but that he had not felt himself at
liberty, under the circumstances, to suggest it. I immediately wrote
to the Major that I had changed my mind, giving frankly the rear-
son for it, and received in reply the following manly letter which,
it will be seen, refers to the state of his feelings towards me during
the first term of the General's Presidency, of which also, he after-
wards spoke to me, as I have mentioned.

Fbom Major Donklson.

Nashville, February 21st 1837
Deab Sib,

Tour letter post marked the 8th inst. has just reached me. I shall set out
In an hour or two for Washington under the hope of joining the General before
he leaves the city and with the Intention of accompanying him to the Hermitage
if I can be of service to him.

I am grateful for the kindness manifested In your letter and no one can be
more sensible than I am that the views it expresses respecting the policy of
my being placed in a responsible situation near you are correct So strong
were my convictions on this subject that I thought it my duty some eight or
ten days ago to write such a letter to the General as would induce you, even if
the judgment of mutual friends had created any doubt in your mind, to come
to the decision which has been adopted.

I cannot value too highly your friendship. It is the reward of a long
acquaintance manifesting much forbearance and generosity on your part. I
went to Washington full of misconception of your character and deeply biassed
by many of the circumstances that attended the first four years of General
Jackson's canvass for the Presidency/ It will be my endeavour to make some
amends for the Injustice done you by doing all I can in my humble sphere
to make your true character known to those who are willing to credit me. If
in no other respect I may in this do some good to the Republican cause by
adding to the number of those who will judge your administration impartially.

Although I am about to start to Washington I prefer to send this letter by

• This is a slip of the pen. The Intended reference was to the first four years of the
General's Presidency.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 847

the same stage, Imperfect as It Is as an expression of my grateful feelings
towards you, to risking the chances of my not being able to see yon before the
4th of March.
Remember me kindly to your sons and believe me sincerely

Your friend,

A. J. Donelson

The nature of the personal feelings which the state of things
I have described was calculated to engender among those connected
with the Government and residing at Washington may be easily
inferred. All were more or less affected by it and it was under
its adverse influences that we worked through the spring, summei
and the first months of the autumn. Those feelings grew every
day more and more bitter because they were to a great degree
smothered as no opportunity was presented for their open indul-
gence on the part of the leading officials. The entertainment given
to the Diplomatic Corps in the spring was a dinner-party of gentle-
men ° only and passed off without embarrassment. A Cabinet din-
ner, to which the ladies of the families of the members who com-
posed it would have to be invited was not even spoken of in my
hearing before the month of November. That subject was then intro-
duced by the President in one of our rides, which, when the weather
permitted, were almost of daily occurrence and gradually length-
ened as presenting the best opportunities for consultation left to us
by the press of visitors and other preoccupations. He had, he said,
been led to postpone his Cabinet dinners to so late a period by an
undefined apprehension that the violent feelings of the members on
both sides of the social problem out of which our difficulties had
arisen, and of which he had not been suffered to remain ignorant,
might lead to unavoidable acts on his part with which he thought
it would be more difficult for an Administration to deal in its in-
fancy, than after it had been some time under way and been
allowed opportunities to advance itself in the favor of the people.
Public business, he remarked, must always be attended to when the
occasion for its performance arises, but with matters of ceremony,
like that under consideration, he thought a greater latitude was
allowable. As the session of Congress was however near at hand,
when this matter should not rest undisposed of he thought the
sooner it was entered upon the better.

I had entertained similar apprehensions and had therefore omitted
to allude to the subject in our familar conversations — embracing,
from time to time, almost every other subject. But I never expected
an outbreak upon the President's invitation, believing rather that the
public explanations of the stand which I did not doubt was con-

• MS. Ill, p. 200.

348 AMERICAN HISTORICAL. ASSOCIATION.

templated by a portion of the Cabinet would be reserved for mine,
which would naturally follow. I expressed that opinion to him with
much confidence and it was decided that his invitations should be
forthwith sent out.

There were no absentees at the President's Cabinet dinner, and
no very marked exhibitions of bad feeling in any quarter, but there
were nevertheless sufficient indications of its existence to destroy
the festive character of the occasion and to make it transparently
a formal and hollow ceremony. The President escorted the wife
of the Secretary of the Treasury to the table and I gave my arm
to Mrs. Donelson. The disposition of the others I have forgotten,
but I will remember the care with which the arrangement of the
parties was made. The general was as usual courteous and affable
altho' suffering much from bad health and more from mortification
at what was passing before his eyes. My young friend and partner
for the entertainment summoned up spirits enough to call my atten-
tion chiefly by glances, to the signs of the hour and following the
movements of our host, we left the table with the ladies after which
the company dispersed sooner than usual. I had intended to spend
a few moments with the President after they were gone but soon
perceived that the return he had received for all his sacrifices of
old friendships and his unhesitating confrontal of enemies in the
formation of the Cabinet which had just left him had overcome
his feelings, and commending him to his pillow I also took my leave.

The display I had witnessed would have been sufficient to put me
on my guard in respect to my own contemplated entertainment if that
had been needed. But without such warning I understood too well
the motives which pointed to that occasion as one best adapted for a
kind of semi-official notification of the rule by which some of my
associates intended to be governed, to fail of circumspection in my
movements. That they would decline my invitation I had no doubt,
but whether in so doing, they would only assert and exercise their
own rights without offense to me, or whether they would go farther
could only 'be known by the sequel. It was my business to be pre-
pared for either contingency.

According to the established forms of society in Washington it
would have been my office as host to give the highest position and
the most marked attention to the wife of the Secretary of the Treas-
ury, if no ladies were present except those of members of the Cabi-
net. Mrs. Ingham was an excellent and estimable person, 'but excit-
able and especially stirred up upon the vexed question which agi-
tated the official and social circles of the Federal Capital. I was
entirely willing to pay all the honors due to herself and to her posi-
tion. [I was nevertheless quite confident that she would decline,

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUREN 849

and I was not disposed to make the vacancy occasioned by that event
conspicuous by filling it with a lady of inferior rank.]1 But Mr&
Randolph, the widow of Gov. Thomas Mann Randolph, of Virginia,
and the only surviving child of President Jefferson, in all respects
one of the worthiest women of America, was then residing at
Washington, a lady with whom and with her family consisting of an
unmarried daughter and of Mr. and Mrs. N. P. Trist,' the latter also
her daughter, my relations were cordial and intimate. I waited upon
her in person, informed her of my intention to invite the Cabinet to
dine with me and of my desire to combine with that official cere-
mony an act of respect towards her which had been already too long
delayed and requested her to name the day if she was willing to do
me the honor to attend.

She cheerfully agreed to my proposition, the day was fixed and
the invitation extended to all the members of her family. I need
scarcely say at least to those acquainted with the ways of Wash-
ington, that it would have been quite impossible to prevent this
proceeding on my part from becoming known without any agency
of hers to the other invited guests who were thus apprised of my
intention to give the precedence to Mrs. Randolph. As my dinner
party was to be what in common parlance is called a ladies' dinner
I was desirous that there should be no lack of ladies and anticipat-
ing further declensions I invited several military gentlemen and
their wives, who all attended. I was obliged to omit my highly
esteemed and amiable friend the Commander in Chief,2 because
Mrs. M. (who was his second wife) had made herself — more to
his amusement than annoyance, for he took such things lightly —
a conspicuous party to the war which raged around us; but I re-
member well the presence of the veterans, Hull and Chauncey and
of Commodore Warrington8 and of the wives of all three who
were among the most agreeable as they were also the leading
members of the society of Washington.

Never- having been very careful or orderly in securing even my
important papers and having especially exposed them by frequent
changes of residence to be lost or mislaid, it is a curious instance
of the accidental escape of such trifles from destruction that I
have still in my possession the answers of the Secretary of the
Navy and of the Attorney General to my invitation on this occa-
sion. I suppose that they were originally kept in anticipation of
a rupture of some sort in our relations. They lie before me as I
write — recalling the minutiae of the scenes and events, great and
small, of thirty years ago, which I am describing.

1 Words in brackets were stricken out in the MS.

*Maj.-Gen. Alexander Macomb.

* Isaac Hull, Isaac Chauncey, and Lewis Warrington.

850 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Mr. Branch * writes that he " will avail himself of the honor of
dining with Mr. Van Buren" on Ac. but that he is requested to
say in behalf of Mrs. Branch and the young ladies that " circum-
stances unnecessary to detail will deprive them of the pleasure " &c.
Mr. Berrien presents his respects but pleads a " conditional engage-
ment to leave the city" for his own declension and "her state of
health'9 for that of his daughter. According to the best of my
recollection Mr. Ingham2 accepted for himself, and Mrs. Ingham
certainly declined. The other two members of the Cabinet, Major
Eaton and Mr. Barry,8 brought apologies from their wives, who
were faithful allies and who it appeared had also resolved to remain
behind their batteries. Thus it resulted that at the second Cabinet
dinner of the season to which all the ladies of the family of its
members were invited not one of them " assisted", and the party
being freed from any kind of embarrassment their joy was uncon-
fined. Mrs. Randolph especially manifested the greatest gratifica-
tion, to the satisfaction of all my guests who reverenced her almost
as much as I did; to come quite up to that mark required a more
intimate knowledge of her admirable qualities than they had en-
joyed opportunities to acquire.

It may as well be said here as anywhere that neither in their
answers to my successive invitations, nor in their angry correspond-
ence with others nor in their excited appeals to the public, all of
which I have now taken the trouble to re-peruse, did Messrs. Ingham
and Berrien impute to me a blameable act or motive in respect to
these transactions, although the latter papers were written under
very excited feelings. These facts speak a language that cannot
be misunderstood as to the sense in which they felt obliged to regard
my whole demeanour in the affair now under consideration,0 and
are more than sufficient to repel any unfavorable inferences that
can be drawn from the introduction of a resolution of enquiry by
a proverbially indecorous Senator — a resolution which even he aban-
doned. Of Gov. Branch's course I am not quite so certain. On
the evening before my resignation and that of Major Eaton were
published, but when the facts were known, and indeed, after he
had himself resigned, the President and myself were invited to
attend the wedding of his daughter. He [Branch] took me apart,
spoke of our resignations, acknowledged that he had been at first
somewhat annoyed but was now entirely reconciled to the proceeding
as the necessary result of causes which we could not control, and en-
couraged me to hope that the whole matter would settle down as

1 John Branch. * William T. Barry.

•Samuel D. Ingham. ° MS. Ill, p. 205.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YAK BUREN. 851

quietly as all the letters of resignation and acceptance gave the public
a right to expect. From that day to the present I have never seen
him save once and for a moment. I heard, from time to time, of
his making violent speeches against me and others, but I never saw
them nor had I any desire to see them. I believed him to be an
honest man and knew him to be in general influenced by just and
generous impulses, but made of inflammable materials which were
easily ignited by others; indeed, but a few days after our meeting
and conversation referred to I heard that he had been thus excited.
I knew, however, that he would say and do what was right when
his feelings were sobered down, and in the course of time they ar-
rived at that condition, he " conquered his prejudices " against Presi-
dent Jackson, paid a brief visit to the White House during his
second term, when X saw him for a few moments and exchanged
respectful and kind salutations with him. Major Donelson, whose
brother had married his daughter, informed me afterwards that
the Governor had expressed to him the mortification he had expe-
rienced in being treated with so much urbanity by a man of whom
he had said so many hard things. I begged the Major to assure
him that he need give himself no uneasiness on that head because
I had never read his speeches and certainly would not think of
doing so now.

Determined to go thro' with the matter in hand, so far as I was
myself concerned, and to havB done with it, I sent out invitations
shortly after my Cabinet dinner and after Congress had assembled,
for a large evening party. With some modifications' my official asso-
ciates held to their previous course, and to add fuel to the flame a
communication appeared in the Washington Journal newspaper, over
the signature of " Tarquin," ( 1 ) charging me with an attempt, in
conjunction with Sir Charles Vaughan, the British Minister, to force
a person upon the society of Washington who was not entitled to its
privileges and calling upon those who had been invited to resent the
outrage by refusing to be present. The circles of Washington how-
ever quite naturally declined to be instructed in the proprieties and
moralities of social intercourse by a " Tarquin " and no party of the
season was attended more numerously or enjoyed more hilariously.

Suffering at the time from ill-health and much exhausted by the
reception I availed myself of the moment when the attention of my
guests was attracted by the commencement of dancing to retire to a
sofa in a lower room for rest. I had not been there long before a
friend entered and said, in a jocular tone, "Are you here, Sir ! — You
ought to be above if you wish to prevent a fight 1 ", and answered my
look erf enquiry by the information that Mrs. Eaton and Mrs. M.
had jostled each other, doubtless accidentally, in the crowd, and that

852 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

the collision had provoked manifestations of mutual resentment suffi-
ciently marked to attract attention and to excite general remark.
I received his story as a jest, which it probably was in a measure, and
begged him to see fair play in my behalf and to leave me to my
repose.

I have described more particularly than they would appear to
deserve these two entertainments, but for a brief season they ob-
tained much consequence as incidents of a campaign in which social,
political and personal feuds were bo mixed up that all of them
were more or less affected by every movement, and the gossips had
looked forward to the arrangement of my parties as the occasion
and the field for a general engagement When they were over it was
found that they had not materially contributed to the development
of hostilities, and I confess that I experienced all the complacency
naturally inspired by the consciousness of having passed unscathed
thro' an ordeal as difficult and as severe as could be devised by a
conspiracy of excited women and infuriated partisans. But the
outbreak was not long delayed. At a ball given by the Russian
Minister, Baron Krudener, in the absence of Mrs* Ingham, led Mrs.
Eaton to supper, as ranking next to her, and Madame Huygens, the
wife of the Dutch Envoy, was assigned to the Secretary of War.
Madame Huygens was reported to have been highly offended by
the arrangement and to have declared that she would retaliate* by
giving a party to which Mrs. Eaton should not be invited and that
her example would be followed by Messrs. Ingham, Branch and
Berrien. Major Eaton was a man of moderate intellectual capacities,
but justly distinguished for the kindness, generosity and unobtru-
siveness of his disposition and demeanour. If he had done the wrong
before his marriage which was imputed to him, as to which I knew
and sought to know nothing, he had also done all that a man could
do to remedy the evil and there was no reason even to suspect that
the life of the lady after marriage was not, in that respect at least,
free from reproach. A reverend gentleman had indeed carried
rumors to the President to the effect that her conduct had been ex-
ceptionable on a visit to the Northern cities. The General insisted
that his informer should go immediately and sift the stories thor-
oughly, assuring him that if his report sustained them by reliable
facts no one would have reason to complain of his own course in
the matter. The mission was accepted, the Cabinet, except Major
Eaton was called together in the evening to hear the report but it
was found to amount to nothing.

A man of the temperament I have ascribed to Eaton was likely,
under any circumstances, to have warm and sympathizing friends.
The number in his case, was of course greatly increased by the pat-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAH BUBBK. 353

ronage at his disposal and by the favour with which he was re-
garded by the President. These pressed upon the latter the Major's
grievances with much earnestness and their appeals found favorable
responses in his own breast. The alleged threat of Madame Huygens
and the three partife which certainly followed— whether she actually
threatened them or not — supplied ample and stirring materials for
such complaints. The President sent for me at an early hour one
morning and I weqt to him before breakfast. I found him deeply
moved by communications that had been made to him on the pre-
vious evening. His eyes were blood-shot and his appearance in other
respects indicated that he had passed a sleepless night, as he indeed
admitted had been literally the case. He was however unexcited in
manner. The stories so often told of his violent and furious style
on occasions of great anger or deep feeling, so far as my observation
extended, had no other foundation than this that when he thought
he could in that way best influence anybody to do his duty — of
which I have given some instances and shall give others — he would
assume an earnestness and an emphasis much beyond what he really
felt. To me he always appeared most calm when he felt most in-
tensely. On the occasion of his very narrow escape from assassina-
tion, at the funeral of Warren R. Davis, I followed him to the White
House, immediately after the rites of burial were concluded, and
found him sitting with one of Major Donelson's children on his lap
and conversing with General Scott, himself apparently the least
disturbed person in the room.

He presented, with deliberation and clearness, the reasons which
led him to regard the proceedings to which I have referred as an
attack upon himself designed to be made effectual thro9 a combina-
tion between members of his Cabinet and the wife of one of the
Foreign Ministers, and stated, in the same manner, the course which
he thought it would become him to pursue, which was — if his views
should prove to be well founded to dismiss his own Ministers and
to send Mr. Huygens his passports.

His immediate object was to attend to the latter, and to that end
he had sent for me to obtain my counsel and co-operation. My per-
sonal relations with Chevalier and Madame Huygens were of a
friendly and indeed intimate character. I had no reason to doubt
that she felt hurt as was represented, by the occurrences at Baron
Krudener's, but deemed it quite unlikely that she would have given
expression to her feelings in the way which had been reported
to the President. If, however, the information of the latter was
correct, I could not for a moment doubt the propriety of the course
he suggested, in that direction, and declared this opinion to him
without hesitation.

127488*— vol 2— 20— 28 .

354 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION'.

As soon as I reached my office I informed Chevalier Huygens
by note that I desired to see him on business, and that as it would
also be necessary to communicate with Madame Huygens I would
call at his house at a named hour. For reasons, not necessary to
be stated, they anticipated the object of my visit and received me
with their usual kindness. After declining their invitation to the
pipe and schiedam, notwithstanding the appropriateness of these
preliminaries to a Dutch negotiation,0 I stated explicitly that the
President disclaimed all right or desire to meddle with their social
relations or with the question of whom they invited or whom they
omitted to invite to their house, but that declarations had been at-
tributed to Madame Huygens and communicated to the President
which went beyond the exercise of the rights which belonged to them,
and I described the impressions which the possibility of the cor*
rectness of his information had made upon his mind. Madame
Huygens assured me solemnly that she had never used the expres-
sions attributed to her or any of similar import — that she had been
too long connected with diplomatic life, and understood too well
what belonged to her position, to meddle in such matters and that
she had only pursued the path I conceded to her without advising
with others or troubling herself about their course. The Chevalier
united earnestly in the views she expressed, and avowed his con-
viction of the accuracy of her recollections, and my mission was
thus satisfactorily concluded. As we had no desire to pursue the
enquiry further I reported the result to the President who received .
the information with unaffected pleasure for he sympathized heartily
with the respect and regard I entertained for the Dutch Minister
and his estimable family.

As the matter in some sense bore on our relations with a Foreign
Government I thought it desirable that I should possess some evi-
dence of the statement upon which I had proceeded, and so wrote
to the President from whom I received immediately the following

reply:

From the President.
( Private.)
My Deab Sib

Your note was rec*d, of this evening, when I had company, and so soon
as they have left me I have hastened to reply — The story is this — Shortly
after the party at Baron Krudener's it was stated that Madame H. was
piqued at something that took place there and said she would give a party
und would shew society that she did not recognize Mrs. E. as a fit associate
and would not invite her to it The Heads of the Departments, say the
gossips, would follow suit and Mrs. E. and the Major would be put out of
society. This came to the ears of some members of Congress, and the attempt
thus, by a Foreign Minister's family, to put out of society the family of a

* MS. Ill, p. 210.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN YAK BUREN. 355

member of my Cabinet was thought to be such an attack upon me, who had
invited this member to come into it, that it aroused their feelings and the
communication was made to me. The three parties that followed, given by the
three Heads of Departments, were well calculated to give credit to the story
of a combination headed by Madame H. to put Major Eaton and his family
out of society and thereby to assail my character for Inviting him into it. These
are the tales and I am happy Madame H. has stated they are not true as far
as she is concerned. This is the substance.

Yrs.

Andrew Jackson.
Jan'y 24th 1880.

It was probably on the following day — certainly before the 27th
of that .month, that I had, at his instance, a conference with the
President upon the subject of the relations between him and the
members of his Cabinet and the effect upon them of the matters
related. Nothing was then done upon the subject, but a year and
a half later and after the war had broken out between him and
the portion of his Cabinet with whose course he had been offended,
and I had left Washington and was awaiting the sailing of the
packet from New York, he applied to me for my recollections of this
branch of the general subject. I retained a copy of so much of my
letter as related to it, which was never published, but will now be
given at the proper place. According to my then recollection it
appears that he showed me, at that interview, a paper contain-
ing the basis of a communication which he intended to address
to those gentlemen and that I expressed the opinion that he did not
by it sufficiently guard himself against the imputation of enter-
taining a desire to control the domestic and social intercourse of
their families and advised a personal interview with them for which
a paper more carefully constructed might be prepared and shewn
to them in preference to a formal correspondence; that he dis-
claimed any such intention or desire and agreed not only to such
a modification of the paper but also to the substitution of a per-
sonal interview for a letter. I added that such a paper as I rec-
ommended may have been prepared by me on the spot from the
materials before me, to be copied by him and reserved for the
use contemplated — the course which I am quite confident was pur-
sued. He then informed me that he had held some conversation
on the subject with Col. Richard M. Johnson who was very desirious
of an interview with the gentlemen alluded to before any communi-
cation was made to them on his- part in the hope of being able
to quiet existing difficulties. Knowing the Colonel's character and
disposition perfectly and that with proved and undoubted courage
he united qualities admirably adapted to the office of peace-maker,
but that from his unsuspicious temperament he was not always
as guarded in conversation as might be desirable in such a case,

856 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

I begged the General, if he consented to his interference in the
matter, to be careful that he should be fully possessed of his views,
and suggested the propriety of reading to him, before he entered
upon the business, the paper already prepared, and that the char-
acter in which he acted should also be clearly understood.

The Colonel had his conferences with Messrs. Ingham, Branch
and Berrien, and the President his interview with them in which
he spoke to them of the alleged combination and attempt to drive
Major Eaton from the Cabinet and I always supposed* that he
shewed them the paper referred to, but whether he did or did not
do this they were all satisfied that he did not claim any such right
as that which was described in it, and altho' the principal matter
remained substantially on the footing on which it stood before,
those gentlemen remained in the Cabinet a year and a half longer.
During that period the Eaton affair was eclipsed in importance
and soon divested of any agency in mischief or disturbance by
two occurrences — Mr. Calhoun's prommciameiito and, some two
or three months later, the resignations of Major Eaton and my-
self, drawing after them the resignations of all the members of
the Cabinet except Postmaster General Barry. The latter, altho'
he adhered throughout to his friends, the Eatons, pursued the
tenor of his way so unobtrusively and noiselessly as to give no
offense to the other parties to the quarrel.

The outbreak between the President and the gentlemen who had
formed a part of his Cabinet assumed a very violent character after
I left Washington. Those who have the curiosity to look into the
matter will find that the dissolution of the Cabinet had been to all
appearance, amicably accomplished. There was some little demur
on the parts of the Secretaries of the Treasury and Navy to sending
in their resignations, but in the end the correspondence, on its face
imported a friendly settlement. All were to remain at their posts
until their successors were appointed and their official business placed
in the state in which they desired to leave it. The resignations, ex-
cept Mr. Berrien's, who was absent till June, were in April, and the
final retirement of the Cabinet was delayed until June. With the
single exception of a few enigmatical givings-out by the Secretary of
the Navy as to the existence of a "malign influence" everything
seemed to be going on to a favorable issue. The hopes of those who
felt an interest in the character of the Government and thought that
it had been prejudiced by the quarrel, and of those who desired the
success of General Jackson's administration began to revive. It was
believed that the functions of Government were no longer to be per-
formed in an atmosphere tainted by private scandal, and that the
State was relieved from the defiling clutch of the gossips. In this

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAtf BURBN. 857

condition of things I left Washington, but had scarcely reached my
own State when the disease with which the Capital had so long la-
bored broke out afresh and with redoubled fury. It is not easy to
determine precisely who was most to blame for this new outbreak. It
is certain that the fault was not altogether on either side: The U. 8.
Telegraph newspaper, referred to the course pursued by the families
of the three Cabinet Ministers towards the family of Major Eaton
in an offensive way. This was indefensible and proved to be very
mischievous. The Major, claiming to hold those gentlemen in some
sense responsible for the course of the Telegraph in that matter, pub-
lished an article in the Globe, obviously designed to 'bring Mr.
Branch, who had left the city, to a fight. Eaton also copied the
article from the Telegraph, in which ° the course said to have been
pursued by their families was described as that of the gentlemen
themselves, and sending the extract to Messrs. Ingham and Berrien,
called upon them to avow or disavow its contents. His notes and
extracts were in terms the same, and both admitted of no other con-
struction than that the proceedings were intended as preliminary
to a duel with each in certain events. This was also wrongs He
had no right to hold them responsible for the publication in ques-
tion and the assumption of such a responsibility was plainly a pre-
tence thro' which to revive with them, in another form, a quarrel
from which he had suffered much and to which he saw there was to be
no end. Mr. Berrien answered his note on the basis of the article,
as explained in an issue subsequent to the original publication, and
by which its application was limited to the course of the families of
members of the Cabinet, disclaimed his responsibility in explicit
terms, but wisely decided to make a reply to the Major's alleged
grievance. He did this coolly and admirably and in a way which
obliged Eaton, whose good nature never entirely deserted him, to
enter a nolle prosequi as respected the Attorney General, without the
Slightest sacrifice of character or dignity on the part of either.

Mr. Ingham, unhappily in a great rage, for which he certainly
thought he had abundant cause, adopted the extract in the shape
given to it originally and as it was sent to him, and replied to Ea-
ton's demand that the latter " must be not a little deranged " to call
upon him to disavow what all the inhabitants of Washington knew,
and perhaps half the people of the United States believed to be true
to wit: that he had refused to associate with his (Major Eaton's)
family. A challenge was the consequence, and, that not being ac-
cepted, preparations for a personal assault followed. Amidst dem-
onstrations offensive and defensive connected with such an opera-
tion the time arrived which the ex-Secretary of the Treasury had

* MS. Ill, * 215.

358 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

fixed upon for his departure .from Washington, and after having
as he thought sufficiently exposed himself in the streets, accompanied
by the gallant Col. Tow son, a friend or two and his son, the latter
and himself, armed, he left the city.

If no blood was spilled — which is somewhat remarkable in a
quarrel upon so exciting a subject and kept on foot for two years —
a sufficient quantity of ink certainly was shed upon the subject
The Telegraph charged the President with "having seventeen months
previously thro9 a distinguished member of Congress, required the
members of his Cabinet to associate with Mrs. Eaton, at least so
far as to invite her to their large parties, on pain of dismissal. This
was presented as a great abuse of office, as it certainly would have
been. The Globe denied this charge, stigmatized it as a calumny
and defied its author to the proof. No attempt to establish it being
made the latter went further and declared that the member of Con-
gress referred to was admitted to be Col. Richard M. Johnson, a
man of proverbial benevolence, great bravery and undoubted verac-
ity, that the Colonel denied the truth of the charge in the fullest
manner, and that Mr. Berrien had, in his correspondence with
Major Eaton, admitted the falsity of the charge. This brought
out Mr. Berrien, who, after some parleying in respect to a promise
he had made to Col. Johnson (who was at his home in Kentucky)
to wait until an opportunity could be afforded to all the parties to
compare recollections before publications were ° made, if any should
be found necessary, denied the admission. Mr. Blair rejoined by set-
ting forth the following declaration of Mr. Berrien to Major Eaton
when speaking of his interview with the President in January
1830 : — " In the interview to which I was invited by the President,
some few days afterwards, I frankly exposed to him my views on
the subject, and he disclaimed any disposition to press such a requisi-
tion.19 This Mr. Blair construed into an admission such as he Jiad
claimed in the Globe. Mr. Berrien, in answer, insisted "that a
disclaimer of an intention to press a requisition was a wholly dif-
ferent thing from a denial of ever having made it," and here the cor-
respondence between these parties, in which there had been a good
deal of sharp shooting, terminated. But Messrs. Berrien, Ingham,
Branch and Eaton all came out with impassioned and elaborate
appeals to the public upon this question. The alacrity and zeal
with which the authors of the charge entered upon its support and
the labor and formality given to those quasi-State papers, denote
the confident expectation of overthrowing the President by its in-
fluence. Mr. Berrien in his voluminous publication — embracing
the correspondence between himself and Major Eaton, his and Mr.

* MB. Book IV, p. 1.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 859

Ingham's letters to Col. Johnson and Mr. Ingham's statement made
from notes taken at the time, — spoke of the subject as one " of awak-
ening interest to all." They affirmed that Col. Johnson came to them
as from the President and representing his views and that he
required, in his behalf, that they should invite Mrs. Eaton to their
large parties on pain of dismissal* They denied that the President
had shown them the paper of which I have spoken and which had
been brought before the public by Mr. Blair, upon the authority
of the President, who declared then that he had read it to them or
made them acquainted with its contents, but Mr. Berrien stated that
he did not question the intention of the President to have shewn
this paper to him nor his belief that he did so, and they admitted
that he had waived, in Mr. Berrien's language, had not " pressed,"
the requisition of which they charged that Col. Johnson had been the
bearer, but understood this as a change of position brought about
through the intervention of his Tennessee friends.

Col. Johnson met these charges and statements by two letters ad-
dressed to Messrs. Ingham and Berrien, separately, in reply to the
letters they had written before their appeals to the public. His
letters were published in the National Intelligencer, newspaper; and
the following is a brief extract from that to Mr. Berrien : —

Oakland, (Kt.) July 20th, 1831.
Deab Sib:

Tour favor of the 7th infltant has been received. I find that you under-
stood me to say that the President would at least expect the Invitation of
Mrs. Eaton when you gave large and general parties. The President never
did, directly or Indirectly, express or intimate such an expectation. He in-
formed me that he had been induced to believe that a part of his Cabinet had
entered into a combination to drive Maj. Baton from it, by excluding him
and his family from society; that he had been also informed that the succes-
sive parties to which you allude was a link in the chain ; that attempts had
been made even upon foreign ministers to exclude Maj. Baton from their par-
ties; and such a state of tilings gave him great distress; that he was deter-
mined at all hazards to have harmony in his Cabinet. He then read a paper
containing the principles upon which he intended to act. In my conversation
with you I referred to this paper. No doubt it is now in existence. It dis-
claimed all intentions, on the part of the President, to regulate in any man-
ner whatever, the private or social intercourse of the members of his Cab-
inet As a mutual friend I called upon you, and as a peacemaker, my object
was to make the above communication in the most delicate manner possible.
During our conversation, in the anxiety of my heart to serve my friend and
my Country, it was I alone, upon my own responsibility, who made the sugges-
tion or proposition or rather enquiry whether you could not, at those large and
promiscuous parties, invite Maj. Baton and his family. From the total social
non-intercourse of the members of the Cabinet the want of harmony was in-
ferred, more than from any other circumstance; and my desire was to remedy
that evil by the suggestion or inquiry which I made. It would have been an
absolute unqualified and total misrepresentation of his views if I had repre-
sented the President as making any such demand.

860 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

From Col. Johnson's letter to Mr. Ingham I extract as follows:—

Blub Springs, July 31, 1831.
Deab Sir—

Yours of the 16th instant was this day received, accompanied by a statement
which, it seems, yon have prepared for the public, purporting to contain separate
conversations, with the President and myself, relative to an allegation made in
the public journals that General Jackson had authorized a member of Congress
to require of Messrs. Berrien, Branch, and yourself, and your families, to asso-
ciate with Major Baton, and his family under the penalty of being dismissed
from office. You refer to two articles in the Globe to justify your appeal to the
public, previously to receiving my answer, in which it appeared that I had de-
nied the above allegation, if it had any allusion to me. After the publication of
this accusation against General Jackson, I received a letter from a friend, in-
timating that I was the member of Congress to whom allusion was made, and
requested to know if I had ever made such a communication. In my answer I
confined myself to the specific accusation thus publicly made against the Presi-
dent, and which is attributable to yourself, and most unequivocally denied that
General Jackson ever made such a requisition through me, and as positively de-
nied having ever made such a statement to you. On the contrary I asserted and
now repeat, I did Inform you, in each and every interview that the President
disclaimed any right or intention to interfere in any manner whatever with the
regulation of your private or social intercourse.

Thus in a' matter in which I was engaged to serve you, and other friends,
in a matter of a delicate and highly confidential nature, and in which I suc-
ceeded, unexpectedly I found myself presented In the public Journals as a
witness impeaching one of those friends, and ascribing to him declarations
which he never made; and placed in that attitude by you, self respect and
self defence caned upon me to correct that erroneous statement I cannot,
therefore, agree with you, that I did in any degree change my view of the
subject in considering it improper in any of the parties to come before the
public without the opportunity of comparing our different recollections.
But if you feel under any obligations of a personal or political character
to come before the public previously, you will find me as ready as yourself
to meet any responsibility or difficulty which such a course may produce.
I now come to the material point in controversy — whether Gen. Jackson,
through me, required of you to invite Major Eaton and his family to your
large parties. This suggestion was made upon my own responsibility, with
an anxious desire more effectually to reconcile the then existing difficulties.
But Gen. Jackson never did make such a requisition, in any manner what-
ever, directly or Indirectly, nor did I ever intimate to you that he had made —
such a demand. The complaint made by Gen. Jackson against this part of his
Cabinet was specific, that he had been informed, and was induced to believe,
that they were using their influence to have Major Baton and his family ex-
cluded from ail respectable circles, for the purpose of degrading0 him, and
thus drive him from office; and that the attempt had been made even upon
the foreign ministers, and in one case had produced the desired effect He
proposed no mode of accommodation or satisfaction, but declared expressly that
if such was the fact he would dismiss them from office. He then read to me
a paper containing the principles upon which he intended to act; which dis-
claimed the right to interfere with the social relations of his Cabinet

• MS. IV, p. 5.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAK BUBEN. 86 1

Such was the issue between the President and the three ex-Secre-
taries, and such were their respective allegations and proof. It
was never pretended that the requisition referred to had ever been
made upon them by the President in person or thro' any other chan-
nel than Col. Johnson. In the only conversation they had had with
him upon the subject, seventeen months before they resigned, they
say he did not press it — he says he disclaimed it in the most un-
equivocal terms. Col. Johnson's statement is the only evidence that
was introduced and notwithstanding the formality and confidence
with which this grave accusation had been brought forward and
the zeal with which it was supported by the entire opposition of the
Country, the public judgment was so clear and so decided that in
the General's canvass for re-election, which took place the very
next year, when everything else was raked up, it was never alluded to.

A few words more in respect to myself. Whilst at New York and
on the eve of sailing for England I received a letter from the Presi-
dent inquiring as to my recollections upon this branch of the general
subject, which I gave him in a letter, dated August 14th, 1831, the
whole of which together with the letter to which it was a reply, will
be found in the Correspondence.1

My statement was never published as the President, I was happy
to find, adopted the advice I gave him.

The following extract embraces what relates to the present matter :

I will in the first place answer your queries in regard to the interview be-
tween Messrs. Ingham, Branch & Berrien & yourself upon the subject of their
course towards Mr. & Mrs. Eaton. Neither with those gentlemen, nor with
Colonel Johnson have I had any conversation, confidential or otherwise, upon
that subject. I recollect your sending for me one morning & that when I ar-
rived I found you sensibly affected by an impression which had been made
upon your mind that Messrs. Ingham, Branch & Berrien were taking measures
in concert to exclude Mrs. Eaton from the society of Washington. You stated
to me in a general way the grounds upon which that impression was founded,
referring to several successive parties which had been given by those gentle-
men, & to information which had been given to you by others without warn-
ing them, and declared that you felt it to be your duty & had made up your
mind to interfere in a prompt & efficacious manner & put an end to the pro-
ceedings of which you complained. You then shewed me a paper which, ac-
cording to my recollections, was in the form of a letter addressed to those
gentlemen, expressive of your views & feelings on the subject.

I do not remember to have seen that letter since & cannot undertake to state
with certainty its form or contents. In one respect, however, I can, from the
circumstance I am about to state, speak with more precision. I recollect that
upon reading the paper, it appeared to me that the manner in which you ex-
pressed yourself might be construed into an attempt on your part to control
those gentlemen In their personal associations, which I believed to be foreign

'Jackson's letter of Aug. 8, 1881, and Van Bnren'g antograpn signed reply, Aug. 14,
*re in the Van Baren Papers.

362 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

to your wishes, and under that impression I suggested to you the propriety of
being altogether explicit upon that point You at once disclaimed such a wish
& expressed a readiness so to modify the paper as to disavow any such
intention, and to confine your complaint in terms to the supposed concert
on the part of those gentlemen to effect the object referred to, a course of
conduct which you regarded as not only unjust towards Mr. & Mrs. Eaton, but
as being a direct attack upon yourself for continuing in your Cabinet a gentle-
man towards whose family such steps could be deemed justifiable. Expressions
to that effect were introduced in the paper which were I thought sufficient to
prevent misapprehensions with regard to your views. It is my impression that
I took the further liberty of suggesting to you the propriety of substituting a
personal interview & a frank & free communication of your sentiments in
preference to a formal correspondence upon the subject, adding that you might
in that case also have the grounds you intended to take previously stated In
writing, that there might be less room for misapprehension upon a point which
we both regarded as one of great delicacy.

I left you, according to my best recollection, either positively decided or at
least strongly inclined to adopt that course. It may be that the paper was
drawn up whilst I was with you & that my observations were founded upon
your declarations as to what you intended to say, — but my best recollection Is
as I have stated. Since that time I have not seen the paper referred to, nor
have I, my dear Sir, the slightest recollection that the subject was at any time
afterwards made matter of observation between us. It is quite natural to
suppose that such may have been the case, but I have, before as well as since
the receipt of your letter, thought much upon the subject & I cannot call to
mind anything that passed between us in regard to your interviews with
Messrs. Ingham, Branch & Berrien, after they had taken place. It may well
be that you informed me of what had transpired at them — but if you did it has
certainly escaped my recollection ; and my belief is that the matter being, as
you hoped, finally disposed of & influenced by a wish, which you have always
manifested, not to press the general subject unnecessarily upon my attention,
you thought it best to drop it altogether.

I do not pretend to be accurate as to words but believe that I am right as
to the substance of what I have stated. It is quite possible Qiat I may have
forgotten some things & that I am mistaken in others; & under the pressure
of public duties in which I was then engaged it would not be strange if it
were so ; but I give it to you as I have it — wishing only to be excused for the
confused manner in which it is done, & which the circumstances under which
I write render almost unavoidable.

One word more upon this subject. The anxiety of your friends that you
should not suffer yourself to be drawn into a newspaper controversy upon
it is intense & universal. They regard it as incompatible with your station &
uncalled for by anything that has appeared. The time may come when you
can with propriety say upon the subject what you may deem necessary, and
the discussion of the question, whether your statement or that of the other
parties, in regard to the paper having been shown to them, is correct, may
with entire safety be deferred to that period. That is not the question at
issue — but a mere circumstance; that question is whether you did or did not
attempt to regulate & control their private and social intercourse, & upon
that point how does the case stand? Neither of the gentlemen assert that you
either made such an attempt in your pensonal Interviews with them or either
of them, or that you admitted that you had done so through Col. Johnson, — and
he, the only person who can speak to the point, acquits you in the most solemn

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BTJREN. 868

and emphatic manner of any such act or design. Can a reasonable & enlight-
ened community require more? I think not.

The sequel of Major Eaton's career presented an instructive com-
mentary on the past and fully justified the opinion I had formed in
regard to the effect of my resignation in commending him to the
favor of those by whom he and his had been so unsparingly con-
demned. His lax political notions, for they could scarcely ever be
said to have risen to the dignity of opinions, with his easy dis*
positions in respect to most things, were well calculated to expose
him to the sinister intrigues of a class of habitual hangers-on at
the seat of Government, whose business it is to practice upon the
credulity of public functionaries and to serve, in ( their way, an
administration or a party which will countenance, patronize or em-
ploy them ; of course they prefer the party which uses the most
money and which is most tolerant of politicians of easy virtue.
When the Democratic party is in power and its representative at
the head of the government is a democrat in fact as well as in
name, acting always in the spirit of its simple, just and abstemious
precepts that the world is governed too much, and that the benefits
and burdens of ° necessary Government should be distributed
equally and impartially, doctrines favored by farmers and me*
chanics, who constitute a vast majority of the party, — when he
duly appreciates his proud position as the Chief Magistrate of a
Government founded on public virtue, whose duty it is to suppress
indirections of every description, a wall of separation has always
stood between this class and the administration. Such was em-
phatically the case at the time of which we are speaking. Presi-
dent Jackson's well understood principles and the struggle in which
he was engaged with the Bank and with other selfish and corrupt
interests in the Country served to range that political brother-
hood unanimously on the side of the opposition to his administra-
tion. Their attention was forthwith directed towards Major Eaton,
backed by the arts and appliances which they so well understand, to
seduce him from the relations in which he had before stood towards
his party and friends. Their first movement in this direction was
to cause him to be appointed President of the Ohio and Chesapeake
Canal Company. This appointment was the more easily obtained
in consequence of the desire of the Company to obtain assistance
from the Federal Government and their hope of deriving increased
facilities to that end by the installation of a personal friend of the
President at the head of their board of directors. But the ground
taken by General Jackson in regard to the agency of the Federal
Government in the promotion of internal improvement, which be-

• MS. IV, p. 10.

364 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

came in the end an immovable position upon the subject, soon cut
off all expectations of that nature.

Major Eaton was not a man of business in any department. The
qualities neither of his head nor of his heart were such as to give
value to his superintendence of a concern like that which had been
committed to his charge. Another place was therefore sought for by
his friends — new and old. The extreme sympathy at one time felt in
his position and fate and in those of his family by General Jackson
had doubtless been considerably weakened, but the wane of his for-
tunes was a sufficient motive with the General to befriend him, and
he, without hesitation, nominated Eaton to the Senate for the office of
Governor of Florida; and that body, in which the opposition had
then a majority of ten — the same which rejected the nomination of
the accomplished and upright Taney, as Secretary of the Treasury,
by a vote of 28 to 18, and that of Andrew Stevenson, as Minister to
England, — promptly and without division confirmed the nomination.

Was it possible that gentlemen who sincerely thought Mrs. Eaton
unfit for the society of Washington could deem it proper to place her
at the head of that of one of our territories — certainly not the least
polished or moral of our communities ! Two years afterwards Eaton's
name is again sent to the Senate to represent the Country abroad as
Envoy Extraordinary & Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of
Spain and in the circles of Madrid and again confirmed by the Sen-
ate, without a division — a Senate of which Messrs. Clay, Calhoun and
Webster were members. Are not these striking commentaries upon
the hue and cry that was raised against this couple when they were
the supposed favorites of Gen. Jackson, and suspected of favoring my
elevation to the Presidency, whose fate it was after all to bear the
brunt of their hostility ?

I found Major Eaton in possession of the Spanish Mission when I
became President, in 1837, and concluding that the interests of the
Country might be promoted by a change I decided to recall him in
183 — ', but, desiring to give as unexceptionable a form to the proceed-
ing as possible I directed the Secretary of State to reply to an unan-
swered application for leave to return by giving the permission asked
for, and by requesting the Minister to fix the period when it would
be convenient for him to leave his post to the end that I might pre-
pare to supply his place. He asked that the period might be left to
his discretion, which was declined, and he returned forthwith. He
paid me a visit soon after his return and reported himself to me as a
recalled Minister. I asked whether his description of his position
was precisely correct, and he said at once that he had no purpose in
view in thus expressing himself — that it was my right and duty to
recall him if I thought the public interest would be thereby advanced,

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 365

and that he had neither the right nor the disposition to complain of
the steps I had taken to that end — whether they should be considered
a recall or permission to return on his own application. But he had,
he said, suffered a grievance of no ordinary character of which he had
good reason to complain. An order had issued, as he stated, from the
State Department, purporting to be by my direction, by which he
had been deprived of the right always enjoyed by our Ministers, to
draw at their discretion upon our bankers at London, without spe-
cific authority from the Department, for any sums to which they
believed themselves entitled from the Government, subject to a settle-
ment of their accounts under its authority. Of this he complained
that he had been suddenly deprived, by which a stigma had been
attached to his credit, and thro' which he might have been exposed
to serious embarrassments. I admitted that the order had been issued
by my direction — that its Necessity had been shown by the fact that
one of his predecessors, who was named to him, had overdrawn his
account to an extent which would make a suit at law necessary to
recover the excess, — that the order was general and equally appli-
cable to all our Ministers abroad, and I insisted that it was proper in
itself as their convenience could be easily provided for by seasonable
applications to the Department of State, and that the only fault was
the omission on the part of Mr. Forsyth to apprise him that the order
was a general one founded on general principles and not on any dis-
trust of him, and that the necessity of its observance had been pointed
out by experience.

With these explanations and accompanying assurances of my
entire confidence in his integrity he seemed satisfied. I have doubt-
less seen him since (alt ho' I have no recollection of the occasion)
but I have never conversed with him, with this exception, or with
Mrs. Eaton, since their return from Spain. His tendency politically
had been for many years in the direction of the opposition, into
whose ranks he gradually fell, and his new associations led to acts
and declarations on his part which entirely alienated from him
the friendship of Gen. Jackson, who silently closed the trouble-
some relations that had existed between them by turning to the
wall the face of his portrait, which hung in the drawing room at
the Hermitage.

CHAPTER XXVII.

The following announcement in the "National Intelligencer —
"On Wednesday last a subscription was handed about for signature
in the House of Representatives, by the messengers of the House,
which ran thus : "Proposals for publishing ', by subscription, by Duff
Green, a correspondence between Gen. Andrew Jackson and John
C. Calhoun, President and Vice President of the United States, on
the subject of the course of the latter in the deliberations of the
Cabinet of Mr. Monroe, on the occurrences w the Seminole War.
52 pages; price six dollars a hundred" — heralded the approach of
the quarrel which broke out in 1881 between Calhoun, Jackson,
Crawford and others and which produced unparalleled excitement
in the public mind.

Professing to act strictly on the defensive, Mr. Calhoun solemnly
invoked the protection of his constituents, the People of the United
States, against the injustice which he claimed to have suffered from
the impeachment by President Jackson of his official ^cts in one of
the most important occasions of his life. By the same appeal he
called for their indignant condemnation of a plot which he under-
took to lay bare and which he said had been devised for his destruc-
tion by William H. Crawford, and others acting thro' him, and
which he regarded as a part of the same movement. Gen. Jackson
was in terms excluded from an intentional participation in the plot,
and Mr. Crawford's agency, tho' alleged to have been great, was,
on account of his misfortunes and physical infirmity, referred to
more in sorrow than in anger. The whole affair was presented
by Mr. Calhoun as "a political manoeuvre, m which the design was
that he (Gen. Jackson) should be the instrument, and himself (Cal-
houn) the victim, but in which the real actors were carefully con-
cealed by an artful movement," and against these he professed to
direct his greatest resentments.

The " real actors " thus spoken of were not named, but such views
were presented of the transactions complained of as to leave no doubt,
and it was intended to leave none, that he referred to me not only as a
principal " actor " in it but as the individual for whose benefit the
plot had been devised.

Of this expose and of the transactions which it professes to describe
it becomes my duty to speak in so far as they may be supposed to
have had a bearing upon my own acts. The questions put at issue
366

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 867

between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun as to what Mr. Calhoun's
course in respect to the General, in Mr. Monroe's Cabinet, really was,
and whether it was justifiable or otherwise, were discussed, in part,
in the life time of the parties. In his last letter to Mr. Calhoun, of
the correspondence here referred to, the General said, " In your and
Mr. Crawford's dispute I have no interest whatever, but it may
become necessary hereafter, when I shall have more leisure and the
documents at hand, to place the subject in its proper light, to notice
the historical facts and references in your communication,— which
will give a very different view to the subject * * * Understand-
ing you now no further communication with you is necessary." He
left behind him an " exposition " of the whole affair, a document of
considerable length and great power, which, with a brief statement
of the circumstances under which it is there published, will be found
in Benton's Thirty Yeaa>% View, vol. 1, p. 169. My own case stands
upon a different footing. The " Card " published by me a few days
after the appearance of Mr. Calhoun's appeal is the only publication
from me upon the subject heretofore ; pursuing in that instance the
course which I have always preferred, that of living down calumnies
unsupported by proof, instead of attempting to write them down.
Altho' not aware that I have, upon the whole, suffered from its adop-
tion on that occasion, it is, of course, palpable that a sketch of my
life would be incomplete if ° it included no more extended notice of
a subject on which I was widely and violently assailed than I chose
to take of it when the phrensy and prejudices of the hour were
unfavorable to its candid and dispassionate examination.

I pass by the letter from Mr. Crawford to Mr. Balch 1 of the 14th
December, 1827, advising opposition to Mr. Calhoun's election as
Vice President, as solely intended to bring into view the fact that
Mr. Cambreleng 2 and myself, in our trip to the South, in the spring
of that year, visited Mr. Crawford at his home in Georgia. That
letter was certainly not necessary to establish the fact that hostile
relations then existed between Calhoun and Crawford, for that was
a matter known to the whole Country and equally notorious were the
efforts of the latter to prevent the support of the former on the same
ticket with Gen. Jackson; still less could it be of use to implicate
me in Crawford's opposition to Calhoun, as my support of him, was,
wherever I was myself known, as notorious as the fact of his elec-
tion and to none was it better known than to himself and by none
more highly appreciated. It was not referred to for the purpose of
injuring Mr. Crawford, for all desire to do so, as well as everything
of that character, is again and again disclaimed, and Mr. Crawford

* MS. IV, p. 15. * Alfred Balch of Naahrllle. • Churchill C. Cambreleng.

368 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

is treated as a man hors de combat But to make me chiefly respon-
sible for all the grievances complained of, for what was done as well
by Mr. Crawford, who is brought forward as the first, altho' not the
principal actor in the drama, as by all the minor performers, my
visit to him, at that time, at his remote residence in Georgia, was a
circumstance too portentous to be overlooked in the preparation of an
impeachment which was, of necessity, to be made of shreds and
patches. Recollecting the fact of his opposing' the support of Mr.
Calhoun at that time, I have referred to Mr. Crawford's letters and
find one, which if not necessary for any other purpose, will shew
that I held the same language to Mr. Calhoun's enemies in Georgia
and South Carolina that I held at home. In this letter, dated Dec.
21st, 1827, a week after his letter to Balch, he says : " Soon after
you left Gen. Williams — (Gen. David B. Williams, of South Caro-
lina, one of the most distinguished men of that State, but an early
and consistent opponent of Mr. Calhoun,) — last spring, I received a
letter from him thanking me for my supposed influence in procuring
him the pleasure of a visit from you. In that letter he expresses
much pleasure with the visit, but he expressed regret that you ap-
peared to. him disposed to let Mr. Calhoun remain in his present posi-
tion." Of that, not disposition only but determination, so far as re-
lated to my own action, Mr. Crawford was himself also explicitly
and definitely informed by me in reply to a letter from him urging
me to support Mr. Macon, of North Carolina.

The following narrative will, I think, present a fair view of the
remainder of the case upon which Mr. Calhoun predicated his grave
charges. In respect to facts there is little room for mistake, as they
are principally derived from original papers published at the time ;
for motives we must rely on the declarations of the parties tested by
natural inferences from acknowledged facts.

James A. Hamilton, Esq. of New York, at the time my personal
and political friend, was appointed by the Tammany Society one of
the Delegates to represent that Society at the celebration of the
Eighth of January in New Orleans, at which Gen. Jackson was to be
present. He accompanied the General and his suite to that city, and
informs us that on their way down there was much conversation
among them in respect to the charges which had been made at the
preceding election against the General and which were or might be
revived in the canvass then in progress ; and amongst other matters,
as to the course pursued against him by Mr. Crawford, in Mr. Mon-
roe's Cabinet, on the question of Gen. Jackson's conduct in the Semi-
nole War, and on the proposition supposed to have been then made to
arrest him. Mr. Hamilton says that an attack upon the General,
upon that point, was anticipated and as it was understood that he
intended to pass thro' Georgia on his return and to visit Mr. Craw-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BT7RSN. 369

ford he either was asked by Major Lewis or he offered to ascertain
truly what passed in the Cabinet on the occasion and upon the point
referred to, and to inform him (Lewis) of the result. The motives
for this step, he says, were to enable the General's friends to repel
the attack if made, " but, above all, if possible, to produce a perfect
reconciliation between those gentlemen (Jackson and Crawford) and
their friends."

Finding it inconvenient, on reaching Georgia, to visit Mr. Craw-
ford, he wrote to Mr. Forsyth, asking him to obtain the desired infor-
mation and to send it to him at New York. He kept no copy of this
letter, but it was subsequently produced and published by Mr. For-
syth. As this was the opening movement in the supposed conspiracy
it deserves a more particular notice. After mentioning his intention
to have paid Mr. Crawford a visit and his regret at not having been
able to do so, he said:

I wish you would ascertain from him and communicate to me whether the
propriety or necessity for arresting or trying Gen. Jackson was ever presented
as a question for the deliberation of Mr. Monroe's Cabinet. I understand Mr.
Southard (who was a member of the Cabinet) in his suppressed correspond-
ence has asserted that to have been the fact I want the information, not to
be used, but in order that I may in the event of a publication, which may
come from a high quarter, know where to look for information on this subject
Of course nothing would be published without the consent of Mr. Crawford
and yourself.

This was the whole letter.

No question was asked in regard to what Mr. Crawford had done
or what Mr. Calhoun had done and none which was calculated to
draw out a comparison between their respective acts. It would
not have been an easy matter, it strikes me, to have framed a letter
which would, on its face, have been more in harmony with a bona
fide prosecution of the professed object of the enquiry, viz: to en-
able the friends of Gen. Jackson to repel an attack on him by Mr.
Southard charging that he had stood in- the attitude described be-
fore Mr. Monroe's Cabinet and had been, perhaps, suffered to escape
thro' the forbearance of its members. Mr. Hamilton took Washing^
ton on his way home and staid for a day or two at the same house
with Mr. Calhoun, and being anxious to obtain the information
he had thus far failed to get from Mr. Crawford, he requested an
interview with the former at which he asked him "whether, at any
meeting of Mr. Monroe's Cabinet, the propriety of arresting Gen.
Jackson for anything done by him during the Seminole war had
been discussed." Mr. Calhoun replied "Never!— such a measure
was never thought of, much less discussed. The only point before
the Cabinet was the answer to be given to the Spanish Government."
On being further asked whether he desired that his answer should be

127483°— vol 2—20 24

370 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

regarded as confidential he said that he did not. Mr. Hamilton
says that at that time he had not the slightest knowledge of the
course Mr. Calhoun had considered it his duty to pursue in the
Cabinet on the occasion referred to, and that his impressions re-
ceived from the* conversations of which he had spoken were that
Mr. Calhoun had been in favor of, and Mr. Crawford adverse to
Gen. Jackson. The perfect similarity in substance, and bearing, of
the question put to Mr. Calhoun to that proposed to Mr. Crawford,
through Mr. Forsyth, cannot fail to be perceived.

Hamilton left Washington on the following morning and on the
19th of February, 1828, being the second day after his arrival at
New York, he wrote a letter to Major Lewis of which the following
was given as an extract — the letter having been tendered but never
called for or produced :

44 1 "did not see Mr. Crawford, as I intended to do, because his
residence was seventy miles out of my way ; but the Vice President
(Mr. Calhoun), who, you know, was the member of the Cabinet
best acquainted with the subject, told me Gen. Jackson's arrest was
never thought of, much less discussed." To this letter he received
a reply from Major Lewis in which he said — 4<I regret that you
did not see Mr. Crawford. I was desirous you should see him and
converse with him on the subject of his former misunderstanding
with the General. I have every reason to believe that the informa-
tion given to you by Calhoun is correct, for Mr. Monroe assured
me, nearly nine years ago, such was the fact* It follows then that
Mr. Crawford must have been vilely slandered by those whose ob-
ject was to fan a flame their interest required should not be ex-
tinguished.7! All still in harmony with the professed objects of the
enquiry, viz; to be able to repel the charge referred to, if made, and
to conciliate still further the friends of Mr. Crawford who, where
they were most numerous, in Virginia, North and South Carolina
and New York, had already taken ground in favor of Gen. Jackson.
Believing that the information might become useful at Nashville
jrhere almost every day produced a new charge against the General,
Hamilton, on the 25th of February, wrote to Mr. Calhoun, setting
forth what had passed at their interview, as 1° have already stated
it. telling him that he was thus particular in seeking to obtain his
confirmation of it to enable him to confirm Major Lewis, a confi-
dential friend of Gen. Jackson, of its truth; not with a view to
enable him to make a publication on the subject but to be prepared
to repel an apprehended attack founded on events connected with
the Seminole campaign. On the 28th of February he received a
letter from Mr. Forsyth, in reply to the one he had addressed to
liim from Savannah, in which Mr. F. informed Kim that Mr. Craw-

• MS. IV, p. 20.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 371

ford had been a few hours on the previous day at Milledgeville, the
place of Mr. Forsyth's residence, thc^t he had conversed with him
on the subject referred to in Hamilton's letter, and was authorized
to say — " that at a meeting of Mr. Monroe's Cabinet to discuss the
course to be pursued towards Spain, in consequence of Gen. Jack-
son's proceedings in Florida during the Seminole War, Mr. Calhoun,
the Secretary of the War Department, submitted to and urged upon
the President the propriety of arresting and trying Gen. Jackson :
that Mr. Calhoun had previously communicated to Mr. Crawford
his intention to present the question to Mr. Monroe; an intention
Mr. Crawford approved" (Mr. Crawford subsequently corrected
this statement by saying that Mr. Forsyth had misunderstood him —
that Mr. Calhoun's proposition in the Cabinet was that Gen. Jackson
should be punished in some form or reprimanded in some form,
he was not positively certain which : as Mr. Calhoun did not propose
to arrest Gen. Jackson he felt confident that he could not have made
use of that expression in his conversation with Mr. Forsyth.

After the receipt of Mr. Forsyth's letter he (Hamilton) received
Mr. Calhoun's reply to his letter of the 25th of February. This
reply was dated March 29th and said that as Mr. Hamilton had
not, at the time of their interview, stated the object of his enquiry
he had supposed it was designed only to meet mere general rumour
falsely put out to influence the result of the Presidential election;
that his answer had been predicated on such an assumption, was
intended to meet assertions unsupported by any name in the same
general manner without name and to be limited, even with that
view, to a denial of what was falsely stated to have occurred on that
occasion. Mr. Calhoun then repeated Hamilton's object as stated
in his letter of the 25th of February, and said that he had, under
that aspect of the subject, deliberately considered how far he could,
with propriety, speak of the proceedings of the Cabinet at all and
had come to the conclusion that a duty of a very high and delicate
character imposed silence upon him; that entertaining such views
he declined the introduction of his name in any shape as con-
nected with what passed in the Cabinet on the occasion referred to.
To this Hamilton answered on the 10th of March, that Mr. Cal-
houn's reasoning as to the confidence which ought to be observed
in regard to occurrences in the Cabinet was clear and conclusive,
and that he had written to Major Lewis, that day, that his (Mr.
Calhoun's) name should not be used in any manner with the denial,
should a publication be called for, which he did not believe to be
the case, — adding that the subject had derived increasing interest
from a communication he had received since he hud written to Mt\
Calhoun. This brought a reply from Mr. Calhoun in which 1m
said that it had appeared to him desirable, on several accounts, that

372 AMKBICAN HISTORICAL. ASSOCIATION.

if an attack on Gen. Jackson was meditated, in the manner sup-
posed, he (Mr. Calhoun) should be put in possession of the facts
from which it was inferred : that his knowledge of the facts might
enable him to ascertain from what quarter the blow might be ex*
pected and to take measures to parry it: that if he (Hamilton)
should concur in that view and felt himself at liberty to communi-
cate what he knew it might ultimately prove serviceable to the cause
and should be received in strict confidence. Hamilton replied, on
the 26th March, that he regretted to say that he did not feel him-
self at liberty to disclose what he knew of the matter referred to in
Mr. Calhoun's letter, that the information he had received was not
declared to be confidential, nor was it necessarily so, yet, as it was
communicated to him only because he could be instrumental in ob-
taining the means of resistance, having done so he felt that he ought
to consider himself as no longer in possession of it. Having in good
faith pursued thus far the business he had undertaken to perform
and which, I am confident, had no other aims than those which were
professed, Hamilton's eyes were opened by the contents of Forsyth's
letter and by the abrupt closing of the door to further disclosures
by Mr. Calhoun, upon a subject in respect to which he had before
been so ready to speak and so unreserved in his answers, to the
depth of the waters into which he was plunging and the stirring
character of the investigation he had entered upon and to an appre-
ciation of the troubles to which he might expose himself by a wish
to make himself useful to a cause in which he had become suddenly
conspicuous and perhaps somewhat by a passion, not uncommon
with young men, to take part in important and exciting public
transactions in which the prominent actors are the most distin-
guished men of their day ; and he decided to draw off. Hence his
ready acquiescence in Mr. Calhoun's reasons against the propriety of
answering a question which he had just before put to Mr. Crawford,
standing precisely in the same situation, and his instructions to
Major Lewis not to use Mr. Calhoun's name in any form touching
the matter. His steps were well directed to the end he now aimed
at, if we except the intimation to Mr. Calhoun that he was in pos-
session of a further communication which had given to the whole
matter a deeper interest, which produced in the latter an anxiety to
learn the character of that communication; his decision to disen-
tangle himself was a wise one and if he had acted upon it from the
spring of 1828 till the autumn of 1829, during which period Mr.
Forsyth's letter remained on his own files and was not, as he says,
shown to any body, he would have saved himself much anxiety and
his friends much trouble.

n the fall of the latter year, however, eighteen months after For-
letter had been written and when the subject had substan-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 873

tially passed from the minds of all who had taken a part in it, he
read that letter to Major Lewis at his own house in New York. But
even this step would in all probability have produced no disturbing
results had the principal parties remained in their original position
towards each other which was very far from the case, the friendly
relations which had existed between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun
having been by that time seriously impaired through the agency of
the Eaton imbroglio, and giving place soon after to open hostility. It
was not probably until the latter period that Lewis, who sympathized
in the General's feelings throughout, informed him of the contents
of Forsyth's letter, and this was, I verily believe, the first reliable
information he had ever received as to Mr. Calhoun's precise course
in Mr. Monroe's Cabinet in regard to his conduct in Florida — a sub-
ject on which the General's feelings were always keenly sensitive.
He had never before even suspected that that course had been hostile
to him. Hamilton says that he became acquainted with the contents
of the letter but does not say how. My statement that it was com-
municated by Major Lewis is an inference only, but I have no doubt
that it is a just one, and that the Major would, without hesitation,
confirm it. Of course, General Jackson demanded to see the letter.
He would have done so if he and Mr. Calhoun had remained friends,
and was less likely to omit it under their hostile relations. This
was in the month of May, 1830, more than two years after the pro-
ceedings of which we have been speaking had taken place and until
that time I had never received the slightest intimation, from any
source, of their occurrence. It was after Gen. Jackson had demand-
ed a sight of Forsyth's letter that Hamilton for the first time gave
me a general statement of its contents as the ground of a request
for my advice in regard to the answer he should make to the Gen-
eral's application. I instantly decided to have nothing to do with
the affair and declined to express my opinion upon the question he
submitted to me. He then applied to Mr. Forsyth to give to the
President directly the information that he (Forsyth) had commu-
nicated to him in. the letter referred to. Mr. Forsyth was not a
friend of Mr. Calhoun — none of Mr. Crawford's friends in Georgia
stood in that relation towards him ; the feuds between the chiefs had
been of too long standing and too bitter to admit of very friendly
feelings between their respective adherents; but he was a man of
truth and honor unquestioned by Mr. Calhoun or by any other. This
is his account, given in February, 1831, of what passed in respect to
Hamilton's application:

A word or two of explanation, in the further agency I have had in this
affair, is justly due to Mr. Crawford. I heard nothing of my correspondence
with Major Hamilton, and the subject was scarcely thought of until during

874 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

last winter that gentleman came to the Senate Chamber, and requested me to
give to the President, if not improper in my judgment, the information I had
given to him. I asked him if he ° had not my letter. He answered that he
had. I then said Mr. Crawford; spoke to me and speaks to everybody of this
affair, with the same indifference that he does of every other incident in his
political life. I am sure he does not care what you do with the letter. You
may give the President a copy of it Major Hamilton declined doing so from
a motive of delicacy. He stated that he had conversed, or corresponded, I do
not recollect which, with Mr. Calhoun on this subject, and that the statements
of Mr. Crawford and Mr. Calhoun did not agree. He was, therefore, unwill-
ing to interfere, further than to comply with the President's wish In asking of
me the information. On this statement I was determined not to give the
information without Mr. Crawford's express assent. The Information was no'
longer a matter of indifference, and I did not choose to give it to the President
without apprising Mr. Crawford that he and Mr. Calhoun differed in their
account of the transaction and without submitting to him my statement of our
conversation for correction, if it was, In any respect, erroneous. I obtained
for that purpose, and enclosed to him a copy of my letter to Major Hamilton.
His answer is before the public. I found, to my surprise, that I had erred In
repeating what he had said, and to avoid the possibility of any other mistake,
I deemed it safest to send to the President a copy of my letter to Major
Hamilton and Mr. Crawford's letter to me. In making this communication,
from respect to the personal delicacy of Major Hamilton, his name was kept
out of view.

On the 12th May 1830, Mr. Forsyth delivered to the President both
of the letters spoken of by him, viz : that from him to Mr. Hamilton
of the 8th Feb. 1828, and that to him from Mr. Crawford, of the 30th
April, 1830, containing Mr. C's account of what was done in Mr.
Monroe's Cabinet in respect to Gen. Jackson's conduct in the Semi-
nole War, and which was given in Mr. Calhoun's appeal. This let-
ter was on the following day sent by Gen. Jackson to Mr. Calhoun,
inclosed with the following i1

May 13, 1830.
Sib:

That frankness which I trust has always characterized me through life
towards those with whom I have been in the habit of friendship, induces me to
lay before you the enclosed copy of a letter from William H. Crawford Esq.,
which was placed In my hands on yesterday. The submission you will perceive
is authorized by the writer. The statements & facts it presents being so dif-
ferent from what I had heretofore understood to be correct, requires that It
should be brought to your consideration. They are different from your letter
to Governor Bibb, of the 13th. May, 1818, where you state " General Jackson Is
vested with full power to conduct the war in the manner he may judge best"
and different too from your letter to me at that time which breathed throughout
a spirit of approbation & friendship, & particularly the one in which you say,
" I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th. ultimo,
and to acquaint you with the entire approbation of the President of all the

. *M8. IV, p. 25.
i Calhoun's answer dated May 18, 1880, is in the Jadwon Papers.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREtf. 875

measures you have adopted to terminate the rapture with the Indians." My
object In making this communication Is to announce to you the great surprise
which Is felt & to learn of you whether It be possible that the Information given
is correct; whether It can be under all the circumstances of which you & I
ore both Informed, that any attempt seriously to affect me was moved & sus-
tained by you in the cabinet council, when, as is known to you, I was but
executing the wishe$ of the Government, and clothed with the authority " to
conduct the war in the manner I might Judge best"

You can, if you please, take a copy ; the one enclosed you will please return
to me.

I am, Sir, very respectfully, your humble servant,

Andhew Jackson.

The Hon. J. O. Calhoun.

The enquiry and the only enquiry made of Mr. Calhoun by this
letter was whether any attempt seriously to affect Gen. Jackson was
moved and sustained by him in the Cabinet council of Mr. Monroe.
If the General had stopped here the course pursued by Mr. Calhoun
in reply might well have been regarded as an uncalled for extension
of the matter in controversy, designed as was alleged by Mr. Craw-
ford, to get rid of a fact which he could not frankly and distinctly
deny by attempting to prove a negative by argument. But the let-
ter went further and claimed that the acts referred to were justified
by instruction received from the War Department, at the head of
which Mr. Calhoun then stood, and approved by the President. Mr.
Calhoun was thus invited if not necessarily called to the considera-
tion and discussion of so much of the acts of the War Department
and the President as was claimed by Gen. Jackson to have con-
ferred upon him authority to capture and hold for a season the
Spanish Posts in Florida if he should think it necessary to the pro-
tection of the frontier and of our people against the inroads of
Indians. He at least considered such to be the position in which
he was placed by the General's letter, and undertook in an elaborate
reply, covering many sheets, extracts included, to prove that the
General's orders did not authorize the occupation by him of St.
Marks and Pensacola, taking in those respects the ground that had
always been taken by Crawford, his friends, and the opposition in
Congress, and also that the General had, at the time, been fully
informed that such were his views of the matter. He answered
the General's specific enquiry in the following terms : —

As Secretary of War I was more immediately connected with questions
whether you had transcended your orders, and, If so, what course ought to be
pursued. I was of the Impression that you had exceeded your orders and had
acted on your own responsibility; but I neither questioned your patriotism
nor your motives. Believing that, where orders were transcended, Investiga-
tion, as a matter of course, ought to follow, as due in justice to the government
and the officer, unless there be strong reasons to the contrary, I came to the
meeting under the Impression that the usual course ought to be pursued in this

376 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

case, which I supported by presenting fully and freely all the arguments that
occurred to me.1

This altho' rendered a little less harsh by the language employed
amounted, in substance, to an admission of the correctness of Mr.
Crawford's statement — as punishment of some sort would, in the
usual course, follow conviction. Crawford said, "Mr. Calhoun's
proposition in the Cabinet was that Gen. Jackson should be pun-
ished in some form, or reprimanded in some form, I am not posi-
tively certain which." The General's flues ti on was therefore answered,
and was, doubtless, intended to be understood as answered affirma-
tively. Mr. Calhoun's reply was, I think, sent to the President on
the evening before the adjournment of Congress, in May, 1830. The
first I saw of it was on the day of the adjournment. After my return
from the Capitol with the President and the other members of the
Cabinet, who are usually in attendance on the last day of the session,
Major Lewis came to my house and laid upon the table at which I was
sitting a file of papers, saying " There is Calhoun's letter. The Gen-
eral begs you to read the papers attentively and when you have had
time to do so he will be glad to see and advise with you upon the
subject*" Hamilton having, as I have stated, apprised me of the
general bearing of the correspondence, I required no time to reflect
upon my answer to this application. I told the Major that I was
quite sure the General would not have sent the papers to me if he
had reflected on the impropriety of my taking a part in any contro-
versy between himself and Mr. Calhoun and on its liability to mis-
interpretation, and apprising him of the answer I had given to Hamil-
ton, requested him to take them back and to report what I had said
to the General. He did so, and the General embraced an early oppor-
tunity to assure me that I was altogether right, and apologized very
earnestly for what he called his " carelessness " in the matter. He
sent a brief reply to Mr. Calhoun, of which I have given the substance
in the introduction to this review, but which I did not see, neither
was I apprised of its contents until the appearance of Mr. Calhoun's
pamphlet.8

There the matter rested until the next winter. The gossips of
Washington got hold of the fact that there had been a correspond-
ence and some of the newspapers gave loose and contradictory
accounts of its contents. Mr. Calhoun did not arrive at Washington
until some weeks of the following session of Congress had elapsed.
Attempts were subsequently made (and perhaps before) by gentle-

• * This letter, dated May 29, 1830, an A. L. S. of Calhoun's, is 48 pp. long. It is in the
Jackson Papers.

3 Correspondence between Gen. Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun • • * on the
subject of the course of the latter, in the cabinet of Mr. Monroe, on the occurrences in the
Seminole War. Washn. Printed by D. Green, 1831. A copy is in the Library of Congrcas.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BTTREN. 377

men who claimed to be friends of both the President and Vice Presi-
dent to bring about a reconciliation between them. Mr. Samuel
Swartwout was particularly active in that direction. Gen. Jackson
apprised me of those efforts and I advised him, earnestly and sin-
cerely, to consent to any amicable arrangement of the subject that
would be consistent with his honor. I was° sitting with him, one
day, in one of the rooms of the White House which had been appro-
priated as a studio by his friend Col. Earle, who was painting his
portrait, when a servant announced that Mr. Swartwout was in his
office and requested to see him for a moment. He went out and, on his
return, told me that the whole affair was settled. He gave me the
substance of the terms, but my recollection upon the subject is not
distinct enough to justify me in undertaking to state them. I
expressed my gratification at the result. He did not appear entirely
satisfied with what he had agreed to, but said the matter was done
with and he would think no more ahout it.

The adjustment of the whole affair, was for several days pub-
licly spoken of. Information of the fact was communicated to
persons out of the city and I received letters in which the pacifica-
tion was spoken of as undisputed. But Mr. Calhoun's publication
appeared notwithstanding. No explanation of the failure of the
negotiation has, to my knowledge, been given on either side. Two
attempts were subsequently made — the last immediately before Mr.
Calhoun's ' appeal' appeared — to give that paper a character and
to have it published in a way which would be satisfactory to Gen.
Jackson and to prevent him from replying to or taking any notice
of its contents. Col. Richard M. Johnson and Senator Grundy,
recognised and warm friends of Mr. Calhoun, as they were also of
Gen. Jackson's called (as he now informs me) on Mr. F. P. Blair,
ivith whom they enjoyed a cordial intimacy, and whose feelings
were then personally favorable to Mr. Calhoun, and made a labored
effort to persuade him to publish it in the Globe with comments
indicating that it was neither in fact, nor in intention an attack
upon Gen. Jackson. He resisted their solicitations to the end, in-
sisting that the paper could not be so qualified as to avoid a rupture
with the General which must be the ruin of Mr. Calhoun. Mr.
Blair does not now recollect whether any, or, if any, what com-
munications took place between him and General Jackson in respect
to the proposition, or whether, indeed, he was permitted to talk
to him on the subject. Failing in this overture a negotiation of
the same character was instituted by Mr. Grundy with Major Eaton,
whose interest in a general pacification need not be enlarged upon.

• MB. IV, p. 30.

378 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Its character and results are fully set forth in the following publi-
cation : —

[From « the Globe " of March 26, 1831.]

[We have been favored with the following communication from the Secre-
tary of War, which will show the groundlessness of the intimation conveyed
by a late Telegraph (newspaper) that the intimate friends of Gen. Jackson,
if not the General himself, were satisfied with Mr. Calhoun's address, &c.,
before it appeared in public. 1

Recently it had been stated in the U. S. Telegraph, that the appeal of Mr.
Calhoun to the public, previous to its publication, had been submitted to and
approved by a confidential friend of the President The allusion is to myself.
I perceive not the force of the argument which, would make this circumstance
to operate beneficially or otherwise; but as it has been mentioned, I take
occasion to present the agency particularly that I had in this business, and
how and why it was occasioned.

Previous to the publication being made I received a request from Mr. Grundy
to see me. I afforded him the interview he sought. He informed me the
Vice President had concluded certainly to make publication of the correspon-
dence; and that his (Mr. Grundy's) great anxiety was that the appeal in-
tended to accompany it should be so framed as that the President might not
feel himself called upon, by any thing it should contain, to offer a reply. If
the President should adopt this course he entertained the opinion that the
matter would soon pass away, and every thing of party excitement be avoided.
Such was the nature of our conversation and I readily accorded with him
in his frank desire.

Mr. Grundy expressed the opinion that it would be in his power to obtain
the assent of the Vice President to show me the remarks which Mr. Calhoun
intended to present to the public. Shortly after dark the next evening I went
to his lodgings. Arriving, I was told by the servant at the door that Mr.
Grundy was not at home but had gone to Mr. Ingham's. I directed him to go
there and say that I wished to see him. He soon returned, and shortly after-
wards Mr. Grundy came in, and we sat down together, and alone, in his bed
room.

He observed it had been permitted to him to show me the paper of which
he had before spoken; and after some cursory remarks, such as he though
it would now do, and that I would, as he read it, note any exception which I
might consider exceptionable, proceeded to read it. Whenever a remark
occurred which I thought calculated to excite, or which, by possibility, might
be misconceived, I offered suggestions agreeably to the invitation which Mr.
Grundy had tendered; of all which he made notes. I kept none myself and
hence cannot say that all were adopted. I do not doubt about it however,
as Mr. Grundy afterwards informed me that they had been adopted.

Having read through the appeal, Mr. Grundy observed, "Well, if the sug-
gestions and illustrations we have made, shall be approved, do you think the
President will feel himself called upon to reply, or to notice, himself, any
thing that the appeal contains?" My answer was, I thought not, and my anx-
ious desire was that he would not; but without doubt the newspapers would
take hold of and canvass the matter, and to what a course of that kind in the
end might lead, time only could determine.

We were about to separate when Mr. Grundy observed, — "Will you see Gen.
Jackson and explain to him what has taken place? I will see Mr. Calhoun,
and if the course we have taken be approved yon shall be informed." But I

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 879

did not communicate the subject to the President, because, upon reflection, I
thought It improper to do bo. From Mr. Grundy I received a note the next
day, stating that all was right, which I understood to mean that the sugges-
tions offered had been adopted.

The evening preceding the day when the correspondence made its appear-
ance, a printed copy was enclosed to me, with a request that I would submit
that too to the President This also I declined to do.

Ill health has prevented me from making this communication earlier.

That the accuracy of this statement was assented to by Mr. Grundy
necessarily results from the relation in which they both stood to-
wards Gen. Jackson and from the facts that Mr. Grundy was on
the spot at the time it was made and that he did not question it. It
is further confirmed by the declaration of Mr. Ingham, in his ad-
dress to the President, of July 26, 1831, that " the preface to the cor-
respondence " (which was the 'appeal') "had been previously re-
vised by the President's particular friend, and every expression
which he thought might be personally offensive to the President had
been erased at the suggestion of that friend." Mr. Grundy, having
informed Major Eaton the next day, by note, " that all was right "
by which the latter understood that the suggestions offered had been
adopted, and hearing nothing to the contrary, inferred, of course,
that the Major had carried into effect the arrangement made between
them and that the General had assented to it.

This inference, which no steps on the part of Eaton counteracted,
was confirmed by the circumstance that a copy of the pamphlet
was sent to him t&e evening before it was issued to the public to
be laid before the President, so that the latter might read it before
it came out, of which also Eaton took notice. He does not say
who sent it, but it is not to be supposed that it would have been
so sent without the approbation of Mr. Calhoun, or under any
other impression than that the arrangement had been found satis-
factory and acceptable to Gen. Jackson. That the * appeal9 was
ushered to the people under a full belief that such was the real
state of the case it is impossible to doubt, and conversant as I was
with the then condition of things as affecting that point I can
very well conceive that, but for that mistake, and the publication
which was its first consequence, Mr. Calhoun might have been
raised to the Presidency. If the terms of the settlement, which
fell through in his hands, were of the character described by Mr.
Calhoun's confidential and most efficient friend, in the address
already referred to, (and of that I can now say nothing with
certainty) viz: that the correspondence was to be destroyed, that
Mr. Calhoun was to leave his card for the President; to be invited
to his table and no further notice was to be taken of the contro-
versy, every thing would have tended, in all probability, to that

880 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

result. It was a strong feature in Gen. Jackson's nature that an
interest in the welfare, and a desire to be instrumental in pro-
moting it, of those with whom he had been at variance quickly
sprung up in his breast upon an amicable adjustment of differences.
My own feelings at that time in respect to the succession, of which
I will speak more particularly hereafter, would have interposed
no obstacles to Mr. Calhoun's advancement if that had become the
wish of our party. On finding, as he would have found0 that I
had no more to do with the proceedings of which he complained
than the man in the moon, the friendly relations that had arisen
between us before the election would have been restored and I see
no good reason to doubt that the end which I have intimated would
have resulted. But unfounded jealousy and consequent ill will
towards myself, with bad advisers, decreed otherwise.

The direct consequence of the success of the Grundy and Eaton
arrangement would have been to throw the brunt of the war — where
it was, from a very early period, if not from the first conception of
the 4 plot,' intended that it should fall ultimately,— on my shoulders.
No man of sense, familiar with the characters and events of that day,
can read Mr. Calhoun's 4 appeal,' and its supplements, without per-
ceiving the two principal objects of its construction — viz : self excul-
pation in the matter of his course in Mr. Monroe's Cabinet towards
Gen. Jackson — now for the first time made known to the latter — and
the implication of myself in a plot from which. I could not escape
and for really engaging in which I would have deserved the political
destruction prepared for me. Altho' my name was carefully and
with some manifest labour kept out of both the 4 appeal ' and its
addenda, yet the fact of its being aimed at me was conveyed without
the possibility of failure to the apprehension of the political reader.
When speculation had been suffered to work upon it for a season the
Editor of the Telegraph, with well painted horror, disclosed the
secret (!) as to the intended application of the reference to " con-
cealed actors." In the copy of the letter from Mr. Crawford to Mr.
Forsyth, which was sent by the latter to the President, and* by him
enclosed to Mr. Calhoun, blank spaces were in two or three instances
substituted, for a name, (as Mr. ,) which substitution was sub-
sequently explained, thus by Mr. Forsyth, as heretofore quoted, —
44 from respect to the personal delicacy of Major Hamilton his name
was kept out of view." But the eagerness and energy with which
Mr. Calhoun, under the influence of his passions, seized upon these
luckless blanks would have been amusing, if the distortions of a really
great mind could be thus ever regarded. He referred to Mr. Craw-
ford's letter sent to him by Gen. Jackson as 44 a copy with important

* MS. IV, p. 85. .

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 881

blanks " demanded by what rule of justice he was deprived of evi-
dence material to his defense— of a statement of the conversation and
correspondence of the two individuals whose names are in blank " ; —
"Why not" said he "inform me who they are? Their testimony
might be highly important, and even their names alone (so italicised
in the original) might throw much light on this mysterious affair."
Again " this whole affair is a political manoeuvre in which the de-
sign is that you (Gen. Jackson) should be the instrument and my-
self the victim, but in which the real actors are carefully concealed
by an artful movement; a naked copy, with the names referred to in
blank, affords slender means of detection, * * * the names which
are in blank might of themselves through their political associations
point directly to the contrivers of this scheme." Apparently for the
purpose of preventing my escape from the full force of his onset under
cover of a divided responsibility for the ' plot,9 he proceeds to separate
this "blow" from that "meditated" by Hamilton's application in
1828, in which he did not then suspect me of participation. He says —
" several indications forewarned me long since that a blow was medi-
tated against me : / will not say from the quarter from which this
comes; but in relation to this subject, more than two years since, I had
a correspondence with " Ac.1 describing his correspondence with Ham-
ilton.

The mysterious blanks were at once, and to the great disappoint-
ment of those who expected, not to say hoped, differently, explained
by Mr. Forsyth as referring in each instance to the same person, viz :
to Mr. Hamilton, of whose agency in the matter Mr. Calhoun was
fully aware.

Was it uncharitable to attribute to this anxiety to implicate and
consequently to destroy me politically the failure of the accommoda-
tion between the two highest officers of the Government generally
supposed to have been successfully negotiated by Swartwout, and the
substitution of a mode of bringing the matter before the Country
which might accomplish both results ?

Before I go further I must say a word, in justice to my own feel-
ings, in relation to the parts taken in this affair by Col. Johnson and
Mr. Grundy. Johnson was the friend of the human race and all who
needed his services in any honorable way could have them. In ren-
dering them thus readily and thus liberally it sometimes happened
that in serving one he unintentionally injured another — a not uncom-
mon fate of such a disposition. He was an old friend of Mr. Calhoun,
not only willing but anxious to serve him. From my knowledge of
him I am quite confident that the idea of the injurious effect which

1 This and the preceding quotations are from Calhoun's letter of May 29, 1830, In the
Jackson Papers.

382 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION.

his success in the proposed arrangement with Mr. Blair might have
upon me never occurred to him. I cannot in candour say as much
for Grundy. He had too strong a taste for political manoeuvreing —
within allowable boundaries — and was too experienced a tactician to
have failed in seeing the bearing of the whole thing. My intercourse
with him before this period had been in comparison with Mr. Cal-
houn's very limited. He was several years later a member of my
'Cabinet and I became much attached to him. He was a man of
liberal and just feelings and quite devoted where he took a liking.
He and Mr. Calhoun served together in Congress during the War of
1812 and formed with each other friendly relations which were, I
believe, never entirely obliterated notwithstanding the confidential
position in which he was subsequently placed in respect to Gen. Jack-
son and the enmity that arose between the latter and Mr. Calhoun.
One of the most amusing scenes I witnessed in the Senate, during my
long service in that body, was produced by Mr. Clay's attempting to
implicate Mr. Grundy in Mr. Calhoun's nullification scheme. The
bantering vivacity and persistency of the arraignment, with the
earnestness and vigour of the defense, and the invincible good nature
of the parties called out frequent bursts of applause and laughter.
The accused described with his' finger an imaginary line between
himself and Mr. Calhoun, who sat quite near him, declared in the
strongest terms his warm regard for that gentleman, referred with
satisfaction to the many political battles they had fought, side by
side, against the federalists during the war, then, pointing to the line
of nullification as he had indicated it, admitted that he had some
times been found near it but affirmed with great solemnity and obvi-
ous sincerity that he had never in a single instance passed it, and
challenged Mr. Clay to produce a particle of proof to the contrary.
This position he very successfully sustained to the end of the debate
to the great entertainment and amusement of the Senate, not except-
ing Mr. Calhoun himself.

Mr. Grundy was also unreservedly loyal to the friendship he
professed for Gen. Jackson. He knew very little, at that time, as
I ha»ve said, of me but I do not believe that his feelings towards
me were ever positively unfriendly and the general amiability of
his disposition (which extended to all his acquaintances except his
colleague Judge White,1 whom he cordially disliked, chiefly because
he had good reason to know that the Judge disliked him) would
have inclined him, I doubt not, to draw .us all out of the quarrel
if he could ; as that however would have defeated the main purpose
he was not permitted to do it and hence his efforts were confined
naturally to the side of his two old friends and he left me to the
buffetings of the storm which he saw approaching.

» Hugh Lawson White.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 883

It has been by such, considerations, with the knowledge I sub-
sequently acquired of his fondness for the strategical branch of
political warfare, to which I may again have occasion to refer, that
my feelings in regard to his agency in the present matter have been
controlled.

Admitting the troth of every thing said in Mr. Calhoun's pam-
phlet of 52 pages about Gen. Jackson and himself in regard to
the question in dispute between them there was nothing that would
or should have impaired the confidence of the American people in
the General's patriotism or integrity. Mr. Calhoun admitted in the
correspondence that he had never questioned either. The General
had passed through an active campaign before Congress and having
fought his battles over again before that body in respect to the
same matters had come out of the contest confirmed in full pos-
session of the favor and confidence of the people. His case was
strengthened by that very correspondence in bringing, for the first
time, to the knowledge of the Country the ° facts that he had
written a private letter to President Monroe telling him that if the
Administration appreciated as he did the indispensable necessity of
occupying temporarily the Spanish posts and wished him to take
them without positive instructions, they had only to give a hint to
some confidential member of Congress — (say "Johnny Ray")
[Rhea] and the General would take possession of them on his own
responsibility, and that no answer had ever been returned to that
letter, thereby leaving him a fair excuse at least for regarding the
silence of the President as furnishing the suggested hint. What
the General had done, whether within the line of his instructions
or not, had been done to protect the lives of our people against the
savages led on by renegades from all nations who were indirectly,
at least, fostered and encouraged from the places upon which he
had seized. All admitted the purity of his motives and a majority
of his countrymen were satisfied that the high necessity of his act
was sufficiently apparent to justify the exercise of the authority
with which he had been clothed and of the power he held. Upon
the same overruling principle of the safety of the people, he con-
fessedly exceeded his instructions at New Orleans, and by his con-
duct on that occasion not only closed the War of 1812 in a blaze
of glory, but attracted to himself the attention and support of the
people for the elevated civil position to which he succeeded.

Gen. Jackson's personal inducements to fight his Seminole cam-
paign still another time in the newspapers were very slight, but
thinking that he saw in the whole proceeding a design to strike
down a man whom he knew to be innocent and who was moreover

9 MS. IV, p. 40.

384 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

his intimate friend and constitutional adviser he indignantly re-
fused to sanction the arrangement that had* been been devised, and
to suffer that assault to be made over his shoulders. My situation
was however very different. The offence charged against me was
in every respect a heinous one. If I could so far have forgotten
what was due to my position and to my own honour as to have
revived that old and forgotten affair for the purpose of producing
a quarrel between the President and Vice President, who had never
quarrelled about it before, in the hope of thereby promoting my
own political advancement, there was scarcely a depth of public
scorn and reproach to which I would not have richly deserved to
sink. It would have been difficult to conceive of a case better calcu-
lated to excite the unmeasured condemnation of all good citizens.
The welfare of the people, the character of the Government, so far
as that depends upon the conduct of its highest officials, and the
peace of mind of an old and care worn public servant, yet bearing
on his shoulders the gravest responsibilities of the State, with many
other scarcely less important interests would all have suffered out-
rage through such an intrigue on my part.

That the main object of the publication was to fasten that offence
upon me was clearly indicated by the ' appeal,9 was the public under-
standing of the, matter and shortly after it was published ceased to
be denied in any quarter. The developments of time have furnished
specific proof of this design. Col. Benton in his work already fre-
quently referred to, describing the origin of the "Globe" newspaper
makes the following statement : °

At a Presidential levee in the winter of 1830-31, Mr. Duff Green, Editor of
the " Telegraph ", newspaper, addressed a person then and now a respectable
resident of Washington city (Mr. J. M. Puneanson) and Invited him to call
at his house, as he had something to say to him which would require a con-
fidential interview. The call was made and the object of the interview dis-
closed, which was nothing less than to engage his (Mr. Duncanson's) assistance
in the execution of a scheme in relation to the next presidential election, in
which Gen. Jackson should be prevented from becoming a candidate for re-
election and Mr. Calhoun should be brought forward in his place. He informed
Mr. Duncanson that a rupture was Impending between Gen. Jackson and Mr.
Calhoun ; that a correspondence had taken place between them, brought about,
(as he alleged) by the intrigues of Mr. Van Buren; that the correspondence
was then in print, but its publication delayed until certain arrangements could
be made; that the democratic papers at the most prominent points in the
States were to be first secured; and men well known to the people as demo-
crats, but In the exclusive interest of Mr. Calhoun, placed in charge of them
as editors; that as soon as the arrangements were complete the Telegraph
would startle .the Country with the announcement of the difficulty (between
Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun) and the motive for it; and that all the secured
presses, taking their cue from the Telegraph would take sides with Mr. Cal-
houn, and cry out at the same time; and the storm would seem to be so uni-

• Benton's Thirty Years' View ; vol. 1, p. 129.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 385

versal, and- the indignation against Mr. Van Buren would appear to be so great
that even Gen. Jackson's popularity would be unable to save him.

Mr. Duncanson was invited to assist by taking charge of the
Kentucky Argus and, notwithstanding flattering inducements, de-
clined, and subsequently caused Gen. Jackson to be informed of the
overture who thereupon took measures to establish the Globe.

The effects produced were certainly, for a short period in fair
proportion to the odious nature of the charge, the artful disguises
which had been thrown over the transactions out of which it was
constructed, and the machinery so cunningly devised to help it
to do its work. To show the nature and extent of those effects I
content myself with the insertion here of a single letter selected
from the numerous anxious communications I received on the sub-
ject It proceeded from the capital of a State lying comparatively
near the seat of the Federal Government — a State which always
bestowed more earnest and busy attention upon national questions
than was given by any of her sister States and which, I may add,
then at least exerted a greater influence than any others, upon the
general sentiment of the Country. Mr. Ritchie possessed my un-
limited confidence, and had been encouraged to communicate his
opinions upon all public subjects in which I was concerned without
reserve — a privilege which he exercised, on stirring occasions, in
its broadest latitude.

This letter bears the following endorsement: "received on the

day that my Card appeared and after its appearance " The letter

and the Card passed each other that day on the Richmond route.
Deab Sib,

You know me too well to suppose that I would intrude upon your valuable
time without some strong reason. I have always treated you with frankness,
and I think it due to you to address you in the same spirit on the present
occasion. I will address you as I candidly did Mr. Crawford in 1824, when,
without being personally acquainted with him, I requested a particular friend
to visit Washington specially, with a confidential letter, to request an explana-
tion upon a point of fact, in which he might be supposed to be deeply com-
promltted. He met the matter with the utmost possible frankness — explained
all the circumstances, and removed every doubt and apprehension.

But to the point at once ; — I refer to Mr. Calhoun's Correspondence. It is in
vain for him to disclaim any " allusion to one particular Individual " — he does
intend you, and so every man who reads the publication will suspect. I will
go further. The prompt declaration of the President has not been sufficient
to clear you from the Imputation. Many do bplieve it who were your friends
and his. One of your mutual friends at Washington (who is in the President's
confidence, I know) assured me, three weeks ago, that he knew all the cir-
cumstances and that you had had no agency at all in this affair. My friend
Campbell, to whom I wrote six or seven weeks ago upon this very point, with
the privilege of showing my letter to the President and to yourself informed
me in reply that you had no hand in it. I know not whether he showed you
127488°— vol 2—20 26

386 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

my letter. I really wish he hail. But this information ig not in such a shape
as to be given to the Public, and it wants your own stamp to make it more
decisive.

I need not inform you that this matter is the subject of universal conversa-
tion among us. Many of our friends have expressed their doubts and fears,
some, very vehemently: and a forcible article is° already put into my hands,
by a warm friend of the administration, explaining the attitude in which he
thinks this Correspondence places yourself.

Discussion is inevitable. It struck me from the first and I am now more
strongly satisfied of it Will you then excuse me for asking your attention
to the subject — for asking frankly whether you were concerned or consulted
in bringing up this difference between the President and Vice President, and,
moreover, for suggesting that you * should take the same public course which
the Vice President has taken — now that he has taken it — and make it clear
to the Nation that his allusions to you are without foundation. All the evidence,
which my Correspondent at Washington wrote me was in the possession of
your friends, ought to be at once and fully produced, — every atom of it, with
the most perfect and unblenching frankness. It is due to yourself and I am
confident, to the Administration.

I address yon Sir, without any circumlocution or intermediation. But if
you have no objection I would take it as a favor that you show my letter to
Gen. Jackson. I address you, too, with the slncerest wishes that you may be
able to demolish every doubt, every apprehension, every political enemy. I
trust that the thing may be made out as clear as a ray of light from Heaven.
It has been my gratification to write you more agreeable letters, but never one
that was dictated in a franker or more friendly spirit
I am, dear Sir, Reap7 yours,

Thos. ItlTClIIE.

Richmond, Feb. 21, 1831.

As soon as all the persons of this drama had come forward — Mr.
Calhoun with his pamphlet, Gen. Jackson with a few authorized
statements in the Globe^ and Messrs. Crawford, Forsyth, and Hamil-
ton with their letters and explanations, I published this Card:

[From the U. States Telegraph, Feb. 26.1

Mb. Van Buren to the Editor of the Telegraph.

Mr. Van Buren transmits the enclosed to the Editor of the United States'
Telegraph for insertion in his paper of tomorrow.
February 25th, 1831.

Mr. Van Buren desires us, in relation to the correspondence between the
Vice President and various other persons which has recently appeared, to
make the following statement in his behalf.

He observes that an impression is attempted to be made upon the pubUc mind
that certain applications by James A. Hamilton, Esq., of New York, to Mr.
Forsythe, the one in February 1828, and the other last winter, and a similar
one to the Vice-President, for information in regard to certain Cabinet transac-

• MS. IV, p. 4&.

* I correct my expressions. I would not have you rush into the newspapers, if some
person, who is conversant with all the facts, would frankly come forth with all the ex-
culpatory evidence, in the calmest but most Ingenuous terms.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 887

tlons daring the administration of Mr. Monroe and which are referred to by the
latter gentleman, were so made by Mr. Van Buren's advice or procurement
Leaving the motives and objects of those applications to those who 'may deem
it necessary to notice them, Mr. Van Buren avers that they and each of them
were not only made without agency of any description on his part, but also
without his knowledge; and that he has at no period taken any part in the
matters connected with them. — He desires us further to say that every assertion,
or insinuation, which has for its object to impute to him any participation in
attempts, supposed to have been made in the years 1827 and 1828 to prejudice the
Vice President in the good opinion of Gen. Jackson, or at any time, is alike
unfounded and unjust He had no motive or desire to create such an impres-
sion, and neither took, advised nor countenanced, directly or Indirectly,
any steps to effect that object For the correctness of these declarations he
appeals, with a confidence which defies contradiction, to all who have been actors
in the admitted transactions referred to, or who possess any knowledge on the
subject.
Washington, Feb. 25, 1831.

I have known few more striking instances in public life of a
strong current of prejudice and suspicion arrested not only, but
turned back upon those who started it, by an exposition so simple
and so brief. Its effects were no less visible in their faces than in
their conduct, and beyond the reckless invectives of the Telegraph
no serious efforts were made further tp uphold the plot. Many of
my friends, roused from the stupor into which the apparent diffi-
culties of the time had thrown them, urged me to go on and sus-
tain my denial by the use of documents, some of which were then
in my possession, and by the direct testimony of every person who
had been named as principals or agents and who were all ready
and anxious to come forward. Hamilton, as will be seen by his let-
ter to Lewis, was somewhat miffed that he was not called upon to
exculpate me. Gen. Jackson could not forbear, years afterwards,
when he heard of the reconciliation between Mr. Calhoun and my-
self, to send me a not only unsolicited but entirely unexpected letter
testifying to my innocence,1 of which he was, of all others, the best
informed because he was the man whom I was charged with attempt-
ing to prejudice and inflame against Mr. Calhoun. Two or three of
these papers are inserted here, * * * but at the time I refused' to
go a step beyond my Card. I opposed to the charges and insin-
uations of my enemies a defiant contradiction and a character which,
tho' long and vilely traduced, had never been successfully im-
peached. Before these the * plot ' exploded, aided as they were by
the utter unsoundness of the materials out of which it was con-
structed which became more and more manifest to the apprehensions
of men as the excitement subsided.

The preliminary steps, relied upon as evidence of its original con-
coction and design, occurred in the years 1827 and 1828 ; the year pre-

1 1840, July 81. In the Van Buren Papers,

_.. _ . J ■«

388 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

ceding the Presidential election in" which Gen. Jackson was chosen,
and the year of that election. The immediate object of the plotting
was (it was said) to obtain evidence that Mr. Calhoun had acted an
unfriendly part in Mr. Monroe's Cabinet towards the General touch-
ing his conduct in the Seminole war. This would have been proof of
ill will on the part of Mr. Calhoun of which it was conceded the Gen-
eral had never been informed and of the existence of which he never
even suspected. Cm bono — such an operation?1

The friends of Mr. Crawford, who had supported him at the pre-
vious election, were, in Virginia, in New York, indeed in most of the
States, save perhaps somewhat less cordially in Georgia, rallying to
the support of Gen. Jackson, on the same ticket with whom, as candi-
date for the Vice Presidency, and bound to the support of that ticket
by interest and I doubt not by feeling also, stood Mr. Calhoun. The
ascertainment of any fact which might place the relations between
Mr. Crawford and Gen. Jackson upon a more cordial footing and by
that means stimulate the comparatively sluggish support of the
Georgians, an object avowed by the so called ' conspirators ' and dis-
cussed on the trip to New Orleans, would have been a sensible move-
ment. But what could be said or thought of an attempt to ferret out
a fact which would have then inevitably produced, as it did produce
when it came to light, hostility perhaps outbreak between Gen. Jack-
son and Mr. Calhoun and a dismemberment of the ticket? Would
not Lewis and Hamilton and their advisers, if they had any, have
deserved to be called mad men if they conceived or entered upon such
a scheme? Suppose, for the sake of meeting every ground of sus-
picion or of imputation that their object was to obtain information
to be used at some distant day, after the election, to bring about the
desired alienation between their candidates — would they then have
gone directly to Mr. Calhoun and thus putting him on the track of
their machinations have addressed to him the question the prosecu-
tion of which was to bring to light the evidence of his hostility to
Jackson on a certain occasion, the precise question put to Crawford
and then not yet answered ? Would they not rather have waited for
the desired information which Mr. Crawford's well known enmity to
Mr. Calhoun authorized them to expect speedily from him? No!
The notion of a design " to extract from him, if possible, some hasty
and unguarded expression respecting the course of the Cabinet on the
Seminole question," by which he might be "entangled" will be
found, on looking at the facts as afterwards stated by Mr. Calhoun in
his ' appeal ' unsustairied by a single circumstance or feature of the
case, and the simple solution of the matter is doubtless this: — Mr.

1 A good presentation of this affair will be found in Bassett's Life of Andrew Jackson,
(N. Y„ 1911) chap, xxiv, vol. 2, p. 497 et seq.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 01? MARTIN VAN BUREtf. S89

Calhoun's reflections satisfied him that in the account which he had
given to Hamilton of the proceedings in the Cabinet he had made a
mistake which, if published, would in all probability render necessary
a further and unreserved disclosure of those proceedings in their
integrity, like that which, in the sequel, he felt himself constrained °
to give in his * appeal.' The certain consequence of such a step would
have been, as he could not doubt, to involve him then in a quarrel
with Gen. Jackson, as it did involve him when it was afterwards
taken by the publication of the * appeal.' This he was for obvious
reasons anxious to avoid — for which purpose the only resource (if
any existed) was the interdiction of the publication of what he had
already said and the refusal to add further disclosures, on the ground
of the sanctity due to Cabinet proceedings. By this course the reve-
lation of the disturbing proceedings would, at the worst, be left to
chance, and if Hamilton, after it had slept for two years, had not
shown Forsyth's letter to Lewis manifestly as a matter of curiosity,
that revelation might never have been made.

This was the construction ultimately placed by most disinterested
and fair minds upon all the assertions and inuendoes, statements and
counterstatements in the case, and the conviction became general that
what plotting there was had been directed by other hands and aimed
at the destruction of a different individual. In all my subsequent po-
litical contests the charge of concocting and engineering that famous
conspiracy was never revived against me, unless the vague and remote
allusions on the occasion of the rejection of my nomination as Minis-
ter to England — when the use of the charge was in keeping with its
original object, may be considered such a revival.

I did not see any of the papers contained in Mr. Calhoun's pam-
phlet be fore, its public appearance in February 1831, but had, in the
way I have described, received general impressions in respect to their
contents. Our intercourse, consequently, became daily more and more
formal and ceased altogether after I had read that work. From that
time until the extra-session of Congress in September 1837, a period
of between six and seven years, our relations were those of undis-
guised hostility. At that session he supported the principle and the
recommendations of my Message to Congress openly, ably, and with-
out reserve. This was no holiday determination, promising recrea-
tion and ease. The doctrines to the support of which ho thus com-
mitted himself unavoidably involved him in the internecine war with
the Money-Power of the Country — a power by which he had been as
well in the early as in the later periods of his political career, not a
little petted — and he encountered the hazards and toils of that strug-
gle upon the official invitation of a President with whom he was not

0 ms. iv, p. no.

390 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

and had not been for nearly seven years upon speaking terms. I
appreciated and expressed, on all fitting occasions, my respect for
and admiration of his noble bearing. But it could work no change
in our personal relations, until the gulf which he had created, as has
been described, between us should be bridged by a satisfactory con-
cession of the injustice which had been done to me. No one under-
stood better than he or was more sensible of the propriety of my
course in avoiding the slightest advance towards a personal recon-
ciliation. Altho' prepared in his feelings to take the first step in
that direction himself he deferred doing so for more than two years
for reasons which he assigned on the floor of the Senate in reply to
Mr. Clay's insinuations upon the subject which shall be hereafter
noticed. At the session of 1839-'40, soon after my Message had been
sent in, William H. Roane, one of the Senators from Virginia and a
worthy son of Spencer Roane, Jefferson's confidential and devoted
friend, asked an interview for the special purpose of conversing with
me upon the subject of the existing personal relations between Mr.
Calhoun and myself. The substance of his communication was that
on their way to Washington Mr. Calhoun had told him that he
thought the time had arrived to put an end to the non-intercourse
which had so long existed between us and that he had outlived his
prejudices against me and was ready to make proper advances to that
end, — that agreeing in politics and engaged as we both were in the
support of a great public question such a course, in respect to our
personal relations, was in his judgment demanded by public consid-
erations of an imperative character, — that altho' he did not expect to
find anything in it to change his views he would prefer to see my
forthcoming Message before any step was taken in the matter, but
after that he wished Mr. Roane, if not otherwise instructed, to com-
municate to me what had passed between them, and if the course
referred to was agreeable to me, he and Mr. Roane would make me
a friendly visif, and, in that way, accomplish the object in view, and
he thought this would be best done without referring to the past.
I accepted the proposition with unaffected cordiality, and named the
time at which I would receive them. They called and as we shook
hands, Mr. Calhoun, in a few well chosen terms, repeated what he
had said to Mr. Roane, which, being replied to in the same spirit, was
succeeded by general conversation upon the topics of the day.

Mr. Calhoun's separation from the party at the head of which
stood Clay and Webster after having so long acted with them in
opposition to Gen. Jackson's Administration, excited their ill-will,
as is usual in such cases. He was fiercely attacked for his course
by Mr. Clay on two occasions. The first was in February 1838,
when the Independent Treasury Bill passed the Senate, and the

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUREN. 891

next in December 1889, when the personal reconcilation between Mr.
Calhoun and myself became publicly known. The debates on both
occasions have been carefully and impartially reported by Co].
Benton in the second volume of his Thirty Tear's View, and are un-
usually interesting, the lines of attack and defence extending to
the entire political lives of both Senators gnd exhibiting on both
sides thorough preparation and extraordinary ability.

On the first occasion the previous personal relations between
Mr. Calhoun and myself had been harshly commented upon, as
respected the former, at the very threshhold of the debate but the
reconciliation had not then taken place. When that became pub-
lic Mr. Clay forthwith lugged it into the discussions of the Senate.

Mr. Calhoun brought forward a Bill authorizing the cession
of certain portions of the public lands, which he had introduced
before any of the occurrences here referred to, notwithstanding
which fact, Mr. Clay enquired of him whether the measure now
brought forward was favored by the Administration and based
the enquiry upon the rumored change which had recently taken
place in the personal relations that had so long existed between
the Senator and the President. This was followed by a succes-
sion of thrustings and parryings upon various points, spirited, and
not wanting in an undertone of bitterness. After some protesting
against the indecorum of Mr. Clay's course in dragging his per-
sonal relations before the Senate, Mr. Calhoun felt himself con-
strained by his persevering personality to enter into an explana-
tion of what had taken place between us so far as that had any
public bearing, and it is due to him that I should give it in his
own words.

I will assure the senator, If there were pledges in his case, there were none
in mine. I have terminated my Ions-suspended personal intercourse with the
President, without the slightest pledge, understanding, or compromise, on
either side. I would be the last to receive or exact such. The transition
from their former to their present personal relation was easy and natural,
requiring nothing of the kind. It gives me pleasure to say, thus openly, that
I have approved of all the leading measures of the President, since he took
the Executive chair, simply because they accord with the principles and policy
on which I have long acted, and often openly avowed. The change, then, in
onr personal relations, had simply followed that of our political. Nor was it
made suddenly, as the senator charges. So far from It, more than two years
have elapsed since I gave a decided support to the leading measure of the
Executive, and on which almost all others since have turned. This long In-
terval was permitted to pass, in. order that his acts might give assurance
whether there was a coincidence between our political views as to the principles
on which the government should be administered, before our personal relations
should be changed. I deemed it due to both thus long to delay the change,
among other reasons to discountenance such idle rumors as the senator
nlludes to. That his political course might be Judged (said Mr. Calhoun) by
the object he had in view, and not the suspicion and jealousy of his political

394 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

then thought of the latter save as a busy applicant for the second,
few evinced a preference for Mr. Calhoun's nomination for the
first place. It turned out, on the contrary, that the mass of the
party — certainly two thirds and probably three fourths of its mem-
bers— considering that they had, in 1840, with absolute unanimity,
approved the principles upon which I had administered the Gov-
ernment, and had, with equal accord, nominated me for re-election,
and that I had been defeated almost without reference to the
soundness or unsoundness of those principles but thro9 the instru-
mentalities and debauncheries of a political Saturnalia, in which rea-
son and justice had been derided, deemed it due to the honor of
their cause that the reproach of that defeat should be effaced, when
they had recovered their ascendancy in the popular vote, under an
organization similar to that which had been subjected to it, and
• that this desirable object required my nomination. In their avowals
of that opinion personal preferences appear to have had little
weight. They were the expression of the conviction of a great
party in respect to what was due to its own character and im-
portant to its future usefulness and such a decision was entitled
to respect and acquiescence on the part of the minority. I had no
right to withhold my consent to the action by which it proposed
to effect that object when satisfied that its course had been deter-
mined upon fairly and its wishes unmistakably pronounced. A
letter was addressed to me at an early period in the canvass by
Mr. Henry Horn, a distinguished democrat from Pennsylvania,
calling for my decision of that very question. My answer was,
and it could have been no other, that, whilst I would take no steps
to promote my own nomination, I would not deny the use of my
name to the Democratic party if it was required. This answer
was published.1

Mr. Calhoun was opposed to my renomination, and at once took
the field to defeat it. The first intimation I had of his determina-
tion was derived through a family affair and was not on that ac-
count less convincing to my mind. In the winter of 1842 I visited
the South and was engaged to pass a few weeks at the residence
of Col. Singleton, in South Carolina; that gentleman being the
father-in-law of my eldest son and standing in the same relation
to Mr. McDuffie, the early and abiding friend of Mr. Calhoun. On
the>invitation of Col. Singleton, Mr. McDuffie, who had, in letters
written to me for that purpose, applauded the course of my Ad-
ministration in the strongest terms, agreed, long before I left home,

to meet me on the occasion of my visit, but he did not come altho'

— - — - ■ ■ - - --■■ . .-» ..-. ---.-.- — ■ ■ - -~ i

1 Horn's letter of 1841. Not. 13, and Van Buren's reply, Nor. 86, are In the Van Tturen
Papers. Thp reply wa« printed In the \fa*hvUle Union, 1842, Feb. 6.

AUTOBIOGBAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUREN. 895

/

expected from day to day and his non-arrival gave rise to much
disappointment and to various conjectures as to its cause. I did
not think proper to enlighten my worthy host, altho' I well under-
stood the circumstance to be an evidence of Mr. Calhoun's deter-
mination, and however I might and did deprecate a new rupture
in that quarter I could only regret it. Mr. Calhoun's friends in
Charleston, in addition to many other acts of unaffected personal
kindness, united with some gentlemen who were politically well
disposed towards me, independently of his views, in inviting me
to a public dinner which I declined, in conformity with my in-
variable practice. He continued his opposition in various ways,
one of which will necessarily be referred to in speaking of another
matter, until my name was withdrawn from the National Conven-
tion when his friends, who had until that time attended it as spec-
tators, had their names entered as delegates from South Carolina
and took part in its action.

Whilst it would be idle to deny that the agreeable feelings excited
by the reconciliation which had succeeded to many years of enmity,
between Mr. Calhoun and myself, were somewhat blunted by these
transactions I still do myself the justice to say that they were not
eradicated. I could -not with justice impute to him much blame,
after his long and, having regard to what is considered the ultima
Thvle of political life, adverse career, for wishing to prevent a
nomination the defeat of which ° might enure to his own advance-
ment, and I knew of no steps taken by him to promote his wishes
the employment of which would not, as the world goes, have been
deemed allowable. I saw therefore no cause of personal hostility
in his course neither was any such feeling engendered in my breast,
although, from 1844 to the period of his death, there was no inter-
course between us.

This whole affair was perhaps as satisfactorily disposed of as
could be expected among eager and excited politicians. All that
remains to be done in respect to it and to kindred matters of a
common origin, such as nullification and the rejection of my nom-
ination as Minister to England, none of which would, in all prob-
ability, have ever arisen, certainly not at that time, but for the
Eaton imbroglio j and in most of which Mr. Calhoun was a promi-
nent actor, is that the facts in respect to them should be well ascer-
tained and correctly recorded.

* MS. IV, p. «0.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

These transactions and questions possess an interest beyond the
actors in them and the times in which thev arose. That of which
1 am now writing was a political quarrel between the highest officers
of the Republic in which, altho' an attempt was made on one side
to make its injurious consequences fall on an humbler head, the
principals appeared in proper person, and it involved a review of
the conduct of a public war in respect to acts of grave importance
affecting the rights and, as it was supposed, the honor of a third
Power. Another — South Carolina nullification — brought to the test
the construction of the Federal Constitution upon a point vital to
the existence of the Government and from the desperation of the
contest to which it gave birth exposed the Federal Union to greater
peril than any which it has at any other time encountered. The
next was an attempt by a controlling part of one of the great
branches of the Federal Government to humiliate and degrade its
representative at one of the first Courts in Europe, performing his
official duties in the presence of similar representatives from all
the civilized States of the world — to do this upon pretences which
not only were discountenanced, as will be seen, so far as was allow-
able, by the Government to which he was accredited and condemned
by all just and liberal foreigners whose attention was directed to
them, but were denounced by a majority of the People of the United
States, by whom the intended victim was raised to the first place
in the Government whilst the authors of the attempt were ever
afterwards excluded from their confidence when they acted in their
highest function of selecting the Chief Magistrate of the Republic.

These things occurred in the face of the world. They belong to
history and those who from time to time are moved to carry for-
ward the work of history will pay their respects to them whether
the actors or their representatives do so or not We have seen in
our day that the power of truth and the progress of liberal ideas
have broken down the barriers behind which it was the custom to
keep hidden the secrets of States and Statesmen, ahd have established
the rule that they shall at proper times, and having regard to the
feelings of the actors, be brought into view, and that accordingly the
private papers of our public men, which were deemed to possess any
interest, have been unreservedly given to the public. When these
sheets see the light, if they ever do so, the time will have arrived
for the application of these principles to the transactions of which

396

ATJTOBIOGBAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 897

I am speaking, without ground of complaint on the part of any.
Altho' my narrative combines the disadvantages of being told by a
party interested in the scenes I describe, with the advantages of
having been a contemporary and eye witness, I aim only to do justice
on all sides under the guidance of the first and fundamental law of
history as declared by Cicero, that " it should neither dare to say
anything that is false, nor fear to say anything that is true."

The "Plot" having exploded, the brochure got up by the Con-
gressional printer (Duff Green) and hawked about by Congressional
messengers, lay on public and private tables a Caput mortuum
exciting little feeling other than pity for the weakness in which
it was engendered. I might be pardoned a momentary feeling of
exaltation when I saw my bitter and remorseless enemies struggling
in the toils which they had prepared for my destruction ; I certainly
had reason to rejoice that so fitting an opportunity had been pre*
sented to place my conduct — such as it really had been on an occasion
which might have offered strong temptations to an intriguing poli-
tician— fairly before the Country and to contrast it with the un-
tiring machinations against me. This was a point of peculiar
importance, as the efforts to fasten impressions upon the popular
mind of a capacity and disposition on my part for political intrigue
had met with a greater degree of success than had attended other
calumnious assaults upon my character, and to have the falsity of
charges of this description so satisfactorily demonstrated at a mo-
ment when those impressions were upon the point of doing me the
greatest harm was both useful and gratifying.

Nor was the prospect of the personal and political advantages to
be derived from my continuance in office without allurements. The
Eaton affair, which had beeii the plague spot of Administration dur-
ing two years past, had lost its interest or suffered eclipse,'and offered
no further embarrassment which might not be ended, if it became
expedient, by sending the immediate parties on a foreign mission, as
was afterwards done, and the so considered refractory members of
the Cabinet might have been left in possession of the pageantry of
their official positions so long as they did not, by complicity with its
enemies, obstruct the course of the Administration, or they might
have been dismissed, without the slightest disturbance, when they
did so.

There seemed, indeed, no insurmountable. obstacle so far as related
to the Executive branch of the Government to the further prosecu-
tion of the idea to which I have before referred as one which had
taken fbll possession of my thoughts from the time I became thor-
oughly acquainted with Gen. Jackson's qualities and with his power
over the public mind, namely, to essay how far the political capital
thus furnished — the greater, all things considered, than had been

398 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

possessed by any previous Administration — might be successfully
employed in the acquisition of public advantages which, under less
potential auspices I would have justly regarded as hopeless. Never-
theless the interval between the publication of Mr. Calhoun's Corre-
spondence and ' appeal ' and my resignation of the office of Secretary
of State was clouded by doubt and anxiety in regard to my future
course. Through the transactions of which I have spoken and the
strong emotions excited by them in the breast of Gen. Jackson my
position had become, in the phrase of the day, that of heir apparent
to the succession. I needed no more than my experience for the past
two years, confirmed by that of Messrs. Adams and Clay, to satisfy
me of the great evils to which an Administration was exposed whose
chief Cabinet officer occupied that position. They were of a nature
impossible to escape the eyes of any but the foolhardy and blindly
ambitious. It was not safe to found hopes of exemption from them
on the examples of success in such situations furnished by the earlier
periods of the Government. In those days the selection of candi-
dates was confined to comparatively few individuals and the repub-
lican party was not the theatre for Presidential intrigues upon any
thing like the same scale as that since in vogue. No degree of absti-
nence or discretion on the part of the Minister plausibly suspected
of aiming at the succession could protect an Administration thus
encumbered from, the assaults to which he would inevitably expose it
Whether he availed himself of his position to intrigue for his
advancement or not he would be charged with doing so by thousands
who would believe him guilty of it and by other thousands in the
ranks of the supporters of the Administration who would think
themselves interested in spreading such a belief. Thus the design of
working for my own elevation at the expiration of Gen. Jackson's
first term Was freely imputed to me whilst I solemnly affirm that I
had been a steady advocate of his re-election and was exerting myself
at the time to put down movements that were attempted in my behalf.
Near the close of the first year of the Administration, in reply
to some givings out in my favor by Major Noah, of the New York
Courier and Enquirer — an editor proverbially imprudent and who
in the sequel became worse — the Telegraph stated as follows: "We
know that no one is more opposed to the agitation of that question
[that of the succession] than Mr. Van Buren, and that he permits
no fit opportunity of discountenancing and discouraging it to pass
by unimproved." Without enquiry into the motives of this appar-
ently friendly statement, the course of events makes it proper to
say that it was made before the establishment of the uO!oben and
before matters were ripe for an attack on me — perhaps before such
a step was contemplated* It wts at all events, at a tune when the

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 899

editor of the Telegraph hazarded nothing in ° saying about me what
he honestly believed to be true, but no sooner had war been declared
in form by Mr. Calhoun than my desire to precipitate the question
in regard to the succession and my intrigues to secure my own ele-
vation at the end of Gen. Jackson's first term were his daily themes.
When I come to speak of my first nomination for the Presidency
I will have occasion to refer to circumstances which will place my
entire course upon this subject beyond the reach of cavil. Altho1
it was not in his power to lay his hand upon a shred or semblance
of evidence to show that my conduct upon the point in question had
varied in the slightest degree, yet his views of his own interests
having changed and the period having arrived for the development
of projects which had been for some time in preparation, the ab-
sence and indeed non-existence of proof made no difference and I
knew that it would make no difference in future either with him
or with the affiliated presses of which he spoke to Mr. Duncanson,
or with the opposition press in general. That was the vantage
ground from which the attacks of all were to be made to the end
of the war, which if the general should be re-elected and should
live so long, was to last for a period of six years; a ground the
strength and efficacy of which were likely to be constantly in-
creased during that interval by the addition of new aspirants to
the Presidency from our own ranks and to be brought to bear upon
Congress, the press, the people and wherever else such aspirants
might hope to discover recruits. In my cordial aversion to being
made the cauBe of such a warfare upon the Administration of that
honest old man who had devoted the remnant of his life and
strength to the public service and upon the interests of the Country
committed to his charge, the idea originated of resigning the high
office to which I had been appointed. My inquietude was doubtless
increased sensibly by the reflection that I had been the object of
similar assaults before I came to Washington, and that I had hoped
by the change in my field of action to throw off the hounds by whom
personal character is hunted down. I was for many years, while
in the service of my state persistently charged with influencing the
action of the appointing power for my own advancement when I
was thoroughly conscious that there was not one among my cotem-
poraries who estimated as lightly as I did the advantages of such
appliances, or who was more disinclined by taste and by judgment
than myself to meddle in them. Such incessant defamation added
to the thousand vexations to which official station is otherwise ex-
posed wore upon my health and spirits to an extent which would
now be deemed incredible by such of my associates as judged only

* MS. IV, p. 66.

400 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

from what they saw of me in public, but which nevertheless made
me at times heartily sick of public life; so much 90 that I often
determined, during successive winters, to throw up the offices I held,
in the spring and to confine my future exertions to my profession.
These resolutions as they were from time to time formed were the
subject of discussions in my family and occasionally communicated
to my friends; the latter however did not believe in them, and I
had perhaps no right to expect them to do so as, thro' causes more
easily appreciated than described, I myself had so often contra-
dieted my professions by my action when the time arrived for
carrying them into effect. They were notwithstanding always sin-
cere. Of the frequent occasions on which I was thus 4 seriously
inclined ' one occurs to my recollection as I write to which I will
refer. Whilst holding the offices of State Senator and Attorney
General, I was one afternoon about to return to Albany from
Schenectady whither I had been called by business. I found Colonel
Aaron Burr at the hotel enquiring for a conveyance to Albany and
as I travelled in my own carriage I offered him a seat. The period
was after his return from Europe and when his fortunes were at
their lowest ebb. Our drive occupied us till a late hour of the even-
ing during which I was entertained much by his free, caustic and
characteristic observations. Whilst sounding me in regard to my
political expectations, of which he was pleased to say complimen-
tary things, I surprised him by the remark that I thought of giving
up politics and of devoting myself to my profession and that with
that view I meant to resign my place in the Senate in the ensuing
spring. He was curious to know my reasons and I gave them in the
spirit I have here indicated. After a brief reflection he answered,
44 Sir ! you have gone too far to retreat The only alternative left
to you is to kick or to be kicked, and as you are not fool enough
to prefer the latter you will not resign !"

CHAPTER XXIX.

My career in State politics had been in general successful and in the
end signally such. After competing for a quarter of a century, the
greater part of the time as the undisputed leader of my party in my
County and State, with such men as De Witt Clinton, Ambrose
Spencer, Abraham Van Vechten, William W. and William P. Van
Ness, Elisha Williams, Thomas P. Grosvenor, Thomas J. Oakley,
John Duer, Chancellor Jones, David B. Ogden, Harry Croswell,
Solomon Southwick and William Colden, mutatis uvutandiSj I left
the service of the State for that of the Federal Government with
my friends in full and almost unquestioned possession of the State
Government in all its branches, at peace with each other and over-
flowing with kindly feelings towards myself, and not without hope
that I might in the sequel by good conduct be able to realize similar
results in the enlarged sphere of action to which I was called. I
soon found, however, that in respect to the practicability of carrying
into effect the best intentions there was a peculiar difference be-
tween the two systems, which young Statesmen will do well to bear
in mind. Whilst the public functionary connected with the State
Government acts almost under the eyes of and in constant inter-
course with those who are the judges of his actions and consequently
has full opportunity to enable them to appreciate his motives, under
the General Government the actions of the official are, with very
few exceptions, to be passed upon by men a vast majority of whom
can have no personal knowledge on the subject and who must weigh
his conduct at a distance and decide from report. Having learned
to estimate at its true value this important distinction and con-
vinced by experience and observation of the aggravated effects which
it promised to long continued harping upon the old theme, even
false as it was, I felt that my success was at least doubtful. It should
be borne in mind that in the days when this conclusion was arrived
at respect was yet maintained for the obligation of Government to
preserve the purity of the elective franchise, or as declared by Pres-
ident Jackson in his Inaugural address, to eschew " bringing the
patronage of the Government into conflict with the freedom of
elections." My apprehensions might well be derided at the present
time when the contrary practices are indulged in by all parties with
a license that contemns both right and decency and which threatens,
if not seasonably arrested, to subvert our institutions.

127483°— vol 2— 2Q 26 401

402 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Having accepted a high and responsible official trust, I was duly
conscious that I was not at liberty to permit personal considerations
to control my course in resigning it, and I certainly did hot design
to do so. The success of Gen. Jackson's Administration and his
own tranquillity and comfort were to be promoted, in my judgment,
by that step, nevertheless views and considerations of self obtruded
themselves in all my deliberations in regard to it; it was not pos-
sible to exclude them altogether and to say how far I was influenced
by them would require a greater proficiency in self-knowledge than
I pretend to. They at all events mitigated the sacrifice involved in
the course on which I decided when stimulated afresh by the plots,
intrigues and calumnies by which I had been for two years sur-
rounded, I recurred to my often formed and often abandoned reso-
lution to retire from the political field.

This is as full and as correct a view as it is, at this late day, in
my power to give of the opinions and feelings under which I re-
signed the office of Secretary of State, a step which, from its being
at the time entirely unexpected, produced much excitement, which
my opponents found or affected to find impossible to comprehend,
and which my friends did me the honor to regret It has seemed
to me, under present circumstances, proper to give it, whether it
may be deemed of a nature to attract approval or disapproval, to
qualify, or to confirm the opinion heretofore formed of my conduct
on the occasion.

The only inmate of my household at the time, besides the servants,
was my son Colonel Van Buren, to° whom alone I confided my in-
tention and who after hearing my reasons, unhesitatingly concurred
in them, notwithstanding the professional and social advantages
which he derived from my official position and residence and which
surrounded him with strong inducements to regret the step I was
about to take. A fit occasion to break the matter to the President
was only waited for and that I looked to find during one of our
frequent rides. Several however occurred and passed by without
my having had the heart to broach the subject and as I returned
from each with the business undisposed of I was received with a
good humoured laugh at my expense by my son. My hesitation
arose exclusively from my apprehension, I may say consciousness
of the pain the communication would give to the General. On one
occasion we were overtaken by a severe thunder storm which com-
pelled us to take shelter in a small tavern near the race course, and
to remain there several hours. His spirits were on that day much
depressed and on our way out he spoke feelingly of the condition
to which he had been reduced in his domestic establishment, Major

• MS. IV, p. 70.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 408

Donelson and the ladies and children, of whom he was exceedingly
fond, having, some time before, fled to Tennessee to avoid the Eaton
malaria, leaving Major Lewis his only companion in the Presi-
dential Mansion. I have scarcely ever known a man who placed
a higher value upon the enjoyments of the family circle or who
suffered more from interruptions of harmony in his own; feelings
which are more striking in view of the fact I have mentioned before
that not a drop of his own blood flowed in the veins of a single mem-
ber of it But they were generally the near relatives of a wife whose
memory he revered. Observing his unusual seriousness I said little
to him during our detention and spent much of the time in an ad-
joining room conversing with an intelligent farmer of the neigh-
bourhood who had been driven to the same shelter by the storm.
When the rain ceased we remounted, and, as the weather was still
lowering, soon took to a brisk canter. We had not gone far when
his horse slipped on the wet road and threatened to fall or to throw
his rider. I was near enough to seize the bridle and thus to assist
him in regaining his footing. As he recovered his seat, the General
exclaimed quickly " You have possibly saved my life, Sir !" I said
that I did not regard the danger he had escaped in so grave a light,
yet congratulated myself on the service whatever might have been
its degree, to which he answered in broken and half audible sen-
tences which I understood to import that he was not certain
whether his escape from death, if it was one, was, under existing
circumstances, worthy of much congratulation. Neither the in-
cidents of this day nor the General's frame of mind invited me
to make the communication which I still kept in store for him.

We subsequently started earlier than usual and with charming
weather bent our course up the Potomac river. After passing George-
town I missed one of my gloves and begging him to go on returned
to look for it. On remounting after finding it, and putting my horse
to a gallop to overtake my companion I resolved that I would break
the subject of my resignation to him forthwith. We were just turn-
ing from the Potomac road towards Tenally Town and he was ex-
pressing a more cheerful and sanguine view of our prospects of re-
lief from domestic broils, saying, with confidence that " we should
soon have peace in Israel," when I replied u No ! General, there is
but one thing can give you peace." He asked quickly "What is that,
Sir? " to which I answered — " My resignation ! " Thirty years have
passed since that day and still I recall to mind the start and the
earnest look with which he received the words as vividly as if the
scene had occurred yesterday. u Never, Sir ! M he said solemnly,
u even you know little of Andrew Jackson if you suppose him capable
of consenting to such a humiliation of his friend by his enemies/'

404 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

I was myself not a little confused by the warmth and vehemence
of his exclamation, but after a few moments of silence to recom-
pose my thoughts I returned to the subject His expressions applied,
as it was natural they should in the first instance, to the personal
aspect and bearing of the suggestion. The idea presented to his
mind was that of sacrificing his friend to appease the clamor of his
enemies than which nothing could be more revolting to his feelings.
I therefore hastened to say that my faith in the extent and sincerity
of his friendship had no limits — that I knew as well as I knew any-
thing that he would sooner endure any degree of personal or official
injustice and persecution than consent to my leaving the Cabinet for
any object or for any reasons save such as were by the obligations of
honor and of patriotism made binding upon both of us; that he
would immediately perceive that our personal feelings and interests
were not worthy of consideration, under the circumstances in which
we found ourselves, when compared with the greater question of
what we both and especially what, from the higher character of the
trusts he had assumed, he owed to the Country and to the people
whose agents we were. Undoubtedly there were many and important
points to be calmly and carefully reviewed before we could hope to
arrive at a correct conclusion on the main question, and I assured
him that I had not ventured to disturb his feelings by the suggestion
I had made without having long and anxiously considered it in
every possible aspect and that, if he would give me a patient hearing,
I thought I could satisfy him that the course I had pointed to was
perhaps the only safe one open to us. He agreed to hear me but
in a manner and in terms affording small encouragement as to the
success of my argument. I proceeded for four hours, giving place
only to brief interrogations from him, to present in detail the rea-
sons upon which my suggestion was founded, extending to a careful
and, as far as I was able, a clear review of the public interests and
of our own duties and feelings involved in the matter. In the course
of it we passed without notice the Tenally Town gate, always before
the limit of our rides in that direction, and did not reach home until
long after our usual dinner hour. He heard me throughout not only
with patience but with deep interest. In returning he asked me what
were my own views, as to the future, if he should accept my resigna-
tion. I replied that I would return to the practice of my profession,
but he instantly declared that such a result, or any that would be
matter of triumph to our enemies would be an insuperable objection
with him whatever might be his conclusion on the views of the prin-
cipal question which I had presented to him and by which he con-
fessed that his first impressions had been weakened. In this connec-
tion the English Mission was spoken of as probably the best moans

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTTN VAN BUREN. 405

of carrying out his wishes if he should persist in them, and either
then or subsequently I brought to his notice my understanding of the
acceptance of that appointment as a virtual abandonment of any
expectation or hope my friends might otherwise entertain on the
subject of my accession to the Presidency. I begged him not to
speak of my proposed resignation to any person, not excepting
Lewis and Eaton, as it would be very undesirable to have it known, in
case of failure, that such a wish had been entertained. He took my
hand, at parting, and said that I had given him much to think of
and that I must come over after dinner and discuss the subject
again deliberately.

I had an engagement for the evening but promised to see him
in the morning. When I called at the White House, on the follow-
ing day my mind was not free from serious misgivings. The Presi-
dent had from the ingenuousness of his nature seemed to yield to
the obvious force of the truth as I had spread it before him, but
his concessions had been so evidently against his inclinations that
I feared they would not be found to have kept their ground thro'
the watches of the night. I had no sooner entered his room than
1 saw a confirmation of my apprehensions in the usual signs of a
sleepness night, and on my expressing a hope that the propriety of
roy suggestion the previous day had been strengthened in his opinion
by subsequent reflection he regarded me with an expression of coun-
tenance not indeed indicative of anger or excitement but on the con-
trary unusually formal and passionless, and said " Mr. Van Buren,
I have made it a rule thro' life never to throw obstacles in the way
of any man who, for reasons satisfactory to himself, desires to leave
me, and I shall not make your case an exception." Without giving
him time to say more, I rose from my chair and standing directly
before him replied in substance that the matter had taken the turn
I most feared and the apprehension of which had so often deterred
me from broaching it; that he had allowed himself under the ex-
citements and embarrassments of the moment to suspect that I was
influenced by anticipations of the failure of his Administration and
by a wish to escape in season from the consequences; that in this
he had wronged my disposition and entirely misconceived my mo-
tives ; ° that I had never felt wish more strongly than I wished then
that I had a window in my breast through which he might read
my inmost thoughts, but as that was vain and as words on such
an occasion would have little value I could only oppose my actions
to his distrust. "Now, Sir!" I concluded, "Come what may, I
shall not leave your Cabinet until you shall say, of your own motion,
and without reference to any supposed interests or feelings of mine,

• MS. IV, p. 7C.

406 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

that you are satisfied that it is best for us to part I shall not only
stay with you, but, feeling that I have now performed my whole
duty in this particular, I shall stay with pleasure and perform with
alacrity whatever it may become proper for me to do." He seized
my hand, and exclaimed " You must forgive me, my friend, I have
been too hasty in my conclusions — I know I have — say no more about
it now, but come back at one o'clock — we will take another long
ride and talk again in a better and calmer state of mind." I found
him with his usual punctuality already mounted at the hour ap-
pointed. We went again over the whole subject — he taking the parol
and I contenting myself with full answers to his inquiries but
pressing nothing. On our return he asked my permission to con-
sult with Post Master General Barry to which I agreed adding a
similar consent in respect to Major Eaton and Lewis. On the follow-
ing day he told me that they had considered the matter together
and had all come to the conclusion that I was right; that they were
to be with him in the evening and he wished me to join them. Before
leaving home I ordered supper to be prepared intending to bring
them back with me, and after an hour or two with the President
we adjourned to my house. Up to this time the idea of Eaton's
resignation had not been thought of by any one as far as I
knew or had reason to believe. It was a consummation devoutly to
be wished but one I would have assumed to be hopeless and for that
reason, I suppose, had never given it a moment's entertainment, and
such wonld have continued to be the case if my attention had not been
called to it by himself. Moreover I never doubted, as I have else-
where said and as the result proved, that my resignation would
disarm hostility to him and would thus answer every necessary
purpose. On the way to my house the Secretary of War suddenly
stopped us and addressed us nearly in these words: "Gentlemen,
this is all wrong ! Here we have a Cabinet so remarkable that it has
required all of the General's force of character to carry it along —
there is but one man in it who is entirely fit for his place, and we
are about consenting that he should leave it !" Eaton's open hearted
disposition and blunt style left no doubt that he said exactly what
he thought, but the only answer he received was a loud laugh from
the rest of the party. After getting within doors he recurred to
the matter and asked "Why should you resign? I am the man
about whom all the trouble has been made and therefore the one
who ought to resign." His remarks again passed without particular
notice, as the subject in that view of it was not free from delicacy.

At supper, however, he spoke of it again and, appearing some-
what hurt that his previous observation had not produced a re-
sponse from either of us, said that he was so well satisfied that

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 407

he was the person who ought to resign, if any one, that he would
do so in any event. I then excused myself for having omitted
to notice his previous intimations on the ground that as his resig-
nation had not been spoken of or thought of before, I had regarded
his remark as a matter of civility to myself, but it being now
evident that he was in earnest I said he must permit me to ask,
whilst knowing that he would do in the business what he thought
proper, what Mrs. Eaton would think of such a movement as he
proposed. He answered promptly that he knew she would highly
approve of it We then discussed the President's probable dis-
position in regard to it, and it was upon my suggestion, arranged
that we should meet again at supper, at my house, the next evening
and that Major Eaton should in the mean time talk the matter over
with his wife and report to us. His report fully confirmed his
statement and it was forthwith agreed that we should both resign
with General Jackson's consent, which was obtained on the fol-
lowing day. Eaton's resignation was dated before mine because
he preferred to have it so, but this is a correct narrative of the
entire proceedings. I promised the President to accept the English
Mission if I did not after consulting with my friends, give him
satisfactory reasons for declining it, and among my correspondence
will be found some letters from them upon the subject. In my
letter of resignation1 I placed the step upon the grounds herein
set forth, saying in effect that the difficulties and embarrassments
which I described could in no way be gotten rid of save by my
resignation, or disfranchisement — that was by declaring, in a man-
ner to obtain belief and to secure compliance, that I would under
no circumstances accept the office of President, declarations which,
all other considerations apart, I did not think it becoming in me
to make : — a statement which my opponents affected to find difficult
to comprehend.

Some time after our resignations were published — according to
my recollection just before my departure from Washington and long
enough after her husband's relinquishment of office to make her sen-
sible of the change in her position, the President and myself having
extended our walk as far as the residence of Mrs. Eaton, paid her a
visit. Our reception was to the last degree formal and cold, and
what greatly surprised me was that the larger share of the chilling
ingredient in her manner and conversation fell to the General. Since
my first acquaintance with her there had been no time when such a
change towards myself would have very much astonished me. We
staid only long enough to enable us to judge whether this exhibition

»Apr. 11, 1831, autograph draft la In the Van Ruren Papers. Jackson's acceptance
of the resignation, dated Apr. 12 is also In the Van Buren Papers.

408 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

was that of a passing freak or a matured sentiment, and after we had
fairly quitted the house, I said to my companion — " There has been
some mistake here." His only reply was "It is strailge" with a
shrug. As the topic was obviously not attractive it was dropped,
but I was satisfied that our brief interview had been sufficient to
convince him that in his past anxiety on her account he had at least
overrated her own sensibilities.

CHAPTER XXX.

Among the interesting and critical questions encountered by the
Administration of Gen. Jackson, altho' not disposed of before I left
Washington, the most important was that involved in the principle
of nullification set up by South Carolina and acted upon by that
State to an alarming extent but finally abandoned in consequence of
the firm stand taken by the Federal Government under the direction
of the President. To do justice to the principal actors on both sides
of that profoundly exciting question it is necessary to look back not
only to the opening scenes of the Administration but to a still earlier
period. Mr. Calhoun was without doubt deeply moved on the subject
of the tariff laws and particularly so during the year 1828, which
was that of the election of Gen. Jackson to the Presidency and also
of the extravagant tariff bill passed the preceding winter. I had
opportunities to witness the extent and to become satisfied of the
sincerity of his solicitude. He walked me again and again around
the Capitol and through the streets of Washington, after it was
known that I intended to resign my seat in the Senate to become a
candidate of the office of Governor of New York, pressing the sub-
ject on my attention and evincing, as I thought, a morbid sensibility
in regard to it.

With my hands tied by the instructions and well understood
sense of my State, notwithstanding my individual repugnance to the
whole system I could only inculcate patience and forbearance, advice
which it was very evident fell upon unwilling ears. He was doubt-
less at that time brooding over some energetic movement by which
the then course of legislation might be arrested in a way in which
he would be less harassed by difficulties arising from his own past,
action on the subject.

Democratic Administrations have always found the tariff, a per-
plexing question. The protective system was not in harmony with
the unbiased feelings of a large majority of the democratic party
but portions of it too important to be neglected were so hampered
by the pressure and clamor of local and special interests as to make
decided hostility to it on their part very hazardous and in some
instances necessarily fatal to their power. These considerations
whilst they promised advantage to the opposition in the agitation

409

410 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

of the subject, induced those Administrations to move with uniform
caution, and if nothing had occurred to disturb the harmony exist-
ing previous to the election between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun
they would have exerted, without doubt, a restraining influence
upon0 the movements of the latter, coming into his office of Vice
President as the expected successor of the former, the light in which
Col. Benton affirms, as of his own knowledge, that Gen. Jackson
then regarded him. But unfortunately for every interest grounds of
difference between them arose at the threshold of the General's gov-
ernment. These, altho' comparatively slight at first, received a
gradual but steady increase from well known causes until they pro-
duced a thorough estrangement and in the sequel supplanted with
undisguised hostility a once ardent friendship. Mr. Calhoun's in-
terest in the success of the Administration grew every day less until
a state of things arrived under which his chance for the succession
seemed only practicable through the overthrow of the power which
he had been instrumental in bringing into existence, and this con-
sideration doubtless influenced, perhaps controlled his action at the
moment. Having as he thought, and as I thought, justifiable ground
for the persevering employment of all constitutional methods for the
overthrow of a system which at that period had reached the sum-
mit of injustice he resolved to accomplish its destruction at all events
and by all the means he could command.

- In the state of mind to which he had been brought by long brood-
ing over the evils which, in his opinion, oppressed his section of
the country, and which seemed to become every day more intol-
erable, and unrestrained for the reasons I have given by the con-
templation of the hazards to which violent measures would expose
his political prospects, he declined to continue the discussion of the
points involved in the protective policy before the people, avowedly
hopeless of convincing the majority of its injustice and inexpe-
diency, but pronounced the argument exhausted and that the only
remedy, short of revolution, was to be found in State action under
a construction of the Federal Constitution devised for the occasion
'but which was claimed to have been acted upon before. He as-
sumed that no remedial measure could be worse than longer sub-
mission to the course of legislation on the subject. I need not say,
in the light of our subsequent experience, how wrong was this view
and how unwise this action. The prospect of success by persever-
ance in the argument was certainly not very encouraging, but it was
not hopeless. The right side of many previous important public
issues had worn even more unpromising aspects before the truth
finally prevailed. With so good a cause, addressing himself directly

• MS. IV, p. 80.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 411

to the principles of equity and the feelings of fraternity which were
then still strong in the breasts of his countrymen and easily stirred
to action, and confining his exertions within peaceful and consti-
tutional limits he had no right to despair of accomplishing his
object and he could not have failed to acquire high honor and
durable fame by his efforts. Fair success has since crowned such
efforts here, whilst in England it has been more signal still — the
protective policy, which was there, at the time, deemed as well set-
tled as the principles of Magna Charta and an integral part of the
British Constitution, having been completely overthrown and dis-
placed by free trade under the lead of a Statesman of genius and
energy far inferior to Mr. Calhoun, and using only the weapons of
Constitutional agitation of clear and practical demonstration and
of sincere and manly appeal.

But in that direction there was a lion in Mr. Calhoun's path
which he did not possess the right sort of courage to overcome. His
labours of the character suggested were liable to be enfeebled by the
consciousness that he was at every step obliged to eat his own words —
an employment specially unpleasant to one who prided himself
upon his consistency. There were not many of his contemporaries
who had done more to secure for the policy of protection a dura-
ble footing in our system than Mr. Calhoun. The proof of this
fact is abundantly furnished in our public archives. In thi£ re-
spect he stood prominent among those referred to by Mr. Hammond,

of South Carolina, in a late speech delivered at x a truly

great speech, discreet and true, honest and bold beyond any delivered
in modern days by a Southern man — when he said "the injuries
inflicted on the South have been mainly inflicted by her own am-
bitious factions and divided public men." Those l injuries' have
been — or have been so considered by herself — the Bank, Internal
Improvements by the Federal Government, the Protective system
and Slavery Agitation. The first and most disastrous, the Bank,
was brought forward by Mr. Calhoun, advocated by Cheves and
Lowndes * and other Southern leaders, and finally sanctioned by Mr.
Madison after it had, as was hoped, received its quietus by the
glorious casting vote of a Northern man — George Clinton. The
policy of Internal Improvement by the Federal Government was
indebted for its introduction into the legislation of Congress almost
exclusively to the persevering efforts of Southern men. It origi-
nated with Mr. Calhoun ardently backed by Mr. Clay; the latter,
in his zeal for its prosecution trying to rob the former of his thun-
der by engrafting Internal Improvements upon his American sys-

1 James n. Hammond at Barnwell Courthouse, S. C, Oct. 29, 1858.
•William J. Lowndes.

412 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

tern. Tucker,1 a Southern man, was Chairman of the Committee
by which it was brought before Congress with so. much eclat in
1818. Lowndes and a host of inferior Southern lights, sustained it,
and President Monroe yielded, after a struggle, his early and bet-
ter principles for its advancement. Of their agency in behalf of the
protective system, quite as much may be said and of Slavery agi-
tation we shall have a more appropriate place to speak, when it will
be seen that even there the force of Mr. Hammond's declaration will
not be found to fail.

If Mr. Calhoun had been blessed in a larger degree with that great-
ness of soul which finds gratification in the acknowledgment of
error — if he had said, openly and frankly, to his Northern brethren,
I contributed to the introduction of this principle of protection into
our legislation, believing that it would work to the general advantage,
but experience has shown that your section of the Country derives
advantages from it to which ours can never attain, that it, on the
contrary, enures to our injury, and that it bears within itself facilities
for its abuse not at first foreseen but which the love of money will
always induce those interested to seize upon to make bad worse, — if
with such declarations, the truth of which could not have been contro-
verted, he had appealed to the justice and fraternal feelings and obli-
gations of the North, perseveringly, in season and out of season, as
CotiHen appealed to the landed interest of England, he must have
established for himself an enviable renown and for his cause the full
assurance if not the immediate enjoyment of triumph. But he seemed
to attach as much importance to being consistent as to being right —
perhaps more, and a large and an unprofitable share of his time, I
say it with deference to his conceded and unquestionable abilities, was
spent in defending his successive positions by showing their con-
sistency with each other. For these and other reasons he was indis-
posed to trust himself in the beaten track but sought for a more
enterprising as well as a more striking course, one which would over-
top all past discussions and processes relating to this subject. In
this frame of mind his attention was naturally attracted to the mem-
orable proceedings of Jefferson, Madison, Taylor of Oaroline,Nicho-
las 2 and their compeers of Virginia and Kentucky in respect to the
alien and sedition laws, and his ambition, [was] as naturally, fired
by reflection upon the fame and influence which they contribute
even to those illustrious names. There is indeed no doubt that in
addition to a sincere desire to relieve his section from an offensive
tariff Mr. Calhoun's action was strongly stimulated by an eager
emulation, on behalf of himself, his political friends and the State
of South Carolina, of the honors awarded for those proceedings

1 Henry St. George Tucker.

i John Taylor and Wilion Cary Nicholas.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 413

to the Statesmen and to the States I have named, and if he and
his associates had adhered to the model by which they claimed to
be guided that laudable ambition might have been abundantly
gratified.

The anniversary of the birth-day of Thomas Jefferson, a most
appropriate day if such had been his design, was selected for the
commencement of the movements he had in view. The circum-
stances under which that day was, for the first time, seized upon
for special commemoration; the extent of the preparations that
were set on foot to give to the proposed festival extraordinary
celebrity and the names of the men most prominent in those prep-
arations contrasted with the ominous suddenness of their reverence
for the memory of Jefferson combined to attract the attention of
well informed bystanders and especially of those whose province
it was to see to the faithful execution of the laws. Neither the
President nor myself were inattentive observers of these signs, but
made them the subject of frequent conversations. Weighing them
in connection with the° ambiguous intimations to me and morbid
speculations of Mr. Calhoun in 1828, my mind was strongly im-
pressed with a belief that some irregular and unauthorized pro-
ceedings were contemplated which might menace the stability of
the Union. We were slow to believe that gentlemen with whom
the Virginia principles of Ninety Eight had, until quite recently,
been in very bad odor would have become on the instant cordially
disposed to carry them out in the pure and catholic spirit in which
they were originally adopted by that noble old Commonwealth, and
the suspicion was therefore irresistible that it was designed to use
the Virginia model and a mask or stalking horse, rather than as an
armor of defence; and we doubted the ability, even conceding the
desire, of some of Mr. Calhoun's associates, who shared largely in
his councils and who would be likely to take the lead when acts
of violence became the order of the day, to preserve sufficient self
control to keep themselves within the pale of the Constitution.

The subject was one which in every aspect required the utmost
prudence and circumspection on the part of the President, and
having both accepted invitations to the Dinner we agreed to meet
first at his office to consider the course proper for him to pursue
on the occasion. Major Donelson was the only other person present
at that meeting and became fully advised of every thing that was
said and. determined. The safety and propriety of virtually as-
suming by the character of the toast to be proposed by the President
that the proceedings and ceremonies of the day were portentous

of danger to the Union, and the question whether any advantage

■ % __ — - — _^

0 MS. IV, p. 86f

414 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

might be anticipated from his abrupt and defiant presentation of
himself as its ready guardian and Champion, were deliberately
considered and affirmatively decided. The form of his toast was
accordingly agreed upon and my own, which was expected to be
the third volunteer, was so constructed as to follow suit with his
in spirit and tenor. Thus armed we repaired to the dinner with
feelings on the part of the old Chief akin to those which would have
animated his breast if the scene of this preliminary skirmish in
defence of the Union had been the field of battle instead of the
festive board.

Less knowledge of the political characters of the men engaged in
getting up this drama and a very small degree of sagacity in the
interpretation of their movements would have been enough to satisfy
us of the justice of our suspicions that the convocation had been
designed for the advancement of a particular measure — that of nulli-
fication, rather than for the object that had been avowed, to wit, the
promotion of the general interests of our party. The prominent
features in the plan, as disclosed to the perception of any well in-
formed observer, were 1st to identify the principles of the measure
yet in embryo — but fore-shadowed in the toasts and proceedings —
with those of Virginia in her resistance to the alien and sedition
laws, and thus to arouse in their support the enthusiasm of her
representatives and people and of the advocates of the same princi-
ples in other States, and 2<Uy to conciliate Georgia with which State
South Carolina had long nourished hostile relations, by professing
to adopt principles upon which she had recently acted and by panegy-
rizing her public men.

A Virginian was placed in the Chair. Of the twenty-four regular
toasts all but six or seven spoke of Virginia and of Jefferson — refer-
ring to, describing and embracing political principles which he had
at different times avowed and to others which were known to consti-
tute parts of the political creed of the State. Gen. Hayne,1 of South
Carolina, spoke long and eloquently of the glorious stand taken by
Virginia in regard to the alien and sedition laws, based the resist-
ance made by his State to the protective policy upon the 'ground
that the old republicans had always sustained and pointed particu-
larly to the course pursued by the State of Georgia in defence of the
same principles. Alluding to her controversy about the Indians he
said that she had " planted upon her borders, under the guidance
of one of the noblest of her sons, the standard of State-rights, and
had achieved a great and glorious victory."

The President and Vice President were seated near the Chair; my
position being at the foot of the second table, under the care of my

1 Robert T. Hayne.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 415

subsequently warm friend Grundy whose feelings were then evidently
enlisted on the side of the nullifiers altho' he took great care to avoid
identifying himself with their doctrines. When the President was
called upon for his toast I was obliged to stand on my chair to get
a distinct view of what passed in his vicinity. There was no misun-
derstanding the effect it produced upon the company neither could
any sentiment from another have occasioned a tithe of the sensation
that was witnessed throughout the large assemblage. The veil was
rent — the incantations of the night were exposed to the light of day.
Gen. Hayne left his seat and ran to the President to beg him to in-
sert the word " federal," so that the toast should read " Our Fed-
eral Union — rr must be preserved !" This was an ingenious sug-
gestion as it seemed to make the rebuke less pungent, although it
really had no such effect. The President cheerfully assented because
in point of fact the addition only made the toast what he had origi-
nally designed it to be — he having rewritten it, in the bustle and
excitement of the occasion, on the back of the list of regular toasts
which had been laid before him, instead of using the copy in his
pocket, and having omitted that word inadvertently.

The affair proceeded but the feeling of the guests was plainly
manifested that the game was blocked.

Gen. Hayne followed up his advances to Georgia by the following
volunteer toast:

"The State of Georgia. By the firmness and energy of her Troup
she has achieved one great victory for State rights, — the wisdom
and eloquence of her sons will secure her another proud triumph in
the Councils of the Nation."

Gov. Troup * remained silent — notwithstanding that Gen: Hayne
went to him and, as I inferred from the manner of both — for I was
too far off to hear— urged him to speak. The omission was
thought deserving of explanation and Mr. Wayne,2 of Georgia,
now on the bench of the Supreme Court, attributed his silence to
the fact that he was individually mentioned in the toast: a circum-
stance commonly regarded as furnishing a necessity for speaking.
I did not at the time understand the explanation as giving the real
clue to his silence. Governor Troup was a remarkable man; an
earnest, well instructed, radical State-rights politician — inflexible
and in no slight degree impracticable. He was an Sieve of the
severe school of Jackson and Baldwin,8 of his own State, being the
adopted son of one of them, and having imbibed strong prejudices
against the politicians of South Carolina, of the Calhoun School,
he had been a party in feeling, if not in act, to the spirited warfare

1 George Mcintosh Troop. * James Moore Wayne. * Abraham Baldwin.

416 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

«

that was for a long time carried on between the "Georgia radicals?
as they were called, on one side, and the "South Carolina latitu-
dmariams" on the other, through the medium of certain articles in
a Georgia newspaper over the signature of " Trio," and the strictures
in reply attributed to the pen of Mr. McDuffie, a noble hearted
man who carried to his grave the injuries received in a duel grow-
ing out of this contest

The nature of the discussions and of the principles advocated by
the contending parties may be inferred from the following extract
from the papers attributed to Mr. McDuffie:

The States as political bodies have no original inherent rights — that they
have such rights Is a false, dangerous and anti-republican assumption, which
lurks at the bottom of all the reasoning in favor of State-rights.

Gov. Troup saw and understood what was going on around him
and recognized the hand by which the wires were moved, and doubt-
less his silence was caused by an indisposition, to use a homely
phrase, to train in that company. But when called upon from the
Chair for a toast, he was ready and prompt to show that in devotion
to State-rights and in distrust and dislike of the Federal Govern-
ment there was not one among the new or old professors of that faith
who went beyond him. He gave

The Government of the United States: With more limited powers than the
Republic of San Marino, it rules aii Empire more extended than the Roman
with the absoluteness of Tiberius, with less wisdom than Augustus and less
justice than Trajan or the Antonines.

° The first three volunteers were :

— By President Jackson.

Our Federal yulon — it must be preserved.

— Bv Vice President Calhoun.

The Union — next to our liberty the most dear; may we all remember that
it x»n only be preserved by respecting the rights of the States and distributing
equally the benefit and burden of the Union.

— By myself.

Mutual forbearance and reciprocal concessions ; throf their agency the Union
was established — the patriotic spirit from which they emanated will forever
sustain it

The common point at which all these toasts were directed — the
Union — is significant of the prevalence and strength of the impres-
sion that the celebration was a movement having special reference
to that great interest. Some of the opposition presses commented
upon the President's object with unusual accuracy. Walsh l said —
u The President has taken the bull by the horns," and the National

• M». IV, p. 90, » Jtobert Walsh,

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BT7RBN. 417

Intelligencer that " it was as much as to say, in reply to the authors
of some of the preceding sentiments, — 'you may complain of the
tariff and perhaps with reason, but so long as it is the law it shall as
certainly be maintained as my name is Andrew Jackson ' — ." If we
change the address so as to make it applicable to the principal getters
up of the meeting that was precisely what the President's toast was
designed to say. To that end was it concocted and for that purpose
was it given.

127488°— vol 2—20 27

CHAPTER XXXI.

The appointment as Envoy to Russia of John Randolph, of
Virginia, or, as he described himself "of Roanoke" — became too
conspicuous a feature of the early years of the Jackson Admin-
istration to 'be passed by without notice. Early in the autumn of
1829 the President and myself rode out to Arlington to pay a
visit to Mr. and Mrs. Custis and the conversation whilst we were
there, turned to the subject of Mr. Randolph, whose name had
been casually introduced. As we were returning I told my com-
panion that I had a suggestion to make to him which would sur-
prise him and that his astonishment would probably be much
increased when I assured him in advance that the step I was about
to propose was one which I would neither take myself if I were
in his place nor recommend to any other President, but which I
thought he might take altho' not without hazard. To his puzzled
look and demand for information I replied— "It is to give John
Randolph, of whom we have just been talking, a foreign mission ! "
He acknowledged his astonishment but expressed a willingness to
hear my reasons for the suggestion. These I here repeat briefly:
they referred to the high estimation in which Mr. Randolph was
held by the masses of the old republicans of Virginia, to his identi-
fication with that party from its commencement and his abiding
attachment to it growing out of his active participation in its early
contests, to the imposing manner in which he had discharged his
duties as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means during
Mr. Jefferson's first term, and finally to his quarrels with Jefferson,
Madison, Monroe and Adams which would if he died without some
further opportunity to exert beneficially the remarkable capaci-
ties, intelligence, sagacity and knowledge of men which he possessed
leave the world in the opinion that he had 'been an impracticable
and unprofitable man. I thought that if he were to serve under a
President with whom he would be very unlikely to quarrel he might
render useful services and be enabled to avert from his memory
the reproach which would otherwise settle upon it. An object so
humane and so praiseworthy might, I thought, be appropriately

418

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 419

and hopefully attempted by Gen.. Jackson, to which I added a
strong expression of the satisfaction I would derive from having
made myself in any degree instrumental in its accomplishment.

My reference to the early struggles of the republicans at a time
when he was himself in Congress and when he had, as I have before
described, firmly voted with them against the answer to President
Washington's speech because Fisher Ames and his coadjutors had
so worded it as to compel an endorsement of measures of which
they disapproved, evidently touched a responsive chord in the breast
of the President who replied significantly that if he could be satis*
fied that he could be made useful to the Country he would gladly
confer an office on " Jack Randolph " that being the appellation by
which the latter had been familiarly known in those early days.
The General asked me what we had to offer him; I answered the
Russian Mission, which, altho' it would expose him to an unfavor-
able climate, was on other accounts to be preferred; our relations
with that Government being simple and friendly little harm would
be done if it should turn out that we had made a mistake in the
selection of the Minister. I added that a commercial Treaty was
to be made between us in the negotiation of which thefe could not
be any difficulty and when that was accomplished our Envoy would
probably want to come home. To the question whether he would
accept, I replied that I believed he would notwithstanding his having
declared that he would never vote for a man for President who used
silver forks or who had been a foreign Minister; and whether he
accepted or not he would be highly gratified by the offer.

In a letter to him the President placed the offer of the mission
upon as favorable a footing as the truth would bear, saying that
he would be charged with an important negotiation which would
require his early attention, and he accepted the appointment with
a good grace.

Before the occurrences which I have described the President
had decided to recall the actual Minister, Mr. Middleton,1 on the
sole ground that the duration of his official residence in Russia
had already extended beyond what he considered a proper limit,
and being willing to make the manner of his return agreeable to
him, he now communicated his decision to his friend and neigh-
bour in ^Tennessee, Col. Rutledge,8 who was Mr. Middleton's brother-
in-law and to Gen. Van Ness,3 also a family connection, and left
it to them to afford Mr. Middleton an opportunity to terminate his
mission on his own application. It was in this way that Mr. Ran-
dolph's formal appointment was delayed until the summer of 1830.
^_^ ,i ■ ^ — ■

1 Henry, son of Arthur Middleton.
•Henry M. (?) Ruttedg*,
•John P. Van Nets.

420 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

I prepared his instructions aqd a draft of a Commercial Treaty
to which it was morally certain that the Russian Government would
agree, and met him, at Norfolk, the port from which he sailed, to
furnish him with such parol explanations as I thought might be
useful. His friends gave him a public dinner at which he appeared
to great advantage and he left the Country in unusual spirits.
His whole demeanor and conversation during our interview at Nor-
folk, served to justify my anticipations of his good conduct when
he should be placed before the Country in a responsible position like
that in which he now stood and inspired me with the strongest
confidence that his Mission would be a successful one.

But these pleasant expectations were destined to meet with a sad
disappointment. Distressed by the dangerous illness of his favorite
Juba and alarmed about his own health, he left St Petersburg^,
panic-struck by its climate, for London shortly after his arrival
at his post, and never returned to it. Other considerations and
feeling may and very probably did contribute to produce this result,
but it would now be worse than useless to speculate about them.
We did not even then think it profitable to enquire about them re-
garding the denouement as conclusively proving his unfitness for
the diplomatic service, and our mistake in selecting him. Smarting
under a consciousness of the responsibility he had incurred by his
precipitate retreat and apprehensive of being abandoned by his
government in the face of Europe he resorted to an expedient to
prevent such a result to which I believe nothing but a morbid
condition of mind and body would have tempted him — he essayed by
means of a confidential letter to the President to create discord
between the latter and myself. This we could only regret — but
it did not occupy our time or relax, in any degree, our disposition
to do him all the good we could. The flood-gates of denunciation
and defamation were of course opened upon the Administration by
the opposition ; they had however more ground than usual for their
assaults and we had no right to expect that they would ° forego
the opportunity to profit by our blunder. Our attention was di-
rected to the discovery of a way by which it might, as far as pos-
sible, be rectified. It was necessary that he should be sustained,
at least for the time, in order to guard from prejudice the character
of our foreign service and, by consequence, of our Government and
fortunately the facts enabled us to do so with effect. The meeting
of Congress was near at hand when the news of his flight from St
Petersburg reached Washington and the subject was thus noticed
in the Annual Message :

• HS. IV, p. 95.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 421

Our relations with Russia are of the most stable character. Respect for that
Empire and confidence in its friendship towards the United States have been so
long entertained on our part and so carefully cherished by the present Emperor
and by his illustrious predecessor as to have become incorporated with the
public sentiment of the United States. No means will be left unemployed on
my part to promote these feelings and the Improvements of which the com-
mercial intercourse between the two Countries is susceptible and which have
derived increased Importance from our Treaty with the Sublime Porte.

I sincerely regret to Inform you that our Minister lately commissioned to
that Court, on whose distinguished talents and great experience la public
affairs I place great reliance has been compelled by extreme indisposition to
exercise a privilege which, in consequence of the extent to which his constitu-
tion had been impaired in the public service, was committed to his discretion, —
of leaving temporarily his post for the advantage of a more genial climate.

The high expectations of the opposition as to the trouble this
Bandolphian escapade would cause to the Administration were evi-
dently not a little lowered by this treatment of it. I have not for-
gotten the frankly avowed gratification which it afforded to old
Mr. Brent,1 who had filled for many years the responsible office of
Chief Clerk of the State Department. He had, he said, pondered
much on the question of what could be said upon the point by the
President that would relieve the anxieties of his friends, without
coming to any satisfactory solution, and he complimented me by
adding that that part of the Message reminded him of Mr. Madison
who, he thought, understood the use and value of words better than
any other man. This was a great deal to be said by a man who
idolized John Quincy Adams and doubtless the declaration was in
some degree drawn from him — whatever may be thought of his
opinion — by a grateful recollection of my having kept him in his
place, as I did to the end, thorough old federalist as he was, against
the remonstrances of many of the supporters of the Administration.
His gentlemanly manners and the truthfulness and integrity of his
character were especially invaluable in the circle of duties he had
long and well discharged.

When Mr. Randolph read the Message, in London, he set himself
to work to annoy me nearly as much by his kindness as he had done
before by the opposite conduct. His grateful impulse found vent
in a way thus described in a letter from Washington published in the
N. Y. Journal of Commerce^ of March 14th 1831 ; —

We nave been much amused to day by the appearance among us of the well
known Juba, of Roanoke, who brought with him a fine young horse, a present
to the Secretary of State from John Randolph.

In the course of our friendly association Randolph had frequently
spoken to me of his stud of blooded horses, numbering at the time

■ _ - - _ .--... -^ r i i i ^ ■ .^m _ ■

1 Daniel Brent

422 AMKKICAS H1ST0BICAL ASSOCIATION.

of his death more than a hundred, and almost as often pressed me
to allow him to send me one or a pair. More than a year before this
occurrence, in answer to one of these requests, I told him that I had
taken to severe horseback exercise and that if he would send me a
good saddle horse I might accept it, but I heard no more of the
matter, until the morning referred to in the above extract when I
was awakened by my servant with the information that a man was
at the door with a horse for me from Mr. Randolph. When I came
down I found his man Johnny — the successor of Jnba, — with a letter
from Judge Leigh1, Randolph's friend and agent, informing me
that he had received instruction from Mr. Randolph from London,
to send me one of his five year old colts, which lie bad done. Having
had no communication with him since his confidential letter to the
President I was not a little irritated by this additional complication
in our relations, and directing Johnny to be taken care of until X
might have time to decide upon my proper course, I walked over to
the President and stated the case to him, proposing to return the horse
to Judge Leigh with a kind note to the effect that I could not con-
sent under existing circumstances to receive the animal. Referring
to Randolph's letter to him I said that altho' I had, on public ac-
counts, concluded that it was best to take no notice of his conduct as
it related to me personally, and in reality felt no ill will towards
him, I could not think of accepting a present from him. Perceiving
I suppose my excitement he talked earnestly upon the matter and
with his usual good sense. He thought I attached too much im-
portance to it — saying that I had done right in regarding what had
been written in the letter to him as the splenetic effusion of a man
suffering under mental and bodily disease, whose future conduct
might render a cessation of personal intercourse unavoidable but
that it would not be wise to precipitate such a result as I certainly
would do by refusing to accept a present from him. ' He finally ad-
vised me to write a proper note to Judge Leigh — to put the horse
in my stable and to trouble myself no further about it; part of which
1 did and all of which I tried to do. The General wrote a friendly
letter to Randolph in answer to one he had recently received from
. him, in which he expressed a kind concern for my welfare, and in
forwarding the reply thro' the Department I took the occasion to
thank him for both the horse and the good wishes.

t Mr. McLane at New York — he being on his return
a my way to England — he gave me a lively descrip-
ilph's enmity and of his severe speeches against me in
prognosticated much trouble in my future relations
i he drew to a close I placed in his hand the follow-

Watklas Leigh.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 423

ing letter l from that gentleman which came out in tjie same packet
with himself and which had only reached me on the previous day.
He was, of course, a good deal confounded and proceeded to make
assentations of the accuracy of His statements which I assured him
were quite unnecessary and suggested that the givings out to which
he referred had probably occurred before the President's Message
reached London, which he admitted to have been the case.

° I am not aware that Mr. Randolph, at any subsequent period,
spoke unkindly of me unless his saying, shortly before his death,
when he had been brought very low by disease, that " as we must
have a Bank he would rather have the existing one at Philadelphia
than a Van Buren Bank at New York " would be so considered by
others. I did not take it in that sense myself. He left England
sooner than. he intended, arriving at New York in the autumn of
1831 and proceeded directly to his home on the Roanoke, by the
way of Richmond.

In November of that year he addressed his constituents confining
himself mainly to explanations in regard to his mission and to re*
marks upon the great falling off in the prosperity, power and influ-
ence of their State. From that period until Februray 1883 be re-
mained at home suffering from disease and from real and fancied

1 London, June Sdt mi.
Mr. dbab Sib,

A few days ago I received your very acceptable letter of the 13tk of April, id today I
am informed of your retirement from office, which notwithstanding the Intimation with
which you concluded I was quite unprepared for. At this distance k with my Imperfect
knowledge of the coarse of events at home, It may be presumptuous in me to express
an opinion — bnt by such lights as I have, the step which you have taken appears to be
worthy of you as it regards your own character, your friendship for that illustrious k
most admirable man, whom I pray God to continue at the helm of our vessel of State,
k the preservation of the political party by whom he has been supported. I read the
letters which passed between yon on that occasion with Intense Interest, k with a
feeling that I find myself unable to describe. The course which yon have prescribed to
yourself k the resignation of the other members of the Cabinet will render a reconstruc-
tion of that body a matter of difficulty as well as delicacy : presuming as I do that the
exclusion of such as have pronounced opinions In regard to the succession will be a
leading principle in the formation of the new Ministry. Whatever may be the result I
do most fervently pray that It may contribute to the honour and repose of Gen1. J. and
to the welfare of our common country.

Of the state of Europe or even of England It would be impossible to give a correct
Impression In a letter. I must refer you to the admirable Journals of London which
no doubt you duly receive. The heroic Poles still hold out. They have been the
means of preserving Peace for the rest of Europe, which tamely and moat ungratefully
beholds the unequal conflict between them k their gigantic foe.

I am glad that you are pleased with the horse. If you see our friend Mr. Cambreleng
present me most kindly k cordially to him. It Is possible that the very wretched state
of my health may detain me another winter In Europe. I need not say that I shall
be most happy to hear from you k to learn that the disastrous state of things at home
has taken a change for the better. You can In a few lines give me more Insight into
the real state of things than I could glean from the toilsome k disgusting perusal of
(lies of onr filthy newspapers.

With my best wishes, believe me Dear Sir your faithful serv*. k friend

J. B. OF ROANOKB.

To Martin Van Bubrn Esq.

(This letter Is In the Van Buren Papers.)

• MS. IT, p. 100.

424 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

misfortunes in the management of his affairs. The President's Veto
of the Bank Bill infused in him a momentary vigor and drew forth
expressions of the warmest approbation, but the Proclamation in
regard to the South Carolina affairs brought him once more into
the political field to oppose what he regarded as its constitutional
heresies in relation to the character and construction of the Federal
Government, and to denounce President Jackson with unmeasured
violence. He attended large meetings at Charlotte Court House and
again at Buckingham, fifty miles from his home, in so weak a con-
dition that he could not stand to sp&k but was obliged to address
them from his chain

Without intending to express here any opinion in respect to the
principles of construction which they advance, of some of which I
mean to say something hereafter, I cannot refrain from inserting
the resolutions which he alone prepared and which were adopted
at those meetings. I do not believe that it was in the power of any
one of our public men then on the stage of action to set forth the
principles therein advocated in a manner so precise, lucid, and
statesmanlike as distinguished those resolutions, and he was then
only four months from his grave, sinking to it with gradual and
constant decay. They are a remarkable instaqpe of the exhibitions
of the ruling passion strong in death.

On the 4th inst. there was a public meeting at Charlotte court
house, within Mr. Randolph's district, at which he attended, appar-
ently in a feeble state of health, against General Jackson's course in
relation to South Carolina, and offered the following resolutions,
which were adopted with great unanimity.

RESOLUTIONS.

Resolved, That while we retain a grateful flense of the many great and val-
uable services rendered by Andrew Jackson, esquire to the United States, we
owe it to our country, and to our posterity to make our solemn protest against
many of the doctrines of his late proclamation.

Resolved, That Virginia " is, and of right, ought to be, a free, sovereign and
independent state," that she became so by her own separate act, which has
since been recognized, by all the civilized world, and has never been disavowed,
retracted, or in any wise Impaired or weakened by any subsequent act of hers.

Resolved, That when, for purposes of common defense and common welfare,
Virginia entered into a strict league of amity and alliance with the other
twelve colonies of British North America, she parted with no portion of her
sovereignty, although from the necessity of the case, the authority to enforce
obedience thereto, was, in certain cases, and for certain purposes, delegated
to the common agents of the whole confederacy.

Resolved, That Virginia has never parted with the right to recall the authority
so delegated, for good and sufficient cause, nor with the right to judge of the in-
sufficiency of such cause, and to secede from the confederacy whenever she
shall find the benefit of union exceeded by its evils, union being the means
of securing happiness, and not an end to which they should be sacrificed.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREtf. 425

Resolved, That the allegiance of the people of Virginia Is due to her— that
to her this obedience la due, while to them she owes protection against all the
consequences of such obedience.

Resolved, That we have seen with deep regret, that Andrew Jackson, esquire,
president of the United States, has been Influenced by designing counsellors to
subserve the purposes of their own guilty ambition, to disavow the principles
to which he owed his elevation to the chief magistracy of the government of
the United States, and to transfer his real friends and supporters, bound
hand and foot, to his and their bitterest enemies, the ultra federalists — ultra
bank — ultra tariff—ultra internal Improvement and Hartford convention men —
the habitual scoffers at state rights, and to their Instrument, the venal and
prostituted press, by which they have endeavored, and but too successfully, to
influence and mislead public opinion.

Resolved, That Virginia will be found her own worst enemy, whenever she
consents to number among her friends, those who are never true to themselves,
but when they are false to their country.

Resolved, That we owe it to justice, while denouncing this portentous com-'
bination between general Jackson and the late unhallowed coalition of his and
our enemies, to acquit them of any dereliction of principle, and to acknowledge
they have but acted in their vocation.

Resolved, That we cannot consent to adopt principles which we have always
disavowed, merely because they have been adopted by the president, and al-
though we believe that we shall be In a lean and proscribed minority, we are
jfrepored again to take up our cross, confident of success under that banner,
so long as we keep the faith, and can have access to the public ear.

Resolved, That while we utterly reprobate the doctrine of nullification as
equally weak and mischievous, we cannot for that reason give our countenance
to principles equally unfounded and in the highest degree dangerous to the
liberties of the people.

Resolved, That we highly approve of the mission of Benjamin Watkins Leigh,
not only as in itself expedient and judicious but as uniting upon the man the
best qualified, whether for abilities, integrity and principles, moral and polit-
ical, beyond all others in the commonwealth, or in the United States, for the
high arduous, and delicate task which has been devolved upon him by the
unanimous suffrage of the assembly, and as we believe the people, and which
he alone is perhaps capable, from nil these considerations united in his per-
son of discharging with success, and restoring this confederate republic to Its
former harmony and union.

(Signed) John Randolph, of Roanoke, chairman.1

In the same feeble condition he caused himself to be carried to
Philadelphia by way of Richmond and Washington. At Richmond
he made a long speech sitting in his chair, praising Watkins Leigh
and denouncing Thomas Ritchie and Daniel Webster. At Washing-
ton he did not of course after his severe denunciations call upon
President Jackson, but opened a correspondence with him demand-
ing the return of several letters which he had written to him severely
assailing nullification and nullifiers and speaking of me in a way
by no means designed to be complimentary. General Jackson re-
fused to return them and after another equally ineffectual effort

» Nile* Register, 43, 422.

I

426 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. I

thro' his friend, Mr. Goldsbo rough [Charles W.]> of the District,
Eandolph abandoned the pursuit. Col. Benton pressed me to call
upon him assuring me that he had expressed an earnest desire to see
me. I did so and was conducted to his bed side by his faithful Johnny.
He received me apparently, and I could not doubt sincerely, with cor-
dial kindness. Altho' very ill he could always talk without doing
himself injury and we conversed for some time principally about
England and the English people ; his life long interest in all things
having equine relations, whether near or remote, valuable or trivial,
shewing itself unabated in the course of our interview by his ani-
mated praises of English saddles and by the expression of a hope
that I had brought home with me a supply of them. We shook
hands at parting and I never saw him again. He caused himself
to be moved to the Capitol where he also took a kind farewell of Mr.
Clay, telling him that he was a dying man, and he went on to Phil-
adelphia, hoping to be able to take the packet for England, hut he
died in that city, a few days after reaching it.

Mr. Randolph was an inscrutable man — the most so I ever knew.
His Indian descent, of which, as I have elsewhere said, he was un-
affectedly proud, was in nothing else, not even in his looks, so
strongly displayed as in his inflexible resistance to every thing like
attempts to read his motives or thoughts on particular occasions
or to acquire a general knowledge of his idiocrasy. Diametrically
opposite to that frank disposition which takes pride in ready dis-
closure of itself in perfect sincerity to whomsoever may have an
interest in knowing it was the sentiment which influenced him in
shrouding himself, his motives, his acts, and even his movements
in mystery, and to resent any attempts, however friendly or well
intended, to penetrate it or to understand his character. He was,
notwithstanding, always a study to me and on one occasion, during
our long and close intimacy, I endeavoured to avail myself of some
incident not of course to pry into his secrets but to obtain a glimpse
of the inner chambers of the man's real constitution who was on
occasions so great a puzzle. He suddenly turned upon me, as if of-
fended, saying " I understand you, Sir ! You are ambitious to look
deeper into my dispositions than I am inclined to let you — you think
you understand me already, but yQu are mistaken, you know noth-
ing at all about me ! There has been but one person in the world
who understood me perfectly — but one who comprehended my char-
acter and that person was not of the earth, earthy." The person
he alluded to was his worthy mother, of whom he often spoke and
always with the utmost love and veneration; but even here he
adopted ° a mode of expression to prevent me from certainly know-

• MS. IV, p. 105.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUREN. 427

rag to whom he alluded by avoiding a description of his or her
sex. I was naturally not disposed to inquire further either upon
that or upon the principal point. In a similar spirit he guarded
the knowledge of the state of his health as much as possible from
others. While it formed a principal staple of his daily conversation,
no person, however well acquainted with him, could ascertain any-
thing very definite or reliable in regard to it Altho' this was
partly a consequence of its variable character it was also in a great
degree an affair of policy. Strange as it may appear to those who
were not well acquainted with this strange man his health was one
of his weapons of war in the contentions in which he was all his
life involved. It served as a cloak for omissions which he could not
otherwise satisfactorily excuse and its fitful character put it out
of the power of his enemies ever to calculate safely upon his ab-
sence or his presence among them on any particular occasion. When
he was confined to his bed and to all appearances in the extremity
of suffering from disease, there was scarcely ever a certainty that
he would not suddenly repair to the hall. of the Legislature and
take a part in the debates, especially if they concerned a matter
in which he was interested or in which he could make himself
felt.

That he was a man of extraordinary intelligence, well educated,
well informed on most subjects, thoroughly grounded in the history
and rationale of the Constitution and of the Government that was
formed under it, eloquent in debate and wielding a power of invective
superior to that of any man of his day is unquestionable, but with
all these liberal endowments he lacked a balance-wheel to regulate
his passions and to guide his judgment. This grand deficiency
which the whole course of his previous life had given us strong
reason to suspect was deplorably demonstrated by the trans-
actions of which we are speaking. Few men had enjoyed better
opportunities during ten preceding years to form an opinion of his
character and capacities than myself and the error into which I fell
betrayed, therefore, an inadequacy of observation or a weakness of
judgment which I could not too much regret. My mistake was as
I have said, considering the relation in which I stood to the appoint-
ment, a fair subject for the animadversion of my political adver-
saries. They used it to the utmost of their power, tho9 embarrassed
by the difficulty of assigning any improper motive for the act, or
any other ground of attack than an administrative blunder. The
usual and ready imputation of a design to make political capital
for myself out of the arrangement would have been preposterous
in view of Randolph's utter destitution of political influence and
it was never made. I might offend one or more of the prominent

428 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

men of Virginia, who controlled the politics of the State, with every
one of whom he was more or less — generally the former — at variance,
by giving him the preference but in no quarter could any influence
be gained by it or hoped for by any sensible man. I made no efforts
to avoid the political consequences of the act to myself, but my friend
the President when it became, at a later day, understood that a trio
of the leading minds of the Country had combined their influence
and power to break me down and when charges against me of all
marketable material were in immediate and active demand, author-
ized one of his friends to say on the floor of Congress that I was,
in no degree, responsible for the appointment of Mr. Randolph, and
that the fault, if fault there was, lay exclusively at his own door.
Certainly, in a constitutional sense, the appointment was his alone,
notwithstanding my agency in bringing it about, and Gen. Jackson,
in such matters, acted, throughout his official service upon the prin-
ciple to which I have before referred that all preliminary steps
on the part of officers subject to his direction were to be thrown out
of view, so long as he was himself satisfied with their conduct, and
that the exclusive responsibility for the results rested upon himself.
But wherever the blame attached it could not amount to much in
a case where no selfish intent was discoverable and where so many
palliating circumstances existed.

Mr. Randolph had grown grey in the public service. Of the
forty four years which, at his death, had elapsed since the organi-
zation of the present Federal Government, he had, I believe, served
thirty four in one or other House of Congress, and all but one or two
of them in the popular branch to which the election was biennial.
Whatever may have been his shortcomings, by reason of bad health
and other deficiencies more or less beyond his control, in making his
exertions effectual, the political doctrines and principles which he ad-
vocated were well adapted to the support of a system like ours — in-
deed those only by which we can hope to uphold it in its integrity.
The first year of his service as Chairman of Committee of Ways and
Means, during the first term of Mr. Jefferson's Administration had
illustrated his abilities and his patriotism. It was difficult to doubt
that a man of his pride and force of intellect, whose perceptions
were of such sparkling clearness, would fail to improve a fitting
opportunity to atone for his intermediate failures and to make the
closing scenes of his public life as creditable as possible and how-
ever hazardous the event proved it to have been it was at least a
humane and liberal part to furnish him with that opportunity. To
one of the inducements to this act of favor which influenced both
Gen. Jackson and myself — but more strongly the former, from the
circumstance of his having been sooner in the political field than
\yself, — I have already referred, viz: to that suggested by Ran-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 429

dolph's early identification with the old republican party and his
active participation in its memorable struggles. The history of that
period, the accounts given by both sides, are replete with evidence
of the efficient part taken by him in the contests of the day and the
sacrifices to which he was exposed from their violence. The dur-
able impressions made by his speeches upon the mind of old John
Adams, whose conduct and character were the constant subject of
his scorching invective, and who, years afterwards, spoke of "the
brilliant wit, fine imagination and flowing eloquence of that cele-
brated Virginian," afford perhaps the most striking illustration of
these truths. However Gen. Jackson's partizan cohesiveness might
have been for a time relaxed by his military pursuits and by the
seduction of Mr. Monroe's " Era of good-feeling," his ingrained
republicanism reasserted its influence on resuming the political har-
ness and opened his heart to every appeal to the memory of the
trying scenes and fast associations of his early political life. I also,
tho' but a tyro in the school compared with the men of his day,
remembered well the interest with which, as a precocious politician
of sixteen, I had read Randolph's eloquent assaults upon the war
against France, the provisional army, the alien and sedition laws, and
the far famed Yazoo frauds; I had in addition, as I have said,
enjoyed a personal friendship and constant personal intercourse for
ten years with him as close and confidential as could be permitted to
one who was ten years his junior or as was practicable with a man
of his temperament. My then personal and afterwards also political
friend, Harmanus Bleecker, of Albany, gave me a letter of intro-
duction to Mr. Randolph when I first went to the Senate of the
United States. I met him, for the first time, at Georgetown where
we happened to be making at the same time a morning visit to Har-
rison Gray Otis and to the interesting ladies of his family. I told
him of my letter promising to call and deliver it which I did not-
withstanding his insisting that the rule of etiquette required the rep-
resentative to make the first visit to the senator. From that time
until I left Congress we were very much together, especially whilst
traversing in the saddle the roads about Washington. Altho' a de-
voted equestrian I fell far short of him who was as much at home
on horseback as an Arab.

I felt myself complimented by his attentions; indeed, notwith-
standing his peculiar ways, there were very few who were not
pleased to receive acts of courtesy from him. Undoubtedly he had
the misfortune to quarrel sooner or later with most of his familiar
associates, but I escaped altho' I came occasionally very near such
a catastrophe. °The thinning out of the Senate whilst he was

0 MS. IV, p. 110.

430 AMERICAN HISTORICAL. ASSOCIATION.

speaking, until no quorum remained, which I have elsewhere de-
scribed, and which gradually became more common, he took very
seriously to heart. I have before explained to what extent and
under what blameless circumstances I once contributed to this opera-
tion, but I thought nevertheless that I could perceive after that
occurrence faint symptoms of an alienation of feeling on his part,
and as no one knew the absence of unfriendly design in me better
than himself I was forced to attribute his pettishness to an obliquity
of his nature which rendered him unable to judge fairly any fea-
tures of a matter which had resulted injuriously to him and to
which the action of his friend had innocently contributed- As I
one day passed the open door of one of the Committee rooms of
which he had, according to his custom, taken possession to write
his letters and so forth, he called me in, declaring that he had some-
thing to say to me. After a few general remarks he took4 up a
letter from his nephew, Dr. Dudley, which proved to treat of
family difficulties into which he proposed to initiate me. He pro-
ceeded to read a sentence or two and then to make what he had
read the subject of protracted comment. I informed him several
times that business was to come up that day in the Senate to which
I was bound to attend and proposed a postponement of the residue
until another occasion, but neither my suggestion nor my impatience
had the Slightest effect upon him. I submitted until the idea that
he was in this way punishing me for my conduct in the other matter-
seized my mind so strongly that I rose abruptly from my seat and
said, with some warmth perhaps, "Mr. Randolph, I must leave yon J"
He had turned the key of the door to prevent intrusion but now
promptly unlocked it and stretching himself to the full height of
his gaunt figure, said, in a measured tone, " Good morning, Sir P*
I returned the salutation with about equal stiffness and repaired
to the Senate chamber where I found that I had been waited for.
At night I received from him a formally sealed and directed en-
velope, covering letters from my boys, and other papers which he
had asked to be allowed to read, without note or word of any kind
from himself, which I considered as denoting the cessation of our
intercourse. A day or two elapsed before I saw him again, except
at a distance, but when we did meet he approached me with ex-
tended hands and a smiling countenance as if nothing had hap-
pened to disturb our relations. My intercourse with him as a whole
was very gratifying and the source of agreeable reflections. Though
occasionally melancholy and irritable he was generally lively and al
times remarkably fascinating. His friendly notes were frequent
and amusing.

I was a good listener, a character which Randolph liked and I was
not a cross-examiner which he detested; at least not so much of the

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 481

latter as lawyers often become in society from professional habit,
and of what remains of it I had when I became acquainted with him,
he did much to cure me. If during our frequent and long rides the
subjects of conversation were ordinarily of his own selection and
if his was much the larger share this was because I was scarcely
ever otherwise than pleased with his discourse and therefore in-
disposed to interrupt it and not because of any unreasonable lo-
quacity on his part He avoided, as a general rule, the subjects
under discussion in Congress, apparently glad to drop them and to
recreate his mind in fresh fields, except when something of unusual
piquancy was afoot, and, when left to himself, Virginia, her public
men of earlier days, her people and her past condition, the character
and life of his deceased brother Richard, with England and the
English, were commonly the themes on which he talked better than I
ever heard another man talk. Nothing could be more interesting
than his descriptions of the former prosperity of the Old Dominion,
the extent and magnificence of the baronial establishments, as he
called them, especially on the James River and the Appomatox, the
honorable pride and splendid hospitality and true quality of their
proprietors and the contrasts he depicted between those halcyon days
and the times in which he spoke. Those who only met him in the
fields of political contention where harsh or railing censure and
stinging sarcasm seemed his natural and vital atmosphere could not
have been made to believe the degree of sensibility sometimes rising
to the silent tear, which he was wont to manifest when dwelling
on these topics.

A notice of a remarkable scene in the early life of Randolph,
which seems appropriate here, renders necessary a reference to the
political course of Patrick Henry, to whose character and con-
duct before and during our struggle for independence history has
done full justice. To dwell now upon his admirable bearing at the
latter period when his heroick spirit in behalf of public liberty and
his efficient efforts to set in motion the ball of revolution established
claims upon our respect and gratitude which nothing short of posi-
tive dishonor could ever obliterate, would be merely to repeat les-
sons with which our school-boys are familiar. Clear, straightfor-
ward and unflinching in his every act, his course in those days of
imminent peril and of fearful responsibility was in every respect
such as left no room for doubt or question in the breast of any one
among his applauding countrymen. The stand he took in the Vir-
ginia Convention called to decide upon the ratification of the new
Constitution was no less spirited, unequivocal and firm, but not
so unanimously approved by those for whom he acted. His dis-
satisfaction with the plan proposed by the Federal Convention was
unqualified and his hostility to it unmitigated. Others opposed it

432 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

because it was in their judgment calculated to lead to a consolidated
government — he regarded it as a consolidation ex vi termini. He
avowed his preference for the old Articles of Confederation and
opposed the new ° plan with the ardor and vehemence that belonged
to his nature and denounced its incompatibility with the rights of
the States and the liberties of the People in terms which reminded
his hearers of the eloquence of earlier days. He exerted all his
power to prevent its ratification and failing in that he went into
the succeeding Legislature where the popularity of his course in
the Convention made his power supreme, defeated the election of
Mr. Madison as U. S. Senator (who had foiled him in the Con-
vention) and secured the election of two gentlemen as Federal
Senators, whose sentiments in respect to the Constitution corre-
sponded with his own. By this course he drew down upon him-
self the hatred of the federal party to the utmost extent and was
held up to public odium as "a cunning and deceitful Cromwell
who, under the garb of amendments, sought to destroy the Consti-
tution, break up the Confederacy and reign the tyrant of popularity
in his own devoted Virginia." •

. The state of mind in which he left the Convention was that with
which he retired from politics and devoted his time and attention
to the improvement of his fortune. From that period 'till about
the year 1795 he was regarded as a member of the republican party,
a favorite of the old anti-federalists who constituted more than
three fourths of that party, and like them, tho' dissatisfied with and
distrustful of the new Constitution, was not disposed to throw
obstacles in the way of a fair execution of its provisions.

The first surmise to be found in the writings of the republican
leaders of any attempts to withdraw him from their ranks is con-
tained in a letter from Mr. Jefferson to Col. Monroe, of July 10th,
1796, in which he says — " Most assiduous court is paid to Patrick
Henry. He has been offered every thing which they knew he would
not accept. Some impression is thought to be made but we do
not believe it is radical." (Jefferson's Works.9 VoL 4, p. 148.)
I have elsewhere referred to the enquiries L made of Mr. Jeffer-
son in respect to the cause of the great change which had taken
place in Mr. Henry's politics, and to his seeming inability or in-

•MS. IV, p. its.

■ Not*. — In a letter to Mr. Short * Mr. Jefferson says that Henry's influence in the
Legislature was omnipotent — that Mr. Madison, In consequence of his powerful support
of the Constitution, was defeated for U. 8. Senator and that Mr. Henry, to preyent him
(Madison) from being elected to the House of Representatives, had, in framing the Con-
gressional Districts, tacked Orange (Mr. Madison's residence) to other counties in which
he, Henry, had great influence.

'Feb. 9 1789. In the Jefferson Papers and printed in part In Writings of Jefferson
(Washington, 1853), 2, 273.

* Washington edition, 1854. Original is in the Monroe Papers and a prexa copy In the
Jefferson Papers.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 433

disposition to enter into explanations upon the subject. That Henry
was much fascinated with Hamilton's financial policy and that in
the latter part of his life the Acquisition of wealth became with
him a more absorbing passion than politics were nevertheless views
of his position that I received — the former certainly and the latter
I believe— from Mr. Jefferson, and are considerably strengthened by
the following extract from a report made to Washington by his
confidential friends, Edward Carrington and John Marshall, of the
manner in which they had executed the commission which he had
entrusted to them to judge of the propriety of offering to Mr*
Henry the appointment of Secretary of State, with authority so to
offer it if they thought best

" We know too," they say, " that he is improving his fortune fast
which must .additionally attract him to the existing Government
and order, the only guarantee of property. Add to this that he has
no affection for the present leaders of the opposition in Virginia."

Had Mr. Jefferson lived until after the publication of the " Writ-
ings of Washington " he would have been able to speak more under-
standing^ on the subject and have seen the extent of the mistake
under which he laboured at the period of his letter to Col9 Monroe.
He would have learned that as many as three years before the date
of that letter a plan was set on foot by Gen. Harry Lee, an active
and very zealous federal partizan, and at the time Governor of
Virginia, to withdraw Mr. Henry from the republican ranks — that
it was unremittingly presevered in until the spring of 1799, when
for the first time and an occasion of intense interest to be presently
noticed, the latter unveiled himself to the people of Virginia,
repudiated his State-rights doctrines and avowed himself the friend
and supporter of the administration of John Adams, the alien and
sedition laws inclusive.

The history of these proceedings is derived from the following
sources: viz; a letter from Henry Lee to President Washington,
dated August 17tb, 1794, to be found in the appendix to the 10th
vol of the Writings of Washington; by Sparks, page 560; the
answer of Washington, same volume, p. 431; a second letter from
Lee to Washington, same appendix, p. 561; Patrick Henry to H.
Lee, ditto, p. 562; a private and confidential letter from Washing-
ton to Edward Carrington, vol. 11th p. 78 ; Washington to Patrick
Henry, same vol. p. 81; report of Carrington and Marshall, ditto,
pages 80 A 81, and a confidential letter from Washington to Henry
of Jan. 15th, 1799, same vol. p. £87, urging him to offer for the
State Legislature at thp approaching election, with the nomination
of Mr. Henry as Special Envoy to France by John Adams a few
weeks after Washington's last letter. .

127488°— *» 2— 20*: — 28

434 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

I will not go into details in respect to the contents of these
papers or trace the progress of Gen. Lee's undertaking from its
inception to its final consummatidn. Those who feel interest or
curiosity in the subject will read the documents and draw their
own inferences. Their principal theme was the bestowment of
office upon Mr. Henry; but I must not for a moment be understood
to suggest or to countenance the idea that he was capable of barter-
ing his principles for office. I have no doubt that he was far above
such meanness and that if any proposition to that effect had been
understandingly presented to him he would have spurned it with
the same spirit with which he would have spurned an offer of
pardon from the Crown for his course in the revolution! Carring-
ton and Marshall knew as well as such a thing could be known
that he would not accept the office of Secretary of .State which
they in pursuance of a discretionary authority from President
Washington, tendered to him. All the actors in these transactions
felt assured that he could not, from domestic considerations, take
any place that would require a residence at the seat of Government
or near any foreign Court. But if Mr. Adams had offered him the
seat on the Bench of the Supreme Court which became vacant only
two months before the offer of the place of Envoy to' France theft
is no room to doubt that he would have accepted it. The papers
to which I have referred show that during the latter years of his
life a concern for the good opinion of his old Commander in Chief,
as he was in the habit of calling Washington, engrossed his feel-
ings. The strong solicitude he had once cherished for the sover-
eignty of the States, his dread of consolidation, his * first prin-
ciple,' as he termed it, — u that' from the British we have every
thing to dread when opportunities for oppressing us shall offer "—
seemed to have given place to his anxiety upon that point. He
had been made to believe that Gen. Washington considered him
fts " a factious, seditious character," and that belief was in the
estimation of Lee the only hindrance to his joining the friends of
the Administration. No existing political difference between him
and it was ever referred to, in the long confidential conversation
Lee says he had with him, as an obstacle to such a course. It was
hence, with high satisfaction that he learned from Washington's
letter to Lee that the President's opinion and feelings in respect to
him had been misrepresented and that the former remembered with
gratitude Henry's friendly course in the matter of the Contfray
intrigue during the war. From* sfthilar considerations he received
with unaffected satisfaction the offer of a high place from the
General, altho9 it was one that he could hot accept. Mr. Henry
yielded to these flattering testimonials of resptect arid confidence.
In pursuance of Gen. Washington's pressing- solicitation, backed

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURRN. 485

as it was by the appointment of Envoy to France, for which Mr.
Adams nominated him within a few weeks and before the time
had arrived for making his decision upon the proposition submitted
to him, he consented to become a candidate for the General Assembly
of Virginia and presented himself at the Charlotte Court House
in that character.

°Few spots have been rendered more famous in the annals of
party warfare than Charlotte Court House. Randolph's numerous
displays of oratorical power contributed largely to its celebrity as
well before as subsequent to his great contest with John W. Epps,
Mr. Jefferson's son-in-law, who had moved into that district for the
sole purpose of ousting him from his seat in Congress, on account
of his opposition to the War of 1812, and who succeeded in his ob-
ject— that having been the only instance in the course of his pro-
tracted public life in which Randolph was abandoned by his imme-
diate constituents; but on the occasion of which we are now speak-
ing it was made forever memorable as the 9cene of the last speech
of Patrick Henry, in a political discussion between him and John
Randolph, a beardless youth eligible only by a few months, under
the Constitution, to the seat in Congress for which he was a candi-
date at that his first appearance on the political stage, — a discussion
which was, as is now known, the consequence of a direct interference
by Gen Washington, then Commander in Chief of th6 American
Army, in party politics.

Mr. Wirt, the distinguished author of the Life of "Patrick Henry,
and Mr. Garland, the accomplished editor of the Life of John Ran-
dolph, have each given vivid sketches of the interesting proceedings
of that day. That of Mr. Garland is the latest and the one upon
which the most attention has been bestowed. This has doubtless arisen
in no small degree from the consideration that while the occurrences
of the occasion could not, in respect to Mr. Henry, have been re-
garded by any as adding to the lustre of his previous career, they
presented on the part of Randolph, certainly the most interesting
and perhaps also the most imposing exhibition of himself in his
whole life. I am not aware that there are any material differences
between their statements in regard to facts, and as to the reported
speeches, Mr. Henry's was taken by Garland from Wirt whilst that
of Randolph had not been perpared when Wirt wrote.

It is from Garland, therefore, that the following extracts have
been taken :

MARCH COUBT — THl HI8ING AND THE RtflTIlfG SUN.

It was soon noised abroad that Patrick Henry was to address the people at
March Court. Great was the political excitement — still greater the anxiety

• MS. iv, p. 120.

436 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

♦
to hear the first orator of the age for the last time. They came from far and

near with eager hope depicted on every countenance. It was a treat that many
had not enjoyed for years. Much the largest portion of those who flocked together
that day had only heard from the glowing lips of their fathers the wonderful
powers of the man they were about to see and hear for the first time. The
college in Prince Edward was emptied not only of its students but of its pro-
fessors. Dr. Moses Hogue [Hoge], John H. Rice, Drury Lacy, eloquent men
and learned divines, came up to enjoy the expected feast. The young man who
was to answer Mr. Henry, if indeed the multitude suspected thjat any one would
dare venture on a reply, was unknown to fame. A tall, slender, effeminate
looking youth was he;* light hair combed back into a well adjusted cue —
pale countenance, a beardless chin, bright, quick, hazel eye, blue frock, buff
small clothes, and fair-top boots. He was doubtless known to many on the
court green as the little Jack Randolph they had frequently seen dashing by
on wild horses, riding d to mode Anglais, from Roanoke to Bizarre and back
from Bizarre to Roanoke. A few knew him more intimately, but none had
ever heard him speak in public or even suspected that he could make a speech.
" My first attempt at public speaking," says he in a letter to Mrs. Bryan, his
niece, "was in opposition to Patrick Henry at Charlotte March Court, 1798;
for neither of us was present at the election in April, as Mr. Wirt avers of
Mr. Henrj." The very thought of his attempting to answer Mr. Henry seemed
to strike the grave and reflecting men of the place as preposterous. •• Mr. Tay-
lor," said CoL Reid, the clerk of the county, to Mr. Creed Taylor, a friend and
neighbor of Randolph, and a good lawyer, "Mr. Taylor, don't you or Peter
Johnson mean to appear for that young man to day?" "Never mind," replied
Taylor, "he can take care of himself." His friends knew his powers, his
fluency in conversation, his ready wit, his polished satire, his extraordinary
knowledge of men and affairs; but still he was about to enter on an untried
field and all those brilliant faculties might fall him as they had so often
failed men of genius before. They might well have felt some anxiety on his
first appearance upon the hustings in presence of a popular assembly and in
reply to a man of Mr. Henry's reputation. But it seems they had no fear
for the result — Tie can take care of himself. * * * There also was Pow-
hattan Boiling, the other candidate for Congress, dressed In his scarlet coat —
tall, proud in his bearing and a fair representative of the old aristocracy
which was melting away under the subdivisions of the law that had abolished
the system of primogeniture. * * * But the candidates for Congress were
overlooked and forgotten by the crowd in their eagerness to behold and admire
the great orator whose fame had filled their imagination for so many years.
"As soon as he appeared on the ground," says Wirt, " he was surrounded by
the admiring and adoring crowd, and whithersoever he moved the concourse
followed him."

Presently James Adams rose upon a platform that had been erected by the
side of the tavern porch where Mr. Henry was seated, and proclaimed — "O yes !
O yes! Colonel Henry will address the people from this stand, for the last
time and at the risk of his life ! " The grand Jury were in session at the mo-
ment, they burst thro' the doors, some leaped the windows and came running
up with the crowd that they might not lose a word that fell from the old man's
lips. While Adams was lifting him on the stand " Why Jimmy " said he, " you
have made a better speech for me than I can make for myself."

• He was then Id his 26th year, a few months beyond the age required by the Constitu-
tion to make him eligible to the House of Representatives.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUKBN. 437

Mr. Wirt's report of Henry's speech is short. He referred to the
recent proceedings of the Legislature of Virginia, declaring the alien
and sedition laws unconstitutional and therefore null and void, and
said that the resolutions of that body had filled him with apprehen-
sion and alarm and had drawn him from his retirement He insisted
that by their adoption the Legislature had transcended the power
that belonged to the State under the Constitution. The enforcement
of the acts by military power would, he feared, be the consequence
of those proceedings. He painted to the imaginations of his audience
Washington at the head of an army inflicting upon them military
execution and asked where are our resources to meet such a conflict
and where the citizen who will dare to lift his hand against the
father of his Country? A man in the crowd, (described as being
drunk,) throwing up his arm and exclaiming "I dare!" — ''Not"
answered Mr. Henry, rising aloft in all his majesty, " you dare not
do it; in such a parricidal attempt the steel would drop from your
nerveless arm."

Proceeding, he asked "whether the county of Charlotte would
have any authority to dispute an obedience to the laws of Virginia,
and he pronounced Virginia to be to the Union what the county
of Charlotte was to her." Of the laws in question he said that his
private opinion was that they were good and proper, but whether
acceptable or otherwise the remedy, he insisted, was " oy petition."
He closed with a warm appeal to the people in behalf of union and
forbearance.

" When he concluded his audience were deeply affected ; it is said
that they wept like children so powerfully were they moved by the
emphasis of his language, the tone of his voice, the commanding
expression of his eye, the earnestness with which he declared his
design to exert himself to allay the heart burnings and jealousies
which had been fomented in the State Legislature, and the fervent
manner in which he prayed that, if he were deemed unworthy to
affect it, it might be reserved to some other and abler hand to entend
6 this blessing over the community. As he concluded he literally
sank into the arms of the tumultuous throng; at that moment John
H. Rice exclaimed, " the sun has set in all his glory."

" Kandolph rose to reply. For some moments he stood in silence,
his lips quivering, his eyes swimming in tears; at length he began
a modest tho' beautiful apology for rising to address the people in
opposition to the venerable father who had just taken his seat; it
was an honest difference of opinion and he hoped to be pardoned
while he boldly and freely, as it became the occasion, expressed his

° MS. IV, p. 125.

438 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

sentiments on the great questions that so much divided and agitated
the minds of the people."

The disposition which it will best become me to make of this
speech is a question not free from difficulty. Mr. Wirt's version
of Henry's speech is, as I have said, very short, embraces a few
prominent points of which at least partial cotemporaneous accounts
may hjtve been found and is therefore free from serious doubt in re-
gard to its authenticity. Such is not, in all respects, the case with
that which Mr. Garland attributes to Randolph. With candour and
unaffected modesty he says that he does not pretend to give the lan-
guage of John Randolph on that occasion ; a nor is he certain that
the thoughts are his." Unless the traditions of Virginia and of that
vicinity especially are grossly fabulous the speech actually made
by Randolph was one of remarkable power. I knew Mr. Garland,
who died while yet a young man, well, and knew him to be a man
of rare abilities — one fully equal to the task of preparing a speech
adapted to the occasion, like that which he has credited to Randolph,
and which meets ably and conclusively all the points presented by
Mr. Henry.

Perhaps the most that can be said in favor of its authenticity is
that it is just such a speech as a man of the capacity subsequently
exhibited by, Randolph would in all probability have made on such
an occasion, that it is harmonious with the doctrines and principles
he professed thro9 life and that in respect to its Constitutional ex-
position it tallies admirably with the resolutions he prepared and
offered at the same place more than thirty years afterwards, which
I have republished in this work. It is very certain that if the ac-
tual speech displayed as much ability as that which is, with proper
and honorable explanation, put forth as its representative, the effects
must have been overpowering upon a mind so sensitive as Henry's
was known to be. Under the circumstances I shall limit myself to
a single extract from that three hours speech, during which time, we
are told, the people " hung with Breathless silence on the lips ,? of the
orator, and refer my reader for the rest to Mr. Garland's most
interesting book. He tells us that Randolph's "youthful appear-
ance, boyish tones, clear, distinct and thrilling utterance, his grace-
ful action, bold expressions, fiery energy and manly thoughts
struck his hearers with astonishment," and that, when he concluded,
Mr. Henry, turning to a by-stander, said : "I haven't seen the little
dog before since he was at school ; he was a great atheist then," and
subsequently taking Randolph by the hand, he said : " Young man,
you call me father; then, my son, I have somewhat to say unto thee
(holding both his hands) — keep justice, keep truth) and you will live
to think differently,"

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREff. 489

Mr. Henry, by his declaration that Virginia was to the Union
what Charlotte county was to her, surrendered every pretence of
sovereignty in the State, a concession which it is only necessary to
state to ensure its condemnation. Kandolph spoke at length of the
character and tendency of this extraordinary doctrine; bat in re-
gard to that as well as to everything Henry had said he treated him
with a degree of respect and deference which excited the sympathies
of the people. " I have learned my first lessons in his school," he
said ; " he is the high priest from whom I received the little wisdom
my poor abilities were able to carry away from the droppings of the
political sanctuary. He was the inspired Statesman who taught
me to be jealous of power, to watch its encroachments and to sound
the alarm on the first moments of usurpation." But to my extract,
being the principal part of what he said on the subject of the sedi-
tion law:

And what Is that other law that so fully meets the approbation of my
venerable friend? It is a law that makes it an act of sedition, punishable by
fine and imprisonment, fo utter or write a sentiment that any prejudiced judge
Or juror may think proper to construe into disrespect to the President of the
United States. Do you understand me? I dare proclaim to the people of
Charlotte my opinion to be that John Adams, so called President, is a weak
minded man, vain, jealous and vindictive; that influenced by evil passions
and prejudices and goaded on by wicked counsel, he has been striving to force
the Country into a war with our best friend and ally. I say that I dare re-
peat this before the people of Charlotte and avow It as my opinion. But let
me write it down and print it as a warning to my Countrymen. What then?
/ subject myself to an indictment for sedition! I make myself liable to be
dragged away from my home and friends and to be put on my trial in some
distant Federal Court, before a judge who receives his appointment from the
man that seeks my condemnation; and to be tried by a prejudiced jury, who
have been gathered from remote parts of the Country, strangers to me and
any thing but my peers, and have been pecked by the minions of power for
my destruction. Is the man dreaming! do you exclaim? Is this a fancy
picture he has drawn for our amusement? I am no fancy man, people of
Charlotte! I speak the truth — I deal only in stern realities! There is such a
law on your Statute Book, in spite of your Constitution — in open contempt
of those solemn guarantees that insure the freedom of speech and of the
Press to every American citizen. Not only is there such a statute, but with
shame be it spoken, even England blushes at your sedition law. Would that
I could stop here and say that, tho' it may be found enrolled among the public
archives, It is a dead letter. Alas! alas! not only does It exist, but at this
hour is most rigidly enforced, not against the ordinary citizen only, but against
men in official stations, even those who are clothed by the people with the
sacred duties of their representatives— men, the sanctity' of whose persons
cannot be reached by any law known , to a representative Government, are
hunted down, condemned and incarcerated by this odious, tyrannical and un-
constitutional enactment. At this moment while I am addressing you, men
of Charlotte! with the free air of Heaven fanning my locks and God knows
how long I shall be permitted to enjoy that blessing — a representative of
the people of Vermont— Matthew Lyon his "name— lies Immured in a dungeon,

440 % AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

not six feet square, where he has dragged out the miserable hours of a pro-
tracted winter, for daring to violate the royal maxim that the King can do
no wrong. This was his only crime — he told his people, and caused it to
be1 printed for their Information, that the President, "rejecting men of age,
experience, wisdom and independency of sentiment/' appointed those who
had no other merit but devotion to their master; and he intimated that
" the President was fond of ridiculous pomp, idle parade and selfish avarice.**
I speak the language of the Indictment I give in technical and official
words the high crime with which he was charged. He pleaded justifica-
tion— I think the lawyere call it — and offered to prove the truth of his allega-
tions. But the Court would allow no time to procure witnesses or counsel;
he was hurried into trial all unprepared ; and this representative of the people,
for speaking the truth of those in authority, was arraigned like a felon, con-
demned, fined and imprisoned. These are the laws the venerable gentleman
would have you believe are not only sanctioned by the Constitution, but de-
manded by the necessity of the times ! &c, Ac.

To describe the errors of Patrick Henry is no attractive task, and
I will dismiss that branch of this retrospect with a single question :
is there at this day, or has there been for fifty years past, during
which we have seen as much of party violence as was ever before
seen, one responsible man to be found, within the boundaries of
this wide Republic, who would deny the right of a State to express,
thro' its Legislature, the opinion of its people against the constitu-
tionality of an act of Congress, or who would propose the reenact-
ment of the alien or sedition law ?

The right of the historian to canvass without reserve and without
offense the acts and characters of deceased Statesmen ° is too well
established and has been too extensively acted upon to be called in
question, and in- regard to them, the restraints of the maxim de mor-
tuis &c. are complied with when the right is exercised in a way
and at a time to avoid giving pain to surviving relatives and friends;
but in the case before us no occasion is presented for an inquiry
into the boundaries of this right How muchsoever those who have
succeeded to Patrick Henry may dissent from the views he ex-
pressed, or disapprove of the course he pursued on a particular oc-
casion, all right minded Americans will forever gratefully cherish
the recollection of his overshadowing services to their country, and
rejoice in the conviction that nothing in his life or character at-
tached dishonor to his name or can cause a blush on the cheeks of
his descendants. The apparently inexplicable circumstance that a
man whose .early sympathies in the cause of human rights were so
much deeper and stronger than those of most of the leading men
of his time should, in after life, have become blind to the tendency
of the measures he then approved, or insensible to their effects upon
that cause is an enigma which will doubtless in the progress of time,

° MS. IV, p. 180.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTTN VAN BUBKK. 441

when facts are more fully disclosed and better understood, be solved
in a way consistent with the undisputed integrity of his character.
Light tending to that result has already been shed upon the subject
thro\ successive developments of traits in the personal disposition
and habits of Mr. Henry not before so publicly known or properly ,
appreciated. Of those best acquainted with him personally and with
his public career, Mr. Jefferson ranked among the first and sur-
vived him longest, and of all Henry's contemporaries it is due to
Mr. Jefferson to say that there has not been one more active in the
promulgation of facts which redounded to his fame, or, as I had
myself an opportunity to observe, more indisposed to enter into
disquisitions on the subject of such parts of his public life as he
(Mr. Jefferson) could not have approved, notwithstanding his general
willingness to answer questions upon any subject and to tell not
only the truth but the whole truth. A large share— I may say the
largest— of the statements so creditable to Mr. Henry were derived
from letters written to him x by Mr. Jefferson.
. When asked by Mr. Wirt for some account of Mr. Henry's mind,
information and manners in 1759-60, when Mr. Jefferson first became
acquainted with him, the latter thus replies:

We met at Nathan Dandrldge's In Hanover about the Christmas of that winter,
and passed a fortnight together at die revelries of the neighborhood and season.
His manners had something of the coarseness** the society he had frequented ;
his passion was fiddling, dancing, and pleasantry. He excelled in the last and
It attached every one to him. The occasion, perhaps, as much as his idle dispo-
sition prevented his engaging In any conversation which might give the measure
either of his mind or information. Opportunity was not wanting, because Mr.
John Campbell was there, who had married Mrs. Spotswood, the sister of OoL
Dandridge. He was a man of science and often introduced conversations on
scientific subjects. Mr. Henry had a little before broken up his store, or rather
it had broken him up, and within three months after he came to Wimamsburgh
for his license and told me, I think, he had read law not more than six weeks.*

Again Mr. Jefferson said, towards the close of his life, to Mr. Levitt
Harris, an American Consul at St. Petersburgh, in the presence of
Nicholas P. Trist, who noted it down at the time,

Wirt says he (Henry) read Plutarch's lives through once a year. I don't
believe he ever read two volumes of them. On his visit to Court he used always
to put up with me. On one occasion of the breaking up in November, to meet
again in the Spring, as he was departing In the morning he looked among my
books and observed M Mr. Jefferson I will take two volumes of Hume's Bssays
and try to read them this winter." On his return he brought them, saying that
he had not been able to get half way into one of them. (Jefferson's Complete
Works, Vol. VI, p. 487.)

His great delight was to put on his hunting-shirt, collect a parcel of overseers
and such like people and spend weeks together in the piny woods, campaigning

» Meaning William Wirt ?

* Jefferson to Wirt, Aug. 5, 1815. In the Jefferson Papers and printed in Jefferson's
Writings (Washington, 1854), VI, 488.

442 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

at night and cracking jokes round a light-wood Are* It u>a* to him that voe were
indebted for the unanimity that prevailed among u%. He would address the
assemblages of the people at which he was present, in such strains of native
eloquence as Homer wrote in. I never heard anything that deserved to be
called by the same name with what flowed from him ; and where he got that
torrent of language is inconceivable. I have frequently shut my eyes while he
spoke, and when he was done asked myself what he had said without being able
to recollect a word of it He was truly a great man, however— one of enlarged
views. (Randall's Life of Jefferson, vol. 1, p. 40.)

Mr. Henry was not a student in any sense and all accounts concur
in describing him as a man who, in all probability, read less than
any other in his State occupying anything' like the same position in
society. That with the tastes, habits and proverbial bonhanwtie
ascribed to him he should devote sufficient time to study and reflec-
tion upon the principles of the structure and administration of
Governments to lead him to adhere to his opinions with a fidelity
proportioned to the strength of his convictions of their truth and
wisdom, was not to be expected and did not happen* Instead there-
fore of regulating his movements by a professed political system,
for the formation of which he was rendered incompetent by the laws
of his nature, he became a man of impulse and suffered his course to
be shaped by the feelings of the moment. These were always honest
and if the questions that produced them were of an exciting character
he executed his resolves with a spirit and power rarely equalled.
The revolution and the stirring scenes to which it gave birth pre-
sented the great occasions of his life. Stung almost to madness by
the unjust pretensions of the Mother Country — by her deafness to
remonstrances which for ability, eloquence and conclusiveness of
argument were never excelled by the State papers of any Country,
and by tlje remorseless cruelty with which she sought to enforce her
wantonly oppressive demands, he threw his whole soul into the con-
test, pressed forward in debate and by his fiery and vehement native
eloquence roused and invigorated the spirit of the Country and
crowned his name with unfading laurels. The question as to the pay-
ment of the British debts excited kindred feelings. Moved by the
impoverished condition to which the American debtor, his neigh-
bours and friends, had been reduced thro' the tyranny of the British
Government, and thinking it morally right that the author of the
debtor's inability should be driven to assume his responsibilities, he
again embarked in the discussions which grew out of that disturbing
question with something of the ardour that characterized his exer-
tions in the cause of the revolution of which this was an outshoot,
and acquired a degree of fame by his oratorical displays second only
to that awarded to his splendid services in that cause.

In £he Virginia Convention called to decide upon the ratification
of the Federal Constitution he was, to all appearance, quite as

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BUREN. 443

deeply agitated, and, in the opinion of the patriotic, but, in respect
to the questions before that body, misjudging anti- federalists, ac-
quired almost as much credit as was allotted for his part in the
revolutionary drama. With all my respect for that class of poli-
ticians, founded on convictions of the purity of their motives and
of their great usefulness at that and subsequent trying periods in
our history, I have never been able to draw any such impression
from reading the debates of the Virginia Convention. Mr. Henry
wielded against the sacred instrument which he had devoted to
destruction the same weapons that he had employed during the revo-
lution, but with vastly different results. His efforts were favored
neither by the state of the times nor by the nature of the cause. An
attempt by a powerful monarch to enslave his Country was an oc-
casion when noble daring in resisting was demanded by the fearful
exigencies of the hour — when inspiriting appeal, trenchant sarcasm
and thundering invective were as useful and as necessary in the
council as the trumpet, the sword and the cannon in the field, — as
acceptable to the hearts and judgments of an excited people, who,
in their desire for vigorous measures in great crises, are always
in advance of their representatives. But the Convention was de-
signed to be a conclave of grave Statesmen, convened at a period
of profound peace, to deliberate upon a question indeed of the first
importance but of a local character, undisturbed by the interfer-
ence of foreigners; a question in which all who participated in its
settlement had an equal interest, and which was not so clear, on
either side, as not to admit of honest differences of ° opinion, which
were to be decided by the weight of argument. Whilst every thing
that fell from the, orator of the Revolution, which breathed the
right spirit and was well directed against the common enemy, was
consecrated, in the estimation of his sympathizing hearers, by the
occasion and by the circumstances under which it was uttered, the
arguments, the illustrations, and the advice addressed to the Con-
vention were all maturely considered, applied to the important busi-
ness to be acted upon and digested by calm and capable men.

I repeat with deference and with unaffected reluctance th'at I
have never been able to rise from the perusal of Mr. Henry's
speeches in the Virginia Convention, and I have tried it more than
once, with an opinion in their favor when compared with those
of the men opposed to him. It is to impressions that must have,
been made upon the mind of Washington by those discussions that
I have attributed his cautious, tardy and confessedly distrustful
proceedings in respect to Henry at a time when he was, beyond all
doubt, disposed to compliment him highly if he could do so safely.

° MS. IV, p. 135.

444 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

It is not, I think, possible that the former can have read the male-
dictions poured out upon an instrument which bore his name, which
was recommended for adoption over his signature and for the suc-
cess of which he was so solicitous, and can have reflected upon the
reasoning by which they' were attempted to be justified — to some
extent, at least,' incoherent and to a much greater, inconclusive, —
without forming an opinion of the most durable character adverse
to Mr. Henry's adaptation to the discharge of highly responsible
official duties. He had, as he avowed, strong personal inducements
to treat him kindly, Henry having in a very creditable spirit stepped
forward in defence of Washington at the time of the Conway in-
trigue— an occasion always remembered by the latter with intense
interest The political affinities once so close between Henry and
Jefferson had been sundered, a circumstance unhappily not un-
palatable to Washington, as we have a right to infer from the
manner in which the fact was communicated to him by his confi-
dential friends; and yet six years were suffered to elapse before
the pressing solicitations of Lee were crowned with success and
even then the remarkable circumspection he observed and the se-
curities taken against mistakes — safeguards of themselves well cal-
culated to defeat the contemplated negotiation — go far to sustain
my impression of the real state of Washington's mind.

But I pursue this point no farther. If the latter years of Mr.
Henry's political career were not in harmony with those which pre-
ceded them it is enough that they furnish no ground of impeach-
ment of his integrity, and that he lived to disprove the censures cast
upon his principles in early life by those with whom he was, at
the time of his death, in full political communion. It is enough for
his fame — for the fame of any man to be known and remembered by
his admiring countrymen as the companion and co-ad jutor in our
revolutionary struggle of Washington, Jefferson and the Adamses,
who, if he was prevented by peculiar and uncontrollable traits of
temperament and constitution from rising to their level as a useful
statesman, did not fall below any of those illustrious men in pure,
intelligent and devoted patriotism.

CHAPTER XXXII.

I sailed from New York on the execution of my English mission on
the 16th August, 1831, in the packet ship President, accompanied
by Mr. Aaron Vail, the Secretary of Legation, and by my son Mr.
John Van Buren. There were only three other passengers, among
them an apparently amiable and certainly modest and retiring young
gentleman who was a son of the celebrated Duke of Otranto.

Suddenly and I may say unexpectedly transferred from the tur-
moil and contentions of Washington — never perhaps more rampant
than at that moment — to the quietude of a midsummer Ocean, I
experienced sensations which tho' well remembered I would not find
it an easy matter to describe. For more than a quarter of a century
preceding the day on which I stepped on the deck of the 4i Presi-
dent " there had scarcely been one during which I had been wholly
exempted from the disturbing effects of partisan agitation, too often
of the most bitter description. Whether as a subordinate and
doubtless, at times, over-zealous member of the political party in
which I had almost literally been reared from childhood, or as its
leader for many years in my State, or as a Senator in Congress, active
and ardent in Federal politics, or in the Cabinet of Gen. Jackson,
first in point of rank and second to none in the confidence of its
Chief, the responsibility and anxiety growing out of my successive
positions, tho9 varying in form had always absorbed my time and
my faculties. During the two years immediately preceding my depar-
ture there had been few working days which had failed to bring their
load of care to my door; the laborious occupation required by the
details of the President's Message, the political and official demands
upon my attention regularly and plentifully emptied upon my table
from the mail-bags with the spoken alarms of timid croakings of
complaining and rarer congratulations of satisfied friends by which
every public man, resident at the seat of Government, is doomed to
be beset — these were but new representations upon an enlarged scale
of the same general features which had characterized my whole pre-
vious life. These constantly recurring sources of excitement had
now, one and all, been suddenly closed. The first morning at sea
came unaccompanied by any fresh supplies of the stimulating ail-

446

446 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

ment to which my mind had been accustomed, and one tranquil day
followed another only to carry me further from the sight and the
sound of the political strife and labour in which I had been so
ceaselessly and prominently participant.

When the first mixed feelings produced by this sudden and great
change had sufficiently subsided my attention was naturally directed
to a careful review of the more recent stirring scenes thro9 which I
had passed and of the steps which I had thought it proper to take
to meet them. The result of this retrospect was an unhesitating
conviction that the course I had pursued had been the wisest with-
in my power — that which was best adapted to do the greatest at-
tainable justice to every interest which it was my duty to respect.
The momentary inconvenience to which I had exposed one of the
truest friends man ever had by my resignation, my sense of which
had been quickened by the scenes thro' which I had passed with
him in its progress, was a source of sincere regret. That act had
also led to other consequences, more particularly applicable to my-
self and to some extent injurious; but both seemed to me to have
been unavoidable results of a step which was imposed upon me by
considerations I was not at liberty to disregard, and I was confident,
that they would be more than made good by the advantages of my
action to other and higher interests. Strengthened by this convic-
tion and satisfied with the past, the time and the situation seemed
favorable to a definite settlement of my future course. I have al-
ready said that by accepting the mission to England I regarded
myself as having virtually^ abandoned whatever chance I might
have acquired of reaching the Presidency, and that I had so in-
formed Gen. Jackson. Reason and experience forbade the expecta-
tion that any political party would voluntarily encounter the risk
of selecting as its candidate an individual peculiarly obnoxious to
its adversaries and of whom strong jealousies were cherished by
rival leaders within its own camp, after he had himself released it
from even the appearance of obligation imposed by previous mutual
relations and had left those rivals in undisputed possession of the
field of competition. In the calmer moments I now enjoyed I
could think of no aspect in which that opinion could be considered
that would cast a doubt upon its correctness. To have maintained
the advance towards the Presidency at which I had arrived when
I threw up the office of Secretary of State, the effectual course would
have been to have retired absolutely from all public employment
an<jl to haverentered upon the practice of my profession and the life
of a private citizen. The disinterestedness of my motives wduld
thus, have been placed above the reach of cavil, and a majority of
the people, eagerly attached, to the President and indignantly re-
senting the injustice he was made to suffer, would, at the proper

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTOT VAN BTJKBN. 447

time, have demanded my elevation as the suitable reward for the
sacrifices I had made to relieve him and to promote his success.

The dispassionate reconsideration of the °subject> in my then
favourable position for making it, only confirmed these first im-
pressions; and to discard, totally and forever, the idea of becoming
President became therefore the fixed and settled purpose of my
mind.

That I was able to come to that conclusion with perfect equanim-
ity was attributable in some degree to impressions in regard to
the advantages and disadvantages, the pleasures and annoyances
of public life derived from a full experience, of which I have often
spoken. This was in truth the state of my mind at the time, however
hard of belief it may seem to those among my contemporaries who
are still on the stage of life and who regarded me as the " magician-"
I was called — never so much in my element or so happy as when
employed in concocting and advancing political intrigues. I must
not be understood by anything I have hem said as undervaluing the
honor, dignity and usefulness of the Presidential office. No Ameri-
can citizen can fail to regard that position as, in Bvery respect, the
most exalted as it is the most responsible public trust that can be
conferred on man, for the acquisition of which no sacrifices, on the
part of one competent to discharge its duties, can be deemed too great
which do not include the sacrifice of honor or morality. But the
extent to which personal happiness and enjoyment will be promoted
by its possession is a question to be solved by the taste and tempera-
ment of the incumbent. There are, men, and not a few, who derive
so much pleasure from the mere possession of great power that any
degree of dissatisfaction caused by its exercise is not too dear a
price for the coveted indulgence, and the personal adulation which
is sura to follow the footsteps of authority while it lasts fills the
measure of their satisfaction. Those better regulated minds, how-
ever, whose gratification on reaching that high office is mainly
derived from the consciousness that their countrymen have deemed
them worthy of it and from the hope that they may be able to
justify that confidence and to discharge, its duties so as to promote
the public good, will save themselves from great disappointments
by postponing all thoughts of individual enjoyment to the comple-
tion of their labors. If those whose sense of duty and whose dis-
positions are of the character which alone can fit them for that
station look to secure much personal gratification while swaying the
rod. of power they will find in that as in all other human calculations
and plans " begun on earth below," that

The ample proposition that hope makes
t , Falls .in the promis'd largeness.

• MS. IV, p. 140.

448 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

At the very bead of their disappointments will stand those in-
separable from the distribution of patronage, that power so dazzling
to the expectant dispenser, apparently so easily performed and so
fruitful of reciprocal gratification. Whatever hopes they may in-
dulge that their cases will prove an exception to the general rule
they will find, in the end, their own experience truly described
by Mr. Jefferson when he said that the two happiest days of his
life were those of his entrance upon his office and of his surrender
of it The truth of the matter may be stated in a word: whilst
to have been deemed worthy by a majority of the People of the
United States to fill the office of Chief Magistrate of the Republic
is an honor which ought to satisfy the aspirations of the most am-
bitious citizen, the period of his actual possession of its powers and
performance of its duties is and must, from the nature of things,
always be, to a right minded man one of toilsome and anxious
prbbation.

In these opinions and feelings I had become more than ever
confirmed before the termination of my voyage. Under their in-
fluence I resolved to limit my future public life to a residence for
a few years at the Court to which I was accredited, in the per-
formance of public duties entirely congenial with my habits and
disposition, and which I hoped to make useful to my Country and
creditable to myself, and after their expiration to return to my
home, if permitted by Providence and to the pursuits in which,
my last years have bran employed and from which I have derived
more true happiness than I have ever before enjoyed. It was in
the full belief that such was to be the chart of my future life thfet
I landed in England and with such views I would, in all probability,
have returned to my native land but for a transaction already al-
luded to and which will unavoidably become the subject of further
comment hereafter.

My reception by the King and his Ministers was cordial — as it
then appeared to me, particularly so. But the latter impression is
not uncommon on the minds of our Ministers arriving at European
Courts. Removed as we are from the rivalries and consequent jeal-
ousies and, in some cases, ill will which are always more or less
affecting their relation with each other, they have more seldom tea-
son to qualify the exhibition of entire cordiality in the reception
of our diplomatic representatives. In England this is perhaps espe-
cially the case, and I doubt whether in any other Country the great
body of the people enter as largely into the policy of their Govern-
ment by exertions to produce upon the representatives of foreign
Governments favorable impressions towards their 6wn. In addition
to the good dispositions thus common and creditable to the Govern-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 449

ment and people of England there had been features in the past
relations between them and Andrew Jackson which served, at the
time of my mission, to give increased earnestness to those feelings as
regarded him.

In the Presidential election of 1824, Gen. Jackson was far from
occupying a definite position in relation to the antagonistic political
principles by which the two great parties in the Country had profess-
ed to be governed. The large vote he received was mainly produced
by a general admiration of his military character and a wide
spread conviction of his integrity in all things. To these consid-
erations were added dissatisfaction with the influence of the caucus
system which had acquired considerable force in all quarters. His
first vote was therefore, to a greater extent than had ever before
occurred, a mixed one given by former adherents of all parties. But
the political chaos thus produced, altho' increased by other causes,
was much sooner arrested than was anticipated. Justly alarmed by
the latitudinarian doctrines advanced by Mr. Adams as the basis of
his Administration, the supporters of Mr. Crawford, constituted of
the main body of the old republican organization, adopted Gen.
Jackson as their candidate — Mr. Crawford's continued bad health
and probable future incompetency removing every personal ob-
stacle to the adoption of that course on his account, and the prin-
ciples avowed by Gen. Jackson, in the earlier periods of his public
life, affording them strong political encouragement to pursue it. One
of the consequences of this step was a withdrawal from his side of
most of the old federalists who had at first embraced it with much
zeal and, with the exception of the particular friends of Mr. Clay,
a very general reorganization of those who had supported Jefferson
and Madison against Mr. Adams's administration and in favor of
the election of Jackson.

The Money Power of the Country saw in this conjuncture an un-
yielding opposition to its suprema<gr, and the Bank of the United
States, especially, a like resistance to the extension of its charter.
With the promptitude which characterizes the movements of that
Power in every field of exertion it therefore determined to antici-
pate that question, as well as the adoption of Gen. Jackson's can-
didacy by the united democracy, and to take the necessary steps
to defeat his election. A large portion of the stock of the Bank
was held in England, principally by bankers and by the gentry,
including noblemen of distinction, many of whom had free access
to the Government and were capable of influencing its action in
a not inconsiderable degree. This interest, by reason of the danger
to which it was alleged to be exposed from the election of Gen.
Jackson was regarded as a store-house from which, with the en-

127483°— vol 2—20 29

/

450 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

couragement and sympathies of the entire monied interest in Eng-
land, the Bank might expect effective aid in the struggle upon
which it had resolved forthwith to enter. Accordingly it commenced
its labors,' thro' the medium of its English friends and portions of
the English press, to prejudice the ministry and the public mind
of Great Britain against Gen. Jackson, and to cause it to be be-
lieved throughout the kingdom that his election would be the pre-
cursor of much ° trouble and possibly of war between the two
Countries. These efforts were, in the first instance, quite successful,
and in various ways exerted an extensive influence upon the can-
vass. Not all the selfish schemes and intrigues and immoral in-
fluences however, which could be set in motion and brought to
bear under the auspices of the Money Powers of both Countries
could resist the wide spread and deep seated popularity of Jackson.
His election produced great alarm in England but the forebodings
out of which it sprung were speedily and happily falsified by legit-
imate means. England was, fortunately, represented, at the time,
near our Government by Sir Charles R. Vaughan, a practical, in-
telligent and thoroughly honest man, who, altho' sympathizing, as
almost all foreign ministers do here, with the party then in oppo-
sition, was too sensible a man to act upon the representations that
had been made to him in respect to the new President's general
feelings towards England at the moment when his election was
secured and when his foreign policy was about to be authentically
indicated by himself. Steps already referred to were taken at the
earliest practicable day after the complete organization of the new
Cabinet to bring the whole diplomatic corps in communication with
the President elect and to afford them more reliable opportunities
and better facilities to measure his dispositions as well as his capaci-
ties than could be derived from hostile sources. These Sir Charles
embraced with a sincere desire to arrive at the truth and it did
not take him long to become convinced of the extent to which the
General's character and temper has been misrepresented, or to sat-
isfy himself that as long as his Government confined its claims to
what was right it could desire no better man to deal with than
President Jackson. These views he lost no time in communicating
to his Government and I need not add that they produced decided
and gratifying effects. The early apprehensions of the British
Government, the process by which they had been suspended and
finally dissipated and the gratification experienced on finding them
to have been unfounded were freely referred to in my interviews
with the King and his ministers, and always with unaffected satis-
faction. On the occasion of my last visit to him at Windsor,

° MS. IV, p. 145.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTTREN. 451

King William took me aside and described to me the extent to
which all classes of his subjects had been alarmed by the news of
the General's election. " But ", he said, " I kept myself free from
those alarms, for I have made it a rule thro9 life never to condemn
an untried man, and, in respect to such matters, I regarded Mr.
Jackson" (so he called him) "as placed in that position. I said
to those who expressed to me their apprehensions, I will judge Mr.
Jackson by his acts; I have done so and I am satisfied that we
shall have no reason to complain of injustice at his hands."

When such feelings enter the breast of John Bull either towards
foreign Governments or towards their subjects or citizens it is not
in his nature to suppress them. Nor did the disposition evinced by
the King and by the people to acknowledge Gen. Jackson's justice
and magnanimity appear to be in any degree weakened either by a
recollection of the severe encounters which had taken place between
us in the War of 1812, or by the animosities and events of an older
date. A people less generous and highminded might allow them-
selves to be thus affected, but I did not on any occasion witness the
exhibition of such prejudices on their part. I ha,ve, on the contrary,
often heard them speak of the triumphs which the fortune of war
had given to our arms at their expense in the way in which a brave
nation, conscious of its strength, could afford to speak of those by
whom it had been occasionally defeated; a concession in our case
doubtless made less difficult and less unpalatable by the considera-
tion of the extent to which we were descended from a common an*
cestry. The Duke of Richmond, speaking of the battle of New
Orleans, told me that his regiment was engaged in that action, hav-.
*ing been transferred to the United States immediately after the
termination of the war on the Continent, and that he had been
accidentally prevented from accompanying it, as it had been his
intention to do, in which case, he added, with a hearty laugh, he
would probably have never enjoyed the pleasure of taking me by
the hand in England. He said " it cannot be denied that you flogged
us there, but we do not think the worse of you for that ! " He spoke
on that occasion, I doubt not, the feelings of his Countrymen gen-
erally ; I am sure that he did so far as my observation extended.

Sincere respect for the character of Gen. Jackson, and an earnest
desire that liberal and friendly intercourse should be cultivated
between the two Countries were not only prevailing but active feel-
ings on the part of the Government and people of Great Britain
at the period of my arrival, and consideration of the close rela-
tions existing between the General and myself, of which they were
well informed, doubtless had its influence, before they knew any-
thing of me personally, in securing the marked courtesy and kind-
ness with which I was treated during my entire stay in that Country.

452 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION,

The question of the North Eastern boundary had just been de-
cided by the umpire, and there was nothing to be done at the time,
at London, in regard to it save to obtain some explanations and
avowals on the part of the British Government which the President
thought might facilitate his own action upon the subject, and
which were promptly made on my application. Beside the ordinary
and constantly accruing business there was no point of special im-
portance in our national relations that demanded attention except
that of Impressment, a subject which was, on both sides, regarded
as possessing a degree of importance not subsequently realized. It
had been, before and after the war of 1812, elaborately discussed
in several successive negotiations by some of the ablest minds of
both Countries but without satisfactory results. The effect of our
increase in numbers, reputation and all elements of national strength
since that period, and of the certainty of war upon the first exer-
cise of the right claimed, in removing apprehensions of future
trouble from that source were not then foreseen. The negotiation
of a satisfactory arrangement in respect to it, often before attempted,
was made the leading point in my instructions. The President
had allowed me a liberal participation in their preparation, and,
believing that non-essential obstacles in the way of former nego-
tiations had been removed, I entertained strong hopes of success
in that on which I proposed to enter. Several interviews took place
between Lord Palmerston, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, and
myself, in which the whole subject was talked over with much free-
dom and candor. Views equally liberal in their general bearing
with those recently acted upon by the British Government in re-
gard to the right of search question, were expressed in those inter- '
views by his Lordship in the sincerity of which I placed entire
confidence. That the preservation of pacific and cordial relations
between the two countries was an object of more importance to
the welfare of both than the claim of either in relation to the
subject matter under consideration was a starting point in our
deliberations and we did not doubt that a way could be devised by
which the rights of both to the services of their seamen in time
of peace could be secured without a resort to irritating proceed-
ings of any description, and thus a prolific source of contention
be removed. All that seemed necessary to the fruition of these
expectations was a more eligible condition in the affairs of England
to prosecute the negotiation. The conferences of the representa-
tives of the principal powers of Europe, upon whose deliberations
the question of peace or war was supposed to depend, hardly less
than England herself were convulsed by the fierce agitation of the

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUKEN. 458

great measure of Parliamentary Reform brought forward by Lord
Grey's administration. The extent to which this subject employed
the time and required the active attention of the Ministry can
well be imagined. They consequently desired to delay definitive
action upon any other the immediate settlement of which was not
matter of pressing necessity. It was moreover apprehended that
it* would be neither safe nor expedient to bring before the Coun-
try, at a period of such violent excitement, a measure in respect
to which its sensibilities had been on previous occasions0 deeply
moved, and with which large portions of its people believed its
jiaval supremacy intimately connected. It was feared that no proj-
ect in relation to a question so liable to be made a disturbing one,
however wisely devised and right in itself, could escape, if brought
forward at the moment, the general vortex of partisan prejudices or
would be judged upon its own merits. These considerations were
introduced with suitable delicacy by Lord Palmerston as furnish-
ing reason for postponing further action upon the subject of our
consulation until after the settlement of the Reform Question, and
perceiving their weight and fully believing that the Government
would be successful in the great domestic controversy which im-
pended, and would thus be enabled to act* in our matter with less em-
barrassment, I concurred in the suggestion for delay.

Lord Palmerston afterwards informed me that the King had
commanded him to express his satisfaction with the course I had
pursued upon the subject, and I have never doubted that my utmost
wishes would have been realized if their success upon the reform
question had been unqualified and if I had remained at the post
assigned to me. The rejection of my nomination by the Senate
within a month or two presented imperative reasons for abandoning
the negotiation. The news of that rejection reached London during
the evening before the Queen's first Drawing Room of the season,
and was published the next morning in the newspapers. The fact
that the proceedings of the Senate had been carried on with closed
doors was stated in a way which considered in connection with the
similarity of the accounts in the different journals justified the
inference that the original had been prepared in the United States
and had been mischievously concocted. Those who were not aware
that the executive business of the Senate is always thus transacted
would naturally infer that the charges upon which its decision had
been founded imputed crime or, at the least, some offence partaking
of that character. I had strong reason for suspecting the agency
of an American, then in London, in the contrivance, but as my
proof was not positive I do not mention his name. Finding myself

•—*

• MS. IV, p. 150.

454 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

quite unwell in the morning I had determined not to attend the
Drawing Boom and to keep to my bed for the day and had directed
my mail to be brought to my bed room. Struck by the unusual
number of my letters, I selected, from among several on which I
recognised a handwriting familiar to me, one from my trusty friend,
Churchill C. Cambreleng, then a representative in Congress from
the city of New York which first informed me of the action of the
Senate in these terms :

Washington, 27 Jan'y. 1882.
My Drab Fbeend,

I most sincerely congratulate you on your rejection by the Senate-— 23 to 28
and by the casting vote of the Vice President ; Tazewell & Tyler voting for you
and Hendricks, of Indiana, Hayne, Miller, Poindexter and Moore, of Alabama,
against you — Bibb & Prentiss not present, both I presume consulting their own
inclinations.1

I consider this as a providential interposition in your favor. A more reckless
act was never committed by men in their senses — indeed, altho' 1 had ardently
desired it, I could not persuade myself to believe that their passions would
drive them into a measure the inevitable result of which might have been seen
by a schoolboy. You may imagine how admirably they were drilled when
Ruggles, Tomlinson, Johnston, Seymour and Bobbins 2 voted against you. The
votes were precisely as they should have been — we could not have had them
better. — Poor Hayne had laid himself on the grave of Calhoun — and Webster &
Clay die in each other's arms. The former conducted his opposition with
dignity — the latter with something of violence — the abuse came from Miller, of
So. Caro. one of Calhoun's barkers ; but the thing is admirable — you will be our
V. P. in spite of yourself — and you will ride over your adversaries, or rather
you will drag them after you d VAoMUe. In the midnight of the Senate they
have done the deed — but "Blrnam wood will come " Ac. &c.

Come back a? quick as you can — we have no triumphal arches as in ancient
Home, but we'll give you as warm a reception as ever Conqueror had.
Sincerely yr. friend

C. C. Cambbkleng.

I placed implicit confidence in the source of this communication
and whatever was wanting in it to complete the picture of the whole
transaction my knowledge of men and things at home was sufficient
to supply. I rose instantly and, at least temporarily, relieved from
my indisposition by the stimulus administered by such news, I joined
Mr. Washington Irving, who then resided with me, and the Secretary
of the Legation at the breakfast table. They had read the accounts
in the journals and were, of course, not a little disturbed by them.
I handed Mr. Cambreleng's letter to Mr. Irving, referred to the in-
formation given him by the servant of the state of my health but
said that I thought it would notwithstanding now be necessary that

1 Littleton W. Tasewell and John Tyler of Virginia; WUliam Hendricks; Robert T.
Hayne and Stephen D. Miller of South Carolina ; George Poindexter of Mississippi ; Ga-
briel Moore ; George M. Bibb of Ken tacky, and Samuel Prentiss of Vermont.

• Benjamin Buggies, of Ohio; Gideon Tomlinson o* -Connecticut; JosJah 8. Johnston
of Louisiana ; Horatio Seymour of Vermont, and Asher Bobbins of Ohio.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAltTIN VAN BUREN. 455

I should attend the Drawing Boom. He considered it desirable if it
was possible and would not involve a too great sacrifice of feeling.
The necessary orders were accordingly given and we proceeded to
complete the reading of a budget of letters, most of them from
friends at home and similar in sincerity and spirit to that which I
have inserted above.

On my arrival at the Palace I unexpectedly found Lord Palmerston
in the room set apart for the use of the Diplomatic Corps engaged in a
conversation with those who had arrived of which I was the subject
He immediately took me by the hand, and, leading me into a recess,
told me, in substance, that having received on the previous evening
a despatch from Mr. Bankhead, the English Charg6 at Washington,
informing him of what had taken place there in respect to myself,
he at once transmitted it to the King who had sent for him at an
early hour and commanded him to see me before the commencement
of the ceremonies of the day and to communicate to me the views
he had taken of the affair. It was, he said, far from His Majesty's
habit or desire to meddle in any way in the proceedings of foreign
Governments in respect to matters which did not affect his own Coun-
try, nor was it his intention to do so on the present occasion; but
being satisfied from the information he had received that the pro-
ceedings of the Senate had been extensively founded on political and
partisan considerations and established nothing that pught to im-
pair the respect he entertained for me, he thought it due as well to
the President as to myself that he should say so at the earliest practi-
cable moment. To this the King had been pleased to add that I had
been long enough in England to know that no class of her publio
men were exempted from experiencing the excesses of party spirit,
and that they thus became the more capable of understanding and
duly appreciating them when they occurred elsewhere. What His
Majesty desired was that I should feel neither disquietude nor em-
barrassment but rest entirely at ease in regard to my standing with his
Government and himself. I was of course highly gratified by these
seasonable and considerate proceedings on the part of the King and
by Lord Palmerston and thus expressed myself in terms which I
thought called for by the occasion.

The reigning Sovereign with the members! of the Royal Family
occupy at Levees and Drawing Booms, a stationary position before
the throne. The company, preceded by the Diplomatic Corps, enter
, the Throne Boom in procession and exchange salutations with the
Royal Circle in passing and go out at another door, except such as
are entitled to remain in the Presence, as it is called, and these,
consisting of the Ministers of foreign and the home Governments
and a stated few beside form in group in front. The only occasions

456 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

oh which any of the unprivileged company stop in their progress
before the Royal Circle are when presentations are to be made or
other permitted duties to be performed, or when any individual is*
addressed by the Sovereign, in which latter case the movement
of the procession is arrested until the conversation is closed by an
•appropriate bow on the King's part. He detained me long enough
to express in very kind terms his regret at what had happened
affecting me and a hope that I would remain in England for some
time ° after the expiration of my mission, and so forth. The Duke of
Sussex, standing some distance from me, but towering in his hercu-
lean proportions above all the company, exclaimed in a loud voice —
" What is this, Mr. Van Buren, that I have read in the papers ! I
hope it is not true ! " I was too far from him to reply in words and
could only assent to the authenticity of the news he referred to by
motions on which he added — " all I can say is that I am very sorry
for it." Similar assurances of good will were expressed by the
Queen and by other members of the Royal Family, which with
friendly salutations from various other sources made the morning
pass more agreeably than I could have anticipated.

Nor were the exhibitions of such feelings confined to the Gov-
ernment to which I had been accredited, and to those attached to it.
Several gentlemen of the opposition, whose acquaintance I had
not before made, stepped forward to shew me civilities. Sir Rob-
ert Peel, with whom I had as yet had no intercourse, left a card
for me the next day and, as soon as I returned it, sent me an invi-
tation to dinner which I accepted. The Earl of Westmoreland, one
of his political friends, did the same and informed me, thro' his
son, that Sir Robert would meet me at his house if I could accept
his invitation, and that he would be pleased to present me to other
gentlemen with! whom he thought it would be agreeable to me to
become acquainted before I left England; but my engagements for
the short period I intended to remain put it out of my power to
avail myself of the Earl's friendly attentions.

Not content with his previous acts of kindness the King, at my
audience of leave, expressed a desire that I would pay a visit to
the good Queen and himself at Windsor Castle before my departure
from the Country. The severe illness of a near relative of the Queen,
then on a visit to the Court, put it out of his power to receive me
at that moment, but if her health should improve in season Lord
Falmerston, he said, would apprise me of the fact and of the time .
when my visit would be acceptable. This was done and I spent two
days at the Castle upon as easy and familiar a footing with its in-
mates as could have 'been the case in any private family. Lord

* MS. IV, p. 155.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YAK BUBEN. 457

Palmerston was requested to attend the King during my stay and
dined with us both days, remaining over the night of the first, and
the King had also the goodness to direct the attendance of my friend,
for such he truly was, Sir Charles Vaughan, who, by his command,
continued during my visit at the Castle and returned with me to
the city. His Majesty also took the keys and shewed me many of
the most interesting parts of that venerable and noble pile. The
Queen went with us to Virginia water, and on the morning of our
departure, the King on foot and the Queen in her carriage took
us to the cottage on the slope— a building planned by themselves
and finished throughout according to the Queen's taste, and they
directed my attention to its simplicity in comparison with what the
King called the magnificent structures of "his luxurious brother,
George IV." It was on this occasion that he made to me the com-
munication, before referred to, concerning the impressions which
had at one time generally prevailed about Gen. Jackson, and his own
course in respect to them. To this spot my carriage had been sent
and there we took leave of our royal host and hostess after a few
words from the King expressing, for himself and for the Queen,
the best wishes for my safe return to my native Country and for
my future welfare. In my carriage I found four handsome colored
engravings representing the Castle, the different points from whioh
the views had been taken being noted in pencil, in the Queen's
handwriting, at the foot of each, and on one of them the window
of the room I had occupied being marked, a circumstance to which
she had directed my attention while at the Cottage. After the
King's death she sent me, thro' Lady Wellesley, a sketch of his life
with a full account of its closing scenes.

I was told by some of my diplomatic brethren after my return
that an invitation to the Castle, as a visitor, was a mark of respect
which had before been confined to members of the rank of Am-
bassador and the representative from Hanover, and that they thought
mine the first case of departure from that rule. How this was I
know not; — I allude more particularly to these matters than I
might otherwise have done, not only because they were, under the
existing circumstances, peculiarly grateful in themselves but also
as marking the signal failure of the designs of my enemies so far
as they were aimed at my personal humiliation at the Court to
which I had been sent.

On the day the news of the rejection of my nomination appeared
in the journals Prince Talleyrand sent me an invitation to meet
a few friends at his home in the evening. I found a small and
select party, and among them Lord Auckland, then a member of
the Cabinet and subsequently Governor General of India. He ea>
tended his hand to me very cordially and congratulated me upon

458 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

the treatment I had received from the Senate, I remarked that
altho' myself inclined to regard the affair in the light he suggested
I could hardly have expected such a view to be taken of it by a
stranger and at so great a distance from the theatre of action, to
which he replied, promptly — "Yes, yes, I take the right view of
it! In all my experience I have seldom known the career of a
young man in your position crowned with marked success who had
not been made, in the course of it, the subject of some such
outrage!"

Apropos of this mention of Prince Talleyrand, a circumstance
occurred in our intercourse which perhaps may amuse my reader
as much as it amused me and which may be not without some use
in estimating the character of that celebrated man. Perceiving as
I thought, a disposition to treat me with marked kindness I visited
his house as often as the habits of society in relation to persons in
his position would justify, and was always received with cordiality
by himself and his agreeable niece the Duchess de Dino. His con-
versation was, I need hardly say, an unfailing source of high grati-
fication, only qualified by the necessity we were under of g troubling
his niece with the office of interpreter as he did not speak English,
nor I French. I was so much struck by the extraordinary circum-
stance that a diplomatist so distinguished and constantly in service
should not have acquired the language of a Country with which
his own was in juxta-position and where so much of his time had
been spent as to express my surprise to Lord Palmerston and to
ask him whether this ignorance was not hi some degree assumed,
and I ventured at the same time to make some enquiries as to the
extent to which the Prince's mind had been affected by his great
age. To my first question Lord Palmerston answered that in all
his intercourse with him they invariably spoke in French, and that
they did so on the assumption that it was made necessary by the
Prince's ignorance of the English language. He added that the
idea suggested by me had not infrequently occurred to himself,
and he thought it quite likely that the old diplomatist, in requiring
the exclusion of the latter medium of communication from their
discussions, looked, in a degree at least to the advantages, undoubt-
edly considerable, to be derived from having his negotiations con-
ducted in his own tongue. On the other point he was decidedly
of opinion that, tho' already an octogenarian, Talleyrand's mental
faculties had not yet suffered the slightest deterioration. His
sagacity, quickness of apprehension and the piquancy of his wit
seemed rather to increase with his years and were, he said, con-
stantly and strikingly displayed in the National Conferences in
tfhich they were then engaged.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MA&TIN VAN BUBEH. 459

I was present at a debate in the House of Lords when the Marquis
of Londonderry made a violent attack upon Talleyrand. He had
no sooner taken his seat than the Duke of Wellington rose and, with
animation and fluency quite unusual with him, said that the ob-
servations of the Marquis, on account of the friendly relations ex-
isting between them and the general accord in their political
opinions, made it necessary that he should without delay disavow
the slightest participation in the sentiments which had fallen from
his friend. He had, the Duke said, been associated with the dis-
tinguished man, who had been so harshly spoken of, in transactions
of the gravest character, involving the temporal ° interests of man-
kind to as great an extent as any that had ever been acted upon and
he felt no hesitation in' saying that he had never been called to act, in
the management of public affairs, with a man who had discharged
the duties imposed upon him with a more liberal or faithful spirit.
He had found him indeed assiduous in his efforts to obtain what he
conceived to be due to his own Country but never wanting in respect
for the rights and interests of other Nations. Satisfied that his
friend had unwittingly done great injustice to the eminent stranger
then discharging highly responsible public duties in England, he
felt it to be his duty to correct the mistake into which his noble
friend had unhappily fallen, as far as his own experience and capac-
ity to estimate the characters of public men enabled him to do so.
Entertaining a strong confidence in the integrity and candour of
the Duke this declaration, made with a warmth and earnestness by
which his hearers were greatly excited, went far to remove from my
own mind unfavorable impressions in regard to Prince Talleyrand's
sincerity and good faith in which I had participated in common
with a large portion of the world. I will here, also,* take occasion
to mention that this improved view was greatly strengthened by a
conversation had long after, at my own house, with Marshal Bert-
rand, who had been Napoleon's close companion and friend, both
at Elba and St. Helena, remaining with him till his death and en-
joying his fullest confidence to the last That upright and every
way worthy man, notwithstanding the strong distrust in regard to
Talleyrand which Napoleon carried to his grave and recorded in
his will, entertained opinions favorable to the honesty and sin-
cerity of the former similar to those avowed by the Duke of Well-
ington, and expressed them frankly and freely.

But I am perhaps wandering too far from my promised anecdote
— which however is a short one. Having received from the worthy
captain of the " President " two saddles of American venison, as I
was about leaving England, I sent one to the Duke of Sussex and

i i i ■ i i i y i i i ■ ■ i ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ i ■ i ■ ■ ■ ■ . ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■■ ii i i i

• MS. IV, p. 160.

460 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

the other to Prince Tallyrand. Returning to the Audience Cham-
ber, after taking leave of Lord Palmerston, I found the Prince its
sole occupant. He looked around, obviously, in search of some per-
son on whom he might call to interpret between us, but, seeing no
one, he smiled and, without the slightest embarrassment and in very
tolerable English, entered into conversation on various subjects, con-
cluding by thanking me for the venison and inviting me to dine
with him nest day and partake of it. I had made my arrangements
to leave in the morning and was therefore obliged to decline but
promised to call upon the Duchess de Dino and himself for leave-
taking in the evening, which I did, but without again having the
pleasure of hearing him talk English.

A year's residence in a Country, however great the facilities en-
joyed to that end, is, at least, an inadequate period for the formation
of entirely reliable opinions of its public men. It is therefore not
without real diffidence and much, hesitation that I say even the little
that I do say about those who came more particularly under my
observation. But as the opinions I formed, however hasty, were
quite unprejudiced deductions from what I saw and heard I ven-
ture on the expression of them, trusting that they will be indulgently
suffered to pass for what they are worth.

Lord Grey, whose character as a Statesman has been the subject
of much observation, was at the time Prime-Minister. I saw him
under circumstances better calculated perhaps to exhibit his true
character and to give the measure of his capacities than any that
had occurred in his previous career. I allude to his conduct of the
Reform Question, and his leadership in the debate upon the Reform
Bill in the House of Lords. I chanced to be present when he made
his celebrated appeal to the Bench of Bishops and denounced with
much eloquence and unsparing severity sentiments which he charged
to have been uttered by the partisan Bishop of Exeter. In his open-
ing speech the Earl entreated the Right Reverend Prelates to con-
sider what their condition would be before the Country if a measure
on which the Nation had fixed its hope should be rejected by but a
slim majority of the lay Peers and its fate be consequently decided
by the votes of the heads of the Church. Those Right Reverend
Prelates had, he said, shown that they were not indifferent or inat-
tentive to the signs of the times by their introduction of measures
for effecting some salutary reforms in matters relating to the tem-
poralities of the Church. In this they had acted with a wise fore-
thought and evinced their consciousness of the fact that the eyes of
the Country were upon them, as well as a proper sense of the neces-
sity of setting their house in order and preparing to meet the ooming
storm. He implored them to follow on the present occasion the same

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUBBN. 461

prudent course. This earnest and polished invocation was made to
include a scarcely concealed menace of the gravest character by which
the Prelates were profoundly moved. It had, as was alleged, drawn
from one of them, the fiery Bishop of Exeter, a declaration — whether
on that floor or in a pastoral letter or in some other public form I
do not now remember— that the course pursued by his Majesty's Gov-
ernment in their support of the Reform measure was of a character
well fitted to expose the stability of the Crown to danger. This im-
puted avowal was brought to the notice of the Lords by Earl Grey,
during an excited stage of the debate, — I believe on the night before
the final division on the Bill in the House of Lords. He denounced
it vehemently and in scorching terms as eminently disloyal in its ten-
dency, inconsistent with the allegiance due to the Throne from the
Rt. Kev. Prelate, as amounting, substantially to an invitation to
insurrection, as a kind of moral treason and exhibited with elo-
quence and power the shocking impropriety of such a sentiment from
one of the heads of the Church. The Bishop's bench was, at that
time, directly behind that of the Ministers. Lord Grey soon turned
round, thus facing the former and standing within a few feet of
them., with the Marquis of Lansdowne on one side of him and the
Duke of Richmond on the other, both members of the Cabinet and
both doing what they could to increase the excitement, by cries of
hear ! hear 1 which were re-echoed by the supporters of the Govern-
ment and retorted by the opposition. The aroused Bishop had risen
from his seat and without symptom of flinching gave back to the Earl
the fiercest glances of resentment and defiance.

This scene occurred at a late hour of the night— or rather an
early hour of the morning — whilst I stood on the steps of the
Throne, near the bench of the Bishops, the place assigned to the
foreign ministers, and a more exciting one I have never witnessed.

Earl Grey was a man of noble stature and dignified address.
My colleague in the United States Senate, Mr. Bufus King, had
previously described him to me as being, upon the whole, the most
imposing and impressive speaker he had heard in England. Such
was also the conclusion at which I arrived and altho' to my mind
his idea* of an ultimate and superior obligation to his " order " —
however chivalrous and unselfish the sentiment in him, the occasion
of its utterance considered, — compromised the strict integrity of
his whig principles, he was, without doubt, always and under all
circumstances a patriot and an honest man.

The Duke of Wellington was not in power during my residence
in England, and my intercourse with him was limited to a formal
introduction and interchange of personal civilities when we hap-
pened to meet. He was nevertheless to me, of course, a subject of

462 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

much interest and observation. His unqualified stand against the
Reform Bill, with the best reasons to believe that its passage or
that of something very much like it was desired by a large majority
of the Nation, and the firmness and fortitude with which he sus-
tained the popular rebuke were of themselves, aside from his dis-
tinguished military carreer sufficient to attract to him the attention
of foreigners. That he was sincere in his opinion that neither the
welfare of his Country nor the happiness of its inhabitants would
be promoted by that measure no intelligent and unprejudiced ob-
server of his character and conduct could doubt Yet in setting up
and adhering to that opinion against the will of the Nation, con-
stitutionally expressed, he made himself for a season exceedingly
odious to the masses.

° The usual demonstrations of popular discontent in England, such
as breaking his window, pelting his carriage with mud, and so forth,
were directed against him without stint but without shaking his
nerves or producing the least effect upon his spirit or resolution to
maintain the position he had assumed. It was not until his judg-
ment was satisfied that farther attempts to resist the popular will
thro' the power of the Crown must endanger the peace of the Coun-
try, if not the stability of the Throne, that he declined the honors
tendered to him by the King and, retiring from the field, advised
his Sovereign to give the reins of Government into the hands of his
opponents.

I returned to England at that critical moment, and just before the
Duke abandoned his attempt to construct a new administration upon
the principles he espoused.

The decision of a majority of the House of Commons is the only
constitutional expression of the opinion and wishes of the people of
England. That expression is not binding either upon the Crown or
upon the House of Lords except so far as is provided by the Consti-
tution which concedes to each of them rights and powers placed
above the control of the Commons. But its opinion is nevertheless
the recognised constitutional exposition of the popular will, and that
branch of the Government, representing the numerical and physical
strength of the Nation, had unequivocally pronounced in favor of a
material change in the representation of the people in the House of
Commons. The Duke, acting as the First Minister of the Crown,
had on a former occasion declared, in substance, that there should
be no such reform and it was now proposed by the King to restore
him to the power of which he had been divested through the exercise
of the popular will with the avowed intention of counteracting and
defeating that will thro' the instrumentality of the powers vested

° MS. IV, p. lto.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUREST. 468

in the other two branches of the Government The issue thus pre-
sented to the people of England was a grave one — being nothing less
than one of absolute submission to the despotic control of those de-
partments of the Government in the choice of which they had no
vote or a resort to the extreme remedy, in which the existing system
found its origin, forcible resistance. I had already seen much to
respect in the character of that people but nothing so impressive as
their noble bearing at this fearful crisis. On occasions of ordinary
excitement, when dangers to their liberties were seen at a distance,
public meetings, violent resolutions, clamor and rioting were the com-
mon channels thro9 which popular discontent showed itself to men
in power; but now that the necessity for immediate and effective
action was imminent — indeed, at hand — none of these exhibitions of
an offended public sentiment were to be seen or heard. The streets
were quiet and, to an unusual extent, abandoned. Silence prevailed
in the coffee-rooms and in all places of public resort The press spoke
in measured terms, the House of Lords, lately the object of violent
denunciation, was not' spoken of at all, and almost the only open dis-
play of the condition of the public mind was the notice, placarded
on numerous respectable houses, " no taxes paid here." Nor could any
public demonstrations have been equally significant or so effectually
convinced anti-reformers of the nature of the crisis which had at
last been reached. The Duke saw it as clearly as any one and met it
like an honest man. By his express advice to the Sang Lord Grey and
his Cabinet were recalled and the danger passed away.

As a public speaker the Duke of Wellington possessed few at-
tractions to casual or inattentive hearers. His language was plain,
even common-place, his gestures awkward and his delivery marred
by painful repetitions. Yet he had oratorical qualifications of a
high value by means of which he seldom failed to make his speeches,
on great occasions, remarkably effective. These were a clear head,
a sound discriminating mind and a love of truth, of the sincerity
of which no ingenuous auditor could remain unsatisfied. No man
that I ever heard seemed to me more scrupulously attentive to the
wholesome advice given to orators, never to rise except they had
something to say and to resume their seats when they had said it.
I listened always with interest and seldom without profit to his ap-
parently confused speeches. They contained clear and closely con-
densed statements of facts, frequently including some that were
very material but had been overlooked by previous speakers, and
fresh and original views of the subject with additional arguments
in favor of such as had been already urged ; the whole being pre-
sented briefly and with an obviously equitable aim and left to make
its way to the sense and reason without an effort to enlist the imag-

s

464 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

ination or the passions of his audience. He was consequently heard
by those who were in pursuit of the right and truth of the case with
much attention, and his speeches, backed by his well understood
integrity and truthfulness, generally told upon the decision with
much force. There were many points in which he and Gen. Jackson
resembled each other. In moral and physical courage, in' indiffer-
ence to personal consequences and in promptness in action there
was little if any difference in their characters. The Duke was better
educated and had received the instruction of experience upon a
larger scale, but the General in native intellect had, I think, been
more richly endowed.

The effects of Sir Robert Peel's oratory were, as it appeared to
me, much weakened by the formal and somewhat ostentatious man-
ner in which he threw himself into the debate — a certain something
that seemed to say here am I ! Yet I never saw anything, either
in his familiar intercourse with the members of the House, or in his
manners or conversation out of it, to countenance the idea that he
was capable of indulging in any such assumption or that he
entertained a vain conceit of his own capacities or importance. It is
far more likely that I misjudged as to the habit I speak of, altho'
I was struck by the appearance of it and often referred to it at the
time. Sir Robert impressed his contemporaries with a high opinion
of his elocution and he figured in an age of great men. Lord Macau-
lay, a competent judge, altho' certainly sometimes extravagant if not
careless in his conclusions ranks him among the successors of Pitt,
the justness of whose reputation as an orator has long ceased to be an
open question, and this classification has not been dissented from, nor
as far as I know, received with distrust. It may be regarded there-
fore as having met with general approbation. Nevertheless, with a
very good opinion of Sir Robert Peel's capacities as a public speaker,
I must say that, he at no time appeared to me equal, as a skilful de-
bater, to what Lord Derby was when I knew him as Lord Stanley,
or comparable, as an orator, to Daniel Webster ; neither in my judg-
ment, did his greatest strength lie in that direction. His career
disclosed commendable traits of character and he succeeded in the
accomplishment of important objects, but by means among which
his speeches, useful tho' they were, were not the most effective. The
son of a cotton-spinner he attained, under the adverse influences of
monarchical and aristocratical institutions a power in the Govern-
ment and a social position very rarely surpassed, under similar cir-
cumstances, and not often equalled. He bore a good fortune of so
marked a character as a man of sense and in a manner to which
I believe no exception has ever been made in any quarter, and to
which I am confident none could be made with truth. This, as the

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 465

world goes, is a very high merit, well calculated to advance a man
in its estimation. But it was not by far his strongest claim upon the
respect of his countrymen* He was the favorite, I may^ay the pet
of the landed aristocracy of England; few commoners ever stood
higher in its favor or were more caressed by its chiefs. These he
sorely offended by the efficient support he gave to Catholic emancipa-
tion, and, with perfect knowledge of the consequences he cut him-
self off forever from their confidence and favor by exerting an active
and powerful influence in behalf of free trade. There have been in
our time few greater movements than these movements in which
success required the deracination of commercial habits and ideas
that had been incrusted by ages, and the confrontal of overgrown
and bigoted prejudices which had long been intrenched in power.
This success, it was well known, could not be achieved without ex-
posure to the severest penalties and Sir Robert readily encountered
the danger and endured the penalties,0 contributing largely, perhaps
the largest, to the victory. Those movements were designed only
to subserve the happiness and welfare of the masses, and he deserves
to be regarded as having staked his political fortunes upon their
success because he placed a higher value upon the interests of
humanity and the thanks of posterity than upon the plaudits and
caresses of the great and powerful among the living.

My acquaintance has been more intimate and my official inter-
course more extensive and varied with Viscount Palmerston than
with any other of the public men of England. He became Minister
of Foreign Affairs under the Melbourne Administration whilst I
held the office of Secretary of State, charged with corresponding
duties under, that of President Jackson.. He occupied the same post
during my residence as the representative of my Country in Eng-
land and until the end of my official term as President of the United
States.

During that time, embracing a period of about eleven years, there
did not arise a single important question between our respective
Governments with the superintendence of which he was not charged
or in which I did not take a direct part, or over the disposition of
which I did not exert a material influence either as Secretary of
State, Minister to England, as the confidential counsellor of Presi-
dent Jackson, always consulted on such occasions, or as President,
chiefly responsible for the manner in which the duties of the Gov-
ernment in respect to them were discharged. Among those ques-
tions were that of the North Eastern Boundary between us and Great
Britain, in the worst and most menacing aspects which that subject

ever assumed, and that presented by the mutually disturbing and

• MS. IV, p. 170.
127483°— vol 2—20 30

466 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION.

irritating occurrences growing ont of the Canadian Rebellion and
the unauthorized participation of our citizens in its prosecution, in-
cluding the affair of the Caroline and the case of McLeod.*

I have seen, with regret, that an impression has, to some extent
at least, secured a lodgment in the public mind here that Lord
Palmerston has imbibed prejudices against this Country which hare
made him less $sposed than other British statesmen to do us jus-
tice. I feel bound to say that with thd opportunities I have had,
perhaps as full as those of any other person, I have seen nothing
to justify this notion but much to disprove its correctness. In the
course of the exciting and truly important discussions in which we
have been involved I never had occasion to suspect him of profess-
ing opinions he did not sincerely believe to be well founded, as a
sanction to groundless pretences or as a cover to resistance of claims
the justice of which he could not honestly controvert — an artifice
unhappily too common in diplomacy — but to this day I retain a
gratifying and abiding recollection of the constant occasion I found
to admire the candour and integrity of his conduct and of the facili-
ties for the performance of official duties which were afforded by
his genial and conciliatory dispositions. During my recent visit to
England, twenty five years later than the period of which I am
writing, I saw much of him and was pleased to find him at the head ot
th6 Government I discussed public affairs with him, including those
of our own Countries, with the same freedom which characterized
our former intercourse and perceived no change in his dispositions
or apparently in his capacities other than such as must follow the
unavoidable but, in his case, gentle touch of time.

Lord Palmerston can scarcely be regarded as an orator of the
first class — in the highest but restricted sense of the term. Altho'
prepared by the study and stored with the extent of general knowl-
edge deemed indispensable to the constitution of an accomplished
statesman, his parliamentary life has not been distinguished by
elaborate speeches indicating extensive research or profound medi-
tation. Yet there are, certainly, or have been few of his contempo-
raries whose careers as leaders of the House, from time to time, on
the side either of the Government or of the opposition, have been
more successful than his. For the accomplishment of a result so
grateful to public men he has called into action powers of the mind
more humble in pretension and less dazzling in appearance but, as
experience has often proved, far more effective in the end than the
most brilliant oratory when not sustained by them. These have
consisted of unfailing judgment in pressing his measures upon the

m ■ ^m M » ■ ■ I ■ !!■■»■ WW. ■■[■■■II ^^— — I ■ ■ ■ ■ I ■ »»»^ ^^ ^«— — 1^— — -^^^M«M». ■ ■ ■ m ■ ^— ^— — I^W^^^^

1 Alexander McLeod and the burning of the steamer Caroline by the British in 1837, in
American waters.

AUTOBIOGBAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 467

House at the proper time, when its members were in the best mood
to regard them favorably and the auspices in other respects favor-
able to success; of the keen sagacity with which he has been accus-
tomed to find the weakest point in the position of his adversary and
the promptitude and perseverance with which he has applied all
the means within his command to overthrow him at that point,
without engaging in mere oratorical or comparatively extraneous
debate, whereby time and opportunity might be afforded to his
opponent to recover from mistakes or to take a new position; of
so arranging not only the form of the specific questions thro' which
the sense of the House upon the whole subject is to be pollected
and its disposition controlled, but the order ia which they are to
be proposed, as to force to the surface and to turn to his advantage
latent diversities of feeling and opinion on points either not at all
or only remotely bearing upon the principal subject, and of that
habitual control by which he has saved himself from being led into
attempts to attain objects which were indeed beyond his reach,—
a fault into which indiscreet politicians, however sincere, are apt
to fall in the ardor of success. Lord Palmerston's career is a strik-
ing illustration of the advantages that may be reasonably expected
from the observance of these and other rules, which might be re-
ferred to, of parliamentary government, taught by the school of
which he was an early disciple and has become so distinguished a
master, and in connection with his moral courage, his alertness and
his remarkable industry they disclose the secret of his great
prosperity.

A fine opportunity was presented for the display of his proficiency
in that school on the occasion of the attacks made, in the summer of
1855, upon the Administration of which he was the Chief, on ac-
count of the course it had pursued in respect to the breaking up of
the Congress of Vienna and its alleged spirit and policy in relation
to the prosecution of the war with Russia. The original notice of
a motion which wotild bring the subject before Parliament was
given by Mr. Milner Gibson, a member of the Queen's Privy Coun-
cil and an earnest friend to peace, but his notice had been virtually
withdrawn in consequence of the answer of the Premier to questions
which, it was insinuated, had been collusively put to him by promi-
nent Peelites, friends of Mr. Gibson. The hostile movement was
however started afresh and pressed to a vote by Mr. Disraeli, the
Conservative leader in the House; and the position of the Ministry
in the conflict by which it was attempted to be overthrown was thus
described by the Attorney General : " It was attacked," he said, " in
front, flank, and rear by adversaries whose assaults, owing to their
conflicting opinions, it was difficult to meet9'

468 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

This was doubtless a true description of Lord Palmerston's con-
dition on the occasion and it is one to which Parliamentary leaders
are always exposed and from which no order of talent can be made
so effectual for defence as that I have ascribed to him. It was my
good fortune to be able to attend those debates for two nights, on
both of which they were continued into the 'small hours' of the
morning. I was present at their close, having had occasion to ad-
mire the judgment, circumspection and talent displayed by Palmer-
ston throughout, and I rejoiced in his success. He triumphed in
a House a majority of the members of which were, at heart, de-
sirous of. his overthrow. The Conservative leaders, under the in-
fluence of disappointed feelings, insinuated, as I have said, collu-
sion between the Premier and prominent Peelites, but I, sitting
near the gentlemen alluded to, needed no other proof of the un-
founded nature of those imputations than was to be found at the
conclusion in their countenances and whole demeanor. If I ° had
been called upon to indicate the two members who appeared to take
the result most heavily to heart I should have pointed, without
hesitation, to Sir James Graham and Mr. Gladstone. Disraeli was
perhaps more resentful but evidently not quite as unhappy. And
yet the final vote, which confirmed and strengthened the Ministry
in their seats, had been unanimous— or, without a division ; so skill-
fully had the propositions and debates been governed by the master
spirit of the occasion.*

Whilst engaged with this part of my task, a friend without being
aware of my particular occupation at the moment, has placed in my
hand Macaulay's sketch of the life of William Pitt in which I find

• MS. IV, p. 175.

* I have elsewhere referred to like successful efforts on the part of Mr. Madison In the
first Congress following the adoption of the Constitution, when he availed himself of
the diversities in opinion and feeling between the federal and anti-federal members to
secure the- adoption of amendments, otherwise unattainable, which gave to that In-
valuable Instrument a vitality without which It must long since have pertshed. More-
over these and all other similar resorts of genius and talent since the days of Saint Paul
have been but reproductions of the admirable skill with which that great Apostle saved
himself from the malice of the Pharisees and Sadducees, who had banded together for his
destruction, by adroitly mingling the momentous and overshadowing subject of the Resur-
rection of the Dead with the questions by which his life was endangered, as thus de-
scribed by St. Luke:

" But when Paul perceived that the one part was Sadducees and the other Pharisees,
he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee : of
the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.

"And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and Sad-
ducees : and the multitude divided.

" For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit : hot the
Pharisees confess both.

"And there arose a great cry: and the scribes that were of the Pharisees part arose,
and strove, saying, We find no evil In this man ; bnt If a spirit or an angel hath spoken
to him let us not fight against God.

"And when there arose a great dissension, the chief Captain, fearing lest Pan) should
have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded to soldiers to go down, and to take him
by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle."

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 469

views so opposite to those I have expressed as to make it, in some
sense, my duty to notice them. He describes the subject of his
Memoir as " the greatest master of the whole art of parliamentary
government that has ever existed— & greater than Montagu or Wal-
pole, a greater than his father Chatham or his rival Fox, a greater
than either of his illustrious successors Canning and Peel."

Having accorded, with a degree of justice which I am neither pre-
pared nor disposed to question, this eminent distinction to Mr. Pitt,
lie proceeds to a description of the length of time during which the
" art," or power referred to has existed in England and of the im-
mense advantages she has derived from its exercise, to a definition of
that power and to his view of the qualifications which are sufficient
to enable its possessor to wield it with success. Upon the latter point
he thus expresses himself :—

Parliamentary Government Is Government by speaking. In such a Govern-
ment the power of speaking is the most highly prised of all the qualities which
a politician can possess ; and that power may exist, in the highest degree, with-
out judgment, without fortitude, without skill in reading the characters of
men, or the sign of the times, without any knowledge of the principles of legis-
lation, or of political economy and without any skill in diplomacy or in the
administration of war. Nay it may well happen that those very intellectual
qualities which give a peculiar charm to the speeches of a public man may be
incompatible with the qualities which would fit him to meet a pressing emer-
gency with promptitude and firmness.

Lord Macaulay names several who hare auquired the reputation of
great orators who were, in his opinion, thus deficient, but he does
not include Mr. Pitt in the number, nor is it fairly inferable from
what he says of him in that connection that he so regarded him. The
proposition he states was more probably designed as a general one
expressing his dissent from the commonly received idea of the quali-
fications indispensable to the constitution of a master, in the highest
degree, of the art of Parliamentary Government. I cannot assent
to the position assumed by him in this regard notwithstanding my
admiration of his abilities and accomplishments as a public writer,
without ignoring the teachings of a long public life, a large portion
of which has been spent in legislative bodies of a character quite well
calculated to test the capacities requisite to their government The
comparison that he institutes between the relative powers which
Charles Townshend or Mr. Windham, on the one hand, were [pos-
sessed of] or which such men as Oliver Cromwell, who, he says,
talked nonsense, and William the Silent, who did not talk at all,
would have been capable of exercising in the Government of the
House of Commons, can scarcely be regarded as a happy or a safe
illustration of the value of qualifications in a parliamentary* leader,
which he deems unnecessary. A more reliable solution of the latter
question would I think be reached by comparing the probable effi-

470 AMERICAN HI8TOBICAL ASSOCIATION.

ciency of such men as Windham and Townshend without the qual-
ifications referred to with that of the same gentlemen in the pos-
session of them. If the difference would be without doubt very di-
cided it would seem impossible to make a greater — much less "the
greatest" — master of the whole art of parliamentary government out
of one who does not possess such qualifications.

A public speaker, on particular occasions and under adventitious
circumstances, may be able to rivet the attention and enlist the feel-
ings of his hearers for the moment, or carry erroneous conclusions
to their minds, without the aid of such auxiliary qualifications as
have been named, but to establish himself in the government of such
a body as the English House of Commons, it is, at least, indispensa-
ble that he should acquire and retain the deep seated and habitual
confidence of a majority of its members, and how that can be ac-
complished by a leader "without judgment, fortitude or skill in read-
ing the characters of men or the signs of the times, and without
any knowledge of the principles of legislation," is beyond my com-
prehension.

The history of our public men affords an instance sufficiently im-
portant and applicable to supply conclusive reasons to prove the
incapacity of a great orator to govern parliamentary or legislative
bodies who is deficient in a portion only of the qualifications de-
scribed. I allude to the case of Alexander Hamilton. The assump-
tion may excite surprise in the minds of those who have known
nothing personally of that eminent man, but it may be well doubted
whether his native Country — England1 — has ever produced one
who was, at all points, a more finished orator. He was well-edu-
cated, well supplied with knowledge especially applicable to the
duties of a statesman, graceful and winning in gesture and in his
delivery, a man of comprehensive and elevated views, an eager and
earnest patriot in the sense of opinions sincerely and honestly held,
powerful, tho' diffusive, in debate, and withal supremely eloquent.
Yet this man thus lavishly furnished with faculties and oppor-
tunities as a public speaker never acquired a corresponding, much
less a controlling influence in any public body of which he was a
member. His failure in this regard tho' doubtless, in part, ° at-
tributable to a defective judgment as well in the construction of his
public measures as in the means employed in their support, was
owing more to his having been "without skill in reading the char-
acters of men or the signs of the times." The consequences of these
defects were seen and felt by his coadjutors as well as by his op-

1 Van Puren was apparently misinformed or looked upon the West Indian colonial a* a
native Englishman.

• MS. IV, p. 180. x

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BT7REN. 471

ponente in the old Congress, and one of them has already been re-
ferred to in these pages. But they were more strikingly displayed
in the Convention for the formation of the Federal Constitution,
in which his influence as the sole representative of a State of the
first importance and as the greatest orator in the body was totally
destroyed by the errors and indiscretions of a single speech, and
that his first and principal performance of that kind.

Whilst such were the results of Hamilton's parliamentary efforts,
his friend Madison, who partook largely of his political heresies in
one or two particulars, who was not equal to him as an orator and not
more than equal to him in general intellectual power, left inefface-
able traces of his great success and usefulness in both bodies. Other
considerations doubtless aided in causing this difference in the
results of their labors but it is not to be doubted that it was princi-
pally occasioned by the possession and vigilant exercise on the part of
the latter of the qualifications referred to and which the former
lacked. A more reliable judgment would have impressed Hamilton
with a proper sense of the importance of ascertaining his ability to
obtain the assent of the Convention at least to a system of Govern-
ment like that he desired,-— to wit: one which would favor the ulti-
mate introduction of monarchical institutions — before he ventured
to avow his preference for such institutions as unreservedly as he
did in the speech alluded to. A still more advanced step in wisdom's
way would have been the mature consideration of the probability of
his being able to secure the concurrence of the States in the establish-
ment of such a system before he attempted its passage in the Conven-
tion and of the ruinous consequences to his political friends, to him-
self and to his Country, that must follow his failure. A large por-
tion of the members of the Convention, probably a majority, were
his friends, and could have had no motive to conceal their purposes
from him. If he had possessed but moderate skill in reading the
characters of men and judgment sufficient to appreciate the import-
ance of the information, he would have found but little difficulty in
satisfying himself that, however much disposed some of his col-
leagues might be to wish success to his views, there was, in all prob-
ability, not one ready to encounter the responsibility which he boldly
faced and to risk their reputations and positions by openly sustain-
ing the preference he was about to avow, much less by any attempt to
carry it into effect. Washington, the President of the Convention
and his friend, if pressed with the earnestness which the occasion
would have justified, would not have hesitated to say to him that,
however strong might be his own apprehensions as to the final suc-
cess of Republican Government in this Country, he would feel it his
duty to peril his life in support of the attempt to uphold it until its
impracticability should be demonstrated by the fullest experience.

472 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

If Hamilton had been capable of understanding the temper and
dispositions of the people whose cause he had gallantly espoused,
or of reading the signs of the times, he would have seen and
felt the impossibility of obtaining* the concurrence of even a ma-
pority of the states, notwithstanding occasional symptoms, under
the influence of adverse circumstances, of luke-warmness and back-
wardness in their devotion to free institutions, in the establishment
of a system which was liable to the suspicion merely of having been
designed to sap the foundations upon which Republican Govern-
ment could alone be sustained. But being, as he was, " without skill
in reading the characters of men or the signs of the times," and
absorbed in the egotism and attendant vanity which have been the
lot of great orators in all ages, he thought only of his own ideas,
of the opinions which were the fruit of his own meditations, and
thus made blind to all that was passing around him, he threw
himself headlong upon the Convention and recklessly proclaimed
sentiments at variance with what he ought then to have believed
and what experience has since shown to be^the rivetted feeling of
the American people, rendering his subsequent success as a public
man impossible and casting a cloud of suspicion over the policy
and principles of the political party of which he had been from
the beginning the idol, which could never be dissipated and under
which it perished.

Lord Brougham's fame was at its highest point at the time of
which I am speaking. He held the first office in the kingdom ac-
cessible to a subject, with acknowledged talents and acquirements
scarcely second to any contemporary and with the most eligible
opportunities for their display from the woolsack, on the floor of
the House of Lords and in the High Court of Chancery. To add
to the value of these possessions came the consciousness that they
had not been conferred upon him through favor — were not the
fruits of rewards of obsequiousness or subserviency to rank and
power. It was, on the contrary, well understood that in raising
him from the condition of a private subject to the high dignity he
reached, his Sovereign had only bestowed upon him a tribute justly
due as well for his instrumentality in commending to the favor of
the Nation a great principle, long depressed, but which was vitally
important to its welfare, as for the ability and moral courage he
had exhibited and the responsibilities he had encountered in sus-
taining its unfortunate Queen against the bitter resentment and
arbitrary pretension of her reckless husband and Sovereign. These
were considerations which when connected with his unquestioned
capacity to discharge its onerous and responsible duties in a manner
useful to the Country, while creditable to himself, were calculated

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTH? VAN BUREN. 478

to confer and did confer unusual eclat on his elevation to the office
of I»rd High Chancellor of England.

I made his personal acquaintance at one of Prince Talleyrand's
delightful round-tablePdinners in which the company was restricted
to nine. On that occasion it consisted besides our host and his niece,
the Duchess de Dino, of Lord and Lady Holland, Lord and Lady
Sef ton, — both ladies, like their husbands, veteran politicians, — the
Lord Chancellor, Lord Auckland and myself* I had seen the Chan-
cel lor in his robes but did not recognize him in the plain dress he
wore, nor was I presented to him before dinner. Placed between
him and Lord Auckland, with whom I was well acquainted, I asked
of the latter the name of my neighbour, and was, to my surprise,
introduced to Chancellor Brougham. I met him frequently after-
wards, was invariably treated by him with kindness and respect,
neither saw nor heard of anything, save what I am about to speak
of, that should have impaired his claim to mine and yet, as I am
now, when I feel myself better informed almost ashamed to say, I
left England, in 1832, with strong prejudices against his personal
character. These arose exclusively from an impression, erroneous
as I ultimately discovered it to be, in regard to certain effects, pro-
duced upon him by his sudden and great elevation from the rank of
a private subject to the highest office in the gift of the Crown, and
to the Peerage.

I have seldom observed in the habits of any people a more striking
and commendable feature, or one which has afforded me more satis-
faction, than the equanimity with which the higher classes of the
English nobility enter upon the successive advancements in rank and
dignity to which at intervals sometimes long delayed, they succeed by
inheritance, and the simplicity in respect to personal appearance and
demeanor with which they wear their new honors. This trait in
their character is so general as to constitute a rule, in the truth of
which no one who has an opportunity to test it will be disappointed,
that the higher the ranks of its aristocracy the more will the ob-
server be obliged to acknowledge not merely the modesty and sim-
plicity of manner, which distinguish the gentleman in all degrees
of society, but the absence of all assumptions of superiority or merit
on the score of birth. It is doubtless to these features in their dispo-
sition and conduct, almost always visible in their intercourse with
other classes, rather than to any different cause that the remarkable
freedom from envious or jealous feelings towards them, on the part
of those who occupy lower places in the established social scale, is to
be attributed, and they present in this regard a happy model ° for
those who are not born and have, consequently not been trained to the

* M& IV, p. 180.

^

474 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

possession of like distinctions but have succeeded to them through
their own merits and by the favor of their Sovereign. Right-minded
men thus placed will seldom fail to appreciate the proprieties as well
as the general duties of their position. They will think themselves
made neither better nor worse by becoming the recipients of such dig-
nities, but regarding the power and rank which have been conferred
upon them as a trust only for the advancement of the public good, the
possession of which entitles them to no more respect and confidence
than are the legitimate fruit of the able and faithful performance of
public duties, while serving their Country they will also reflect honor
upon their class and present examples worthy of being imitated by its
future members.

There have been illustrious instances of this description among
the public men of England and they have received the reverence
and gratitude of their countrymen. But the enlightened views of
public policy which have led, from an early period, to the bestow-
ment of these distinctions, under a monarchy, without regard to
birth — though contrary to the genius of such a Government — have
not, in all cases, been rewarded with equal success. They have been
at times conferred on men whom their possession has only served
to inflate with vanity and arrogance.

As an American citizen, interested in the spread of free govern-
ment, I was, of course, solicitous for Lord Brougham's success in his
able support of the great principle involved in the question of Par-
liamentary reform, his devotion to which lay at the foundation of
his advancement and which was still dependent for its full develop-
ment and security on his continued efforts. I accordingly leaned
to his side in all his contests with his opponents and naturally wished
him well in all things. Nevertheless every thing I saw of him on
the woolsack, on the floor of the House of Lords, or in the High
Court of Chancery led me to place him in the category of those
spoiled children of fortune whose heads are turned by their pros-
perity and whose dispositions instead of being softened are made
haughty and assuming by the amplitude of their powers. It would
now be no less disagreeable than useless to recall the particular acts
and circumstances which served to ripen that impression into *
painful conviction. It is enough to say that the latter was as sin-
cere as it was unwelcome and kept its hold upon mq when I came
home. I acknowledged it without reserve to my friends when the
opinions I had formed of the public men of England were asked,
altho* never unnecessarily or by way of reproach. During my sec-
ond visit abroad many years later, I was thrown in a closer in-
timacy with Lord Brougham and, with nearer views of the man,
became fully satisfied that my former opinions of him had been

■
\

i

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTTBEK. 475

most unjust. The addition of more than a score to the number of
his years and the change which had taken place in his political posi-
tion, I am aware) were enough to work a great change in a man's
feelings but, in the natural course of such things, this change would
have been the other way. The disease which, in 1831, 1 believed to
be upon him in its acute form, would, if such had been his condition,
have 'become chronic in 1864. But there were no such indications.
I never, on the contrary, saw a man who, after passing thro9 so dis-
tinguished a public life, was more at ease with the world, less prone
to carp at the management of public affairs by others — the besetting
infirmity of retired Statesmen — less restive ujider the neglects with
which the worshippers of the rising sun regard his setting or more
cheerfully acquiescent in the conclusions at which the great com-
munity of which he is a member had obviously arrived that the day
for his active and useful participation as chief in the weightier mat-
ters of the Government has passed away forever; a judgment which
communities have a right to form and express according to their own
pleasure and from which rational men, with faculties really unim-
paired, will not be disposed to appeal.

As far as I had opportunities for forming an opinion, and these
were not few or unfavorable, he seems envious of or dissatisfied
with no man or set of men and, forgetful of former prejudices,
devotes the remnant of power and influence that are- left to him
to the improvement of the various public institutions of his Country
and a liberal share of) his leisure hours to social enjoyments, par-
taking of them, with equal zest and satisfaction, with friends and
foes of former days. Such would not have been the evening of a
life the meridian of which had been deformed by passions of the
character I had supposed — a sad error on my part the correction
of which will always stand among the most cherished recollections
of my last visit to Europe.

Lord Derby, the present first Minister, was then, a member of
Lord Grey's Administration, holding the office of Secretary for
Ireland. I thought him the readiest and keenest debater in the
House of Commons. A thorough comprehension of his subject and
a happy condensation of its most material parts, a perspicuous
presentation of the questions growing out of it, with pointed but
uncrowded illustrations and legitimate deductions going to strengthen
the side he espoused, expressed with a remarkable clearness and
delivered in a peculiarly graceful manner, were among the striking
features of his speeches. They were always listened to with interest
and on great occasions rarely failed to elicit the admiration of all
who heard them. But they did not, in general, produce a corre-
sponding effect upon the vote of the House. This discrepancy

476 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

was not understood to arise as much from an aversion to his views
of the subject under debate or from any defects in his arguments
as from the apparently imperious spirit with which they were en-
forced. Whatever may have been the true character of his feelings —
of which I was not well enough acquainted with him to judge — he
always seemed to me more intent upon harassing than upon convert-
ing his adversary. Presenting himself in that attitude, as I cannot
but think he did to others as well as myself, his assaults and replies,
tho' always couched in civil and parliamentary language, generally
assumed a harsh and irritating character. His dislike to Mr. O'Con-
nell, with whom he was often brought in contact by the nature of
his official duties and, doubtless by a sincere belief that he was ren-
dering the Country a service by keeping him in check, led him to
indulge frequently in such displays, and strengthened a habit to
which he was naturally not disinclined. In respect to him, at least,
1 was quite sure that I was not mistaken in assuming that he acted
from system and not upon the impulse of the hour, and succeeded
in producing the desired effect. Certain it was that O'Connell
seldom commenced an altercation with him which could have been
avoided and when one was forced upon him he appeared desirous
to get rid of him as soon as he could. The sparrings between them
.were among the most spicy proceedings of the House and therefore
attracted more of my attention.

By the side of the Secretary for Ireland, sustaining the same
Administration, but in one respect, at least, in striking contrast
with him, sat his associate in the Cabinet, the late Earl Spencer,
then Lord Althorp and Chancellor of the Exchequer. It would be
doing Lord Althorp injustice to say that he was a dull speaker
for he was a man of excellent sense, highly respectable in his ac-
quirements and of exemplary probity, who avoided unnecessary
altercations; confined his attentions very much to the duties of his
office and was assiduous in their performance. What such a man
says upon a subject the investigation of which is made his special
duty is always listened to with respect and confidence. In other
respects the Chancellor of the Exchequer seemed to his hearers —
especially to bystanders — an uninteresting speaker. Still more de-
cided was this impression when his speeches were contrasted with
the severe invectives and brilliant sallies displayed in those of his
more impetuous as well as more piquant associate Lord Stanley.
Lord Althorp bore the honors he possessed and the contemplation
of those to which he was destined, in the natural course of things
to succeed, with remarkable humility. He affected no superiority °
over those with whom he acted, was scrupulously careful not to

• MS. IV, p. 190.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BT7BB2T. 477

offend the feelings of any one and gave his reasons for his support
of or objection to any measure before the House plainly, modestly
and with sufficient clearness. So consistent had been, as I was in-
formed, the manifestation in his parliamentary career of these ad-
mirable features that never, in its whole course, had the prejudice
or ill-will of his associates in the public service been excited against
him. The difference between the degrees of influence which these
gentlemen were capable of exerting in support of the measures
committed to their superintendence was not inconsiderable, and I
confess the comparison struck me as favorable to the superior use-
fulness of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

There was an occurrence in the House at the session to which I am
referring so well calculated to illustrate the character of the upright
and unassuming Lord Althorp as to justify me in noticing it An
error to the extent of a million in a matter connected with the duties
of his office was claimed to have been discovered by an opposition
member — I believe Mr. Croker — and brought before the House with
much formality. The mistake was not pointed out with sufficient
distinctness, to preclude discussion, and one of the Chancellor's
friends, Lord Pahnerston, I think, rose and replied to what had been
said with much apparent success. Lord Althorp, being more familiar
with the subject, became sooner apprised of the correctness of the
allegation and attempted to arrest the discussion; as soon as his
friend resumed his seat, thanking the latter for the promptness with
which he had cdme to his aid he acknowledged the mistake imputed
to him, with his usual ingenuousness and explained to the House how
it had occurred. Hearty and prolonged cheering forthwith fol-
lowed from both sides of the House creditable to the opposition for
its magnanimity and to Lord Althorp as an indication of his per-
sonal standing among his countrymen of every political denomina-
tion.

Lord John Russell was, I believe, the youngest of this trio of
junior members of Lord Grey's Cabinet who took active part in the
proceedings of the Commons at this time, and did much to lay the
foundations of their subsequent eminence in the Councils of the
Nation. A promising scion of the House of Bedford, the respect and
good will of the people were tendered to him in advance as a testi-
monial of the veneration they cherished for the virtues of its illus-
trious founder. Lord John was Paymaster of the Forces and Leader
of the House of Commons. To him was committed the responsible
and highly honorable trust of preparing and introducing into that
House the Reform Bill of 1881, and of superintending its passage.
Those duties he performed with much parliamentary tact, sound
judgment and great success. Altho' he did not perhaps in a single
instance make what might be called a brilliant speech, he seldom, if

478 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION;

ever, failed to say what was necessary or to say it at the right time.
The abases of the existing system and the probable advantages of the
improvements, proposed by his Bill were set forth by him plainly,
concisely and forcibly. Everything he said served to satisfy his
hearers that, although zealous in his support of the great^principle
upon which it proceeded, he was not disposed to push the enforce-
ment of that principle to an extent that would betray indifference
to the security and stability of the important interest that would
unavoidably be affected by its passage, for good or for evil, or a want
of respect that was due to opposing opinion* On the contrary he
avowed and acted upon the conviction that the reform of a system
of so long continuance, to which so large a share of the intelligence
and wealth of the Country was opposed, to be safe and useful should,
at least, be gradual and maturely considered at every step. He was
accordingly desirous, throughout, to carry the Reform principle, in
the first instance, only far enough to shew and to afford a reasonable
illustration of the advantages of the proposed improvement and to
enable the Country to regulate its future action upon the subject by
the light of experience. By such a course he thought the complaints
of those who felt aggrieved by the abuses of the existing system
would be fairly respected without doing unnecessary violence to the
opinions and feelings and supposed interests of their opponents.
Thus wise and statesmanlike in his views, all England, I verily be-
lieve, tho' greatly divided upon the main subject and also in regard
to the most expedient way of dealing with it, was well satisfied with
the manner in which he discharged his responsible and difficult
dutiea

lie has since shared liberally in the confidence and favor of his
Country and for a long time occupied the distinguished post of
Premier Minister. His reputation for morality, integrity, personal
and official, and for political constancy is deservedly held in high es-
teem by all his countrymen without distinction of party. He is a
sensible, well informed painstaking gentleman and in every sense
trustworthy, and I cannot but think that it has been owing more
to the general consciousness of the existence of these valuable fea-
tures in his character, in connection with the particular transaction
of which I have spoken, than to supposed intellectual superiority
over contemporary statesmen that his public career has been so
much more successful than that of many of them.

I became well acquainted with the venerable member from Mid-
dlesex, Mr. Joseph Hume, and with his amiable family and repeat-
edly partook of their hospitality. Altho' not greatly distinguished as
a public speaker he always possessed himself fully of the merits of
the questions upon which he addressed the House, explained his

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 479

views, clearly, and advocated them with earnestness and obvious
sincerity., A large part of his usefulness consisted in his vigilant
watch of power and of the abuses engendered by its possession, his
devotion to liberty and his readiness to make sacrifices for its sup-
port in whatever shape they might be presented. For very many
years a constant Object of abuse from those whose selfish aims and
projects he resisted he lived down the calumnies and sneers that were
heaped upon him, enjoyed during the latter years of his life the
esteem and respect of all parties and died, during my last visit to
England, mourned as a brother^by honest men and true* lovers of
their Cbuntry.

Mr. Denniston,1 now Speaker of the House of Commons, and Mr.
Labouchere, still a prominent member of that body, were, at that
early period of their political career, already prominently dis-
tinguished as among the most useful of its members, a promise they
have very fully redeemed. Neither Mr. Bright nor Mr. Cobden, who
had acquired so much celebrity in Parliament at the period of my
second visit, were members in 1831. But I made the acquaintance
of both during my last visit and was 'much pleased with the liber-
ality of their sentiments in regard to the United States. It was not
my good fortune to hear Mr. Cobden speak but Mr. Bright I heard
several times— on one occasion when the question was one of deep
interest and his effort, in my estimation, fully sustained the wide
spread reputation he has acquired as an orator and statesman. In
the course of his remarks he treated our Country and her institu-
tions with that justice and respect which have often been heard in
his public speeches and which have rendered his name a highly
cherished one in America. Mr. Cobden has recently paid us a visit
which I understand he has employed in careful and unprejudiced
enquiries into our condition and into the workings of our political
systems, State and National. I had not the pleasure of meeting
him but I am happy to learn from an intelligent and purely patri-
otic source that in hisf respect for our Government and people as
well as in his desire for the success of both he in no degree falls
behind his friend and political coadjutor, Mr. Bright.

i John Evelyn Dtniaon.

CHAPTER XXXTTI.

I have said that my residence in England was too short for the
formation of the most reliable estimates of her public men and this
may even more truly be predicated of my opinions in regard to the
character of her people and to the effects of her political instate
tions upon their happiness and welfare. Nevertheless my observa-
tions were made under circumstances not otherwise unpropitions and
the effect of them was greatly to increase my favorable impressions
in both respects. Our own people have received f ipm their ancestors
a protest against her frame of government — a protest sealed with
the° blood of those who made it and to which it is to be hoped
their descendants to the remotest generation will faithfully adhere
because it was founded on a just respect for the rights and the
dignity of man. But it should not be forgotten that the decision
thus solemnly pronounced was made for and, in respect to its bind-
ing influence, became obligatory only upon themselves, and that the
right of a people to " lay the foundations of their Government on
such principles and to organize its powers in such form as to them
shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness " was as
freely conceded to other nations as claimed for their own. No one
doubts, no one can doubt that the form of Government recognized
by the English Constitution is as much the choice of her people as
that under which we have the happiness to live is the choice of ours.
The system of Government under which the respective nations pre-
fer to live being therefore a matter for the exclusive decision of each
and in respect to the disposition of which no foreign interference is
allowable, it is against reason and propriety that differences of opin-
ion concerning the wisdom of such disposition should be made a
source of inter-national discord or heartburnings of any descrip-
tion. Both Great Britain and the United States have inducements
of the strongest nature to a faithful observance of the duties which
flow from these sound and acknowledged general rules. A fair com-
parison of our respective systems, with reference to the securities
they provide for the most essential of the rights of man, will show
that we may, in that regard, be said with much truth to be indeed
brethren in principle. To name a few of the most prominent which

• MS. IV, p. 195.
480

1

s

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 481

common to both ; liberty of speech and of the press— to canvass
freely the acts of men in power and to express such opinions of
them as we may think useful and as truth will justify— liberty of
conscience in matters of religious faith — securities and safeguards
for the enjoyment of personal liberty, such as the writ of habeas
corpus, trial by a jury of the vicinage &o — the right and protection
of property: what candid American will claim that there are any
very essential differences in these respects between our condition and
that of the people of England. The fact that the sovereignty, the
upreme power in every branch of our Government rests with the
great body of the people, whilst in that Country only that which
is exercised by the House of Commons is placed in a more limited
portion of theirs, constitutes indeed a valuable and honorable dis-
tinction in favor of our unequalled Constitution* Yet, it deserves
to be taken into consideration that the advantages we derive from
this superiority are not so much obtained by the actual exercise of
their sovereign power by the people as by the influence exerted upon
their representatives by the important fact of their possession of it
and by its exercise on stated occasions, and so regarded, the differ-
ence in our respective conditions will, upon reflection, be found not
so great as may be at first supposed. In point of fact the power of
public opinion in England and, more especially, that expression of
it which is pronounced by their people through their House of
Commons is as potential and, in certain respects, more so, in con-
trolling the action of the remaining branches of the Government as
is the right of the people here to displace them all at stated inter-
vals. I have watched the character and course of that power with
much interest, regarding its condition as a safe test of the relative
progress of the conflicting principles of Government embraced in
the English system— monarchical and republican. My visits to and
temporary residence in that Country on two occasions, with an
interval of a quarter of a century between them and on both under
circumstances favorable to distinct and useful observation, have
afforded me facilities of which I have not failed to avail myself for
arriving at correct conclusions on this interesting point, and they
have brought me to that here stated ; a conclusion which will, I am
. well aware, be at first somewhat startling to my republican country-
men, but which is nevertheless a true one. I could, if I had room
for them, which I have not, refer to many circumstances which fell
under my observation, on my second visit, indicative of the great
change that had taken place in the habits and feelings of the people
in favor of principles in the administration of their Government
altogether liberal in character and which, tho' carried out under a

127483°— vol 2—20 81

482 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

plausibility and force than I had supposed his positions would
effects. An incident or two, in which I was more immediately con-
cerned, must suffice to illustrate this position.

When I first left the United States my predecessor, Mr. McLane,
put in my hand a letter of introduction, somewhat special in its
terms, to Sir Robert Inglis, one of the members for Oxford, a gen-
tleman of whom, I am sure, every Englishman acquainted with him
will concur with me in saying that he was a man of as much public
and private worth as any man in the kingdom. In politics he was
then called in the language of the day and without exaggeration an
inveterate Tory, He received me kindly, spoke warmly of the good
qualities of my predecessor and expressed an earnest wish to continue
with me the friendly and social relations which had grown up be-
tween them. Accordingly he, for a season, treated me with marked
attention, but, without the occurrence of a single disturbing inci-
dent of a personal character, gradually but as markedly cooled until
our intercourse assumed a distant altho' always respectful character,
and thus continued until I left the Country. Appreciating correctly
the good and pure qualities of Sir Robert's character, the existence
of which could be read in his face and traced in his every step, I was
neither at a loss to understand nor offended by his course, attributing
it altogether, and, as I had subsequent reason to know, correctly, to
the radical difference he found between Mr. McLane's political feel-
ings and my own.

On my recent visit to London Sir Robert called on me immediately
after my arrival, declared his satisfaction at meeting me again and
tendered various civilities in the most cordial terms. I met him very
often as well in England as on the Continent, passed many agreeable
hours in his company at Turin and was treated by both Lady Inglis
and himself with uninterrupted kindness till the close of his life
which unhappily occurred shortly before my final departure from
Europe. During our intercourse on these occasions, except in regard
to the distinctive features in the outlines of the systems of our re-
spective Governments, we found but little to differ about. Still rep-
resenting the same constituents whose confidence he had so long en-
joyed without anything like a formal change in his political position
I yet found his views as liberal and his feelings as unprejudiced and
generous in respect to public questions as I could desire.

During the discussion of the Reform Bill on the occasion of my
first visit to England I listened with much interest to an elaborate
and, as I considered it, the ablest speech I heard, in either House,
against that measure, from the Earl of Harrowby. It took through-
out the ultra conservative grounds and maintained them with more
plausibility and force than I had supposed his positions would

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 488

admit of. When last in London I breakfasted with Sir Robert
Inglis and amongst the company present was Lord Harrowby, son
of the Earl, then deceased, to whose speech I have referred. I
found the present Lord Harrowby a gentleman of good intelligence
and a decided liberal. Mr. Monckton Milnes, a distinguished mem-
ber of the House of Commons, whose political opinions were of the
same stamp, was also present. The conversation becoming general
I alluded, in the course of it, to the obvious increase of the power
of public opinion in their country, and in noticing my remark he
said, in substance, that the Government of England, notwithstanding
its monarchical form, which he hoped would never cease to dis-
tinguish it, was rapidly becoming in its practical operation, as
liberal and as much under the influence of public opinion as one
° could be that was republican in all its features; that he looked
upon such a destiny with complacency and only regretted that the
Government were uot more actively employed in preparing the
Country for the change which its Constitution was undergoing by
a more general diffusion of knowledge and education among the
people.

Among the various systems which have been devised and are now
in force for the Government of mankind it is in those only of
England and the United States that adequate provisions are to be
found for the security of personal liberty and the just rights of
man; they are eminently significant of the community of character
and origin of the citizens and subjects in whose behalf they have
been established, and they constitute their birthright inalienable and
indefeasible save by their own acts. As in no other Nation are those
rights so well protected, so in no other is their safety watched with
anything like the same spirit. The Constitutions of some of the new
republics on this Continent profess to provide for the preservation
and enjoyment of them but these are, in the main, merely paper
institutions productive of few practical results. Long continued
abuses have taken too deep root to be speedily extirpated and the
people over whom these new Governments were established have
been too much enfeebled by past debasements to be able to assert
their individual rights with the vigor indispensable to their perma-
nent establishment. Considerable advances have been made bv Sar-
dinia towards the promotion of liberal principles in the administra-
tion of government in that monarchy, but this is a speck upon the
political horizon of Europe. In regard to most of its States and
especially to the large and controlling ones of the Continent the
principle of arbitrary government is at this time, to all appearance,
as firmly established and possesses as much power as at any previous

• MS. IV, p. 200.

484 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION,

period within the present century. It has for the last few years
gained strength instead of losing it and that in a quarter which,
from the geographical position of the nation which has been sub-
jected to it, makes this advance more alarming. The free institutions
of Great Britain and the United States serve as a standing reproach
to most of the Governments of Europe and as sources of mortifica-
tion and discontent to such among the people subject to the latter as
are capable of understanding their position — effects which those Gov-
ernments cannot but regard as a constant menace to their ill-gotten
power. That they do not attempt to suppress by violence at the
present moment, the spirit fostered by free institutions is alone at-
tributable to the material strength with which that spirit is armed
and to the hazards of the collision in other respects.

England still maintains the relations she has heretofore cher-
ished with the monarchical and despotic governments of Europe,
but, as they well knoyr, the Throne has long ceased to be the con-
trolling element of power in that Country, and that conviction is
constantly and naturally exerting a corresponding effect upon the
character of their relations. A line of separation, as yet not fully
disclosed, has thus been drawn between England and America, on
one hand, and the antagonistic systems of the old world, on the other,
which promises to endure as long as anything that depends upon
the will or the action of man, and thus interests of the greatest mag-
nitude have become the subject of common and equal concern to the
two former Nations. Every assault upon those interests, whether
immediately directed against them in Great Britain or in the United
States, must be regarded as an attack upon both and will, it is to be
hoped, be met with equal spirit by both. The motives for such a
struggle and the reasons for its outbreak are continually gaining
strength and will become every day more and more imperative. The
precise time of its occurrence God only knows. A very intelligible
approach in that direction was made at the period of the Holy Alli-
ance. What might have been then attempted we may surmise but
perhaps shall never know if Mr. Canning had not threatened that
reckless body with calling into existence a legion of free States on
this Continent, alluding to the recognition of the independence of
the South American States, to assist in resisting the encroachments
of the spirit of despotism and had not the arbitrary powers taken
alarm at the feeling exhibited upon the subject in America and at
the opportune re-appearance of Napoleon on the stage of action,
threatening their actual possessions. We do, however, know by ex-
perience that Nations under control of the will of individuals can
never stand still but are destined to continual change by a natural
and irresistible law. To recognize this truth we have only to look

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAK BUREW. 485

at the fluctuations of the last few years in Europe. It was but yes-
terday when France and England marched side by side against
Itussia with common indignation at the neutrality of Prussia and at
the suspicious halting of Austria. To day the hostile relations be-
tween France and Sardinia favored by Russia on one side and Aus-
tria on the other threaten the peace of the World, whilst England
and Prussia, whose international relations have undergone a great
change, stand as neutrals certain if the war endures and if their neu-
trality is preserved, to incur, in their turn, the reproaches and resent-
ment of the belligerents. What complications will tomorrow pro-
duce?

Of one thing alone we may be assured. The contest between
despotic government and free institutions will continue to be
waged to the end of the world. Until the people of England and
of the United States, or those of one or the other Country cease
to respect the rights acquired by their ancestors at the greatest
sacrifices and prove false to the principles they have long pro-
fessed and maintained they will be found on the same side in that
struggle, liable to be affected by the same causes and fortunate in
being able to apply their best efforts for their common safety. It
would seem impossible that the intelligent inhabitants of two
Nations thus situated should be blind to their true interests in this
regard or to the vital importance of providing in season for their
mutual security by the cultivation and preservation of cordial re-
lations with each other. With Nations who consider that their
respective positions make it for their interest to bind themselves
to mutual support in specified cases, a treaty of alliance, offensive
and defensive, is the usual mode by which that object is accom-
plished. But experience has greatly weakened the confident re-
liance of mankind upon such safeguards. When the crisis arrives
it has been found that Nations are disposed to be governed by their
apparent interests at the moment, and if those have undergone
a material change, unfavorable to the performance of their engage-
ments, they will disregard or evade them, whatever may have been
the solemnity with which such alliances have been entered into.
The United States thus acted themselves in respect to the treaty
of alliance with France, during the administration and conform-
ably to the suggestion of Washington, a Chief Magistrate as up-
right as any to whom the guidance of national affairs was ever
entrusted, and in relation to engagements that were assumed under
circumstances and from motives eminently calculated to render them
sacred and inviolable; a most instructive example. From the largest
to the smallest, whether under national or municipal organizations,
communities are on critical occasions too prone to disregard obli-

486 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

gations the non-performance of which would, in situations other-
wise corresponding, be deemed too dishonorable to be thought of in
the concerns of individuals. Engagements of the character de-
scribed are moreover against the established policy of our Govern-
ment— a policy which it is to be hoped will never be abandoned.
The parting recommendation of Washington never to quit our own
to stand upon foreign ground through entangling alliance is sound
in itself, sacred on account of its source and has, let us trust, sunk
too deep in the hearts and minds of our people to be forgotten or
disregarded. A more auspicious and more reliable course will be
to cultivate, with our best ability, friendly and liberal relations
between our respective Countries whose political condition is so
different from that of the rest of the world and all whose interests
favor such a course. There have been, it is true, times when the
^maintenance of such relations might well have been looked upon
as hopeless. Our forcible separation from the Mother Country,
with the incidents of a seven years war excited resentments on both
sides too fierce to be reasoned with and which only time and for-
tunate chances could eradicate. The intercourse between the two
Countries for ten years after the recognition ° of our independence,
perhaps naturally, but certainly unfortunately, was of a character
ill adapted to appease those asperities. It was only less unfavorable
than would have marked a state of actual war. Blood was not shed,
nor were any positive attempts made by Great Britain to reclaim
over us the sovereignty of which we had divested her, but to us,
at least, her disposition appeared as hostile and her aggressions
were as oppressive as they had ever been. In some instances we
were doubtless mistaken as to facts and in our interpretation of
them; but making every allowance for possible errors of this kind
we were yet warranted in regarding as we did regard the conduct
of the British Government towards us during the whole of that
period as alike arrogant and unjust.

In respect to the aggressive character of her course there were
during that period of our national humiliation and suffering but
slight differences of opinion among us. None of our public men
for a season dared to excuse her. Washington, Hamilton and all
their particular friends — Pickering perhaps alone excepted — openly
denounced her conduct and if they differed at all with others upon
the subject such differences related only to the best methods of re-
sistance. But this happy unanimity among our leading Statesmen
and among those who were influenced by their opinions was un-
fortunately broken up by the war between England and France and
by the transactions to which it gave rise. The latter power, before

• MS. IV, p. 205.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJRBN. 487

that period our best friend, alleging that we submitted volun-
tarily to practices and pretensions on the part of her enemy which
were injurious to her, set up like pretensions in her own behalf,
and perpetrated outrages against us but little, if anything, less
injurious than those of Great Britain.

So far from uniting as a band of brothers in resistance to these
aggressions an(j to the pretenses by which they were attempted to
be justified — both alike iniquitous — as it became an independent
Nation to do, our public men allowed themselves to be involved in
discussions in respect to the degrees and purposes of the hostility
of the belligerents respectively, and our public functionaries, too,
instead of presenting a united front against both and meeting every
hostile movement, whether proceeding from France or England,
with equal alacrity, wasted their time and exhausted their powers
in a similar dispute as to which was the worst enemy of the two,
and in reciprocal and bitter denunciations of each other for im-
puted subserviency to one or the other of the oppressors of their
Country. The feelings by which they were influenced were soon
communicated to the masses and the Country divided, according
to our own accounts, into French Jacobins and English Tories.
Whilst the public men and the people of the United States were
employing themselves in these disgraceful wrangles enormous depre-
dations were committed upon our commerce and obstructions thrown
in the way of our infant marine, by both England and France, thro'
which the Country was impoverished and that important interest,
which in after time did so much to restore our character and to ad-
vance our fame, was brought to the brink of destruction. These
* aggressions on our rights and this mode of treating them con-
tinued, with but slight interruptions, until the war of 1812 with
Great Britain. The extent to which the state of things I have
sketched served to impede our advance to that rank in the family of
' Nations to which we were well entitled, and to which we have at
last attained, may be readily conceived. The injurious consequences
to our means of defence, great as they were, in point of importance
fell far sliort of those inflicted upon our character as an inde-
pendent people. The glories of the Revolution were dimmed by the
ignominious recriminations of the period that followed, in which
the brave men who had achieved them were held up to the world,
in pictures drawn of each other, as minions and tools of foreign
powers fit only to be governed by foreign masters. If anything
were wanting to fix the odium of these mutual criminations and
recriminations it is furnished by the fact, now more than ever ap-
parent, that they were in the main and substantially without founda-
tion. Those, who, with Patrick Henry, in the early part of his
political career, regarded Great Britain as standing first in her

488 AMSBIOAH HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

hostility to us, were doubtless more or less disposed to palliate
the conduct of France and to look to the former power as the prin-
cipal source of our difficulties, and so vice versa; but these ebulli-
tions of passion, the effects of momentary excitement, were not
such exhibitions of public or private opinion as were fit to be
made the foundation of so grave imputations and the subsequent
publications of the private papers of the leading men of that period
have shown how little else there was to justify those aspersions and
how much to disprove them.

The strongest proof of an undue — I might say an unpatriotic
leaning towards either of the belligerents, which those publications
have brought to light, is the suggestion of a treaty with England
offensive and defensive, made by Pickering to Hamilton in March
1798, as a step he was obviously prepared to take if Hamilton had
approved of it, and the reply of the latter in which he says :

I am against going immediately into alliance with Great Britain. It is my
opinion that her. interests will insure us her cooperation to the extent of her
power, and that a treaty will not secure her further. On the other hand a
treaty might entangle us. Public opinion is not prepared for it It would
not fail to be represented as to the point to which our previous conduct was
directed; * * * The desideratum is that Great Britain could be engaged
to lodge with her Minister here powers commensurate with such arrangements
as exigencies may require and the progress of opinion permit I see no good
objection on her part to this plan. It would be good policy in her to send
to this Country a dozen frigates, to pursue the directions of this govern-
ment*

Yet with this striking illustration of his great partiality towards
England before us I do not in the least doubt that Hamilton would,
as I have elsewhere said, have repelled and resisted unfounded pre-
tensions of that Country, prejudicial to his own, with the same
firmness and zeal that he had before displayed. The motive by
which he and most of his political associates were influenced was
rather to impair the power of France than to increase that of Great
Britain, by which policy they thought our safety would be best
promoted. This was doubtless a great mistake but it was quite
different from one that would have led them to take the part of
England in a contest with their own Country.- It was in all prob-
ability thro9 the influence of the views I have indicated that he
Was brought to the point of resorting to so unwise a measure as an
alliance with England whenever public opinion might have become
prepared to tolerate it.

But the true condition of the public mind upon the point of which
I speak was distinctly shown by the clamor raised against such a
project when its existence was only suspected, and Hamilton's sense

• Not*.— Works of Hamilton. Vol. VI, p. 278.

AXJTOBIOGBAPHY OF MABTIST VAN BUBEK. 489

of that condition by his pains to guard himself against the injurious
effects of its being known or thought that he had been a party to it.

Looking at these ever to be regretted transactions retrospectively
by the light of subsequent developments and of reflections unclouded
bv the bitter prejudices of the day, we .cannot help altho' there
were without question peculiar faults to be condemned on both
sides, considering them in a body as among the worst excesses to
which we have ever been exposed of the spirit of party, from
whose occasional intemperate working no free Country can expect
to be exempted.

It was not until after the peace with England in 1815 that the
management of public affairs in this Country was relieved from the
adverse effects of these disreputable altercations. During the war
then just terminated imputations of subserviency to a foreign power,
of a desire to war with England in conformity to the will and
to promote the interests of France, with efforts to paralyze the
energies of their own Government, were again resorted to. They
had increased0 in violence, like other vicious practices, through
past impunity, and made their last appearance amid the congenial
proceedings of the Hartford Convention. The people of the United
States, as soon as their foreign foe was disposed of, made it their
-business to sit in judgment upon the character of those proceedings
and upon the conduct of the political party by which they had been
countenanced. They pronounced the former treasonable and placed
the latter under the ban of public opinion as unworthy of confi-
dence. The sentence was a righteous one and executed without re-
serve; nay more, if not its justice, the necessity, at least, of submit-
ting to this fiat of public opinion was acquiesced in by the federal-
ists themselves. A great party, whose origin was coequal with the
establishment of the Government, was in consequence of it, and by its
own consent, forever withdrawn from the political field. Opponents
of the democratic party of the Country have been since that period,
convoked under the names of federal republicans, whigs, republicans,
Americans et cetera but a gathering of self acknowledged federalists,
pure and simple, has not been ventured upon for more than thirty
years. This solemn judgment of the Country has been as salutary
in its effects as it was just. We have been engaged in another war
but we have not been exposed to similar practices on the part of
the opposition to the Administration. We have had difficulties with
France, with England and with other Nations, which have been
discussed with the publicity characteristic of our institutions. We
have differed among ourselves in respect to the best way of treat-
ing them, and they have been disposed of according to the will

• MS. IV, p. 210.

490 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

of the majority, but the imputation of foreign influence has never
since been heard in our Houses of Legislation, in the press or among
the people. Such humiliating and degrading elements have been to
all appearances forever excluded from our partisan contentions. And
this was not, by far, the only advantage our Country derived from
the war of 1812. There was one in particular of great importance
which has a direct bearing upon the general subject before us. What
1 have before said is sufficient to show that whatever else we gained
by the peace of 1783 with Great Britain we did not succeed in
securing her good will. It is impossible to review the character
of our relations between that event and the war of 1812 without
becoming sensible of the great extent to which the prejudices en-
gendered by the Revolution had retained their bitterness and pre-
vented the just influence of our conduct in that struggle in extort-
ing her respect towards ns as a nation. She taunted us with our
weakness, railed at our fir-built frigates, lightly estimated our
prowess and our resources and despised our reiterated declarations
of a necessity and a determination to resort to arms for a redress of
wrongs. Those who are familiar with the events of that period
know that this is not an exaggerated description of the then ac-
tual state of things. It became one too humiliating to be longer
borne by a people who cherished a proper self respect and drove
us to a declaration of war before we had completed our prepara-
tions. Great Britain embarked in it under an exulting sense of
the disparity, favorable to her, between the contest then before
her and that by which our independence had been rescued from
her grasp, when she was under the necessity of transporting large
armies to a distant shore and to support them there for a period
as indefinite as that required not only to subdue but also to secure
continued dominion over a brave people distributed over thirteen
States and animated by an almost universal determination to be
free. Chastisement, not conquest was now the object, and that could
be abundantly accomplished by sweeping our commerce from the
ocean, by the annihilation of our comparatively feeble navy and
by setting the torch to a few of our principal towns- Of her ability
to inflict these injuries with comparatively little loss to herself
she did not entertain the slightest doubt; perhaps no Government
ever entered upon a similar undertaking with more unbounded as-
surance. Of the military operations of that war it is sufficient for
the purpose for which the subject is introduced to say that they
terminated in the disappointment of her confident expectations. The
results of the battles that were fought, on sea and land, so far from
furnishing matter of satisfaction and exultation to the Govern-
ment and people of England filled them with amazement not unac-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTTftEN. 491

companied by at least some degree of apprehension in regard to the
future. She had driven us to the display of skill and capacities
for naval warfare of which we were ourselves scarcely conscious
and which plainly foreboded danger to that dominion of the seas
on which she had so long and with so much reason prided herself.
She was too sagacious to remain insensible to the possible con-
sequences of forcing a people like that with which she found her-
self thus involved — a people by which so much had been done in
go short a period, and whose persevering spirit she became inclined
to measure by her own — to a further and accelerated development
of its resources and its powers.

Peace was concluded upon terms neither humiliating nor dis-
creditable to either nation, a peace which promised far more ad-
vantages to both than a further prosecution of the war. The Mother
Country at length recognized her kindred, and feelings long dor-
mant were warmed into action by a lively admiration of the gal-
lantry which had been displayed by her stubborn offspring. A new
era in the character of our international relations was inaugurated.
Respect, high and well deserved, was substituted for feelings which
had savoured too much of contempt to breed, in return, any other
than those of hatred. On our side antipathies were ameliorated by
the consciousness of having forced our late and unnatural enemy at
least to think better of us and by the confident anticipation that
she would, in future, treat us with the consideration to which we
felt ourselves entitled. We could therefore better afford and were
in better mood to judge her future course with less unfavourable pre-
dispositions, and for nearly half a century which has elapsed since
that day the temper of the English mind and the conduct of Eng-
land in respect to the people of the United States have been weighed
by us in different scales. The progress of conciliation has not been,
perhaps, as rapid as could have been desired, but John Bull, altho'
proverbially slow, is at the same time sure, and we have doubtless
grown more punctilious as we have grown older and stronger, but
our intercourse, since the war, has been full of occurrences indica-
tive of the nascent improvement in the reciprocal feelings of the
two Countries. The liberal views expressed to me twenty seven
years ago, in behalf of Lord Grey's Administration, the strongest
and purest whig ministry that England had seen for fifty years,
upon the subject of impressment, were significant of a determination
to remove, to the greatest practicable extent, all irritating questions
in our public relations and the voluntary abandonment by the Ad-
ministration of Lord Derby — one which in former days would have
been denominated high tory^ — of the right of search shows with
equal clearness that the same disposition not only still exists but

492 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

that it has extended itself to both of the great political parties of
that Country. In short the feelings of the English people of all
ranks towards us have, I am thoroughly satisfied, become as nearly
right as can ever be expected to animate one powerful nation towards
another which is in many respects a rival. They may not consent
to give up or even to modify their long cherished establishment of
King, Lords and Commons to satisfy our democratic scruples, or
to surrender to us anything that we have not a right to ask, but I
am quite certain that there is nothing in reason that they would
not do to preserve our friendship and it should be the earnest desire
of every well wisher to his Country among us that we should not
be backward in reciprocating this disposition to the fullest extent.*

I cannot refrain from expressing at this place (and in this form),
nearly a year after the text was written the satisfaction I have de-
rived from seeing in the course pursued by so influential a paper as
the London Times in respect to and against the efforts of the aboli-
tionists to dissolve our blessed Union, the strongest proof of the
sure progress in England of the sentiments I have been pressing
upon the favorable consideration of my countrymen. The assur-
ance coming from so imposing a quarter, that the interest of Great
Britain in the United States is to England second only in impor-
tance to our own, and that for the very reasons upon which I have
touched. These noble sentiments are rendered the more gratifying
and made more likely to be useful in consequence of the general and
to a great extent well founded belief here that this disturbing senti-
ment, after it had been reduced to a low ebb in this country had
been resuscitated and in a great degree strengthened by the coun-
tenance its members received at Exeter Hall.

No intelligent and tolerably unprejudiced American can be long
in England without witnessing exhibitions of character and feelings
in all classes with which he will be pleased because of their recalling
similar traits among his own countrymen. Those whose contempla-
tion is engrossed with the pageantry inseparable from monarchical
and aristocratic institutions may 'be unable to comprehend this state-
ment, but it is nevertheless true. My memory is full freighted with
recollections of that description which go far to show an active sym-
pathy on many important points between us devoted republicans and
those fast adherents of a Kingly Government. Of these it was my
intention to speak, but this subject has been already and in a manner,
unconsciously, so much extended that I must forbear. I saw many
things in England, in the organization of her Government, in the
classifications of society which that organization has produced and
in the disparity of personal privileges its members respectively enjoy,

•Feby 5, 1860.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 493

the establishment of which here I would deprecate with all my heart
and resist by every possible means. I have a deep and abiding sense
of the superiority of our own political institutions and of their social
effects. But these are questions, as I have already said, which, upon
our own principles, each nation has the right to determine for itself.
They do not complain when we express our opinions upon these sub-
jects abroad with the freedom with which we treat them at home
because they are not thin-skinned and no man whose opinions are of
any consequence will express them officiously or for the purpose of
annoyance. As a people, taking them all and in all, it cannot be
denied that they possess, in a very eminent degree, the qualities which
conduce to individual respectability and usefulness and which consti-
tute the elements of a powerful and magnanimous nation. It is for
this, among many reasons, the interest of the United States to culti-
vate the most liberal and friendly relations with them and the duty
of those who are, from time to time, entrusted with the management
of our external concerns, to make it their business to promote that
object by all the means in their power that may consist with justice
and with national honor.

0 This it will be easier to effect in the future than it has been in the
past. Distrust of the friendliness of England, with the prejudices
natural to that feeling, have constituted from the beginning a promi-
nent and distinguishing trait of the old-republican, now democratic •
party. To arrest, present and to guard against future violations of
the Federal Constitution, to secure to the people the full enjoyment
of the republican institutions contemplated by that instrument and
to protect the Country against the evils that were apprehended from
an undue partiality for England were the principal objects designed
to be accomplished by its formation, and the distrust and prejudice to
which I have referred retained their prominence and influence in the
action of that party until the War of 1812. That war was its act. Its
political opponents had neither part nor lot in declaring or in sup-
porting it. The peace of 1B15 was also its measure. It was in its
bosom, and there alone, that a change of feeling wa9 necessary to
establish friendship between the two Countries. The effects produced
by the peace and the altered disposition of the Government and people
of England towards us which I have described have been to me a sub-
ject of deep interest and gratifying observation. What I say of the
political organization in which I have been reared and which has
never ceased to be with me an object of love and admiration doubtless
will be received by the general reader cum grcmo salts: I expect no
less.

'MS. Book v, p. 1.

494 AMERICAN HISTORICAL. ASSOCIATION. *

If the old republican party, whether known by that or by its
present name, has not been able to live up to the divine injunctions
to love our neighbour as ourselves or to do unto others as we would
have them do unto us, it may I think with truth, be said to have
desired invariably and sincerely to treat all nations as they treat
us. That was a shibboleth of its foreign policy at its organization
and I think has always since distinguished it The old federal
party charged it with partiality to France and the charge was re-
torted in respect to federal preference for England. It is now
perhaps too late to determine that issue even if it were necessary.
As far as the sense of the Country is conclusive evidence of the truth
it has been decided against the federal party.

The application of the principle of reciprocity in the commercial
intercourse of nations, which originated with Mr. Jefferson, was
supported by Mr. Madison at the commencement of our present Gov-
ernment and has thenceforward constituted an article in the creed
of the political party of which they were leaders, furnishes a prac-
tical illustration of their views and perferences in regard to inter-
national relations. The relaxation of prejudices against England
and a cordial reciprocation of every liberal measure she might adopt
became accordingly a duty which they performed thoroughly tho'
somewhat tardily as their disposition and determination to do in the
end what was required of them were closely accompanied by caution
and perhaps clogged by distrust.

The accession to power of the republican party at a period when
their prejudices against England were the strongest, and their pos-
session of it by large majorities for more than half a century, had
given to those prejudices the appearance of a national sentiment
and it has been amusing to witness the extent to which the conceded
existence of this feeling has served as a lure to aspiring politicians,
and particularly to those who have had their eyes upon the Presi-
dency, tempting them to seek to appropriate its influence by profes-
sions of peculiar sensibility on the subject of the injustice we have
suffered from England. That game in politics has been, perhaps not
exclusively but chiefly, played by gentlemen a principal part of
whose previous lives had been spent in the ranks of the old federal
party, but who, nevertheless, consulting the chances of success, deemed
it indispensable to bring themselves into harmony with the demo-
cratic sentiment of the Country in this regard. Mr. John Quincy
Adams was the first of his class who undertook to extract political
capital for a Presidential canvass from this matter, and his earliest
movement, after entering upon his duties as Secretary of State, —
a post then looked upon as a necessary step to that of President — was
to astound the Federal Capitol with his fiery denunciations of the

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 496

conduct of England towards these States. Altho' in the main an
upright Statesman, no man studied more closely than he the cur-
rents of political opinion or was more willing to avail himself of
their influence. He wqp well aware of the strong prejudices against
his family that existed in the rank and file of the old republican
party and of the necessity of their amelioration, before his elevation
to the Presidency could be deemed practicable, and no less conscious
that this could not be effected thro' common efforts but only by those
of the boldest character adequate to command the attention of the
masses and to stir up and direct their passions. His Fourth of July
Oration at Washington, delivered by the leading Member of the
Cabinet during the first year of Mr. Monroe's Presidency and con-
sidering the actual state of public feeling, he believed to be such an
effort. The scorn of propriety exhibited in this harangue in view
of the official position of the author and of the presence, as a part of
his audience, of the Diplomatic Corps, including the English Min-
ister, and the extreme violence with which he arraigned the conduct
of the English Government accomplished at least one of his objects —
that of creating a great sensation in this Country, which was, with
reason, believed to have exerted considerable influence on his ulti-
mate advancement to the summit of his ambition. His success gave
fascination to his example. Among the first to follow it was the
worthy and amiable gentleman Mr. Lewis Cass — in his early years
an ardent admirer of Mr. Adams, his family and their politics, even
to mounting the black cockade, if his old federal friends told the
truth of him at a time when they thought he was growing, as Hamil-
ton said of Jefferson, "too much in earnest in his republicanism."
Long a resident of the far West, where ancient antipathies between
the two Countries have not equally felt the subduing influences of in-
creasing commerce and intercourse and where they are yet supposed
to retain a portion of their former violence, he allowed his sense of
the injuries we have received from Great Britain and his consequent
denunciation of her to be inflamed in the ratio of the improvement
of his chances for the Presidency. His sensibilities upon this point
had become so sharpened and his expression of them so strong and
notorious as to convey the impression to some of his cotemporaries
of monomania, and not a few were, on that account solely, appre-
hensive of disturbing effects upon the existing relations between
the ° two Countries which might follow his selection as Secretary of
State by Mr. Buchanan. Aware of the existence and spread of this
idea I requested my friend Mr. Alexander Duncan, who was desirous
that I should meet the English Envoy, Lord Napier, at his house on
his first arrival in this Country, to call the attention of the latter

•MS. v, p. 5.

496 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

to it and to assure him from me that if he entertained such appre-
hensions he would soon be undeceived ; that on the contrary the Sec-
retary was the last man to press to extremities any point in our
relations with England in which we were not manifestly right and
that even there he would find him a peacemaker. With the accept-
ance, at his advanced age, of the office he now fills with credit to
himself and usefulness to the Country Gen. Cass doubtless renounced
every thought of ever reaching the higher and cherished aim of his
previous life and with that resolution has discontinued his wonted
invectives against England.

President Buchanan himself, tho' habitually a more cautious man
than his Secretary of State, has played a scarcely less plain and far
more successful part in the same game. Like him his early not
proclivities only but open and responsible action were on the federal
side. He too felt the expediency not to say necessity, of making his
change of position more effectual by taking conspicuous ground on
some point in favor of which the feelings of the party to which he
transferred his political hopes were supposed to be especially high-
strung — to pass through a political baptism of sufficient efficacy
to wash away somewhat inveterate prejudices. Attracted perhaps
by the success which had crowned Mr. Adams1 movements he fol-
lowed in his footsteps in one Tespect, and clothed himself with the
anti-English grudge to which he has adhered through the subsequent
periods of his public life and amidst repeated disappointments with
the tenacity of purpose characteristic of his race, and a steadiness
that does as much credit to his perseverance as to his patriotism. If
more discreet than his Secretary in the exhibition of his feelings
in this regard he has taken special care that they. should never be
for a moment "misunderstood. His appointment as Envoy to Eng-
land by President Pierce was nothing more or less than the re-
moval of a rival believed to be dangerous to a point where it wa3
thought he could do the least harm to the interest of the incumbent
in the question of the succession. Doubtless the public interest was
not lost sight of but its promotion was plainly not the special object
of the selection. It was considered a shrewd movement which how-
ever worked injuriously to the interest it was designed to subserve,
as such arrangements are apt to do. Whatever may have been the
effect of Mr. Buchanan's elevation to the Presidency and of the
possession of its overshadowing powers upon himself, he was, as-
suredly, before that occurrence,^ cautious, circumspect and sagacious
man, amply endowed with those clear perceptions of self interest
and of duties as connected with it that are almost inseparable from
the Scotch character. If he supposed that his rivals in the Gov-
ernment allowed themselves to hope that his known anti-English

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 497

feelings would lead him to do or to omit some act by which his
position at home might be impaired, that of itself would have de-
termined him to disappoint them ; but he had higher and wiser in-
ducements to keep his official course free from just exceptions and
he did so keep it decidedly and indisputably. At the same time
he took care that his bearing at the English Court should not be
such as to cause him to lose cast with the Democracy at home by
affording them' reason to suspect that any Royal or social blandish-
ments had weakened his cordial sympathy with that anti-English
prejudice which he believed to be still vigorous in the democratic
breast Accordingly in his personal intercourse with the social
circles of London he produced a very general impression that
England and the English were not much esteemed by him — a
point not a whit clearer to the parties concerned than he desired
it to be; consequently his relations other than official, with the
Court and with the general society in which he moved were
rendered perhaps in a small degree less agreeable. To a man
of his temperament and time of life this was a minor annoyance,
especially as foreign ministers are invariably treated at that Court
with an outward courtesy and consideration, without reference to
personal feelings towards the individual, and as what was under-
stood to be his standing with the English Court and society was
having in his opinion, a compensating effect at home. I spent a
month or two in London not long before his return and had abundant"
opportunities to enable me to speak with certainty in regard to
the points I have touched upon, and to discover the general belief
that England had something to apprehend from Mr. Buchanan's
elevation to the Presidency and the consequent general, tho' quiet,
deprecation of such an event. It would not be proper to describe
more particularly the extent of the knowledge which I happened
to acquire as to the prevalence of this solicitude or as to the high
quarters to which it reached. I gave to inquirers the assurances which
I repeated to Lord Napier, in respect to Gen. Cass, and referred
to Mr. Buchanan's official action upon the subjects which had been
and were then under discussion between the two Governments to
satisfy them that their apprehensions of special danger from the
result referred to were without adequate foundation.

Mr. Webster, also, amazed at the superior advancement in popu-
lar favor of men whose capacities he naturally regarded as inferior
to his own, seemed at one time to have arrived at the conclusion
that the disparity was attributable to the greater zeal they mani-
fested in resisting the aggressions of Great Britain ; under the im-
pulse of which impression he resolved to make another effort to
reach an object which no man in the Country ever pursued with

127483°— vol 2—20 32

498 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

more eagerness or with less prospect of success but which he once
dreamed of achieving by the manifestation of grief and rage, as
uncontrollable as they were sudden, excited in his breast by the
hostility of England towards the United States. An occasion for
his first appearance in this character was soon presented.

The British North American Colonies charged encroachment by
our fishermen upon waters from which it was claimed that they
were excluded by the Convention of 1800 between Great Britain
and the United States, and presented complaints to the Home Gov-
ernment The Colonial Secretary issued a Circular in reply to their
memorial in which he intimated the intention of the Government
to send out a naval force sufficient to compel the exclusion of the
American fishermen from the waters in question. This Circular,
on its publication in the Colonial newspapers, produced a great
ferment in the New England States, and, instead of pursuing the
usual course of a call upon the British Minister here for explana-
tions, Mr. Webster published in the newspapers also, a formal an-
nouncement from the Department of State, over which he presided,
under date of July 6, 1852, to the fishermen and all concerned, of
the designs of the British Government, with such comments as he
thought the occasion called for and which were calculated to in-
crease the excitement A meeting was thereupon called in the
neighbourhood of his residence, in Massachusetts, at which spirited
resolutions denouncing the course pursued by England were passed
and a delegation was appointed to meet Mr. Webster, on his ar-
rival at Marshfield, where he was expected in a few days, to wel-
come him and to communicate with him on the subject of their
proceedings. On the 25th of the same month he met that delegation
at his own house and made a speech to them from which the fol-
lowing are extracts:

The fishermen [he said] might be assured that their interests would not he
neglected by the Government. They shaU be protected In all their rights of
property and in all the rights of occupation. To use a Marblehead phrase
they shall be protected "hook and line — bob and sinker" — and why should they
not? They employ a vast number; many of our people are engaged in that
vocation. There are perhaps among you some who have been on the Grand
Banks for ten successive years and there hung on to the ropes in storm and
wreck.

The most potent consequences are involved in this matter. Our fisheries
have been the very nurseries of our navy * * * In the first place the sud-
den Interruption of the pursuits of our ° citizens which had been carried on
more than thirty years that they have pursued the fishing in the same waters
and on the same coast, in which and along which notice has now come that they
should be no longer allowed their privileges. Now this cannot be justified
without notice. A mere indulgence of too long continuance, even if the privi-

• MS. V, p. 10.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 499

lege were an indulgence, cannot be withdrawn at this season of the year, when
our people, according to their custom have engaged in the business, without
just and reasonable notice. I cannot but think the late despatches from the
Colonial office had not attracted to a sufficient degree the attention of the
principal Minister of the Crown; for I see matter in them quite Inconsistent
with the arrangement made in 1845 by the Barl of Aberdeen and Edward
Everett Then the Barl of Derby, the present Minister, was Colonial Secre-
tary. It could not well have taken place without his knowledge, and, in fact,
without his concurrence and sanction. I cannot but think therefore that its
being overlooked is an inadvertence. The treaty of 1818 was made with the
Crown of England. If a fishing vessel is captured by one of her vessels of
war and brought in for adjudication, the Crown of England is answerable, and
then we know whom we have to deal with. But it is not to be expected that
the United States will submit their rights to be adjudicated upon by the petty
tribunals of the Provinces or that they will allow our vessels to be seized
by constables and other petty officers, and condemned by municipal courts of
Canada and New Foundland, New Brunswick or Noval Scotia ! No, No, No I

Upon its appearance in England the British Annual Register, in
the moderate and guarded language common to that journal accom-
panied the publication of the preceding extract with the following
comments, to the force of which we would not find it easy to refuse
our assent:

This was, to say the least, very Imprudent language to be held by a Minister
of State while negotiations were pending for settling the dispute in an ami-
cable manner. Happily no collision of any kind took place.

The proceeding on Mr. Webster's part bore unmistakable marks
of a scene got up for effect; nor was the public mind for a moment
in doubt either as to the fact that such was its true character or
in regard to the particular effect aimed at. The success of this
stroke of policy, by means of which he hoped to enlist in his favor,
in the then approaching Presidential canvass, whatever of national
ill-will towards England there yet remained among us would, to
a considerable extent, depend upon the manner of its reception in
that Country. If her public men had allowed themselves to become
greatly excited by the challenge he had with so little ceremony and
so much peremptoriness thrown before her and had sent back an
equally belligerent missive against him and those ho represented,
as weaker men might have done, Mr. Webster's game would have
opened auspiciously and there is no saying to what height he might
not have been elevated in the leadership he coveted. But they, for-
tunately for the interests of both Countries, were men of sense and
had found and improved ample occasions to make themselves ac-
quainted with Mr. Webster's character as a public man. They had
seen him at the Court of their King and hobnobbed with him, also,
in social enjoyments to which neither were indifferent. Their lead-
ing men of business, who. from their natural acuteness and their

500 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

unequalled opportunities to gain experience afforded by an ex-
tensive intercourse with all nations, have established a world-wid-
reputation for sagacity and discernment, had taken his profession:
advice in respect to transactions partly public and partly private.
and of great importance, and their Minister had carried on weighty
negotiations with him and thro' him here. It would, tinder such
circumstances, have been strange indeed if they had failed thor-
oughly to inform themselves of his character and dispositions, lis
strength and his weaknesses. They had not so neglected their duty.
Their Ministers understood him perfectly and took no offence si
the brcwado in which he had indulged. They placed the same eot-
struction upon his belligerent speech to his Marshfield neighbour
that was readily placed upon it here — that of a device, a weak ok
as we knew it to be, to seduce prejudiced and precipitate democrat
into his support for the Presidency; a post they desired him abo*?
all others to occupy for they had already dealt with him while k
substantially wielded its powers, but they had too much self respect.
I may well add too much respect for the Country, to play into i>
hands by making themselves a party to the artifice in which their
cooperation was invited, and they therefore allowed this flare ut
of the Secretary of State to pass sub silentio.

But the English press, acting under less responsibility and in &
usual and creditable straight forward character, spoke without hesi-
tation or reserve and painted the transaction in its true colors as 3
coup de theatre, struck for political effect. This representation from
the other side, according with the conviction immediately produced
on this, of course robbed the whole matter of its serious elements, ami
when remembered at all, it is now familiarly spoken of as the occa-
sion of Mr. Webster's " bob and sinker " speech. The fruits, in the
Presidential canvass, of his anti English ebullition and of his equally
sudden and radical change of position on the slave question, as it wa?
presented at the time, both movements indicating an ignorance of
the real character and disposition of our people, were witnessed in
the votes given in the National Convention of his party which fol-
lowed for the nomination of a Presidential candidate, and which
were thus divided : Scott, 159, Fillmore, 112, Webster, 21.1

1 Whig Convention at Baltimore, which convened, June 16, 1862.

A

CHAPTER XXXIV,

Few of our public men were more identified, in the earlier periods
of his public life with the national resentments towards England
than Mr. Clay, or did more to fasten them in the popular heart. He
commenced his career in the Federal Government in the Senate of
the United States in 1806, was subsequently transferred to the House
of Representatives and was several times Speaker of that body. Con-
tinuing his public service in one or the other position till the break-
ing out of the war between us and England in 1812 he exerted great
influence in preparing the public mind for that event and in pro-
ducing its declaration by Congress with the sanction of the Executive.
In these preliminary scenes, in his support of the cause of his
country during the progress of the war and in the negotiation of
the peace that followed it Mr. Clay passed by far the brightest peri-
ods of his public life. His vehement denunciations of British ag-
gression and of those among us who would have extenuated them
and his eloquent appeals to his countrymen to prove themselves
equal to the exigencies of the crisis served to stimulate the feelings
of which we are speaking, and with which he was still more thor-
oughly associated by his residence in the patriotic State of Kentucky,
among whose heroic citizens the justifiers and supporters of the war
found a cordial sympathy. But after the change in his political
position, which took root at the peace and was regularly progressive
until he became the facile princeps of the successors of old federal-
ism, appeals to that antipathy towards England which he had
helped to plant so deeply in the breasts of his fellow citizens would
have been awkward and out of place to say nothing of other and
higher motives which I am willing to believe induced him to abstain
from them. In one instance which was the only one I can call to
mind and in itself trivial and only good naturedly mischievous, he
seemed inclined to try a small pull upon the old string for election-
eering purposes. After my return to Washington from the English
mission, our first meeting occurred in public in the Hall of the Repre-
sentatives under circumstances which will be hereafter noticed, and
was marked by very hearty salutations on his part. On leaving me
he returned to the Senate Chamber and, throwing himself into the
debate which happened to be going on with his usual facility of
bringing out what he wanted to say, a pro-pos of anything or noth-

601

602 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

ing wound up his other observations, more or less pertinent, with this,
or something like it: " By the bye, I have just had the pleasure of
shaking hands in the other House with our late Minister to England,
Mr. Van Buren, and was gratified to find him in excellent health
and appearing to great advantage in ° his English dress:" — a good
humored description intended for the western market

But I have perhaps given too much space and time to this topic
Suffice it that the game I have alluded to has been played out. The
good sense and good feeling of our people will no longer tolerate
appeals to prejudices which the conduct of both Countries has shown
that both have long since determined to bury and to forget.

The vote of the Senate upon my nomination gave rise to two
questions upoi* which it became necessary that I should decide at
London, and in respect to which different opinions were entertained
among my friends. The excitement of the occasion and a naturally
augmented anxiety about my political fortunes made those differ-
ences more earnest and importunate than they might otherwise have
been. They related to the period of my return and the most expe-
dient course to be adopted to secure my future advancement. Mr.
McLane, who, from the close intimacy that had long existed between
us and the marked solicitude I had shown for his promotion, was
extensively regarded as among the warmest and most cordial of my
friends, took immediate and very decided ground upon both points.
He thought that I ought to return immediately — that my friend
Mr. Dudley should be asked to resign his seat in the Senate of the
United States to enable the Legislature of New York, then in ses-
sion, to appoint me to his place and that I should come to Washing-
ton before the adjournment and challenge a review of the decision
which had been made by that body. Mr. McLane had, it appeared,
applied to a number of my friends to sanction his advice, altho' I
do not find by my papers nor have I any recollection that he pro-
posed it directly to me. Several of them dissented earnestly, and
some with manifest impatience, from the course thus indicated,
and among these were some who had sustained me from the begin-
ning and in whose discretion I placed the highest confidence. Pres-
ident Jackson, after having been twice applied to by Mr. McLane,
sent for my friend Mr. Cambreleng who communicated the result of
the interview, with his own opinion, in the following letter :

Washington, 28th Jan. 1832.
My deas Sib,

I was last evening at McLane's, who told me that he had hit upon the very
plan for you, which, he further said, had met the approbation of all with whom
he had conferred — viz: for you to come Immediately back & come Into the
Senate Ac. &c. Ac., to all which I simply answered that I non-concurred. This

• MS. V, p. 15.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 503

morning I had a message from the President that he wished to see me — nnd
found that our friend had consulted with the P., and I presume it was at
McLane's suggestion that he sent for me. I told him that I was decidedly
opposed to Mr. McLane's plan of having you hurry home to pop into the Senate
at the tall of the session for no earthly purpose which may be not ten times bet-
ter effected in another way. The old gentleman said that you had more common
sense and good judgment than any man in the world, and that he would leave it
entirely to yourself.

My plan Is that you should not arrive till about the time of (the third Mon-
day in May) or rather a week or two after the meeting of the Baltimore Con-
vention. Tou will be greeted by thousands — you will be received in triumph,
and you will have the finest opportunity imaginable to address the whole
Union — and after all the speeches, reports, '&c, &c.f have been made In Congress
on jthe tariff (about which we shall do nothing) — and appear among us as a
mediator on that great & momentous question. Leave your adversaries to strut
on their own dung-hill — to all their dirty honors — carry yourself above them —
do not sully yourself by even coming In contact with them. This scheme of
McLane's will remind you that small heads may manage— but give me a large
head for judgment ; if he had had that he never would have made his Report at
such a crisis. What earthly advantage you are to gain by jumping into the
Senate to discuss a question of adjournment, I cannot possibly conceive — for I
look upon the last three weeks of the session as nothing for debate — or for
anything that can serve you. No good can come out of it — harm might. Ad-
dress us on your return — address the American People (before whom you will
then be a candidate) and not the Senate of the U. States.

Sincerely yours

C. C. Cambbelenq

The opinions and advice of Mr. Cambreleng were fully concurred
in by Mr. Silas Wright and by Senator Marcy, and the latter com-
municated other grave and conclusive considerations in their favor.
Altho' I then gave McLane entire credit for being actuated by
friendly motives I did not entertain a doubt as to the course proper
for me to pursue in justice to my position both in England and at
home, which was to stay at my post until men's opinions had been
formed in respect to the conduct of my opponents and to postpone
my return to the United States until after the Democratic National
Convention, which, it was supposed, would take some action upon
the subject, had been held. I so decided, and communicated that
decision to my friends in my answer to a letter received from the
democratic citizens of the city of New York.1

The attention of my friends, with few exceptions, in considering
the best mode of meeting the violence of my enemies, was directed
to the Vice Presidential office, and a strong desire was formed that
I should be nominated for election to it. I received several letters
to that effect one of which was from my friend William L. Marcy,2
then at Washington discharging the duties of a Senator. This was
not the first time that the same course had been proposed to me,

* 1832, Feb. 24, in the Van Buren Paper* * 1832, Feb. 12, ibid.

504 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

and better justice will be done to my reply to Mr. Marcy's letter
by going back to the transaction to which I refer, by which means
also a fitting opportunity will be presented to explain another fea-
ture in my public life already casually alluded to in these pages
and hitherto but imperfectly understood.
Mr. Ingham,1 appointed by President Jackson as Secretary of

the Treasury, was I am quite certain the only member of his Cab-
inet who entered it with anything like a decided wish in respect
to the succession. Nothing was more unfounded than the impres-
sion extensively made upon the public mind that the President had
formed his Cabinet with a view to promote a particular design
upon this subject by which to gratify either a preference or an
antipathy. Mr. Calhoun, unfortunately for himself, took up the
opposite idea and never abandoned it, viz: that his exclusion and
my advancement were the objects which the General intended to
further. On the other hand Colonel Benton, claiming- to speak
as one who knows, says that down to the time of his election the
General looked to Mr. Calhoun as his successor. Nothing ever came
to my knowledge either to confirm or to disprove this statement*
but if it was correct it may safely be assumed that no circumstance
had occurred between the period mentioned and that of the selec-
tion of his Cabinet of a nature to change his views upon that point.
Mr. Ingham possessed a sound discriminating mind and had
furnished it with useful knowledge especially applicable to many
of the branches of the public service committed to his supervision-
Although he cannot be said to have acquired a very marked dis-
tinction in the performance of any of them during the short time
that he was in office his administration of the important Depart-
ment over which he presided was in a general way creditable and
it was, without question, conducted by him with a strict regard
to the public interest. Devotedly attached to Mr. Calhoun, with
whom he had long served in Congress, he was very desirous to
secure his nomination at the time when General Jackson became
the choice of the great body of the republican party, including Mr.
Ingham's own State — Pennsylvania. He supported the General's
election with fidelity, but, I have no doubt, with an undiminished
desire to see Mr. Calhoun thus elevated and with a firm purpose
to continue to exert himself, within the limits of propriety, to pro-
mote his chances for the succession. The gratification of that ° wish
became a passion with him and to it he eventually sacrificed the
influential position he had for many years occupied in the politics
of Pennsylvania. His nomination to the Treasury Department was

* B*muel D. Ingham. * MS. V, p. 20.

AUTOBIOGBAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 505

the result of a united and unusually pressing request to the Presi-
dent from the delegation in Congress from that State. He par-
took largely of Mr. Calhoun's suspicions in regard as well to the
President's designs as to my own aspirations, and was determined
to do what he could, without any culpable failure in duty, to
thwart both. To this end, whilst giving me no cause for personal
offense, he set himself, quietly but resolutely, to watch the move-
ments of the Administration, to obstruct steps which he thought
tended in the obnoxious direction, and to avoid making himself a
party to any act by which he might be embarrassed when the time
should arrive to take open ground against my advancement. This
purpose and these feelings were manifested in a thousand ways.
One of them, and perhaps the first that excited my attention, I have
already spoken of in connection with the appointment of Swart-
wout as Collector of the Customs at the port of New York. As to
all measures that did not fall within the purview of this by -play
on his part there was a remarkable concurrence of opinion between
us, whilst in respect to all that did so fall our relations resembled
more those of fair but decided opponents than those which would
be expected to exist between leading members and co-ad jutors in
an Administration in the success of which we had a common in-
terest. Estimating his conduct in connection with speculations
and schemes which soon came to occupy large spaces in men's minds
and in the public press I could not, of course, long be at a loss in
regard to his thoughts or motives.

It was plain that, looking upon me as a rival of Mr. Calhoun for
the succession, he desired to maintain with me, in the situation in
which we, for the time being, were placed, a kind of armed neu-
trality, or rather an armistice to terminate in a certain and inexo-
rable resumption of hostilities, and I felt no disposition to balk his
wishes. Yet, now — when there can be no possible motive for the
suppression or misrepresentation of facts — I solemnly declare that
he was entirely mistaken in the belief upon which he acted. When
I went to Washington the idea of becoming Gen. Jackson's suc-
cessor had never acquired the slightest lodgement in my mind. If
the expediency of taking steps to aid in the accomplishment of that
object had been at that early period, brought to my consideration, I
would unhesitatingly have taken ground against them as incon-
sistent with the relation in which I looked upon myself as stand-
ing with the President and as altogether premature in respect to
my own interests. I will go further and say that if the rupture
between the President and Mr. Calhoun, and the consequent schism
in the republican ranks, had not taken place there would not have
been one of our contemporaries who would have more readily than

506 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

myself acquiesced in the accession of the latter to the Presidency
after the expiration of Jackson's second term. My being subse-
quently placed in a different position on this question was entirely
owing to the events which I have just now referred to and
to the bitter attacks that were made upon me under the same er-
roneous impressions by which Mr. Ingham was influenced. But
for them President Jackson would, I am now quite confident, have
suffered the question to pass to its settlement without any inter-
ference on his part. I am, at all events, entirely certain that he
did not arrive at the conclusion to favor my election to the Presi-
dency until some time after the occurrences to which I have referred.
I remember well the first time this subject was introduced by him.
It was during one of our rides over the Georgetown Hills, in the
autumn of 1830, some six or seven months after the receipt of Mr.
Calhoun's letter to him about the Seminole transaction, and after
the United States Telegraph newspaper, which was well understood
to reflect the political sentiments of the latter, had given unmistak-
able indications of a rupture with and open opposition to the Ad-
ministration on the part of Mr. Calhoun's friends and himself dur-
ing the next session of Congress. He spoke of the resolution he had
formed at the period of his election to serve only one term and,
referring to the seemingly insurmountable obstacles which had since
arisen to the fulfillment of this intention and to the probability of
the early developments of the opposition against his administration
which had for some time been in course of preparation, said that
his thoughts had been turned to the selection of some middle course
by which his wish for an early retirement might be gratified without
hazarding the accomplishment of the measures he had entered upon
and the success of which he deemed essential to the national welfare.
He had not, he added, been able to hit upon any plan so promising as
that I should stand for the Vice Presidency on the ticket with him at
the next election and, if successful, that he should resign in one year,
or, if it should be necessary, at the expiration of the second year of
his new term. The feelings with which this proposition was received
are as fresh in my recollection as they were at the moment it was
made. I could neither be ignorant of, nor insensible to the large
share of personal kindness towards myself which had given birth
to this suggestion beside his constant desire to promote the public
interest ; and that consideration, in addition to the earnestness with
which he habitually embraced propositions which occupied his mind
for some time before he brought them forward, demanded great cir-
cumspection in giving the requisite answer to it. But I could see
nothing but danger to myself in the proposition and, as I thought,
to his own great popularity, and was deeply sensible of the necessity
of giving to it a prompt negative. I thanked him for the kindness

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BURRtf. 60?

he had evinced towards myself personally in a way which fully satis-
fied him that I appreciated it as I ought. I did not affect indiffer-
ence to the end his propdsition looked to — that of my ultimate eleva-
tion to the Presidency, admitted it to have become an object within
the scope of my ambition, but appealed to him for the truth of the
declaration that I had never said or done anything whilst I had been
associated with him in the public service which could give him or any
one reason to think that my mind was occupied in the promotion of
that object by any other means than by the faithful performance
of my official duties. To this appeal he responded warmly and satis-
factorily. I then placed before him all the objections that occurred
to me at the moment against the adoption of the course he suggested.
Doing full justice to the purity of his own motive, I spoke of the
construction that would be placed upon the step by our enemies.
Whilst he was moved by considerations of a public character, look-
ing chiefly to the perfection of the great public measures he had in
contemplation and upon some of which he had already entered, they
would stigmatize the proceeding as a selfish intrigue designed to
smuggle me into the Presidency and to gratify his own resent-
ments against those to whose elevation he was opposed; to these
I added many other reasons and reflections and concluded with
an earnest declaration that altho I rightly valued the high dis-
tinction of the Presidential office, I could not for a moment hesitate
between the instant and perpetual relinquishment of it and an at-
tempt to reach it through a channel so liable to misconstruction. He
was strongly moved by the course of my remarks, but in no degree °
apprehensive of any imputations upon the step, so far as they might
be designed to affect himself. The people in whose good sense and
right feeling he had never been disappointed, would, he said, do
justice to his motives; but he acknowledged that he had not suffi-
ciently considered the difference between his own situation and mine.
They might perhaps, he thought, with feelings of equal kindness to
ourselves be induced to apply a different rule in respect to the
motives of such a step, as between the man who by means of it was
divesting himself of great honor and with him who was receiving it.

The General's letter to me of the — day of 183 ,* which was

before the rejection of my nomination will be found to contain a
virtual reference to this conversation, in speaking of the probability
of my being made a candidate for the office of Vice President against
my will.

The idea was abandoned and although he throughout cherished
a sincere desire to lay down his office at the earliest practicable
moment, his resignation was not again proposed, nor was he ever in

* MS. V, p. 25. * Dec. 6, 1881, in the Van Buren Papers.

508 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

a situation to make it with propriety. It will be borne in mind that
when I agreed to accept the English Mission I expressed to the
General my opinion that the step I was about to take could not be
and should not be regarded in any other light than that of a re-
linquishment of any pretensions my friends might think I possessed
to succeed him in the Presidency, and that I inferred from his
silence that he felt constrained to believe that such would be its
effect. But be soon changed that opinion, or never adopted it in
the sense I did. As early as the 5th of September, 1881, within
eight weeks after I left him, he wrote as follows :

Notwithstanding the high opinion I entertain of the talents and worth of
my present Cabinet end the confidence I have in than, stUl there appears a
vacancy by your absence and our faithful Eaton, that is not filled. Mr. Mo
Lane's mind is a host to me and with him and Barry,1 in whom I know I can
under any circumstances confide — with the goodness and amiability and high
talents of the others, I have no doubt we shall steer the national vessel into a
safe port. Still I cannot but regret your absence. We have been so fortunate
with our foreign relations hitherto that I would regret [that] any faux-pas
should occur hereafter. I cannot close without again repeating that I hope
circumstances will occur to enable me to return to the Hermitage in due season
and set an example worthy to be followed and give an evidence to my country
that I never had any^ other ambition than that of serving my country when
she required it, and, when I know it could be better served by others, to open
the door for their employment ; you will understand me.9

Nothing having occurred that required me to deviate from the
the course which circumstances had pointed out for me, I took no
notice of these suggestions, as will be seen by my reply to this letter.
But he did not allow my silence to prevent him from returning to
the subject frequently and in his letter of the 17th of December,
1831, he expressed himself thus:

I cannot close, altho' it is now late, without naming to you confidentially a
subject which is constantly on my mind ; it is this : — If I am reelected and you
are not called to the Vice Presidency I wish you to return to this country in
two years from now, if it comports with your views and wishes. I think your
presence here about that time wiU be necessary. The opposition would, if
they durst, try to reject your nomination as Minister, but they dare not, — they
begin to know if they did that the people in mass would take you up and elect
you Vice President without a nomination. Was it not for this, it is said Clay,
Calhoun & Co. would try it

You know Mr. Livingston is anxious to go abroad and I am as anxious to
have you near me, and it would afford me pleasure to gratify both. * * *

I would not be surprised if, contra ry to your declared wishes, you should
be run for Vice-President; as sure as the Senate make the attempt to reject
3*our nomination. I am told it will be done. This will bring you back in
twelve months. If not, then I wish, if reelected, to bring you back as inti-
mated.'

1 William T. Barry, Postmaster General.

2 In the Van Buren Papers. The answer, dated Oct. 11, 1881, is also in the Van Buren
Papers.

• In the Van Buren Papers.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 509

The rejection of my nomination followed soon after and in the
General's estimation cleared the field from all obstacles. That the
party ought to nominate me and that I was bound to accept were
points too clear to him for discussion and this he avowed on all
suitable occasions.

The proposal of my friends that I should consent to run for the
office of Vice President being wholly disconnected from the sug-
gestions of the President in respect to his ulterior views I felt myself
in a situation, after the treatment I had received to accept of the
nomination consistently with the principles upon which I had acted,
and concurred moreover in the opinion expressed by the President
that I was, under the circumstances, bound to do so if it should
be presented to- me.

Entertaining such views of the subject I sent the following answer
to Mr. Marcy's letter:

London, March Uth, 1882.
My Dear Sir:

I have received your kind letter announcing the desire which has been mani-
fested that I should be a Candidate for the Vice Presidency, and suggesting
the propriety of an expression of my feeling on the subject to some one of my
friends in Washington.

Of the strong aversion which I have uniformly entertained to this measure
you, as well as many others, were fully informed before I left the United
States. My private feelings on the subject an; unchanged. I cannot regard
the possession of that post as in any wise likely to promote my happiness or
welfare. But whatever may be my individual repugnance, I cannot but feel
the justice of the opinion, expressed as it appears, by a large portion of my
Fellow Citizens, that recent events have materially changed the condition of
the question. The President in the recess of Congress had nominated me
to a foreign and important trust ; I had left my native land, and entered, among
strangers, upon the conspicuous functions of that trust ; a majority of the Sen-
ate have rejected the nomination of the Executive, and publicly divested me
of my employ when I was executing it in the presence of Europe & America. In
so doing they have ° sought to bring discredit upon the act of the President,
and to disgrace me personally in the eyes, not merely of my Fellow Citizens
but of foreign nations. If the Republicans of the U. States think my elevation
to the Vice Presidency the most effectual mode of testifying to the world their
sentiments with respect to the act of the President and the .vote of the Senate,
I can see no justifiable ground for declining to yield to their wishes.

Should a knowledge of this acquiescence on my part be deemed absolutely
necessary to the harmonious operation of our friends, you are at liberty to
state it ; but not otherwise.

I would sedulously avoid any act or agency that might appear calculated
or designed to bring about the result referred to. My paramount desire is that
my future fate be left to the unbiased decision of the people.

Overwhelmed as I am with the generous sympathy manifested by my coun-
trymen, I hope & trust, I shall not be thought to meet their confiding frank-
ness with fastidious reserve. There is a degree of reserve forced upon me,
however, by the nature of the question, by the peculiarly delicate situation in

• MS. V, p. 30,

510 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

which I have been placed in regard to It, and by the wanton & persevering mis-
representations of the whole subject with which the public ear has been abused.

I am Dr. Sir
Very truly yours

Da., V • B.

Wm. L. Mabcy, Esq.

Having possessed myself of the published debate which took place
in the Senate on the occasion, and of all necessary documents, I de-
voted a sufficient portion of the brief period of my remaining in
Europe to a critical examination of the grounds that had been as-
sumed by the opponents of my nomination in the Senate and an ar-
rangement of the materials in my hands which were abundantly
sufficient to demonstrate their fallacy.1 Of these I intended to avail
myself on my public reception at New York, of the 'design of which
I had been notified. Finding the city, on my arrival heavily af-
flicted by Cholera, I superseded the arrangements that had been
made for receiving me by hastening to shore and proceeding imme-
diately to Washington. My contemplated speech was of course not
delivered. Perceiving that the public mind was wholly engrossed
with questions arising upon the President's veto of the Act for the
recharter of the U. S. Bank, and by other topics of deep interest, and
assured by friends in whose judgment and coolness I placed implicit
confidence that the objections to my nomination to the English
Mission, founded on the instructions to Mr. McLane, were already
regarded by all my countrymen-, who were not blinded by prejudice
or by political scheming, as unfounded pretences seized upon by
partizan Senators to mask a blow aimed at a political opponent, I
was induced to regard further notice of the affair at that time as
a matter of supererogation. I need scarcely say that the opinions
of my friends in respect to the state of public opinion upon the
subject were fully sustained as well by my election as Vice-President
which followed my arrival almost immediately, as by that which
raised me to the Presidency.

The notes of my intended speech are now before me and a dis-
cussion of the questions involved, with the field to myself, might
well be considered an occupation both justifiable and inviting.
But I am not satisfied that, under existing circumstances, I ought
to indulge myself in that gratification or that there can be many
unprejudiced minds with impressions of the whole affair other
than those which have been stamped upon it by the repeated ver-
dicts of the American People. Satisfied with the vindication my
character received from these and other sources I will not now
carry out the arguments they sustained or even publish them. They

* Bee Defense of the Administration's action resulting in Van Buren's rejection as Min-
ister to England, an autograph draft, 118 pp. under date of 1832, in the Van Buren
Papers,

1

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 511

were submitted to Chief Justice Taney and to Col. Benton who
were highly pleased with them and the latter speaks approvingly
of them in his " Thirty Years in the Senate."

I will content myself with some general views of the matter.
These will be given not at all with the disposition to cast odium
on the memory of the principal actors in those scenes, but because
it is due to historical truth, that the main features of a great public
transaction such as that, carried on in the face and appertaining to
the concerns of two great nations, should at least be preserved.

The assumed ground on which it proceeded was, it will be re-
membered, the character of the instructions under which Mr. Mc-
Lane acted in obtaining the restoration of the West India trade,
and the alleged extent to which those instructions sought to ad-
vance partizan aims at the expense of the honor and interests of
the nation. Now it so happened that the same subject came before
the Senate but a short time before and was discussed in a similar
aspect during the administration of Mr. Adams.

Among my speeches will be found one delivered by me in that
body in which the subjects of the character of the trade, the inter-
ests of the United States in its maintenance and the steps by which
it was lost are fully discussed. The questions arose upon a bill re-
ported by the Chairman of the Committee of Commerce, Mr. John-
ston, of Louisiana, a supporter of Mr. Adams' administration and
Mr. Clay's particular and devoted friend; the latter being then
Secretary of State. The bill contained a proposition which the
Administration thought best adapted to relieve the subject from the
embarrassments in which it was involved and the passage of which
thro' Congress itl anxiously desired. I was then, in the general
sense of the term, an opponent of the Administration, but, whilst
I pointed out the errors by which the trade had been lost, I sup-
ported the measure under consideration. Mr. Johnston, in reply, ad-
mitted that the amendment I proposed did not differ in substance
from the bill reported by the Committee, indeed in his opinion, only
as to the mode of doing the same thing. " The gentleman from New
York," said he, u has given a clear statement of the origin and prog-
ress of this question ; he has stated it evidently with a strong lean-
ing, he has made some errors and omissions in his facts, and he has
given too much weight to the suggestions in regard to the course
pursued by his own Countiy. But he has arrived, no matter by
what course -of reasoning, to the true conclusion, which is the end
of all debate ; to wit : that the interdict must follow. He thinks it
should be created by the act of the President ; we, by the law. Hav-
ing agreed in the main object, I shall not stickle about the mode."

Occupying the position I did in respect to the Administration, I
deemed it proper to speak freely of the obligations of public men

512 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

to forego party feelings when acting upon matters in issue between
their own and foreign nations. As few will probably be disposed to
wade thro' the full discussion of a spent question I venture to trans-
fer to this place some of the concluding sentences of my speech which I
were substantially confined to this point: I

I trust, sir, there is no disposition In any part of this House to throw
the responsibility of their own acts upon those by whom they were opposed,
and shun the consequences which they had themselves produced. Tbe motives
which led to the rejection of the bill were doubtless pure; and although the
promised eclat of an adjustment, through Executive instrumentality, so
tempting to a new administration, may have had Its weight, yet that this was a
controlling consideration, it is far from my intention to affirm.

In the prosecution of this inquiry, it is not necessary, I am sure, to urge
upon this Senate the adoption of those measures only which are demanded
by the honor and interests of onr country, and the exclusion from our coun-
cils of every consideration less worthy of our regard. The humiliating spec-
tacle of a foreign and adverse government, speculating upon the advantages
which it may derive from our dissensions, will, I fervently trust, never again
be the reproach of the American People. In a Government like ours; founded
upon freedom in thought and action, imposing no unnecessary restraints, and
calling Into exercise the highest energies of the mind, occasional differences
of opinion are not only* to be expected, but to be desired. They rouse the
sluggish to exertion, give increased energy to the most active intellect, excite
a salutary vigilance over our public functionaries, and prevent that apathy
which has proved the ruin of Republics. Like the electric spark, they dispel
from the political atmosphere the latent causes of disease and death. But
these conflicting opinions should be confined to subjects which concern our-
selves. In the collisions which may arise between the United States and a
foreign Power, it is our duty to present an unbroken front; domestic differ-
ences, if they tend to give encouragement to unjust pretensions, should be ex-
tinguished or deferred; and the cause of our Government must be considered
as the cause of our country.1

The views expressed in this speech in respect to the superiority of
the claims of the country over those of party were the unalterable
sentiments of my heart when the instructions to our Minister to
England were prepared by me as Secretary of State and those upon
which I acted to the best of my abilities.

That the idea of the rejection of my nomination was first started
by the friends of Mr. Calhoun is quite certain, whether0 upon his
suggestion or made his by adoption, I have no means of knowing.
The U. S. Telegraph, the editor of which was his devoted friend and
an incessant advocate for his elevation to the Presidency, of a date
shortly after the nomination was announced, contained the following
article :

We make no pretension to prophesy, but, judging from the fac+s within our
knowledge, we incline to the opinion that Mr. Van Buren's nomination will be

1 Register of Debates, Feb. 24, 1827, vol. Ill, 477 and 478. The Autobiography con-
tains the injunction to " Take In extracts " but the particular extracts are not designated

0 MS. V, p. 35.

L--

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 513

rejected by the Senate. Certain we are that It will be if the part he has acted
since he came to Washington is fully examined. His rejection, under such cir-
cumstances, can excite no sympathy and will consign him to everlasting retire-
ment. Indeed we have our doubts whether he will not yet affirm his own con-
demnation by declining the mission and thus escape the severe ordeal.

This article has nothing of the characteristic style of the editor but
resembles observations of Mr. Calhoun made on the floor of the
Senate as related by Col. Benton. Mr. Calhoun's successive hostile
movements against me were uniformly without cause, always injuri-
ous to his own advancement and on but one occasion, — the Presiden-
tial nomination in 1844, — fatal to mine; and even then the very
means to which he was driven to defeat my nomination, as will be
more fully seen hereafter, extinguished the last hope for the realiza-
tion of his own life-long aspirations.

Our personal relations commenced under the most favourable
auspices. He called on me within a few hours after my arrival
at Washington as Senator in 1821, and soon made advances towards
a familiar and friendly social intercourse, which I cordially recip-
rocated. He was at that period of his life a very fascinating man
and I enjoyed his society greatly. His residence was very near
my lodgings and I spent many of my evenings at his house, where I
found many of his friends invited, as I was, to talk, and play whist.
The Presidential election was more than two years off, but the gen-
eral attention of politicians was already actively directed to the
subject. He was an avowed candidate, and from the beginning,
openly and earnestly against a continuance of the caucw system.
In one of our conversations he went so far as to say that if a caucus
was held and if it should offer the nomination to him, without con-
ditions, he would feel obliged to decline its support, in that form.
Upon this point we differed widely, nor was that the only difference
in our political opinions. His views in regard to the construction
of the Federal Constitution were latitudinarian in the extreme. Of
these he gave us a striking and alarming illustration in his report
as Secretary of War in favour of internal improvements by the
general government, pursuant to the ground he had previously
taken in Congress, as we have seen. He was out of patience with
Virginia politics and with the never ceasing harping by her poli-
ticians upon the "doctrines of '98." If I had selected my Presi-
dential candidate from personal preferences I might have chosen
Mr. Calhoun, but the particular doctrines that were then so dis-
tasteful to him were in perfect harmony with my opinions and
feelings. They constituted the creed of a political party to which
I had belonged from the beginning and in whose ranks I hoped to
remain to the last. I could not therefore go for him or with him
127488°— vol 2—20 88

514 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

and gave the preference to Mr. Crawford with whom my intercourse
had been much more restricted. The rest is known. Mr. Calhoun
was elected Vice President running on the same ticket with Mr.
Adams and General Jackson respectively, both of whom, as well as
his own election, I opposed. Hardvfeelings arose during the can-
vass but an open rupture was avoided. I had given him early and
frank notice of the course I intended to pursue, with my reasons,
which more than excluded a personal exception, and social estrange-
ment of a marked character had thus been prevented. We met in
the Senate, he as its President and I on the floor. Old associations
were soon renewed and old feelings revived. In the same wTinter
that good and true gentleman Patroon Van Rensselaer and myself
spent the holidays with him in Virginia at the residence of Mr.
and Mrs. Fitzhugh, of Ravensrwood, his particular friends, and our
most agreeable and hospitable hosts. Our time -passed delightfully
and the visit has ever been remembered by me as a green spot in
the pilgrimage of life.

He gradually cut loose from whatever of political fraternity had
existed between himself and the supporters of the Adams' ad-
ministration and we united heart and hand to promote the election
of General Jackson. To reconcile past differences we agreed, in
advance of that election, to go at the next Presidential election for
a nomination by a national Convention. In pursuance of a private
understanding between us I prepared the letter to Mr. Ritchie in
favour of that step which appears in the correspondence and sub-
mitted it to him, and to his friend Mr. Ingham. They agreed to it
without alteration and it was forwarded. I do not now remember
that I submitted it to any other person although it is probable that
I did. Before I left Washington we had an animated discussion,
at his house in Georgetown, concerning the press at Washington by
which the opposition to the administration should be represented.
He was for continuing the Telegraph already in existence under
the direction of Gen. Green and I was desirous to make an effort to
prevail on Mr. Ritchie to move to Washington. After I reached
home I enclosed to him a letter from Mr. Cambreleng on the same
subject to which he made the following reply. I have no copy of
my letter which it will be seen by the answer embraced other sub-
jects. The omitted paragraphs of the letter relate to the questions
in regard to the power of the Vice President to call to order. The
whole letter shows how cordial were the existing relations between

us at that time.

Washington, 1th July, 1826.
My Dear Sib,

Several causes have conduced to suspend my correspondence for the last
fortnight, and among others the dangerous Indisposition of my little son, who

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 511

were submitted to Chief Justice Taney and to Col. Benton who
were highly pleased with them and the latter speaks approvingly
of them in his " Thirty Years in the Senate. »

I will content myself with some general views of the matter.
These will be given not at all with the disposition to cast odium
on the memory of the principal actors in those scenes, but because
it is due to historical truth, that the main features of a great public
transaction such as that, carried on in the face and appertaining to
the concerns of two great nations, should at least be preserved.

The assumed ground on which it proceeded was, it will be re-
membered, the character of the instructions under which Mr. Mc-
Lane acted in obtaining the restoration of the West India trade,
and the alleged extent to which those instructions sought to ad-
vance partizan aims at the expense of the honor and interests of
the nation. Now it so happened that the same subject came before
the Senate but a short time before and was discussed in a similar
aspect during the administration of Mr. Adams.

Among my speeches will be found one delivered by me in that
body in which the subjects of the character of the trade, the inter-
ests of the United States in its maintenance and the steps by which
it was lost are fully discussed. The questions arose upon a bill re-
ported by the Chairman of the Committee of Commerce, Mr. John-
ston, of Louisiana, a supporter of Mr. Adams9 administration and
Mr. Clay's particular and devoted friend; the latter being then
Secretary of State. The bill contained a proposition which the
Administration thought best adapted to relieve the subject from the
embarrassments in which it was involved and the passage of which
thro' Congress it! anxiously desired. I was then, in the general
sense of the term, an opponent of the Administration, but, whilst
I pointed out the errors by which the trade had been lost, I sup-
ported the measure under consideration. Mr. Johnston, in reply, ad-
mitted that the amendment I proposed did not differ in substance
from the bill reported by the Committee, indeed in his opinion, only
as to the mode of doing the same thing. " The gentleman from New
York," said he, " has given a clear statement of the origin and prog-
ress of this question ; he has stated it evidently with a strong lean-
ing, he has made some errors and omissions in his facts, and he has
given too much weight to the suggestions in regard to the course
pursued by his own Countiy. But he has arrived, no matter by
what course of reasoning, to the true conclusion, which is the end
of all debate ; to wit : that the interdict must follow. He thinks it
should be created by the act of the President ; we, by the law. Hav-
ing agreed in the main object, I shall not stickle about the mode."

Occupying the position I did in respect to the Administration, I
deemed it proper to speak freely of the obligations of public mr

510 AMEMCAHT HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION.

which I have been placed in regard to it, and by the wanton & persevering mis-
representations of the whole subject with which the public ear has been abused.

I am Dr. Sir

Very truly yours

M. V. B.

Wm. L. Mabcy, Esq.

Having possessed myself of the published debate which took place
in the Senate on the occasion, and of all necessary documents, I de-
voted a sufficient portion of the brief period of my remaining in
Europe to a critical examination of the grounds that had been as-
sumed by the opponents of my nomination in the Senate and an ar-
rangement of the materials in my hands which were abundantly
sufficient to demonstrate their fallacy.1 Of these I intended to avail
myself on my public reception at New York, of the design of which
I had been notified. Finding the city, on my arrival heavily af-
flicted by Cholera, I superseded the arrangements that had been
made for receiving me by hastening to shore and proceeding imme-
diately to Washington. My contemplated speech was of course not
delivered. Perceiving that the public mind was wholly engrossed
with questions arising upon the President's veto of the Act for the
recharter of the U. S. Bank, and by other topics of deep interest, and
assured by friends in whose judgment and coolness I placed implicit
confidence that the objections to my nomination to the English
Mission, founded on the instructions to Mr. McLane, were already
regarded by all my countrymen; who were not blinded by prejudice
or by political scheming, as unfounded pretences seized upon by
partizan Senators to mask a blow aimed at a political opponent, I
was induced to regard further notice of the affair at that time as
a matter of supererogation. I need scarcely say that the opinions
of my friends in respect to the state of public opinion upon the
subject were fully sustained as well by my election as Vice-President
which followed my arrival almost immediately, as by that which
raised me to the Presidency.

The notes of my intended speech are now before me and a dis-
cussion of the questions involved, with the field to myself, might
well be considered an occupation both justifiable and inviting.
But I am not satisfied that, under existing circumstances, I ought
to indulge myself in that gratification or that there can be many
unprejudiced minds with impressions of the whole affair other
than those which have been stamped upon it by the repeated ver-
dicts of the American People. Satisfied with the vindication my
character received from these and other sources I will not now
carry out the arguments they sustained or even publish them. They

1 Bee Defense of the Administration's action resulting In Van Duren's rejection as Mln-
'ster to England, an autograph draft, 118 pp. under date of 1832, in the Van Bureo
ipera,

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 511

were submitted to Chief Justice Taney and to Col. Benton who
were highly pleased with them and the latter speaks approvingly
of them in hie " Thirty Years in the Senate. »

I will content myself with some general views of the matter.
These will be given not at all with the disposition to cast odium
on the memory of the principal actors in those scenes, but because
it is due to historical truth, that the main features of a great public
transaction such as that, carried on in the face and appertaining to
the concerns of two great nations, should at least be preserved.

The assumed ground on which it proceeded was, it will be re-
membered, the character of the instructions under which Mr. Mc-
Lane acted in obtaining the restoration of the West India trade,
and the alleged extent to which those instructions sought to ad-
vance partizan aims at the expense of the honor and interests of
the nation. Now it so happened that the same subject came before
the Senate but a short time before and was discussed in a similar
aspect during the administration of Mr. Adams.

Among my speeches will be found one delivered by me in that
body in which the subjects of the character of the trade, the inter-
ests of the United States in its maintenance and the steps by which
it was lost are fully discussed. The questions arose upon a bill re-
ported by the Chairman of the Committee of Commerce, Mr. John-
ston, of Louisiana, a supporter of Mr. Adams' administration and
Mr. Clay's particular and devoted friend; the latter being then
Secretary of State. The bill contained a proposition which the
Administration thought best adapted to relieve the subject from the
embarrassments in which it was involved and the passage of which
thro' Congress it! anxiously desired. I was then, in the general
sense of the term, an opponent of the Administration, but, whilst
I pointed out the errors by which the trade had been lost, I sup-
ported the measure under consideration. Mr. Johnston, in reply, ad-
mitted that the amendment I proposed did not differ in substance
from the bill reported by the Committee, indeed in his opinion, only
as to the mode of doing the same thing. " The gentleman from New
York," said he, " has given a clear statement of the origin and prog-
ress of this question ; he has stated it evidently with a strong lean-
ing, he has made some errors and omissions in his facts, and he has
given too much weight to the suggestions in regard to the course
pursued by his own Countiy. But he has arrived, no matter by
what course* of reasoning, to the true conclusion, which is the end
of all debate ; to wit : that the interdict must follow. He thinks it
should be created by the act of the President ; we, by the law. Hav-
ing agreed in the main object, I shall not stickle about the mode."

Occupying the position I did in respect to the Administration, T
deemed it proper to speak freely of the obligations of public mf

518 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

regard ftto the principal subject of your letter, I can for the present only
say that until Gen1. Jackson distinctly announces his wishes in respect to
the next election, it would be improper for one standing in the relation to
him that I do to meddle in any form in the question of his successor. I
have therefore laid down for myself a rule upon that point consistent with
this opinion from which I have not yet departed & do not intend In future
to depart.

Whenever circumstances are changed it will give me much pleasure to
communicate with you in the same spirit of frankness which distinguishes
your letter and forms an Interesting feature in your character. In the
meantime I can with great confidence assure you that there is no disposition
on the part of the President to exercise a partiality in whatever relates to
South Carolina injurious to your friends. Upon this head you will be (if
you have not already been) doubtless fully advised by such of them as are
here & have opportunities of judging. You will have seen by the public
papers that the one measure you proposed was not an open question when
your letter was written. The other cannot be effected for reasons which I
know will be satisfactory as well to yourself as to Judge Smith. At a
proper time you shall know all that belongs to it.

It will always give me sincere pleasure to hear from you. Remember me
kindly to Mrs. Williams & your son, and believe me to be

Very sincerely your friend

M. Van Btjbkn.

Gen. D. It. Williams.

To Mabtin Van Buben, Esq.

Society Hill, Slst Jan. 1880.
My Deab Sib :

Your favor of the 22d of Dec last reached me in due course of mail. I have
reflected much on its contents & cannot but express my deep regret that clr-
stances prescribe to you a course of conduct eminently calculated to place
your friends, in this quarter, entirely in the background. When I say this I
wish distinctly to be understood as not objecting to the propriety of your reso-
lution, much less do I wish to attempt its revocation ; that certainly you can
best judge of; and it Is no part of friendship to embarrass you with counter
propositions. Perhaps it is insuperable, in a contest between intrigue & laud-
able ambition, that the last shall never occupy the vantage ground in all re-
spects. While your determinations remain suspended, your arch opponent has
every muscle distended to its utmost to gain the object he looks to, & therefore,
so far as South Carolina is concerned, It is not difficult to anticipate the result
Nor do I feel quite so easy about the impartiality of a great personage; accord-
ing to my perception of the favors he has received, he owes ytfu everything &
the other nothing.

Of this enough. My sole object in writing now is to acknowledge yours, & to
say I am perfectly satisfied (if that be not too strong an expression) with what
you have been pleased to communicate; for in truth I hold I scarcely have a
right to an opinion on the subject, while your course necessarily precludes me
from all exertion in your behalf.

In the event of an altered state of things it will give me pleasure to struggle,
even against the prospect of defeat ; for against the obliquities and tergiversa-
tions of your opponent's course I desire to be considered at perpetual war.

Accept the personal esteem of

yours &c.

David R. Williams.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJftEK. 519

There is no view that can be taken of Mr. Calhoun's conduct in
this affair to render it otherwise than highly censurable. If it be
admitted that he sincerely believed that I had acted an unfriendly
or an unworthy part towards him — so much so as to give his previous
hostility the character of justifiable retaliation, still the step I had
now taken should have caused him to pause. By my enemies gener-
ally as well as by myself that step was regarded as placing me out
of the line of competition for the Presidency, and I was about to
leave the Country upon a mission which would, in all probability,
but for the interference he contemplated, have kept me abroad for
several years. Almost any other man would have seen in this con-
juncture a sufficient reason for at least reviewing the grounds of past
animosity and confirming himself of their truth and sufficiency. The
simplest enquiry either of General Jackson or of myself, thro' any
respectable man, would have resulted in satisfying him that the
stories and surmises upon which he acted were, one and all, fabulous
and baseless; that I had never before that time taken a single hostile
step against him, or any in which he was concerned that was not
strictly in self-defence. He took such a course five years later, con-
vinced himself of his error and did all in his power to atone for it.
The same result would have followed if he had taken it at the time
of which I am speaking; by which also many harsh and unprofitable
proceedings and much uneasiness of mind would have been saved.a

But Mr. Calhoun was, it is to be feared, a most implacable man.
To persist in differing with him in politics was to encounter an
enmity which would be satisfied with nothing less than the utter
overthrow of its object; his political career, governed by this spirit
enforcing the scriptural admonition that those who live by the

* Rival aspirants for the superiority of position in their own ranks have always and
everywhere been the bane of political organizations, disturbing their peace and impairing
their efficiency, and will continue to be so as long as the nature of man remains what it
is. These carry on their internecine quad-warfare according to their respective tempera-
ments, the dispositions these engender, and the best Judgment they can form in regard
to the probable efficiency of their separate efforts. Whilst some are led by their disposi-
tions to act only on the defensive, to watch the course of their rivals in all matters
which they think designed for their detriment, and to content themselves with counter-
acting the designs of their rivals by means the least calculated to disturb the Councils
by impairing the harmony of their party, there are those who are never satisfied with-
out the total overthrow and destruction of their rivals, at whatever cost to their
political association that gratification is to be obtained. A# review of the history and
fate of parties and factions will shew that It has been those who pursued the former
course, who refrained the most from suffering their personal feelings from being In-
flamed by their political rivalries and were most willing to leave the question of their
individual advancement to the quiet and friendly arbitrament of their political associ-
ates have in the end been the most successful. Mr. Calhoun has, It must be admitted,
occupied a prominent position In the latter class and hence the bitter feuds In his own
State and upon a larger scale between him and members of his own party with which
his political life has been checkered from Its very commencement and hence also Its
disastrous termination. Thus adding an additional point to the many afforded by the
history of man of the truth of the moral, that those who live by the sword die by the
sword.

520 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

sword shall perish by the sword. It is only on this theory, which,
is sustained by the character of his political wars in his own and
in the neighbouring state of Georgia, from beginning to end, and
the lamentable results of them, that I can explain proceedings
otherwise inscrutable. The circumstantial annunciation of the de-
sign to cause the rejection of my nomination — published in the
Telegraphy and heralded thro9 the Country by the coalition press-
was followed up by Mr. Calhoun to its consummation with mi*
disguised bitterness. The contemplated foundation and, on the
part of those whose views and interests were represented by the
Telegraphy the only foundation for the movement was the part I
had acted "since he (I) came to Washington" — that is to say, in
the Eaton affair, in the quarrel between President Jackson and Mr.
Calhoun, and in the disruption of the Cabinet. It was in respect
to these matters that I was to be compelled to pass through a
"severe ordeal." The ground finally assumed by those who made
the movement effectual — that of my instructions in regard to the
West India Trade negotiation — was probably not then dreamed of
by any one, certainly not by the Senators represented by the Tele-
graph. That was the result of different councils — the device of an-
other brain. The former did not at any time (it is fair to infer from
the published discussions) adopt it. [John] Holmes, of Maine,
then a reckless inebriate, altho' I am happy to add that his habits
were subsequently amended, was at that time prepared to shoulder
the load of an attempt to sustain their charges against me, but in
the end, as has been seen, he shrank, ingloriously from his own
resolutions. Senator Hayne, from South Carolina, who may well
be looked to as the index of their views, does not even allude to
any other matter as a ground for my rejection than those which I
have stated as included in the notice given in the Telegraph. Of
the miserable generalities in which he avowed his belief (upon
which belief he acted) and which I never read until recently, I
have only to say that there was not a particle of truth in a single
one of the inferences and surmises on which he based his action,
so far as they were assumed to impeach my conduct, — thus stamped,
one and all of them, by Mr. Calhoun himself by the honorable
course he pursued when better informed.

Neither Mr. Clay, inclined by his nature to higher flights in the
pursuit of his game, nor Mr. Webster, too sagacious to permit him-
self to be drawn before the Country with no better defence of his
course than could be found in those sources, were content with
the grounds of justification suggested by the Telegraph. The latter
therefore, as will be seen hereafter, as soon as he had made up his
mind to incur the proposed responsibility, set his evil genius, al-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 0* MARTIK VAN BtTREN. 621

ways prompt and active in the work of injuring a democrat, to de-
vise a foundation which might elevate the action of the Senate and
give more 6clat to its decision.

°This, under its promptings, he undertook to construct out of
my instructions to Mr. Mc Lane. The history of that and of all
previous negotiations in relation to the subject, tho' spread over a
long series of years, may be given in a few words. Its adjustment
was the object of some six or seven negotiations between the two
governments, and of accumulated retaliatory legislation. Many of
the most prominent statesmen of both Countries — for instance Can-
ning and Huskisson, for England, and Rush, Gallatin, Adams and
Clay, on our side, had taken prominent parts in it; Mr. Adams as
Secretary and again as President, and Mr. Clay as Secretary of
State under him. In 1825 the British Parliament established bv
law the terms upon which alone other Countries should be allowed
to trade with her West Indian and other enumerated Colonies.
These they publicly offered to all nations who should accept of them
within a given time. The British Government subsequently issued
an Order in Council which averred that the United States had not
in all things conformed to the conditions but still tendered the trade
in question to them provided they did so conform by a named day ;
if not then embraced, this Country to be excluded from it. The
vexations attendant upon the protracted negotiations had unfortu-
nately exhausted the patience of some of the gentlemen engaged in
them ; they had allowed their amor proprii to take offence and their
feelings to become soured, a weakness to which public men of all
Countries are occasionally subject. Thro9 some such cause our Gov-
ernment, with its eyes open to the consequences, suffered the time
to expire within which they were to comply with the English Act
of Parliament and Order in Council, and a total interdict of the
trade to take effect against the United States. Becoming satisfied
that he had committed an error, perhaps that he had given too loose
a rein to his feelings, Mr. Adams sent Mr. Gallatin as special Min-
ister to England with instructions, prepared by Mr. Clay under his
directions, containing explanations and excuses, and finally author-
izing the Minister to engage that the United States would yet do
what was required by the Act of Parliament to entitle them to the
trade, and to conclude an arrangement for the disposition of the
whole subject upon that basis.

The British ministry resented (for that is not too strong a term)
what they chose to regard as the contumacy of our Government
in refusing what they had offered, and now in their turn declined,
in express terms, allowing to us, their best and most convenient cus-

• ma. v, p. no.

522 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

tomers, a trade to which they freely admitted all other nations. Mr.
Gallatin was then instructed to bring the subject again before the
British Government and to renew our application to be admitted
to the trade under the Act of Parliament, and as an inducement
to that Government he was authorized to accompany his applica-
tion with a concession never before offered, to wit : " that the Presi-
dent acquiesced in the decision taken by the British Government
that the Colonial trade shall be regulated by law" — that being a
point we had before contested, preferring negotiation. His appli-
cation was a second time unceremoniously refused and he returned
from his fruitless mission. Not content with this Governor Bar-
bour was instructed to renew Mr. Gallatin's proposition and it was
again refused. Then followed diplomatic fulminations on our part
and finally a recommendation to Congress from President Adams,
in his Annual Message, to put an end to the trade by Act of Con-
gress, reciprocating the British interdict.1 In respect to this Act,
altho' not ranked among the friends of the Administration I sup-
ported, as has been seen, the President's recommendation upon
grounds which have also been seen in part. This took place in 1827,
and from that time until the coming in of Gen. Jackson's Admin-
istration, the trade was lost to both Countries because their respec-
tive ministers altho' agreed as to the terms upon which it should
be established, could not be brought to act together in carrying
that agreement into effect. The first step taken after the election
of President Jackson was the passage of an Act by Congress, framed
upon the principles contained in the instructions from Mr. Clay
to Mr. Gallatin under the previous Administration, setting forth
specifically the termfe upon which we were willing to open our ports
to carry on the trade in question — which terms were those offered
by the British Act of Parliament before referred to and the ac-
ceptance of which had been omitted on our part. The Act of Con-
gress provided that whenever the President was satified that the
Government of Great Britain was willing to extend the trade to
us upon those terms he should be authorized to put an end to our
interdict by a Proclamation to that effect Of that Congress the
Senators from New England, who figured so largely in the denun-
ciations of what was subsequently done, were members and to that
Act they gave their assent — nay they were desirous of its passage
as their immediate constituents were the largest sufferers from the
interdict. The duty of conducting a negotiation to obtain the con-
sent of Great Britain contemplated by the Act not only devolved
upon the President under the Constitution but he was expressly

1 The act to regulate the trade between the United States and the colonies of Great
Britain failed of passage Mar. 3, 1827, but a subsequent act for the same purpose, amend-
ing the acts of 1818, 1820 and 1823, wuh passed and approved May 20, 1830.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIK VAN BUREN. 523

requested to institute one by Congress. President Jackson appointed
a new Minister to that Court, Mr. McLane, and sent him out under
instructions thro' which he hoped to satisfy the Government of
Great Britain that it was neither just nor expedient in her longer
to persist in denying to the United States commercial privileges
which she freely offered and extended to all the world. The desired
application was made and it was granted upon the conditions^speci-
fied in the preparatory Act of Congress, passed May 29th, 1830,
which conditions, it has been seen, had received the concurrence
of all parties in Congress.

The news of Mr. McLane's success reached the United States dur-
ing the session of Congress, the President's Proclamation issued in
October and a new Order in Council in November, 1830 — revoking
the interdict and conceding the trade to the United States. The
trade was secured to our Eastern brethren and to all our people,
to the various extent of their interest in it; the propositions which
had been tendered to the previous Administration and declined,
which the latter had then urgently offered to accept and been thrice
repulsed, were now carried into effect by Great Britain and in con-
formity in all respects with the Act of Congress which had been
passed by common consent to pave the way for a renewal of the
trade and to regulate the terms upon which such renewal should
be asked.

Well might President Jackson expect that he would receive thanks
instead of denunciations especially from the representatives of our
Eastern people. But his reward and the reward of at least one of
those by whom he had been assisted was of a very different charac-
ter. The session of Congress continued for three months following
but nothing was then said upon the subject. The agreement for the
restoration had it is true, been entered into between the two gov-
ernments, but it had not been executed. To that end, farther official
acts were necessary ; on the part of this Government, the proclama-
tion of President Jackson to revoke our interdict, and a new Order
in Council on the part of Great Britain to annul theirs. There was
still room for "a slip between the cup and the lip," and it would not
have comported with the well known sagacity of the "down Easters"
to raise a hue and cry against a measure of the Government by which
they were to be the greatest gainers, before its establishment had been
placed beyond the reach of contingencies. At the commencement
of the next Session of Congress these steps had been taken, by both
Governments and everything had been done to show that the trade
in question upon the required terms was entirely safe, and not liable
to be endangered by agitation. The administration was besides gain-
ing a degree of credit for its success which its opponents desired to

524 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

arrest, and what was worse than all, at least a share, perhaps a con-
siderable share, of that credit might be awarded to the Secretary
of State whom they believed to be the General's designated successor.

The coast being at length cleared of danger to the interests of their
constituents, these very representatives entered the field to disparage
if possible the administration of President Jackson, and to destroy
the jjplitical prospects of a hated aspirant by a desperate onslaught
on the measure itself, and on all who had aided in securing it, save
only the Minister who had gladly accepted and zealously sustained
the negotiation with a full knowledge of the instructions under
which he had acted, and, as will be seen, with0 more than that

The Senators from Massachusetts, Webster and Sprague,1 and
Holmes, of Maine, came forward as the champions for the fight.
They charged that the trade was worth nothing, and that the char-
acter of the country had been degraded by the instructions under
which the Minister had acted. The support of the former imputa-
tion was committed to Holmes and Sprague, — Webster at the proper
time, assumed that of the latter. The two Houses were scarcely
organised before Holmes offered his resolution of enquiry,2 preceded
by a speech of condemnation, and, after occupying the attention of
the Senate, off and on, with incoherent and reckless invectives against
the President and the late Secretary of State until he exhausted its
patience, then dropt the subject without pressing or even having de-
signed to press a vote. Senator Sprague, the erring descendent of an
honored democratic stock, though scarcely less bitter, was less gross
and made a clumsy, laborious and certainly most inconclusive speech
upon some proposition he had introduced in relation to the arrange-
ment that had been effected, the object of which was to show that
the trade was of no value. He, like his co-ad ju tor Holmes, occupied
the time of the Senate for Several days, and then, like him, quitted
the subject. Webster made no formal speech either on Holmes' or
Sprague's propositions, but briefly signified his full concurrence in
their views.3 He persisted in treating the arrangement for securing
the trade in the same way on several subsequent occasions, always
seemingly intent upon finding an excuse for his course in respect to
my nomination through impeachments of the negotiation. To show
the partisan and purely factious character of these proceedings it is
only necessary to say that this valuable trade has been carried on by
this country for nearly thirty years under that arrangement; and, as
I know from competent sources, without assential alterations, and

• MS. V, p. 55.

1 Peleg Sprague, Senator from Maine, not Massachusetts.
'Dec. 20, 1881.

'These speeches are reported In Congressional Debates, vol. VTTI, pt. 1, pp. 19, 24, 685,
700, 710, 711, 740, 766 and 980.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 525

that Mr. Webster, though twice Secretary of State since that period,
has never even made an attempt to improve it

A straight-forward man who had no sinister object to accomplish,
but who thought he saw in the instructions under which the West
India trade had been concluded features which would render it
improper for him to vote for the confirmation of the nomination of
their author for another office, would have suspended his interfer-
ence until the question came before him officially, and would then
have stated his reasons with manly candour and, having done so,
would have founded upon them the act which, when he did perform
it, he professed to be a painful duty. More especially would he
have done so when that author was a member of the same honorable
profession with himself, one who had been associated with him in
the performance of professional duties of high importance, who
had been a member with him of the same dignified body in which
he was to perform that unwelcome duty, who was absent in a for-
eign land when the information of the step he felt himself con-
strained to take would reach him, in the presence of distinguished
men from all parts of the world, and who was withal a gentleman
whom his heart must aquit of having ever, in their long acquaint-
ance and extensive intercourse in various capacities, treated him
with incivility or unkindness of any description. But a course so
decorous, so becoming to our past relations and so well calculated
to soothe feeling which might be excited by his official action was
not to Mr. Webster's taste. A noiseless, unostentatious performance
of his painful duties, confined to the closed-door sessions of the
Senate, — the usual course on such occasions, — was not "the enter-
tainment" to which he invited himself. He desired, that his grati-
fication might be complete, to arouse the public interest and curiosity
in respect to the sacrifice he was about to make and, to this end,
he seized the occasion of a debate upon the resolution of his friend
and coadjutor, Holmes, in a few significant remarks, to fore-
shadow it and to summon the attention of his followers. Having
made this demonstration he forthwith, before the debate would ap-
pear in the regular course, prepared an article for the National
Intelligencer giving a sketch of what he had said. I say he pre-
pared it, because what he in that sketch is supposed to have said
is evidently not taken from the notes of their reporter which will
be found in the volume. The article, as it appeared in the Intelli-
gencer, is in the following words :

The British Negotiation. — In the course of some Incidental debate in the
Senate on Mr. Holmes'* resolution proposing to call upon the executive for cer-
tain further Information concerning the West India trade, Mr. Webster made

526 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

remarks to the following effect, the bearing of which Induce* us to state It,
though the rest of the debate does not appear :

From the close of the late war down to a very recent period, it has been
the object of the several administrations to secure a reciprocity not only to
the navigation, but to the commerce, the traffic In commodities of this country
with England. Since the recent period alluded to, that purpose has been
abandoned, and an arrangement has been completed, in conformity with in-
structions given by the government here to the Minister at the court of St
James given, Sir, in terms and in a temper which may very properly become
the subject of public examination and comment here; I say, Sir, of public
examination and comment.

This was immediately transferred to Niles' Register, published in
the adjoining city, where, to guard against its not being under-
stood, it received the following prefatory interpretation : * * *

Mr. Van Buren. It has been extensively believed that certain parts of the
instructions to Mr. McLrine, on his mission to England, by Mr. Van Buren,
while Secretary of State, would become a subject of pointed discussion In the
Senate of the United States, which we now clearly understand will take place
from the following significant paragraph In the National Intelligencer of
yesterday.1

From the Register it went the rounds of the opposition press, and
thus was the country, in a few days, forewarned of the great public
debate that was in due time to come off in the Senate of the United
States upon the character of my instructions to Mr. McLane, my
nomination as Minister to England being then before that body
for confirmation.

Now if anything were necessary, beyond the character and habits
of this Senator in such affairs and the circumstances by which the
transaction was surrounded to indicate the true source and nature of
this clap-trap annunciation, and to show that the objection to the
instructions thus ostentatiously heralded to the Country was a hollow
pretence, it would, I should think, in the estimation of all ingenuous
minds, be found in the fact that these instructions had been volun-
tarily communicated ° to Congress, published and laid upon the tables
of the members for their information and for such consideration as
they might think the subject required on the 3rd of January, 1881 —
within one week of a year before this notice in respect to them was
paraded before the public — that Congress remained in session three
months after they were so laid before it, that they were published
in many of the public papers, (in Niles' Register I know,* and in the
National Intelligencer, I believe), and that neither in Congress nor
in the public prints, nor, as far as I know or believe, anywhere
else was a single word said about this degradation of our national
character, so loudly and, I may well say, so audaciously put forth,

1 Nlles' Register, Dec 24, 1831, 41, p. 297.

• MS. V, p. 60.

• Jan. 15, 22 and 29, 1831, 39, pp. 363-68, 369-80, 390-96.

•„

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 527

until I had been nominated as Minister to England and when it was
found expedient to set them up as a pretense for a predetermined
rejection of my nomination.

No steps were indeed taken by Congress in respect to the arrange-
ment, but it was because none were necessary. The President issued
his proclamation on the express understanding that the arrangement
was in precise conformity to the intention of Congress, as that was
set forth in the Act of the month of May preceding. He approved
of the arrangement because it was so, and because the fegotiation
had been fairly conducted and upon principles consistent with the
honor and best interests of the Country. To enable Congress to
judge for itself whether or not all this was so he, without solicitation,
sent in all the papers necessary to the formation of its judgment and,
' at the head of them, these very instructions. If the arrangement was
deficient upon either point it was its duty to say so, and to arrest its
execution, as it was, in various ways in its power to do; but above
all if it was, in the judgment of the members of the National Legis-
lature or in the judgment of any portion of them, obtained through
disreputable concessions or explanations or representations, by which
the honor of the Country was tarnished, it was their bounden duty
so to declare at the threshold and to call upon the President to pro-
ceed no farther in its execution. It was not allowable by any rule
of right or decency, that a body of men, such as these ought to have
been, and as the great portion of them were, should accept the wages
of their Country's degradation one year, and the next to promote
other ends, should raise this false clamor against the transaction of
which they had thus availed themselves.

What was the President to do ? His predecessor had, for the time
being, lost a great interest to the country, through the wiles of
diplomacy, by backing and filling in his positions in respect to it.
Those who had elevated him to power had charged this very delin-
quency, among others, upon him and laboured for his removal ; they
had succeeded, and put another in his place to redress their rights in
this and other respects — the Congress that was elected with the new
President asked him to seek the restoration of this trade upon the
terms which the administration they had turned out had, tho' agree-
ing to them, lost by their remissness.

How was Andrew Jackson, the frank old soldier, to approach
the British Ministry with such an application? Was he to speak
to them with a double tongue, was he to mince his words, and, as
diplomatists often do, talk much without saying anything, or was
he to speak to them as he did? — to say, with the discussions and
altercations that took place between you and my predecessors I
desire to have as little to do as possible; we have had our differ-

528 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

ences about them among ourselves — it is sufficient for you that the
claim set up by them was by themselves withdrawn, and is not re-
vived by me; you have a right to refuse what we ask if you think
it against your interest to concede it, but you have no moral right
to refuse us privileges which you grant to other nations, and none
at all to ground such refusal on past differences between you and
my predecessors and I admonish you, therefore, respectfully but
firmly, of the effect which such a course is calculated to exert upon
the feeling and dispositions of the people of the United States.
That was, in substance, what he said, and it was the only language
he could consent to use. It is the language which all nations sim-
ilarly situated employ. It is the only way in which Countries in-
juriously affected by the quarrels of diplomatists can hope to rectify
their errors. It is the straight forward honest way. An instance
of a similar recourse is described in a letter from Mr. [Edward]
Everett, our Minister to England, to Mr. Webster himself, whilst
Secretary of State, as follows :

Mb. Bybrbtt to Mb. Wbbstbb.

Legation of the United Statbs,

London, December 28th, 18}1.
I received on the 23rd instant a note from Lord Aberdeen, on the African
seizures, in reply to one addressed to him by Mr. Stevenson,1 in the last hours
of his residence in London, and which, as it appears, did not reach Lord Aber-
deen's hands till Mr. Stevenson had left London. As some time must elapse
before I could give a detailed answer to this communication, I thought it best
at once to acknowledge its receipt, to express my satisfaction at its dispassionate
tone, and to announce the purpose of replying to it at some future period. The
President, I think, will be struck with the marked change in the tone of the
present ministry, as manifested in this note and a former one addressed by
Lord Aberdeen to Mr. Stevenson, contrasted with the last communication from
Ix>rd Palmerston on the same subject The difference is particularly apparent
in Lord Aberdeen's letter to me of the 20th Inst Not only is the claim of
Great Britain relative to the right of detaining suspicious vessels stated In a
far less exceptionable manner than it had been done by Lord Palmerston, but
Lord Aberdeen expressly declines being responsible for the language used by his
predecessor. * ♦ *

A question had been long under discussion between the English
Government and that of the United States, a very important ques-
tion which might any day disturb the peace of the two countries,
involving the right of search, recently so satisfactorily disposed oh
Lord Palmerston, Minister of foreign affairs in the administration
of Lord Melbourne, had claimed that right in his correspondence
with Mr. Stevenson. Under a change of Ministry, in both coun-
tries, that correspondence was continued, and Lord Aberdeen, occu-
pied the same position under the administration of Sir Robert

1 Andrew Stevenson.

■— -1

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 529

Peel, "when," we are told, "a great change had occurred in the
tone of the English Ministry." Lord Aberdeen had, in the language
of Mr. Everett, " not only stated the claim of Great Britain rela-
tive to the right of detaining suspicious vessels in a far less ex-
ceptionable manner than that in which it had been asserted by Lord
Palmerston, but expressly declined being responsible for the lan-
guage used by hds predecessor." In our case there had been ex-
citing differences in regard to the claim0 at one time set up by
President Jackson's predecessor upon the subject in dispute; this
claim, though subsequently withdrawn, had with its attendant cir-
cumstances, broken off the negotiation. President Jackson not re-
viving the claim that had been set up and waived by Mr. Adams,
and being himself the selected exponent of different views on the
part of those for whom he acted, refused in the negotiation he in-
stituted, to be held responsible for what had been done by his pred-
ecessor. Where is the difference between the two cases? None can
be shown. It is not to be doubted that the diplomatic archives of
every nation are full of similar proceedings.

Mr. Webster saw nothing extraordinary in the conduct of Lord
Aberdeen, nor would the instructions to Mr. McLane have ever
been regarded in a different light if their author, subsequently to
their being laid before Congress, had not been nominated Minister
to England.

These remarks have already been extended far beyond what was at
first intended, but I trust feeling minds will excuse me for such a result
when they reflect how deeply a review of such scenes must excite
one upon whose character and public career they were intended to
exert a fatal effect. A few more observations and the subject will be
dismissed.

There was one feature in those transactions never heretofore
known to the public which, though it neither made the instructions
better or worse, nor is entitled to weight in reviewing the decision
of the Senate, because that body did not know of it, may perhaps
be deemed to possess sufficient interest to justify a brief notice. Mr.
McLane was not directed but permitted, in his discretion, to present
to the British Ministry the views of the subject, to which objections
have been made. This was done upon his own suggestion. I re-
quested him, as soon as he was appointed, to obtain for me statistical
information from practical men engaged in the trade and, at the
same time, informed him that if he was enabled by the acquaintance
he had made with the subject whilst in Congress, where it was often
discussed, to make any suggestions in regard to his instructions which

* MS. v, p. 65.
127483°— vol 2—20 84

530 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

he thought might be useful, they would be received with pleasure.
He obtained the information I desired and in the letter communi-
cating it he made suggestions of the character I have named, the
most prominent of which was the following :

Now it seems to me clear, that after the concessions already made by this
government, and in the situation in which the late Administration has left
this subject, we are precluded from opening the negotiations upon any basis,
assumed prior to 1826; and that the only object left is to acquire a participa-
tion in this trade according to the terms and to the extent proposed by the
British* act of 1825. The probability of obtaining this must depend upon
the temper and interest of the British Government; upon their domestic
condition, the state of affairs in Europe, and the effect of their Colonial policy
upon their own Islands. And these are obviously to be used according to cir-
cumstances not now to be clearly foreseen. * * *

I incline to the opinion, therefore, that the best mode of reviving the nego-
tiation on, this point will be delicately, but with candour and firmness to
gradually disconnect the present Administration of the American Government
from the errors and pretensions of the past ; to disconnect the past from the
interests and temper of the American People; to show that the policy pursued
bj the late executive was in opposition to the great mass of the American
People, who, having applied the only constitutional corrective In this country,
have selected an Administration with better views, and a different policy;
that the present appeal to the liberality and justice of Great Britain, being
on behalf of the People, that Government will find its interest in this con-
cession, in encouraging this effort, in availing itself of this crisis, to subdue
inveterate prejudices, and, by a reasonably conciliating temper, lay the founda-
tion of future harmony In our relations, and of just reciprocity in our trade.

If these considerations fail, especially If judiciously pressed, as occasion
may warrant, in connection with the details of the whole subject, I see no
other course open ♦ * * This Government will have performed its duty,
and will be well sustained by the people.1

This suggestion was carried out by the instruction in the fol-
lowing words:

If the omission of this Government to accept of the terms proposed, when
heretofore offered, be urged as an objection to their adoption now, it will be
your duty to make the British Government sensible of the injustice and inexpe-
diency of such a course.

The opportunities which you have derived from a participation in our public
councils, as well as other sources of information, will enable you to speak with
confidence (as far as you may deem it proper and useful so to do) of the respec-
tive parts taken by those to whom the administration of this Government is now
committed, in relation to the course heretofore pursued upon the subject of the
colonial trade. Their views upon that point have been submitted to the people
of the United States; and the counsels by which your conduct is now directed
are the result of the judgment expressed by the only earthly tribunal to which
the late administration was amenable for its acts. It should be sufficient that
the claims set up by them, and which caused the Interruption of the trade in
question have been explicitly abandoned by those who first asserted them, and
are not revived by their successors. If Great Britain deems it adverse to her
Interests to allow us to participate in the trade with her colonies, and finds

1 McLane to Van Buren, June 11, 1820, In the Van Buren Papers.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 581

nothing in the extension of it to others to induce her to apply the same rale to
us, she will, we hope, be sensible of the propriety of placing her refusal on those
grounds. To set up the acts of the late administration as the cause of forfeiture
of privileges which would otherwise be extended to the people of the United
States, would, under existing circumstances, be unjust in Itself and could not fail
to excite their deepest sensibility. The tone of feeling which a course so unwise
and untenable is calculated to produce would doubtless be greatly aggravated by
the consciousness that Great Britain has, by order in Council, opened her colonial
ports to Russia and France, notwithstanding a similar omission on their part to
accept the terms offered by the act of July, 1825.

You cannot press this view of the subject too earnestly upon the consideration
of the British Ministry. It has bearings and relations that reach beyond the
immediate question under discussion.1

It is due to the Senate to say that they were ignorant of this
circumstance when they unanimously confirmed the nomination of
Mr. McLane for the office of Secretary of the Treasury. They only
knew that he had undertaken the duties assigned to him and had
entered upon their performance with a full knowledge of the in-
ductions which they condemned me for writing. But it is also
due to truth to say that they would not, in all probability, have
acted differently if their information had embraced the fact I
mention. The motives that prevailed in the vote for my rejection,
motives which had in reality nothing to do with the instructions,
did not reach Mr. McLane, and if they had, his nomination for the
place of Secretary would still have been confirmed. The great lever
by which the action of the party in opposition to President Jack-
son's administration was moved as well as the fundamental element
of their strength, was the power of the Bank of the United States.
They were then, several years in advance of the expiration of its
charter, about to pass a Bill for its extension; against the passage
of that bill they expected the President's Veto^ and the measure and
the veto were designed to be the great issues upon which the Presi-
dential election, which was to be held before the close of that year,
was to be contested. Among Mr. McLane's first acts, after entering
upon the duties of the office of Secretary of the Treasury, which
was long before the Senate acted upon his nomination, was the
transmission to the Senate of his official report upon the finances, in
which he discussed at length and with great formality, the question
as to the expediency of rechartering the existing Bank of the United
States, and earnestly recommended its recharter — a measure of
which the President was known to disapprove, and against the con-
summation of which, he intended to interpose and did interpose his
veto. The party opposed to General Jackson's Administration, and
which possessed so many votes in the Senate, might; under such

1 1nstructions to McLean, July 20, 1829. The part quoted Is printed in Nlles* Register,
39, p. 367. Van Buren's autograph notes of the instructions are In the Van Buren Papers.

582 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

circumstances, as well have laid down their arms as to have re-
jected Mr. McLane's nomination after the reception by Congress
and publication of that document. They could not do so with safety
to their own interests and they would not have desired to do so if
they could.

But the course pursued against me by those who governed the
action of the Senate, harsh and vindictive as it must be admitted
to have been, was marked by a feature, in the manner of carrying
out their design, especially offensive to the moral sense of the com-
munity. I allude to the arrangement previously entered into be-
tween them that the vote of the body should be made a tie and the
final question consequently be decided by the casting vote of the
Vice President, so that each section of the opposition, — the Clayites,
Calhounites, and the remnant of old federalists who acted with
Webster — should each bear their full proportion of responsibility
for the act. The extent to which the gratification of the more
highly excited feelings of Mr. Calhoun and his friends entered
° into the inducements for its commission, and the smallness, as
well in weight as number, of their force on the floor of the Senate,
gave, it must be admitted, considerable plausibility to the arrange-
ment— regarding the whole proceeding as a question of political
loss and £ain, a consideration distinctly avowed in the Telegraph
note and never for a moment lost sight of by Mr. Webster. Of
the fact that such a stipulation was exacted and enforced there is
no room for doubt The Globe charged it distinctly at the time
and I am informed by those in whom I have full confidence, and
who were in the way of knowing, that neither the Senators them-
selves nor their supporters ever affected to deny the arrangement.
Mr. F. P. Blair, in this month of April, 1859, though now acting
politically with the followers of Clay and Webster and having no
relations with me other than those of personal friendship and re-
ciprocal respect, writes me upon the subject as follows, "I remem-
ber well that it (the arrangement to make the tie) was so thor-
oughly understood on all sides in the Senate as to be common talk," x
and assigns many grounds for his statement which I da not think
it worth while to repeat here. The existence of such an agreement
moreover follows irresistibly from the manner in which the vote
was given and the tie produced. Never was there perhaps a severer
scrutiny or a more active drill of any public body, or one made
under more skillful trainers, or an occasion on which more mem-
bers, in proportion to the -number of those engaged, were notoriously
to vote against their inclinations.

» April 25, 1859, la tfae Van Bum Papers.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 583

■

When the vote was taken Prentiss of Vermont and Bibb of Ken-
tucky were the only Senators absent Prentiss was an upright and
fair minded man but an earnest old federalist, and therefore some-
what prejudiced against me, but as was well understood, he dis-
liked the work cut out for the Senate. Still, if he had been pres-
ent, he would have, in all probability voted against the nomination ;
at all events, he would have given timely notice of what he intended
to do. But being really an invalid to an extent which soon car-
ried him to his grave, he kept his bed. *

Bibb, whose vote either way would have defeated the arrange-
ment, was a sort of Jackson-Clay-Calhoun Democrat, who aimed
at remaining upon friendly terms with all three; a difficult posi-
tion, but one which he succeeded in occupying as to the two latter
gentlemen. Although in fact decidedly hostile to me, either from
the promptings of his own heart, or made so thro' the influence
of others, my friends had been led to expect his support on this
occasion. The illness of Mr. Prentiss afforded him an opportunity
to oblige his friends by his absence and at the same time to avoid
a rupture with General Jackson, thro' whose influence he had been
elected to the Senate. He was in the Capitol when the vote was
taken; he claims to have been in the Supreme Court Room. Mr.
Blair informed me, on my return, that he was in the library ; the
only difference being that the latter was on the same floor with
and the former directly under the Senate Chamber. His absence
was beyond doubt intentional and the reason for it is seen in the
arrangement of which I am speaking. Col. Benton, who was a
member of the Senate and present at this time, treats the fact
that the two successive ties were intentional, and a fulfillment of
the requirement of the other leaders that Mr. Calhoun's vote should
appear on the record, was established. He mentions also that Mr.
Calhoun said to a Senator, in his hearing and speaking of me : " It
would kill him, Sir ! kill him dead ! He will never kick, Sir ! never
kick!" A striking counterpart of the original article in the Tefo-
graph, already quoted.1 Such contrivances are never thought of
by public men in the dignified discharge of public duties, and in
the performance of actions of whose merits they are conscious. In-
stead of seeking to lessen individual responsibility by dividing it
with others each is desirous of being foremost in the good work.
The manner in which this affair was gotten up and pushed through,
on the contrary, implied an acknowledgment that the act was felt
to be an unjustifiable one by the actors themselves. For the ac-
complishment of their object they entered, I will not say into a con-
spiracy, for the act was not an illegal one, but into a combination

* 8ee pp. 512-018.

584 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

to put down a political opponent by means which involved much
of the criminality and all of the immorality of a conspiracy.

The whole proceeding was one with which such men as Clay
and Calhoun ought never to have been connected. They doubtless
regarded the matter in that light as soon as the phrensy into which
they had been thrown by President Jackson's unexpected success
in the administration of public affairs, had abated and commenced
the work of atonement, as soon, perhaps, as circumstances would
admit of. Mr. Calhoun, as has been seen, before the whole country
made the amende, honorable by extending the hand of friendship
to me, by supporting my administration to its close and by causing
the vote of his State to be thrown in favour of my reelection.

The relative political positions of Mr. Clay and myself were such,
that a similar course was not open to him. But from the period
of which I am now writing to the day of his death, as far as I
know or have reason to believe, he invariably spoke of my personal
character and conduct with respect and kindness. When I travelled
through the southern and western States, in 1842, he sent to several
points pressing invitations to me to visit Ashland which I accepted,
spending a very agreeable week in his family circle. He subse-
quently at my request came to Lindenwald. I invited his political
friends within my reach to call upon him at my house, which they
did in great numbers — he passed several days with me most pleas-
antly and sociably; we talked over old scenes without reserve, my
sons escorted him to Albany and I went with him though suffering
from gout, as far as the railroad station, where we parted never
to see each other again.

After he had re-established friendly relations with his early and
devoted friends, Francis P. Blair and his very intelligent and es-
timable wife, he frequently and in the warmest terms, expressed
to the former the personal ° respect and regard he entertained for
me, referred to this very matter of the rejection of my nomination
and, whilst avowing the sincerity of the views he then took of it,
still earnestly expressed his regret that the affair had ever occurred.
Mr. Blair communicated these observations to me and I recipro-
cated the feelings they manifested with all my heart. Col. Benton
was then writing his Thirty Years An the Senate and he sent me
occasionally the sheets of the first volume; among them those con-
taining his account of Mr. Clay's conduct in the election of Mr.
Adams, which had been so violently assailed, and also of the duel
with Randolph. Pleased with the liberality evinced by the Colonel
towards a personal and political enemy, I expressed my satisfaction
in a complimentary letter to him, and convinced that Mr. Clay would

• MS. v, p. 75.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 535

be no less gratified than surprised by being made aware of the
favourable views which one whom he ranked among his bitterest
foes intended to publish of points upon which his sensibilities had
been, perhaps, more deeply excited than in respect to any other
occurrences in his public life, I sent the substance of them to Mr.
Blair, with a request that he should embrace some suitable occasion,
(it was during Mr. Clay's last illness) to communicate them. He
did so and informed me of the manner in which the communication
was received. The circumstances under which it was made were
interesting and striking.

Mr. Blair having received my letter and having taken it with him
for the purpose of imparting its contents, Mr. Clay introduced the
subject of the book the Colonel was preparing, and said he presumed
„ it would be filled with aggravated displays of the violent passions the
author had exhibited in his political course. These remarks gave
Mr. Blair an admirable opportunity to execute his commission, and
I need not say how well he availed himself of it. Mr. Clay was
deeply moved, thanked us both, and said the information he had
received should, for the short period he had yet to live, be permitted
to exert the influence to which it was so well entitled* over what
he might have to say of Colonel Benton. I will add that my letter
to the Colonel expressive of my sense of the credit to which this
part of his work entitled him was read by him several years after
Mr. Clay's death, during his canvass for the House of Representa-
tives, in portions of his district where Mr. Clay's friends were very
numerous, without giving the name of the writer, and through it
he secured many votes, and probably -his election. Farther com-
munication passed between Mr. Clay and myself through our mutual
friend, Mr. Blair, down to within a few days of his death.1

Mr. Webster's sensibilities were never, I presume, very deeply
distressed by the consciousness of the injustice he had done to a
political opponent. He did indeed, as will hereafter be seen, ex--
hibit some sense of shame upon the subject of his course towards
me on my return from England, and subsequently took a step in
the direction pointed out by better and juster feelings which he
failed to follow up having been prevented, I fear, by one of those
discreditable entanglements by which his entire political career
was beset Seeing the improved relations that had sprung up be-
tween Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun and myself he seemed to think
a similar amelioration in the character of his personal intercourse
with me desirable. In this state of mind he called upon me whilst
we were both in New York, evinced great cordiality and expressed
a strong desire that I should revisit Boston. I told him that my

1 Van Buren again records this occurrence near the end of Chapter XLIV.

536 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

friend, Mr. Paulding, and myself were meditating a visit to Com-
modore Jack Nicholson who was then in command of the Boston
Navy-yard and to whom we were both warmly attached, and I
promised to appraise him of our arrival. He insisted that I should
not give myself that trouble as he would be certain to know of my
being in the City and would immediately find where I was and call
upon me. We went to Boston, spent a week there, dined with sev-
eral of his friends; our visit was noticed in the papers; we heard
several times of Mr. Webster being in the city, but saw toothing
of him. I was not a little puzzled by his conduct, canvassed its
probable cause with Paulding, and, confident that he would be
found to have had a shrewd motive for his non-appearance, I was
prepared also I feel bound to say, to find it one of a sinister char-
acter. The mystery was speedily solved. Soon after my return
home, whilst fishing in a pond a mile or two from my house, my
friend, Mr. B. F. Butler and his wife drove near the bank where
I was sitting and called me to their carriage. As I approached I
observed that they were both much excited and I had no sooner
reached them than Mrs. Butler asked me whether I had seen Mac-
kenzie's book? On receiving my reply in the negative, they pro-
posed that I should go with them to my house which I did, and
on our way they informed me briefly that that somewhat notorious
person had published a book made up of private and confidential
letters to Jesse Hoyt, from myself and from some hundred of my
political and personal friends, in which number they themselves
were prominently introduced.1 The circumstances of the case were
in substance these. I removed Hoyt from the office of Collector
of New York for reasons to be hereafter spoken of and appointed
Mr. John J. Morgan in his place. The latter held the office a few
years, when he was removed by President Harrison, who appointed
the late Edward Curtis Esq., a gentleman whom Mr. Clay was in
the habit of describing as " Webster's man, Curtis."

In forming the opinion conveyed by this expression Mr. Clay made
a great mistake. If I had been asked to select an individual whom I
deemed best adapted to the management of a political intrigue,
vflhich was not out of the reach of a man in his position, I would have
named Edward Curtis, and I need not say that among the qualifica-
tions of such an agent I would have deemed it indispensable that
[he] should not have been anybody's man. Mr. Webster did not
controul Curtis's action one jot or tittle farther than he thought it
for his interest to permit him to do so, but if I did not err egregiously
in respect to the character of the relations that existed between them

*McKenzie published The Lives and Opinions of BenJ'n Franklin Butler, and Jesse
'oyt in 1845 and The Life and Times of Martin Van Buren, In 1846. The latter con-
ned practically the same letters and correspondence as the 1845 publication.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 587

he exerted a personal influence over Mr. Webster in respect to most
things but rarely if ever equalled between gentlemen in their relative
positions. Curtis possessed a facility of making himself thoroughly
acquainted with the character and disposition of those with whom
he had been or was desirous to be brought in contact and in devising
the ways by which they could be influenced, with degrees of gentle-
ness-and perseverance in their application, which there was nothing
in the nature and disposition of Mr. Webster to enable him to with-
stand. Of the ends to which that influence was exerted and the
objects that were accomplished by it I do not design to speak. But if
the reader desires a practical illustration of Mr. Curtis's skill in the
management of intricate and difficult affairs I recommend him to a
careful perusal of the papers in the celebrated Gardner fraud upon
the Government and particularly to Mr. Curtis's correspondence with
the officer who had that matter in charge, without attempting to ex-
plain or reconcile the results of his interference, the first of which
was that he pocketed $40,000 of the money gained by the fraud, but
how applied God only knows, but I doubt not generously, but with-
held from the Government to the last ; and the second that he appears
on the record from an early period, certainly full as soon as there was
the slightest reason in any quarter to apprehend an ultimate blow up,
as an active and discreet adviser of the officer of the Government,
doing apparently what he could to guard the Government against
loss and put them in the best way to aid them in the performance of
their duties, fairly entitling himself to be regarded as a disinterested
and active friend to the public interest.

Retaining an indistinct recollection of the contents of a, letter
from Mr. Weed of Albany, an exceedingly competent judge of the
character of Curtis, addressed to General Peter B. Porter, as the
personal friend of Mr. Clay, designed to remove his opposition to
the appointment of Mr. Curtis, in which the view I here take of
Curtis's character and the character of his relations with Mr. Web-
ster were sustained, I have referred to Mr. Clay's "Private Cor-
respondence" and have extracted from [there] what follows:1

I met him for the last time but a short period before his death,
in Broadway in New York. The marks of approaching dissolution
were stamped upon his countenance and I do myself but justice
in saying that I was much affected by his appearance. I had not
seen him for several years; he was evidently happy to have met

me, and evinced so plainly a desire to prolong the interview by

- ■ ■ «■ — ■ - ■ -.-.. _ . — —

1 Van Buren'd intention of using these extracts was not carried out. The letter re-
ferred to will be found on p. 448 of The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, edited
by Calvin Colton (N. Y., 1856)^ and Is a letter from Porter to Clay, dated Jan. 28, 1841,
respecting Weed's letter on the* contemplated appointment of Curtis as Collector of Cus-
toms at New York, In which Porter discusses Curtis' characteristics and political
manoenvera.

538 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

changing his course and accompanying me a short distance [the]
way I was going asjto induce me to walk up and down the street
with him for a short time. The ease and apparent sincerity of his
manner, as well as the prudent advice he gave me in respect to a
matter of business I brought to his notice, were so much in har-
mony with the opinion I had always entertained of his great good
sense [that they] constituted the subject of my reflections for some
time, during which I could not help felicitating myself that I could
succeed as far as I felt that I had in subduing my prejudice against
a man whom I always thought had through means certainly not
unexceptional made his exertions for my defeat in 1840 more effec-
tive than any other individual in his situation and whom I suspected
of having designed me much harm in the transaction to which I
am about to refer but on whom the hand of death was now so visible.

After this brief notice of a truly remarkable man I proceed with
my account of the transaction I purpose to relate.

William L. McKenzie, of Canadian memory, was arrested, tried,
and condemned for a violation of our neutrality laws in 1839, the
period of the Canada disturbances, and was sentenced to imprison-
ment for eighteen months. He applied to me to pardon him and
his application was earnestly sustained by a large number of my
political friends as well as by others, residents of Northern New
York, Ohio, Vermont and other States. There being no pretense
that he was innocent of the charge and having reason to apprehend
that his pardon would obstruct pending negotiations between us
and Great Britain, I refused to interfere in the matter until after
he had been in confinement for nearly two thirds of the time for
which he was sentenced, when I remitted the residue of the term.
He entertained a high opinion of his own political importance and
was rendered very implacable by the course I had felt it my duty
to take in the matter and in various ways announced his intention
to seek revenge. I heard no more of him until I learned that the
new collector, Mr. Curtis, had given him a place in the Custom
* House. There he singularly enough soon "found materials which
he and his employers thought were sufficient to cause great annoy-
ance to my friends and myself. ° Collector Hoyt who had been an
active politician and busy correspondent had left in an upper room
of the Custom House an old trunk containing his private letters
and notes — the accumulations of many years — some of them cer-
tainly of a free, thoughtless and indiscreet, though few, if any,
of a very culpable character. This trunk was discovered by or
pointed out to McKenzie and rifled of its contents which were pub-
lished by him in pamphlet form.1 To prevent the suspicion that the

° MS. v, p. sa

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 539

new Collector had connived at the transaction the book (for the
letters made a sizable volume) though printed in New York, as was
ascertained from an examination and comparison of the [make-up]
was published at Boston, and was ready to be put in circulation at
the time of my visit to that city, although not issued until after my
departure. Of these procedings, at least from the time the pamph-
let was sent to Boston, Mr. Webster was, beyond all doubt, fully
informed. Among the letters were several written by myself and
some of them of a confidential character, and he probably thought
that the attentions he had designed to show me, if coincident with
a publication of confidential letters of a political and personal bear-
ing which was expected seriously to annoy and injure me, would
be both awkward and impolitic. We never met again. That this
was the explanation of his otherwise unaccountable conduct I have
never for a moment doubted.

The pitiful enterprise after all turned out very differently from
what was anticipated. My letters had been thrown before the pub-
lic without careful consideration of the effect they might produce,
and under the impression, natural to the sort of persons who would
be concerned in such a transaction, that because they were private
they must be unworthy. The general sentiment elicited by their
publication, on the part of both my political opponents and friends,
was that I could well have afforded to defray the expenses of bring-
ing out in such a form, my portion of the correspondence.

But the subject of the rejection of my nomination has spun itself
out to a far greater length than will I fear be deemed excusable.
Still I cannot dismiss it without a word of acknowledgment of the
fearlessness, promptitude and warm eloquence with which my per-
sonal character and official conduct were defended in the Senate by
friends; especially is this acknowledgment due to the memory of my
lamented friend Forsyth — from whose speech on the occasion, I make
the following extract, the encomiastic tone of which, altho' he was
one of those noblemen who would not flatter the gods for their
powers, is certainly raised far above my deserts or pretensions by the
chivalric zeal of the speaker in the cause of an absent friend, but
upon which I may be pardoned for placing the highest value because
it grapples boldly with a charge perhaps more fanatically urged
against me than against any other public man in the country — of
course in my estimation without any justice — I mean the vague
imputation of a capacity and a disposition for political intrigue.

But this Mission to England was not sought by Mr. .Van Buren ; his friends
know that it was pressed on him by the President; and that it was reluctantly
accepted at the earnest solicitations of friends who were satisfied it would pro-
mote his own reputation, and redound to the honor and welfare of the nation.

540 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

I will not follow, further, the Senator's lead. Long known to me as a politician
and as a man, acting together in the hour of political adversity, when we had
lost all but our honor — a witness of his movements when elevated to power,
and in the possession of the confidence of the Chief Magistrate, and of the great
majority of the people, I have never witnessed aught In Mr. Van Buren which
requires concealment, palliation, or coloring — never anything to lessen his
character as a patriot and as a man — nothing which he might not desire to
see exposed to the scrutiny of every member of this body with the calm confi-
dence of unsullied integrity. He is called an artful man — a giant of artifice — a
wily magician. From whom does he receive these opprobrious names? From
open enemies and pretended friends. In the midst of all the charges that have
been brought against him, in shapes more varying than those of Proteus, and
thick as the autumnal leaves that strew the vale of Vallambrosa, where is the
false friend or malignant enemy that has fixed upon him one dishonorable or
degrading act? If innocent of artifice, If governed by a high sense of honor,
and regulating his conduct by elevated principles, this is not wonderful, but if
the result of skill, of the ars celare artem, he most be more cunning than the
devil himself to have thus avoided the snares of enemies and the treachery
of pretended friends.

It is not possible, Sir, that he should have escaped, had he been otherwise
than pure. Those ignorant of his unrivalled knowledge of human character, his
power of penetrating into the designs and defeating the purposes of his ad-
versaries, seeing his rapid advance to public honors and popular confidence,
Impute to art what is a natural result of those simple causes. Extraordinary
talent, untiring industry,* incessant vigilance, the happiest temper, which
success cannot corrupt nor disappointment sour; these are the sources of his
unexampled success, the magic arts — the artifices of intrigue, to which only he
has resorted in his eventful life. Those who envy his success may learn wis-
dom from his example.1

1 Tn the debate in Executive session, Jan. 24-25, 1832. Register of Debates, 8, pt 1,
1347.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

When I left for England in August 1831, Mr. Calhoun had just
committed himself, in a long and laboured expose, to the doctrine
'of nullification and his political friends were striving, might and
main, to work the south in general, and South Carolina in particular,
into a condition sufficiently phrenzied to induce a resort to such a
remedy for the redress of undoubted and in my judgment flagrant
grievances. When I returned in July, 1832, at the close of the first
session of the Congress, I found a bill for the relief of those griev-
ances under discussion and on the point of being decided. They
had succeeded by active and persevering agitation in creating great
excitement in South Carolina on the subject, and they had, as it
seemed to me, more from policy than from any expectation of re-
dress, deferred the commission of overt acts until another session of
Congress should have intervened. Gen. Jackson expressed a wish
that I would do*what I could with my friends in Congress to pro-
mote a satisfactory adjustment of the matter, and I entered upon
this pleasing duty with a hearty good will. But the prospects of
success were far from flattering. The subjects of the Tariff for the
South and of the Bank Veto, momentarily expected, for the North
and East, were the most important resources on which the oppo-
sition relied to win the great game they were playing for the govern-
ment. If the question of the Tariff could be satisfactorily disposed
of, General Jackson, in addition to being greatly strengthened in
all the southern states, might reasonably count on carrying his native
state — South Carolina. Without such a result, that, at least, was
certainly lost to him, whether it fell to Mr. Clay, pr not. When so
much depended upon the passage at the last session of Congress be-
fore the Presidential election, the policy of the opposition would be
certain to defeat it. °The South Carolina gentlemen had, besides,
been carrying proceedings with so high a hand and were so much
flushed by the degree of success already attained that they could
not, as they thought, afford to be satisfied by anything short of a
measure which should carry upon its front the stamp of triumph.
They were therefore in a condition which required that the great

• MS. V, p. 85.

541

542 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

body of their people should be satisfied, if satisfied at all, against
the will of their leaders.

The Bill passed1 but did not produce the slightest political effect
other than to embolden the would-be nullifiers. The majority in
South Carolina refused to give their support to Mr. Clay, the whig
candidate for the Presidency (an act of principle for which they
were afterwards held to a strict accountability in the hour of their
utmost need) but they were nevertheless not a whit behind the whigs
in their anxiety for the defeat of President Jackson. The agitation
of the preceding year, with nullification more distinctly depicted in
the foreground, was renewed with fresh vigour in all the south from
the day of the adjournment of Congress to the period when the re-
sult of the Presidential election was known, but still without any
overt acts. After the election had been held and the reelection of
the President was ascertained the convention of South Carolina,
previously chosen, assembled; all farther hesitation was laid aside,
and the measures of that body were as bold and unqualified as the
movements of the majority in the state had before been guarded and
circumspect. A large committee composed of the most distinguished
members of the body was appointed on the first day, and to them
was referred the obnoxious act of Congress, and a consideration of
the remedy. That committee reported on the following morning an
ordinance declaring void the Tariff law, and. making it the duty of
the Legislature to pass all necessary laws to prevent its execution
in the State of South Carolina. This ordinance was considered and
adopted on the same day, and the Legislature being in session forth-
with passed a voluminous act the provisions of which, if carried into
effect, would have completely superseded 'the power of the Federal
Government in the state of South Carolina quoad the law in ques-
tion; and for carrying them into effect they pledged the civil and
military power of the state. It was not in the power of language
or state action to put the authorities of the General Government
more absolutely at defiance than was thus done by this heretofore
devoted and always gallant member of the confederacy. Viewed
in connection with the danger that the disaffection, as yet substan-
tially confined to South Carolina, might be diffused into the other
southern states similarly situated in respect to the Tariff and the
consequent necessity of exerting the military power of the Federal
Government for its suppression, it must be admitted that a more
alarming crisis in the affairs of this country had never existed since
the establishment of her independence.

Fortunately — most fortunately for the welfare of the whole coun-
try, South Carolina inclusive, and for the safety of the Federal

tjuly 14, 1832, An act to alter and amend the several acts imposing duties and im-
ports.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 543

Government, the best we could ever hope to see established, we had
at this perilous moment a man at the head of that Government
who was in all respects equal to .the exigencies of the occasion. The
integrity of his motives, his proverbial readiness to assume every
necessary responsibility, his intelligence, judgment, activity and
firmness, confessed by foes no less than by friends, his possession
of the full confidence and affections of a vast majority of the
people of the XT. States, as had been recently demonstrated by the
support they had given him in the face of an opposition violent and
embittered beyond anything before that period known to partisan
warfare, constituted his ample and rare qualifications for the duties
before him. He was besides, in times of peculiar difficulty and dan-
ger, calm and equable in his carriage and always master of his pas-
sions; with the fullest opportunities to judge of him in the latter
respect, as connected with the discharge of civil duties, I have ever
felt and said that I have not known his equal. Those who will take
the trouble to read his letters to me during the whole of the critical
period to which I refer will see the qualities I have attributed to
him strikingly displayed. He seemed always prepared to go Jx>
the full extent of his duties, but never faster nor farther than was
indispensable to the efficacy of his acts and the necessities of the
public service. No man ever lived with less disposition to swagger
and if he sometimes denounced a harsh purpose against the guilty his
motives and aim were invariably consistent with the merciful im-
pulse which was native to his heart. No step requiring the active
interposition of the Federal arm was known at Washington, at the
opening of Congress on the 4th of December, 1832, to have been
taken by South Carolina. The subject was therefore merely noticed
in the President's Message, in a proper spirit but with appropriate
reserve. But almost immediately thereafter the news arrived of the
passage of the ordinance and on the 11th of December, President
Jackson issued his proclamation which was a long and able docu-
ment reasoning out the whole subject before the people; a course
to which he was always partial and made so by the great extent
of his confidence in their sagacity and good sense. That document
was followed by the prompt dispatch of portions of the military
of the U. States to Charleston under specific instructions. The
opposition, taking it for granted that these instructions were of a
violent and indiscreet character, called for their transmission to
Congress. Although a compliance with such a call might justly have
been declined as inconsistent with the public interest, the instruc-
tions were forthwith and without reserve laid before that body
and proved to be such as they ought to be and in all respects suit-

544 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

able to the character of a firm but prudent Chief Magistrate. The
disappointment visited upon both branches of the opposition by
this disclosure was very great and it would -have been well if they
had profited by the occasion to make themselves better acquainted
with the character of the man they had to de&l with.

The powers of the President under the existing law having been
exhausted a special message was sent to Congress containing another
full view of the whole subject with specific recommendations in
favour of the grant to the executive of additional power and au-
thority, the exercise of which had become unavoidable in conse-
quence of the stand taken by South Carolina in the passage of the
ordinance and in the means her legislature had provided for carry-
ing it into effect. This message was sent in on the 16th of Jan-
uary, the earliest allowable moment, but still leaving little more
than six weeks before the expiration of that Congress under the
Constitution. The time allowed to mature the measures of the
Government and what was, if practicable, of still greater impor-
tance for the passage of some measure of relief by which the
necessity of a resort to military force might be superseded, was
therefore extremely short. The celebrated Force Bill was, not in-
appropriately, introduced by a Pennsylvania Senator1. It was at
least strong enough for the occasion, and drew forth a debate which
threatened to be interminable and, in the meantime, the House of
Representatives were kept tinkering upon Mr. Verplank's* bill for
the modification of the Tariff. The President, having exerted all
the power with which he was clothed and having ° asked from the
proper department what was further wanted, maintained the even
tenor of his way undismayed and undisturbed by the clamorous
abuse of factions which, whilst they differed toto coelo upon the
abstract question of nullification, rivalled each other in heaping,
under various pretences, opprobrium upon the venerable patriot at
the head of the government, whose whole soul was enlisted in the
public cause. He had at this time, it must be admitted, one feeling
which approached to a passion and that was an inclination to go
himself with a sufficient force, which he felt assured he could raise
in Virginia and Tennessee, as "a posse comitatus" of the Marshal
and arrest Messrs. Calhoun, Hayne, Hamilton and McDuffie in 'the
midst of the force of 12,000 men which the Legislature of South
Carolina had authorized to be raised and deliver them to the
Judicial power of the United States to be dealt with according to
law. The reader will find this project more thaA once stated in
his letters to me written cwrrente calamo. But notwithstanding
• MS. v, p. oo.

1 Senate bill No. 82, 22d Cong. 2d Sess., a bill to further provide for the collection
of duties on imports. It was Introduced by Senator William Wilkins, Jan. 21, 1838,
passed and approved by the President Mar. 2.

■Gullan C. Verplanck.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 545

what is there said the attempt would never have been made save
in case of the very highest necessity and would then have been
executed with as much scrupulousness and clemency as would have
been consistent with its certain accomplishment

Whilst the course of events at Washington was as favourable as
could be expected under such novel and trying circumstances the
President became involved in additional embarrassments from
sources which were for the most part friendly. It has from the
commencement of the present federal government been a debatable
point whether the Constitution under which it was formed had
been framed and established by the people of the United States in
their aggregate capacity as one people, or by them as citizens of
different and preexisting States acting as the people of the several
states and under state authority. The result claimed to follow the
establishment of the one or the other construction, was, that the
recognition of the first would serve to increase the importance and
to swell the power of the Federal Government and proportionably
to depress those of the State Governments, and so vice versa. The
old federal party was, from the beginning the zealous advocate of
the first position and the republicans of the latter. But on the
present occasion there was no necessity or justifiable motive for
mingling that question with the agitation of that of nullification,
of itself sufiiciently disturbing.

The President's proclamation, it is not to be denied, favoured the
federal idea, not so unequivocally as was pretended, but sufficiently
to give cause of great uneasiness in quarters entitled to respect, and
in which there was much anxiety that he should do what was neces-
sary to prevent the mistake into which he had been led, without
wrong intentions on the part of any one, from being in future relied
upon as a precedent. The fact was that the whole of his new Cabinet,
though an able and patriotic body of men, had, with the single excep-
tion of the Postmaster General, Major Barry, a very modest and
unobtrusive man, received their first political instruction in the fed-
eral school. So I have always understood and still believe the fact
to have been. Although I placed full confidence in those gentlemen,
having had no inconsiderable hand in the construction of the Cabinet
with every reason to believe that no member of it would have been
selected against my remonstrance — a deference that would neither
have been asked nor extended out of any personal feelings of my
own, but sprang from a thorough conviction that I would have been
quite certain not to have made exceptions to any of them if I had
not been able to satisfy the President that they were well founded. I
was yet never free from apprehension that difficulties might arise
from that source and did what I could in so delicate a matter to put
the President upon his guard. In my letter to him from London

127483°— vol 2—20 86

646 AMERICAN HISTORICAL' ASSOCIATION.

under date of the 11th of October, 1881 will be found these sen-
tences:

One word more npon the subject of the Message. Yon have taken your
ground npon the basis of a strict construction of the Constitution and it is the
only true and saving ground. A great proportion of your Cabinet, although in
other respects quite the thing, are not altogether in that sentiment, and. with-
out much care on your part, doctrines may be suggested and adopted ("oh! my
prophetic soul ! ") which would expose you to the charge of inconsistencies. I
am led to this observation by understanding from the Captain of the Packet
that our good friend McLane intended to recommend a provision authorizing
advances to destitute Americans In foreign countries to enable them to return
home. Now, although this is justifiable in the case of distressed seamen, under
the power to regulate commerce, and to provide for a navy, I know of no
authority in the Federal Government to extend that provision to our citizens at
large.1

The Cabinet doubtless participated largely in the construction of
the 'message and it was proper that they should do so, and the Presi-
dent had other more pressing and more practical questions on his
mind than speculative disquisitions upon the construction of the gov-
ernment [Constitution]. That the nullifiers should with avidity
seize upon those points of the proclamation which were at variance
with the orthodox states'-rights creed was to be expected. It was
the only ground of argument upon which they could sustain them-
selves and was in their hands a powerful lever with which to move
large portions of the republican party who were inaccessible to their
appeals in favour of nullification. But that those of the whig party
who thought the crisis a perilous one, who saw, as they could not but
see, that the very safety of the Government depended upon the Pres-
ident's being sustained, should seize upon this defect in his proclama-
tion (for such in reality it was) to fan discord between him and the
great body of his republican friends who were as much opposed as
themselves to nullification, could not with reason have been antici-
pated. If ever there was an occasion on which the reckless and
unscrupulous spirit of political partizanship should have succumbed
to the extreme necessities of the public service, — have foregone its
own temporary and unworthy advantage for the sake of the perma-
nent interest of the Country — that seemed to be one of such a char-
acter. But the leading whigs, liearty anti-nullifiers as they were
and anxious for the overthrow of the principle, could not sufiiciently
master their partizan feelings to view their duty in its true light.
Instead of taking no notice of the alleged discrepancy between the
President's professed principles and those set forth in the proclama-
tion they, as a general rule, did all they could to blazon it forth, and
to thrust it in the faces of his alarmed state-rights friends. The first
great meeting called out by the proclamation was held at Boston ;

1 Iii the Van Buren Papers.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 547

Col. Perkins1 offered the resolutions and Harrison Gray Otis and
Daniel Webster were the leading orators. That there should be no
room for misunderstanding their design to make political capital
out of that document they set forth the federal creed upon the point
referred to almost totidem verbis and greeted the President's recog-
nition of it with a sinister, all hail !

John Randolph's resentment at the moment against President
Jackson prompted him to seize upon the Boston proceedings with
his characteristic sagacity and bitterness and especially upon the
circumstance that the highly respectable and worthy gentleman
who had been selected to offer the resolutions and the elder of the
leading speakers — a not less estimable man — had been delegates,
on behalf of Massachusetts, to the Hartford Convention, and to
found upon these proceedings and circumstances the charge ex-
hibited in his famous Charlotte County resolutions. No man ° under-
stood better than he the mortification and pain he inflicted upon
the true men of Virginia, whom he could not induce to abandon
Jackson, when he proclaimed, in his peculiarly graphic language,
that the latter "had disavowed the principles to which he owed
his elevation to the Chief Magistracy of the Government of the
United States and transferred his real friends and supporters,
bound hand and foot, to his and their bitterest enemies, the ultra
federalists, ultra tariffites, ultra internal improvement and Hart-
ford Convention men — the habitual scoffers at State-rights, and
to their instrument, the venal and prostituted press, by which they
have endeavoured, and but too successfully, to influence and mislead
public opinion."

The Union meeting in the city of New York, at which the im-
posing names of James Kent and Peter A. Jay were associated with
that of their prominent political opponents Walter Bowne, Saul
Alley, Abraham Bloodgood and Eldad Holmes, presented a grati-
fying contrast with the sinister proceedings at Boston. But the
truly patriotic spirit of the resolutions they passed was not, I am
sorry to say, imitated by the whigs of Albany or by those from
other parts of the state who were members of the Legislature which
assembled a few days thereafter. I resided in that city and was en-
gaged to dine with my excellent friend Judge Vanderoel* on the
day the proclamation was received. A copy was brought in to
us a short time before dinner was announced and, painfully anxious
about its contents, I detained the company some minutes to enable
me to complete the reading of it to myself before we sat down to
the table. The objectionable passages presented themselves strongly

'Tboma* H. Peridot, • MS. V, p. 95. 'Aaron VanderpoeL

548 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

to my mind at the instant and the Judge, reading my feelings in
my countenance, asked me, with the impatience that belonged to
his nature, whether there was anything wrong in it. — to which, as
his company were of various politics, I made an evasive reply. As
soon as the dinner was concluded he took me aside and pressed
me with increased earnestness for an explanation. I then stated
to him without reserve my apprehensions of the extent to which
a document, upon the success of which so much depended, would
in all probability be weakened by its unnecessary assertion of doc-
trines regarded by the republican faith as political heresies.

Although the descendant of a tory ancestry and reared in the
federal school, and until a short time before that day, one of my
ablest, most persevering and most decided opponents, the Judge had
embraced our cause with ardour and sincerity and adhered to it
through the rest of his life. His clear and vigorous intellect was
not slow in apprehending and appreciating the ground of my fears.
The following extract from a letter written to me by Mr. McLane,
then Secretary of the Treasury, a few days after the special mes-
sage which produced the Force Bill was sent in and a few weeks
after the Proclamation, will show how well my opinions in respect
to the latter document were appreciated by the Cabinet at Washing-
ton:

What think yon of the Message? Your silence speaks your thoughts of the
Proclamation. Ton too, I suppose, cursed my old federalism an hundred times
and laid all the sins at that door.1

Judge Vanderpoel and myself were invited to dine with Judge
Woodworth the next day, where we met Judge Spencer who had
long before returned to the ranks of the party in which his political
career was commenced and who, notwithstanding his already ad-
vanced age, was as violent in his partisan feelings and as earnest and
sincere in his convictions as he had always been under whatever flag
he fought, for his whole political career was an unceasing battle. It
was not long before he broke out, with his usual vehemence, in prais-
ing the President's proclamation — addressing himself to me across
the table. Having had a long and varied intercourse with Judge
Spencer, sometimes as friends and at other times as opponents, which
has already been largely spoken of in this memoir, I was not at a loss
for the turn it would be most expedient to give to the discussion he
was obviously determined to provoke. I therefore said to him, in
substance, and at once, that the proclamation was tin admirable
paper, — in all respects, save one ; well calculated to promote the im-
portant object its author had in view, and that it afforded me much
satisfaction to find him so zealous in its support; the exception to

1 McLane to Van Buren, Jan. 23, 1888. In the Van Buren Papers.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 549

which I alluded, I said, consisted of some speculations in which the
paper indulged, as I thought, unnecessarily, respecting the origin
and construction of the federal government, in regard to which I
thought erroneous grounds had been taken, but, as the recommenda-
tions it contained were well warranted, whether all its theories were
sound or unsound, I trusted that gentlemen like him and myself who
were equally solicitous for the success of the government in the im-
portant matter in which it was engaged, would feel also our duty to
avoid weakening its arm by invoking discussion of an abstract point
and I referred with approbation to the excellent example which had
been set in this regard by his friends, Chancellor Kent, Mr. Jay and
their associates of New York. The Judge was evidently not a lit-
tle nettled as well as embarrassed by the unexpected views I had
expressed. He knew very well that I would not assent to the por-
tion of the doctrines of the proclamation referred to and he had
hoped to precipitate an argument upon the point which could not
under the circumstances be otherwise than unpleasant to me but
which he perceived could not then be brought about His whole
demeanour, as well as that of several of his friends at the table, gave
me a foretaste of what we might expect at the meeting of the legis-
lature during the ensuing week. I foresaw from the moment the
proclamation appeared that it would be seized upon by the whigs
to divide the President and myself, who had just been elected on the
same ticket, and to force upon our political friends in the legislature
a discussion in which it would become the duty of the republican
members to impeach the political orthodoxy of an important state
paper whose author they had supported and continued to support.

Among the first propositions, aiming to produce this complica-
tion, was a resolution offered by Senator Seward,1 declarative of the
sense of the State Senate that " the President of the United States,
in his late proclamation had advanced the true principles upon
which only the constitution can be maintained and defended.9' This
resolution was regarded as insiduous upon its face and therefore
indefinitely postponed by a vote of 19 to ft— all the supporters of
General Jackson's administration voting for the postponement ex-
cept three who were converts from the federal party, — a significant
sign of the origin of the objectionable clause in the proclamation.
Anticipating kindred movements in the House of Assembly, I ad-
vised our friends to raise a joint committee of both Houses, to whom
might be referred all similar propositions, and whose duty it should
be to report the sense of the legislature upon the whole subject. This
was done and Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, then a recent convert from
the Clintonian party, was placed at its head. I prepared the r
port and resolutions which were presented to the two Houses

" WiJiiam H. Seward.

550 AMEBICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

the joint committee. ' The report gave a full view of the origin and
history of the question which had been raised upon the proclama-
tion and disposed of it in the following words:

° The history given by the President of the formation of our government
has drawn forth conflicting opinions in respect to its accuracy ; and lest the
committee might be regarded as haying omitted any portion of their duties,
they will, upon this subject, also, with deference to the views of others,
briefly, but frankly, state their own.

The character of our government, so far as that is affected by the manner
In which the Federal Constitution was framed and adopted* has been always
a matter of more or less contention. Differences of opinion upon the subject
have been in some degree fostered by a seeming discrepancy between the
preamble of the Constitution and historical facts; and perhaps in a still
greater degree by the different senses In which the term "States*9 is used
by different persona If we use that term, not merely as denoting particular
sections of territory, nor as referring to the particular governments, estab-
lished and organized by the political societies within each, but as referring
to the people composing those political societies, in their highest sovereign
capacity (as the committee think that in this respect the term should be
used) It Is incontrovertible that the states must be regarded as parties to
the compact For It is well established, that, in that sense, the Constitution
was submitted to the states; that, In that sense, the states ratified it This
is the explanation which is given of the matter In the report of the Virginia
legislature, which has already received the sanction of the committee. It is
in this sense of the term "States" that they form the constituency from
which the Federal Constitution emanated, and It is by the States, acting,
either by their Legislatures, or In Conventions, that any valid alterations of
the Instrument can alone be made. It is by so understanding the subject that
the preamble is reconciled with facts, and that it is a Constitution established
by "the people of the United States," not as one consolidated body, but as
numbers of separate and independent communities, each acting for itself,
without regard to their comparative numbers. It was in this form that
the Constitution of the United States was established by the people of the
different states, with the same solemnity that the Constitution of the
respective States were established; and, as the committee have heretofore
insisted, with the same binding force in respect to the powers which were
intended to be delegated to the Federal Government The effects which are
likely to be produced by the adoption of either of the different versions of
the Constitution contended for, it Is not the Intention of the committee to
discuss. The positive provisions and restrictions of that instrument could not
be directly abrogated by the recognition of either.

The comparative weight and influence which would be attached to the
allegations and remonstrances of the States, in respect to supposed infrac-
tions of the compact, might, however, be very different, whether they are
regarded as sovereign parties of the compact, acting upon their reserved
rights, or, as forming only indiscriminate portions of the great .body of the
people of the United States; thus giving a preponderance to mere numbers,
Incompatible with the frame and design of the Federal Constitution. The
diversities of opinion which have arisen upon this subject have been more
or less injurious, according to their influence In inclining or disinclining
the minds of those who entertain them, to a faithful observance of the land-
marks of authority between the respective governments, Professions are

• MS. V, pw 100.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 651

•
easily made, and the beet evidence of a correct appreciation of the nature
and design of the system by a public agent is to be found In the general
bearing of his official acta If his conduct be characterised by a desire to
administer the government upon the principles which his constituents have
elected, and by a determination to repudiate the dangerous heresy that the
Constitution is to be Interpreted, not by the well understood intentions of
tfiose who framed and of those who adopted it, but by what can be made
out of its words by ingenious interpretation; if he honestly believes that the
people are the safest depositary of power, and acts up to that belief, by evincing
an unwillingness to exercise authority which was not intended to be granted,
and which the States and the people might not, on open application, be
willing to grant; if he has steadily opposed the adoption of all schemes,
however magnificent and captivating, which are not warranted by the Con-
stitution— which, from the inequality of their benefits and burthens, are cal-
culated to sow discord where there should be union, and which are too fre-
quently the offspring of that love of personal authority and aggrandizement
which men In power find It so difficult to resist; if he has done all in his
power to arrest the increase of monopolies, under all circumstances so ad-
verse to public liberty, and the equal interests of the community; if bis
official career has been distinguished by unceasing assiduity to promote
economy in the public expenditures, to relieve the people from all unneces-
sary burthens, and generally to preserve our republican system in that sim-
plicity and purity which were intended for it — under which It has hitherto
been so successful, by which It can alone be maintained, and on account of
which it has, until this moment, stood in such enviable and glorious con-
trast with the corrupt systems of the old world; if such be the traces of his
official course, and if in maintaining it he shall have Impressed all mankind
with the conviction that he regards- as nothing, consequences which are merely
personal to himself, when they come in contact with duty to his country, the
people of the United* States will not doubt his attachment to the true prin-
ciples of that Constitution which he has so faithfully administered and so
nobly supported. Such the committee take pride in saying has been the
official course of our present Chief Magistrate, a course by which, in the
estimation of the people of this State, he has established for himself im-
perishable claims to their gratitude, respect and confidence.

The committee have thus explained their views upon the several delicate and
deeply interesting questions before them, with the frankness which becomes
the solemn occasion on which they act, and which should always characterise
the movements of a sovereign State upon matters involving her relations with
her sister States. In .doing so they have felt It to be their duty to vindicate
aLd explain the political principles which are entertained by themselves, and,
as they believe, by a majority of the good people of this State. In the perform-
ance of this act of Justice and duty, they have endeavored to avoid all impu-
tations upon the motives of those who may differ from them. The same
Independence and toleration whfch they claim for themselves they are disposed
to extend to others. Amidst the conflict of Interests and feelings with which
those who are charged with the conduct of public affairs at this interesting
crisis are obliged to struggle, there is happily one opinion which has not
yet met with a dissenting voice In all the land ; and which it Is fervently hoped
is too deeply implanted In the minds and hearts of the people to be ever eradi-
cated. It is a thorough conviction, that anarchy, degradation, and interminable
distress will be, must be, the unavoidable results of a dissolution of the union
of these States. Associated with this undeniable and undenled truth, and grow-
ing out of it, there are, we trust, two other sentiments of equal universality—'

552 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

determination to maintain the union at all hazards, and a willingness to make
liberal concessions, nay sacrifices, for the preservation of peace and reciprocal
good will among its members. Upon this great conservative platform all sin-
cere friends of the Union, all who honor and truly respect the parting admoni-
tion of the Father of his Country, all who prefer that country to their own
ambitious views of personal aggrandizement, and who are disposed to give to
the Executive of the United States a cordial and efficient support, can meet
and act in concert to promote the greatest of all earthly objects. Here all
may earn the enduring respect and confidence of the people, by an honorable
sacrifice of personal and party feellngB on the altar of their country's safety.
We may differ as to the time, the manner, or to the extent of the measures
to be employed, whether of conciliation or coercion. It cannot be expected at
the present crisis, that honest and unprejudiced minds should all happen
to arrive at the same conclusion; but such differences should not occasion
heart burnings, much less resentments. Our fathers differed in like manner
in the establishment of our Government, and it is in vain for us to hope for
exemption from similar embarrassments. The causes which produced them
have not yet ceased to operate ; they have been planted by the hand of nature,
and cannot be entirely removed by that of man. Those, to whose valor and
disinterested patriotism we are Indebted for this glorious system under which
we have so long and so happily lived, overcame them by mutual concession
and compromise. If every man looks only to his own interest, or every State
to its own favorite policy, and insists upon them, this Union cannot be pre-
served. We must not deceive ourselves upon this point, or suffer others to
deceive us. Our errors, in this respect, may lead to consequences which can
never be recalled, and over which we and our posterity may have occasion
to shed bitter tears of repentance: we must take higher counsel than that
which is derived from our pockets or our passions: we must be Just, and, if
need be, generous ; and the deep and overpowering attachment of the great
mass of the people to the Union, the fidelity, energy and fortitude of their
character, directed by the illustrious man so providentially at the head of the
Government, will carry us safely through the dangers which threaten our
beloved country.

The Report was unqualifiedly against the nullification doctrine —
recommended a reduction of the tariff and the observance by the
Federal Government of a spirit of concession and forbearance as
long as practicable and was accompanied with resolutions for carry-
ing these views into effect. After many efforts to stave off or qualify
the expression of the sense of the Senate that body concurred in the
general conclusions of the Committee by a vote of 23 to 6, and on the
specific resolution in favor of conciliation by a vote of 28 to 1. aThe
following were among the numerous comments upon the Report
made by the press:

From the New'York Evening Post.

This document is drawn up we are happy to say with an ability equal to
the momentous and interesting questions submitted to the committee, and dis-
cusses them in a firm yet conciliatory temper. We need not enter at present in-
to an analysis of a state paper which will be universally read, further than to
say that whilst it protests against the doctrine of nullification as anarchical and

• By the time this vote was taken the Whigs had obtained information of Mr. Clay's
intention to compromise.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 653

denies that secession is a remedy authorized or contemplated by the constitu-
tion, it pronounces the Tariff Bill of the last session an inadequate measure
of redress and expresses a desire that a farther diminution of duties may be
immediately adopted.

From the Albany Argus of 1st February, 1838, Report on Nulli-
fication, State rights &c, &c.

We occupy our columns this morning nearly exclusively with this important
public document upon all the public questions of which it Is a most sound and
able exposition — of the nature of our political compact—- the origin of parties —
the powers respectively of the State and Federal Governments — Nullification,
secession and rebellion — it is the sound republican doctrine of ninety eight —
the creed of the Democracy in the old times and at all times. We have not
time to day to say all of this invaluable state paper which it and the occasion
seem to demand at our hands. We shall recur to It to-morrow. It will take its
place In the political records of the country by the side of the Virginia and
Kentucky Resolutions and with Madison's Report and be read, in the mean-
time, with great and engrossing Interest.

The intention of the Whigs to make political capital out of the
matter was in this way signally defeated.

I enclosed a copy of the entire proceedings to the President and
informed him that I was the author of the report Nothing further
ever passed between us in relation to them, but when I came to
Washington for the Inauguration his private Secretary and nephew,
Major Donelson, told me that he (Donelson) read them by himself
before he submitted my letter with its enclosures to the General ; that
the latter read all the papers very deliberately, placed the letter upon
his files but without saying a word upon the subject; a hint not lost
upon the Secretary. Without doubt, General Jackson saw in the
whole proceeding a realization of the apprehensions I had expressed
to him in my letter from London and in other ways, and was well
satisfied with the judicious way in which the difficulty had been dis-
posed of in the New York Legislature.

The administration and its friends in the existing Congress did
not possess the power to pass Verplank's bill or any bill for the
reduction of the tariff that would be satisfactory to South Carolina.
In truth she was not disposed to be satisfied with any relief that
should come from that quarter. In respect to the whig party they
entertained different dispositions. That party went indeed against
the nullifiers in all strong measures designed to bring them to sub-
mission con amove. Such a course was not only in harmony with
all their political opinions but this opportunity of aiding in sub-
jecting the nullifiers to the power of the Government was made more
gratifying by the feelings with which the course of South Carolina
in refusing to vote for Mr. Clay and in throwing away her suffrage
upon Gen. Floyd had impressed them. But in all other respects
they were associates and co-workers, intent chiefly on the downfall
of the President and his administration.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

It is difficult to imagine a more critical condition than that in
which I found the country involved at the moment of my arrival at
Washington on the 26th of February, 1833. The judgment of all
the States, not even excepting that of her closest neighbour and
twin sister, K Carolina, was that the position which had been as-
sumed by South Carolina was, in the felicitous language of Ran-
dolph both " weak and mischievous." The ? Force Bill " was cer-
tain to become as it did become the law. Having throughout and
earnestly pressed upon Congress the justice and propriety of extri-
cating the State from the otherwise fatal error she had committed,
by a liberal modification of the tariff, President Jackson was pre-
pared to follow wherever it might lead the path which he was al-
ways eager to tread — the straight- forward path of duty. That duty,
in the then posture of affairs, was simply to see to the execution of
the laws, for the enforcement of which he was armed with abundant
powers and, however severe and painful might be this exercise, he
was sure of the approbation of all good men. In such a contest
South Carolina would be unavoidably crushed and yet after the
stand she had taken it was not to be expected that a people so brave
and proud would yield to anything short of relief or overwhelming
force.

Henry Clay was, in the actual state of things, the only man
who had it in his power to extricate them. He was the father
of the so-called American system; his friends every where — at the
north, east and west — had taken open ground against any farther
modification of the tariff and could not be brought to that, the
only step by which civil war could be avoided save at his bidding.
There were then only seven or eight days before the power of
Congress to act in the matter ° would terminate. When Mr. Cal-
houn came to the support of my administration years afterwards,
there arose a bitter feud between him and Mr. Clay in the course
of which the motives by which the latter had been actuated on the
occasion of which we are now speaking were severely canvassed
on the floor of the Senate. Mr. Calhoun insisted that Mr. Clay
was then in his power — that he was "his master"! "He my

0 MS. V, p. 106.
664

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 555

master"! replied Mr. Clay, with indignation, and in his best and
loftiest manner "I would not accept him for my slave." The
knowledge of the precise state of feeling which induced him to
consent to a sufficient modification of the protective system to arrest
further proceedings is most probably buried with Mr. Clay in his
grave. That he capitulated is certain, but it was to a variety of
controlling circumstances and not, I think, to the command Mr.
Calhoun had acquired over his position. The condition of Mr.
Calhoun was a helpless one. The situation into which he had been
chiefly instrumental in bringing his proud state did indeed exert
an influence over the actions of all concerned but it was an influence
very far from that of command. The evils about to be inflicted
on South Carolina on account of her contumacy — the loss of life,
of property and all the sufferings which follow in the train of
hostile military occupation to which her high spirited people were
destined — would be attributed to Mr. Clay's obstinate adherence to
a policy to a very great degree of a selfish character and which
was fast losing ground before sounder and more comprehensive
theories among the communities of the world. This would be one
of the certain results if he refused to yield and it was one upon
which a man of his temperament could not look without the deepest
concern. Apprehensions of prejudice to his popularity arising
from this source, it is fair to presume, were not the only grounds
of hesitation that were presented to his mind. Four Presidential
elections had then already passed away since he commenced the
construction of his hobby — the "American system," — and he was
evidently not so near the Presidency, the great object of his ambi-
tion, as he had appeared to be when he began his work. This
though good cause for reflection was not of itself sufficient to induce
him to abandon his offspring to the derision of his opponents;
sometimes a wise step but one which authors and inventors seldom
have sufficient resolution to take. But he might well regard his
past experience of its little success in turning the public mind in
his favour as at least sufficient to deter him from encountering
new and, in this case, extraordinary responsibilities in its support.
Nothing is now or has ever been clearer to my mind than that the
agency of the tariff question in producing political effects has al-
ways been greatly overrated. To go into the examination of the
reasons for the disappointments on the part of the supporters of
the protective system in their reliance upon that agency would be
foreign to my present objects and I will therefore content myself
with saying that in my county and state, both of which possess
marked facilities for manufacturing establishments, I never, in
the whole course of my long and active partisan experience, knew
an election the result of which I had sufficient reason to believe

556 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

was controlled by the agitation of that subject. This has not been
for the want of busy agitation for there are but few if any of the
States in the confederacy in which the question has constituted a
more prominent point in political discussions. In addition to the
considerations I have referred to, we know, from his own declara-
tions, how largely Mr. Clay was influenced by apprehensions^
founded on the signs of the times, that his system was destined
to a speedy overthrow and by a consequent desire to save from the
wreck as much as might be secured.

Mr. Clay's speech of the 25th of February, 1883, in reply to Mr.
Webster who opposed his compromise bill, is truly an extraordinary
production. The reporters, Gales and Seaton, say it was the only
one of his speeches during that short but most exciting session
which he prepared for the press himself, and it shows clearly the
great pains he bestowed upon it. 1 I cannot but think that though
shorter than many, it is distinguishable from any speech of his
extant for its happy combination of close and strong reasoning—
for which he possessed ample powers altho' he was not often inclined
to exert them — with genuine eloquence which was natural to him
and to which he delighted in giving free scope. The occasion of
its delivery was one of the two on which his feelings were more
deeply enlisted than on any other in the course of his checkered and
eventful life. The first was when he was charged with having been
induced to desert the political party in which he was reared from
boyhood and with the movements of which some of the brightest
features of his political career were indisputably associated, by the
allurements of office, and on that of which we now speak he was
freely charged with abandoning a national policy which he had
been principally instrumental in fostering into existence from in-
ducements of a mixed nature, but none of them, to a proud or able
statesman, free from humiliation. The former attack was of a more
personal character and therefore more exasperating in its effects.
It crossed his path when he was comparatively a young politician
proudly claiming to be animated and governed by a chivalrous and
self sacrificing spirit, and I have elsewhere ventured the opinion
that he treated the grave impeachment at least unskilfully. When
General Jackson's witness, Mr. Buchanan,2 dodged the point, he
should have scouted further inquiry and indignantly turned his
back upon an imputation unsustained by the man to whom his ac-
cuser had himself referred for its origin and support. If he had
done so his subsequent career would have been a happier if not a
more successful one. His present embroilment was less calculated

1 In Register of Debates, Ix, pt lf 729-42. * James Buchanan.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 557

to harass him in his personal feelings and therefore less disqualify-
ing for discreet action on the part of a man of his impulsive dis-
position. It involved principally the wisdom of his views as a states-
man, a matter which could more dispassionately be discussed and
acted upon than one which implied personal dishonor. It occurred
also at a period when he had been long in public life, when his sensi-
bilities had become somewhat blunted, a condition if not very at-
tractive in a leader whom we incline to admire yet not without its
uses to him in the rough and tumble of public life. But whatever
may have occasioned it, of the fact that he bore himself with infi-
nitely better grace and sustained his position more successfully — there
cannot be the slightest doubt. Having always estimated his rhetor-
ical powers highly, especially for the theatre of a popular assembly,
I have seldom failed to read his speeches, and of all delivered by him
since he changed his political position I am inclined to regard this,
every thing considered, as the ablest and the most creditable to his

; heart as well as to his head.

| This speech is my warrant for my interpretation of the motives

by which he was governed. Its entire scope shows his conscious-
ness that the question of pacification or civil war depended upon his
individual action and his keen sensitiveness to the constructions that

i might be put upon that action of the character I have suggested.

"They will accuse us of indifference to the preservation of the
Union, and of being willing to expose the country to the danger °
of Civil War" — was prominent among the consequences which he
held up to the view of Mr. Webster of the inexorable adherence to
the tariff as it stood for which the latter contended. These con-
siderations seemed to fall unheeded on Mr. Webster's breast. His
ultimatum was brief and I had almost said bloody. South Caro-
lina must retrace her steps under the law as it stands, or things
must take their course. The apprehension that Congress will be
understood to have acted under the influence of panic, was, in his
judgment, sufficient to close the door upon the thoughts of concilia-
tion. Mr. Clay had hoped that the crisis was not yet so near at
hand as his opponent seemed willing to believe it to be. He thought
South Carolina would avail herself of the request of Virginia, con-
veyed through Watkins Leigh, to postpone the execution of her ordi-
nance untO the end of the next session of Congress, and that, of
course, the President would stay his hand. But then came the
conclusion, the support of which formed so large a portion of his
very able speech, that by that time the privilege of conciliation, with
the power of modifying the tariff, would have passed from their
hands to those of the President and his friends to swell an authority

* MS. V, p. 110.

558 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

already so formidable and which they were all justly anxious to
restrict. To sustain this position he brought forward arguments
and facts of great strength and applied them with eminent ability.
The perusal and study of his speech will bear out my opinion and
in all respects repay the student

It so happened that I had also contributed somewhat to fortify
his position. Before Mr. Clay brought forward his measure of re-
lief at Washington, I prepared, at Albany, the report of which I
have spoken, of which conciliation and a reduction of duties were
principal features and which received the almost united sanction of
the New York Legislature; and whilst he was exerting himself to
promote the same ends I threw out suggestions, in reply to an invi-
tation to a public dinner, tendered to me by the friends of the Ad-
ministration in Philadelphia, going to justify Mr. Clay's admoni-
tions to his political associates that the relief required by the South
would be extended by the Administration if he and they did not
give it, whilst to do so was yet in their power. He was perhaps
already too full of his subject to be materially benefitted by my
concurring illustrations of his argument, but there had been circum-
stances in my previous course which gave some consequence to what
I said and did upon the subject of the tariff, and these had derived
no inconsiderable additional force from the fact of mv election to
the second office under the Government and from the possibility,
not to say probability of my succession to the first within the short
period of four years. My reply to the Committee of invitation was
prepared with somewhat more care than is usual on such occasions,
with a full knowledge of what was going on at Washington, to
which place I was hastening, and with an anxious desire to make
myself useful in putting an end to the painful and menacing crisis
that existed.

The following is an extract from my letter, which was forthwith
published :

The present condition of our Country is as you justly observe, a peculiar one ;
yet I cannot but think that the dangers which menaced our institutions are
already quietly lessened, and bid fair to be speedily and happily removed. It
is to me most obvious that the difficulties attending a satisfactory adjustment
of the tariff are now reduced to questions of time merely. The repeated and
earnest recommendations of the President to Congress in favor of a reduction
of duties to the revenue standard, by means of a law which shall be certain
in its ultimate effect but yet so gradual in Its operation as to give the greatest
extent of protection to existing establishments that shall be found consistent
with the paramount obligation to relieve the people from all burthens which
are not necessary to the support of Government — recommendations on the
propriety of which he so distinctly placed himself before the American people
at the late Presidential canvass and in which he was triumphantly sustained by
a vast majority of them—seem to be now unembarrassed by any opposition.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BT7REN. 559

and to have become the favorite and universal sentiment. These important
points* established there can surely be nothing in the residue of the subject or
in the details of the bill by which they are to be carried into effect, that, if
acted upon in a proper spirit, may not be overcome without threatening the
public peace or endangering the stability of our Union. Any measure which
shall successfully accomplish the objects proposed, and which shall be of a
character to recommend itself to the moderate men on both sides of the ques-
tion (the only securities we can have for its permanency) will, without doubt,
receive the approbation of the people and restore the different sections of the
Country to those relations of peace, affection and good fellowship which are
indispensable to the prosperity and happiness of each and all. That these
great objects shall not fall for the want of such an arrangement Is so em-
phatically demanded by public sentiment, as to allay all apprehension. Should
the present Congress, unfortunately, be unable to effect it we may count with
confidence upon the speedy and successful efforts of the next. Until this de-
sirable result shall be attained we have a safe guaranty against violence and
discords in the discreet exercise of executive authority, the pervading patriot-
ism of our countrymen and that sacred, inextinguishable love of union which is
the predominant master-feeling in an American bosom.

That Mr. Clay should not, after his long experience, have been
brought to dotibt the efficacy of his American System, at least as an
element of political strength, is scarcely possible, and if his own
advancement had been the sole object of his labors in its support
he could not have furnished a wiser course than to have submitted
quietly to its overthrow by the assaults of his successful adver-
saries. There was no way in which the advantages to the Country,
which he claimed for it if the policy was sustained, might have
been pressed with greater safety or less trouble because all the
mischances and embarrassments of business, from whatever causes
arising, would have been attributed by the manufacturers to that
overthrow. But I cannot now, when the passion and prejudice
of that day have run their course, read this speech without believ-
ing that much of Mr. Clay's original confidence in the soundness
and value of his system — if it could have a fair chance — had sur-
vived his many disappointments. Doubtless the insatiable craving
of the manufacturers, " whose conscience is their maw," and whose
gratitude for benefits received did not at all times bear fruit for
him, must have again and again disgusted the benefactor who had
contributed so liberally of his time and faculties to their advantage,
but we may assume that he regarded these as sacrifices unavoidable
in any great public cause, and I have, as I have said, reviewed these
transactions at this late day with a strong faith in the sincerity
of the assurances of continued confidence in the system which were
drawn from him by the circumstances in which he and it were placed
and which were expressed with so much earnestness and true elo-
quence. Mr. Clay pressed the measure of conciliation of which he
was, on his side, the exclusive author, and which he alone could

560 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

have made successful, to its perfect consummation and thus saved
the Country from a convulsion which impended over it, threatening
to put our entire political system to a severer trial than any to
which it had ever been exposed. In this he was doubtless in no
inconsiderable degree influenced by considerations personal to him-
self, but if we are never to award praise for beneficial actions un-
less they are wholly free from such inducements they must be with-
held altogether, for the race of public men thus immaculate has not
yet arisen in the world. In my opinion he rendered his country,
on that memorable occasion, a service for which he was eminently
entitled to its respect and gratitude. If he failed to receive these
in a full measure the deficiency is to be attributed to political com-
plications in which he had unhappily involved himself and through
which he was made responsible for many political delinquencies not
his own*

His conduct when contrasted with that of his sometime co-parti-
san, but always rival and never unqualified friend, Mr. Webster,
calls for especial praise. If the omission to render a high public
service when0 opportunity offered could ever be excused on the
ground that the act would enure to the present advantage of those
who had been personally hostile to him, Mr. Clay would have had,
in that crisis, much stronger justification than his distinguished
contemporary for folding his arms and suffering things to take their
course — for (to use his own strong language) " even silently gazing
on the raging storm and enjoying its loudest thunders." In his first
great political disaster, the attending circumstances of which had
sunk deep in his heart, he found, or thought he found, his most ac-
tive and implacable enemies, in the ranks of Mr. Calhoun's political
following. He carried the belief thro' life — I do not say with how
much justness — that Mr. Kremer, of Pennsylvania, whose card was
the first promulgation of the charge of a bargain with Mr. Adams,
acted under the advice of Mr. Ingham, of whose political relation-
ship with Mr. Calhoun from a very early day I have already spoken.

His friend, Gen. was at the time on the point of fighting a

duel with Mr. Calhoun's right-hand man, Gen. McDuffie,1 growing
out of disputes in regard to the same subject Indeed the warfare
between Jackson and Clay, upon that and other themes of a per-
sonal nature, was principally conducted by the friends and personal
adherents of Messrs. Clay and Calhoun respectively until these latter
found themselves arrayed side by side in opposition to President
Jackson's administration. The men who had been most prominent
in those excited times and conflicts now figured conspicuously in

* MB. V, pw 110. » George McDuffle.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 561

the South Carolina movement and an opportunity was presented
to him, not of his own seeking, to glut his revenge upon them if he so
inclined. But he was above such meannesB. He knew those gentle-
men to be, in the main, generous spirits, who, obeying the impulses
of their hearts, had rashly followed their leader to a precipice from
which one step more would plunge them in irretrievable ruin, and,
not suffering himself to be stayed from serving his Country by the
necessity of sparing his enemies, he went straight forward to his
object and accomplished the safety of both. This course was bold,
honorable and public-spirited, and if Mr. Clay failed to enjoy the
credit of it in life that credit should be awarded to his memory.

But the truth of history, whose claims stand immeasurably above
all other considerations, must attach to Mr. Webster's conduct at
that trying moment a very different character. It fell far below
that bright example before him. He had no corresponding causes
of complaint against Mr. Calhoun and his friends. The quarrel
between Clay and Calhoun and their followers had been a quarrel
of former friends, marked by the extreme violence and bitterness
that distinguish civil from foreign war or family dissensions from
controversies between strangers. Between them and Mr. Webster
there had been nothing beyond the common opposition of party to
party — republicans against federalists. I may be mistaken, I cer-
tainly hope that I am mistaken, but the observations of a long and
active political life have deceived me more on this than they have
done on any other point if Mr. Webster was ever capable of exer-
cising a magnanimous forbearance towards a political opponent
whom he believed still faithful to his friends and his cause. On the
occasion before us he failed to exhibit a trace of such feeling. He
saw in democrats the authors of his own failure under prospects
which, so far as they had been founded on great abilities, justified
his sanguine hopes and he seemed to hate them from the bottom
of his heart. His ill will yielded only in degree as those to whom
it was directed fell from grace in the estimation of their own po-
litical brethren; it gave ground neither faster nor farther, but ended
in a fraternal embrace only when their separation from their former
associates was complete. Although the nullifiers afterwards served
him at a great pinch he then knew them only as a class of men
from whom he had received good cause of offense in their invariable
and efficient opposition, and when he saw them falling he was prone
to press them to the utmost. So much at variance was his position
with the dictates of a magnanimous nature and with the proper
spirit and philosophy of political divisions that Mr. Clay, in that
debate,— one of the very few instances in which such a thing oc-

127483°— vol 2—20 36

562 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

curred — far excelled him, even in the department of severe argu-
ment in which he commonly overpeered his fellow legislators.

The state of my own feelings at that interesting crisis is shown
by evidence the truth of which would not be questioned at this
day by any candid mind. I had scarcely returned to the Country
before I was interrogated upon all the great public questions of
the day, including nullification, by a meeting held at Shocco Springs
in North Carolina professing to represent different parties* Their
letter reached me whilst on a visit to the western part of New York
and my answer, although dated at Owasco, the residence of my
friend Gov. Throop,x was principally written, in pencil, whilst trav-
elling in public conveyances. It is to be found in the 43d vol. of
Niles' Register,' and contains a brief sketch of the principles by
which my course was then and afterwards uniformly governed. I
have never prepared a paper of that character with which I have
been better satisfied. To do it full justice the reader should know
in advance that the proceeding and call upon me, tho professedly
the work of supporters as well as opponents, originated with and
were controlled by the latter and were so understood by me at the
time. But this is not the only or the principal contemporaneous
exposition of my views in regard to the questions of the period to
which I now refer. Baffled in their design to produce a schism in
our ranks in the Legislature our opponents determined to resort to
a public meeting at Albany as a means to that end. Benjamin
Knower, an old republican, a man of high character and estimation
and father-in-law of Mr. Marcy, then Governor of the State, had in-
volved his considerable fortune in speculations in the purchase and
sale of wool and stood in imminent danger of being wholly ruined.
Altho' thro9 life a man of integrity his politics became, at length,
controlled by the exigencies of his pecuniary circumstances and
thus impelled he resolved to do all in his power to prevent a modi-
fication 6f the tariff which was required to settle the difficulty in
South Carolina. To advance this object he united his efforts with
those of the opposition to obtain an expression from the city and
state (so far as the latter could be done thro9 a meeting at the seat
of Government) against nullification but also against concession. He
was a man of much influence and activity, the former being of course
augmented by the relation in which he stood to the Governor. He
had a call drawn up for a meeting without distinction of party to
express its opinion upon the great question of the day, and he ob-
tained to it the signatures of all or almost all of the leading friends

of both the State and National administrations then at the seat of

^— ^— — »■ ■ ■ ■. — ~»—«»i»—^—— *—»«—— —^»—»—"—^— —^^»^—^—»

1Bnos Thompson Throop.

* Page 125. The pamphlet, 5 pp., printed by Blair 1834, la in the Van Baron Papers.

■-i?:r

- .— — r

* -• \

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 563

the State Government, as well as of those in the opposition and a
large number of gentlemen who, like himself, altho' democrats, were
immovably intent on upholding the tariff. Of the result of such a
meeting, in a city then largely opposition, Mr. Knower and his asso-
ciates considered themselves justly secure. A great number as-
sembled at the City Hall, in answer to the call, and, after an excited
effort to act in concert, separated — those who really approved of the
course that the Administration was pursuing retiring to the Capitol.
At their respective places of meeting each portion adopted resolu-
tions expressive of their opinions. Both condemned nullification
without reserve ; that division of the original assemblage which had
repaired to the Capitol declaring also in favor of a further modi-
fication of the tariff, in conformity with the recommendations of the
President, whilst those who remained at the City Hall — by far the
greater number of whom belonged to the opposition — protested in
the strongest terms, against the proposed change*

Pending the preliminary movements for these meetings and shortly
after they had been held I addressed the following letters to my con-
fidential friend Silas Wright, then representing our State in the
Senate of the United States. I have elsewhere mentioned that after
the publication of his letter to me in regard to Mr. Sanford (which
was surreptitiously obtained and given to the newspapers by the
opposition) he made it a rule to destroy the letters on public af-
fairs in any degree confidential which he received — a determination
I have much cause to regret and of which I was not informed until
after his death. Upon a careful examination0 of the papers left
by him these, and a few others of less consequence, were found. I
had kept no copies and had no distinct recollection of their existence.
They bear Mr. Wright's endorsement and are now inserted here,
verbatim et literatim, as the best evidence of my views at the period
and as candid contemporaneous explanations of the political move-
ments and measures of which they speak.

to silas weight, jb.

My Dbab Sib

I have really not time to write you, but will do so In a day or two. Our
friends are deeply disturbed by the caU which has been made for a public
meeting tomorrow and to which they have lent their names. Our friends have
however determined to attend and say honestly and fearlessly what they
think. The meeting will be very numerous and possibly quite animated. Be
not apprehensive of doing what yon, in the honest exercise of your excellent
judgment, think for the good of the Country. The people desire that Justice
shall be done and the public peace and harmoqy preserved and will support
aU honest men in the discharge of their public duties, of the sincerity and

' ■ ■■'» I I "^— — ^— — ^— ^m^m 111! I I 111 I — — ^^— — I ■ l»^— i.i .1. ,i i

* MS. V, p. 120.

564 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Integrity of whose motives they are satisfied. The means taken here to deter
action upon the subject of the tariff will produce a severe reaction,

Remember me cordially to Hoffman and the rest of my friends, and believe
me to be

Very truly yours,

M. Yak Bubek.
Jany 23d, 1883.

TO SILAS WBIOHT, JB.

Albany, Feb. 4th 1833.
My dear Sib

I was favored with yours of the 29th ultimo last evening — for which accept
my thanks. Tou have before this seen the proceedings of our friends here,
and the Report of the Joint Committee will have been sent to you by many
hands. The separation which took place at the City Hall meeting was a
providential event, by which political designs that bad been nursed with great
care by our opponents were promptly and efficaciously baffled* and the Repub-
licans of this State placed on better ground in respect to the tariff than they
have ever heretofore stood on. The course of our city friends will be fully
sustained by the sincere friends of the administration in the State, with but
few if any exceptions, and the Report of the Committee approved, so1 far as
relates to nullification and secession* by a unanimous vote and in all other
respects by the unbroken strength of the Republican side of the two Housea

I regret that you should be so annoyed by suggestions as to the probable
effect which the course of my friends in Congress may have on the next Presi-
dential election. Tou could not, my dear Sir, have better expressed my own
feelings upon that point than you have done in your replies to such intima-
tions. All I desire is that my friends should pursue that course which* in their
own unbiassed Judgment* they shall think will best subserve the interest of the
Country and dispense the largest share of justice to every part of it ; and they
could in no way act more contrary to my wishes than by allowing themselves
to be diverted from that course by the consideration referred to. The people
will in their own time concentrate upon the individual whom they think best
adapted to the occasion and no one, I assure you, will acquiesce in their un-
biassed decision upon that subject with more cheerfulness than myself. If
therefore there are any so reckless as to seize upon the present distracted
state of the Country to further views of personal ambition and so weak as
to believe, notwithstanding the experience to the contrary of the last twenty
years, that the Presidency can be reached by means of combinations, however
artfully devised, or Individual and selfish efforts of any description, my friends
will, I trust, do me the justice to keep me entirely disconnected from any
such intrigues.

That It is the ardent wish of the Republicans of this State, without any seri-
ous diversity of opinion* that the dissatisfaction which exists at the South
shall be removed by a reducton of the revenue to the wants of the Government,
upon the principles stated in the Report of the Joint Committee of the Legis-
lature, is beyond all doubt I am the last man who would ever attempt to
exercise any influence over my friends other than such as to be derived from
a frank interchange of opinions and views upon equal terms* if I could be
vain enough to suppose that,I possessed any other— which I am not It is
therefore with no such view that I say what, from my present position and
the knowledge I possess of the difficulty of arriving at the truth in respect
to public sentiment situated as they are, I think it my duty to say—that

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YAK BUREN. 565

If any of our friends In the delegation act under a different belief they
will in the end be cruelly deceived. A large majority of the people of this
State are, I am confident entirely averse to endangering the peace of the
! Country and the stability of the Union for the purpose of subserving personal

or local interests whether pecuniary or political. The current of public senti-
ment with the Democracy of the State is decidedly and actively the other way.

Our Senator question has passed off very well. Our friend Butler, after hav-
ing fought off the matter all winter, was in danger of being placed in the
attitude of a defeated candidate by the indiscretion of Mr. Livingston, But the
matter is so well understood here that even the opposition do not affect to mis-
apprehend It.

Remember me kindly to your messmates — tell them to keep cool and be good
natured whatever they do, and believe me to be

Very truly yours,

M. Van Bubkn l

'The autograph draft is In the Van Baren Papers.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

° Whilst sketching the progress of our political parties I noticed
my return from England without regarding its chronological re-
lation to events afterwards described and brought the subject down
to my arrival at Washington and reception by President Jackson.
I was induced to do this by a desire to bring in my remarks upon
his veto of the bill to extend the Charter of the Bank of the United
States at the most appropriate place. A similar course has been
pursued in other parts of this memoir from a desire to insert all
I propose to say on certain special subjects at one place and thus
to save the reader the trouble of connecting scattered and dis-
severed observations. The events which followed my return will
now be taken up at the point at which the narrative was then left*
On the morning after my arrival the General escorted me in his
own carriage to the gate of the Capitol and was doubtless well
inclined to accompany me into the Halls of both Houses if official
etiquette had not prevented him. I made my way to the Senate
Chamber in which body I had spent so many interesting hours with
most of the Senators who were in the Senate including the greater
part of those who had acted adversely on my nomination. My
friends gathered round me and affectionately welcomed my return.
A few of those who had voted against me under the behests of their
party and who knew me well enough to be satisfied that I did not
suspect them of personal hostility also approached me and exchanged
friendly salutations.

Amongst the latter I remember with pleasure Stoddard Johnston
and Waggaman,1 the two Senators from Louisiana and a few others.
Judge Buggies * of Ohio had been the chairman of our celebrated
Crawford Caucus in 1824 and stood by my side without fear
or flinching through the whole of that unequal and trying Presi-
dential contest. Not an unkind word had ever passed between us
and though shaken in his politics by his distrust of General Jack-
son, a feeling in which his state largely participated, he had not
actually changed his political position until he was driven to that
course in consequence of the displeasure of his old associates with
his vote upon the occasion of my nomination. He was a perfectly

0 MS. V, p. 126. » Josiah-Stoddard Jobniton and George A. Waggaman. * Benjamin Boggles.

ItAA

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBBN. 567

honest man desirous to do right and did not, I am persuaded on that
occasion depart intentionally from that course. The fault was in
his nerves rather than in his heart. He was almost always in deli-
cate health and the pressure of such men as his colleague Ewing
and Mr. Clay aided by innumerable letters from his state, a kind
of machinery of which the then opposition knew the use and value
better than any party that ever existed, proved too much for him.
Senator Mahlon Dickerson came to me and said, half laughingly
and half seriously, that my old friend Judge Buggies had asked
him to present liim to me on which I stepped up to the Judge and
shook hands with him with a degree of cordiality which seemed
to relieve him from a load of self reproach. Mr. Calhoun was in
his seat but my mind received no impression in respect to his con-
duct or appearance which it has retained. Our relations had been
long too openly and decidedly hostile to be affected by what had
recently taken place. 'Senators Clay and Webster were absent in
the House of Representatives whither I proceeded in a short time.
As I approached the outer door of that Chamber and had raised
my hand to it it was opened from the other side and Mr. Webster
entered he and myself being at the moment the only occupants of the
small vestibule. He instantly dropt his eyes and kept them upon
the marble floor as he passed me. Our meeting was too sudden
and on both sides unexpected and we passed each other too rapidly
to admit of premeditation. He obeyed the impulse of the mo-
ment, an impulse born of a sense of shame. I happened to turn
to the left hand on coming into the narrow passage which ran
around the outside of the seats of the Members of the House of
Representatives and thus unconsciously rendered unavoidable a
meeting with Mr) Clay who was making his way, on the same side,
towards the door by which I had entered the Chamber. Our prog-
ress being frequently interrupted was so gradual as to attract the
attention of many of the Representatives towards us — among
others of a large group from among whom William S. Archer (a
distinguished member from Virginia and an old personal friend
of both of us) came to me, with mock gravity, and said that the
House having taken into consideration the relative positions in
which Mr. Clay and myself had been thrown and claiming the
right to regulate a meeting which must now inevitably take place
in its presence, had decided that we might approach each other with
blandest and most friendly expressions of countenance, shake hands,
even embrace and, indeed, indulge in any further demonstrations
of affection that suited our tastes, but that kissing was inadmissible
and would be held to be a breach of the privileges of the House
and a contempt of its dignity. This speech being loudly applauded

568 AMEMCAifr HISTORICAL ASSOCIATES.

by those who heard it still further contributed to the notoriety and
awkwardness of the " situation."

Mr. Clay having before advanced slowly — taking snuff with one
and chatting with another — now stepped rapidly forward, offered
me his hand and led me to one of the sofas which, standing upon a
raised platform, overlooked the seats of the members. Here we sat
and conversed for some time about England and some of the ac-
quaintances he had formed there on his return from the Ghent Mis-
sion, when he left me and repaired to the Senate Chamber where
he alluded to our meeting in the manner I have elsewhere described.
Thp character thus given to our personal relations by Mr. Clay in
the face of the House of Representatives of the United States at our
first meeting after he had taken his part in the matter of my nomi-
nation enabled me consistently with a proper self respect to continue
my intercourse with him on the footing I preferred — one which
ignored the too prevalent idea that political differences necessarily0
draw after them personal hostility. Altho' profoundly conscious
of the difficulty of knowing oneself, however honestly and however
humbly the subject may have been studied, and of the consequent
hazards of describing one's own motives and dispositions, I yet ven-
ture to say that to uphold this line of separation between personal
and political differences and to protect social intercourse from the
deleterious influence of partisan illiberality or violence were with
me cherished objects during my political career; nor do I permit
myself to doubt that this justice, at least, will, when I am no more,
be accorded to my memory by most of my surviving contemporaries.

The incidents of the first morning I spent in the two Houses of
Congress, after my return from England, were, upon the whole,
very gratifying, but the pleasure they were well calculated to impart
was damped by a mortifying falling off in another and most trusted
quarter. At an early hour of the morning following my arrival,
and before I had seen any of my friends except those who belonged
to the President's f amdly, I was called upon by Mr. Blair, then and
afterwards the able and inflexible editor of the Washington " Globe."
He had not long occupied that position when I left Washington on
my Mission and I had had no acquaintance with him anterior to his
coming there to take charge of the Globe, but I had seen enough of
him to confide in the sincerity and integrity of his character, a con-
fidence which all my subsequent intercourse with him has served to
confirm and increase. The relation in which he was regarded by my
opponents as standing towards me at the time may be inferred from
the application that was made to him by Colonel Johnson and Mr.

Grundy, two of Mr. Calhoun's friends, in respect to the publication

i i i. • I. ■ . . .i ■

0 MS. V. p. 180.

ATTTOBIOGKAPHY OP MARTIN VAH BUBEN. 669

of the ( Appeal ' of the latter as heretofore narrated. He took me
apart and made to me a communication the substance of which he
repeated in a note addressed to me at Lindenwald long after my
retirement from public life ; to which he was induced by seeing me
maligned in the public papers in anonymous articles which he knew
to proceed from a meddling neighbour and avowed friend of Mr.
McLane, whom I had felt myself obliged to remove from office,
which articles Mr(. McLane knew to be in all respects false but which
he did not attempt to arrest as it was well understood he might have
done. The following is a copy of that note, so far as it relates to
this subject:

I take my pen to ask you if you remember the first conversation I had with
yon after your return from England in the window-niche of the General's
little breakfast room.

I then told you that McLane had conspired with your enemies during your
absence to ruin you — that he had laboured to supplant you with General Jack-
son and was solicitous to exclude you from his ticket and had exerted himseli
to alienate me from your interests— conjuring me to discontinue the war I had
made on the Senators who voted your rejection and to give over the efforts I
was making to rally the Democracy on you as Vice President My acquaint-
ance with you at that time was so new that I did not expect you to abandon
a friend of long standing on my representations — I hesitated therefore to make
them and only brought myself to it from the consideration that it would guard
you from the hypocrisy which might otherwise impose upon you.

I need not say how much I was disturbed by Mr. Blair's communi-
cation. My strong predilections rendered it impossible for me to
receive his statements as in all respects well founded and led me to
the conclusion that he had imbibed prejudices against Mr. McLane
and had been thus induced to place injurious constructions upon acts
which would prove susceptible of a different interpretation. But
there was a manly candour in his declarations and a force in the
circumstances to which he referred to show that he could have no
other motive than to warn a man whom he saw cherishing as a friend
one he knew to have been his enemy, and whom he thought was in
danger of sustaining further injuries from the same source, which
staggered but did not entirely overcome my habitual hearty faith in
Mr. McLane's friendship. He authorized me to give his name to Mr.
McLane as the author of the communication he had made to me
saying that he was aware of the risks he assumed by placing himself
in that position ; Mr. McLane holding a high office under the Gov-
ernment which had more patronage at its disposal than any other
and possessing the confidence and friendship of the President,
whilst he, he hoped, at least equal in General Jackson's confidence
and regard, was but an editor of a newspaper; which considerations,
as he did not allow them to deter him from doing justice, would, he
hoped, satisfy me of the disinterestedness of his motives and of the

570 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

sincerity of his professed objects. I thanked him for the friendly
feelings by which he had been actuated in respect to myself and
assured him that I did not in the least degree doubt their sincerity
but begged him to excuse me for hoping, notwithstanding his explicit
-statements, and my confidence in his truthfulness, that time would
disclose some satisfactory explanation or essential qualification of the
matters he referred to. I then informed him of my intention to con-
sult the President upon the subject, and obtained his permission to
inform him of what had passed between us; of which course he
declared his approval as one he expected me to adopt, adding that
having performed what he regarded as a duty he would of course
leave the matter entirely to me and if, for any reasons I should think
it best to take no further notice of it he would be satisfied.

Mr. McLane paid me a visit a short time afterwards, I believe
on my return from the Capitol. There was in his manner an ef-
fort to suppress embarrassment by which my attention was imme-
diately arrested. Sensible how natural it was that I should imagine
such a state of feeling on his part after the communication I had
received I laboured, in good faith and with a degree of success to
dismiss the subject from my mind, but of course, it was out of
my power to do so altogether. Our interview, of which and of his
carriage my recollection is as fresh as if the scene had occurred
yesterday, was brief and our conversation confined to the general
topics of the day. I had, before I saw Mr. McLane, received a
note from Mr. Kane,1 a Senator from Illinois, a gentleman of the
purest character who had been very partial to the former and who
cherished also a friendship for me which I am fully persuaded
the influence of no man could have disturbed, apprising me of his
apprehensions that I might receive impressions injurious to the
good faith of Mr. McLane, but assuring me that as far as he knew
or believed there was no sufficient foundation for them and McLane,
on reaching his house after his visit, sent me a kind note asking
me to ride with him the next day and to take ° dinner with him
and his family on our return. This rendered it necessary that I
should come to a conclusion in regard to our future relations before
I answered his note. I therefore asked an interview with the Presi-
dent and gave him the substance of Mr. Blair's communication. I
saw at once that the subject was not a new one to him and I inferred
that Mj\ Blair had apprised him of his intention to take the course
he had pursued, which proved to be the fact He spoke kindly of
Mr. McLane and in the highest terms of Mr. Blair's character, de-
scribed it to be such as he continued to regard it till his death, when

* Ellas K. Kane. * MS. V, p. 186.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN YAK BUBEN. 571

he left all his papers in his hands. He thought him incapable of
saying what he did not at least believe to be true — but expressed
no opinion in regard to the subject of his present statement fur-
ther than could be inferred from the declaration that " he believed
Mr. McLane to be as much my friend as it was in his nature to be
the friend of anybody." Having said this he proceeded at once
to exhort- me to let the matter pass without further examination
into the truth of the case stated either on the one side or on the
other; I was under no obligations affecting my own character to
notice it and it would for many reasons be wise to forget it as far
and as fast as possible. " If you will be advised by me,'9 he said,
" accept his invitation, ride and dine with him and let things take
their course.9' The earnestness which Mr. Blair had manifested, the
spirit with which he carried out his personal disputes, the certainty
that he would bring the matter before the public in his paper if
Mr. McLane denied what he had said and the injurious consequences
that would in all probability result to the administration in its criti-
cal position at the moment from such a feud upon such a subject
between men occupying most responsible and influential positions
towards it would have been considerations in favour of this course
of great weight with me even if I had not felt myself under obliga-
tions to make the General's wishes in the matter the rule of my
conduct.

I accepted Mr. McLane's invitations. But with the best inten-
tions and every effort on the part of both, the hours passed heavily
and an influential member of the family charged me before I retired
with being reserved and cold in my manner to an extent never before
witnessed by the speaker, of which I was entirely unconscious. Be-
sides the understanding between the President and myself that no
farther notice should be taken of the matter and that our relations
should continue on their former footing an understanding in which
Mr. Blair, feeling that he had done his duty, readily concurred, I
have no specific recollection of anything said or done previous to my
leaving Washington, although it appears by the extract from my
letter given below that some conversation took place in relation to
it between Mr. McLane and myself. On the 11th of August 1832,
the latter wrote me a long letter in regard to an important appoint-
ment then pending before the President, which letter concluded thus:

I have now, my dear Sir, a duty to discharge to myself and which forms an-
other object of this letter. In all my life, public and private, In one instance
only have I ever been accused or suspected of Indifference to my friend at any
time, but, especially, in the hour of difficulty : and I feel more than Indignant
that this Instance Is In relation to you. If you had participated in that sus-
picion without an examination into the grounds which should have been

572 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

specifically stated and respectably vouched, you would have done me an injury
which would have admitted of no reparation. But while you had the manliness
and generosity to act in a manner due to our relations, at least for the purpose
of explanation, you cannot do ample justice either to yourself or to me without
frankly Informing me of the grounds of the suspicion and by whom they were
communicated. The communication must have proceeded from an innocent mis-
apprehension of opinions founded upon an unfeigned solicitude for your future
course, expressed with the frankness of a friend, and to your friends; or, from
a bad and wicked purpose; or perhaps a busy, suspicious, gossipping temper
always heedless about consequences. In either case, it is necessary for my own
safety that I should know the source whence I may be exposed to similar in-
jury. I am the more urgent in this instance, because of information recently
communicated to me, from my friend Mr. Latimer of Delaware, that he had
learned in Baltimore that you and I had been Involved in a difficulty, which
would end in my retirement from the Administration. The source of this report
makes me regret that I did not enter more at large Into one or two topics
when you were here, and which I purposely reserved to a future occasion.
, How coul4 such a report have reached Baltimore? I therefore submit my
request to your own sense of justice.

I should be glad of an opportunity in the autumn of conversing with you in
relation to certain changes of which we spoke when you were here; and of
making some suggestions both in regard to myself and others which appear to
me Important; and both more feasible and expedient than some that are in
contemplation. I wish to go up the North River, probably In October, with my
boys and would take that opportunity, if you were in the way, of seeing you ;
in the mean time you had better keep the whole subject open in your mind.
I am, my dear Sir,

Very truly yours, L. McLank.

To Mabtin Van Bubkn Esq.

This letter reached me at Lebanon Springs and I find from a memo-
randum enclosed in it that I made the following reply to the part I
have quoted :

I have fully reflected upon your request in regard to the suggestions which had
been thrown out in respect to your feelings towards me on a recent occasion and
am thoroughly satisfied that that matter ought to rest where it stands. I
thought it due to the occasion to assure you at Washington that I was not aware
of a single instance In which the subject had been referred to in an unfriendly
spirit as It respected yourself of from the unworthy motive of making trouble
between us. Since the receipt of your letter I have passed the matter more
deliberately through my mind and can with truth repeat the assurance that
you would do injustice to any of my friends with whose sentiments I have been
made acquainted, if you treasured up any unkind feelings towards them or
harboured any distrust of them on that account This is all that it is necessary
for you to know. That they had apprehensions upon the point is certain, and
I have no doubt you are correct in the supposition that those apprehensions
proceeded from "an innocent misapprehension of opinions founded upon an
unfeigned solicitude for your (my) future course expressed with the frankness
of a friend and to your (my) friends," and for which in the excitement of the
moment and under deep conviction that the course they advocated was vitally
necessary, sufficient allowances were not made. That such a state of things
should give rise to speculations of the sort was unavoidable and the application

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 673

to me by ° Mr. Kane shows you that they had entered the minds of those who
were most thorough In their convictions that they did you Injustice.

It may perhaps be made a question whether my answer in negativ-
ing the existence of an inimical disposition towards Mr. McLane on
the part of those who had judged his course as an unfriendly one
did not go farther, for the restoration of peace all round, than the
facts in one or two instances warranted ; but in truth Mr. Blair had
no motive to injure Mr. McLane who had taken particular pains to
serve him, and in the absence of full knowledge uppn the subject,
Mr. Cambreleng informed Mr. McLane himself that he had con-
demned his conduct to me, but his friendship for him had not been
given up.

Of all the seceders from the federal ran&s who attached them-
selves to the republican party in my day and who cultivated inti-
mate relations with me and, partly through my interference, ac-
quired creditable distinctions in its service there was not one for
whom I cherished a warmer friendship than for Louis McLane, or
one to whom it has been in my power to render so many and so
important services.

I left the United States for England in the full belief that he
was one, if there was one, of that class upon earnestness and con-
stancy of whose personal friendship I could place the most implicit
reliance. If the disenchantment which the future had in store for
me showed that this faith had been without good foundation at the
time, there would appear to have been even more exaggeration than
could be credited to the partiality of friendship in the testimony
borne by Jackson and Forsyth to my surpassing "common sense
and good judgment," my "unrivalled knowledge of human char-
acter and power of penetrating into the designs and defeating the
purposes of my enemies." But without admitting to have failed
to reap considerable advantage in that direction from the observa-
tion and experience of a long and busy and prominent political
life I am free to confess my consciousness of one great weakness,
which although springing from a liberal impulse, is always the
cause to those subject to it of some and not unfrequently of severe
disappointment, the weakness of forming an extravagant estimate
of the merits of new converts to my own opinions, especially on
occasions when those opinions are subjected to fiery assault and trial
and when their new proselyte brings to my side, with his welcome
support, the attractions, vouched by old friends, of fascinating per-
sonal qualities. Even aside from the unreasonable amplification of
them which I have described as attributable to a defect in myself
and moderated to the measure actually intended by their respected

•MS. V, p. 140.

574 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

authors the high encomiums of my friends must be regarded as
greatly overrated in the light of this narrative of my relations with
Mr. McLane.

A review of those relations, however general, is not a pleasant
occupation — it is rather one which I would be most happy to de-
cline altogether if they were not interwoven in so many ways with
some of the most important incidents of my public career as to
ensure inferences unfavorable to myself if I should pass them by
without notice^ and if indeed the extraordinary manner in which he
thought it fit to terminate them has not made it indispensable to
give my version of them. Whilst as I have remarked before, I have
often suffered impeachments of my political course and conduct to
pass without correction when I had in my possession the sure means
qf refutation — confident of my ability to live down calumny and
averse to continual obtrusion of myself and my affairs upon the
public attention — it is due to those who stand towards me in such
relations that they will be affected by my good or bad name after I
shall have finished my course that my memory should be tested, in
those respects by the facts — by truth, severe and unabated, which
is all I ask. My obligation under actual circumstances is of course
doubly imperative to take especial care that my account shall be
just and true — nevertheless errors may to some extent occur and I
charge those on whom the publication of this work may devolve if
any such should appear when I am no longer here to correct them,
to lose no time in doing so in the most effectual way, on my behalf,
and to give to Mr. McLane's memory the full benefit of every doubt
oven that may be cast upon any of my statements.

I made Mr. ^f cLane's acquaintance at Washington, as nearly as
I remember, when I first took my seat in the Senate of the United
States. We both joined Mr. John D. Dickerson's Congressional
Mess at Strother's Hotel, comprising himself, Mrs. and Miss Dick-
erson, Col. D^wight1 of Massachusetts, Walter Patterson, of New
York, Mr. McLane and myself. Altho' I had consented at New
York to make one of Mr. D's Mess I believe my being associated
with Mr. McLane was without previous arrangement and that our
meeting was fortuitous; but I was almost immediately strongly at-
tracted towards him and our intimacy rapidly grew into a friendship
that withstood exposure to many storms and would in all probability
have continued to flourish and to bear fruit if it had not been stopped
by his own act after it had reached a satisfactory maturity. Finding
the mess at Washington too gay for us we soon followed my col-
league, Mr. King * to Georgetown, where we remained during that
and the subsequent session in a mess composed of Mr. King, Patroon
Van Renssalaer, Harrison Q. Otis, with his wife and daughter, Ste-

1 Henry W. Dwight *Rufus King.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BX7REN. 575

venson, of Virginia, Mr. and Mrs. McLane, Gotham, of Boston,
Nelson and Warfield of Maryland, Fenton Mercer, of Virginia, and
Cuthbert of Georgia.1 I soon took ground in favour of Wm. H.
Crawford as Mr. Monroe's successor, in which I was earnestly and
cordially joined by Mr. McLane but in which we separated politi-
cally from others of our mess, including my colleague. I have
turned to numerous letters from tha former, yet on my files, for one
of that period as affording the best illustration, in respect to scenes
and feelings of a time so distant, of the true character of the relations
then existing between us. That which follows, being in fact the
earliest in date that has been preserved, will happily be found quite
full in regard to the political and personal dispositions and views
too that were avowed by him and — it must be inferred — entertained
by me at that interesting period in our public lives, which was shortly
before the celebrated Presidential canvass of 1824, when Adams,
Crawford, Clay, Calhoun and Jackson were candidates for that
high office.

Wilmington, April 80tht 1823.

My dear Van Bubxn, I will not pretend to tell you, how much pleasure your
brief note of the 24th Inst, gave me, but rely upon It, nothing will offend my
" federal ear " which augurs well of the success of my friends, more especially
if you are " to share the triumph." I look upon the proceedings at Albany as a
nomination of Mr. Crawford ; indeed, they will be worth much more to him, If
by the powerful influence of your state, they can lead to a congressional caucus,
on which that gentleman must place his firmest reliance. I never doubted the
wisdom of your council, and felt satisfied that, with a more intimate knowledge
of the grounds, you were the best judge of the operations. My only apprehen-
sion has been that some cursed apple of discord would be thrown into your
state, which, as heretofore, would hereafter divide and distract her power, but I
relied upon the Palinurus who, knowing the shoals, had skill to avoid them.
But, my dear Sir, the strait is now passed, and. I trust the Pilot will keep0
the ship in an even steady course.

This is a broad wish for a federal pen, and, to be frank, when 1 look round
and see those men of the party which was, but is no more, yet panting in the
walks of ultraism, or something worse, and by the aid of silly disaffection, and
idle distinctions grasping, with vain efforts, at the shadow of power, whose sub-
stance is irretrievably beyond their reach, I doubt exceedingly, whether I have
any other claim to federalism, than that, which the honor of being claimed and
cherished as such by the best, and opposed by the worst citizens of my own
little native state affords me. But, after all, I must avoid all retractions —
and leave my friends, and you among others, to Judge me by my actions. If
the lapse of a few months finds us both espousing the same principles, advocat-
ing the same cause, and advancing the same leader, you must give me at least
as much credit for orthodoxy, as will be allowed to " young Mr. Calhoun " and
those worthy coadjutors, who, under the wing of Oenll Harper, mean to take

1 Stephen Van Renssalaer, Andrew Stevenson, Louis McLane, Benjamin Gorham, John
Nelson, Henry R. Warfleld, Charles Fenton Mercer, and Alfred Cuthbert*
•MS. V, p. 145.
'Robert Goodloe Harper.

578 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

tion in his behalf to him at London whilst he was in possession of the
English Mission. Judge Baldwin shortly afterwards gave the Presi-
dent notice of his intention to resign his seat on the Bench and we
confidently expected that he would do so. There being a manifest
impropriety in appointing Mr. McLane to fill the vacancy which
would have been thus created because of his not residing in the
Circuit, but anticipating his anxiety upon the subject and having
occasion to write him in answer to another application, I made the
following explanation to him :

Connected with this subject is a matter which I am permitted to mention to
yon in strict confidence, but in regard to which we scarcely know what to say
in respect to its bearings upon your interest.

Judge Baldwin is dissatisfied with his situation for reasons which it is
unnecessary to explain further than they grow out of opposition to what he
regards as an unwarrantable extension of its° powers by the Court, and has
given the President notice of his intention to resign after he has completed
his Circuit—or in the fall at farthest You need not to be assured of the
pleasure the President would take in appointing you to the vacancy, confident
that the Country would have nothing to apprehend from your opinions; nor
can it be necessary to explain to you the nature and extent of the difficulty
which arises from your not being of the Circuit All therefore that he feels
himself at liberty to say is that he will watch the movement of events with a
lively zeal for your welfare, and if, when the time comes, he finds that he can
consistently appoint you it will be one of the most pleasant events of his life.

Before we parted in New York, I for England and he for Wash-
ington to take upon himself the functions of Secretary of the Treas-
ury, he asked me to write once more to the President upon the sub-
ject of the Judgeship. The original promise still remained in full
force but I felt the awkwardness of a compliance with his request;
nevertheless as it was almost a rule with me to refuse him nothing I
gave him the following letter :

TO TBE PBESIDKNT.

New York, August 3rd, 1881.
My deab Sib: —

Our mutual friend, Mr. McLane retains his preference for the Bench, and
will, if Duval dies, be pleased with the appointment to supply the vacancy.
It is for obvious reasons my earnest hope that the opportunity to gratify him
In this respect, if it is to occur during your administration, may be delayed
until it is near its close. The sacrifices which he has been obliged to make by
his Mission increase the necessity of his obtaining as permanent and as little
expensive an employment as he can, and the extent of his family leaves him.
as he thinks, but little option as to his course in the event of the happening
of the contingency referred to.

Believing that I understand your feelings towards him I have taken the
liberty of assuring him that there is no object nearer your heart than to

° M& V. p. 160.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 579

promote his interest and that no considerations that could be suggested can
increase that desire.

Very truly yours,

M. Van Bubeh

Perceiving, at length, in the presence of the President, the im-
pression that would probably be produced by presenting an applica-
tion for a second office at the moment of entering upon so important
a station as that of Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. McLane returned
my letter enclosed in one from himself, without date, which was
immediately followed by the letter of August ll, 1881, both of
which are here given.

I herewith return you the letter you gave me for the President In order that
you may alter the date and transmit it by mail. I felt an insuperable delicacy
in handing It to him myself, notwithstanding his reception and his treatment
since have been of the kindest and. most endearing kind. Still the letter is
important Tou must not ascribe it to suspicion when I assure you that Mr.
Taney fights shy of me. He was the only one of the Cabinet who kept off and
him 1 did not see until we met yesterday at the President's in council. We were
always on good terms and I know of no cause of separation now but his fears
on a certain subject Therefore do not fall to send the letter.

Let me add in connection with this subject that you are escaping from a
season of storms and a shattered ship. I cannot doubt from aU I see and hear
that the chances are against our old Chief, and to that I shall begin early to
make up my mind.

Don't forget the letter to the President

Washington, August 11th, 1831.
My Dbab Van Buben,

I sent you a large packet of letters thro' Mr. Bowne which I hope will be
satisfactory. I also sent you the letter you gave me for the P. in order that
it might go to him directly from* you. My object in writing now is to im-
press upon you the importance of doing me that favour: and of adding to it,
if you feel yourself at liberty a Une on the same subject to Major Lewis. He
voluntarily sent me a letter once upon the subject containing an express promise
of the P— and therefore it is that I suggest to you the propriety of intimating
to him that recent occurrences should not be allowed to alter the intentions
formerly entertained. — Believe me that I am not mistaken in the necessity of
this interference. The designs in another quarter are not to be disregarded
and there is no other quarter than you from which it would be possible for
me to intimate my wishes. Tou may Invent what pretext you please for your
letter, but on no account neglect it

Once more I bid you Adieu !

With my best wishes for your prosperity

L. MX.

Major Lewis to whom he refers was his uniform and zealous
friend and did not esteem him the less for his federal antecedents, a
point in which the Major could not but indulge in a fellow feeling,
but it is due to the latter to say that no considerations or tempta-
tions, through many of which he was obliged to pass, could weaken
his fidelity to the General or his desire for the success of his Adminis-

580 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

tration. Although I differed with him upon many abstract questions
I feel that I can safely bear this testimony in his behalf. The " other
quarter" spoken of by Mr. McLane, referred to Mr. Taney, the
Attorney General, as is plainly enough intimated in the first note.
On the day before I sailed from New York I enclosed my original
letter of the 3d August to the General in that which follows ; and thus
my last thought and my last act, at the moment of quitting my
country, were devoted to the service of one whom I thought as I have
said, bound to me by ties of personal friendship on which I might
rely in the worst of times.

To the President.

New York, Aug. 15, 1831.
My dear Sib

I gave the enclosed to our friend when here, but he has been deterred by a
sense of delicacy from delivering it to you and has returned it to me with a
request that I would write to you from here. Want of time compels me to
enclose it to you and to request that you would show it confidentially to Major
Lewis whom he asks to be informed as to his wishes.

Mr. McLane is delighted with your reception of him and will in all respects
come up to your expectations. Between us, in strict confidence, he apprehends
that another member of your Cabinet may desire the same place that he does.
Talk to him freely about it if you please and he will be at ease. It has been a
very unpleasant matter for me to press this subject upon your attention at this
moment but I could not well avoid it, and it is best that you should know all. If
your son is with you remember me to him affectionately and do the same to
Mr. Trist ; say, If you please, to the latter, that I would write him if I could but
that he must write me often and remember me mostly kindly to Mrs. Randolph,
Mrs. Trist and all the family.

.God bless you.

M. Van Buben .

%

CHAPTER XXXIX.^

I read at London Mr. McLane's first official report upon the
finances, and, fully aware of the condition of things at Washington
and of the positions of all parties, I regarded it as a state paper
calculated to supersede President Jackson as the efficient head of his
own administration upon a vital point by which it was destined to
stand or fall. Sensible of the embarrassment not to say humiliation
to which my venerable friend would unavoidably be exposed by the
appearance of such a document, coming from such a source, and by
the consequent exultation of his enemies, I could not but experience
pain and mortification when I reflected upon the ° agency I had
exerted to bring about an appointment productive of such results.
I had not hesitated a moment in rejecting Mr. McLane's advice in
respect to my hurried return to the United States and to seeking a
seat in the Senate at the close of its session as in the last degree un-
wise, yet upon neither point had the suggestion raised in my mind a
doubt of the sincerity of his friendship.

Thus much I had written on this subject almost in the words as
they stand now — precisely in those words so far as they speak of
Major Lewis, when I was reminded by one of the preceding letters
of the close friendship which had long existed between him and
McLane, sincere as I had reason to know it was on the part of
Lewis, and, what had a more particular bearing upon the subject
before me, of a message from General Jackson to McLane or to
Major Barry of which Lewis had once told me that he was the bearer.
The import of the message, as far as my memory served, is set forth
in the letter from myself to Lewis which follows, I had not then
nor have I now any recollection of what I said or did in regard to
the message referred to, neither can I fix the period at which the
communcation was made to me by Lewis. My conclusion however
is that it was at the time when it was my intention to suffer bygones
on the point involved to remain bygones, and that I therefore did
not heed the information. These reminiscences suggested the idea
of affording Major Lewis an opportunity to say what he might
think proper in regard to the course Mr. McLane had pursued to-
wards me in my absence, as he was for many reasons the individual

• MS. v, p. 155.

581

582 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

most likely to know the whole truth upon the subject and as I was
besides not a little in the dark, at this late day, as to what had been
his own motive in making the communication referred to to me; —
whether to put me on my guard in respect to Mr. McLane or only to
place before me a conspicuous illustration of General Jackson's fidel-
ity to his friends — a feature in his character which both the Major
and myself had found many and interesting occasions to appreciate.
My earnest desire to protect my record of the transactions and feelings
of which I write from the chance of error or of injustice, through
lapse of memory or unfounded suspicion, inclined me strongly to
act upon that idea but this course was one not free from difficulties.
The result of all my reflections upon the subject was that. I owed
it to truth, to Mr. McLane, and to myself, to afford Major Lewis an
opportunity to say what he might desire to say in regard to it and on
the 10th of April last haying had no communication with or informa-
tion about him for nearly twenty years, I addressed him as follows :

HAJOB WU. B. LBW1B.

Lindknwald, April jOtk 1859.
Mr dsab Sib,

If my memory is not more at default than usual, you once told me that
General Jackson suspecting that efforts were making with the knowledge of a
portion of his Cabinet, whilst I was in England to prevent my nomination for
the office of Vice President, sent you to Mr. McLane, who, he apprehended was

favourable to the [ ] with a message to the effect — "That if that course

was persisted in and made successful, he would go to the Hermitage at the end
of his first term " ; and that you delivered it to Mr. McLana

I am preparing something like an autobiography of my life to be published
after my death, in which the General will necessarily cut a larger figure than
myself and through which I hope to impress my readers with a truer and I
hope still more favorable sense of his character and capacities than they yet
possess. Not the least prominent feature in that character, was his fidelity
to his friends; and it has occurred to me that this circumstance may be sac*
cessfully employed to illustrate his disposition in that regard— if I am correct
in respect to the facts9 and you have no objection to their being thus used. He
was from the time of my resignation desirous that I should run for that office,
but I was opposed to it before the rejection. If I am right in regard to the
principal circumstances it will be desirable that you should specify at what
period the transaction took place—whether before or after the final action of
the Senate. If you prefer for any reason to say nothing upon the subject
yourself, or to have nothing said about it by me, you have only to say so and
the affair will be left untouched. I am not positive that I shall use It in any
event

You keep quiet like a wise man, enjoy good health, I hope, and are happy I
do not doubt in your circumstances. Where is your daughter and how is her
health and your own? Mine at 76 is better than it has ever before been, and
I enjoy life admirably.

With best wishes for your health and happiness

Very truly yours,

M. Vaw Buben.

^ ^ ^ »»— i^— ^— — ^— — ^— — — i — — ^— ■ i ■— ^»^»i^-^i— ^i ..I ,

• MS. V. p. 160.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 583

I give the whole of his reply (except as mentioned below) be-
cause tho' parts of it have no particular reference to the subject
under consideration, they serve to show the character and disposi-
tion of the man, and are in that respect not without value and in-
terest: a part of the postscript stated that there was a passage in
the paper he sent me headed u Notes, etc." which he particularly
described and which on reflection he preferred should not be pub-
lished and which being left out would not as he truly said, " affect
what preceded or followed in the least" This passage, whilst it
repeats more specifically the charge against Mr. McLane of setting
on foot an intrigue to defeat my nomination for the office of Vice
President, to promote his own ultimate views in respect to the
Presidency, implicates also another gentleman of whom he did
not wish to speak. That part of the Postscript to his letter as well
as the passage in the " Notes " referred to are omitted.

Nashville, April 22, 1859.
My dkab Sib,

Your letter of the 10th Inst has been received, and the best reply I can make,
It seems to me, Is to send yon the enclosed papers. They contain every thing of
importance in relation to the nomination of a candidate for the Vice, presidency
in 1832, of which I have any knowledge, and are more to be relied on than any-
thing I can say, or write, at this distant day, as they were written when all the
facts and circumstances were fresh upon my mind. You can read them and
if you find anything in them that you would like to have transferred to your
promised autobiography you are heartily welcome to use them. Indeed, the
Important and Interesting events therein narrated belong to the history of the
times .in which they occurred, and should be placed on record for the use of
future historians of our country and I have not therefore, the least objections
that you shall use them in such a way as you may deem most prudent and proper.
I have one request to make, however, if you conclude to use them and that is,
on reading them, if you shall find a single expression that you think will give
pain to Mrs. McLane that you either strike it out, or modify it I have always
had great respect for her and her family, and would be exceedingly unwilling
to say or do any thing, if I knew it, that would be calculated to wound their
feelings. I also had great respect for Mr. McLane himself, and was always
willing to serve him in any way I could, but I must say that I was greatly sur-
prised to find him so strongly opposed to your nomination, under all the circum-
stances of the case. I had always looked upon him as one of your warmest
and best friends and counted upon his uniting with General Jackson and his
other friends in your support, with great certainty. I did not dream that he
had any aspirations to the presidency himself, for the reason that I knew, when
he left the United States for England In 1829, he had his eye upon another and
very different object. He then preferred a seat on the Bench of the Supreme
Court of the United States ; but on his return, after having accomplished the
objects for which he was sent to London, it seemed that " a change came over
the spirit of his dream." He went to England reluctantly, as I dare say ty>u
recollect, because, he said, with his large family he could not live in London upon
the salary our Government then allowed to our foreign Ministers. Judge
Duvall, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the U. States was a very
old man* and could not reasonably be expected to live very long, and if he had

584 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

died, or resigned, before Mr. McLane returned to the U. States, or before the
Bank troubles arose, I have no doubt but that General Jackson would have
placed him on the Bench of the Supreme Court, for he authorized me to say to
him, before his departure for England, that he would do so, but the rejection of
Mr. Taney's nomination as Secretary of the Treasury Department, by the Senate,
connected with other circumstances, determined the President to offer the vacant
seat on the Bench, occasioned by the resignation of Judge Duvail, to him, Mr.
Taney, upon the same principle that induced him and his friends to insist on
your nomination for the Vice Presidency after your rejection by that same
factious body, a majority of which then consisted of Clay Whigs and Calhoun
Nullifiers !

But Mr. McLane was not the only one of our prominent friends that desired
the nomination, in opposition to you — Gov. Forsyth also wanted it, but he
did not enter into any combinations, or intrigues, so far as I was apprised,
to defeat you. Col. Richard Johnson, not only desired it, but was urging his
claims with all the power and influence he possessed to obtain it, even down to
the very last moment almost, as you will perceive on reading the notes I send
you. The claims of several others were also warmly urged by their friends,
among the most prominent of whom were Judge Wilkins, Gov. Dickinson, of
N. J., and Judge Philip Barber, of Virginia. The latter gentleman was
earnestly recommended by Mr. Kendall1 in a letter he wrote me from
was earnestly recommended by Mr. Kendall in a letter he wrote me from
Concord, New Hampshire, where he had gone on a visit to Gov. (Isaac) Hill
and no doubt with the approbation of that gentleman. Seeing that this question
was likely to give us much trouble and unless satisfactorily arranged in some
way, and that too without much delay, might become dangerous to the very
existence of our party, in my reply to Mr. Kendall's letter I suggested to him
the expediency indeed absolute necessity, of advising our friends every where
to get up a national convention, to convene at some convenient point, for the
purpose of selecting some suitable and proper person to be placed upon the
electoral Ticket with General Jackson, as a candidate for the Vice Presidency,
and, as the Legislature of New Hampshire was then in session. I begged him,
with Mr. Hill's assistance, to get it If possible to adopt resolutions, recom-
mending to our friends, in every state, the getting up of such a convention —
Such a proposition was submitted to the Legislature, and resolutions were
adopted with great unanimity by tl^e friends of the Administration. Similar
proceedings were afterwards adopted by nearly all the democratic states in the
Union, which resulted in the meeting of the Convention that sat in Baltimore
on the 20th of May, 1832, and which nominated0 you for the Vice Presidency.
This was the first convention of the kind ever gotten up I believe, in this
country, and they have been kept up ever since by both democrats and whigs.

The conversation I had with Mr. McLane and to which you refer in your letter,
must have taken place about the last of February 1832, and but a short time after
your rejection by the Senate. I recollect very well previously to that time, you
were opposed to being run for the Vice Presidency, for I conversed with you
several times upon that subject before you left the United States for England ;
but, in opposition to your own opinions and wishes, both General Jackson and
myself were decidedly in fuvour of it. I thought, to be associated with the
General and run for the Vice Presidency upon the same Ticket with him would
bring you more prominently before the country, and strengthen your prospects
for the Presidency at the next succeeding election, and for that reason I was

1 William Wilkins, Mahlon Dlckerson, Philip Barbour, and Amos Kendall.
• MS. V, p.- 165.

AUTOfclOGftAPHY OF MARTltf VAN BUKEN. 585

reconciled to what most persons considered a great sacrifice, on your part, in
giving tip the State Department for the mission to London. I recollect too,
that thinking it possible that yon might persist in refusing to run, I consulted
you with regard to the best and most suitable person to be run for that situa-
tion, and that you recommended Gov. Dickinson, of New Jersey ; but after the
rejection by% the Senate, your true and sincere friends were determined to run
you, regardless of all objections whether made by enemies or pretending friends,
and at their head stood the noble old hero and Patriot of the Hermitage.

But I will not bore yon any longer with my reminiscences upon these almost
antiquated subjects.

My daughter after whom you so kindly enquire is still living in Paris and
her health I am happy to inform you is pretty good with the exception of
occasional attacks of rheumatism or neuralgia. Those complaints, however,
generally are not dangerous, tho' sometimes accompanied by acute and severe
pain — If she can only steer dear of consumption, or pulmonary attacks she
may live to a good old age, but as almost every member of her family on the
Mother's side has died of that complaint I have always been fearful that she
would be taken off in the same way ; but thanks to a kind Providence, she has
thus far escaped and as she is now upwards of 40, she may escape entirely.
Yes, she and Mr. Pageot are still living In Paris with the hope of soon witnessing
the exit of Louis Napoleon, and the Restoration of the Bourbons ! The first she
may live to see and peruana not long, as the political atmosphere of Europe
portends approching storms and tempests just now ; but the advent of the latter,
if Napoleon even should be overthrown, I consider extremely problematical, in
their day at least !

My own health, like yours, Is much better than it used to be, and by the time
I get to be as old a man as you are, if It continues to improve as it has done for
the last 12 or 14 years ; it will, I hope, become perfect ! You say you are 76.
I am only 74 and [on] the rise, that is on the 25th day of next June I shall be
75 if I live to see that day. I attribute the improved condition of my health
mainly to the exercise I take In the open air on horseback.' I have a very nice
farm, and quite a pretty place adjoining Nashville, and ever since I returned
from Washington I make It a rule to ride over It, on horse back twice a day,
when the weather is good, morning and evening, for exercise and, at the same
time, to see how my fanning operations are getting on. In my farming busi-
ness, I am something like our old friend, the General, was in his military opera-
tions while In the service. I not only give my orders but I take care to see
them executed.

Are any of your sons living with you ; or, like me are you all alone : Martin,
I believe, did live with you, but you have had the sad misfortune to lose him,
which I regretted exceedingly to hear; but you have three left you still, and in
that respect Providence has been kinder to you than to me. / had three, a son
and two daughters ; My son and youngest daughter are dead. She died in her
22nd year, leaving a son now in his 15th year, and a very nice promising boy
he is. My son died in his 20th year, just after he had graduated, first at George*
town College, and afterwards at Harvard University. He was everything that
a devoted and affectionate father could desire a son to be, morally and intel-
lectually ; but death Is no respecter of persons. The ways of Providence are,
Indeed, Inscrutable ! How many worthless vagabonds are permitted to live and
taint the moral and social atmosphere with their foul and pestiferous breath,
whilst the brightest ornaments of society are often snatched from us, as it
wore, In the morning of life, and In the beauty and vigor of manhood !

Your sons when I first knew them were not grown, with the exception of the
eldest, but now if I were to meet with them, instead of boys, I dare say I

586 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

should find them grey headed men. Well, whether they be boys still, (some
people never get old), or grey-heads I beg you to present my kind regards to
them, and that you will receive for yourself the best wishes of
Very Truly Yours,

Wm. B. Ljewis.
To Mabtin Van Bubbn

Kmderhook, New York.

P. S. The papers I send you are originals, and as I have no copies of them,
I wish, when you are done with them, that you will put them up carefully
and send them back to me thro the Post office; that is if we shall have, at
that time, any such establishment in this country !

Mr. Larwell,1 the writer of the letter I send you with the notes, is an honest
and very estimable man, and was exceedingly useful at the Convention of 18311
He was appointed a receiver of public monies at one of the Ohio Land offices
by General Jackson and, I believe, was almost the only one in the whole North
Western Country, indeed I may say South Western also, that honestly accounted
for the public moneys received by them. He continued in office through your
Administration, and may stjll hold the same office for aught I know.

Wm. B. Lewis.

Have you ever seen a correspondence between Mr. A. C. Flagg and myseli
upon the subject of your being run for the Vice Presidency? It took place in
February 1832, not long after your rejection, as Minister to England, by the
Senate. I think it probable Mr. Flagg has preserved it, and if you have not
seen it I am sure you would be gratified at its perusal, as it has a bearing upon
the very point referred to in your letter to me, if my memory serves me
correctly.

Wm. B. Lewis.

Afbil 25th/59.

With the above letter Major Lewis enclosed0 me also a document
entitled " Notes ec" every part of which will be found below (save
the passage which he desired should not be published) and also the
original letter from Major Eaton spoken of in the " Notes." Both
papers appear to have been written many years ago aitho' the
" Notes " in the handwriting of Major Lewis and signed by him bear
no date. Mr. LarwelFs letter sent with the above is confined to a
review of the preliminary steps and doings of the Baltimore Conven-
tion of 1832, as to which he confirms the statements of Major Lewis.

Deeply affected by the contents of these papers which threw a
deeper shade over Mr. McLane's conduct towards me than I had
ever allowed myself to think it deserved I again addressed Major
Lewis, and asked him to inform me as nearly as he could at what
time his " Notes " were written. In his reply he says :

The statement was prepared at Washington as you suppose, but the precise
time it was done, I do not now recollect It was, however, in the latter part
of General Jackson's Administration, if my memory serves me correctly — I
feel pretty confident of this, because about the time I contemplated drawing
it up I wrote to Mr. A. C. Flagg and requested him to send me a copy of a

1 Joseph H. Larwill. • MS. V. p. 170.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUREN. 587

letter I wrote him In Feby 1882 upon the subject of your rejection by the
Senate and, also, in relation to the Convention and your nomination for the
Vice Presidency, which letter I wanted to see previously to drawing up the
statement and having kept no copy of It, I desired Mr. Flagg to send me one.
This, I think, was in the Autumn of 1885, but my letter, if Mr. Flagg has
preserved It, will show the date. At all events It was before General Oass left
the U. States on his Mission, as Minister to France, which was in the summer
or the beginning of the fall of 1836, because I perfectly recollect, after getting
a copy of my letter to Mr. Flagg, that I showed the correspondence to him.
So that the statement must have been written in either 1835 or 1886b Why I
did not show it to you I cannot tell, unless it was for the reason that I sup-
posed you had already been made acquainted with all the important circum-
stances and facts relating to that Convention. I do not think I ever showed
it to General Jackson, nor did I ever make him fully acquainted with -the
very extraordinary conduct, on that occasion, of some of his most intimate and
trusted friends, because I knew it would have deeply mortified him, and I had
no wish to do that

The omission of a date to the statement was probably owing, I think, to an
expectation that some additions might be made to it. I know that I had always
intended to write to Mr. Larwell upon the subject and get a statement from him,
who was perfectly conversant with all the movements in connection with the
proceedings of that convention, more for the purpose, however, of corroborating
my statement, than from any want of confidence in its correctness. I omitted
to do this, however until I saw in some of the democratic papers an attempt to
depreciate the services of some of those who had been most active and resolute
in their efforts to sustain General Jackson in what was known to be his wishes
with regard to the nomination of yourself for the Vice Presidency, anfl then It
was I wrote to Mr. Larwell and received from him, in reply, the letter I sent
to you, which I filed with my own statement, prepared some three or four years
before. The object I originally had in view was to place it, with many others
of a similar character, in the hands of my son, thinking they might be some day,
interesting as well as instructive to him ; but after his death, poor fellow, I have
taken very little care of them, and it is a wonder that I was enabled so readily
to lay my hand on the one I sent you. Since then I have been lucky enough to
find the correspondence between myself and Mr. Flagg, alluded to above, as
well as in my first letter, and which, I herewith enclose to you. Those are the
only copies I have, and I must ask the favour of you to return them to me with
the other papers I sent you. I never expect to have any use for them myself,
but I have two grandsons who possibly may.

But to the statement itself, which I now copy — omitting a single
paragraph at his request, as explained above, and appending the
letter from Eaton referred to and as much of the letter to Mr. Flagg
as relates to the same subject: the residue of the letter treating ex-
clusively of efforts to extend the circulation of the " Globe " News-
paper.

Noras Ac.

The cause of my writing to Mr. Eaton the letter to which his is a reply,
requires explanation. The day before Judge Overton * left Washington to attend
the Baltimore Convention, which sat on the 20th May, 1832, I stepped into his

1 John Overton, of Tennessee.

588 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

room (we both occupied rooms at the President's House) and found him busily
engaged writing. I had scarcely taken my seat, when he laid down his pen.
and accosted me thus — " Well, Lewis," said he, " if we should not be able to
nominate Mr. Van Buren for the Vice Presidency, who next shall we take?"
I quickly replied, and with some feeling, if we cannot get him, I care not whom
you select. "Come, come," said he, "that's not like a general — an able com-
mander always examines his ground well before he goes into action, with an
eye to defeat as well as victory, so that in case it becomes necessary he may
make a safe retreat*9 " But, Judge," I replied, " there are times and occasions
when like Cortez, a commander should 'burn his ships* with the view of
cutting off all means of retreat." " Come, come,'* he replied again, " that, I tell
you, is not like a man of sense." The idea suddenly flashed upon my mind that
there was more in the Judge's remarks than met the eye, and I determined
to see what he was at. " Well, Judge," I said, in an altered tone, " perhaps you
are right in thinking we should have more than one string to our bow. Have
you thought upon the subject? If so, whom would you recommend, In case we
should fail in our efforts to have Mr. Van Buren nominated?" "Why, yes,
Sir," he said, " I have been looking around me, and in that event, I have thought
it would be best to take up General Samuel Smith, of Baltimore. He is a man
who has been long in the public service — Is well known to the country, and
would unquestionably be acceptable to the friends of the Administration." The
very moment he named General Smith, I saw by whom and for what purpose
he had been operated on. The whole scheme was as plain to me as day light
Major Barry, the Postmaster General, was a connection of Judge Overton and
had a great deal of influence over him, and was at the same time in the
Interest of Mr. McLane, Secretary of the Treasury, who, I was satisfied,
anxiously desired to defeat if possible the nomination of Mr. Van Buren.
General Smith was a favourite of Mr. McLane's and, it was expected, would,
of course, use the influence of his station for his benefit ° Besides, he was a
very old man, and would be in no body's way at the close of General Jackson's
next term. There is no doubt upon my mind that Mr. McLane himself desired
to be placed upon the ticket with General Jackson, but finding there was no
hope, his next object was to get a friend of his own selected, who would not be
in his way, at the next presidential election in case he should be disposed to run,
This conversation with Judge Overton caused me a good deal of uneasiness,
for It satisfied me that there was an intrigue on foot to defeat the nomination of
Mr. Van Buren for the Vice Presidency, and consequently for the succession.
Being determined, therefore, to probe this matter to the bottom, if in my power,
and haying resolved to sound Major Barry upon the subject, I accordingly
sought an interview with him on Sunday morning, (the 19th) and without
letting him know my object, or saying anything to him in relation to my conver-
sation with Judge Overton, I drew him into a conversation about the convention
and its nominee, for the Vice Presidency. After a few preliminary remarks, I
asked him if he thought there was any doubt about the nomination of Mr. Van
Buren. He said he did not consider the nomination by any means certain.
I told him I had supposed that there would be no difficulty, nor did I yet think
there would be, as almost every delegate I had seen, was in favour of his nomina-
tion. He replied, " I think you are mistaken in the views and feelings of many
of the delegates." I cannot be, I remarked for I had conversed with most of
them from the West and I believed they to a man would go for Mr. Van Buren ;
and I hud good reason to believe that those from Virginia as well as New York,

° MS. V, p. 175.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 589

would also support him. " Why," said he, " I doubt whether your Tennessee
delegates will go for him." '• Why do you doubt that? " I asked him—" because,"
said he, " I am told Mr. Eaton, who is at the head of the delegation, thinks It
would be Jeoparding General Jackson's election to run Mr. Van Buren with him
on the same Ticket" This, I told him, was impossible. I felt confident, I
added that Mr. Eaton would support Mr. Van Buren. Upon this he coolly
replied, "You had better not be too confident, for I tell you it is extremely
doubtful — he will support no one, who, he thinks, will endanger General Jack-
son's election." Here our conversation ended and we parted.

If my conversation with Judge Overton occasioned uneasiness, this with Major
Barry was still more alarming. The latter was an intimate and confidential
friend of Mr. Eaton, and I thought it likely, therefore, that there had been a
correspondence between them upon that subject. I well knew if Mr. Eaton and
Judge Overton should be opposed to Mr. Van Buren that he could not get the
nomination. — They being the personal and confidential friends of General Jack-
son, would be considered as representing his feelings and wishes in relation to
the matter, which would enable them to procure the nomination of almost any
person whom they might recommend to the convention. This determined me to
write, at once, to Mr. Eaton, who had been absent in Tennessee six or eight
months, for the purpose of undeceiving him, If he had been led to believe, from
any source, that the President desired the nomination of any other person than
Mr. Van Buren, or that he was ever Indifferent about his nomination. I assured
him, in my letter, that so far from that he would be excessively mortified if he
should not be taken up by the convention — indeed, that he would as soon be
dropped himself, by his friends. I had no time to take a copy of my letter, and
as Mr. Eaton was rather careless with his papers, I desired him to destroy it, as
he says in his letter, for fear it might fall into the hands of some person who
would make its contents public, and thereby expose both the President and
myself. Whether my apprehensions were well or ill founded in relation to Mr.
Van Buren, will be seen from the tone of Mr. Eaton's letter. If I had not
written to him there is no telling what effects the suggestions of others might
have had upon him.

Judge Overtoil and Major Barry, however, were not the only persons of
Influence about the person of the President, I conversed with upon the sub-
ject of running Mr. Van Buren for the Vice Presidency. Among others I had
soon after his rejection by the Senate, a long and rather an excited conversa-
tion with Mr. McLane who alleged that if he were associated with General
Jackson it would endanger his success and the safety of the whole party. I
remarked to him that I thought it had been unanimously determined by the
Members of the Cabinet to take him up in case the Senate should throw him
overboard as was anticipated some time before it happened. He said he was
not aware of any such understanding — besides, he added, it would have been
useless for them to have resolved upon any such course, as there were other
persons belonging to the party, over whom they had no control, who would be
candidates. "Who are they"? I enquired. "Why, Sir," said he, "Col. John-
son and Judge Wilkins ! " I told him I could not believe either would be — the
former, I was sure would not, for I had Just had a conversation with him In
my office, and he assured me that he would not thwart the wishes of the
party, if it desired the nomination of Mr. Van Buren. " Well, Sir," said, he,
"I can assure you that he holds a different language to me. I understand
from him that he will be a candidate." In this, Mr. McLane was correct, for,
long afterwards, Mr. Speaker Stevenson and myself had great difficulty In
prevailing on him to authorize his name to be withdrawn. This, however,

590 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

he did, bat it was a few days only before the meeting of the convention. Judge
Wllklns, tho' never did decline, and was, a few days after this conversation,
actually nominated by a state convention which sat at Harrisburg on the 4th
of March 1882. In my conversations with the Judge, with whom I was upon
the most intimate and friendly terms, I was led to believe, tho' without any
positive assurances from him, that he would at the proper time decline and
leave the coast clear to Mr. Van Buren ; but he never did, and actually received
the electoral vote of Pennsylvania for the Vice Presidency — (For this, I think,
he was never forgiven, and was made to feel it in the summer of 1834, when
he was spoken of as Secretary of Navy.) But to return to Sir. McLane. I
asked him why he was opposed to Mr. Van Buren's nomination. And at the
same time remarked that from the friendship which existed between them,
I had supposed he would have been the very first to urge his nomination for
the situation referred to. He said no one was a better friend of his than he, or
would be more willing to serve him, but that he could not consent to jeopard
the administration for any one. He verily believed, he added, to place him on
the Ticket, after having been rejected by the Senate, would sink General Jack-
son, and consequently the whole party with him. This he thought was hazard-
ing too much for any one man* I told him I apprehended no such dangerous
consequences. At all events, I felt fully authorised in saying that the General
was willing to swim or sink with Mr. Van Buren; and would prefer going
back to the Hermitage rather than leave him to his fate under such circum-
stances. I then left Mr. McLane and had no farther conversation with him
upon the subject

The conversation referred to above, occasioned a coolness between myself
and Mr. McLane, and from that time until after the election we were scarcely
upon speaking terms. Mr. Van Buren after his return from Europe about the
first of July 1882 spoke to me about Mr. McLane and said that we ought not to
quarrel — adding that he was sure that he was a good friend of mine notwith-
standing what had passed. I told him I had no wish to quarrel with him and
did not mean to do so if I could avoid it After the election, however, Mr.
McLane very frankly admitted to me (at a dinner party at Mr. Eaton's)
he had been mistaken in his views with regard to the effect of running Mr.
Van Buren, and that I had formed a much more correct opinion of public
sentiment Our former friendship was renewed, and he had no better friend
at Washington than myself.

Wic. B. Lewis.

°Fbom Majob Eaton to Wx. B. Lewis.

(Endorsed May 21st, 1882.)

Baltimore.
Deab Sib,

I have your letter of Sunday and have read and torn it to pieces as you
requested.

Don't distrust my feelings towards V. B. — they are, as always they have been,
good and kind and friendly. My object has been, and Is to serve General Jack-
son ; and no fear as to V. B. has ever come across me, save that his nomination
might do }njury to the General, and to V. B. The first is a prominent considera-
tion with me. V. B.'s nomination will open the floods of abuse upon him, and
defeat his future prospects ; for all parties will unite against him ; to cry down,

* MS. V, p. 180.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUKEN. 591

and to destroy him. My belief is, that if made Govr. of N. Y. it would be service-
able beyond his nomination here,

Wilkins would allay all, and keep all right But Penn\ has not sent his
friends here. If they had I do not doubt but he would have been chosen; as it
is, V. B. will succeed. For as far as I can judge V. B. will be unanimously,
almost, selected — unless we change out of great regard to him, and to his future
prospects.

We have been in session all day. Judge O. was appointed to the chair. He
was at home quite sick — very sick. I rose and returned our acknowledgments
for the civility — stated his indisposition, and moved that General Lucas1 (Ohio)
be chosen ; it passed nem. con. • We have a vast crowd — more than two hundred
members — from every state except MlssL and a fine looking set of fellows.
In great haste yrs.

Baton.

Wm. B. Lewis to A. O. Flagg, Esq.

Washington, Uth Feb. 183&
DeabStb, • • •

You speak in your letter of the indignation every where excited by the rejec-
tion of Mr. Van Buren's nomination and intimate that it Is intended by his
friends, In New York, to run him for Governor. I can well imagim* that the
people of New York feel very Indignant at the outrageous conduct of the Senate,
as Is the case In every state heard from ; but my dear Sir, I hope his friends will
not think, for a moment, of running him for any State appointment The wrong
has been done to him, the President, and the Nation by the Senate of the United
State*, and it must be redressed by the people of all the States. From all quar-
ters heard from, the people manifest a determination to run him for the Vice
Presidency, and upon this, / think, they are resolved. I am sure, If it Is desired,
or even expected to make Mr. Van Buren President, this occasion to place him
prominently before the Nation should be promptly embraced. If the party can-
not now, under existing circumstances, succeed In electing him Vice President,
he can never hope to be President To run him for any local, or subordinate
situation, would, in my opinion, destroy his political prospects forever. I speak
not my own sentiments only, but the opinions and feelings of every one of
General Jackson's real friends here. Upon this subject I understand the Cabinet
is unanimous; (this however should not be spoken of publicly as it might have
the effect of destroying their influence upon that subject) and we have the most
encouraging [reports] from all quarters not excepting Virginia and Pennsyl-
vania. I hope, therefore, our friends in New York will throw no obstacles In
the way. If they feel a delicacy in actively co-operating, let them be passive,
at least for the present I hope you will pardon the liberty I have taken In
venturing these hasty suggestions. I write as I feel, and as every true friend
to the President, in this City, feels.

I am Sir,

With much respect
Your Mo. obt Svt.

Wm. B. Lewis.

1 Robert Lucas.

CHAPTER XL.

The conduct which is brought home to Mr. McLane upon the
authority of his early and constant friend is submitted to the reader
without animadversion or even comment on my part. Most sincerely
do I regret the obligation imposed on me by considerations which
I am not at liberty to disregard to fedd what remains to be told
of our subsequent intercourse and in doing so to record, unavoidably,
what additional favours he allowed himself to ask and to receive
at the hands of a still confiding friend, against whom whilst absent
from the country and whilst struggling for political existence, he
had found himself capable of aiming a blow which promised to be
more fatal than any which the most embittered enemies could wield
against him. This will be done with as much brevity as the grave
public transactions out of which they arose and with which they
were connected will admit of. Moreover, what I have further to
say being with fuU knowledge of the treatment I have received,
the reader will not need to be reminded of his right and duty to
make all proper allowance for the influence of that knowledge upon
the tone and temper of the narrative. Let him also be the judge
of the success of my endeavors to say as little as possible and to say
that with calmness and moderation. It will naturally be thought
strange that the communication made to me by Mr. Blair and the
remarkable reply to my interrogatory by General Jackson did not
impress me with more caution in regard to further intercourse with
Mr. McLane. The only excuses I can give for the heedlessness of
my subsequent course are to be found in the hope I cherished that
Mr. Blair's views of the matter, (a gentleman whom I did not then
know a thousandth part as well as I afterwards knew him), were
under the influence of prejudice, and the promise I made to General
Jackson to pass the matter by — a promise which when made, it
was not in my nature to observe half-way. But whatever may be
thought of this explanation, the fact requires me to admit the in-
terference on my part alluded to in Major Lewis' statement to
appease the unfriendly feelings which had been excited in his
breast against Mr. McLane. This must have been almost imme-
diately after the course to be pursued had been agreed upon between
General Jackson and myself and it adds another to the singular
features of our intercourse that the first of my new series of efforts
to serve Mr. McLane should have been to soothe irritation caused
592

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BT7REN. 598

by an act of hostility to myself of which I was, however, ignorant,
or it would seem, weakly incredulous.

It will be recollected that Mr. McLane in his letter to me of the
9th of August spoke of a visit to the north which he had in con-
templation to consult with me in relation to certain changes of
which we had spoken whilst I was at Washington; and to make
some suggestions both in regard to himself and others which he
deemed important I received also from him some weeks later a
brief note fixing the time when he would come to New York and
by desire of the President (concurring with his own views of "in-
dispensable necessity") converse with me on "sundry grave mat-
ters." The " grave matters " referred to were of no less importance
than the transfer of Mr. Livingston,1 then Secretary of State, to
France, the elevation of Mr. McLane to the Department of State
and — last, though by no means least, either in point of importance
in his estimation or in respect to the aggravated difficulties which
were thrown around the subject by his views in respect to it — the
appointment of a new Secretary of the Treasury to supply the
vacancy that would be created by his own advancement. The two
first movements had ceased to be open questions and waited only
the expedient moment for their execution. The last was one of
great delicacy as well as difficulty, in consequence of the relation
in which the Administration stood towards the Bank of the United
States and the peculiar duty that the Secretary of the Treasury0
would, in all probability, be called upon to perform. Mr. McLane
was openly in favour of the recharter of the Bank — had been op-
posed to the President's veto and was equally decided against the
next great step the President had in view— Jthat of substituting
some of the State Banks for the Bank of the United States as the
depository of the public revenues. He came to New York and we
there had the interview he desired.

My opinions in respect to the best course to be pursued were com-
municated to him without reserve. These were that Mr. Taney
should be appointed Secretary of the Treasury and Mr. Butler * At-.
torney General in his place, both of which appointments were fi-
nally made after the President had been subjected to a world of
trouble by the intermediate selection of Mr. Duane' for the first
office. The preference I expressed for the selection of Taney for
the Treasury is alluded to in the letter from Mr. McLane to me
which follows, though not in express terms. He opposed it at our

•

1 Edward Livingston.

• MS! V. p. 185.

* Roger B. Taney, of Maryland, and Benjamin F. Bntler, of New York.
1 William J. Duane,

127483°— vol 2—20 38

594 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

interview with much earnestness and it will be seen that he repeats
that opposition emphatically in his letter, holding up to me, and
through me to the President, nothing less than his own retirement
from public life as the possible consequence of Mr. Taney's introduc-
tion into the Treasury Department.

That Mr. McLane determined to bring Mr. Duane into that depart-
ment of the Government by which alone the views of the President
in respect to the change of the place of deposit could be carried
into effect and that he entered upon the accomplishment of that
object having good reasons to believe that Mr. Duane's views con-
formed or might be brought to conform to his own, no one familiar
with the events of that time will 'now affect to doubt It must be
admitted that this attempt was a bold one, whatever may be thought
of its discretion with reference to its ultimate consequences to him-
self. That he succeeded in it, is strongly illustrative of the in-
fatuation by which both the President and myself were infected
in respect to him and of the consequent influence he was capable
of exercising over us. I have said that in my opinion there is no
reasonable ground to doubt that the appointment of Duane was his
deliberate scheme; nevertheless it may be now perhaps made a
question — having reference only to the evidence produced-*-whether
the suggestion of Mr. Duane's name originated with him or with
the President. I give the evidence on both sides that the reader may
form his own judgment In the letter which follows from the Presi-
dent he authorizes that latter supposition, whilst in a subsequent let-
ter to me, which is published, speaking of the removal of the depos-
its he alludes to the appointment of fhiane as made at Mr. McLane's
instance, and complains that he should have urged it with a knowl-
edge that his (Duane's) opinions were against the measure. Mr.

Blair on the same side, in his letter of the date, says, " He,

General Jackson, told me positively that Mr. McLane had slapped
his hand on his thigh after canvassing other Pennsylvanians, and
named Duane as the very man for the place." Mr. McLane's let-
ters to me which follow can scarcely fail to strengthen belief in
that as the most probable conclusion. The motive for suppress-
ing the fact that the appointment had that origin was to prevent
jealousy in the Cabinet which would be likely to arise from so
great an accession to the influence of one of its members, and we
have before seen the principle by which the General felt himself
at liberty to be governed in assuming the responsibility of those
who acted under him when he thought the public interest would be
promoted by his doing so. As in the cases of his undivided assump-
tion of the appointment of Randolph, and of the instructions to Mr.

AUTOBIOGBAPHY OF MABTIK VAN BTJBSK. 595

McLane on the subject of the West Indies, he chose to place the
responsibility where the Constitution placed it, and where, more-
over, his military training had taught him to think it ought always to
rest

Stone Pawnmrr Jackson.

Washington, Nov. 25th, 1832.
My Dbab 8n,

I am In receipt of your confidential letter of the 22nd instant and have read
It with attention and duly noted its contents as well as those of its enclosure.
I had prepared and submitted to my Cabinet the outlines of my Message to
Congress before the receipt of your views but was gratified to find that they
corresponded precisely. This, from what I knew before of your opinions, I ex-
pected and the receipt of yours only confirmed them.

On the Naval Office I will take an order in all [ J] December. In the mean time,
as I am aware that it is proper that your name should not be introduced in any
way and as our enemies in the Senate may call for recommendations, would it
not be well to get Cambreleng, White, Marcy, and Dudley to present Throop
for that appointment ; many others are strongly presented for that office,

I was anxious that the arrangement in the Cabinet should have taken place
before the meeting of Congress and the Minister have been at Paris 'ere this.
Now it must be postponed until after Congress meets, and on presenting Mr.
Livingston to the Senate a fit person must be selected for the Treasury.

I have been passing in review Pennsylvania, flrrt, then Virginia and aU the
South and as yet have not been able to make a selection. This I find difficult
There are Jealousies (about men) In Virginia that must not be aroused; and,
passing over the South and viewing our present situation, it will not be prudent
to weaken ourselves in the Senate. The character must be one of high standing
in the Nation ; he ought to be in constitutional and political views with us —
opposed to the power of Congress to establish corporations anywhere except in
the District of Columbia and opposed to the power of creating corporations
the Government becoming a partner or shareholder; be heartily with us in
reducing the revenue to the wants of the Government and yielding to our own
labour, and productions that are means of national defense, such protection
as will place them on a fair competition with foreign labour; — a man of
integrity combined with talent and a disposition to harmonize and unite in the
administration for the benefit of the whole Union, extending Justice to every
part of it Help me to search out such a character— or as near it as can be
obtained, and write me soon.

Tour triumph is complete and the faction in the Senate condemned by an
overwhelming majority of the people. You will get aU the votes of the South
and West except Kentucky and South Carolina— the vote in No. Carolina is
a large majority— in Virginia, overwhelming; your triumph, I repeat, is hon-
orable to the people and must be entirely satisfactory to you. We have only
now to go on and continue faithful to the people and realize in our actions that
confidence they have so liberally reposed.

Intense labour has brought back occasional headache. — My health Is other-
wise good and I trust Providence will prolong my days a little while and make
me an Instrument in His hands to put down the present excitement and restore
harmony to the nation.

596 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Mrs. D is a little unwell and confined. All your other friends are well

and unite In good wishes and kind salutations.

Believe me your friend

Andrew Jackson
Martin Van Buben Esq.

P. S.— A happy thought has occurred: William J. Duane, in whom every
confidence can be placed, flashed into my mind, after writing the above, and
having named him to Mr. McLane he assures me that his talents In every way,
are suited to this situation. This selection puts out of our way9 many things
that would have embarrassed us — and will have a tendency to harmonize Penn-
sylvania and keep her with the Democracy of the Union. Pennsylvania de-
serves this notice from me. She has supported me from first to last althof I
differed with her on the American System. Duane is competent and he brings
with him a great weight of moral character; it is going to the people for
agents; he is warmly attached to you and to my administration; having con-
ducted Qirard's business for a Jong time he is well acquainted with finance
and commercial law. In short, when we reflect, he is, as Pennsylvania de-
serves the office, the very person who ought to be* selected. Let me hear from
you. Excuse this scrawl — I have no time to copy.

A. J.
From Lotos McLane.

Washington, Nov. $6, 1832.
My deab Sib,

The President appeared satisfied after conversation on my return from New
York to acquiesce in the propriety or rather necessity of postponing the con-
templated changes here until the spring; tho* it was obvious he was not alto-
gether happy or at ease in the unsettled state of his mind : and the matter has
been since more than once recurred to.

I found also that in my absence the idea of changing from the Navy or office
of A. Gen'l to the T. had been suggested to him or had passed through his mind ;
but without receiving with any definite approbation. On the contrary the for-
mer expedient had not been viewed with any favour and received still less
after what he heard from me. I did not feel authorized after your injunction
to me, to suggest the view you had partially meditated, and as he did not him-
self entertain any distinct idea, I may perhaps have been less inclined to do so
from considerations of which you are fully aware. My main inducement, how-
ever, for silence was your injunction and what I understood from the Presi-
dent to be his determination not to Include New York in his arrangements
unless from a clear necessity and his wish to look to Penn*. if that were prac-
ticable, in both which he mentioned to me he had your concurrence in a letter
but recently received.

His preference for Penna. was decidely declared on many accounts and among
others that he believed he could thereby more effectually gratify his views and
wishes towards yourself. It seemed moreover that by going to Penn. he would
avoid the conflicting pretensions of his friends in the South and more readily
reconcile Forsyth to a longer continuance in the Senate where he believes it
Important to retain him.

He believed also that in consequence of the opposition of some of his cardinal
points of administration to the policy of Penn. past and to come, he might more
effectually preserve his future weight in the party and in the support of his
administration by making the selection from that state ; and he also felt that

• MS. V, p. 190.

ATJTOBIOGBAPHY OF MABTItf VAN BUBBN. 597

the early and steadfast support given him by that state especially in the last
struggle and in defiance of the veto &c, &c gave her claims upon his gratitude,
and that he should feel better satisfied in yielding to them if a proper man
could be found within her limita I confess that these views met my concur-
rence other things being equal, and there being no superior obstacle.

Looking to Penna. Dallas, Wilkins, Buchanan,1 and Wm. J. Duane severally
passed In review and to each of the three former he had what appeared to be
Insuperable objections, both personal and political which it is presumed you
will readily and fully comprehend. Wm. J. Duane is a warm and active
friend of yours, was among the earliest to espouse your cause, and has been
sincere and efficient in his endeavours to divert the electoral vote of Penn. to
your support. He is and has been an early uniform friend, personal and politi-
cal, of the P. and from his youth a uniform and popular member of the old
democracy in opposition to all its enemies. His purity and integrity of char-
acter is without reproach, and his devotion and fidelity might be relied upon in
any and every crisis. His capacity, education, business habits and financial
knowledge are said to be unquestionable and that he had for years before Mr.
Glrard's death managed his Banking concerns and business generally. The
President adverted to a great variety of other considerations which had weight
with him, and the only objection which I could conceive to the selection was
the possibility of its interference with another plan, which however I did not
feel at liberty to suggest, and a doubt that he was not sufficiently prominent
as a public man which I did suggest. It was evident, however, that the Presi-
dent's mind had taken a decided bent and even settled down in his favour;
he said he would write to you, if he were at liberty to express my concurrence.
To this I assented and promised to write myself, which I now do. He desired
me to write to Duane ; but I determined on reflection not to do so ; but hearing
this afternoon that Duane is in town I have written to the President, not being
able to get out of my office, requesting him if Mr. Duane should call on him not
to mention the subject until I can see him. On my way home I shall call, and
ask that nothing definitive will be done until he hears from you. After that
interview I will write you again, if I am In time for the mall. I am, both on
personal and political grounds, so thoroughly satisfied of the propriety of this
selection that I should clinch it at once and irrevocably but for an apprehension
that it may create some disappointment in your quarter. I hope you need no
assurance of my determination to promote Mr. Butler * to anything ; tho' I con-
fess that the means you hinted to me would be gall and wormwood; and, I
frankly tell you, rob me of almost every inducement to continue in public
life: it would rob me of all but the difficulty of making Immediate provision
for a large and helpless family. If that inducement could be removed my course,
in the event referred to would be plain; but I beg you to understand would
not alienate me in fact or in feeling from the President and yourself, towards
whom I feel that I am Incapable of indifference or ingratitude. If Mr. B. could
be placed in the T. I should be fully satisfied ; or if Mr. T.a could go abroad and
thus accomplish your own view, I should be even better satisfied. However,
this and one other act of patronage has given me more solicitude than I am
willing now to express, and more than all the honors of Cabinet place will ever
repay.

I believe I have now given you a full view of the whole ground as far as I
understand it, and which the P. said he did not doubt would be satisfactory
to you.

1 George M. Dallas, William Wllklns, and James Buchanan.

• Benjamin F. Butler.

* Roger B. Taney.

598 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

I ought to add that no Immediate change is contemplated, and that therefore
the chance of events still remains.

I am, my dear Sir
Very faithfully yours

UMcLank
Hon. M. Van Buben

* TO TBS PnSXDBNT.

Albany, Nov. 29th, 1832.
My Dear Sib,

I received your letter at the moment of leaving New York and have this
morning been favored with a very sensible and dispassionate one from our
friend McLane upon the same subject, — as I am very busy with my friends you
must allow me to answer both by this. I have fully considered your suggestion
in regard to Mr. Duane, and do not hesitate to say that the measure proposed
has more advantages, and Is freer from objections than any which I have been
able to hit upon. His location and personal and political character are pre-
cisely every thing we could wish, and the absence of that sort of previous
notoriety as a public man which is generally considered indispensable, and
which is so often the result of accident, is, I think, more than made up by the
consideration you suggest, — going to the people for agents.

The only point about it which is not so clear to me, because I have had no
opportunity for Judging, is, the question of capacity. Mr. McLane and your-
self have had opportunities and are not in danger of making a mistake upon
that point. I had thought of suggesting the propriety of bringing Mr. Butler
into the office of Attorney General if Mr. Taney could be provided for in a
manner more acceptable to himself; but on my return to this place, I find that,
influenced by that never failing good sense which keeps Mr. Butler from being
led astray by the partiality of his friends or of the public, he prefers to remain
where he is, at the head of his profession, and completing a suitable provision
for his family. I think I would not let the matter feme out in advance.
Don't forget to send for Forsyth and put him at his ease. I thank you for your
attention to my friend Throop. Judge Marcy will attend to what you suggest
Remember me affectionately to all the members of your family. I sincerely
hope Mrs. D. has recovered. Show this to Mr. McLane.

If I do not say anything about the signal triumph I have, through your in-
strumentality and the kindness of my countrymen, obtained over my enemies,
you must not suppose that I think the less of It. The mail is closing and I
must do the like.

Very truly yours,

M. Van Buben.

P. S. — I last evening consulted in confidence my friends Marcy, Wright,
Flagg, Croswell and Butler and they concur fully. It is not a little singular
that this name should have flashed upon your mind, as it did upon mine, you
will recollect, in our walk upon the Terrace, for the place he now holds.

Mr. McLane's wishes were gratified on all points. Mr. Livingston
was removed out of his way by the Mission to France, himself
promoted to the office of Secretary of State, his friend, Duane, was
appointed Secretary of the Treasury, and Woodbury and the modest
and ingenuous Taney were suffered to remain where they stood.
I will not say the claims to promotion of the two latter were sac-

• MS. V, p. 195.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BlfeBN. 599

rificed to Mr. McLane's prejudices for that would perhaps be an
expression too strong for the occasion, and rather an awkward one
for me to employ as I was made a party to what was done.

A word or two here in explanation of the allusions in the post-
script of my letter.

The rejection in the Senate of the nomination of Stephen Simpson
as one of the Commissioners under the French Treaty was, if not
the first, among the first instances of similar proceedings. It oc-
curred at a moment when the President's mind was greatly disturbed
by other causes and before he had become accustomed to the exercise
of Senatorial supervision in the way in which it was on that occasion
exerted. Yet new in the discharge of his executive dutes, the action
of the Senate, without enquiring as to the grounds upon which the
nomination had been made or assignment of any reasons for its
rejection, seemed to him designedly disrespectful. Looking upon
it as an attempt on the part of the Senate to deter him from the per-
formance of his duties by making him feel the extent of its powers,
he determined at the instant to renominate Simpson, and to send
♦to that body the recommendations upon which he had selected him
with a respectful request to be informed of the nature of its ob-
jections. I arrived at the Executive Mansion a few moments after
the Secretary of the Senate had left him and found him in the East
Boom, in which there were also at the moment several other persons,
whom curiosity had drawn to inspect an apartment which had ac-
quired much notoriety during the Presidential canvass, and in whose
presence he spoke of the transaction with his usual unreserve and
with more than usual excitement Anxious to be relieved from their
presence I raised a window opening upon the terrace and proposed
a stroll to which he assented. However excusable he might be in
believing that a majority of the Senate were more influenced by
their hostility to him in the act he complained of than by a sense
of public duty he was wrong itl assuming that they had gone be-
yond the regular exercise of their constitutional functions or that
he would be justifiable in putting to them the interrogatory he pro-
posed, and perceiving that he was in danger of exposing to his
opponents what a large portion of the public and not a few of
his friends conceived to be his weakest side, I exerted myself to the
utmost to divert him from his purpose.

My long service in the Senate enabled me to bring to his notice
several cases in which partisan majorities had pursued a course
equally exceptionable during the administration of some of his
predecessors without being noticed in the way he proposed by any
of them, save perhaps, on one occasion by Mr. Adams, on which
he himself was one of the offending Senators. Our walk commenced

600 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

in the afternoon and continued till it was dark without interruption,
although I saw gentlemen approaching us who were turned back
by the manifest earnestness of our conversation. He listened to
me with uniform respect and indulgence but, for a long time, without
the slightest indication of a willingness to change his purpose and
I have not forgotten his energy and emphasis at one moment when,
arresting his steps and turning towards me he said " I tell you, Mr.
Van Buren, we shall never have peace with these men until they are
made to understand the character of Andrew Jackson better than
they now do." I suggested the names of several individuals as
proper to be sent in but without effect, until a chance allusion from
him to the early struggles of the old Republican party, whilst he
was a Member of Congress, brought suddenly to my mind the favour-
able opinion he had often expressed to me of the conduct, at that
period, of the then redoubtable conductor of the " Aurora " — William
Duane, and the disposition evinced by the General to befriend him
whenever a suitable opportunity might offer. I was not personally
acquainted with his son, William J. Duane, but knew enough of
his character and standing in his profession to feel convinced that*
his appointment would be a good one, and proposed his name with
a reference to what had passed between us in regard to the father.
The favourable impression made by the suggestion was at once
apparent There seemed to be something Q in the idea of sending
to the federalists in the Senate the name of a son of William Duane
which divested his acquiesence in the rejection of Simpson of every
appearance of yielding to their hostility and, in the sequel reconciled
him to the abandonment of a design to which he had before some-
what pertinaciously clung. Accordingly he invited me into his office
and prepared a new nomination to that effect which was confirmed
by the Senate. I spoke of this affair more than once to Mr. McLane
as I did frequently to others. Whether it furnished a cue to the
former in the consultations preceding the appointment of Duane
to the Treasury I am not, of course, able to say.

To return from this digression — at the period at which we have
now arrived the next of the great measures of President Jackson's
administration, for some time meditated, was brought to its con-
summation. I allude to that familiarly known as the u Removal of
the Deposits." Mr. McLane had thrown his official shield around
the Bank in his first annual report upon the finances. Of that docu-
ment he thus wrote to me at London, in his letter of the 6th of De-
cember, 1831:

You will not approve of this report most probably— unless you purge your

mind, not of your democracy, but of your party prejudices. If you take it up

. . ^ — ^ — — — ^_ ^— — — i - i ■ ^^— — i— ■ ■ — ^— ■ ■ »

• MS. V, p. 200.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 601

Id the spirit of a patriot you will bless me for it. I feel as you may suppose
great solicitude but am not without confidence in success — *

And in that of the 12th,:

I send, by this opportunity, addressed to you, a few copies of the annual re-
port for some of my friends in England, which, if It Is not against your con-
science, I will thank you to cause to be forwarded.

Mr. McLane never acted against the principles by which he knew
President Jackson intended to be guided in the administration of the
Government without being sensible of the pain it would give me, but
he trusted to my partiality for him and my good temper, and under-
stood his ground well. He knew that in this case his course was
against the earnest desires of the President, and, as in all his under-
takings of that character, he failed — the country deciding them all
against him. He remained nevertheless a prominent member of the
administration tho' a marked monument of the forbearance of its
supporters, and, strange as it may seem, he lost no ground in the per-
sonal regards of the President or myself, towards whom he assures
me in one of the preceding letters, when advocating the appointment
of Duane, that he felt himself " incapable of indifference or ingrati-
tude."

Experience however seemed to have exerted no influence upon his
disposition to meddle in the disturbing questions that related to the
Bank. The removal of the deposits gave rise to the second great
struggle on the part of the Government to confine that institution to
its rights and duties. In point of efficiency the movement which
preceded and caused that struggle was not a jot behind the veto. In-
telligent and sensible observers of the progress of events not inap-
propriately compared it to General Jackson's night attack upon the
enemy's lines on the 25th of December, preliminary to the Battle of
the 8th of January before New Orleans. The justice of that opinion
and the principles upon which that important measure rested will be
presently considered. Mr. McLane was early in the field and, as be-
fore, on the side of the Bank, The President, as will be seen by one
of his letters, informed me in advance that he would desire to consult
with me, on our Eastern trip, in regard to this important question
and brought with him some rough notes of the arguments in favour
of the measure which was finally incorporated in the paper read by
him to his Cabinet on the 18th of September.8 These he delivered to
me on his arrival at New York and Mr. Kendall, the special agent of
the Treasury, sent me a full statement of what was desired and of
what had been, and could, as he thought, be done with the State

1 Van Buren Papers.

* Mr. Blair speaks of this paper as having been constructed at the Blp Baps and after-
ward! submitted to the revision of Mr. Taney. This is doubtless right but the notes
referred to here were Aeverthelesf used at the Blp Baps.

602 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Banks to promote the object in view. McLane accompanied the Pres-
ident as far as New York from which place he returned to Washing-
ton leaving in the hands of Major Donelson the following letter for

me:

June 4th, 18$3.
My Deab Sib,

Before you finally dispose of the deposit question I beseech you to read at-
tentively the paper I prepared for the President in which I have endeavoured
faithfully to trace the effects of the proposed change under the circumstances
on the public service and upon the Country. God knows I have no love for the
present Bank and my opinions are the result of my honest convictions of right
and propriety. Something, undoubtedly, is due to the new Secretary who should
not be driven to the step at least before the Senate have acted upon his nomina-
tion. Therefore if anything be done let it be postponed 'till the Session and let
the President enforce his views in a Message.

Yours faithfully,

The grounds upon which the measure was to be placed were all
considered and discussed between the President and myself on our
journey and Mr. Kendall's plan revised as far as the information in
our possession allowed. Secretaries Cass and Woodbury accompanied
us and were made aware of what was going on but were not called

upon to commit themselves to the approval of it My own course in
respect to this matter was, as usual, made the subject of misrepre-
sentation. I have brought together the entire correspondence be-
tween the President and myself relating to it which is submitted
without comment. Every feeling I entertained about it is therein
compressed. If I can lay my hands upon it, which is not the case
at this moment, I will add a corroborative statement sent to me by
the President whilst I was a candidate for office and was assailed in
regard to this matter by prejudiced persons ignorant of the facts.
Our Eastern tour was suddenly cut short at Concord, New Hamp-
shire by the severe indisposition of the President, and we made our
appearance before the Secretaries of State and Treasury, McLane
and Duane, at Washington, quite unexpectedly.

The President had in the course of our journey apprised the lat-
ter of his general purpose and as soon as he recovered sufficiently
from his attack, which was a very severe one and for forty-eight hours
seemed to threaten his life, he sent for Mr. Duane to enter with him
upon the consideration of the final instructions to be given to Mr.
Kendall. On our way from the President's bed room to the Draw-
ing room we met the Secretary and were both struck with his feeble
and emaciated appearance, which, as we had not heard of his being
ill we at once attributed to distress of mind caused by obstacles, to
us unknown, interposed to the performance of his duties upon the
subject under consideration. I well remember the kind manner with

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTTN VAX BURBK. 608

which the President took both his hands in his own and gently
scolding him for coming out in his actual state of health, advised
him to return to his house and neither to think more of the deposits
nor to come to him again until he was perfectly well. Mr. Duane
gladly availed himself of this advice and further action upon this
subject was postponed for some days. The incidents that followed —
Mr. Duane's agreement0 to do what the President desired or to
resign ; his refusal, on the return of the latter from the Rip Raps,
to do either ; his removal ; the appointment o4 Mr. Taney in his
place and the order directing future receipts of the public moneys
to be placed in the selected State Banks — are elsewhere and in vari-
ous ways referred to.1

It has been stated that when the President interposed his veto to
the Bank he found himself in that great Act, which cannot fail to
be long and gratefully remembered by the American people, opposed
by his Secretaries of State, Treasury and War,— -Livingston,
McLane and Cass. These gentlemen avowed their disapproval of
the President's course and stood aloof from his proceedings. He
went through with them with the aid of officers occupying inferior
positions in his Cabinet, and obtained a decisive triumph in the elec-
tion that took place in the course of a few months. When he super-
seded the Bank as a depository of public monies he was again opposed
by the Secretaries of State, Treasury and War. The action of the
Secretary of the Treasury being indispensably necessary to the exe-
cution of his determination, that refractory officer was removed
whilst Messrs. McLane and Cass remained unqualified in their oppo-
sition to the removal of the deposits and the former, as before, open
and active. These gentlemen were not indeed, could not have been
insensible to the feelings to which their position gave rise, or un-
mindful of their duties in respect to them. On the morning suc-
ceeding the dismissal of Mr. Duane and the appointment of Mr.
Taney, viz: on the 24th September, 1883, and again on the fol-
lowing morning, Messrs. McLane and Cass called on the President
and held with him the conversations detailed immediately after they
left him in these admirable letters:

FBOK THS PUCSIMENT.

September SJtJfc, 18SS.
My deab Sib,

I did not intend to have written you again so toon. But tills morning I was
waited upon by Mr. Louis McLane and Gov. Cass, and, In a friendly manner, they
Introduced the delicacy of their situation — that the question made before the

• MS. V, IK 205.

xAn autograph draft of Van Buren's defense of Jackson's course In dismissing Duane
and the removal of the deposits Is in the Van Baren Papers under date of Feb., 1884.

604 AMERICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

public would be a party question — that they as well as myself would be
assailed — they for remaining in my Cabinet when it will be known that they
were opposed to the measure, &c. &c. to all which I answered, kindly and
firmly, that I could not see how their feelings or delicacy could be involved;
the truth could be told, — that Mr. McLane had given me his full opinion on the
subject with frankness — that he and myself had differed in opinion — that I had
taken all responsibility upon myself — that I wished no support from either
when their principles and opinions were not in accord: whether this satisfied
them I can not say ; I hope it has and it surely must unless they believe that
when it becomes a party question they must, for principle and opinions' sake,
take open ground wit# the opposition — for I have declared to them, frankly
and truly, that all I want of them is to attend to the duties of their respective
departments, in the manner heretofore done. I hope they will remain but if
it so happens that they do not the question arises — whom shall I select for the
State, War and for Attorney General? they must be all known to be right in
principle and good and true men. — Not men who differ on the great leading
measures and believe that they have a right to transact the business of the
department adversely to what the Executive believes the good of the country
and prosperity of all require. Give me your views on this subject by the
earliest moment in your power. I enclose this under cover to Mr. Cambreleng.

My night-fevers still continue but the press of business keeps me up in
the day.

In haste your friend

Andbew Jackson

Mabtin Van Buben^

P. S. — I hope for the best — but let what will come the sun will continue to
rise in the East and set in the West — and I trust in a kind Providence to guide
and direct me and in a virtuous people's support. A. J.

Washington, Sept. 25, 1883.
My Deab Sib,

I have this moment had an Interview with Mr. McLane* and with Gov. Cass
and I have the pleasure to inform you that we are all united in our cordial
friendship and confidence which on my part was never impaired. I have suf-
fered more in my feelings In this great national matter than in any period of
my eventful life. I had to struggle with my private friendship opposed to my
public duty — but I could not struggle long. My God told me the measure was
right — that the Morals of the People and the perpetuity of our republican gov-
ernment required it — and, as excruciating as it was to my private friendships
and feelings, my public duty required my prompt action. I performed it and
it is the first pleasure in my life that I can communicate to you that our friends
McLane and Cass remain where they now are — harmoniously.

The system will succeed well and I am assured to day by one heretofore
friendly to the Bank that nine-tenths of the people will sustain me — that the
disclosures are so obnoxious to all principles of morality, so inconsistent with
the course expected from the Bank, and for which it was chartered, that no
honest man but must justify my course towards it: when its former friends
speak thus we can have no fears of the result of public opinion. Let me hear
from you. Mr. Cambreleng says you will be in New York by the time this can
reach you. I address it to you there.

Your friend

Anmucw Jackson.

Mabtin Van Bubkn,

Vice Pre*ident.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 605

A concerted and formal call by the two high officers named and
upon such a mission, immediately after the elevation of Mr. Taney, —
a gentleman shown to have been especially unacceptable to one of
them — before he had taken any steps towards carrying out the
President's policy and at a moment of so great excitement, might
well have been looked upon by a severely chafed Chief Magistrate as
designed to drive him from the performance of his duty.

What the result of such a suspicion on the part of the General
would have been no one who understood his character can doubt.
Notwithstanding my experience of his general calmness and self pos-
session on trying occasions, I yet claimed some merit for having
ensured the exercise of those inestimable qualities in this instance by
forewarning him of the trial to which his patience and indulgent
spirit might be subjected, as will appear in the extract which follows.

In Sept. 1833, whilst passing a few days with my old friend Gov.
Morgan Lewis, knowing that the proceedings in respect to the Gov-
ernment deposits were about to be brought to a head and always
alive to McLane's interest, I wrote the President a letter from which
the following is an extract and which was in furtherance of what
I had said to him before we parted at Washington — he for the
Rip-Baps and I for the north :

°* * * Allow me to say a word to you In regard to our friend McLane.
He and I differ toto coelo about the Bank and I regret to find that upon almost
all public questions the bias of our early feelings Is apt to lead us In different
directions. Still, I entertain the strongest attachment for him and have been so
long In the habit of interceding in his behalf that I cannot think of giving it up,
as long as I have it in my power to serve him and his. From what passed
between us at Washington I think It possible that he may (if Mr. Duane re-
* signs) think himself obliged to tender his resignation also, which, if accepted,

would inevitably ruin him. Your friends would be obliged to give him up
! politically, and when stript of influence his former federal friends would as-

suredly visit their past mortification at his success upon him In the shape of
exultations at his fall. I am quite sure that if he tenders his resignation he
will nevertheless be anxious to remain if he can do so with honor, and if you
should say in reply, that you will accept his resignation if he insists upon it
but that you confide in him, notwithstanding the difference between you upon
this point, and that if he could consistently remain in the administration you
would be gratified, I think he would be induced to withdraw It. I could not
advise you to change your course for anybody but it appears to me that you
might go thus far consistently with what is due to all parties. I think I cannot
be mistaken in believing that he told me explicitly that he did not know Mr.
Duane's views in regard to the Deposits when he was selected. When at Wash-
ington I informed you that I had thought of Mr. Taney for the Treasury but
had not made the suggestion in consequence of Its not meeting with Mr. Mc-
Lane's concurrence. On accidently reading since a letter which he wrote me
upon the subject of Mr. Duane's appointment I find it stated that he had not
mentioned my suggestion in regard to Mr. Taney to you in pursuance of my
request that he should not do so until I could ascertain whether Mr. Butler

• MS. V. p. 210.

606 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

would take the office of Att'y General, If you should think proper to offer It to
him, which he declined and consequently nothing more was said of the other
idea. Although this had escaped me I presume it must be so. * * * *

The following was my reply to the General's two letters given
above. The original has been obtained from Mr. Blair with whom
he left his papers.

New York, Sept. 27th, 1833.
My dbab Sib,

Your letter of the 24th was handed me by Mr. Cambreleng at the moment of
stepping Into the carriage to visit the Town of Brooklyn upon the Invitation of
its trustees, and I embrace the first moment of my return to reply to It. You
have done all that was required of you in regard to the suggestions of our
friends McLane and Cass. If after that they choose to go, so It must be. Your
course cannot be altered out of mere personal regard to any one. I do not
however believe that such will be the case, but if It be, I think I ought to come
down immediately and remain with you until your arrangements are completed.
Instead of making the suggestions you desire. I shall hold myself subject to
your wishes.

Your letter of the 25th is this moment received after I had written thus far.
I sincerely rejoice that matters have turned as they have. Our friends will
soon see what a precipice they have escaped. Public sentiment Is unprece-
dentedly strong in your favor. I dined yesterday with a party rising of
100, in King's county, composed of the Senate of the State, now sitting as a
Court of Errors, and of gentlemen of different politics: After several other
toasts, Dr. Elwus of Fort Hamilton gave the following: — "The Oracle of
Delphos said make gold thy weapon and thou wilt conquer all. Andrew Jack-
son has said make honesty thy weapon" — and I never knew a toast received
with more rapturous applause, long continued and several times revived. As
this is probably the first direct test of the kind, and the company was respec-
table and of different politics, I think it of sufficient Importance to mention It
to you.

I think Gov. Woodbury is right in his opinion that the Attorney Gen'l ought
to come from the South. You recollect what passed between us In regard to
our friend Forsyth. He once (long ago) told me he would not think of accept-
ing the appointment of Attorney General, and I do not know what effect the
views he recently expressed upon another subject would have upon him in
regard to this; but I feel so deeply how well he behaved for us all that I can-
not think of suffering a single opportunity to pass without doing all In my
power to serve him. If, for any reason, he should be out of the way I should
like Judge Parker* right well, if he is a speaking man. You will have time
enough to cause enquiries to be made upon the point. You will recollect also
that I spoke to you of Judge Ruffin,' of North Carolina. You can cause the same
enquiries to be made as to him so that you may finally act with a full view of
the whole matter.

There is one point you may depend upon, my dear Sir, and that is that there
is an extreme anxiety on the part of the Democracy of the Country — your stay
and support — that you should infuse a little more of their good spirit Into
your Cabinet than it now possesses. Recent events have given increased Inter-

1 September 11, 1888, in the Jackson Papers; a copy of this extract is in the Tan
Bursa Papers.
> Richard Elliott Parker.
'Thomas Baffin.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 607

est to thia point, and the impression is extensive that if it had been heretofore
otherwise in that respect things would have been better. Our quondam friend,
Duane was either beyond or behind the age. Do not be in haste and do me the
favour to remember me kindly to all your household. I hope to be with you on
the 20th without fail.

I am very truly yours,

M. Van Bubbn.

Note. — Having occasion some days since to write to Mr. F. P. Blair and
knowing the close intimacy that existed between him and General Jackson as
well as the unlimited confidence reposed by the latter in his integrity and
truthfulness, I suggested to him the propriety of communicating any incidents
or passages in their intercourse which he might think of sufficient interest and
whilst engaged in the revision of these pages, I received a letter from him (in
part fulfilment of my request) which relates to the period and events here
described and which I give in his own words — suppressing unnecessary names :

Faoif F. P. Blaib,, Esq.

Silver Spring, IS Nov. 1869
* * * There is a circumstance connected with the Bank panic tending to
characterize the principle actors of the time which coming immediately under
my notice may be worth mentioning to you.

While Kendall was on his mission, beseeching the State Banks to receive
deposits, I spent the month of August and part of September with the Presi-
dent at the Rip Raps — our families occupying the Cottages on that pile of rocks
in Hampton Roads. Blddle had planned a most insidious mode of reaching him
in this isolated spot, to which, for successive years he had retired for repose.
The Old Chief had a little hut on the highest point of the Rocks looking out
to the Ocean, where we went to open his mails and talk over matters, and it
might almost literally be said to be the point at which Blddle levelled a can-
nonade from every quarter of the Union. He had organized a sort of siege
against the General, who had hardly time, like an old Eagle, to fold his wings
for repose on his Rock when missiles * from every quarter and especially from
the cities were poured in upon him in the shape of letters entreating a surren-
der of the design of removing the Deposits. The peculiarity of this struggle
was that all the volleys poured in upon him came under cover of the names of

his friends; was panic-Master for Richmond, remained at

Washington, & thence he was plied with accounts of the terrible ruin impend-
ing, travelled West and from him, at every stage, came news of the

distresses of his friends, but from Nashville a cry came of unusual consterna-
tion. Young , for whom the General had cultivated a fondness, got up

petitions among one portion of his friends, and among others almost a meeting
in favour of another Bank. In a word no man was ever so overwhelmed with
such a deluge of griefs since the time of the forty days deluge. The old man
said to me from time to time, as some shocking defection aroused him, " Mr.
Blair, Providence may change me but it is not in the power of man to do it.*'
I remember two Instances when he was particularly oppressed by such appeals :
One was i voluminous argumentative display of coming disasters from an old
Tennessee friend who had moved to Indiana and represented that state in Con-
gress ; Another was from his best friend of the Jefferson Era, Nathaniel Macon.
To these he dictated elaborate letters In reply, written in such a strain that

* MS, Book VI, p. 1.

608 AMEKICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

be was sore, If they retained the personal kindness they professed, they would
give them to the public in his vindication, as it was intimated they might be
given if they thought necessary. But they never published them. In these
letters I have no doubt the facts mentioned to you in my last letter and many
others not remembered are shown.

It was during this siege of the Rip Raps that the general dictated the
original of "the paper read to the Cabinet," which was afterwards read by
Taney and given a calm judicial aspect, instead of that of a combative Bulletin.
There is an anecdote connected with this paper which I am not sure I ever
told you, but it is worth preserving, at least in the shape of a letter.

After the paper was read,1 but before publication, came to me, with

his solemn face unusually elongated, and said he was sorry it would drive
both Cass and McLane out of the Cabinet I thought that would be little
harm done, but he deprecated repeated Cabinet explosions as making good
against the General the charge of a belligerent, unruly temper &c. &c. He
said that McLane had resolved to go out of the Cabinet, and Cass had agreed
to go with him rather than have it understood, by tacit acquiescence, that he
agreed to the paper: "It did not contain his opinions and he ought not to
be held responsible for them," I answered that it was not probable that the
General wished to shift his burden on Cass: "Well," said he* "if you will
speak to the General and he will say so much in the paper Cass will let McLane
go alone out of the Cabinet or he will be compelled to stay." When I repeated
this conversation to the General he smiled at the suggestion that Cass was
to bear the responsibility of his measure and said that if it were thought
necessary to escape it McLane and he might quit the Cabinet — " he cared not —
they could do no mischief in or out;" but he added, " I am very willing to let
the public know that I take the whole responsibility of this measure; Mr.
Blair, I wish you would look out a place in the paper where I can put that
in.'* I then read over his cabinet " paper " and found out a paragraph where
this declaration might be introduced and he clapped it in, interlining or patch-
ing on a sentence or two to make it fit The next morning I went to Taney's
house with the printed paper, and Donelson being there, Taney, putting a
segar in his mouth and his feet upon the writing table, prepared to enjoy his
first state paper in print, said " Now, Mr. Secretary, let us hear how it reads
for the public.*' Donelson read on until he reached the responsibility passage
when Taney stopped him with " how under heaven did that get in !'* I told
him the story and he said, " this has saved Cass and McLane ; but for it they
would have gone out and have been ruined — as it is, they will remain and do
us nfuch mischief." No one has regretted the mistake more than myself and
I felt it with the deepest chagrin when Cass, at the Kossuth dinner given at
Jackson Hall, volunteered a speech to make capital for a presidential nomina-
tion and selected the topic of the Removal of the Deposits as his theme,
extolling that act as the wisest and most heroic of the Administration! No
one not in the secret could have doubted but that he was the mover of the
measure in the Cabinet, so happily did he explain its propriety and necessity
mid praise the wisdom that planned and the courage that dared to propose It
I think the Speech was printed but know not whether reported by the author
with the effrontery with which it was uttered. • * * *

1 Sep. 18, 1888. The Globe, Sep. 23, 1838. ■ Asterisks in the manuscript

CHAPTER XLI.

The removal of the deposits was the last great public question in
the disposition of which Mr. McLane and myself consulted and acted
together though differing widely in the opinions we gave to the Presi-
dent. Others arose and were disposed of but there was no concerted
action in respect to them between us. Among the latter the subject
of our claims upon France was the most prominent and deserves and
will receive a separate notice.

This change in the bearing of our personal relations upon public
questions, by superseding [sic] what is, perhaps, my only excuse for
the space I have given them, admonishes me of the propriety of draw-
ing to a conclusion on the subject, which I shall much prefer to do as
soon as I can. How it was that Mr. McLane convinced himself that
Mr. Duane's resignation properly involved his own, or upon what
principle he, for many months, felt himself relieved from the impera-
tive pressure of that obligation, if any such existed, may perhaps
never be known. One thing only is certain, and that is that he was,
after that gentleman's removal, never at ease in his official seat.
From what has already been seen the reader will not be surprised
to hear that this unsettled state of feeling led to frequent and, not
seldom, to daily reiterated appeals to me for consultation with him-
self ° and through me with the President in respect to his course.
Several anxious notes upon this point are found among my papers.

In the latter part of February, of the Session of 1833-4, and after
rumors of his intended resignation had found place in the news-
papers, his fluctuating councils appeared to have reached a fixed con-
clusion and his withdrawal to have become inevitable, but the affair
was brought to a different and amicable solution through my exer-
tions made effectual by the patience and generosity of the President.

It will not escape notice that I have in the preparation of this
work liberally resorted to familiar letters, when within my control
and when the use of them was not otherwise improper, as sources
of information and evidence in relation to events with which they
were contemporaneous and of which they speak.

In addition to such weight as the degree of information and ca-
pacity to appreciate the bearings of important passages in public
affairs or in the lives of public men possessed by the writers, and

* MS. vi, p. 5.
127488°— VOL 2— 20 89 800

610 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

the extent to which their minds may chance to have been engrossed
by their subject, they have an inestimable value in their absolute
freedom from certain drawbacks to which representations made
many years later are always exposed. However tenacious the memory
and however honest the intention it is scarcely possible that the rec-
ollections of any man should be entirely uninfluenced by the chances
and changes of the intermediate period.

These obvious truths have been brought freshly to my mind by
the letters from Mr. Washington Irving which I find on my files
and which I give below. Mr. McLane had impressed Mr. Irving
with feelings of personal regard for him similar to those entertained
by myself, although his habitual caution may have protected the
latter from serious embarrassments such as resulted in my case.
Thus influenced and anxious for the welfare of Mr. McLane's family,
while not insensible of the peculiarities in his temperament, Mr.
Irving kept a watchful eye upon his movements and frequently
invoked my good offices in his behalf. It will be seen that both of
his contemplated resignations — in September 1833 and in February
1834— are spoken of in these letters, and I have obtained from Mr.
Irving my own letter to which hife last was a reply and which is also
inserted here.

Fbom Washington Irving.

Washington, Octo. Sth, 18S3.
My Deab Sir,

I have yours of Octo. 2nd and am gratified by the clear sunshiny view you
take of the cloudy concerns of our friend McL. I am convinced that all you
say is just, and It is very much to the purport of what I stated to him In
repeated conversations* I am happy to say he left here the day before yes-
terday on his excursion, In very good spirits, and I fancy his mental atmos-
phere is relieved from the fogs and glooms that lower'd about It He returns
on Tuesday next, and after I have, seen him and had a little more conversa-
tion with him, I shall turn my face homewards and trust to see you In New
York before you set oflC for the South. • * •

I have taken a family dinner with the President and have seen Mm since,
in an evening visit His health is not good, and I fancy he has been much
worried of late by his Cabinet affairs; he seems anxious to have you here,
and now that he has bad his "wicked will'* of the bank I think you had
better be at his elbow. I have confidence in your knowledge of character
and hope that your opinions of Mr. [Kendall] may be correct Many hard
things are said of him, but I know how exposed men In his situation are to
be misrepresented.

I am in my old quarters in the neighborhood of the McLane's, and am
making use of a quiet nook and a little interval of leisure to exercise my long
neglected pen. It is an odd place and time for a man to amuse himself with
literary avocations, but it shows how little I am of a politician.

Ever very truly yours,

Washington Ibvino,

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 611

To Washington Ibvino.

My Dear Sib:

Knowing the deep interest you take in the happiness of our friend McLane
and of his Interesting family, I take pleasure in saying to you that after a
severe trial, in which he was brought to the brink of a fatal precipice, he has
finally determined to remain in his present station, and that under circum-
stances which give, I think, the best security for its permanency and which
reflect, if that were possible, additional credit on his best of wives.

In great haste.

Very truly yours,

M. Van Bubsn.
W.t March 6th, 1834.

From Washington Irving.

New York, March 11th, ISSk.
Mr Dear Sir:

Your letter concerning Mr. McLane Is deeply interesting. I have felt great
anxiety about him, knowing the excessively trying situation in which he was
placed and the delicate and involved state of his feelings. He is entitled to
every consideration from you all. His sacrifices of feeling must be great, yet
his continuance in the Cabinet at this crisis is of great importance to his
friends, even though his arms may be tied up as to the contest in which they
nre engaged. It is also important to his own welfare. His retirement at this
moment would be made a handle of by the opponents of the Administration,
and he would be forced, In spite of himself, into a wretched collision with his
late friends. What a sorry figure Is making of it— spinning out news-
paper letters to swell this eternal bank theme. I have no thought of coming
to Washington at present. I am quietly settled in the bosom of my family,
and gradually getting back Into those literary habits which have been so Ion;;
Interrupted and which, after all, are most congenial to my tastes. Besides I
have no Inclination to hear any spouting on this Bank Question — I begin to
loathe the subject, and can hardly relish the sight of a bank note — in a little
while nothing but a hard dollar will set upon my stomach. Truly we are a
bank-ridden country.

John was in town the other day, looking very well, though pretending to be
somewhat affected in purse by the shifting of the deposits.

Remember me kindly to the Major. When you see the family of the McLanes
give my most affectionate remembrances to them. I long to hear from some
one or other of them, for I have not had any domestic news from them for
months.

Ever, my dear sir,

Very truly yours,

Wabhinoton Irving.

The merely personal relations between Mr. McLane and myself,
though somewhat less familiar, continued on apparently friendly
footing till towards the close of the celebrated Session of Congress
(1833-34) when circumstances occurred which doubtless contrib-
uted largely to hasten their final dissolution. These grew out of the
difficulties between us and France in respect to the non-payment of

612 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION.

the draft which was drawn upon the French Government under Mr.
Rives' treaty. The information of its protest arrived at Washington

in 1834, and Mr. McLane took instant and decided ground as

to the course proper to be pursued by our government on the occa-
sion. Of that position and of my own in opposition to it and of the
whole matter ° I will have more to say hereafter. The question was
one which properly referred itself to the Department over which he
presided and the course he advised was, for a season, earnestly sus-
tained by the President. My strong dissent from the opinion of both
produced momentary embarrassments, but as between the President
and myself they soon disappeared and, although I was sensible that
Mr. McLane was deeply mortified by the direction which was finally
given to the matter, I did not dream of its having the effect of
reviving the question of his resignation, which had been I supposed
and hoped, disposed of by the last adjustment. I remained under
this impression until information reached me accidentally, and in a
way which was, under the circumstances, not a little extraordinary,
that he had actually resigned. On my arrival at an evening party at the
house of Mr. Ogle Tayloe I perceived Mrs. McLane near the door by
which I entered engaged in conversation with Mr. John Sargent, of
Philadelphia, and I advanced to pay my respects to her. As I ap-
proached Mr. Sargent was in the act of leaving her and raising her
voice somewhat, she exclaimed to the latter " Well, thank Heaven !
it is over at last " Having been long on intimate and as I always sup-
posed very friendly terms with her I did not hesitate to ask -what
happy deliverance had called out such a fervent expression of thank-
fulness. " Why," she replied, " I referred, of course, to Mr. McLane's
resignation ! " adding a declaration of surprise at my apparent igno-
rance of the event, which I assured her was real. Seeing Major Don-
elson, the President's private Secretary, nearby I asked him to walk
out with me, and on receiving his confirmation of the news I had just
heard, he also saying that he had supposed that I knew all about it,
I invited him to accompany me to the White House.

We found the President, lying on a sofa, quite alone and evidently
jaded and despondent — a condition to which his naturally elastic
and self reliant spirit rarely succumbed. I described my brief inter-
view with Mrs. McLane, assured him of my ignorance of the fact
of her husband's resignation and that I had not received the slight-
est intimation even from any quarter of his purpose, altho' it now
appeared that his letter of resignation had been delivered to the
President a day or two before. His countenance instantly cleared
up and expressed as plainly as words could have done the relief
afforded him by my communication. My omission to speak to

• MS. vif p. 10.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAtf BtTREK. 618

him in relation to a matter of so much delicacy, about which we had
previously held many embarrassing and painful consultations, had
very naturally caused him much uneasiness — doubtless not wholly free
from misgiving as to the steadfastness of my devotion to his policy
and to his person when brought in irreconcilable conflict with my
constant solicitude for Mr. McLane's welfare. But the single fact
that the resignation had been made without my knowledge furnished
a clue to the entire proceedings and at once disclosed to his keen
sagacity that the movement was one of hostility to me. He directed
Major Donelson to read to me the letter of resignation and the an-
swer to it which had been prepared, and, speaking with the ease and
freedom which had always characterized our intercourse, asked my
opinion of the latter. I gave it to him without reserve — he had gone
further I thought, in his answer, than the occasion called for or than
justice to himself allowed. I said that I cordially sympathized
with his desire to make his parting with Mr. McLane as soothing
to the feelings of the latter as the case would admit of but that his
answer might well be construed as conceding errors on his own
part. These I pointed out and whilst my View of the matter was
not fully assented to by Major Donelson who had drafted the answer,
he nevertheless admitted that the expressions might be misconstrued.
The President then requested me to take the pen and to make the
paper what I thought it ought to be, which I did and he directed
the Major to copy it as it stood. The letters were never published
as I believe; they are certainly not to be found in the publications
of the day or I would be able to point out the alterations with more
precision.

The General immediately took up the question of a successor to the
retiring Minister and heartily consented to offer the appointment to
my friend John Forsyth, by whom it was accepted.

I called at Mr. McLane's house on the next day, was received by
Mrs. McLane with her usual urbanity and remained long enough for
Mr. McLane, who was, as she informed me, in his study, to present
himself if he was disposed to do so. Not seeing him within a proper
time, or receiving any excuse for his non-appearance, I took a respect-
ful leave of Mrs. McLane and do not remember to have seen her again.
Her husband and myself shortly afterwards passed each other in our
carriages without recognition on either side, and once again, I met
him at Baltimore on the occasion of General Smith's funeral. I was
then President and during the ceremonies of the day was placed near
to both Mr. McLane, who had been an old friend of the General, and
to Mr. Taney, then and still Chief Justice of the United States. After
the services were concluded the Chief Justice said to me " I saw that
you and your old friend McLane did not recognize each other : cer-

614 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

tainly no advance in that direction,"1 he added, " could bo expected
from you."

The " Globe " announced Mr. McLane's resignation with a compli-
mentary notice of him which I never saw until I read it in the news-
paper, neither was I apprised of Mr. Wright's agency in causing it
to appear — certainly not until after its appearance. In 1845, when
he suspected that Mr. McLane was seeking preferment from Mr.
Polk and that he was aiming to advance his interest by an indication
of hostility to Mr. Wright, who was looked to as the probable candi-
date for the succession, and to his friends, Mr. Blair made me several
communications having reference to these matters and in one of his
notes he thus spoke of that publication :

How much I regret the admission of the article in the Globe "on McLane's leave
taking ! It was written by Donelson and was Intended by McLane for the very
purpose for which it will now be used — my estoppel. Mr. Wright's instances
alone induced me to surrender my objections. I intended to take Donelson's
article to the General and satisfy him that It should not appear, but Mr. Wright,
who seemed to have more interest In it than I could account for except on the
supposition that you were desirous that McLane should have an honorable dis-
charge, overruled me. I never acted against my instincts in my Aife that I did
not, in the end, find myself in the wrong.

The reader will have observed that in his letter to me acknowledg-
ing the offer to him by Gen. Jackson of the office of Attorney General
and also in that accepting the mission to England (by which he was
raised from a state of great despondency to a position which could
not fail to be gratifying to a reasonable man) Mr. McLane intimated
that more might perhaps have been done for his interests than was
done, and among his letters from England will be found one in which,
replying to the information that he had been selected as Secretary of
the Treasury, he expresses in some form, his regret that in the con-
struction of the President's second Cabinet he had not been desig-
nated as Secretary of State in the place of Mr. Livingston. Neither
at the period when he resigned the latter office nor at any time after-
wards or before, with the exceptions I have named, did he utter a
complaint in any form to me or to any other person, to my knowledge,
of my treatment of him or of insincerity on my part, or failure to do
for him all that I had promised or imputing to me any act or word
inconsistent with the friendship I had professed for and which had
been so liberally and disinterestedly extended to him, nor did he ever
assign to me or to any other person, to my knowledge, in any shape,
any reason for dissolving our long and close relations. Having ten-
dered by an act of complaisance to which he possessed no claims, a
suitable opportunity to ask or to offer explanations, nothing further
was left for me to do save to forget, as far as practicable, the intimate
association that had unhappily ripened between us bringing to me

AUTOBIOGBAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 615

almost continual anxiety and drawing from me manifold acts of
kindness which, it now appeared, might have been more judiciously
as well as more deservedly bestowed.

° Nevertheless the unprecedented steps by which those relations
were suddenly and mysteriously ruptured by Mr. McLane caused me
much pain and have forced from me an exposition which I would
gladly have avoided and which but for the reasons already given I
would have avoided. Every one of our contemporaries, in any con-
siderable degree conversant with the course of public events, knew of
our long continued and intimate intercourse and of my active interest
in his welfare, and understood that on the day on which he presented
to President Jackson his resignation of the office of Secretary of State
he was ranked by myself and by all my friends among the foremost
of the number of the latter bound to me by the strongest ties, and
that he made the dissolution of those ties and the abandonment of his
high official station parts of the same transaction, conveying to the
public mind, by the manner of its execution, an impression that his
resignation, if not caused, had at least been facilitated by bad treat-
ment received at my hands. The official relations that had long
united him with the President were closed at his own instance and
with suitable grace and dignity and in a form excluding the sus-
picion of a breach in their personal friendship. From all his asso-
ciates in the Government he parted apparently with kind feelings,
but altho' I had stood towards him for years in the acknowledged
character of "next friend," had during the greater part of that
period been doomed to bear, in addition to my own abundant polit-
ical vexations and troubles, a large portion of his private griefs, —
not only those which were real but those more numerous and more
harassing which, from time to time, were conjured up by the work-
ing of a irestless and a morbid spirit — altho' I was yet fresh from the
negotiation of an arrangement between him and the President by
which he had been saved from the destructive effects of his own rash-
ness, with me a very different course was pursued. Not only, as has
been before stated, were no explanations asked, no complaints ad-
vanced, no suggestions of his intention to resign made but his design
was apparently with studied caution concealed from jne so that the
movement might be completed, before I should be informed that it
was afoot The President, after what had passed before, would
not, it was doubtless foreseen, broach the subject to me if I did not
speak of it to him. The line of conduct towards me which was
entered upon by Mr. McLane at and immediately preceding the
period of his resignation was persevered in to the end of his life.
During the whole of that after period not a line or a word in regard

•MaVT.p. 15.

616 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

to the present or the past was exchanged between us, directly or in-
directly. After the opportunity I had afforded for such a com-
munication, if he desired one, unless I was weak enough to volun-
teer explanations to the public all that the latter could know or infer
was that a prominent politician whom they had long recognised
at Washington as apparently chief among my friends, had suddenly
quitted the seat of Government my enemy.

The merest novice in the affairs and ways of the world would
reject the suggestion that a course so unnatural and so indefensible,
matured in a mind of remarkable shrewdness and subtlety, was
adopted without specific calculations or ulterior purposes. In re-
spect to these I have no information — of sufficient importance to be
stated — which will not be open to the reader of these pages, but
it was, of course, not possible that I should fail to have decided
impressions, to which, with the explanations I make here, being
nothing more than my inferences from facts resting chiefly on Mr.
McLane's authority and, beyond that, to an important extent on tha
communications of his respectable, early, constant and clear-headed
friend, the reader is not asked to allow more weight than that to
which he would himself think them entitled. I am now entirely
satisfied that Major Lewis is correct in the supposition that Mr.
McLane's imagination was dazzled by an expectation of reaching the
Presidency and that his mind was influenced from an early period
of our intercourse by that hope. His discomfitures in reiterated
attempts to promote the cause of a national bank — to which he was
devoted intus et in cute btit in which he encountered the invincible
opposition of President Jackson — at length satisfied him that all
schemes for the gratification of his desires in that direction thro'
democratic channels were foreVer blasted. One chancel remained —
the possibility, perhaps, in his view, the probability that the oppo-
sition might be induced to accept liim as their Presidential candidate
at the then coming election if his name could be brought before them
in an imposing form. There wwe features of his position and
operating causes in the temper of the times well calculated to fill
with high hopes of such a result a temperament at intervals very
sanguine. The bank, with' its vast interests tod exertions, was
looked to as the strong arm of the opposition and among the per-
sons by whom Mr. McLane was then surrounded and with whom,
at the particular period of which I speak, he freely consulted, there
were artful and, in such matters, able men who deVoted their whole
time and talent and energies to its service. Hife partiality for the
close companionship of several of these had Often caufted me un-
easiness at earlier stages of our intimacy. Prom these sources he
might have learned, if his own observation had failed to suggest it,

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 617

the disposition prevalent in the whig councils to postpone the pre-
tensions of Mr. Clay, for the ensuing election at least, a disposition
which, in the sequel, controlled their action. The influential whig
managers knew well the hopelessness of a campaign under the
leadership of Calhoun or Webster. Who beside could present so
imposing a claim to the favor of a bank-governed opposition as Mr.
McLane? He had always been its friend, had exerted himself per-
haps more in its behalf than any other public man among its sup-
porters and in latter years had done so under peculiar responsibilities
and at great hazard to his political position and prospects. What
might not he and the men who were his advisers hope for from the
partisans of that institution when to claims founded oh such con-
siderations he should be placed in a situation to add that of political1
martyrdom in its cause — that of having sacrificed one of the highest,
most honored and most influential stations in the Government on
the altar of his unceasing devotion. In the actual position of parties
one drawback upon pretensions otherwise so solid and irrefragable
would have been found in the character of his well known relations
with him who was expected to be the anti-bank candidate. To meet
that objection the prompt and absolute renunciation and equally
abrupt reversal of those relations, personal and political, was a
provision doubtless suggested by at least one of the busy ministers
of the bank by whom he was, as I have mentioned, beset and which
would appear to have been adopted without compunction.

Mr. McLane did not receive the aid of Mr. Biddle to elevfete him
to the Presidency of the United States altho* he obtained, thro' the
direct influence of the latter, a position which afforded him for sev-
eral years a liberal salary with little labor.1

The portions of this wotfk which relate to his conduct were pre-
pared not for pulposes of crimination but for vindication and I
tender my thanks in advance to anyone who shall find himself able
to disprove the adverse Statements and deductions they contain, or
to qualify in any degree the unfavorable impressions which they
may otherwise produce. I ask that my own course shall be held, in
the estimation of my Countrymen, in the respect and regard to which

it is entitled under the facts as they have transpired — nothing more.

— — ■ ■— ~~ — — -■— « ■ ^— — » . . .,..■■-- l

1 President of the Mojjis Canal & Banking Company.

CHAPTER XLII.

Of greater public importance and of even less agreeable character
were the scenes which by the order of events are now brought to our
review. I allude to the proceedings of the first session of the twenty
third Congress — a portion of our legislative history upon which the
people stamped its true character by denominating it, from its close,
" the panic-session," by^which name it has ever since been known and
which it is destined to bear qs long as its doings are remembered.
- By my election to the office of Vice President I became President
of the Senate and consequently an attendant upon its important de-
bates and proceedings, as well in its secret as in its public sessions,
and having been at the same time confidentially consulted by Presi-
dent Jackson, as our correspondence will abundantly shew, in rela-
tion to all the measures save one which during that session became
the principal subjects of contention between that body — then the
head-quarters of the opposition — and himself, it was scarcely pos-
sible that any person could possess better opportunities to know the
whole truth both of those subjects and of the motives by which the
contestants0 were respectively influenced.

The virtual censure of a portion of the National Legislature by
their constituents conveyed in the name popularly applied to their
proceedings was called forth by the course of the Senate upon the
application of the bank for a renewal of its charter and by the con-
troversy which had arisen between it and the President of the
United States touching that matter. To enable the reader to decide
with greater accuracy in respect to the justice of that censure it will
be highly useful to precede my notice of the transactions upon which
it was pronounced with a brief review of the .principal features of the
controversy alluded to from its commencement to the period at which
we have arrived. The tendency of a national bank in a Government
like ours, and the particular acts of the late bank to promote the claim
set up for an extension of its charter, are subjectSrwhich have already
been touched upon in this work for other purposes than those for the
better understanding of which they are again brought forward ; but
the reader may rest satisfied that the-repetition will be limited, nor
will he be disposed to complain when he finds that its only object
is to save him trouble by bringing to one point every fact and con-
sideration that may serve to illustrate the whole subject.

Gen. Jackson entered upon the duties of the office of President on
the fourth of March 1829, and the charter of the bank was to expire

• MS. VI, p. 20.
618

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 619

by its own limitation on the third of March 183G. A new charter,
or an extension of that under which it was then acting was naturally
the subject upon which the thoughts of those who were entrusted
with its management were most employed. The ability of the bank
to obtain a majority in its favor in both Houses of Congress was not
doubted; the only opposition feared was that which might proceed
from the new President- There had not been, I believe, a moment
since Gen. Jackson's elevation to the Presidency in which they
had not been disturbed by unfavorable forebodings upon that inter-
esting point. This presentiment had its origin in their knowledge of
the school in which he had been taught the rudiments of his political
education, of the earnestness with which he had in early life sus-
tained its doctrines and of the stability and integrity of his char-
acter. Intimations thrown out in his first and second annual Mes-
sages served to confirm their apprehensions and if anything was
required to assure the bank of what his course towards it would be
it was readily obtained from the General himself, at a personal
interview between him and the President of the bank soon after the
former entered upon his official duties.1 These intimations and
declarations went no further than to announce objections to the bank
under its existing charter, but Mr. Biddle was too sagacious and too
well acquainted with the ways of the world not to find in them
evidence of a strong and in all likelihood, an unyielding opposition
to any national bank of the description desired by him and by his
associates. Having made this discovery 2 and being himself a man
of resolute and persistent spirit he dismissed on the instant all
hopes of assistance from the President and looked only upon him as
upon one whose power and influence he was destined to encounter at
every step in his efforts to obtain a new charter for the institution
over which he presided.

* Biddle was in Washington the third week of November, 1829, and the interview .took
place some time between the 17th and 26th*

1 It is well-nigh impossible for natures like Andrew Jackson and Nicholas Biddle to
understand each other and that Biddle misunderstood the situation does not seem to hare
occurred to Van Buren even as a remote possibility. To the latter with his Intimate
knowledge of Jackson it appears to have been inconceivable that Biddle had not made the
discovery here credited to his astuteness and sagacity. The Biddle Papers, from which
the two following extracts are taken, conclusively show Blddle's state of mind :

" The rumor to which you allude, I have not heard from any other quarter & I believe
it is entirely without foundation. My reason for thinking so is, that during a reoant visit
^o Washington, from which I returned on Thursday last, I had much conversation of a
very full & frank character with the President about the Bank in all which he never inti-
mated any such purpose. On the contrary he spoke In terms the most kind ft gratifying
towards the institution — expressed his thanks for the services it had rendered the Gov1
since his connection with it & I look to the message with expectations of the most satis-
factory kind."— (Biddle to Alexander Hamilton, Philadelphia, Nov. 28th, 1829. Biddle
Papers : President's Letter Book, No. 3, page 98.) •

" I found with great pleasure a friendly feeling towards the Bank In the minds of the
President & his particular friends who formerly entertained different views. This I regard
as a very fortunate circumstance for the Institution — and our general affairs are, I think,
highly prosperous."— (Biddle to Robert Lenox, Philadelphia, Dec 4tb, 1&29. Biddle
Pa pen: President's Letter Book, No. 3, page 99.)

620 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

From that moment, as subsequent developments have fully shewn,
nothing was thought of by the managers of the bank but preparation
for the struggle, and their preparations were on a scale that indicated
a fair appreciation on its side of the character and strength of its
anticipated antagonist. But altho' thus impressed its advocates and
supporters were not dismayed and conscious of the vast resources of
the bank they entered upon the great undertaking before them con-
fident of success. The session of 1831-2 (four years before the expira-
tion of its charter) was selected for the presentation of the bank
memorial asking from Congress a new or extended charter. That
session was deemed the most promising as it was the last before the
ensuing Presidential election and afforded the most eligible oppor-
tunity for an attempt to drive the President into an approval of a bill
for its recharter by the dread of its power to prevent his re-election
if he should succeed in defeating such a bill by the use of the veto
power. The exercise of that power was the obstacle most feared by
the bank, and to place the question in a position which would render
such a proceeding by the President most difficult and hazardous to his
popularity was of course the principal point at which it aimed.
Authorization of its President to employ the funds of the institution
at his discretion to influence the Press, confined in the first instance
to specific modes, had been provided for, but these, tho' not lost sight
of, were soon felt to be altogether inadequate to the urgencies of the
occasion. The possession of majorities in both branches of the na-
tional Legislature enabled the bank to drive the Executive to resort
to the extreme power with which he was clothed by the Constitution
to defeat the bill for its re-incorporation. This power tho' its exer-
cise was not without precedent in this Country had been used with
marked hesitation and reserve by his predecessors and was nowhere
favorably received. This was in itself an advantage to the bank
which few men coming before their Countrymen for the last time an
applicant for their confidence and support would be willing to en-
counter or could be induced to do so even under circumstances far
more favorable than those which surrounded President Jackson. In
addition to the assumed odium of resorting in a Republic to what
they invidiously called the one-man-power was the liability of his
acts tho' they could not rightfully be so regarded to be perverted into
a hastening of the collection of its debts by the bank.

The necessity of winding up the affairs of an institution, with a
capital of thirty-five millions, the business of which had been im-
mense and widely diffused, within the time limited by its charter,
was well calculated to produce unavoidable embarrassments in the
business concerns of the community, with the best intentions on the
part of those to whose management its affairs had been committed,

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUBEN. 621

and to excite great apprehensions without a resort to extraneous
means to increase the causes of alarm. But the sharp-sighted and
bold men on whom that duty devolved as also those who had ven-
tured their political standing on the success of the bank and had
devoted all their energies to its cause had been made too sensible of
the General's popularity to trust to the ordinary means of warfare
as long as there were any additional barriers in their power to inter-
pose to his adoption of the only course by which their success could
be prevented. They therefore set themselves at work to add to
existing difficulties in winding up its affairs within the prescribed
period and thus to stimulate those who might be affected by it to a
still more vigorous pressure upon the President to induce him to
withhold his veto. The expedient resorted to for that purpose was,
it must be admitted, of a truly formidable character. It was nothing
less than a largely increased line of discounts notwithstanding full
and 'official notice to the bank of the intention of the Government
to apply all its disposable funds to the payment of the public debt.
Forty millions had been for years the average amount of the loans
of the bank. In October 1880 they stood at $40,527,523. Between
January 1831 and May 1832 they were increased to $70,428,007 : the
highest figure' ever reached. The amount of its outstanding dis-
counts between the periods mentioned was thus increased about thirty
millions, saying nothing of the increase which took place between
May the date to which the report of the bank extended, and July
when the veto was interposed. This extraordinary and reckless step
was taken without even a pretence of a change in the business of the
Country to justify, much less to require so great a change in the
extent of its credits. The design, as charged at the time and fully
demonstrated by subsequent disclosures, was to place the Country
so deeply and unless relief could in some other way be obtained —
so irretrievably in debt as to compel the whole community to demand
of the President that he should give his assent to a bill which it was
certain would be passed by the two Houses, to extend the charter of
the bank as the only means by which it could be saved from wide
spread distress and cureless ruin ; an appeal which the bank managers
believed he would not dare to disregard and which, if disregarded,
would inevitably defeat his re-election. To make the device the more
effectual the largest portion of these professed loans was scattered
thro' the Western States, of one of which the President was a
cherished citizen and in most of them0 since his entrance on the
political stage he had supplanted his great rival — the leader of the
bank power and the long established favorite of the West. Re-
monstrances from that quarter, it was naturally enough supposed,

* MS. VI, p. 25.

622 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

would produce the deepest impression on the minds of the President
and of those about him who enjoyed his confidence. Able to count
their majorities in both Houses the friends of the bank did not waste
their time with unnecessary debates in either, reserving their speeches
for the coming in of the veto, when they were to be virtually ad-
dressed to the people as they knew beforehand that they could not
obtain a constitutional majority over the veto in either House.

A Bill for the renewal of the charter of the bank passed both
branches of Congress notwithstanding the presence in each of a
majority who professed to be supporters of the President and of
his administration and who had been elected as such. Mr. Dallas,
who presented the memorial of the bank, and who was doubtless a
sincere friend of the President and solicitous for the success of his
administration, but who felt himself instructed by his State to sup-
port the bank, frankly admitted that "the propriety of an appli-
cation so early in the term of its incorporation for the renewal of
its charter, during a popular sensation in Congress which must cease
to exist some years before that term expires and on the eve of all
the excitement incident to a great political movement (the Presi-
dential election) struck his mind as more than doubtful.9' The
President interposed his veto, and the Bill failed for want of a
two-thirds vote.

The debate upon the consideration of the veto-message was per-
haps as able as any that had ever occurred in the Senate, in which
body the Bill originated and where its fate was therefore to be first
passed upon. Mr. Clay was to be the opposition candidate against
the re-election of President Jackson and Mr. Webster was selected
to take the lead in the discussion on the part of the bank. Of the
singular ability with which he discharged that difficult and re-
sponsible duty I have elsewhere spoken. His speeches, for he ad-
dressed the Senate more than once, were addressed at times avowedly,
to the Country, and had in view the accomplishment of three prin-
cipal objects; viz: — first, to alarm the thinking sober-minded and
conservative men of all parties on account of the despotic and un-
constitutional doctrines which he solemnly charged President Jack-
son with having avowed and maintained in the veto message. Those
parts of his great efforts have already been fully noticed in the
portions of this work which treat of the rise and progress of our
political parties. Second, to impress the Country with adequate ideas
to the extent of its indebtedness to the bank — of the impossibility of
paying that debt within the period allowed to the bank to wind up its
concerns without the sacrifice of every interest that was worth pre-
serving and to portray the desolation and ruin inevitable if the
necessity for doing so was established, as it would be by the re-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 623

election of the author of the veto. Third, to settle the finality of
a decision in his favor by the people upon the question of bank
or no bank. '

The bearing of Mr. Webster's great speech upon the first point
has been I repeat noticed elsewhere. Full justice can only be done to
the consummate ability which he displayed on that occasion by
reading his speeches. I invite the reader to study them as well on
account of the intellectual gratification they will afford him.as from
a conviction that thus he can not fail to be satisfied that the increase
of the bank's line of discount was made for the purpose I have s6t
forth and that the orator had been fully instructed of its character
in that regard if not consulted in the construction of the plan.

I will content myself with brief extracts, applicable to each of the
two cardinal points last presented and which embrace the drift of his
argument in that direction.

Thirty millions of the capital of the bank, (said he) are now on
loan and discount in States on the Mississippi. These will all have
to be called in within three years and nine months if the charter is
not extended. He then went on to show the impracticability of this
operation, and to prove that the State banks would not be able to
assist in the payment of that enormous debt. "I hesitate not to
say," he continued, "that as this Veto travels to the West it will de-
preciate the value of every man's property from the Atlantic to the
Capital of Missouri. Its effects will be found in the price of land,
the great and leading article of Western property, in the price of
crops, in the produce of labor, in the repression of enterprise and in
embarrassments of every kind of business and pccupation."

There was much more of the same style and tendency but this
brief extract exhibits the substance of all he said on that head.

In respect to the last point — the finality of the decision which the
people would make at the election upon the great issue of bank or
no bank, then submitted to them by the consent of all parties, he
said:

His (the President's) objections go against the whole substance of the law
originally creating the bank. They deny, in effect, that the bank is consti-
tutional, they deny that it is expedient ; they deny that it is necessary for the
public service.

Again:

In this place they are such as to extinguish aU hope that the present bank
or any bank at all resembling It, or resembling any known similar institution,
can ever receive his approbation ; he is against the bank and against any bank
constituted in a manner known to this or to any other Country. * * * It
Is now certain that without a change in our public councils the bunk will not be
continued nor will any other be established which according to the general
sense of mankind will be entitled to the name. * * * Congress has acted

624 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

and its acts have been negatived by the President and thla result of the pro-
ceedings here places the question with all Its connection, all its incidents,
fully .before the people. • • • Such Is this Message. It remains mow for
the people of the United States to choose between the principle* here aroteed
and their Government. These cannot stand together. The one or the other
must be refected. If the sentiments of the Message shall receive the general
approbation the Constitution will have perished.*

Such was the issue which Mr. Webster, as the spokesman for the
bank, prepared for the?1 people of the United States. Such, with
the exception of the rhetorical hyperbole with which they closed, the
legitimate consequences that would, in his judgment, in the estima-
tion of all his political coadjutors and of the bank managers, flow
from a decision of the people in favor of the President at the elec-
tion then on the eve of being held. It was with a distinct under-
standing on all sides that this ought to be the effect of the decision
about to be made that the issue so clearly explained by Mr. Webster
was submitted to the people. To this the friends of the administra-
tion, the bank managers, and its political supporters then fully
assented. Mr. Webster's speech was published and thoroughly cir-
culated at the expense of the bank and the substance- of it was
reiterated from the stump in every quarter of the land.

> Speech of July 11, 1832. Begtoter of Debates, vm, pt. l, 1321-1240.

CHAt*TER XLIIL

In the course of my public life I have not met with another man
who came up to Gen. Jackson's standard as well in respect to the
strength of his belief in the certainty that a public servant honestly
laboring for the welfare of his Country would receive the good-will
and support of the people as long as they remained confident of his
integrity as in his constant readiness to* stake his political reputation
upon that faith regardless of consequences merely personal to him-
self. Silas Wright wag fully his equal in habitual negation of self
in the performance of public duties and in his willingness to stake all
he had or was on his faith in the virtue of the people, but, probably
from a constitutional difference in their temperaments, he did not
always feel as certain that all would go well. That as long as the
people were at their ease in respect to the sincerity of their representa-
tives they would be predisposed to think them right and to support
them accordingly was among the earliest and most confirmed con-
victions of the General's mind, and one of the numerous and striking
fulfilments of which he frequently spoke to me. Oq the night of my
first appearance at the White House, after my return from England,
he exhibited when stretched on a sick-bed a spectre in physical appear-
ance but as always a hero in spirit — an impressive illustration of his
profound and unspeakable trust in the people. Holding my hand in
one of his own and passing the other thro' his long white locks he
said, with the clearest indication^ ° of a mind composed, and in a tone
entirely devoid of passion or bluster — " the bank, Mr. Van Buren is
trying to kill jne, bwt I will kill it! " Nevf r before this time have I
referred to this feature of that deeply interesting interview except
in the privacy of family intercourse, and I have been solely prevented
from doing so by. an apprehension that casual hearers of the state-
ment, neither understanding the man nor conversant with the order
of events, might infer that he had been controlled in his struggle
with the bank by offended personal feelings — an inference which I
know as well as such a thing can be known would be without the
slightest foundation in truth. If a wish to propitiate the bank or to
avoid its hostility had ever been entertained by him he might have
gratified it at any moment after his accession to office. But he had

•MS. VI, p.*0.
127488°— vol 2— 2Q 40 625

626 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

taken his stand upon the question of the continuance of that institu-
tion long before it entered upon the course which drew from him the
words I have quoted, and in them he only gave utterance to his con-
sciousness of and his determination to defeat its design in the selec-
tion of the time for the presentation of its memorial— a design sub-
stantially admitted by Mr. Dallas when he presented it. Gen. Jackson
was not the man in the performance <rf his public duties and upon a
great public question to obey the influence of any merely personal
motives. On the contrary thoroughly imbued, as I have before said,
with the feelings of the political school of which he had been an early
graduate, he was, from the beginning, predisposed against the con-
tinuance of an institution like that upon which it was inevitable that
he would be called to act officially, and not* seeing his way clear to
strip it of its objectionable features he soon decided to oppose its re-
incorporation. This resolution he was earlier led to adopt by
finding himself at once surrounded by the sinister influences which he
had been taught to look upon as prominent among the dangerous
elements of its power. Having arrived at that conclusion he pro-
ceeded to what he considered a duty in the spirit and with the confi-
dence of support from the people by which his political course was
distinguished throughout. The toils which had been spread with so
much art and labor and cost to turn him from the path he had chosen
and to destroy him if he persisted in it were crushed beneath his
undaunted tread. Notwithstanding the large vote they secured in
most of the Northern and Eastern States and especially in New York,
through the aid of the Georgia Missionary imposture, (of which I
have elsewhere spoken) the bank forces were beaten at every point
Not only was President Jackson re-elected by an overwhelming
majority over Mr. Clay, the bank candidate, but to afford the most
unmistakable evidence of the determination of the people not to
make " the change in our public councils * without which Mr. Webster
had insisted that the present bank would not be continued nor would
there be the slightest chance for any bank u which, according to the
general sense of mankind would be entitled to the name," they, at the
same time, elected to the second office in the Government the writer of
these pages, who had gone farther than it was perhaps allowable to
the President, by reason of his offidal position, to go in the promulga-
tion of unqualified opposition to the bank. They also returned to the
popular branch of the Legislature a majority who, unlike their
predecessors, were not merely nominally but heartily against the
continuance of the bank and who, when a fitting opportunity was
presented, erected an impassable barrier against its further progress
towards the accomplishment of its objects.

Such was the result of the first campaign in what was called the
bank war. Of the distinctness of the issue upon, which it was waged,

V

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 627

the uniformity of construction placed upon it by all parties, and of
their eagerness for the trial I have already spoken. In respect to
the unequivocal character of the decision of the people upon the
points submitted to them, there was no room for and no attempt at
cavil. Unfairness in the election, the common excuse of a defeated
party, was in this instance not even pretended. The will of the
people in regard to the bank had been most clearly expressed on its
own appeal and according to the forms of the constitution.

The only question that presented itself for the decision of that in-
stitution, and the result has afforded a melancholy demonstration
of the momentous importance of the question as well to the good of
the country as to the interests of the stockholders and debtors of
the bank, was whether it would submit to that will, thus solemnly
announced and in a form so obligatory, or whether it would con-
tinue the war. We have seen what were the promises made in its
behalf by its great leader, when he urged an early decision of the
main issue, promises which were also virtually made by the bank
itself in its memorial to congress for an extension of its charter.
"The bank," it said, " should have as much time as possible to
execute the duty, always a very delicate and difficult one, to aid the
community in seeking new channels of business, and by gradual and
gentle movements to press with the least inconvenience oh the great
interests connected with it"

Before the election no one affected to doubt the intention of the
bank to wind up its concerns if the decision should be against it.
The reasons which rendered that course obligatory need not to be
recapitulated. They are clear to the apprehension of all who are sin-
cere friends to our institutions and to the great principle on which
they are founded— that of the sovereignty of the popular will. Upon
those who are not they would be urged in vain. The great saving to
the interests of the country and to those of the stockholders and
creditors of the bank and to the character of all concerned that
would have been made if the bank managers had performed their
duty in this respect, is now at least well understood, and sadly con-
fessed. But the supporters of that institution, of every hue, decided
otherwise, and, swayed alternately by the '4rule or ruin" spirit of
political partisanship and by the desperate hopes based on the chances
that might present themselves in the course of the struggle they de-
termined to subject both government and people to a reckless, unscru-
pulous and injurious exercise of the immense power of the bank until
both should submit to its demands. This is a very grave accusation, one
which, in connection with the means hereafter charged to have been
employed to carry that most extraordinary determination into effect,
conveys imputations, which, if now for the first time brought for-
ward, would very properly be received with distress if not with dis-

I

628 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION.

satisfaction. But such is not the case. These charges were fully,
and in terms far more severe than those here used, made against the
bank in official papers proceeding from the Chief Magistrate of the
country and from other high Executive functionaries, in the reports
of standing committees of the national legislature and through the
public press, and were in turn* repelled, or explained, as best they
could be, in the manifestoes of the bank, in counter-reports, pro-
ceeding, in some instances, from similar sources and in the columns
of friendly newspapers. Moreover the country has lohg since passed
upon them also, and I am not going farther than the truth will jus-
tify, in assuming that its judgment was one of condemnation, severe
and irreversible, against the bank.

It is now more than a quarter of a century since these transactions
/occurred. The interests out of which they sprang have ceased to
be operative and the passions and prejudices by which the actors
in them were influenced have in a great measure subsided. It is at
a moment so auspicious to truth that I propose — not to re-argue the
questions which grew out of them, nor ° to aggravate or ameliorate
the nature and tendency of the transactions themselves or of the
motives of the parties to them, but simply to state the cases they
present, truly and as impartially as I can, to remove at least in a
degree the obscurity that time and the forgetf ulness it breeds have
spread over them and to do my part towards preparing them for
their place in history. To do this is not only a right common to all
but a right which, on the part of those who have possessed oppor-
tunities superior to those of the generality of their fellow citizens
for performing it, becomes, from that consideration alone, a duty.
Will it be asked, why revive the recollection, in all their original
sharpness of outline, of scenes once so discreditable and so distress-
ing— why seek to arrest the obscurity which is settling upon them —
why not suffer them to be forgotten ? The answer to such reflections,
should they occur to the reader, are numerous, cogent, and incon-
trovertible.

Never, either in time of peacef or in a state of public war, was
this Country so thoroughly convulsed, never before was the vital
principle — that of the sovereignty of the popular will — which lies
at the foundation of free government and without the complete
preservation of which such a government, however plausibly con-
structed, is nothing more than an empty pretense, so seriously men-
aced, never before were our material interests so severely and wan-
tonly injured as they were by the successive struggles of the second
Bank of the United States to obtain a renewal of its charter.
Those who lived at that day and were conversant with public

• MS. VI, p. 85.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 629

affairs know that all the branches of the Federal Government —
Executive, Legislative, and Judicial — as well as those of the State
Governments were profoundly agitated by those struggles. They
obtruded themselves into all the ramifications of society, shed their
baleful influence upon all its interests and for a season suspended,
if they did not permanently weaken the recognition of some of its
most vital obligations* Is it to be expected that transactions so
disturbing in their enactment and pregnant with consequences so
vast can be ignored in the history of the Country? This would
not be practicable if it were desirable, but it is neither. Erroneous
versions of them would unavoidably usurp the pages of history, if
pains were not taken to maintain the truth in respect to them. To
this end every bona fide effort deserves, on the contrary and (should
receive the commendation of the community. To make such an
effort is one of the objects of this work. If I fail to state the truth
in respect to them others will correct the errors into which I may
fall. A regard for the interests of truth will, of itself, be a suf-
ficient motive to induce them to assume that duty, for the mass of
men prefer— nay love the truth when no sinister or selfish objects are
to be promoted by its perversion. The time has arrived in respect
to these transactions when no such objects can be thus advanced.
Most of the men at whose doors these* excesses were laid are in
their graves and the few who are still left on the political stage,
standing like reeds shaken by thej winds, are divested of all par-
tisan vitality. The political party that was responsible for them,
because it justified and sought to sustain them, is itself extinct,
utterly* hopelessly extinct. Here and there may, possibly, be still
found a few homeless spirits seeking to revivify its dry bones, but
the attempt will prove futile.

For the acts of which I am about to speak, however momentous
in their day, there is, therefore, no longer either personal ot par-
tisan responsibility, or interest in their misrepresentation or misinter-
pretation. The truth in respect to them must at some time be told,
and with that all should, as all must be satisfied, whatever may be
its effect upon the fame of those who have gone before us. It is
right that it should be so. The aphorism " de mortuis nilmti bowum "
is doubtless founded in the most humane principles, and, when cor-
rectly interpreted, its observance is honorable ; it does not however
apply to a case of this character. When the rule is restricted to
the personal infirmities and private vices of men I for one am con-
tent that it should Teceive the interpretation which its words im-
port. The denunciation of such defects — when those who were sub-
ject to them are no more — may, doubtless, on occasions, be made
useful to the after generations, but the annoyance to the living

630 AMERICAN HISTORICAL. ASSOCIATION.

arising from it is generally certain and its advantages are so often
problematical as to render the extension of the charity of silence to
offences of that description no unreasonable sacrifice to the solemnity
and immunity of the grave. But when one whose conduct becomes
the subject of animadversion acted for the public in the matter in
which his action is impeached, as the representative of his country-
men or of a portion of them, the measure and duration of his re-
sponsibility with reason and justice assume a very different com-
plexion. In such cases the rule which exempts from personal re-
sponsibility the representative who rescues his country from great
peril, howsoever illegal the means by which its salvation is ac-
complished,— solus populi mprema lex — attaches to his misdeeds,
in turn and with equal justice, an accountability from which the
acts of private men are exempted. That no such exemption can be
claimed for the conduct of public men for official malfeasance is
now the received opinion of the world. It is interesting to witness
the extent to which this principle of responsibility after death to
the public opinion of the surviving or of succeeding generations,
drawing after it the unreserved disclosure of every thing that ap-
pertains to or will serve to explain the acts and motives of their
public men in past days, is now carried in England — the only coun-
try in Europe where the press is really free ; to see private cabinets
and secret depositories, formerly so strictly guarded against the
intrusion of inquisitive eyes, now freely searched — the most private
records, confidential letters and every document that can throw
light upon the past unreservedly given to the public for the benefit
of the living. The opinions thus manifested as to what is consistent
with sound political ethics come from a source entitled to our respect*
If there are features in the English system of which we do not ap-
prove we must nevertheless admit and admire the purity and fidelity
to duty which is there exacted from public men. The preparation
and publication of true accounts of the proceedings we are about
to describe are thus nothing more than acts of justice to the reputa-
tions of the distinguished men who took part in them on one side
or another, and at the same time, of the soundest policy in respect
to those who*come after us. The memories of those who exposed
themselves to persecution by pursuing the course which proved to
be the right one should be duly honored for their patriotism, their
integrity and their intelligence and it is no less right that those •
who devoted their faculties and their influence to an opposite policy
should bear the odium of their misdeeds. Such are and ought to be
the conditions upon which men enter into public life and assume
public trusts, certainly under all governments that claim to be free.
The just apportionment of praise and censure among the actors in
those transactions is especially due to the Country which bore the

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 631

brunt of the evils that were produced by them, and which, if ever
again exposed to similar trials, may thus have the benefit of the
lesson and the warning upon those on whom the administration
of public affairs may chance, in such a crisis, to have devolved.

The question of a national bank has been, in all its phases and at
all times, one of the most disturbing characters in our history. The
occasion of which we speak was the fourth on which the Country
has been agitated with especial violence by its appearance on the
legislative stage. The extent to which our national councils were
shaken when the subject was first introduced, with other and kin-
dred devices from the fertile genius of Alexander Hamilton, will
never be forgotten ; the second arose at the expiration of the charter
of the first bank, when a severe struggle was made for its renewal —
a struggle in which its petition to Congress was attempted to be
sustained by means and influences similar in spirit to those after-
wards resorted to, but without success ; the third at the establishment
of the second and last bank, through an honest but mistaken impres-
sion, on the part of the virtuous Madison, of the necessity of such
an institution, and, lastly, the fierce conflict now the subject of our
review, and in which as a national institution it was, it is to be
hoped, finally overthrown. Whether another attempt to establish
a national bank will be made and, if so, how soon, are questions
which no man will undertake to answer with confidence. There
are certainly many ° who think that the subject will never again be
revived and this is a consummation devoutly to be wished. But
wher6 was the political prophet who, in 1811, when the question of
the renewal of the charter of the first bank was decided and, as was
at the time supposed, finally decided in the negative by the casting
vote of George Clinton and when a large majority of the people
said of his course "well done, good and faithful servant! " — would
have had the boldness to predict that it would be revived and a new
national bank established in 1816, less than four years afterwards ? —
Especially would such a prediction have been deemed preposterous
if it had been also assumed that a result, apparently so improbable,
would be brought about by the consent and approval of James
Madison! Mr. Webster indeed asseverated that a national bank
was an "obsolete idea" but it is to me, not at all likely that the
proposition was dictated by a settled opinion founded on a compari-
son of the facts of the past with the probabilities of the future.
Disappointed and deeply mortified as he was by the failure of the
exaggerated estimate he had formed of the invincibility of a great
money power willing to devote all its means to the accomplishment
of its objects, it is, to my mind, much more probable that the declara-

• MS. VI, p. 40.

632 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

tion had its origin in a desire to neutralize, as far and as fast s?
possible, the odium whiclj he and his party had drawn upon them
selves by their unscrupulous support of the bank.

It may turn out that the idea of the usefulness of such an institu-
tion has been so thoroughly exploded in this Country as to prevent any
attempt at its re-establishment among u& ; but we have no sufficient
reason for assuming such a result as certain, nor adequate motives for
exposing ourselves, in this regard to the proverbial hazard of polit-
ical currents and speculations. Our political system may be said
to be in comparison with others, yet in its infancy, but we have had
sufficient experience under it to satisfy us that we can not expect ex-
emption from those vibrations in the movements of public question*
and events which have so long been witnessed under other and older
institutions-Wibrations answering to those which are exhibited in
most of nature's works and serving to confirm the unerring truth of
the declaration of the wisest of men that " the thing that hath been
it is that which shall be, and there is no new thing under the sun."

Having said thus much in deference to a feeling which, neverthe-
less, might very well not have arisen in the bt*east of any reader, we
will continue our progress towards the commencement of the u Panic
Session."

The expectation so confidently indulged by the republican support-
ers of the administration that the bank would submit to the decision
that had been made on its appeal and the disappointment they ex-
hibited at a different result were more creditable to their political sin-
cerity than to their sagacity in estimating the designs of party leaders
and of corporate bodies. If the distinguished founder of the paper
system in the United States had devoted his powers and his time to
the work of infusing into the first national bank the largest share of
his own impatience of popular restraint he could not have made it
more hostile to the government of numbers than such large monied in-
stitutions are by the imperious law of their natures, n6r can the infer-
ences drawn by the bank in favor of its ability to sustain itself in such
a contest as that on which it had resolved, after a comparison of its
means with those of the Government, be thought as extravagant as
some may have, upon a superficial view of the matter, supposed. Not
contemplating any action that would justify the application of the
military arm of the Government to the bank or its supporters the
latter looked to a struggle in which none but civilians would partici-
pate and, thus regarding it, none can fail to perceive how largely the
resources of the bank exceeded those of the Government. Against
the officers holding their commissions at the pleasure of the latter— a
body thought to possess much power but never half so efficient as it is
popularly rated — the bank had at its command a far more puissant

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BURE27. 683

force in u the train-bands of commerce " and was much better supplied
than its assumed rival with the means of enlisting, stimulating and
relieving those whom it mustered into its service. A statement of the
respective amounts of money and funds convertible into money which,
at the period we speak of, were passing thro' the hands and, in various
degrees, under the control of the respective governments of the coun-
try and of the bank, will seem to the reader at first sight, marvellous;
it is nevertheless vouched by official and authentic reports of both
parties. The balance in the National Treasury, at the commencement
of the " panic session '' was between four and five millions, the receipts
from all sources for the year between 31 and 32 millions and the
estimate of the accruing revenue for the year, from which it did not
vary much, amounted to between 82 and 38 millions, whilst the annual
operations of the bank in discounts and foreign and domestic ex-
changes and according to its own published statements, at the same
period amounted to three hundred and forty one millions of dollars,
and it had on deposit a yearly average in its vaults of six millions of
dollars belonging to the Federal Government, besides the deposits of
individuals. The revenue of the United States was in due time ap-
propriated by law to specific purposes, but whether this was or was
not done the President could not use a cent of it, until after the pas-
sage of a law authorising him to do so, without exposing himself to
the penalties of impeachment; and of the national legislature, by
which alone such an act could be passed, it is not too much to say
that a majority in one of its branches — the Senate — were the de-
voted partisans of the bank. The public money subject to the indi-
vidual control of the President was that portion constituting the
secret service fund, which was limited to fifteen or twenty thousand
dollars. The extent of control with which the President of the bank
was clothed over its immense funds, at that particular period, will
be seen hereafter. I may say here without hesitation or hazard, that
as to any amount of them that could in any way be so directed or
applied as to promote the object of the bank his authority was not
subject to embarrassing restrictions of any kind

It was, I doubt not, under some such views of the relative powers
of the two governments that the resolution to compel an extension of
the charter of the bank, by the arbitrary exercise of those with which
it was armed, was formed after the Presidential election of 1832.
Apiong the great men who filled .conspicuous parts in the attempt to
carry that resolution into effect Nicholas Biddle, then President of
the bank, and Henry Clay, the leading member of the Senate of the
United States, exerted far greater influence than any of their coadju-
tors. Mr. Biddle represented, upon a claim of authority which has
never been publicly questioned nor its exercise condemned, the entire

634 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION.

interests of the bank, its stock holders and all who were concerned in
its success and the means it possessed for carrying on the contest in
which they, the bank and its political partisans were about to em-
bark— means without the support of which they could not have
hoped to succeed.

Equally vain and hopeless would the struggle have been without
the active co-operation of the political party towards which, although
it had been defeated, Mr. Clay occupied the imposing relation of its
candidate for the Presidency, and over which he exerted a leader-
ship of unusual absolutism and without his concurrence* therefore,
that co-operation could not have been secured. There was nothing
in the plan of operations, which was devised as the one best adapted
to the respective conditions of the bank and its political supporters,
that was either repulsive to Mr. Clay's feelings or otherwise calculat-
ed to prevent him f rem embarking in it Whether its first suggestion
came from Mr. Biddle or from himself will probably never be known.
Its character reflected the bitter and disappointed emotions excited
by the adverse result of the election, over which both were brooding,
and it was quite as likely to have originated in the breast of one as
of the other. In firmness, intelligence and general capacity both
were entirely equal to the parts they were expected to perform in its
execution. Mr. Clay possessed a measure of physical and moral
courage and of readiness to assume responsibility approaching if not
equalling that universally conceded to his great rival Gen. Jackson.
Mr. Biddle was a prominent member of a highly respectable family
long creditably connected with the public service, in war as well as
in peace; a family which, from an early time in our history, oc-
cupied a distinguished position in society and were favorably known
throughout a large portion of our country, for personal worth
and gallant bearing. ° Altho' his official conduct as President of the
bank, in the matter brought under discussion in these pages, has been
and always will continue to be with me the subject of unqualified con-
demnation it is due to truth to say that his private and personal
character has never, to my knowledge, been successfully impeached.
I knew him from an early period of my life, had considerable inter-
course with him, which was not even interrupted by our political dif-
ferences but was always agreeable and, I have no reason to doubt,
on both sides — politics apart — sincerely friendly. The only member
of his family with whom I am acquainted is his son, Major Bid<JJe,
towards whom I have imbibed feelings of high respect and affection-
ate regard.

Having thus spoken of the general abilities and characters of the
two principal leaders in the political crusade which I am about to

* MS. VI, p. 45.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 635

describe I am constrained to add that the judgments of both in
respect to the probable effects of the course they had marked out
for themselves and their friends upon the feelings and opinions
of the great body of the people were, in my humble estimation, very
unreliable. Mr. Clay could not have shut his eyes to the political
consequences involved in the struggle before him, nor did he affect
to do so. If it proved a failure entire political prostration of its
leaders, in the ratio of their prominence, must be the result —
a catastrophe of which, as the leader in chief, his would be the .largest
share. If successful it would, in the natural course of things, raise
that leader to the Presidency. Having been already twice over-
thrown in his aspirations in that direction there was no process of
reasoning by which he could avoid the conclusion that the present
would be, must be his last chance for that high distinction. He so
considered the matter and laid down, as his first requirement — one
which was to be distinctly and irrevocably recognized by the bank,
and, under no extremities, to be lost sight of — that there should not
be on this occasion, as there had been before, a divided leadership.
Of this the reader will, before the account of these transactions is
closed, be made very certain. He needed the co-operation of both
Webster and Calhoun. That of the latter was indispensable. Mr.
Webster's not so much so, but highly desirable, and Mr. Clay hoped
to obtain both. From Mr. Calhoun he could apprehend no such
rivalship as has been alluded to; in respect to Mr. Webster that
question stood on different ground and it was toward him, there-
fore, that the requisition of which I have spoken was aimed — trust-
ing, as reasoning from the past he thought he might safely do,
to the influence of the bank over Mr. Webster's action to keep the
latter in the harness which was to be prepared for him. Mr. Clay's
demands were ultimately satisfied in regard to both of the gentlemen
named. For his success with Mr. Webster, however, he was, in all
probability, indebted, as the reader will hereafter see, to an agency
other than his own or the bank's and of which he was not apprised
until a much later period of his life.

CHAPTER XLIV.

Of the details of the bank plan of campaign, as it stood at the
close of the session of 1832, — I can of course only speak from infer-
ences drawn— with such advantages of position for drawing" them
as I hare before pointed out — f rom facts of undoubted authority.
The reader will judge for himself of the correctness of my infer-
ences and accord to them the credit to which he may think them
entitled. Having for its leading and only avowed object the re-
chartering of the bank that plan was necessarily constructed with
special reference to the actual condition of the several powers of
the Federal Government. No direct action of the people, by which
that condition might be seasonably varied, was allowable under the
Constitution before the existing charter of the bank would have
expired : it was only through new or changed views by which their
minds could be impressed and unsettled, that they might be induced
to exert an influence over the course of their representatives elect,
and thus to promote or to retard the adoption of public measures
bearing on the general subject. In the Executive branch no change
had taken place. President Jackson had been re-elected for a term
extending beyond the bank's charter, his opposition to it had been
placed in his Fefo-message on grounds that could not be moved
and he had been made, if possible, still more absolute against it
by the subsequent abuses of its power. Hie federal element in the
Senate, altho' it had been somewhat reduced by the election, was
greatly strengthened as against the administration by its more per-
fect union with the friends of Mr. Calhoun. The House of Repre-
sentatives had undergone a great change in all respects and par-
ticularly oil the question of the bank, a majority of friends of the
administration having been returned which, tho' not half* so large
as in the previous Congress, was believed to be not only composed
of better stuff in general but especially reliable on that question.

Further effort to obtain the passage of an act for the desired ex-
tension of the charter of the bank from a legislature composed of
three separate branches, the consent of every one of which was
necessary to the validity of the grant, in despite of the known and
settled hostility of one branch and the all but certain opposition
of another (both of which held their offices by a tenure reaching
beyond the limit of the existing charter) was an undertaking which
most men would have looked upon as desperate. But Messrs. Biddle
636

-3

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 687

and Clay did not regard their situation in a light so unfavorable.
They did not see, or affected not to see any obstacles in these undis-
puted facts to the accomplishment of their objects which could not
be overcome by a vigorous application of the means at the command
of the bank, supported by its political allies. Of the particular
character of those means we will speak hereafter; for the present
let it suffice to say that they bore no analogy to those which, spring-
ing from a conviction in the breasts of suitors of the justice of their
applications, consist of arguments and explanations in behalf of
what they ask. Whatever may have been their confidence in the
merit of their petition, which it is not necessary to consider here,
means of that description were, in the present case, deliberately laid
aside as having already been resorted to without avail Mid as espe-
cially unpromising under existing circumstances. The only appeal
that, in their view of the matter, was still open to them and promised
success was one which hazarded the unbiased and deliberate opinions
of public men, and of the communities for which they acted, as 'an in-
auspicious agency for the solution of pablic questions, as entirely
extraneous and in the last degree sinister in its nature and which,
instead of enlightening and fortifying men's minds, served only to
bewilder and subvert their judgments and carried in its train the
worst evils to the public welfare. If they were enabled to carry
their bill thro' the House of Representatives by the use of the
means they contemplated, altho' not availing much, in the first in-
stance, towards the accomplishment of their immediate object —
indeed, advancing them no further than they reached in the first
struggle — such a result would, in their estimation, open to them
chances of future success of greater value than the cost of an imme-
diate triumph however expensive that might be. It would go far
to divest the decision of the preceding Presidential election of the
influence it had acquired, and to which it was entitled, as a declara-
tion of the will of the majority of the people, expressed in a con-
stitutional form, against the continuance of the bank. Means potent
enough to drive the House of Representatives, which had been chosen
under such circumstances, from its integrity and duty would, it was
also believed, if they failed to be operative upon the President, yet
force the supporters of the administration in both Houses to give
way in sufficient numbers to secure for the bill a constitutional ma-
jority over the Veto. The President might die in the course of the
struggle, an event which, from his advanced age and physical debil-
ity, seemed at the time not unlikely, and, in that contingency, his
constitutional successor might not prove to possess the firmness
necessary to maintain the position he had occupied, a chance easily
assumed at least as furnishing an additional ground of hope. If
all other calculations failed, the prostration of the existing adminis-

638 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

tration, the election of a friend of the bank as the next President and
the establishment of a new bank upon the foundation of the old
were ' last resorts ' on which men of temperaments so sanguine as
were those of Messrs. Clay and Biddle could not hesitate to rely
with entire confidence.

That such, or something very like them, were their views of the
subject and such the nature and general outlines of their plan, as it
stood at the close of that session, is fairly inferable from significant
occurrences, both before and after, the character and details of which
are neither matter of dispute nor difficult of interpretation.

The removal of the deposits enabled the bank to change the method
and form of the measure for its relief much to its advantage. This,
at first, was from necessity intended to be a simple bill to extend the
charter; that which was actually proposed was a joint-resolution
to restore the deposits to the place from whence they had been re-
moved, which, if if had been adopted would, inevitably, have led to
a re-charter. We shall see hereafter the reasons why this change
was an improvement in the bank's position.

The possible inflexibility of an adverse majority0 in the new
House of Representatives was certainly a formidable difficulty but
not sufficient to discourage the bank or its leading supporters. Who
those representatives were, what their characters and capacities, their
firmness, their spirit, scattered as they were throughout the extended
Country, could as yet be little known, and much room for hope was
therefore left to those who had been accustomed to speculate upon
the weakness of public men and trained in the ways by which they
could be influenced. These uncertainties could only be definitely
settled at the next session of Congress — then comparatively far off.
It would, at all events, be a new thing under the sun that a bank of
the United States should for a long time remain in a minority in
either branch of the National Legislature. The controlling influence
of the first bank in the first Congress was notorious, and it may well
be doubted whether, as far, at least, as respected the bank's own
concerns, that influence' had been much less over any of its successors.
To the popular branch of the first Congress under Gen. Jackson's
administration, which immediately preceded that whose probable
character they were canvassing, there had been elected a majority of
more than sixty avowed friends of the administration, or " Jackson
men," as they were called. Yet before the expiration of its second
session the bank had acquired sufficient influence over that body to
obtain from it the passage of a bill to extend its charter notwith-
standing full knowledge that the measure had been introduced at that
early period — so long before the expiration of its then chartered

0 MS. VI, p. 5Q.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 630

powers and rights — with the express purpose of being used to pre-
vent Jackson's re-election if he should interpose his Veto; a design
virtually admitted by the Senator from Pennsylvania who presented
the memorial for the re-incorporation of the rank. In the present
House the majority in favor of the administration was less than half
that number and among them were some untried men. It was not
therefore surprising that the bank and its advocates entered upon
the undertaking of converting the second House of Representatives—
as they had done for the first— with the confidence which was ob-
served in all their movements.

The agency selected on the second occasion for the development of
their joint powers and for the attainment of their respective purposes
afforded a striking illustration of the tenacity of the impressions
which really great men, sincere in their opinions and having the
faculty of winning the hearts and persuading the judgments of
others, sometimes stamp on the minds of their followers, especially
when those opinions had been gradually crystalled and shaped into
a partisan creed. That the people might always and could only suc-
cessfully be governed through their individual interests or through
their fears was a* doctrine which Alexander Hamilton held with the
sincerity and avowed with the manly candor which pre-eminently dis-
tinguished his character. No one who has made himself in any con-
siderable degree acquainted with our political history can be ignorant
of this fact, or of the zeal with which he inculcated that doctrine,
and of all our public men there has not been one who made such du-
rable impressions of the convictions of his own mind on those of
friends and followers. By far the largest portion of those to whose
management the affairs of the bank were committed and also, of the
party by which it was sustained was composed of his surviving dis-
ciples and their descendants reared in and still devoted to the same
faith. The extraordinary effort they made, in the first instance, to
enlist the favor of the people on the side of the bank and to secure
their support for its candidates by the most assiduous and the most
lavish appeals to particular interests has been described in the pre-
ceding pages, as well as the failure which attended it and every other
in that direction. What more natural than that having failed* in the
application of one of the only two elements of political influence by
which Hamilton believed that the action of the public mind could
be rightly directed, his political disciples, the jaarly and late admirers
of his creed, should resort to the other, or that Mr. Clay, whose con-
version to that creed — bank and all — had become complete should
not co-operate only but be the chief leader in the enterprise. Hence
the origin of the plan which was carried out with such unrelenting
vigor, — that of employing the vast means at the disposal of the bank

640 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

in deranging the credits of the Country and of embarrassing business
concerns to an extent sufficient to create wide spread distress and to
infuse intense alarm for the safety of its every interest into all the
ramifications of a great community — to excite public indignation
against the Executive branch of the Government by imputing these
disastrous occurrences to the interposition of the President's Veto
and to the necessity he had wantonly imposed on the bank of pre*
paring to wind up its affairs, the evils of which they (the bank lead-
ers) had foretold, and to obtain, by means of the extensive panic
thus produced, a control over the action of the public mind which
would enable the projectors of these criminal schemes not only to
mark out for the newly elected House of Representatives the course
it should pursue but to gain in the sequel, possession of the General
Government.

Whether those derangements in all our business relations, the ob-
stacles they presented to public and private prosperity and the dis-
tress produced by them were caused by the action of the Federal
Government, or of either of its Departments in relation to the then
existing bank of the United States, or were systematically contrived
by the bank itself, as is here stated, to subserve bank and partisan
purposes, although long and hotly disputed, has ceased to be regarded
as an open question by our people. The judgment of the Country,
after full hearing and mature consideration, pronounced them to have
been parts of a criminal plot devised and carried out to force a con-
tinuance of chartered privileges from an unwilling Government Mid
people. In the end that decision was generally concurred in. Here
and there may still be found a straggling dissentient from the com-
mon sentiment and, for obvious reasons/the sentiment itself may be
more or less freely avowed by some than by others, but the conviction
of its justness is, nevertheless, in our time almost universal. It was
by thus regarding it and by resuming the management of their busi-
ness concerns with the means that were left to them that the people
of the United States relieved themselves as far and as fast as they
could, from the injurious effects of a severe temporary excitement,
the fruit of misplaced confidence in those who had raised it for
sinister purposes. They shook off an incubus the attempt to fasten
which upon them had convulsed the Country; every apprehension
for the success and stability of our political institutions was thus
quieted and our business interests and relations were in time restored
to the condition in which they stood at the commencement of the
selfish and unprincipled war that had been waged against them and
against the honor and welfare of the nation by and in behalf of
the U. S. bank.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YAK BUREN. 641

It is of that great struggle — the fiercest, more disturbing, more
influential upon the prospects of the public men of the day, and
threatening greater danger to the vital principles of free govern-
ment than any to which those principles have been exposed in this
Country since the recognition of our national independence— of its
most striking incidents and of its issue that I propose to speak.

Unprecedented pecuniary embarrassments having been chosen as
the groundwork of the contemplated panic the bank was of course
looked to as the leading and most efficient agent for their production.
Holding the principal strings and to a great extent controlling the
direction of the enormous amount of three hundred and forty mil-
lions of the moneyed operations of the Country it was necessary that
the business affairs of the latter should have been indeed in a palmy
condition to have put it out of the power of that institution to intro-
duce any desired extent of derangement in its credits and in the
systems by which they were regulated. The bank entered upon its
allotted part of the work with the alacrity and energy which dis-
tinguishes the operations of large monied institutions moved by the
word of command and with a degree of recklessness in respect of its
obligations to the Country, to the Government by which it had been
created and to the provisions and reservations of its charter which
nothing short of its desperate condition could have inspired. Of its
measures and plans to forward its designs, devised during the recess
and continued during the ensuing session of Congress, I will, in this
place, notice those only which have a direct bearing upon the imme-
diate objects of the confederates, viz : the undermining of the major-
ity of the anti-bank men whom the people had elected to the coming
House of Representatives and the excitation and demoralization of
the public mind by means of a pecuniary panic. These consisted —

First: of the steps that were taken to supersede the action of the
regular and only board of directors authorized by the charter in
regard to all the important movements of the bank which it desired
to conceal from the knowledge of the Government ; of these the most
important were the substitution of what was called the " Exchange
Committee," composed of only five directors, of whom the President
of the bank was one and the other four were selected by him, and
the bestowment of all but unlimited power on this Committee, whose
doings were confidential and from whose councils the Government
directors were invariably excluded;

Secondly: of those by which power was given to °its President
over the funds of the institution, including the money of the Govern-
ment, as means for operating upon public opinion, without requir-

* MS. VI, p. 66.

127488°— vol 2—20 41

642 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

ing him to render vouchers of their disbursement to the regular
board or in any way to account to it for the uses he made of them, to
an extent, amply sufficient to enable him to exercise all the influence
that could be acquired by the application of money over the public
press, over influential individuals and over members of Congress ;

Thirdly: of the movements and measures of the Exchange Com-
mittee to derange the credits of the Country and to spread the
pecuniary embarrassments over the length and breadth of the land
by which the desired panic was produced.

Others may be briefly noticed in the course of this review, and even
of these the substance only can be stated. To describe them respec-
tively in detail would require a volume, nor is it indispensable to do
more than I have proposed as the record of them in all their original
fullness is preserved in our public archives, to which the reader, who
desires to test the accuracy of my statements of the leading foots or
the correctness of the deductions I have made from them or to obtain
ampler views of the subject can refer.

The Government held one fifth of the capital stock of the bank,
viz : seven millions of dollars out of thirty five millions. It kept in
its vaults, of public monies, an average annual amount of six millions
more, on general deposit and, of course, subject to the use of the bank.
It had conferred on that institution vast powers which, it was be-
lieved, could, and trusted would be used for the advantage of the
Government and of the Country at large as well as for that of the
bank, but it was also well understood that all their important inter-
ests might be made to suffer if the management of the affairs of the
bank was not strictly guarded and closely watched. Partly from
necessity, at all events rightfully and wisely the Government had
assumed the largest share of the responsibility of that watchfulness
and, to enable it to discharge the duties it thus assumed with success,
powers were reserved to it and restrictions and duties imposed upon
the bank by the provisions of its charter which would, it was vainly
hoped, be amply sufficient for that purpose. It was, among other
things pointing in the same direction, provided by the Charter that
" for the management of the affairs of the said Corporation " there
should be twenty five directors, five of whom should be annually
appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the
advice and consent of the Senate, and the residue should be annually
elected by the stockholders " other than the United States," and it
was further -provided that "not less than seven directors shall con-
stitute a board for the transaction of business." These solemn stipu-
lations, notwithstanding that the latter was one of the fundamental
articles of the constitution of the bank and that both together em-
braced the most material provisions for the management of the affairs

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 643

of the corporation, upon the integrity of which the security of im-
mense public interests depended, that institution permitted, nay en-
couraged and assisted its President to set at naught by the appoint-
ment and action of the " Exchange Committee99 to which I have
referred.
That there may be no mistake as to this cardinal step in these
# proceedings, through which impunity was expected to be secured
for most of the lawless acts that followed, I repeat the words in
which Chief Justice Taney, then Secretary of the Treasury, officially
communicated the matter to both Houses, at the commencement of
the panic session, in the face of the able and active friends of the
bank on the floors of Congress :

Instead of a board constituted of at least seven directors, according to the
charter, at which those appointed by the United States have a right to be
present, many of the most Important money transactions of the bank have been
and still are placed under the control of a committee of which no one
of the public directors has been allowed to be a member since the commence-
ment of the present year. This Committee is not even elected by the board
and the public directors have no voice in their appointment. They are chosen
by the President of the bank ; and the business of the institution, which ought
to be decided on by the board of directors, is, in many instances, transacted by
this Committee and no one has a right to be present at their proceedings but
the President and those whom he shall please to name as members of this
Committee. Thus loans are made unknown at the time to a majority of the
' board and paper discounted which might probably be rejected at a regular
meeting of the directors, the most Important operations of the bank are some-
times resolved on and executed by this Committee and its measures are, it
appears designedly and by regular system, so arranged as to conceal from the
officers of the Government transactions in which the public interests are
deeply involved.1

0

That the truth of this statement could not be denied was, in various
ways, unreservedly admitted as well by the bank as by its supporters
in Congress. When Mr. Taney's report of his reasons for removing
the deposits, the document in which the statement is contained, was
received in the Senate Mr. Clay moved to take it* up and to fix a
day for its consideration without referring it to a committee. Mr.
Benton alluded to the various charges of misconduct against the
bank which it contained, and upon which the Secretary relied as
reasons for the removal, and submitted whether it was not due to
the bank, to the Country and to the Senate to have the truth of
these charges enquired into before the Senate proceeded to decide
upon the sufficiency of the reasons they furnished for the step
which the Secretary had taken* Mr. Clay, without direct reply to
the suggestion, persisted in his motion. A day having been appointed
for the action of the Senate upon the Secretary's report he offered

1 Beport of Secretary of the Treasury, Dec. 8, 1883.

644 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

resolutions1 declaring the reasons assigned by that officer to be
insufficient and highly censoring the conduct of the President in
the matter, which were discussed for three months.

Mr. Taney's statement was never refuted either by the bank or
by its supporters in Congress, but, on the contrary, not only was
a challenge interposed by a hostile Senator to go into the investiga-
tion of its truth declined but the investigation itself was virtually
refused thro9 the action of the friends of the bank, they constituting
a majority of the Senate. It would, therefore, be an act of supero-
gation to add another word here to establish its correctness. Am I
wrong in assuming that it would be an equal waste of time to
enlarge upon the subject for the purpose of establishing the utterly
reckless and wholly inexcusable, not to say criminal character of
these proceedings ? No upright and ingenuous mind, whatever may
have been its impressions in respect to other points in the contest,
can avoid being forced to that conclusion. Feeling that this must
be so, that they present, taken together, a transaction neither the
illegality nor the immorality of which can be made more intelligible
by argument or aggravated by denunciation and which, in itself
considered, may, without prejudice to the cause of truth, be allowed
to stand substantially in the light in which the bank has placed it
without coloring or comment, I will so treat it But in thus declining
to probe deeper proceedings which were so exceptionable on their
face we cannot, if we would, ignore their plain and conclusive inter-
pretation of the character and design of the subsequent acts of the
bank. If there had been nothing in the establishment and action of
the " Exchange Committee " that shunned the light because its deeds
were evil Ifr. Biddle would have placed in Mr. Clay's hands, within
twenty four hours after the presentation to the Senate of Mr. Taney's
report, an authentic statement of facts sufficient to tarn the tide
of public indignation against that incorruptible officer for his severe
but in that case unfounded arraignment of the bank. No office
would have been more acceptable to Mr. Clay than that of demol-
ishing, at the threshold of the session a man whom the supporters
of the bank disliked to a degree only less than that in which they
held President Jackson himself, and whose official cousse became the
central point to which the attention of all parties was then turned
and continued to be directed during the remainder of the session.
Mr. Clay's unfair attack on Mr. Taney, on the ground of his interest
in the Union bank of Maryland, which the latter turned with so
much power upon his assailant, would, in that case, never have been
thojught of. But the record of the doings of the " Exchange Com-
mittee " was, from the beginning designed to be a sealed book and

9V^ JAM*

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 645

there was no possible imputation to which it would not be better for
the bank to submit than to have those seals broken and its inner
workings revealed to the knowledge of the Government and to the
gaze of the people.

Of the measures which were concocted in that secret and irrespon-
sible Council of Five, and which were attempted to be carried into
effect under its powerful auspices, I can here only make room for a
brief notice of one of great interest by which the public mind was,
in the sequel, profoundly moved. When General Jackson arrived at
the Presidency our national debt stood at ° about sixty millions, and
no object was nearer his heart than that of its extinguishment during
his administration. The, height of his remaining ambition was to
place the great Republic by the side of the Empires of the old world,
enjoying, in addition to her other glories, the proud distinction of
being free of any public debt — that wasting canker of the nations.
If the appropriations for the payment of the national debt, recom-
mended to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury, by order of
the President, in December 1832, had been fully made and applied,
he would have succeeded in that the last year of his first official
term in reducing the debt (including the payment of interest) fifty-
eight million of dollars since his elevation to the Presidency. This
would have left the whole amount due on the first of January, 1888,
only a little over seven millions, for the discharge of which the
Government stock in the bank of the United States, with the ac-
cruing dividends, was considered amply sufficient. This assumed
reduction included an item of eighteen millions to be paid in 1832,
which embraced thirteen millions — the whole amount of the old
three per cents, funded by the act of 1790, and constituting the last
instalment of our revolutionary debt. It was advertised for reim-
bursement on the first of October, 1832, and for that purpose the
Treasury department had made all the provision supposed to be
necessary at the different loan offices. On the very eve of the accom-
plishment of this great object and but a few days before the Presi-
dent's annual Message of December 1832 in which he congratulated
Congress and the Country on its consummation, it was discovered
(it does not appear how) that the bank, through its " Exchange Com-
mittee," had, in the month of July preceding, and without even the
knowledge of the Government, sent a secret agent to London to
make an arrangement with Baring Brothers & Co. for the post-
ponement of three millions of that stock, for which they were the
agents, and also two millions in addition, for six, nine, or twelve
months after the date designated by our Government for its reim-
bursement ; that the Barings had agreed with the agent of the bank

•m& vi, p. eo.

646 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

to buy up the three per cent stocks upon the best terms at which
they could be procured — to charge the bank with the outlay, to re-
tain the certificates themselves and, if the amount of the stock so par-
chased and that retained by the holders should be less than five
millions, to make up the deficiency in case the bank should desire
to draw for it — and that the purchase of the stock was actually
made to the extent of a million and a half ; that, on receiving infor-
mation of this purchase, Mr. Biddle had discovered that the bank
had no right to purchase any public debt whatever and that the step
he was taking might operate as a forfeiture of the charter for the
renewal of which he was making such prodigious exertions; that
he had disavowed so much of the arrangement made by his agent
as relate4 to the purchase of stock, on the ground of a want of
power in the bank to carry it into effect and had substituted in lieu
thereof a proposition that the Barings should send to the bank the
certificates, that it should receive the money for the owners, pass it
to their credit on the books of the bank which should pay them the
subsequent interest, quarterly, until October 1833.

It is apparent on the face of these proceedings that the bank's
immediate object was to add, for its protection against possible
contingencies, five millions to its disposable funds* To secure that
accommodation, independent of its pecuniary engagements, it in-
curred the responsibility of a studiously concealed but most flagrant
violation of duty as the fiscal agent of the Government, a violation
which acquired the distinction of being the only one of its promi-
nent transgressions which its friends in the House, altho' willing to
palliate, did not attempt to justify. The time at which such a
step was taken— only four months before the Presidential election,
upon the result of which its fate was supposed to depend, — and the
hazard of exposure shew very conclusively that its interest in the
movement or its necessity for the money .was of the most urgent
character, and that whatever its motives they looked principally to
its own welfare. What was the precise channel thro9 which the
bank was to be benefitted by that acquisition to its disposable funds
or to what particular purposes the five millions were designed to be
applied are undivulged secrets of which the public, will, probably,
never be fully informed.1 It is sufficient for the condemnation of
the bank for us to know that those funds had been set apart and as it

1 The inference here is unjustified. The drain upon the Bank's funds, regardless of
causes, had been enormous ; the financing of private business enterprises had been given
the precedence over the Government's Interests and the money was heeded for the dis-
charge of that portion of the public debt the administration desired to cancel. The Gov-
ernment deposits, theoretically In the Bank's vaults, in reality were largely engaged
elsewhere In commercial activities, and for this situation, of course, the Bank Itself
was entirely responsible. The matter is discussed at some length In Cattarairs Second
Bank of the United States (Chicago, 1908), pp. 267-273.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 647

were consecrated to a sacred and glorious object — the payment of
the last remnant of the debt which had been contracted for the
achievement of our independence ; that an important measure of the
Government was thwarted through the infidelity of the bank and
the nation compelled to continue for a time liable for a debt which
it was ready and desirous to extinguish ; that this was brought about
by the secret management of a committee of an institution which was
the custodian of the people's strong box and the trusted fiscal agent
of their Government.

The instructions for the secret agent 1 sent to London were, as it
afterwards appeared, dated on the 18th of July, 1832, barely a week
after the date of the President's veto Message and closer still upon
the failure of the bank to obtain a constitutional majority in the Sen-
ate. They were issued and the agent selected whilst its spirited but
reckless President was yet deliberating with the no less reckless lead-
ers of the party which had made the cause of the bank its own and
maturing in concert plans for the ensuing political campaign in which
the fate of that party, for a long time at least, and the fate of the
Constitution were to be decided.

The unprecedented success of President Jackson's efforts for the
payment of the national debt, during his first term had already been
recognized by his fellow citizens as worthy of a civic crown and
promised to be of no small weight in his favor in the approaching
struggle. The additional eclat which his persevering exertions in
that direction would derive from an announcement promulgated on
the first of October, a single month before the election, that the last
cent of our revolutionary debt had on that day been paid and so ap-
propriately paid under the administration of one who might be called
a shoot from the seed of that ever memorable contest, was a considera-
tion not likely to be overlooked byastute politicians such as led the
bank forces, especially when so much had been staked on the canvass
to be influenced by that annunciation.2 Had it not been for the fate
which subsequently befell the bank, at a period not too remote to
countenance the inference that its condition may already have been
sufficiently precarious to make necessary these disreputable transac-
tions to guard against a collapse pending the canvass, we might not
have looked for other than political motives for their commission, but,
reviewing those scenes from the point we now occupy and in the light
of the developments at which I have glanced, it is difficult to resist

*Gen. Thomas Cadwalader.

a It was not overlooked, but Biddle's plan for accomplishing it was In the nature of a
trade, with the renewal of the charter as the consideration. Biddle's handling of the
matter wai at fault ; his misunderstanding of Jackson and presumption in assuring his
friends that the charter would be renewed caused suspicion and irritation In JacK— «'-
mind that counted heavily against the Bank thus early in the struggle.

648 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

the conclusion that the material interests and condition of the institu-
tion furnished the strongest inducements to its desperate steps.

Favored by the intense national excitement and through the jug-
glery of financiering— the sinister side of an otherwise highly use-
ful and honorable art — in the occult mysteries of which, unhappily
for himself and for the bank, he thought himself an adept, Mr.
Biddle was able to prevent for a season a successful scrutiny into
his motives and to confuse the subject sufficiently to qualify public
feeling, but in the sequel his disguises have been broken through and
his acts unreservedly condemned.

The separate and comparatively irresponsible control given to
their President by the board of Directors over the funds of the bank,
including of course those of the Government, avowedly for elec-
tioneering purposes, is the next subject I propose to notice. As is
often the case with similar abuses this had its beginning in an incon-
siderable and perhaps excusable transaction, but, as usual also, it
increased in extent and boldness with the growth of the motive in
which it originated and the impunity which was extended to it until
the caution and moderation of its earlier stages were openly dis-
carded. An article appeared in the American Quarterly Review
highly complimentary to the bank, and, in November, 1830, the board
passed a resolution authorizing the President to take such measures
in regard to its circulation at the expense of the bank as he might
deem most conducive to the interests of the latter. Not contenting
himself with doing what he was authorized to do the President
caused to be re-published and circulated other papers and docu-
ments ° having a similar tendency, and, in March, 1831, he suggested
to the board the propriety of empowering him to cause " to be pre-
pared and circulated such documents and papers as might communi-
cate to the people information in regard to the nature and operation
of the bank " — which suggestion was promptly carried out. The ex-
penses thus incurred in the years 1831 and 1832 (those of the Presi-
dential canvass) amounted to eighty thousand dollars, as far as the
Government Directors were enabled to obtain an account of them.
Finding no vouchers for many of these other than the President's
order, and that often too general to shew to whom and for what the
money was paid, those directors, alarmed by what they had seen and
by discovering similar operations in progress upon an increased scale,
offered to the general board a resolution asking a specific account of
those expenditures and of the purposes for which they had been in-
curred and of the names of persons to whom the moneys had been
paid. This proposition, which seemed to be very proper and reason-
able, was promptly voted down. They next moved to rescind the
resolution of March, 1831, under which those exceptionable steps

• MS. VI, p. 66.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. G49

had been taken. The consideration of that proposition was deferred
by the board, on the motion of one of its members, for the purpose
of receiving the following as a substitute :

Resolved, that the board have confidence in the wisdom and integrity of the
President and In the propriety of the resolutions of the 30th November, 1830,
and the 11th March, 1881, and entertain a foil conviction of the necessity of
renewed attention to the object of those resolutions and that the President be
authorized and requested to continue his exertions for the promotion of such
object.

The Government Directors, determined it seems to leave the bank
without an excuse for refusing to give the particulars they had asked
of past expenditures, offered the following amendments to the pre-
ceding resolution :

Resolved, That while this board repose entire confidence in the Integrity of
the President they respectfully request him to cause the particulars of the ex-
penditures made under the resolutions of 80th November 1880 and 11th March
1881 to be so stated that the same may be readily submitted to and examined
by the board of Directors and the stockholders.

Resolved, that the said resolutions be rescinded and that no further expendi-
tures be made under the same.

These amendments were voted down and the substitute was forth-
with adopted.1 This took place in August 1833, a few weeks after
the bank had despatched its secret agent to England to thwart the
Government in its purpose to redeem the three per cent stock, an act
which of itself, and more especially when considered in connection
with the virtual sequestration of the Government funds to satisfy a
groundless claim for damages on account of the protest of the French
draft ' and in regard to the Pension Agency,8 shows that the bank then
regarded itself as engaged in a struggle & l'outrance and deemed every
measure allowable that might serve to advance its objects — the only
rule on which this last step in regard to the funds of the Government
can be accounted for.4

In regard to the construction Mr. Biddle felt himself at liberty to
place upon a resolution so worded, its passage being accompanied by
an express refusal to call upon him to say what he had done with the
monies already expended save those the outlay of which he had been
pleased to account for, there is no room for misapprehension. Nor
can any doubt exist as to what he deemed the most eligible channel
through which the power thus conferred could be exerted with tho
greatest advantage. It was doubtless intended to operate through the

1 See House Executive Documents, 23d Congress, 1st Session, Nos. 2 and 12 for reports
of the government directors to Jackson.

■The French Indemnity bill the damage claim for which was finally decided against
the Bank by the V. 8. Supreme Court on a point of law.

• The control of the pension funds was a dispute qf some years standing. Here again
the Government's attitude was not above criticism.

4 Van Buren, apparently, could not conceive of the possibility that the Bank's struggles
were, In part, efforts to preserve Its financial strength to meet obligations, the Imprudent
assumption, of which was an entirely different question.

650 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

means thus supplied upon all who were in a situation to exert an
influence upon public opinion or immediately upon the pending ques-
tion, upon the conductors and proprietors of the public press, upon
outsiders who wrote for it, upon members of Congress and upon influ-
ential individuals who were capable of shaping their course. How
much was done in any or in all of those directions, what attempts
were made by direct applications of money or by nominal loans upon
straw security, of the existence of which we fcave heard from various
quarters, to influence the action of the new House of Representa-
tives— the important pivot upon which the movement of the bank and
its allies during the approaching session of Congress was destined to
turn, will never be fully known. The empty vaults of that once
powerful institution at a not very remote subsequent period would
seem to mock the notion that nothing was done in that way : thirty
five millions of bank capital are not wasted in a day. But nothing
can be further from my intention than to say or insinuate, either in
these surmises or by anything I have before advanced or may here-
after say, unless a change of opinion in this respect on my part is
distinctly announced, that I believe Mr. Biddle to have been capable
of abasing his position to advance his own pecuniary interest — as
the phrase rims to " feather his own nest " — by the acquisition in any
way of illicit gains. I have always regarded him in that respect as
a true disciple of Alexander Hamilton, whom I have considered as
free from such reproach as were Washington or Jefferson. Hamilton,
who never hesitated to jeopard the general for the support and en-
couragement of special interests, to conciliate the favor and to pur-
chase thus the adherence of the classes engaged in the latter, would
never have countenanced the application of the public money in direct
bribery and would not have survived the consciousness of having per-
mitted a dollar of it to reach his own pocket unworthily. I have
elsewhere spoken of the sacrifice, beyond measure painful, to which
he submitted to prevent the purity of his official character from be-
ing exposed to the slightest suspicion by accusations which he might
have defied with safety. Such, I am very confident, was the opinion
which his great rival Jefferson had formed of his character and
which he intended to express to me when, speaking on that or a
kindred subject, he exclaimed " Hamilton was above that ! " or " above
such things." Such was also, as I believe, essentially the case with
President Biddle. He engaged in a contest the excitements and irri-
tations of which brought his mind at length to the conviction that the
application of all means to influence the conduct of others that could
be useful and effectual was allowable but he never saw the day, I am
persuaded, when he would have failed to turn from the mere idea of
being himself sustained by the wages of corruption with disgust
d scorn.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 651

Such power as was given by the action of his board of Directors
was not likely to remain long unemployed in^the hands of a man like
Mr. Biddle, especially as its application looked towards the accom-
plishment of an object he had so much at heart and in respect to
which each faculty of his excitable nature had been stirred into ac-
tion. Everything was doubtless attempted to be affected by it that
lay within its reach but the great levers by which the public mind
was to be unsettled, the Country distracted and the in-coming House
of Representatives driven from the anti-bank position it was ex-
pected to assume were the prostration of credit and the consequent
disorganization and depression of the business of the Country which
were to be brought about thro9 the agency of the bank and at-
tributed to the necessity to which it had been driven of preparing to
wind up its affairs by the refusal to extend its charter, with the em-
blazonment and exaggerations of the distress thus visited on the land
to be fulminated during the coming session from the Halls of Con-
gress.1 Of the ability of the bank and its numerous branches, scat-
tered over the Country, to produce at will such a state of things no
intelligent man can entertain a moment's doubt when he calls to mind
the many millions which passed annually thro' its hands in the
shape of discounts, deposits and exchanges, foreign and domestic, to
which I have before alluded, and the control these gave to it not
only over most of our business men but also over the State banks — a
control made almost absolute by the possession of the public de-
posits. The assumed preliminary arrangements having been com-
pleted the first impulse in that great fiscal and political coup d'etat
by the TJ. S. bank, by which it was designed to discipline the
majority in one branch of our National Legislature and to humiliate
another, was given in the month of August, 1833. This was followed
up by the bank with others in the same direction and having the same
objects not only until the meeting of Congress but far into the session.

° Anxious to bring what I desire to say in respect to the conduct

of the bank in thisaconnection within the narrowest compass con-
sistent with what is due to truth, I shall content myself with trans-
ferring to these pages two accounts of it prepared at the time with
much care by well known and capable gentlemen whose power of

1The proposition li not, however, bo elemental as Van Buren states it. That the
i Bank deliberately engineered a panic is, at least, debatable. During a period of unusual

business expansion the Bank made imprudent grants of credit which facilitated and en-
couraged further expansion, which, in turn, demanded the grant of further credits. This
condition went far toward creating a financial situation unequal to a sudden, heavy
strain. This strain the Government supplied by adopting its perfectly legitimate plan of
paying off the public debt— a pet idea of Jackson's, the political Importance of which
Biddle, apparently, failed to grasp. That the Bank was ruthless in Its measures for self-
protection and that its ruthless contraction of credits to this end was largely responsible
for the panic cannot be gainsaid.

• MS. VI, p. 70.

652 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

condensation is greatly superior to my own and of whose claims to
credit the reader will be at liberty to judge for himself.

The first is from the report of Roger B. Taney, then Secretary of
the Treasury and now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States, of the reasons which had induced him to remove the
public deposits from the bank, made to both Houses of Congress at
the opening of the panic session. This paper was sent to the Senate,
of which body the enemies of the Administration constituted a very
decided majority, including such men as Clay, Webster, and Calhoun
with many others scarcely less able and all abundantly qualified, by
talents as well as by facilities for obtaining all necessary statements
from the bank, to detect any error of fact or of deduction into which
Mr. Taney might have fallen ; to a body moreover which was soon to
pass upon his own nomination for the high office for which he had
been selected and which it was not, at that early period of the ses-
sion, supposed by the sober minded men of either party could be
brought to strike down a man of a character so singularly unex-
ceptionable without a better excuse than that of expediency or parti-
san prejudice. It was freely and fearlessly committed to the hands
of men who had the strongest possible temptation to arraign and con-
demn him if it could be shown that he had done injustice to an im-
portant monied institution under the impulse of political hostility.

Mr. Taney thus speaks of the conduct of the bank upon the subject
under consideration :

The situation of the mercantile classes also rendered the usual aids of the
bank more than ever necessary to sustain them in their business. Their bonds
for previous importations were, as before stated, constantly becoming due and
heavy cash duties were almost dally to be paid. The demands of the pubUc
upon those engaged In commerce were consequently unusually large and they
had a just claim to the most liberal indulgence from the fiscal agent of the
Government, which had for so many years been reaping harvests of profits from
the deposits of the public money. But the bank about this time changed its
course.

By the monthly statement of the bank dated 2d Aug., J833, it
appears that Its loans and domestic bills of exchange, pur-
chased and on hand, amounted to $64, 160, 849. 14

By the monthly statement of the 2d Sept, 1883, they appear
to have been 62f 668, 869. 59

By that of the 2d Oct, 1833, they were 60,094,202.93

Reduction in two months 4,066,146.21

By the same papers it appears that the pubUc deposits, including those for
the redemption of pubUc debt, the Treasurer's and those of the pubUc officers,

were, in Aug $7,599,93L47

in Sept 9, 182, 17a 18

in Oct 9,868,436.58

Increase of the public deposits In two months 2,268, 504. 11

'Total amount collected from the community . 6, 834,650. 82

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABT1N YAK BUREN. 653

Thus upwards of six millions of dollars were withdrawn from the business
of the Country by the bank of the United States in the course of two months.
This of itself must have produced a pressure on the money market, affecting
all commercial transactions. But the curtailment in the bank accommodations
of the community was much larger. The policy adopted by the bank of the
United States compelled the State banks to take the same course in self defence
and the bank of the United States appears to have resorted to the expedient
of drawing from the State banks the balances due In specie and to have hoarded
up the article in its own vaults.

In August, 1883, that bank had in specie $10, 028, 077. 88

In September 10,207,040.20

In October 10,663,441.51

Showing an Increase of specie In two months 630, 764. 13

This sum it is believed was chiefly drawn from the state banks. To fortify
themselves those banks were compelled to call upon their debtors and curtail
their accommodations ; and so large a proportion of these calls are always paid
in their own notes that to obtain $100,000 in specie they are probably obliged
to call for four or five times that amount To replace the specie taken from
them by the bank of the U. States and to provide for their own safety the State
banks, therefore, must have curtailed from two to three millions of dollars. On
the whole it Is a fair estimate that the collections from the community, during
those two months, without any corresponding return, did not fall much short
of nine millions of dollars. As might have been expected complaints of a pres-
sure upon the money market were heard from every quarter. The balances
due from the State banks had, during the same time, increased from $368,-
068.98 to $2,288,578.19 and, from the uncertain policy of the bank, it was appre-
hended they might suddenly be called for in specie. The State banks, so far
from being able to relieve the community, found themselves under the neces-
sity of providing for their own safety.

A very large proportion of the collections of the bank in August and Septem-
ber were in Philadelphia, New York and Boston. In August and September

the curtailment in Philadelphia was $195,548.69

Increase of public deposits - -— 646,846.80

Actual collections by the bank $842,895.40

Increase of public deposits in New York $1,896,507.24

Deduct increase of loans 881,295.88

Actual collections of the bank 1,065,301.86

Curtailment in Boston was 717,264.45

Increase of public deposits 48,069.88

Actual collections of the bank 765,884.88 765,884.88

Total collections in the three cities . $2,673,081.68

It will be perceived that it was solely thro* the Increase of the public de-
posits that the bank raised balances against the State banks In New York, and
was placed in a situation to take from them at its pleasure large sums in specie.
And when it is considered that those curtailments and collections of the bank
of the United States necessarily compelled the State banks to curtail also we
shall be at no loss to perceive the cause of the pressure which existed in the
commercial cities about the end of the month of September. It was impossible

654 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION.

that the commercial Community could have sustained Itself much longer under
such a policy. In the two succeeding months the collections of the hank would
probably have exceeded five millions more and the State banks would have been
obliged to curtail In an equal sum. The reduction of bank accommodations to
the amount of nineteen millions of dollars in four months must have almost put
an end to trade; and before the first of October this pressure in the principal
commercial cities had become so Intense that it could not have been endured
much longer without the most serious embarrassments. It was then dally in-
creasing and, from the best information that I have been able to obtain, I am
persuaded that if the public monies received for revenue had been continued to
be deposited in the bank of the United States for two months longer and it had
adhered to the oppressive system of policy which it pursued during the two
preceding months a wide spread scene of bankruptcy and ruin must have fol-
lowed. There was no alternative therefore for the Treasury Department but to
act at once or abandon the object altogether. Duties of the highest character
would not permit the latter course and I did not hesitate promptly to resort
to the /ormer. [Niles* Register, vol. 45, p. 261.]

The curtailment of the bank subsequent to the preparation of this
paper, as derived from its own reports, was as follows: — between the
first of December, which was the day before Congress met and the
first of July, 1834, when Congress adjourned, $3,428,132; between the
first of July and the first of September, $3,965,474; total reduction
in thirteen months, including that which took place before the first of
December, $17,100,851 upon a discount line of sixty four millions, at
which it stood August 1st 1833, when its curtailment commenced; and
all this was done whilst the Government deposits in the bank had only
been reduced five millions between the first of August 1833 and the
first of August 1834.

I beg the reader to reperuse and reflect upon the above brief extract
from Mr. Taney's report — to observe the clearness, the distinctness
and the obvious freedom from either reserve or passion which charac-
terize its statement of the facts that belong to the case and the irre-
fragable proofs it deduces from them that the acts imputed to the bank
were voluntary and were the results of a preconcerted0 plan to disor-
ganize and break up, at least for a season, the system of credits under
which the Country was then and had been for a long time carried on
with fair success and to throw apparently insurmountable obstacles
in the way of its farther prosecution, to tie up the State banks, hand
and foot, and, thus manacled, to exhibit to their view the necessity of
closing their doors as the certain penalty of any assistance they might
be tempted to afford the Government by the supply of places of deposit
for the public funds in lieu of its own vaults, and, as an unavoidable
consequence, to fill the Country with excitement and panic.

That this was undertaken with a latent design on the bank's part,
after it had forced an extension of its charter from the fears of the

• MS. YU ft. 75.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUREN. 655

Country, to reconstruct the system thus rudely arrested is highly
probable, perhaps undoubted.

I cannot take it upon myself to say that in the numerous mani-
festoes of the bank, in the reports of Committees devoted to its sup-
port or in public speeches, proceeding from similar sources, — docu-
ments which, from their obvious design to pervert instead of to main-
tain the truth, soon became obsolete — attempts were not made to over-
throw Mr. Taney's facts and to explode his deductions. But that
such attempts were unattended with the slightest success is certain.

My next extract is from a speech made by Churchill C. Cambre-
leng, a gentleman who deservedly occupied a high position among
the ablest and purest of the representatives whom the great city of
New York has, from time to time, sent to the National Legislature.
It was a partisan speech made before the Republican young men of
New York, in the course of a political campaign, the next after the
panic session and after the game which had engrossed its attention
was substantially played out. Its statements may therefore be taken
with a portion, tho' not a large one, of the allowance which is com-
monly and properly made in such cases. I have known Mr. Cam-
breleng long and intimately and I am quite sure that I well under-
stand his character. A North Carolinian by birth and a friend and
disciple of Nathaniel Macon he has throughout our intercourse dem-
onstrated himself to my observation as honest as the steelyard and
as direct in the pursuit of his purpose as a shot from a culverin.
He is a clear headed, painstaking, indefatigable and conscientious
man, ardent in politics but incapable of knowingly saying anything
to advance his cause which he does not believe to be true, and, to
me at least, he always seemed to be as anxious and careful in respect
to his representation of facts as if he was under oath. Indeed I
have never known a man to whose statements I would more readily
trust my own interests. Proudly conscious of the character he had
acquired there was small danger that he would commit himself to
any averments in the presence of his constituents upon a most ex-
citing subject which he had not fully considered. What he said
on the occasion referred to was spoken and published in the vicinity
of the bank, by the side of the most important of its branches, and
was liable, if untrue, to be exposed and contradicted at the moment,
and I know that nothing could have been more mortifying to him,
apart from any impeachment of his truthfulness, than to have been
convicted of inaccuracy upon the subject, nor any greater pains
taken to be correct.

The first step taken by the bank, [he said] waB on the 18th August, last
year, (1883) — the second on the 1st of October. The resolutions adopted by
the Board ordered that the premium on exchange should be advanced — that no
blUs should be purchased, except on the Atlantic cities, Mobile and New Or-

656 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

leans, and at shorter dates — that loans in the interior should be converted into
bills on these cities— that the branches should discontinue receiving the notes
of distant State banks — that the balances against all Buch banks should be
collected, and the bank Immediately commenced a rapid curtailment. These
measures calculated to ruin our merchants, break our institutions and disturb
our currency and exchanges, were adopted because other banks were about to
be employed to collect the public revenue I Such were the preparations made
for an explosion on the meeting of Congress. With the session the campaign
commenced vigorously, its friends in both Houses opened in full cry, while the
operations of the Exchange Committee were active in every part of the Union.
The resolutions of the 13th August were expressly designed to arm the branches
on the Atlantic, and especially the New York branch, with funds in bills at
ninety days to create a debt against the local banks. Under the resolutions of
both dates some thirty or forty millions in bills were thrown into the Atlantic
cities, Mobile and New Orleans, for collection. While these millions were
drawn from the diminished resources of our distressed merchants and while
the local banks were alarmed at their accumulating debts to the branches the
public men were amused with weekly statements of their discounts as an evi-
dence of their friendship. Armed with these millions in Western drafts, with
balances steadily accumulating, the branch at New York would have drawn
from our city banks their last dollar and would have broken every bank in the
Union had not the Secretary of the Treasury, between the 30th September and
the 1st April, prevented that branch from collecting $8,760,000 — had he not
armed our city institutions with near nine millions to defend the whole Country
In this war upon its trade and currency. [Extra-Globe, 1834, page 181.]

The additional details of the steps taken 'by the bank to involve
and embarrass the credits and business of the Country (and they
are nowhere so intelligently stated) embraced the fruits of move-
ments matured and developments made subsequent to Mr. Taney's
report, and which, as far as they existed when the latter was pre-
pared were known only to the Exchange Committee and perhaps to
its political confidants. Both Mr. Taney and Mr. Cambreleng
hint, tho' in different degrees, the removal of the deposits as a
measure determined upon in consequence of the curtailment by the
bank of its line of discount, and on referring to the files of the
bank press and other channels thro' which that institution was de-
fended it will be found that those curtailments are justified and
excused on the ground that they had been made indispensable by
the removal of the deposits. These assumptions on either side were
in the main unfounded. The two proceedings ran into each other
and were used after their appearance to strengthen the respective
positions which the President and the bank had assumed: they,
notwithstanding, originated in sources substantially if not wholly
independent of each other.

In respect to his own action, Mr. Taney took the case as it stood
at the moment and the reasons and motives by which he was gov-
erned in consenting to be the agent for the removal of the deposits
were doubtless precisely such as he described them. But, as has al-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 657

ready 'been in part explained, that measure, if satisfactory arrange-
ments with the State banks could be made, was in substance de-
cided upon by President Jackson some three months before Mr.
Taney came into the Treasury Department. The President re-
garded the question of the continuance of the bank as determined
by his own re-election and was, from the moment of that event,
resolved that nothing should be wanting on his part to carry into
effect the declared will of the people. He had seen enough, in the
summer and autumn of 1832, of the reckless use the bank was capable
of making of the funds under its control to promote its own ends to
stand in need of no further proof on that point The conduct of the
bank after the result of the election was known satisfied him be-
yond a doubt that it had determined to continue the war, — a con-
clusion fully confirmed by the proceedings of the meeting of stock-
holders in August, carrying out the wishes of Mr. Biddle by in-
structing the directors to renew the application for a new charter
at the next session, and he was equally determined that the public
monies should not, so far as he could rightfully prevent it, again
constitute part of its resources for the conflict. It was, besides, in-
dispensable that new places of deposit should be provided, and he
was the last man likely to postpone so essential a point in his ar-
rangements until the eve of the battle which it became certain he
would have to fight * o'er again.' He, therefore, from the month of
June till its consummation, kept that important measure — the re-
moval of the deposits — constantly in view, resolved to do nothing
rashly, nothing that would work unnecessary harm to the bank or
furnish it with grounds for sinister appeals to public sympathy, but
as firmly decided to omit or neglect nothing that might be demanded
by the exigencies of the occasion. He did indeed use the subsequent
abuses of its power by the bank, in the paper he submitted to his
Cabinet and in his messages to Congress, to strengthen the position
he had taken, but he nowhere set them up as° furnishing the
original grounds for taking it Such was the case also with the
bank in regard to the measures it adopted to impair the credits of
the Country, to obstruct its business and to fill it with distraction
and panic. These were the bitted fruits of counsels and decisions
long anterior to the suggestion of the removal of the public de-
posits, or perhaps to the thought of removing them, and would have
been put in operation at the same time and with the same views if
the deposits had not been removed.

But altho' that great measure, which, as far as I know or ever
had reason to believe, had its origin in the General's own breast
and in the execution of which at all events he took the lead of all

0 MS. VI, p. 80.
127433°— vol 2— 20 42

658 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

the friends about him availed more than any, perhaps than all
the others that were adopted to frustrate the " flagitious schemes of
the bank " — (as they were truly and aptly termed by Mr. Appleton,1
of Boston, who had been its early friend) it was not the occasion
of them, and proved indeed, in many respects, to its confederated
supporters a valuable windfall. It enabled the bank to substitute
for the application for a renewal of its charater, in support of which
it was at the moment acting, a fresher and far more popular issue,
that of seeking redress for a great public wrong which it charged
to have been committed by an arbitrary and unconstitutionkl exer-
tion of Presidential authority. Under that disguise its supporters
were enabled to promote its interest more effectually than in any
other way. It was to them a welcome, change in 'the front of
battle ' which relieved for a season the object of their exertions and
hopes from the odium which naturally attaches itself in the public
mind to all applications for monopolies, more especially when they
are supported by exceptionable means and when, as in this instance,
they have been pressed ad nauseam.

The strong, tho' in my judgment, necessary and constitutional
ground taken by the President in removing Mr. Duane when the lat-
ter refused to carry out his policy, after engaging to do so or to
resign, enabled the bank to give the new issues which arose out of
it a high degree of plausibility by means of the extensive control
it had acquired over the public press, presenting as it did a favor-
able opportunity for an appeal to the inveterate and honest preju-
dices of the people against what was called ' the one man power.'
But these were neither the only nor even the principal advantages
the bank derived from the chance thus afforded to blink, for a sea-
son, the principal question on which the Country was again to be
divided, and divided moreover under circumstances more stringent
and dangerous than had before existed. There were scattered thro'
the Congress and in greater proportion thro' the body of the people,
particularly in the Southern States, a number of clever men, many
of whom still occupied distinguished rank in the Democratic party
and most of whom had been known for their constant, opposition
to a national bank on the ground of its unconstitutionality. Of
these some through private griefs and others by open difference
of opinion from the President on various subjects had been drawn
into the ranks of the bank party and were now in their hearts
desirous that the bank should triumph, if for no other reason,
than to break down Jackson and the administration. They however
did not think the prospects of success as yet sufficiently auspicious
to justify them in venturing to vote for it directly, a course which

1 N&tfcan Appleton.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VA1T BTJRE2*. 659

# would effecutually impugn their past pretensions, but, whilst not
quite ripe to support its application for a new charter, they could
all be relied on to take open and decided ground with the bank
against the removal of the deposits and in favor of their restora-
tion. If the passage of a bill or joint resolution directing the public
deposits to be restored could have been procured, some of these men,
without whose votes the bill to extend the charter of the bank
could still not have passed the House, would doubtless, by an easy
gradation, have reached the entire change of an opinion which most |

of them already regarded as an incumbrance and would have voted
for that bill. Watkins Leigh, of Virginia, in many respects occu-
pied such a position. An educated man and distinguished lawyer,
then representing Virginia in the Senate, he declared on its floor
that he had made the question of constitutional power his study
and had arrived at a clear conviction that the constitution, which he
had, on entering the Senate, sworn to support, conferred on the
Congress no authority to establish such an institution, but that he
could yet bring himself to vote for one to avoid a greater evil. This
evil he thought he saw in the arbitrary exercise of unconstitutional
power of which he accused the President. The opportunity of giv-
ing such a vote, under circumstances rendering it certain that a bill
to the effect described would be carried by it, was never presented
to Mr. Leigh ; if it had been so presented in the course of that winter
I have never doubted that he would have availed himself of it.

Thus the new shape which the removal of the deposits enabled
the bank to give to the issue with which its supporters entered upon
the panic session, especially as no one could doubt that their success
in compelling the restoration of the deposits would be the harbinger
of its re-incorporation, was a clear and important advantage — one
which, if it had been wisely used, might have made the result of the
struggle more doubtful.

Satisfied that it had done its full share towards producing that
condition of the public mind which was thought necessary to the
accomplishment of their respective purposes, the bank waited only
the opening of the Congress for the performance of the part assigned
to her allies. Relying on their fidelity to the common cause its
trusted managers and all outside friends who had been initiated into
the mystery of the evil times stood ready, at the appointed signal, to
send to the National Capitol the wails of distress prepared for the
occasion which, when set to panic notes and re-echoed from its walls,
would it was confidently expected, cause every man of business and
especially those who were dependent upon credit to quake with fear,
friends as well as foes, it being well understood that no panic would
be regarded as real which was not general, Before settling himself

660 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION.

at Washington for the session Mr. Clay paid Mr. Biddle a visit at
Philadelphia. With movements in contemplation, of which they
were the contrivers and chief engineers, of a character 90 important,
so comprehensive and, may I not add, considering the intelligence
of the people to whom they would ultimately have to account for
them, so reckless also, there were, of course, preliminary points to
be settled which could not be safely submitted to a multitude of
councellors. TJiese, or the most material of them, we have a right,
from subsequent developments, to infer, were settled in the interviews
which took place between those gentlemen on that occasion, and one
of them was, I do not at all doubt, that which I have before alluded
to as having been uppermost in Mr. Clay's mind from the begin-
ning— the question of the political leadership of the bank forces in
the campaign in which they had thus far progressed and of which
they were about to enter upon that portion especially committed to
the skill and daring of politicians. Mr. Clay, I am satisfied, did not
leave Philadelphia before it was definitively settled between Mr. Biddle
and himself that, in all that was political in the future movements of
the allies, the reins should be placed and kept in his hands and that
in respect to decisions in the last resort his control should be both
absolute and exclusive. The time had arrived when he could no
longer afford and would not consent to trust to arrangements less
definite and comprehensive. Whatever may have been the condition
of others he was a free agent. The bank could exercise no control
over his actions and Mr. Biddle was made to understand that such
were the conditions on which alone the latter could receive his aid
and that without a compliance with them he would not proceed
another step in that direction. These are strong assumptions but the
reader will, in the sequel, say whether they are not as true as strong.
The relations between Mr. Clay and. Mr. Webster if ever even
intimate had been so only during brief periods when they were
thrown together by accidental and imperative circumstances; really
friendly and confidential, in the arose in which the latter relation
obtains between men who sincerely like each other, they had never
been, there is good reason to believe in the course of their lives. At
the moment of which we are speaking there was not a vestige of
that sentiment on either side. What Mr. Biddle's personal prefer-
erences, as between them were, I have never had sufficient oppor-
tunity to form a reliable opinion; from his general character and
his temper I would infer that0 he leaned to the side of Mr. Clay,
but of that I know nothing, neither was it material for they had
all arrived at a crisis when such feelings lost their power over the
conduct of publid men. It was at Mr. Webster that the arrange-

• MS. VI. p. 66.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 661

ment of which I have spoken was especially aimed. .Competition for
the distinction^ in prospect was apprehended from no other quar-
ter but from this it was apprehended. There were, besides, reasons
in behalf of the exclusion of Mr. Webster from the leadership of
a more general and not less cogent character. That post had been
awarded to him at the previous session, particularly in the discus-
sion on the veto Message which was expected to exert controlling
influence on the then coming Presidential election, and, as I have
said, he discharged the duties x imposed upon him with singular
ability. His position, on that occasion, for reasons elsewhere given,
was in every respect favorable to a full development of his powers.
Mr. Clay, if the part had been assigned to him, could not have
filled it so well. Mr. Webster's self-control, his superior reasoning
powers and his peculiar subtilty in debate made him the most fit
man for the hour. One unfamiliar with the character of our people
and with the light in which Mr. Webster was regarded by them,
could not at this time review his treatment of the case, made to
his hand by the operations and appliances of the bank, without
being amazed at his failure* But in selecting him as its spokesman
the bank and its political confederates overlooked a disqualification
on his part which is very apt to render the ablest speaking unavail-
ing with the people. This was not surprising, for a political party
which sanctions such steps as were taken to defeat President Jack-
son's re-election seldom, if ever, attaches much importance to dis-
qualifications like that here referred to, nor is it apt, in the hour
of defeat, to look to the immorality of the; means it has used or
to the impregnable virtue of the people for the causes of its dis-
comfiture but seeks them rather in defects, obvious or latent, in
the manner in which those means were applied. However diverse
may then have been the shades of public opinion in respect to
Mr. Webster's superiority to the influence of money in the dis-
charge of public functions, his eagerness to 'borrow and the reckless-
ness with which his loans were made were very generally known and
his being largely in; debt to the bank and, so far as that went,
within its power, was undoubted. This extensive knowledge of
his condition in that regard, and the industrious circulation given to
the fact by the friends of the President and of his cause completely
divested Mr. Webster's very able speeches of credit with the classes
upon whom they were designed to operate and reduced them to
the same level in their estimation with what was said by the
bank itself; a consideration which, altho' it came to be understood
when it was too late for the past, Mr. Biddle would scarcely have
felt himself at liberty to disregard a second time, whatever may
have been his personal feelings or other views upon the subject.

662 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

If the objection alluded to had not existed Mr. Clay would still
have been the best man for the approaching crisis. The controversy
between the bank and the Government had now assumed a very dif-
ferent phase from that which it wore in 18&2. Then the former had
at least plausible reasons for calling its position one of defence.
Those interested in it had a perfect right to ask for a renewal of its
charter. Both branches of the Legislature sanctioned their request,
but the President neutralized their1 wishes by his veto, a measure
always before resorted to with much hesitation and distrust— one not
calculated to attract the favor of the American people and only made
popular in the present instance by the great popularity of its author
and by the bad conduct of the bank. In such a contest, backed as
he was, Mr. Webster would have been the very best of leaders if
his personal independence had not been liable to question. But the
struggle on which the bank had now determined was, whatever the
pretences with which it was undertaken, one of a purely aggressive
character. It was designed to make it one of life or death, and to
employ the boldest means. It was indispensable that the leader of
the assault should possess both physical and moral courage, qualities
in which it was equally notorious that Mr. Webster was deficient as
that Mr. Clay was at least amply for the occasion perhaps super-
abundantly endowed. I have spoken of the lack of cordiality in the
personal relations between these gentlemen from an early period. On
looking over some of my old papers for the purposes of this work I
find the following memorandum of a declaration made to Mr. Forsyth
and myself and of one to me on the same point by Mr. Buchanan.
When I laid my hand on the paper I had entirely forgotten its ex-
istence, altho'.I remembered well the fact of the declaration:

At the commencement of the session of Congress when the election was made
by the House of Representatives (1825) Mr. Clay told Mr. Forsyth and myself,
at a dinner given by the Russian Minister, that if we could understand what
Mr. Webster meant to do we could do more than he, and used several expres-
sions indicating dislike and great want of confidence.

On the same paper the following:

Dec. 80th 1826. Mr. Buchanan, of Pens, told me that, at the same session,
1825, when the bill making appropriations for the. payment of the Spanish
claims was pending In the House of Representatives, Clay came to him and
said " I think we can pay these people with land," from which Mr. Buchanan

dissented. Clay then said, "that yellow rascal is to have $70,000 of

the money." Mr. B. asked whether he meant Webster, to which Clay assented.
Mr. B. then said that he thought W. was a clever fellow and he was gtad he was
to receive so much of the money as he thought he wanted- It. O. said that It
was probable that the treaty meant money but that he would give them trouble.
Shortly after Webster addressed him and Bald that Clay meant to oppose the
bill because he (W.) had an Interest In It, and wished him (B.) to take some
notes be had made to support the bill as he thought it improper, from his sltua-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 663

tion that he Hhould take part in it. Soon after the commencement of the next
session he, to his surprise, found Webster and Clay walking, arm in arm, behind
the Speaker's Chair and from that time forward a close intimacy has subsisted
between them.1

Mr. Calhoun did not compete for the leadership nor do I believe
that he desired it. He was taken into the coalition, reeking (in the
estimation of the supporters of the bank) with the bad odor of nulli-
fication, but ready to make war on his own hook against the adminis-
tration, a privilege gladly allowed him by his colleagues of the trium-
virate. His master-passion, at the moment, was hatred towards the
General and myself whilst his resentments would have been more de-
servedly directed against Mr. Webster. In respect to myself his own
subsequent acts confessed that his suspicions of my hostility were in
the beginning unfounded and afterwards exaggerated, and the Gen-
eral was, as I know, sincerely desirous to afford relief to the South
and to conciliate South Carolina which would have rescued Mr. Cal-
houn and his friends from the perils in which they had involved
themselves. Mr. Webster, on the other hand, opposed with great
pertinacity and not a little bitterness the efforts of Mr. Clay to effect
these results.

Whilst Mr, Clay was thus busily and warily employed in fortify-
ing the ground he intended to occupy in the approaching struggle—
an occasion which was destined to bring him and his able and life-
long contemporaries, Calhoun and Webster, side by side, in a
partisan field with the fires of ambition unquenched in their breasts
and each alike conscious that time and events had made the present
their only chance for reaching the goal that had long attracted the
aspirations and best energies of each, — the sagacious and wily New
Englander was not idle. Philadelphia was in his course to the seat
of Government and his temporary sojourn there, at a critical
moment, was therefore less liable to the notoriety and speculations
attached to that of Mr. Clay. That he did not fail to inform him-
self before he left Philadelphia, of the conclusions in respect to the
position which had there been allotted to him for the coming winter,
is certain. How this was done it would now be difficult and is in
no way material to discover. It is not improbable that his friend
Mr. Biddle, with the off-hand frankness of his character, ° communi-
cated it to him, with suitable delicacy, as one of the necessities of
their condition ; but however this may have been, that he arrived at
Washington with full knowledge of the whole truth on the subject
and with the feelings which that information was calculated to
arouse in a breast like his the reader will be in the sequel, a'bun-

1ThIs memorandum, in Van Bnren's hand, is in the Van Bnren Pipers under date of
1826. It Is endorsed by Van Buren : M Buchanan — Clay & Webster."
• MS. VI. p. 90..

664 AMBKICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

dantly satisfied. These feelings conjoined with speculations which,
there is reason to believe, had constantly filled his mind since the
appearance of the President's proclamation, prepared him for an
act of strong mark, the least effect of which would be to cripple if
not altogether neutralize Mr. Clay's promised leadership by secur-
ing to himself a complete umpirage over the action of the standing
committees of the Senate.

I do not pretend to possess any very material proofs of the accuracy
of the surmises I have thrown out in respect to the state of Mr.
Clay's mind upon the particular point referred to or to what was
decided in his interview with Mr. Biddle or to the information of
that decision obtained by Mr. Webster further than these ante-
cedents are justly and clearly to be assumed in view of well known
facts and incidents following on their very heels. These shall be
stated with all practicable exactness and if those who may hereafter
peruse these sheets shall find themselves able to attach to them any
different interpretation from that I have here presented they will,
of course be at liberty to do so : As to what their inferences may
be save a general concern for the prevalence of truth, I am as in-
different now as I shall certainly be then. To give an account here
of the occurrences referred to, a precedence to which they are chrono-
logically entitled, will of necessity separate my history of the panic
session from the transactions of the bank which the proceedings of
that session were designed to make effectual; a separation which,
tho' it may weaken the force of the description as a whole, may, in
other respects, tend to agreably diversify the narrative. They con-
stitute the incidents of a piece of private history of the period I
speak of, in which I took a part altho' I had at the time an inade-
quate idea of its comprehensive interest and no suspicion that the
bolt with which it was charged was aimed at myself as well as at
Mr. Clay. I had suffered it to pass from my mind until the recol-
lection of it was revived and my interest in it increased by a casual '
observation made by the latter gentleman during his visit to my
house in the year 1849. I have elsewhere alluded to that visit and
to the conversations which took place between us about past times
and scenes. These unrestricted and familiar chats were resumed
whenever the press of company permitted, which was not as often
as we bdth desired for the reason that most of his political friends
among my neighbours embraced the occasion of his first appearance
in our vicinage to give him a cordial shake by the hand. More than
one of these added to the expression of the pleasure they felt in
meeting him an assurance of additional satisfaction afforded by
finding him where he was and the latter idea was, in particular and
neatly expressed by my worthy whig neighbour Mr. Chittenden when
he, attended by a large number of his friends, was taking leave in

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 665

a few well spoken words addressed to Mr. Clay whilst the latter
stood in the porch of my house and by my side. The feuds of the
past and the asperities caused by them were as completely ignored
in these conversations as if they had never existed. I having en-
tirely and forever withdrawn from public life and he being on the
point of doing the same thing we had no motive to refrain from
speaking freely as we thought and felt or to limit the measure of
our entertainment as we reviewed together the misinterpretations,
unfounded conjectures and 'till now inexplicable failures of "best
laid plans " which had been experienced on many exciting occasions
both by ourselves and by our respective parties. The inclinations
of our dispositions had been towards the cultivation of friendly
personal relations from a very early period in our public lives, ffith
an unfailing readiness to ifesume them after the successive and
violent shocks to which they had been from time to time, exposed
had sufficiently subsided. This tendency on my side sprang, to no
small extent, from admiration of the genial and winning social
qualities and carriage for which in his prime of life he was greatly
distinguished. These attracted my observation for the first time
on his return from the Mission to Ghent, when I was a visitor at
Washington and received a liberal share of his courtesies, and he
retained them in a good degree to the end altho' sobered by domestic
sorrows and at times clouded by the adverse incidents of his public
life. His own inclination in the same direction was, I have always
believed, influenced by the recollection of occasions on which I had
manifested a regard for his welfare which he had never been af-
forded an opportunity to reciprocate.

To two of these I will briefly refer. One of them presented itself
in the rough and tumble Presidential canvass of 1824, when I made
my debut in the art and business of President-making, at Washing-
ton, as one of the leading supporters of Mr. Crawford. Becoming
each day more convinced of the practicability of electing the latter
and of preserving the republican party, then threatened, with de-
struction, if Mr. Clay would, for the time, decline his pretensions
to the Presidency and consent to stand for the second place on the
ticket with Mr. Crawford and feeling sincerely friendly to both
of these gentlemen, I made unwearied efforts to bring about that
arrangement. The person thro9 whom I chiefly worked to that end
was Col. Thomas H. Benton, Mr. Clay's relative, I think, by mar-
riage,1 at all events, then his ardent friend and a young Senator of
much promise. I succeeded fully in satisfying the Colonel on two

points, viz: that with such a ticket we would most likely succeed

■ i . .1 ■ . i ■ . i . .- ... _ i, , . — . ■ »i ■ i ..-■■■■ »

1Van Buren Btates this relationship with his usual care. The common report that
Benton and Clay were cousins was without foundation. Anne Oooch, an orphan, who
was brought up by her uncle, Col. Thomas Hart, married Jesse Benton and named her
eldest son after her uncle. Henry Clay married a daughter of Col. Hart.

666 AMEM&AN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

and that Mr. Clay would, in that event, be Mr, Crawford's successor;
and he consequently became as anxious for the adoption of the prop-
osition as I was myself and we had several conferences on the sub-
ject. He pressed the matter upon Mr. Clay with his usual earnest-
ness by whom the proposition was treated with all respect, but in
the progress of time and events the canvass assumed a shape which
led Mr. C. to think it his duty to decline it. He could not, under
the circumstances, have doubted that there was on my part a large
tho' subordinate share of disinterested friendship displayed on that
occasion towards himself and could never have failed to be satis-
fied that his eventual elevation to the Presidency would have been
secured if my advice had been adopted, whether we had been suc-
cessful in the immediate election or not. Mr. Crawford, it will be
remembered, was soon broken down By disease and the party by
which Gen. Jackson was elected would, in all probability, have
chosen Mr. Clay in his stead if the latter had continued before the
Country in the attitude which, in the event of our failure in 1824
he would have occupied, that of one of the defeated republican can-
didates in that contest.

My second instance somewhat resembles the first Mr. Clay's
name was sent to the Senate by President Adams for the office of
Secretary of State at a moment when the charge of a selfish coalition
between himself and Mr. Adams, by which the latter had been made
President in consideration of a promise that Mr. Clay should receive
that office at his hands, was rife at Washington and 'when the pas-
sions of men were running mountain-high.

That there would ultimately be a union between the Crawford,
Jackson and Calhoun parties to resist the latitudinarian views which
we knew Mr. Adams to cherish and to overthrow the new adminis-
tration was nearly as certain at the moment when that administra-
tion was ushered into existence as it became at any subsequent period.
Mr. Clay, having brought the administration into life was looked
upon as its main reliance and a blow aimed at him was therefore cor-
rectly regarded as one in advance and, as those who wished to make
it thought, a well deserved one at the administration. It was not
in the power of the Senators belonging to the three political divi-
sions named to defeat Mr. Clay's nomination, but by voting for its
rejection — a step never resorted to on such occasions except for grave
causes — they could give credence in important localities to the charge
of a corrupt coalition between the President and his Secretary of
State. ° The strong men of the political interests I have named were
eager to vote for the rejection of Mr. Clay's nomination and were
respectively headed by imposing names: the Jackson men by the

• M8. VI, p. 95.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 667

General himself, then Senator, the friends of Crawford by that vener-
able and sterling old patriot Nathaniel Macon and those of Calhoun
(himself in the Chair) by Robert Y. Hayne and voted accordingly.
J refused to join them from the beginning, first because I did not
(without impeaching the motives of my friends which I knew to be
pure) feel myself justified by the proofs before us in affixing such
a stigma upon the character of the nominee, and secondly, because
if the case had been stronger against him than I thought it was I
would still have regarded the course proposed as politically inex-
pedient .

Mr. Clay, shortly before his death, held a conversation with my
friend Francis P. Blair of which I was a principal .subject. The
latter gentleman commenced his political career an ardent sup-
porter of Mr. Clay and illustrated t£e depth of his friendship by
unmistakable acts of devotion performed in the disinterested spirit
of which he has been thro9 life capable. After the Presidential
election of 1824, at which he zealously sustained Mr. Clay's cause,
Mr. Blair became an admirer and political adherent of Jackson and
formed closest relations of personal friendship with the latter which
continued undiminished at the death of the General, who left a
striking record of his sense of its sincerity by bequeathing all his pri-
vate papers to Mr. B's keeping. Changed feelings naturally arose out
of Mr. Blair's new position, producing a feud between Mr. Clay and
himself of unsurpassed bitterness and of many years continuance. It
extended itself to their f amiles and excited so strongly the indigna-
tion of Mrs. Blair, a lady possessed of rare abilities and a resolute
spirit, altho' as amiable as she was resolute, that she refused to take
Mr. Clay's hand whea offered to her in the Senate chamber after a
full reconciliation had taken pla^p between him and her husband.
But this excess of feeling on her side was sorely repented of and
every trace of resentment banished from her mind before Mr. Clay's
death. In common with his numerous female friends she employed
herself almost incessantly, during the latter moments of his life,
in securing for him, absent as he was from his family, those as-
suagements and comforts which it is the peculiar and blessed office
of her sex to provide and Mr. Clay at one time agreed to go to her
house and to put himself under her "Kentucky nursing." In the
conversation with Mr. Blair, to which I have referred, he expressed
his deep regret that angry passages had now and then, deformed the
course of our political antagonism and spoke with much kindly
feeling of my general demeanour towards him, notwithstanding
our political differences, and of features of my character which he
made the subject of special commendation. rf,his was communicated
to me by Mr. Blair as it was obviously intended by Mr. Clay that

668 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

it should be, and the feelings expressed to Mr. B. were promptly,
earnestly and sincerely reciprocated on my part. At the same time
Col. Benton, being engaged in preparing his "Thirty years in the
Senate," sent me at intervals, the original drafts of several chap-
ters of that work for such comment as I might feel disposed to
make. One of thes^ contained his able and forcible exculpation of
Mr. Clay from the charge of corrupt coalition with Mr. Adams in
the election of 1824, an affair that had given Mr. Clay much trouble.
I expressed to the Colonel my opinion of his liberal and manly con-
duct in this matter in a letter which he afterwards informed me
he had read, during his canvass for the House of Representatives,
in that portion of his District distinguished for devotion to Mr.
Clay and by that means obtained the votes of the friends of the
latter to an extent sufficient to secure his election. He had shewn
the same chapter to Mr. Blair who, in answer to some unfavourable
criticism by Mr. Clay on the probable violence of the Colonel's
forthcoming book, detailed to him the substance of the portion
alluded to, which made a strong and favorable impression on Mr.
Clay and led him to say that he should not be unmindful of it in
the future. This having been communicated to Col. Benton the
latter addressed to me a letter extending the account he had given
me of his work to another matter to which Mr. Clay also attached
much importance and the narrative of which I greatly desired him to
see before he died ; to which end I enclosed it to Mr. Blair with a
request that he would impart as much of its contents as, in his dis-
cretion, he should deem best but in a way to make it certain that Mr.
Clay would not feel obliged to trouble himself with a notice of them.
This was done by the letter which, with my note and Col. Benton's
— closely connected as they were with the dying scenes of a man so
distinguished and doing much credit to those gentlemen— I think
of sufficient interest to insert here.

Letteb from Col. Benton — extract,

Mr. Clay la dying and knows it and looks forward to some weeks or a few
months to terminate his earthly career. There is no help for him and he knows
it, and I am told is most calmly viewing the approaches of death. Blair- went
to see him twice — great proof of forgiveness on the part of Blair. Among
other things conversation the last time turned upon me and my forthcoming
work — evidently with some apprehension on his part Blair told him what
he had read a chapter on the election of 1825 with you, and says that a
beam of sunshine. went over his face with many expressions of gratification.
This has made me think of suggesting to you to write him a letter— proper I
think under the circumstances — to express your own feelings, and in which
you might add, what that chapter shows, that there is a time when political
animosities are to be obliterated under the great duties of historic truth.
True, at other places the same duty may make me bear upon him, but without

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 669

malice and always preferring to say what Is honorable when the veracity
of history will permit

In another part, when I shall have to speak of him personally — the duel
toith Randolph — he will appear with great honor, not merely- for courage
on the field, but, what is more, generosity of feeling. You might add this,
if you please, as a thing you have learnt from me and in which I and Jessup
(his second) will speak aUke.1

To F. P. Blatb, Esq.*

Lindemwald Jan. 16th 1852.
My Deab Sib

I received the enclosed letter from Got Benton last evening, and hasten
to send it to you to be shewn In confidence to Mr. Clay, If you concur with me
in the propriety of such a step. Its contents shew very clearly that such a
disposition of it was not contemplated by the writer yet I can see no serious
objection that could be raised to the course I propose. • • • This letter,
taken in connection with the general turn of the Colonel's feelings towards
Mr. Clay, always, to our observation, excluding the idea of a fixed per*
sonal hatred, satisfies me beyond a doubt that his sympathies are as deeply
excited as our own. This must be your opinion also and so believing we
ought not to hesitate, I think, in employing the means which have been
accidentally placed in our power to ameliorate the effects of past estrange-
ments, if we cannot remove them altogether, to which I would be most happy
to contribute all in my power.

Do me the favor to repeat to Mr. Clay, if you have an opportunity, assur-
ances of my respect, esteem and confidence and add that no one can have
derived more satisfaction from his noble bearing whilst confined to the sick
bed than I have done. • • *

Yours truly

M. V. B.

To Hon. Hknbt Clay.*

Silveb Spring Jan. 22d. 1852
Deab Sib

It is most gratifying to me that Mr. Van Buren commits to my discretion the
opportunity of disclosing the kind feelings and high opinion entertained for
you by two of the most distinguished adversaries you have encountered in the
political contests of your time. I therefore take the same liberty with Mr. Van
Buren*s letter that he proposes with Col. ° Benton's to him, persuaded that
nothing would more please you than the naked and unpremeditated expression
of feeling contained In the very words of the private notes not meant to reach
your hands.

. Mr. Van Buren would not have turned over to me, I well know, an office which
he would gladly have performed himself if he had not felt the delicacy of trou-
bling you with a letter, in your present painful condition which might seem to
ask reply and burden you with a matter that might cost an effort or embarrass
you. My communication you can receive as you have my oral ones — take to
your bosom with your benevolent thoughts without further exertion.
With the warm feelings of earlier days

I am very truly yours,

F. P. Blaib.
* January 11. 1852, Van Buren Papers. aVan Buren Papers. "MS. VI, p. 100.

670 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

To return to the occasion of his conversation with me, at Linden-
wald, Mr. Clay spoke with perfect freedom of the course he intended
to pursue, during the short period that he might remain in public
life. It had always, he said been his wish to judge of public meas-
ures on their intrinsic merits and to treat them according to the best
opinion he could form of their probable effects upon the public wel-
fare. He hoped that in making up that opinion he had kept himself
above the control of mere partisail feelings, and knowing how ear-
nestly he had desired to do so, notwithstanding the difficulties in
the way in high party times which he appreciated and acknowledged
he could not but think that he had to some extent succeeded in car-

*

rying that wish into effect. In relation to the past others would de-
termine but of the future he felt' that he could speak in this regard
with certainty and he thought he could not deceive himself in the
estimate he had formed of the service it would yet in his power to
render to his Country be eschewing partisan prejudices and by ap-
plying his experience and the faculties with which Providence had
favored him to the impartial consideration and support of measures
the utility of which he could not doubt, and he protested that, God
willing, this duty should be faithfully performed. I need not say
that I earnestly commended this determination and encouraged its
observance.

Mr. Webster's name was introduced : I do not recollect by whom
or in what connection. Mr. Clay spoke of him in the cautious and
measured terms which I had often before observed in his conversa-
tion when it related to a political associate of whose course he did
not approve and which was indeed natural when addressed to an
opponent of both. He referred without qualification to his great
abilities but did not affect to admire his general character and ad-
mitted that their relations had not commonly been as cordial or their
intercourse as confidential as was usual between associate leading
members of the same political party; nevertheless he declared that
he had been always willing to do Mr. Webster justice and to concede
to him the position and all the weight to which he believed him fairly
entitled in their party and had made a point of speaking with respect
of him when he could do so with truth. There had been one occa-
sion, he added, when he was fully satisfied that Mr. Webster had
committed treason in his heart against their common party, and he
had then spoken of him and of his designs as he thought such in-
fidelity deserved. I do not think there was a man among our
Countrymen who looked upon a breach of party allegiance with
more severity than Mr. Clay. Although he had filled a high position
in the old republican party and was now the conceded leader of a
rival organization the idea had never entered his mind that he had
himself been guilty of any such offence. He, Mr. Calhoun and a ft*

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YAK BTJBEH. 671

others, who had been prominent members of the republican party at
the close of the War of i812, as has been elsewhere said, looked to
the dissolution of all pre-existing parties as certain and as if from
a common impulse directed their attention to the Chief Magistracy
of the Nation as the representatives of a new generation. Justly
proud of the record of their course as related to the war and con-
scious of the political strength which it would give them they eagerly
advocated a general adoption of their new idea in a spirit doubtless in
a good degree of magnanimity but of f orgetfulness of the inveterate
and enduring character of party divisions. The acquisition by each
for himself of fragments of the old federal party, as the spoils of
war, serving as a stimulus to their zeal in that direction, they were
not slow in arriving at the conclusion not merely that the old parties
ought to become but that they had already become extinct and took
their respective positions accordingly. Mr. Clay having determined
to stake his political fortunes upon the success of the protective policy
and internal improvements by the General Government and of a
National Bank, as the nursing mother of both, soon found himself at
the head of a new political organization composed of men who coin-
cided with his views on those subjects; but the political antecedents
of most of them had been very unlike his own. From the moment
the lines of that organization became distinctly defined and its
union cemented by the u outside pressure " of its opponents he ad-
hered to it with unswerving fidelity. Neither the successive slights
put upon his individual pretensions, in favor of Harrison and Tay-
lor, nor the many other desertions of which he felt that he had a
right to complain, altho' they tried his temper severely and altho' he
could not but have believed that his old associates would have
greeted his return to their ranks with kindness and with renewed
confidence, shook for a moment his loyalty to his party, in the unin-
terrupted and faithful service of which he spent his remaining days.
The nature and the earnest tone of Mr. Clay's concluding remarks
about Mr. Webster brought suddenly and strongly to my recollec-
tion an intrigue in relation to the choice of the standing committees
of the Senate, at the opening of the panic session with which the
name of the latter was connected and which I was instrumental in
thwarting and I was induced to think that it was to that trans-
action that Mr. Clay alluded. I mentioned this impression and
offered to relate the circumstances, which he desired me to do. I
then described what occurred between President Jackson, Senator
Grundy and myself on the morning after my arrival at Washington,
to take my seat in the Senate for the first time as Vice President,
substantially as it is set forth in the statement below; saying to
him, at the same time, that I was confident I had never had any

672 AMERICAN HISTORICAL. ASSOCIATION.

further communication with Mr. Grundy upon the subject, neither
did I recollect having any with the President, and that my knowl-
edge of the participation of Mr. Webster in the proposed intrigue
was limited to what had passed in the interview of which I had
given him an account, but that I understood Mr. Grundy well
enough to feel certain that he would never have carried the matter
as far as he did with Gen. Jackson without being thoroughly as-
sured of the ground on which he stood.

Mr. Clay listened to my narrative with the deepest interest and
altho' he abstained from asking explanations I saw by the increasing
animation of his countenance and the continual nodding of his head
that he accompanied my description of the scene with a ready inter-
pretation of its import and tendency. I cannot pretend to recall
his words at the conclusion but he admitted that the affair which I
had detailed to him constituted m material pprt of the transaction
out of which had grown the conviction of Webster's infidelity to his
party to which he had alluded, and that at that moment for the first
[time] he had learned how it was that the execution of designs he
believed Mr. Webster to entertain had been arrested. The idea that
the latter meditated an entire change in his party relations or any-
thing more than the acquisition of an additional share of personal
influence over the action of the Senate for himself at the expence of
Mr. Clay, for which he stood ready as was his way to return an
equivalent, did, not, at the time, enter my head, nor did the com-
munication which I believed had been made to Mr. Grundy cause
me to suspect that Mr. Webster's own views or those of his friends
extended to his becoming a member of President Jackson's Cabinet
and to his succeeding in that capacity to the place in the General's0
confidence and esteem which was, at the moment, generally con-
ceded to myself. But Mr. Clay's communication and the necessity
of noticing the subject in this memoir gave it an added interest and
induced me to institute a careful review of the whole matter, the
results of which will now be given to my readers, who may deter-
mine for themselves how much reason there is for believing that
such day dreams were indulged in by both.

° MS. VI, p. 106.

CHAPTER XLV.

About to commence my presidency over the Senate I was neither
ignorant nor unmindful of the feelings with which I was regarded
by a majority of its members-— feelings recognised as belonging to
human nature, altho' so little to its credit by sagacious observers
in every age and sententiously described by classical authority —
u propriwm hwmani ingenii est odisse quern laeserit." I was never-
theless and perhaps on that account especially careful to respect, in
my own course towards them, all the proprieties of my position.
The Vice President being chosen by the People and made the pre-
siding qfficer of the Senate without any agency on its part, differing
in that regard from the Speaker of the House, the Senate had always,
until 1823, retained the choice of its committees in its own hand,
but finding that this duty could not be as easily And as satisfactorily
performed by a general vote of the body as by the appointment of
the presiding officer the rules in that respect were altered, in that
year, by giving the power of appointing them to their President.
The Vice President was thus enabled to put it in the power of the
Senate to exercise the same privilege enjoyed by the House of Repre-
sentatives— that of having its committees selected by an officer of its
own choosing — by abstaining from taking his seat at the commence-
ment of each session long enough to afford the President pro tempore,
an officer elected by the Senate and always in being, an opportunity
to do that duty, and the amendment of the rule led to a very fitting
usage on the part of the Vice President so to absent himself and
with this view. The existence of this usage and my own sense of
its propriety furnished the rule for my own action and it was adopted
of course. Altho' I thus withheld myself from all interference
with the selection of the committees — a function which a majority
of the then Senate were determined to resume, — as they had a perfect
right to do — it so happened that my course increased the embarrass-
ment and excited the ire of the opposition leaders. To have taken
from me the appointment of the committees on my first appearance
in the body which had long before, of its own accord, attached that
power to the office to which I had been elected, would have been a
proceeding in keeping with their past course towards me and one
which, if I had presented myself at the opening of the session, they
would have adopted with alacrity. The charge which they would,
in that event, have assuredly made and which, under the circum-

127488°— vol 2— 20— 48 678

674 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

stances, would not have lacked plausibility, would have been that a
deviation so marked, from the general course of my predecessors
was designed to deprive the venerable President pro tempore, Judge
White,1 a life long friend of the President (as they would have de-
scribed him) of his privilege because I suspected his fidelity to the
administration of his old friend, and the opportunity to make this
imputation would have added materially to the satisfaction afforded
by the revocation, face to face, of my authority.

But the loss of that gratification was not the most unpleasant
'feature of the predicament in which those leaders were placed by
my absence. Judge White, long the friend and companion of Gen.
Jackson and the man in whose behalf I had shown so strong a desire
not only that he should be appointed Secretary of War (on the dis-
solution of the first Cabinet) but that he should be invited to reside
with the General at the White House, they having both recently
become widowers, had already at the period of which we are speaking
inclined a favoring ear to the blandishments which, in the sequel,
separated him forever from his old friend and spread a gloom over
the closing scenes of his own life. Mr. Clay was, I doubt not, suffi-
ciently satisfied of the state of the Judge's feelings to have consented
to leave to him the appointment of the committees had he not also
known that if the latter performed that duty in a manner acceptable
to the friends of the bank he would have disqualified himself for
the further uses to which it was even then determined to put him.
Neither would the Judge, pleased with the idea of being made a
candidate for the Presidency, as he thought to be elected but as
those who brought him forward intended merely to draw the votes
of Tennessee and some other States from the Democratic nominee,
have been willing to assume thus early a responsibility which could
not have failed to render him harmless. Altho' it had become suffi-
ciently probable to cause its being regarded in particular move-
ments as certain that a complete separation between the President
and Judge White would soon occur, it was equally certain that the
consent of the latter at that early period to appoint committees
favorable to Mr. Clay's views and to the schemes of the bank would
have destroyed his popularity in the States in which it was hoped
that his nomination could be used with effect. Look which way
they would there were 6erious difficulties in the way of the confed-
erates. If Judge White resigned the place of President pro tempore
by shunning a duty he had accepted before his feelings towards
Gen. Jackson had undergone a change he could not have escaped
a share of the odium that would have followed the appointment of
the committees in a way to promote the bank's designs and he was

not yet prepared to admit that his feelings towards the General were

——^-~—^^—— — - - — ^^

1 Huffb Ltwton White, of Tennessee.

-— -\

N

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTTREN. 675

changed; if Mr. Clay and his friends were driven to the necessity
of repealing the rule authorizing the presiding officer to appoint
the committees the Judge would be obliged to vote upon that propo-
sition, and thus, if he voted for it, he must have shared largely in
the like responsibility. This was perplexing, nay irritating and Mr.
Clay showed it in word and manner, but there was no other prac-
ticable recourse, by which the selection of the committees could be
secured to the opposition, than the passage of a resolution restoring
the choice of them to the Senate, as well against the action of the
President pro tempore as against the Vice President. The idea of
offending the former, by this act of apparent distrust of his impar-
tiality, did not seem to have presented itself to the mind of any
one, affording the clearest evidence that there was no discordance
in their respective feelings and views on the passage of the resolution.

Judge White asked to be excused from voting on the resolution on
account of the dilemma or embarrassment in which he appeared to
think himself placed. His colleague, Mr. Grundy, who understood
the whole matter thoroughly and who thought it but right that the
Judge should be compelled to show his hand, vigorously opposed the
motion. The Senate adjourned without deciding the question, at
the instance of Mr. Frelinghuysen, who had doubts on the subject,
and Mr. Clay was constrained to raise the curtain in part, on the
following day, by coming to the Judge's relief, saying many civil
things of him and advocating strenuously his request to be excused.
He was excused but by the close vote of 22 to 19.

The groundless attacks that were made upon me by Mr. Clay, aided
by Mr. Calhoun, in the course of this discussion on the [cause] of
my non-appearance amongst them and their Senatorial associates
and coadjutors, under peculiar, indeed unexampled circumstances, —
the occasion presenting a fair opportunity for them to show the ab-
sence of personal ill will in what they had before done — were not
only in bad taste but afforded unpleasant evidence of the extent to
which such a feeling had controlled their past actions. As a notice
of continued hostility it was, I regret to say, superfluous and if de-
signed to disturb my nerves, by giving me a foretaste of what I had
to expect, they might have done me the justice to doubt, at least,
whether much could be accomplished in that regard by the demon-
stration. But the surprising feature of the occasion was that Mr.
Webster, for the first and I might with truth add for the only time
in his life, stood by with folded arms and took neither part nor lot
in a hostile movement against me — a semblable exhibition of neu-
trality which failed not to attract Mr. Clay's attention.

The resolution to change the mode of choosing the committees was
passed by a strict party vote, and0 the 12th of December was desig-

° MS. VI, p. no.

676 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

nated for their election by the Senate. I had infonned President
Jackson that I would not reach Washington before the evening of
Saturday the 14th of that month. When the order was called up Mr.
Grundy moved to postpone the election of committees until the suc-
ceeding Monday, the 16th, assigning, for reason, the absence of sev-
eral members and the importance of having a full Senate for the per-
formance of so important a duty. Mr. Clay took instant and earnest
ground against the proposition : he hoped

the postponement would not take place ; the Senate was as fall as it would be
on the average, during the session. We were now at the close of the second
week of the session and we were urged to put off the appointment of commit-
tees, a matter about which he supposed the minds of all gentlemen were made
up. This day had been assigned for the appointment some days ago and it
was as well known then that there were absentees as it was now. No such
objection was urged then. There were important biUs now lying on the table
that ought to be referred to the committees. The time for the meeting of the
committees was approaching and it was of importance that they should be
appointed now. If gentlemen were absent he regretted it ; but we were not in
fault and he thought if we were to look at the political character of the ab-
sentees that things would be as they now are if they were here. * * * He
could see no reason for the delay but that we ought rather to proceed to the
appointment, and he would therefore call the yeas and naya

Mr. Webster said

he had voted for the change of the rule, in regard to the appointment of com-
mittees with a good deal of reluctance. It appeared to him Ukely there would
be some difficulty in making so good a selection in respect to where pluralities
were to prevail. It appeared to him an early period to proceed to the con-
sideration of important business. He thought there was reason in giving time
to the absent gentlemen to be here and it is said they will be here. We had
changed the rule — they could not know it, and if gentlemen request the post-
ponement he thought it was reasonable and that the motion should prevail.

Mr. Clay. I understand the gentleman to say It is time to proceed to the
appointment of Committees.

Mr. Webster. I said it was an early period to take up important business.

Mr. Clay. At no time, I believe, has the appointment of committees been
delayed beyond the second week of the session.

Mr. Grundy said, that

the present was a new case in the Government It was new In this that the
Senate, at the commencement of the session, had changed an Important practice.
Formerly the presiding officer appointed the standing committees and It was
well known that he exercised that power. The gentlemen absent, therefore,
had no right to expect that they would be called on at this early period of the
session to perform the duty of choosing the committees.

The question of postponement was determined in the affirmative,
as follows:

Yeas. Messrs. Benton, Bibb, Brown, Frelinghuysen, Forsyth, Grundy, Hen*
clricks, HiU, Kane, King, Knight, Moore, Morris, Prentiss, Rives, Robinson,

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BT7REK. 677

*

Robbing, Shepley, Silsbee, Smith, Swift, Tallmadge, Tipton, Tomltnson, Webster,
White, Wilkin* and Wright— 28.

Nays. Messrs. Bell, Calhoun, Chambers, Clay, Ewing, Kent, Mangum, Nan*
daln, Poindexter, Preston, Southard, Sprague and Tyler — 13.

■

The Senate then, on motion of Mr. Mangum, adjourned over to
Monday next.

The reader will not fail to be struck with the arms-length style of
the passages in the debate between the two champions of the bank, so
little like what was to be expected from them on the eve of a re-open-
ing campaign and legislative struggle in which they were looked to
as coadjutors, and still more by the peculiar appearance of the di-
vision on Mr. Grundy's motion : the particular friends of Messrs. Clay
and Calhoun voting with the former against the motion and every
New England Senator siding with Mr. Webster save Mr. Sprague
whose father had been a prominent member of the democratic party
and a friend of Mr. Clay, and the son, on that and, I believe, on all
subsequent occasions obeyed sympathies similar to those which had
governed his father.

I was not present at the dialogue which took place thus at the very
threshold of the session between the principal personages on the bank
side of the Senate, but can well conceive, from what I have often seen
on other occasions, Mr. Clay's look and manner on this. So formid-
able a movement towards overturning his premiership may have
been without ulterior object or deliberate design, but few will so
construe it.

I arrived at Washington on the evening of Saturday the 14th of
December, according to the appointment I had made with the Presi-
dent and found a message from him at my quarters expressing a de-
sire to see me as soon after breakfast on the following morning as
would suit my convenience. I found him, at an early hour, expecting
my visit and attended only by Senator Grundy, and was at once, ac-
cording to his custom, informed of the object of the desired interview.
He said that Mr. Clay had pressed the appointment of the standing
committees of the Senate at an earlier day but that Mr. Grundy, with
views which that gentleman would explain to me, had succeeded in
getting the subject put off till the morrow, for which time their se-
lection had been made the order of the day.

Mr. Grundy then spoke of the probable character of the session,
the exciting nature of the subjects that would require action and
of the importance to the administration of having the committees
as favorably constituted as possible, in all of which I fully con-
curred. He had, he said, what he considered sufficient reason to
believe that an arrangement could be made with Mr. Webster and
his friends by which the latter object could be materially promoted.
He had expressed that opinion to the President by whom he had

678 AMBWCAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

been informed of the time when I would reach Washington and
requested that no step should be taken in the matter before I had
been consulted ; hence the postponement of the choice of committees
and the application for the present interview. Determined on the
instant that I would, under no circumstances, be a party to any
such arrangement with Mr. Webster, I did not stop to ask Mr.
Grundy for the grounds of his belief in the practicability of the
scheme proposed or even to give him an opportunity to assign them
but proceeded to state, at some length, the principles and considera-
tions upon which I felt constrained to oppose it- Satisfied, as I
declared myself to be, that Mr. Grundy would be as little favorable
as I could be to a political coalition with Mr. Webster I would not
say a word on that point but would limit myself to an attempt to
convince him that no arrangement like that suggested, however
plausibly devised or cautiously guarded, could be carried out in
the then excited state of public feeling without exposing the General
and his administration to the suspicion of being disposed to favor
such a coalition, and to impress him with a sense of the advantage
which Mr. Clay would derive from being furnished with materials
to spring such a mine upon us. I dwelt on the antagonistic positions
which the President and Mr. Webster had always occupied, in time
of peace and in time of war, and especially in relation to the bank
which we all knew would be the principal subject of the session —
the former the disinterested and fearless opponent of that powerful
institution, willing to brave its immense strength from motives
exclusively of a public and patriotic character whilst the latter was
regarded by all sides as one of its most unscrupulous supporters;
on the confusion and consequent alarm with which such a conjunc-
tion as was indicated would fill the minds of the friends who had
thus far sustained the General with so much firmness as the possible
forerunner of an ultimate surrender of the cause in which they had
made great sacrifices and in which they were ready to make greater
still. I admitted, in their broadest latitude, the troubles that were
ahead, the certain severity of the struggle, but declared that I, for
one, was prepared for it and would enter upon it in the full con-
viction that the people, if nothing occurred to blunt their ardour
or to raise a doubt of the purity and disinterestedness of the Gen-
eral's aims, in which they now implicitly confided, would carry us,0
as on many previous occasions they had carried us, triumphantly
thro' the crisis.

I only attempt to recall the outline of my remarks. The Presi-
dent, after introducing the subject, as I have said, concisely but
with simple directness and unreserve, took no further part until I

• MS. VI, p. no.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 679

closed them. We remained standing throughout the interview — the
General resting one hand upon the mantel. When I had concluded
he looked towards Mr. Grundy, who made no response to what I
had urged, and advised him to drop the matter, to which the latter •
assented and immediately withdrew. Between neither of these
gentlemen and myself was the subject ever revived.

Two remarkable circumstances signalized the opening of the ses-
sion. Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster, the principal leaders of the party
in opposition to the Administration, who had parted in the Senate
Chamber, when the previous session broke up, with apparently un-
usual cordiality and mutual confidence, now met on the same floor
and on the eve of a great political struggle with every indication
not only of alienation but of the indulgence on the side of each of
feelings reciprocally hostile and defiant, and by the aid of one of
these leaders, backed by eight of his sympathizing colleagues,
against the strenuous efforts of the other, and to his great annoy-
ance, a partisan motion made by one of the friends of the President
was carried, to the surprise of the uninitiated, by a vote of that
body in which the Administration — which proverbially repelled
neutrality — was supposed to be in a hopeless minority. These
occurrences, so extraordinary at a time when party feeling was un-
usually bitter and when the lines of party demarkation were very
sharply defined, I shall endeavor to explain.

The course pursued by Mr. Webster, at the previous session, upon
the passage of Mr. Clay's bill for the pacification of South Carolina,
was described in my closing observations on nullification, but there
were features in the proceedings there related bearing upon the sub-
ject before us which were not brought sufficiently to view for our
present design. In the absence of direct evidence of the cause of so
sudden and so great a change in the relations and purposes of those
gentlemen, which is now not to be expected, we can only look for
its solution to contemporaneous occurrences in the course and con-
duct of the parties which shed light upon the subject and of the
truth of which we have reliable proof. To do justice to these
will extend this digression to a greater length than was intended, but
I can not doubt that temperate and well considered accounts of the
nets of men who are destined to figure largely in our history, on
occasions conceded to have been both intricate and important, pro-
ceeding from contemporaries who had good opportunities to possess
themselves of the truth and who can not, at the time when their
report is made, be under any adequate motive to misrepresent it, will
l>e of great interest to the men of the present time and instructive
to those who come after them. Of Mr. Webster's predetermination
to oppose Mr. Clay's bill and to do this without a very particular
examination of or scrupulous regard to the extent of the concess?

680 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION.

•

or ameliorations proposed by it, and that he never relaxed that
determination until he had in the debate placed himself before the
Country, in respect to the general subject, as nearly as he deemed
, safe and practicable, in the position he desired to occupy, there can-
not be a reasonable doubt. Yet the only way in which this end
could, as he at first thought be attained was to him, until near the
close of the debate, a source of nervous personal apprehension.
Nevertheless if the obstacles in the path to which his ambition
pointed were formidable in his eyes it was equally obvious to all that
the temptations to follow it were not less potent. The President's
Proclamation had struck him as full of promise of future advance-
ment if the facilities it seemed to afford were promptly and wisely
embraced. We have authority, necessarily derived from himself,
for saying that the first knowledge he received of its existence
was derived from a traveler just arrived from the seat of Govern-
ment, unknown to him and by whom he was unknown, who told him
as a piece of news that Gen. Jackson had issued a proclamation
against the nullifiers "taken altogether from Webster's speech at
Worcester "-P wh^re he" (Webster) "had a short time before
reproached the Administration for its backwardness and in so doing
had recapitulated the powers and duties of the General Government
as previously defined in his reply to Hayne." It was hardly to be
expected that he should fail to find in the Proclamation much of
what his unknown informant has described as constituting its prin-
cipal matter or to be gratified by it. The Boston Gazette, a journal
professing good will towards the Administration of Gen. Jackson,
also spoke of it as follows:

The Proclamation of the President is a very fortunate document for Mr.
Webster; and, if that distinguished gentleman plays his cards skilfully, he
can, as easy as kiss my hand, be at the head of the administration party within
twelve months.

It was not strange that he should construe the signs of the times
as promising him a liberal participation in the action of an adminis-
tration which he had labored so hard to overthrow and without
violence to the principles which he had always professed. He.lofit
no time but forthwith rallied his party at Faneuil Hall and ffOBk
its time honored walls came forth the warmest commendations o£ttft
favored State Paper, of its principles and of the patriotic comr
its distinguished author, with earnest pledges of suppoi
enforcement; commendation and assurances promulgated ui
cumstances and in a form which vouchsafed to Mr. Wet
credit of their paternity. Having thus defined his positic -

spect to a matter of such vast importance Mr. Webster rem J

home until the issue between the Federal Government an g

Carolina had been fully formed by the nullifying Ordinanc %

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 681

latter, the passage of a law to carry it into effect and the promulga-
tion of Gov. Hayne's counter Proclamation. Congress met on the
3d of March but he did not make his appearance in the Senate until
the 31st of that month. He supported the Force bill (to which his
biographer, Mr. March, says he was strongly urged by Mr. Grundy,
whom that gentleman describes as the President's "next friend")
in a speech of undoubted ability, and this he would have done if his
speech at Boston had never been made because the principle on
which it proceeded was that by which he claimed that his whole
public life had been regulated. Mr. Clay, was also unreservedly in
favor of its passage altho' he was, for reasons that were satisfactory
to himself yet liable to misconstruction, absent at the vote, and did
not embrace the measure with any extraordinary zeal.

The discussion drew from Mr. Calhoun an intimation, tho' not
harshly or strenuously pressed, that Mr. Webster was trying to
conciliate the administration, and a personal attack of extreme vio-
lence was made upon him by Senator Poindexter,1 upbraiding him
with his conduct during the war of 1812, thus inflicting a wound upon
his feelings the healing of which, as we shall see, was reserved for
the closing scene in the political drama to which the attention of
the Country was now directed with the keenest solicitude. Mr.
Clay's measure of pacification not yet formally announced but all
along confidently expected at what he might think the most auspi-
cious moment for its introduction, was looked to as the touchstone
that was to determine the effect of the position — to some extent, at
least, a new one — which Mr. Webster had assumed upon his future
relations with Mr. Clay and with the mass of their political associates.
On the main point, that of opposition to it, Mr. Webster's mind had
been, as before intimated, doubtless, made up from the beginning;
but the manner in which his opposition should be avowed, the extent
to which his objections to the anticipated bill should be carried to
make them sufficient for his purposes, and the way in which the one
or a different course might be received were questions alike deli-
cate and grave. It having been pretty well ascertained that Mr.
Clay's bill, whether satisfactory to the disaffected State or not, would,
if it passed, suffice to induce her to abandon her refractory steps,
and it being manifestly the general sense of the Country that the
adoption of some such measure,0 if not indispensable, was in the high-
est degree desirable to avoid the evils of internecine commotion, Mr.
Webster's sagacity admonished him to weigh well the grounds upon
which it would be safe to place himself in opposition to what might
be justly claimed to be the will of the people. He had too much sense
not to understand that the occasion was one on which the public mind

» George Poindexter, of MisslsulppL ° MS. VI, p. 120.

68$ AMER1CAK historical association.

would neither make allowance for the mere personal feelings of any
man nor tolerate commonplaces among the motives and excuses for
granting or denying legislation, such as greater or less profits to the
manufacturers under one or another set of revenue regulations or more
or less encouragement to any particular interest. These were mat-
ters which it might well be urged would be listened to with respect and
canvassed with care under different circumstances but which would
not be allowed [to] control in a crisis like that which had been brought
on the Country partly thro' the selfishness of one and not less thro'
the headlong violence of another class. It was plain, and the truth
did not pass his intelligent mind unheeded, that he could not hope to
escape public denunciation if he should attempt to defeat the measure
the introduction of which by Mr. Clay was expected, in the actual con-
dition of parties and of the Country, on any other ground than that
it amounted to an abandonment of the protective system and would in-
volve the certain prostration of immense interests which had grown up
under the promised encouragement of the Government. To arraign,
however, the conceded author of the "American System" at the bar
of the people, in the then excited and inflammable condition of the
public mind, upon the charge of consenting to sacrifice the most im-
portant and hitherto the most cherished feature of that system to ap-
pease the Nullifiers, and to do this when that author was smarting
under the mortification occasioned by a most annoying defeat as a
candidate for the Presidency, would have been to arouse resentments
of the fiercest nature, to brave the probable consequences of which
required a greater degree of personal firmness than Mr. Webster had
ever exhibited, especially in fcis intercourse with Mr. Clay, his pecul-
iar dread of giving offence to whom was perfectly well known to their
friends and to the public. Yet such a course or one which, not
amounting to it on its face, could afterwards and under more eligible
circumstances be made to take that shape before the Country — one
or the other alternative was indispensable to the accomplishment of
Mr. Webster's assumed object.

He adopted the latter plan and brought to its execution all the
sagacity and adroitness he possessed, and in which he had no superior,
to make the positions he assumed and the ideas and expressions by
which he supported them convey to intelligent hearers and readers a
significance beyond his words. He commenced his speech with a staid
compliment to "the purity, zeal and ability of the Senator from
Kentucky, for whom he had long entertained a high respect and to
elevate whom to a situation where Jus talents might be still more
beneficial to his Cowntry he had zealously labored" He also com-
plimented for his talents and services the Senator from South Caro-
lina (Mr. Calhoun) "with whom he had often acted and for whom
he had always felt a sincere regard."

AOTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAfttm VAff BtJREN. 688

Having tendered these olive branches to his principal antagonists,
each of whom he knew at the moment to be watching his course with
sharpest inspection and with determination to make it as onerous to
him as possible, he proceeded to weave into his speech the grave
objection to the measure under consideration to which I have alluded,
that of its amounting to an abandonment of the protective policy
without security to the extensive interests that had grown up under
it, and did so without exposing himself to the responsibility of spe-
cific allegations to that effect or a direct charge that it was so in-
tended by its author. " He opposed the bill " he said, among many
similar things, " because it seemed to yield the constitutional power
of protection " — because " in giving up specific duties and substituting
ad valorem the bill had abandoned the policy of all wise govern-
ments and the policy of our own government and the policy always
advocated by the Senator from Kentucky;"— *4he could not help
thinking that panic had something to do with it and that if the
South Carolina Ordinance and replevin law had not appeared this
bill would never have appeared in the Senate," &c Ac. These are
fair samples of the propositions and insinuations which pervaded the
speech. The intelligent reader will find in it continued and unmis-
takable traces of>an effort on one hand to impute to Mr. Clay the
design of abandoning the protective system for the purpose of tran-
quilizing and conciliating the nullifiers and on the other to avoid
embroiling his personal relations with Mr. Clay by charging that
intention too plainly, and I do not doubt that, with all his caution,
he resumed his seat under the strongest apprehension that he had
gone too far.

But Mr. Webster was ignorant of what was passing in Mr. Clay's
mind at the moment. Deeply impressed as the latter doubtless was
with a conviction of the importance of the service he was about to
render to the country and anxious to perform it, that was not the
only and, it is not uncharitable to suppose, the most engrossing
matter that occupied his attention. He had ascertained the cost,
had " counted noses," and' knew that a sufficient settlement of the
disturbance by which the fears of the people in every quarter of the
Union had been excited was in his hands and could not be prevented
by anything Mr. Webster could say or do. Without misgiving,
therefore, as to immediate results he was less sensitive as to what
was going on before his eyes while his thoughts and feelings were
chiefly occupied with the plan concocted between Mr. Biddle and
himself for a renewed struggle on behalf of the bank and for the
success of his party widely differing both in principle and in mode
of operation from that which had ended so disastrously. That was
a matter into which there is every reason to believe, Mr. Webster

684 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

had not been initiated, but in which his co-operation would, in time,
be desired and, notwithstanding present complications, was confi-
dently anticipated. It would have been, therefore, inconsistent
with Mr. Clay's views to expose his some time friend to humiliations
which, with the temptations recently presented by the President's
Proclamation, might shake his fealty to the bank however strong
the tenure by which it seemed to be held. Made more cautious by
the lessons of a severe experience and having acquired, what is not
usual, with advancing years also greater self-command, Mr. Clay
suppressed, upon calculation, the impetuous retort which, at an
earlier period of his life, would have forced its way thro' all such
restraints, not only suffered the insinuations and sinister surmises
of his wily rival to pass unnoticed but reciprocated his compliments
measure for measure. He opened his reply with a " high tribute,"
as the reporter has it, " to the patriotism and purity " of that gentle-
man and said that he felt " pained exceedingly'9 at being obliged to
differ from "his friend from Massachusetts," but took care, at the
same time, to say "how happy he was to find himself connected
with his friend from Maine" (John Holmes) u with whom he had
acted in the final adjustment of the Missouri Question." Of his
speech, in other respects, I have fully spoken in my concluding
strictures upon nullification

Mr. Webster had thus accomplished his immediate purpose. By
general observations which could, at a future day, be made more
specific he had placed himself before the Country as the consistent
and persistent friend of a system about to be abandoned for other
objects by him who had, hitherto, borne its standard — a system which,
tho' an abomination in the South, from which quarter he felt that
he had nothing to expect, had been and could, he thought, be again
ridden as a political hobby in the West and was, in his own section,
a living and powerful interest, entering into the business and personal
concern of the most active and influential portions of the population,
and its fortunes and the course of public men in relation to it were
therefore watched with all the alertness and shrewdness that char-
acterize the race in that region. He had been enabled, by a good for-
tune the source of which it is not probable that he, at the moment,
entirely comprehended, to take this position without a collision with
Mr. Clay ° which he had obviously and naturally anticipated with
concern, and he determined to let well alone. Although he con-
tinued his opposition to the bill, offering such explanations as he
thought expedient to neutralize the assaults made by other Senators
on the grounds assumed by him and finally voting against it, he
made no reply to Mr. Clay's elaborate and able answer to his objec-

• MS. VI, p. 125.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTHT YAK BT7BEK. 685

tions and, so far from taking any further steps to prevent the pas-
sage of the bill, when Gov. Dickerson, an ultra protectionist, offered
certain amendments Mr. Webster prevailed on that Senator to with-
draw them, declaring that, altho' he was satisfied that some such
amendments would become indispensable he yet thought "if the
bill was to pass it ought to pass at once " — and it was passed.

Having witnessed the passage of his bill by a vote of which the
constituent parts were, on other questions and occasions, so inhar-
monious and being assured by Mr. Calhoun that it would pacify
South Carolina and thus quiet the alarm seriously and universally
disturbing the public mind, Mr. Clay exulted in his new claims to a
character on which he had long prided himself — that of a Great
Pacificator. By the opportune service he had rendered them he had
placed Mr. Calhoun and the nullifiers in a position which would not
only incline but oblige them to co-operate with him so far as related
to the President and the bank in the great struggle in which he was
about to engage, however indisposed they might be to advance his
political fortunes. Such successful results were certain in his case
to stir into activity the generous impulses which were deeply im-
planted in his nature. Not content with the favourable effects which
the conciliatory course he had pursued towards Mr. Webster had
apparently produced upon that gentleman he yet felt in the mood to
go further, to turn his plastic hand from the composition of public
dissension to the adjustment of a private quarrel, and thus to confer
a further benefit for which Mr. W.'s admirers and supporters would
perhaps give him credit whether he did so or not At the first
vacant moment after the final passage of his bill Mr. Clay arose from *
his seat, and, alluding, with suitable solemnity, to the very violent
attack upon Mr. Webster by Senator Poindexter, of which I have •
before spoken, addressed the Chair, commencing as follows :

An Incident occurred a few days ago which gave me very great pain and I am
quite sure that in that feeling the whole Senate participated/ I allude to some
of the observations made by the honorable Senator from Mississippi and the
honorable Senator from Massachusetts near me, with reference to an Important
bill then pending. I was persuaded at the time those remarks were made that
they were the result of mutual misconception, and were to be attributed solely
to that zeal which each of those honorable Senators felt — in the position in which
they stood toward each other — the one to carry, the other to defeat the measure,
with respect to which my friend from Massachusetts and myself unfortunately
took different views. • • •

• Mr. Poindexter had taken occasion to allude to the course of Mr. Webster during the
War of 1812, on which he commented with great severity, and compared It with the
conduct of Mr. Calhoun. Mr. Webster declined all explanations to the Senator from
Mississippi. He said that the Senator from South Carolina was with him In the House
of Representatives at the period to which Mr. P. alluded, and if that Senator wished
any explanation of his course at that time he would pay the most cheerful and respectful
attention to his request But he did not feci himself called upon to take any notice of
the remarks of the gentleman from Mississippi. Mr. Poindexter immediately rose and
said " he felt the meet perfect oontempt for the Senator from Maeeaehuiette."

686 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

By these and similar impartial and guarded observations Mr. Clay
got up a half friendly and explanatory colloquy between the belliger-
ent Senators, which soon ended in shaking hands and in asseverations
of mutual respect and good will. No one doubted that he could have
suppressed Poindexter's outbreak on its first manifestation or reme-
died it at any intervening moment and all will agree, that if his inter-
ference was designedly delayed the moment for its exercise was judi-
ciously chosen.

These occurrences gave in the eyes of all and especially of Mr. Clay
a more agreeable aspect to the closing scenes of that session than had
been expected. They made him a happier man by far than he was
when he left his home for the seat of Government on the close of the
Presidential election immediately preceding, in which he had suffered
a signal defeat. To make up for the latter disaster, so far as that was
possible, and for the loss to his party of the majority in the House of
Representatives he had, chiefly thro9 his own efforts, recruited and
consolidated in the Senate — the body of which he was himself a mem-
ber and to which he looked as the theatre of the great transactions
which he hoped to see triumphantly accomplished at the next ses-
sion— a safe working majority, ready and able to carry out the pro-
gramme in the preparation of which he had borne a principal part

Judging by appearances only, no leave-taking between members
of a political brotherhood, at the close of an arduous and excited
session, could have more convincedly given assurance of the exist-
ence of a common Sympathy or of the promise of a zealous co-oper-
ation in their future partisan movements than that which then took
place between Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster ; and yet at their very next
meeting, during the first day of the ensuing session, they presented
themselves, as we have seen, to friends and foes, in hostile array
against each other, apparently as well personally as politically ; and,
stranger still, the occasion of this demonstration was a proposition,
intended to have a bearing on partisan interests, by a devoted friend
of President Jackson, the opponent of both and of their common
party. No intelligent person, conversant with the common forms of
parliamentary intercourse between public men, can read the official
account of what occurred on the discussion and disposition of Sena-
tor Grundy's motion without being satisfied that there is no exag-
geration in my description of the attitude and bearing towards each
other of those gentlemen on that occasion. A demonstration so un-
expected by the great body of their party and so disastrous in its
tendency would, under any circumstances, have caused consternation
in its ranks but under those in which it was placed the alarm pro-
duced by it was unavoidably greatly aggravated during the few
days that its fate was suspended. Their actual condition can be

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTLN VAN BUREN. 687

stated in a few words. The bank, then the principal element of
their political strength, had, almost immediately after the close of
the preceding conflict, given unequivocal indications of a determina-
tion to renew the struggle for the perpetuation of its powers and
privileges, a determination which had received the sanction of its
stockholders and the approval of the leaders of the party on the
support of which it counted with entire confidence As soon as the
necessary preparations had been made it entered upon and had
been for four months engaged, at enormous sacrifices, in the pro-
duction and organization of the new materials of war which, for
the first time, were to be employed to secure success and only
awaited the meeting of Congress to " fire the train," and just when
its engineers were, as they flattered themselves, on the point of se-
curing the fruition of their hopes and its political supporters their
harvest, all was placed in jeopardy by this ill-omened breach between
two Senators who had been from the beginning its strongest and
ablest generals. To give to this inopportune dissension its worst
aspect it had disclosed itself on so vital a point as the construction
of the standing committees of the Senate which body was the in-
tended head-quarters of the bank forces and Mr. Webster had been
followed in his adverse vote by a sufficient number of the Eastern
Senators to put Mr. Clay in a minority. All will agree that such
a rupture on the side of the bank could not have happened without
the greatest reasons. What were they? Mr. Grundy's embryo in-
trigue with Mr. Webster could not have produced it on the part of
Mr. Clay because altho' the latter might have found grounds of
suspicion already produced by other causes, strengthened by the
ominous conjunction between those Senators and by his knowledge
of Mr. Grundy's passion for what ° he regarded as allowable strategy
in partisan warfare, he was not informed of its existence, as far as
I know or believe, until fifteen years afterwards. Mr. Webster's
resentment may have been kindled by his gleanings at Philadelphia
in regard to the stringency of Mr. Clay's requirements, but that
could have had no other or further effect ; for, if Mr. C's suspicions in
respect to the views with which Mr. Webster reached Washington
were well founded, the disposition of the latter to separate from him
sprang from far reaching motives of a very different character.

The suspicion by which Mr. Clay was led to meet Mr. Webster at
Washington as an enemy, and which was confirmed by his acci-
dental conversation with me years afterwards, was that Mr. W. left
the seat of Government in the spring of 1883, after his peace-making
with Senator Poindexter, with two settled purposes — first, to sup-
plant him in the affection and confidence of their own party and,

• MS. VI, p. 180.

688 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

secondly, to conciliate the good will of President Jackson and as
many of his friends as should be found practicable, with the ulterior
design of employing one or the other or both of these means, incon-
gruous as they might appear to be, to secure his own elevation to the
Presidential office at the approaching and certain vacancy. The first
object Mr. Clay was doubtless thoroughly conscious had never been
absent from Mr. Webster's thoughts since the commencement of their
political association, and having been, from the beginning, at all
times exposed to attempts at its accomplishment, persistent altho'
unsuccessful, the repetition of them at the time I speak of, if con-
ducted with common fairness, would not, I think, have led him to
the adoption of so decided a step towards, his old political confed-
erates as that which he determined to take and did take on his arrival
at Washington. His belief in Mr. Webster's designs upon the Gen-
eral's friendship was, in this instance, the revival of a suspicion
which he, in common with almost every body else, had imbibed from
the eager and emphatic applauses of the doctrines of the Proclama-
tion with which Faneuil Hall had resounded on the appearance of
that document; but his first impressions had been greatly shaken, if
not removed, by observation of the conduct of the President's most in-
fluential friends, who, for reasons to be explained hereafter, had
turned the cold shoulder to Webster, and he had been thus induced
to make the effort I have noticed (and in which he thought that he
had succeeded) to secure the continued fealty of the latter to the
bank. Mr. Webster's course, however, during the recess, not only
re-awakened his former suspicions but ripened them into convictions
which he ever afterwards deemed well founded. This was, beyond
all doubt, the state of his mind in those regards when he met Mr.
Webster at the Capitol a few days after the opening of the Panic
Session.

If Mr. Webster's ardor in the pursuit of the object which Mr. Clay
assumed that he had in view was somewhat abated by the discour-
agement to which I have just alluded it is quite certain that it was
renewed and strengthened during his residence at Washington thro'
the short session of 183&-34. How much influence the conversation of
Mr. Livingston and possibly of Mr. Grundy and others had in pro-
ducing this change we shall now never know, but, reassured and satis-
fied that he had, in the course of the session and of the recess, done
what was needful to lay a secure foundation for the ultimate accom-
plishment of his purpose, save only an open rupture with Mr. Clay,
he accepted the terms of their future [sic] proffered by the latter
without hesitation and, as it seemed, without apprehension.

I have before described the impression made upon me by Mr.
Grundy's communication in respect to Mr. Webster's probable aims,

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUBEN. 689

spoken of the absence from my own mind of such a suspicion as that
which Mr. Clay entertained, and assigned the men, by which I have
been induced to review the premises, from whom it is probable that
his conclusion was drawn: Whilst it might be considered presump-
tion in me to undertake to pronounce definitely upon their sufficiency
I am free to acknowledge their evident strength and consistency.
However well assured Mr. Clay might think himself of Mr. Webster's
grateful sense of the favor done to him at the close of the preceding
session, the nature of their past relations and considerations of the
important concerns with which it was intended that the attention
of both should be occupied at the next rendered it likely that he
would, during the recess, keep his eye on the movements of his
expected co-adjutor with more than ordinary interest. President
Jackson's purpose to visit the Eastern States was well understood
at Washington before Mr. Webster left that city and the expectation
was generally entertained that the course he had pursued in regard to
the doctrine of nullification would call forth a inore general demon-
stration of respect from the Eastern people than might otherwise have
been exhibited. Many, perhaps most persons, would, on a first im-
pression, have taken it for granted that Mr. Webster, if he cherished
the desire attributed to him by the supposition we are consider-
ing, would have made it a point to be with his people on the
President's arrival amongst them, to have participated in their demon-
strations of respect, to have mingled in the combined assemblages of
the President's political friends and his own, and so to have manoeu-
vred as, without a seeming effort to that end, to cause, as he did at the
Fanueil Hall meeting, the eulogiums bestowed on the Chief Magis-
trate to be regarded as virtually proceeding from himself. But, in
the case supposed, conceding to his position a portion only of the
dignity and influence with which his lavish admirers invested it, he
might well have reasoned differently in regard to the steps by which
such a coalition as that he desired should be preceded ; he might well
have preferred a course of proceedings by which to save so great a
sacrifice of his personal consequence. His enthusiastic young biogra-
pher and friend, March, when, treating of the proposed union, he
spoke of Mr. Webster (who was, he says, " admirably qualified for a
great adviser") becoming the great ally of General Jackson, of
" securing his admiration by the majesty of his intellect " and supply-
ing " the mind to plan what the other would have had the heart to
execute," may have come nearer to Mr. Webster's views of what would
have been the character of a union between Oen. Jackson and himself.
Whichever way Mr. W. may have reasoned on the subject his actions
certainly were most in harmony with this idea. So far was he from
taking pains to be at home when the President arrived in Massa-

127483°— vol 2—20 44

690 AMERICAN HISTOKICAL ASSOCIATION.

chusetts that he selected the entire period of the General's visit to
New England for his famous Western tour, which by his biographer
is described as having been "one continual ovation'9 and by his
friends of the National Intelligencer as u an excursion in the progress
of which he wrought little less than a miracle upon party feuds and
divisions in the Western country v — setting forth, as its most grace-
ful trophy, a letter by which Mr. Grundy, in connection with several
of Gen. Jackson's friends and neighbours at Nashville and others
without distinction of party, invite him, in highly complimentary
terms, to visit that city and its neighbourhood. By the adoption of
this course Mr. Webster was enabled to give more dignity and greater
efficacy to such tributes of respect to the public acts of the President
as he might desire to pay them. Instead of speaking to that high
officer as the chairman of a committee or as the mover of resolutions
at a public meeting, conveying his own sentiments modified by those
of others, as would have been the case if he had waited to receive him
in the vicinity of his' own home, he could now speak in his own name
and, if he chose so to do, the unmixed feelings of his heart, and in-
stead of addressing him in the midst of a population a majority of
whom the President very well knew would never so far subdue their
inveterate prejudices or recant their old and rooted doctrines as to
become his sincere supporters, he could say what he might desire to
him or at him in the hearing of any portion of the people of the West
whom he should have reason to think best adapted to his purposes.
Mr. Webster was then and had always been a party man, certainly
among the strictest if not also among the bitterest of his sect. It
suited his views to doff his partisan character and armor on this tour,
and his political opponents, having been the victors in the last great
contest and resting in possession of the Government, were not indis-
posed to meet his advances and to receive so distinguished a leader,
under such circumstances, with frank cordiality. How consistent the
assumption of this non-combatant appearance was with the feelings
and actual views of his party will be best considered ° when we speak
of the finishing touch which he gave to this peace professing, at least,
if not also, in a special sense, peace making enterprise.

Public dinners, eo nomine, were, with a single exception (at Cin-
cinnati), avoided, but he accompanied large parties on pleasure
excursions, received addresses, and noticed their contents when they
related to particular points in the improvement of the Country—
the latter subject, with the promise of further advancement and
the favorable character of the people, constituting the staple of his
speeches. Party politics were studiously eschewed or postponed.
There was not a word spoken any where, save at Cincinnati, his

• Ma VI, p. 186.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 691

speech at which place was not published, to which the warmest ad-
mirer of the President could not have listened without receiving
offence. Apparently Mr. Webster reserved all that he wished at
that time to say of politics, past, present, and future, and of the
course of President Jackson in that connection for his speech at
Pittsburgh, in the State of Pennsylvania, at which point his Western
tour terminated. The unsurpassed fidelity of that great State to the
General and the anxious solicitude felt by the people of Pittsburgh,
as well as by those of the State at large, for the maintenance of the
protective system were known to every body and by none better
understood than by the orator. It is fair to presume that these were
among the reasons by which he was induced to consider Pittsburgh
the most eligible place for the promulgation of the views expressed
in that speech in regard to his own course and that of President
Jackson in the suppression of nullification and to the importance of
the protective system, of which he thought himself entitled, after
the proceedings of the past winter, to the distinction of being re*
garded as the principal champion. The more the Pittsburgh speech
is considered the more evident will be found its bearing on the point
under consideration. Hie significance attached to it by its author
appears from the facts that whilst the speech delivered at Cincinnati,
tho' promised to the printer, was never furnished, this, having been
once published from the notes of a professional stenographer, was,
months afterwards, revised and materially enlarged by Mr. Webster
himself and republished in Niles' Register, the principal mouthpiece
of the protectionists. Mr. W's uniform friend, the venerable James
Ross, an old school and consistent federalist, was chairman of the
Committee of Invitation, which w/is mainly if not wholly com-
posed of Mr. Webster's political adherents, and the Mayor of the
city, who presided, manifested himself a zealous member of the
same denomination. The meeting was held in a grove and was
attended by some three thousand of the citizens of Pittsburgh and
its vicinity. Mr. Webster was presented to the assemblage by the
Mayor in a brief address full charged with compliments but dis-
creetly engrossed, however, with the domestic questions and con-
cerns of the Country in respect to which Mr. W's latter opinions
had best accorded with those of Pennsylvania, placing Nullification
and the protective system in the front ground :

Gentlemen, [he said] we are this day Citizens of the United States.
The Union is safe. Not a star has fallen from that proud banner
around which our affections have so long rallied and when, with de-
lightful assurance, we cast our eyes on the eventful history of the last
year, when we recall the gloomy apprehensions and perhaps hopeless
despondency which came over us, who, gentlemen, can learn without

692 AMERICAN HISTORICAL. ASSOCIATION.

a glow of enthusiasm that the great Champion of the Constitution—
that Daniel Webster is now in the midst of us ! To his mighty in-
tellect the nation, with one voice, confided its cause— of life or death.
Shall there be withheld from the triumphant advocate a nation's
gratitude !

It is worthy of remark that neither in giving this well deserved
prominence to the subject of nullification nor in his earnest appeal
for the nation's gratitude for its rescue from the perils that had
environed it was the name of Andrew Jackson even mentioned, or
his participation in that great deliverance alluded to unless such was
the design of the paragraph immediately following this outburst of
admiration and praise of Mr. Webster which aimed to show the
superior usefulness, in the then situation of the Country, of u intel-
lectual pre-eminence " over appeals to " the sword and the bayonet"
Whence arose this singular omission, rendered the more striking by
the place where and the people before whom it occurred, it is not
easy to discover; whether we are to attribute it to the sympathy of
the Mayor (whose name is not recorded) with the feelings of the
venerable chairman of the Committee who, from being at first a
zealous advocate of Gen. Jackson's election, had turned strongly
against him when he found that he had mistaken the bent of his
political sentiments, or whether it was the result of design to in-
crease the credit and to swell the eclat of Mr. Webster's very differ-
ent course — whatever may have been the motive the latter did not
fail to give to the President's good conduct the same prominence
which had been accorded to his own by the Mayor and treated the
subject in a way with which the friends of Jackson had reason to be
satisfied. He spoke of him as a "patriotic chief magistrate" who
was "true to every duty" and who, "when the crisis arrived in
which our Constitution was in danger," stepped forward in its de-
fence in a spirit which had induced him (Mr. Webster) to yield u not
a tame and hesitating but a cordial and efficient support to his
measures."

In all this Mr. Webster did no more than the culpable omission
of the Mayor and the other circumstances of the case imposed upon
him as a duty. In a subsequent part of his address, but before
he had quitted the general subject, he availed himself of the oppor-
tunity to commend the views in regard to the conduct of the Gov-
ernment which he had found to prevail in the course of his tour
and in that connection to add what follows :

I know that those who have seen fit to entrust to me, In part, their Interests
in Congress approve of the measures recommended by the President. We
see that he has taken occasion, daring the recess of Congress, to visit that
part of the Country; and wo know how he has been received. Nowhere have
hands been extended with more sincerity of friendship; and, for one, gentle-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BITREN. 693

men, I take occasion to aay that, having heard of his return to the seat of
government with health rather debilitated, It Is among my most earnest
prayers that Providence may spare his life and that he may go through with
his administration and come out with as much success and glory as any
of his predecessors.

Having paid this tribute of respect to the President and offered
up these earnest prayers for his future success, Mr. Webster next
turned to the sentiments favorable to himself as the friend of
domestic industry, expressed by the Mayor, as to a matter of which
he was evidently full and fully prepared to speak. He did not refer
to the bill Mr. Clay had, three months before, introduced and caused
to be passed to quiet South Carolina,1 and of which he (Mr. W.)
had said, from his place in the Senate, that he opposed it because
it imposed a restriction upon the future legislation of Congress, be-
cause "it seemed to yield the constitutional power of protection"
and because "in giving up specific duties and substituting ad
valorem^ the bill had abandoned the policy of all wise governments
and the policy of our own government and the policy always advo-
cated by the Senator from Kentucky ". I did say he did not name
that bill at Pittsburgh but he spoke at it with great power and,
doubtless, with great effect upon minds so strongly predisposed
against it as were those of the manufacturing population of that
city, in a speech which had been obviously prepared with unusual
care and research, which aimed to place the subject in new lights and
from the influence of which it was apparent that much was expected.
He spoke of the protective system as a policy which Massachusetts
had not originated and to which she was not originally favorable,
which had been brought into existence by the overwhelming influence
of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio (the States to which he had
made the visit he was then upon the point of closing,) but in which
she had acquiesced after it was thus adopted. He said that they had
given their capital and labor to it — that ° they had become wedded
to it, so that "there was now no shade of difference between the
interests of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts/' "We shall not,"
said he, " yield it without a struggle, neither shall we yield the prin-
ciple of protection, without a severe struggle, under any circumstances
whatever."

He treated the subject throughout as if the questions of yielding
the system and its constitutionality had been newly put in issue
and under circumstances of menace and peculiar danger to its ex-
istence. He introduced as new a detailed and very interesting state-
ment of the proceedings of the mechanics of Boston — " the workers

1 An Act to modify the Act of the fourteenth of July • • • and all other Acta
Imposing duties on Imports. Approved March 2, 1838.
• MS, VI, p. 140.

694 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

in [leather?], in tin, in iron, &c" — before the adoption of the Fed-
eral Constitution, to show not only the influence they exerted in
favor of protection but that to those proceedings in all probability
was ascribable a controlling effect in producing the ratification of
the Constitution itself, and concluded by saying:

Under these circumstances It cannot be expected that we of New England will
readily abandon our ground. We are ready to do more work with leas pro-
tection, if that will answer, but we yet believe thai the power is in the Constitu-
tion and I do not believe that It is within my competency to draw my pen
across that power: &c. Ac.

I quote from the stenographic report of the Speech, published in
Niles' Kegister of July 27th, 1883.1

It was not likely that Mr. Clay would read so impassioned a pane-
gyric of a man whose power with the people he had already much
reason to be convinced but with whom he was preparing for another
and final struggle, or so fervent a prayer for the success of an ad-
ministration which he and Mr, Biddle were providing the means to
overthrow, or an Attack so vigorous and almost undisguised upon his
title to the position which it had been the labor of his life to establish
for himself, that of leading advocate and friend, in the eye of the
Country, of the protective system, coming from such a source and
promulgated at such a moment without, at least, imbibing a suspi-
cion that he and his party had as much to apprehend from Mr. Web-
ster, in proportion to his means, as from President Jackson or any
of his political adherents. Still I do not think that he would have
thought it expedient, if Mr. Webster had been content to let the
matter rest as it then stood, to break with him at that critical junc-
ture. Thoroughly satisfied as he might have been, by this last de-
velopment, of the impossibility of maintaining friendly political re-
lations permanently with Mr. Webster, he, nevertheless, knew the
depth of the distrust with which the latter was regarded by the mass
of what was called the Jackson party and by its most influential
leaders and he might have been induced to look upon efforts to gain
a foothold in that quarter as so hopeless as to make it his safest
course to shut his eyes to them and to trust to the power of the bank
to secure indispensable cooperation. He had been not a little in-
fluenced in the adoption of the conciliatory course he had pursued
towards Mr. W. at the preceding session by the knowledge he pos-
sessed on this point and by what he saw of the extent to which that
gentleman had increased the obstacles to his progress in the direc-
tion indicated by the clumsy and unwise manner in which he had de-
vised and conducted the proceedings of his Faneuil Hall meeting on
the occasion of the first appearance of the Proclamation. These were
such as no practical man, with only a moderate share of common

* Vol. 44, p. 802.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OK MARTIN VAN B17REN. 695

sense, could have failed to avoid. Gen. Jackson was in Congress
during the first term of Washington's Presidency when the germs of
the political creed which has been, in its leading features, in suc-
cession, that of the old republican the anti-federal and democratic
parties, were first planted in the public mind, and he had imbibed,
to an extent heretofore stated an abiding sense of the justice and wis-
dom of its doctrines. I have heretofore also remarked that, whilst
its vital and fundamental principles were never obscured or shaken
in his mind or heart, he had doubtless lost, in some degree, during
a long military service and consequent withdrawal from and indif-
ference to party contests, his familiarity with the history of some of
its particular tenets and the perception of their constant application
and importance. How far the character of the Government, other-
wise plainly defined, had been affected by the declarations of the pre-
amble which had been affixed to the Constitution was one of the
vexed questions' between the old republican and federal parties of
that period. The different effect of the adoption of the one or of
the other interpretation has been elsewhere described. The doctrine
of the democratic party in that regard, which is identical with that
zealously insisted on by the early republicans, was supposed to have
been ignored in the construction of the Proclamation and the ancient
federal dogma to have been recognised in its place and the Faneuil
Hall meeting, called to consider and express an opinion upon that
State Paper, seemed determined that nothing in respect to the
grounds of its action should be left to inference. Its resolutions,
offered by his friend Col. Perkins but bearing unmistakably the im-
press of Mr. Webster's mind, and doubtless dictated if not written
by him, gave special prominence to the rival definitions which had
been so long the subject of dispute between the two great parties of
the Country, claimed to find the federal doctrine asserted in the
Proclamation and adopted by the President and, with that under-
standing of the scope and spirit of that document, expressed the
warmest approval of them and pledged them the support of the
meeting.

The apprehension that the Proclamation was in truth obnoxious
to such construction, strengthened by these proceedings, cost the
President many friends, particularly in the Southern States. John
Randolph seized the opportunity and, taking advantage of the fact
that Col. Perkins, who offered the resolutions and Harrison G. Otis,
who advocated them in an able speech, — two gentlemen of as high
personal honor and probity as any of whom the Country could
boast— had composed a majority of the Commission sent by the
Hartford Convention to the Seat of Government, and were met on
their way thither, denounced the President, as I have elsewhere de-

696 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

scribed, for having " disavowed the principles to which he owed his
election to the Chief Magistracy of the Government of the U. S." —
for having " transferred his real friends and supporters, bound hand
and foot, to his and their bitterest enemies, the ultra-federalists,
ultra-bank, ultra-tariff, ultra-Internal Improvement and Hartford
Convention men — the habitual scoffers of State Rights," Ac. These
effects of the Boston meeting, added to his previous observation of
the distrust and even dislike of Mr. Webster manifested, on many
occasions, by the great body of the friends of the Administration,
might well, as I have remarked, have inclined Mr. Clay to rely upon
the obstacles they presented to any effective coalition between them
and determined him to take no public notice of Mr. Webster's move-
ment at Pittsburgh if it had ended there.

But the latter was not content with the matter as it stood. The
stenographer's report of his speech was published in Niles' Register,
in July, 1838 ; it was subsequently announced in a Boston newspaper
that he was engaged in revising it and in the issue of the same jour-
nal of October 12th1 the revised copy made its appearance. This
was after the expedients of the bank to produce a pecuniary pres-
sure had begun to operate, after its agents and the opposition presses
had partially succeeded in alarming the Country with vague appre-
hensions of distress and ruin to be brought upon it by Gen. Jackson's
interference with its credits and currency, after Mr. Duane had been
removed by the President because he refused to fulfill his promise
either to carry out his policy or to resign, after the State banks had
been selected as depositories of future public revenues and when
every corner of the land was ringing with denunciations against the
President as a tyrant whose ignorance and lawless violence were fast
consigning its interests and its Institutions to disgrace and destruc-
tion. If Mr. Clay's mind had been entirely unprejudiced in regard
to Mr. Webster — as it probably was not — it would have been difficult
for him to assign an adequate motive, other than the one now the
subject of our consideration, for the publication, at that juncture, by
a friend of the bank, ranking at least second among the leaders of
the party by ° which it was sustained, of a new and revised edition
of a* Speech the material points of which, as has been shown, con-
sisted, 1st of a denunciation of nullification and nullifiers and an en-
comiastic account of the successful efforts, by Jackson and the
Orator, to suppress them, and 2dly, of an elaborate exposition of the
importance of the protective system and the dangers that menaced
it, with an eloquent invocation to the people of Pennsylvania, Ohio
and New York, who had brought it into existence, to defend the

* VoL 45, p. 107. * MS. VI. p. 145.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 697

work of their hands. To the first branch of this studied address it
could not be objected that it was not both just and true; but the flag
of nullification was struck, the cause and its champions, politically
speaking, were ruined. Why fight that battle over again — cui bono
by the revival of the subject ? Especially would such a course appear
inexpedient on the part of any supporter of the bank. The nulli-
fies and their able leaders were, at least quasi friends of that insti-
tution, many from choice and all from hatred to President Jackson,
the arch foe of nullification. The first report of Mr. Webster's
speech had said enough on the subject and in the General's favor to
satisfy Jhis warmest admirers, but even that was materially enlarged
in the revised production, notwithstanding the extent to which orig-
inal differences between the political friends respectively of the
President and- the Orator had increased in violence since the appear-
ance of the first publication. Whilst everything contained in the
latter was retained in the former, including the earnest prayer for
the success of the administration, the following entire sentence
(which we cannot suppose would have been omitted by the ste-
nographer if it had been spoken at Pittsburgh) was published in the
Boston edition :

While I am willing as others to admit that the President has, on other occa-
sions, rendered important services to the Country, and especially on that occa-
sion which has given him so much military renown, I yet think the ability and
decision with which he resisted the disorganizing doctrines of nullification cre-
ate a claim than which he has none higher to the gratitude of the Country and
the respect of posterity.

Assuming that it was at that time Mr. Webster's expectation to re-
main with the party which had then already entered on a new cam-
paign, designed to be one of active and unremitting hostilities, against
an administration for the prosperity and final success of which he,
after an interval, repeated so fervent a prayer and on whose Chief he
thus renewed and accumulated encomiums, without being called to
return to the subject by any public considerations of which the pub-
lic were informed, we are obliged to acknowledge a display of politi-
cal magnanimity on his part, as commendable as it was rare at an era
of unsurpassed partisan violence. In reference, also, to Mr. Web-
ster's own services the revised edition materially amplified the report
of the stenographer. By the latter the Speaker was made to say that
he gave to the President's measures " not a tame and hesitating but
a cordial and efficient support ; " in the former the reviser thought it
expedient to add the following:

It is true, doubtless, that if myself and others had surrendered ourselves to a
spirit of opposition we might have embarrassed and probably defeated the
measure of the administration, but lu so doing we should, in my opinion, have
been false to our own characters, false to our duty and false to our Country.

698 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Considering that Mr. Clay, tho' openly opposed to nullification
and favorable to the passage of the Force bill, had left the Chamber
on the night when it was ordered to be engrossed, on account, as he
subsequently said, of the impure state of its atmosphere, and his feeble
health, and had neither spoken for its passage nor recorded his name
in its favor on the last reading of the bill, and that he was the only
Senator favorable to the measure of whom that could be said, is it
not difficult to imagine that whilst by the Speech as first reported
so emphatically clearing his own skirts of the imputation of content-
ing himself with giving to the President, in a great crisis, "a tame
and hesitating support," or again when months afterwards, prepar-
ing in his closet these invectives against those who had found them-
selves capable of acting differently from himself, it never occurred
to Mr. Webster that Mr. Clay's enemies would say and his friends
apprehend that he was the person aimed at by these virtual and
violent denunciations?

But the revised Speech contained another new sentence which
would seem to have a still more significant bearing upon this point.
. We have already spoken of the heart burnings that had been caused
by the effort, so transparent in the proceedings of the meeting at
Faneuil Hall, to represent Gen. Jackson as having sanctioned political
principles directly in opposition to those he cherished in early life,
and of the consequent dissatisfaction of many of his friends exhibited
in their bearing towards Mr. Webster. No attempt to explain that
effort away 01^ to blunt the force of its recoil is found in the speech
at Pittsburgh as reported, but in the revised edition this omission
appears to be supplied by the following sentence. When commend-
ing the Proclamation the Orator is made to say:

"I would not be understood to speak of particular clauses and
phrases in the Proclamation" — (which were specifically set forth
in the Faneuil Hall resolutions) — ubut its great and leading doc-
trines," which had nowhere been called in question by the Presi-
dent's anti-nullifying friends.

I cannot see how any other construction can be placed upon the
introduction of this observation than that it evinced a desire to
conciliate the President and his friends as respected the Speaker,
or rather the writer, by dissociating the latter from the unacceptable
tenor of the resolutions of the Faneuil Hall meeting.

But the most labored endeavor of Mr. Webster, in this movement,
was to amplify and improve his disquisitions regarding the protec-
tive system — its importance and the necessity of efforts for its
preservation. If the reasons for the revision of the speech under the
circumstances were inconceivable those for an elaborate vindication
and advocation of the protective system at that particular moment,

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 699

except upon the hypothesis of a desire to supplant Mr. Clay in the
confidence and favor of the protectionists, were even more so. The
nature and extent of the protection to be given to the domestic in-
dustry of the Country had been settled by a law just enacted, which
was, by its terms, to remain in force for a long series of years. In
his speech on its passage Mr. Webster had raised an issue for the
public, asserting in as open a manner as he thought eligible and safe
in his then position — the affirmative of that issue, to wit: that the
bill abandoned the principle of protection, and insinuating that it
was founded on concessions that the system was unconsitutional and
that it had been sacrificed to the menaces of South Carolina. At no
time, after the adjournment, did he either agitate the subject with
the avowed object of obtaining a repeal of the law or make a distinct
point that the bill which had been passed involved an abadonment
of the protective system, and yet he devoted himself industriously
to the work of magnifying the importance of the system in the esti-
mation of the people, portraying the evils that would befall the
Country if it was abandoned, and directing popular distrust at men
and measures which might be supposed to favor such a result. To
have contended before the people, after its passage, that Mr. Clay's
bill was such a measure would have been received by that gentlemen's
friends as a direct attack upon him and was therefore deemed inex-
pedient; the course adopted was as well calculated to weaken Mr.
Clay with the protectionists and was therefore preferred. Would
not his faculties have been indeed obtuse if Mr. Clay had failed to
see in all Mr. Webster's movements, since their last parting, the most
satisfactory proof that his objects were to unhorse the acknowledged
leader of the opposition and to conciliate the good will and support
of President Jackson and of as many as possible of his friends in
his own favor for the succession, in the form and to the extent which
after developments might show to be practicable and auspicious?
Whatever may be our conclusion as to Mr. Clay's judgment or dis-
cretion as exhibited in guarding himself against the dangers by which
his political positions were threatened there was never good reason
to question his intelligence or accuracy in penetrating the designs °
of his opponents. Perhaps the former object required more habitual
self control than may be ascribed to him, whilst for success in the
latter he was amply qualified by the genius with which nature had
liberally endowed him. He, in all probability, apprehended Mr.
Webster's views before he came to Washington at the meeting of
Congress, and his convictions in regard to them were riveted within
two days after Mr. W.'s arrival by the demonstration made by the
latter on Grundy's motion, which aimed a blow directly at a material

* MS. VI, p. 160.

700 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

point in his own position and by which, if successful, that position
might be overthrown. He had done all that he could do at Phila-
delphia to protect himself, the bank and his party from Mr. Web-
ster's expected defection and he met what he could not but regard as
the first development of his meditated treachery with feelings
plainly enough manifested and yet, in an unusual and creditable
degree controlled.

I have said that Mr. Clay's suspicions in relation to the aims of
Mr. Webster went further than my own. This will not surprise the
reader when I inform him that I never saw the proceedings on Mr.
Grundy's motion for the postponement of the choice of committees,
never read the Pittsburgh speech, never knew of the pains taken by
its author to revise ahd republish it shortly before the meeting of
Congress, and knew nothing of what I am now enabled to add to
these indications bearing upon the point until I sat down to prepare
what I thought it proper to say of the conversation between Mr.
Clay and myself, the last time I saw him, in respect to Mr. Webster.
My faith in the unalterable sincerity of Gen. Jackson's friendship
had been so fortified by past experience that I was not accessible
to suspicion or apprehension on that point I recognized at the same
time fully the extent to which I was exposed, as his anticipated suc-
cessor, to the assaults of my political enemies and found all the time
I could spare from my public duties sufficiently occupied in watch-
ing and thwarting their intrigues against myself. Assuming, per-
haps hastily, that the one under consideration did not reach beyond
the rivalries between Messrs. Clay and Webster, the existence of
which had been notorious to all parties, and having, as I thought,
protected the General against injury from that quarter I troubled
myself no farther with it or about it. The first thing to which my
attention was now called was the debate on Mr. Grundy's motion,
and from that I was led, step by step, and with continually increas-
ing interest, into a general review of the intercourse between those
distinguished men at that critical period. The principal results of
v* that review I have placed before my readers as a portion of history
in which they can not fail to take an interest in some degree pro-
portioned to my own.

Whilst engaged on this part of my work some additional matter
first came to my knowledge which, I cannot but think, throws much
light upon the general subject. A friend sent me, shortly after its
appearance, a neatly bound volume entitled " Reminiscences of Con-
gress, by Charles W. March,"1 containing a biography of Daniel
Webster, with brief notices of the sayings and doings of several
among his contemporaries and co-actors in the principal scenes

»New York, 1850. It Is principally a biography of Webater.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIH VAN BUREN. 701

described by the author. Mr. March is a native of New Hampshire,
(in which state Mr. Webster was also born) and a young gentleman,
I am told, not only highly esteemed by Mr. W. but one in whom
the latter reposed a marked confidence and with whom he cultivated
a degree of intimacy not usual between gentlemen of so great dis-
parity in year;*. It has so happened that I have never made Mr.
March's acquaintance but from my knowledge of the high character
of eld&r branches of his family, I am fully prepared to find him
well worthy of the regard and confidence bestowed upon him by
one of the most if not the most distinguished man his native state
has produced. His book was published in 1851, at a moment when
Mr. Webster's own mind and the minds of his particular admirers
were turned, in one of their periodical and always unsuccessful
efforts to raise him to the Presidency, to the then approaching Presi-
dential election. As before intimated whilst I was actually employed
in the preparation of these pages one of my sons approached me
with Mr. March's work in his hand and called my attention to an
imputation which the author assumes that Mr. Calhoun cast upon
me in his speech on the Force bill. Having altogether forgotten
. that the book was in my possession I asked my son how he came by
it and was told that he had accidentally laid his hand on it while
searching the library shelves for another volume, and opening it
the passage referred to caught his eye. Better acquainted with the
events of that day than the author I found no difficulty in satisfy-
ing my son that Mr. March had mistaken Mr. Calhoun's intention,
which was to apply the observation attributed to him to Major Eaton
instead of to myself ; but struck by the cleverness and I ought to add
the, to me, unexpected fairness in many respects of a work which
I could only have carelessly glanced at, if at all, when it was re-
ceived, I read the whole of it including, to my very great surprise,
the following passages :
Speaking of the years 1888-34 (page 250) , the author says :

A community of sentiment and action, In this fearful crisis of our national
history, brought Gen. Jackson and Mr. Webster into stricter intimacy, social
and political, than had previously ever subsisted between them. Some of the
General's friends hoped, and more feared, a closer official relationship. In
May of this year Mr. Webster journeyed West ; returning in June he met Mr.
Livingston in New York, then preparing to depart on his mission to France.
It was understood at this time in private and confidential circles, that, before
leaving Washington, Mr. Livingston had had frequent and earnest conversations
with Gen. Jackson in relation to Mr. Webster's position ; and that he had urged
upon him the absolute necessity of securing Mr. Webster's continued support of
his administration To his suggestions Gen. Jackson gave a favorable ear and
acquiescence ; and authorized Mr. Livingston to approach Mr. Webster upon the
aubjeot. These conversations and their result Mr. Livingston, in his Interview
with him In New York, communicated to Mr. Webster. That a sent In the
Cabinet was at the same time proposed to Mr, Webster, on the part of the

702 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

President, thro' the same medium of communication, was a belief warmly en-
tertained by some of the nearest friends of both parties. One fact it Is allow-
able to mention; a distinguished Senator, a political and personal friend of
Gen. Jackson, brought Mr. Webster a list of the intended nominees for offices
in the Eastern States and asked him to erase therefrom the names of any
personally objectionable to him. This Mr. Webster declined to do, not wishing
to place himself under any obligations to the administration that might qualify
the freedom of his action, either in support or repudiation of its measures.

To appreciate the weight to which this statement, coming from
so credible a source, is entitled in forming an opinion upon the
justice of Mr. Clay's suspicions, the reader has only to call to mind
that these sayings and doings at Washington are described as hav-
ing occurred shortly before and during Mr. Webster's Western tour,
in the progress of which he crowned President Jackson, as we have
5cen, with rhetorical palms for his course in respect to nullification,
and offered up eloquent prayers for the preservation of the General's
health and for the success of his future career, and further, that
the opportune, if not appointed interview with Mr. Livingston, at
New York, took place when Mr. Webster was on his return from
that famous and ominous expedition. My reference to the credi-
bility of the source from which the statement I have extracted pro-
ceeds is on the assumption, the correctness of which1 1 cannot doubt,
that it would not have been thrown before the Country, under his
own name, by a gentleman standing in the relation towards Mr.
Webster occupied by Mr. March, without having been first submitted
to the inspection and revisal of the former, so far at least as con-
cerned the accuracy of the facts set forth; several of which could
only have come from himself.

The question how far Mr. Livingston was warranted in the decla-
rations he is here represented to have made to Mr. Webster, as to
what Gen. Jackson was desirous or inclined to do for Mr. W.'s0
political advancement, or to mark his sense of that gentleman's
services, deserves and will presently receive full consideration. There
is no reason to suppose that Mr. Webster had any doubts of their
authenticity and how far he was himself willing to go in recip-
rocating the friendly dispositions attributed to the President upon
Mr. Livingston's and Mr. March's authority, we have endeavored
to show. Waiving, however, for the present, the .consideration of
the accuracy of the statement in all other respects there is one preg-
nant reflection that can hardly fail to present itself at once to the
mind of my readers. Assuming that its principal contents were
derived from Mr. Webster, either directly or indirectly, as justice to
Mr. March, who sets them forth so confidently, requires that we
should assume gnd as was doubtless the fact, and considering their

• MS. VI, p. 1W.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 703

import in connection with the steps taken by Mr. Webster, after
he returned from his Western trip, in respect to his Pittsburgh
speech, and his overture to Mr. Grundy, there cannot remain a doubt,
I should think, on the part of any intelligent person that Mr. Clay's
suspicions as to the condition and employment of Mr. Webster's
mind at that period were in the main correct, whatever may have
been the specific ends he aimed at or whatever the degree of ma-
turity at which his plans may have arrived.

Mr. March, as well as Mr. Webster, if we assume that he was
cognisant of the statements put forth by Mr. M. were obviously not
a little embarrassed by the incongruity of the friendly relations
which are alleged to have existed between Mr. W. and President
Jackson, at the time referred to, with the fact that, only a few
months thereafter, the former was found closely allied with Messrs.
Clay and Calhoun in the most violent efforts to obstruct the Gen-
eral's administration and to degrade him as a public man by per-
suading the Country that he had played the part of a tyrant and
usurper of powers not conferred on him by the Constitution which
he had sworn to " preserve, protect and defend." It could hot have
escaped such shrewd minds that the transition from the alleged
cordial alliance to the indisputable bitter assault was so sudden that
men would either discredit the report of the former or condemn Mr.
Webster for his share in the latter. Accordingly an apology for
the great and rapid change in Mr. W's opinions of and dispositions
towards the President is sought in that fertile theme of partisan
agitation — the removal of the Government deposits from the vaults
of the bank of the United States to those of the State banks; but
unfortunately for the writer, as well as for the subject of his defence,
that excuse is wholly demolished by the irresistible logic of dates.

The removal of the Government deposits [says Mr. March] however justi-
fiable on the ground of expediency or even necessity was a measure of such
formidable energy as to confound some of the General's longest tried and not
most timid supporters. It encountered Mr. Webster's opposition and even
denunciation. And this honest difference of opinion in regard to a matter
of temporary importance, prevented the union of the two master spirits of the
age and blasted the patriotic hopes of the Country.

The unsatisfactory character of this explanation must be admit-
ted when it is considered that Mr. Webster's high wrought enco-
miums upon the General's conduct and earnest prayers for his suc-
cess and glory in the administration of the Government, revised and
enlarged by the author in a second edition, were, without the occur-
rence of any circumstance making such a course necessary to his
own vindication but of his mere motion, scattered broad-cast through
the Country not only months after the deposits had been ordered
to be thus removed but after that act of the President and the dis-

704 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

missal of Mr. Duane had been made the subject of partisan clamor
and denunciation on the part of Mr. Webster's political associates,
and that the attempted intrigue thro' Mr. Grundy was not entered
upon until after those associates and the friends of the bank had
assembled at Washington, at the commencement of the session, pre-
pared to open their batteries upon the President for the very " meas-
ure of formidable energy " described.

Of the correctness of Mr. March's statement of what Mr. Living-
ston said and thought I know nothing. I can conceive of no ade-
quate motive in Mr. Webster at that time to misrepresent the matter
to his confidential friends, and Mr. March was certainly free from
any inducement even to exaggerate #it further than the desire nat-
ural to an ardent young man to place the standing of his friend
upon the highest ground. But that there existed on the part of
both and of Mr. Livingston also, if he made the representations
attributed to him, the grossest delusion upon the principal point is
very certain. Gen* Jackson's feelings towards Mr. Livingston were
the same as my own, uniting with a sincere and strong personal
regard a disposition to do all in our power to advance his interest
and to promote his own happiness and welfare and those of his
family. These dispositions were never suffered to fail of effect be-
cause of what we regarded as political aberrations on his part We
knew from the beginning that he differed from us on several of the
important issues of the day, such as the bank, internal improve-
ments, &c., but we never permitted such differences to affect our
personal feelings towards him. We were well aware that he was
more at his ease in talking and not unfrequently in acting upon
public questions in the company of Mr. Webster and Mr. Biddle
than with us, but we could afford to indulge him and did so, know-
ingly, in that also. The strength and constancy of those feelings
on my part, as well as the extent to which they were communicated
to my family, may be inferred from the fact that a favorite grand-
son of mine, now twelve years old, bears his name, which was given
to him with my hearty approval. The General's opportunities for
ascertaining the measure of Mr. Livingston's adaptation to the dif-
ferent branches of the public service had been fuller than my own,
and fullest, perhaps, when the latter had been a member of his
military family at a difficult and highly responsible period in his
life. The result had been a conviction that Mr. Livingston, for
reasons which, so far from lessening, increased his regard for him
as a man, was illy qualified for the performance of executive duties.
Hence his resistance to my recommendation of Mr. L. for the post
of Secretary of State, on my own resignation, and the reluctance
with which he finally yielded that point to my earnest solicitations.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BUBEtf. 705

I need not say how forcibly and, I may add, painfully I was re-
minded of that reluctance, and of the reasons that were assigned for
it, on finding Gen. Jackson, on my return from England, opposed
by the leading members of his Cabinet on the vital question of his
administration — that of the bank — with Mr. Livingston at their
head. That he had found no reason, after I left the Country, to
change the opinions expressed to me on the occasion referred to will

be seen by his letter addressed to me at London, of the day of

188^— l, in which the same views are repeated and in which

I am urged to return and to resume the place in his Cabinet which
I had resigned. Those who understood the General's character
would find it difficult to believe that, how great soever his respect
for him, Mr. Livingston was the man by whose counsels he would
have been at all likely to be influenced in a matter which had al-
ready cost him so much trouble as that of the constitution of his
Cabinet.

Thai Mr. Livingston believed all he reported to Mr. Webster,
whatever that may have been, there is no reason for doubt ; but he
was, from the state of his own feelings, in danger of misinterpreting
what the General said or of overlooking its intended limitation. He
was for many reasons very partial to Mr. Webster. The latter had
taken the lead in sustaining his draft of the Proclamation,* in respect
to which he was very sensitive, more so than I could have imagined.
Mr. Webster had also supported his nomination as Minister to France
against the bitter opposition of Mr. Clay, regarding whom the preju-
dices of both ran very high. Indeed the harsh course pursued to-
wards Mr. Livingston on that occasion, in again bringing forward,
after the lapse of so many years, the charge of official defalcation
when Attorney for the New York District, under Mr; Jefferson, had
so exasperated Mr. L. (in general a most amiable and placable man),
as to lay him open to almost any lawful approaches that promised
to gratify his resentment against Mr. Clay, and there is some reason
to apprehend, to efface also, for the nonce, all recollection of the
friendly part I had acted towards him, without the aid of which
he certainly would not have been Secretary of State or probably
Minister to Prance — there having been a pretty direct connection
between the possession of the one place and the bestowment of the
other. I need not say that Mr. Webster had also grudges against

1M Yon know Mr. Livingston Is anxious to go abroad, and I am as anxious again to
have you near me, and It would afford me pleasure to gratify both. I find on many
occasions I want your aid & Eaton's— I bare to labour bard, and constantly watchfull —
bad I yon In tbe State Department and Eaton In the War, with the others, filled as
they are, It would be one of the strongest and happiest administrations that could be
formed."— Jackson to Van Buren, December 17, 1881. Van Buren Papers.

•Jackson's Nullification Proclamation.

127488°— vol 2—20 45

706 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Mr. Clay which he had wintered and summered through many years,
which would bear fattening, and which made him the man to help
Mr. Livingston's prejudices against Mr. Clay at the point to which
the latter had himself inflamed them. They were both, moreover,
somewhat weather-beaten politicians who, whatever may have been
their enthusiasm at earlier stages in their careers, were no longer
swayed by that ardent devotion to particular political tenets or that
absorbing anxiety for their success which younger Statesmen — and
many even older than themselves, Gen. Jackson, by way of illustra-
tion,—could not shake off at will, but preferred in an equal degree,
the enjoyment of public stations exempted, as far as practicable,
from the cares and sacrifices often inseparable from a punctilious
discharge of the duties attached to them. Mr. Livingston was, under
these circumstances, not a little solicitous to make his friendly report,
for in. that light Mr. March speaks < of his communication to Mr.
Webster, of the dispositions entertained by Gen. Jackson towards
the latter as favorable as his views of the facts would justify. The
danger of exaggerating or misconstruing them, was, in no small
degree, increased by the General's habitual warmth of expression on
such occasions. He never allowed himself to be outdone in courtesy
by friends or foes, and when he was pleased with the conduct of
either he said so without measuring0 his words for fear of saying
too much. Contrasting Mr. Webster's course with that of others,
from whom he had a right to expect better things, he was doubtless
highly gratified by it, spoke of it as he felt and would with pleasure
have taken any proper step to mark his high sense of it. But be-
tween the indulgence of such feelings and such expressions of them
and an inclination to bring Mr. Webster into his Cabinet or to
make him his trusted and confidential adviser there was a very wide
difference. Against such steps there were, on his part, many in-
superable objections, to only one of which I will here refer. Gen.
Jackson was not a complaining man — I never knew one less so — yet
few men could have felt more keenly than he felt the extent to which
he had, in the estimation of many of his best friends, been made to
ignore if not to gainsay a portion of his early political creed, on
fidelity to which he prided himself as he well might in view of the
high character of the school in which he learned it. This had been
done by a few generalities in his Nullification Proclamation which
had their source in the original federal proclivity of its draftsman
and which had met with sympathy from a similar and perhaps still
stronger bias on the part of the most prominent member of his Cabi-
net and had been overlooked by himself through his anxiety in
respect to the substance of that memorable document and his habitual

— — ■ — . ■■■ I ■ ... .... ■■,.— ■.■■■■■—.■ 111! ■■..... I I

* MS. VI t p. 160.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTTREN. 707

indifference to matters of form. Nevertheless no word of murmur
escaped from him. He was satisfied that Mr. Livingston had meant
•what he had done for the best and he was therefore silent but, "with
his attention called to the point by a caution suggested in one of my
letters from London, he was determined, if it could be avoided, to
suffer no more from like sources, and being, at the same time, not
unmindful of the extent to which the censures referred to had been
strengthened by the fact of Mr. Webstert support of the Proclama-
tion, any proposition in regard to the latter of the character spoken
of would, I am quite confident, have encountered at his hands a rejec-
tion equally prompt and decided.

But why spend our time in conjecture and speculations upon a
question which received, at the moment, a solution so explicit and
decisive from the General himself! A more plausible proposition or
one more artfully adapted to commit him to such an alliance as Mr.
March supposes that he was willing to form could not have been de-
vised than that upon which he was consulted by Mr. Grundy at the
opening of the Panic Session. It presented temptations in the im-
mediate and effective aid offered to the Administration at a most
critical period of its fortunes; the proceeding contemplated by it was
exclusively of a legislative character with which he had no official
connection; it was to be performed in the regular course of their
duties by the members of the Senate, for whose acts he was in no
sense responsible; it would, if successful, have essentially crippled
the power and influence of two gentlemen, Clay and Calhoun, whom
he regarded as foremost-and ablest among his enemies, and it might,
in its consequences, have superseded the necessity of a new struggle
with the bank from which he could, however favorably it might re-
sult, r^ap no individual advantage and which at his time of life, and
in his actual condition with reference to the esteem and respect of
his countrymen, he had strong inducements to avoid if that avoid-
ance involved no failure in duty on his part. And how did he dis-
pose of that proposition on the instant the construction that might
be placed upon his acquiescence, with regard to the very point we are
considering, was brought to his notice! Let his direction to Mr.
Grundy answer the question. His reply to a proposition, the ap-
proval of which would, perhaps, have been regarded as no more than
an encouragement of the notion of his willingness to associate him-
self with men whom and whose political principles he had all his life
opposed, would only have been more emphatic if the invitation to do
so had been more distinct and direct.

The grave and circumstantial form in which Mr. March has put
forth this imputation and the sly manner in which it has been re-
vived, upon more futile pretences, by Mr. Everett, in his preface to

708 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Mr. Webster's Works, constitute my apology for the notice I have
bestowed on the subject.

Mr. March's book is written with much ability and in a lively and
agreeable style. He speaks with more fairness of Mr. Webster's
opponents than might have been expected from one so largely de-
voted to that gentleman and I may add so extravagantly his ad-
mirer. He does great injustice to the late Mr. Forsyth and myself
in his assumption of an agency on our part in producing the rupture
between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun, but I have been persuaded
by the general character of his work that on that point, and on a
few others like it, he has said no more than he believed to be well
founded, and in respect to the matter of which I have been led into
a discussion above, he will probably live long enough to become
convinced of his error and will then, I doubt not, be ready to do
what he can to correct it. With the manner in which he expresses
himself in regard to my performance of the delicate and difficult
duties of presiding officer of the Senate, at a critical and stormy
period in the history of that body, I would be quite unreasonable
not to be more than satisfied. For Gen. Jackson he evidently felt a
sincere admiration and he does, upon the whole, fair justice to CoL
Benton which was not often done by gentlemen of his way of think-
ing. The weakest part of his work is the judgment formed and ex-
pressed of the value of the services rendered -by Mr. Webster to Gen.
Jackson and his Cabinet in the passage of what was familiarly known
as the " Force bill," at the session of 1882-3.

But for the efforts of Mr. Webster [Is Mr. March's dashing assumption] and
the friends who rallied under him, the administration would have fallen into a
powerless and pitiable condition, an object of opprobrium to its friends and of
safe insult to its foes.

Language so extravagant as this provides its own antidote and, but
for the soberer positions and conclusions of other parts of the work,
would shake the confidence of intelligent observers of the events of
that period in the good sense of the author. A more fitting construc-
tion of the sentence is to regard it as an illustration of the absurd
extremes to which warm hearted and enthusiastic young men are
liable, in times of high excitement, to be carried by partisan feelings.
What were the facts and circumstances in view of which this extra-
ordinary declaration was hazarded ? The close of the year 1832 had
1>een made memorable by the triumph of the popular cause in a con-
test for the Presidency scarcely less important in its consequences
than any recorded in our annals, and quite unequalled by any in the
power of the opposition it encountered and in the extent to which
the warm personal affection of the masses of the people for their
leader and candidate was influential in producing the result. That
leader and candidate was Andrew Jackson, and arrayed against him

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTW VAN BUREN. 709

had been found those distinguished partisan chiefs, Clay, Calhoun
and Webster, backed by the bank of the United States and aided by
their respective friends and parties and by all the discontented and
factious spirits which could be brought into the field by their com-
bined influences. Not satisfied with that abortive struggle to prevent
his reelection a stifymore furious effort had been made, in the ensuing
year, to overthrow his administration by the same parties and fac-
tions, under the auspices of the same able leaders, and supported by
the same great monied institution, rendered far more reckless by the
desperate condition to which it had been already brought ; an effort
in which means were employed the character of which we are con-
sidering in the review from which this is a digression, and of which
it is sufficient to say in this connection that they yet stand and it is to
be hoped will forever stand without a parallel in the recordecf con-
flicts of parties. No other man of that day, it will now be readily and
generally confessed, or of many preceding years in our history, would
have been able to stand against those combined assaults ; yet he not
only sustained himself, his administration and the ° cause of free
government, but, strong in the devotion of a grateful people, was
able to strip those redoubtable leaders of most that was dangerous in
the influence they had so vigorously employed to destroy him, to
arraign their unscrupulous confederate, the bank, for the crimes of
which it had been guilty before the tribunal of public opinion and,
thro9 its power, to bring that high reaching and thitherto most for-
midable institution to the feet of the Government humbled and com-
paratively impotent.

It was in view of these historical events that Mr. Webster's biog-
rapher, after Jackson had descended to his grave and led by infatu-
ated zeal for the promotion of his friend's fortunes, would have
persuaded the Country that, during the session of Congress that
intervened between these exhibitions of his unparalleled popularity
and power, the President had been thus dependant on the support
of one of those leaders, and that one the least influential among them,
and that his administration and himself were only rescued from utter
prostration and debasement by the help of Daniel Webster! And
how rescued? By the effects of a speech by that Senator in favor
of a measure which was called for by the whole Country, save South
Carolina and a few politicians in other States — against which there
was no substantial opposition — for the adoption of which Mr. Web-
ster's immediate constituents, almost to a man, were clamorous —
which he himself could not have opposed without encountering the
hazard of political destruction — against the final passage of which
but a single Senator was found vain-glorious enough to record his

• MS. VI, p. 166.

CHAPTER XLVI.

The prevalence of public disorder and private distress, real or
simulated, has always been treated in England as a legitimate sub-
ject of partisan agitation which, there as here, has rarely failed to
furnish occasion for misrepresentation and exaggeration in respect
both to their origin and extent ; but the deliberate and systematized
undertaking by a political party, by means placed at its disposal
by a powerful monied institution having a common interest, to dis-
turb the business concerns of a whole country, with the express
purpose of converting the distress thereby occasioned into political
capital, was a partisan experiment of exclusively American origin.
There is reason to hope from the signal rebuke which the criminal
enterprise received from the American people that, as it was never
before attempted it will not be drawn into precedent anywhere.

° About to enter upon an undertaking at the same time so out-
rageous and so hazardous, it became Mr. Clay, its conceded leader,
to be especially careful not to allow his confidence in the efficacy of
his means to render him inattentive to the manner of their applica-
tion. Upon that important point no man could have evinced greater
circumspection. He was too sagacious not to know that to give full
effect to the train which had been laid by the bank during the recess
and, thro9 its agency and whatever assistance Congress could afford,
to cause such a panic in the public mind as would be sufficient to
accomplish their object was not and could not be made, in our ex-
tensive Country, the business of a day but would require agitation
not only violent but long continued. Especially did he recognize
the value of the latter requisite and adapt his course of proceeding
with consummate skill, to the end of securing it. It was scarcely
less desirable that the course of the House of Representatives should,
in both respects, be made to harmonize with that of the Senate, and
we were not long in discovering that the genius and will, which, from
the period of the balk in the first attempt to choose the standing com-
mittees to the end of the session, bore absolute sway in the latter
body, regulated also the action of the former, as far as the state of
parties there would permit. The law of his nature demanded that
it should be so and there were no longer, on the part of either of his
principal associates, any adequate inducements to thwart his designs.

• MS. VI, p. 170.
712

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAK BTTREN. 718

Mr. McDuffie, the leader of the opposition in the House of Repre-
sentatives, was an honest, obstinate man, in general actuated by pure
and patriotic motives, but, on this occasion, his resentment against
the President and his solicitude for the success of the bank, of which
he was from the beginning a devoted friend, were raised to such a
pitch that Mr. Clay had only to satisfy him that the course he recom-
mended was best calculated to counteract the General's views and to
protect that institution to secure his zealous co-operation.

Whilst Mr. Clay cannot be said to have displayed the best judg-
ment in his general political course, his parliamentary tact and talent
have ever been regarded as of the highest order, if indeed, they were
not superior to those of any of his contemporaries. The established
parliamentary rules and usages have in view of the dispatch of busi-
ness to the greatest extent consistent with a full opportunity for the
deliberate consideration of the matters to be acted upon, and they
serve to promote that end except when they are perverted for the
accomplishment of sinister objects. The latter operation was now
deemed necessary for Mr. Clay's purpose and it is curious to observe
the perseverance and skill of his movements. The elements of panic
and ruin already put in motion were to receive an overwhelming
impulse from the rhetorical exaggerations and vehement denuncia-
tions to be fulminated from the two Houses of Congress, in the shape
of speeches, resolutions and reports. But to make sure of disturbing
the bitter waters to their very depths and thus to guard against their
too rapid subsidence after these Congressional tempests, it was indis-
pensable, as I have remarked, that the latter should be long con-
tinued and, to that end, that the propositions on which the supporters
of the bank based their proceedings should be such, in shape and sub-
stance, as to enable them, maugre all efforts of their opponents in
the contrary direction, to keep the discussion on foot during pleas-
ure, or as long as might be necessary to give their panic operations a
thorough trial.

The feelings with which Mr. Clay had embarked in the struggle,
strengthened as they had been by what took place in relation to the
choice of the standing committees of the Senate, induced him to de-
mand for himself the paternity of the leading proposition on which
the opposition and the bank should decide to trust their case before
the Country. Proverbially generous in his dealings with his political
friends he was, nevertheless, not free from selfishness in respect to
everything that might affect his fame, an infirmity from which few
public men, if any, have been entirely exempt and which in him, as in
others, had grown stronger with increasing years. The u wear and
tear " of his long and active political career and the hazardous strug-
gle in which he was now embarked combined with his advanced age

714 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

to admonish him that the present was his last chance of reaching the
goal of his life long ambition.

The power to remove the public deposits from the bank was
reserved to the Secretary of the Treasury by its charter, but it ww
made his duty, if he exercised that power, to report to the Congress,
at its next session, the reasons on which he had acted. If these
were satisfactory to that body it became its duty to direct, by law,
where and upon what terms the public monies should be deposited,
and if it did not approve of the Secretary's action it was within its
power to direct their restoration to the bank. All this was very
plain as was also the course of proceeding on the part of Congress
for the accomplishment of either end : to wit, to refer the Secretary'?
reasons to the appropriate committee in each House, which would
have been that of Finance, in the Senate, and that of Ways and Means
in the House of Representatives, and, upon their Reports, to provide,
by law or by joint resolution, for such action in the matter as justice
to the Country and to the bank should be held to require. Without
doubt this course would have been pursued if it had comported with
the views and interests of the bank and its supporters that the ques-
tion should be fairly acted on and disposed of in accordance with
parliamentary usages; but its adoption instead of promoting their
sinister objects might, as they thought, defeat them. There was in
the Senate a decided majority ready to condemn the act of the Sec-
retary and to give to the bank all it asked for, whilst in the House, of
which the members had just been elected, there was known to be a
majority equally decided in favor of that act and equally ready
to vote, on the second reading, for the rejection of any bill re-
versing the Secretary's decision should such a one be sent to them
by the Senate. If the usual course had been pursued by the
supporters of the bank, the friends of the Administration, aware
of the ulterior objects of the former and understanding the
game they were playing to accomplish them, would have had
nothing to do but to allow the bill reported in the Senate to pass
without opposition, as rapidly as the forms of legislation would
permit, and to reject it in the House on its appearance there, thus
suddenly and effectually closing the door to Congressional agitation,
on which so great reliance was placed to shake the Country and,
by consequence, to break down the administration majority in the
popular branch of the Legislature,

But there was another objection to the adoption of the usual course
of proceeding which would have been equally imperative with Mr.
Clay if its consideration at the moment had not been superseded by
the other and pressing motive for departing from it to which I have
alluded, but which was, nevertheless, vigorously enforced at a more

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTW VAN" BUBEK. 715

advanced period of the session and which it will not. be amiss to
notice in this place. I have before spoken of the feelings with which
Mr. Clay made himself a party to the renewal of the conflict for the
re-incorporation of the bank, a question supposed by many to have
been settled by the Presidential election of 1832; of his determina-
tion that whatever was done on that side which promised to create
political capital for its author should originate with himself, and,
in that connection, of the then existing personal relations between
Mr. Webster and himself. These resolutions he would doubtless have
carried out, even if those relations had continued as cordial during
the recess and at the opening of the panic session as they seemed to
be at the close of that which preceded it, but in a very different
manner and spirit. The altered mood in which he again met his
lank co-ad jutor and the occurrences which led to it have been fully
stated. The mortification he suffered from being voted down on a
motion for the success of which he had manifested great solicitude,
on the very threshold of a session in which he expected to figure so
largely and so triumphantly, sank deep into his heart. He did not,
at the time, as appears by his subsequent declarations, hesitate to
attribute Mr. Webster's movements during the recess, to a contem-
plated defection from his party, to be concealed for the moment and
to become more or less undisguised0 according to circumstances,
and this notwithstanding his ignorance of the political dalliance
between Mr. Webster and Mr. Livingston, during that period, in
which Gen. Jackson's name was so freely used. A co-operation,
seemingly hearty, was extended by Mr. Webster, after the selection
of the committees, towards carrying into effect Mr. Clay's plans, but
his experience of the former's settled unfriendliness having been too
long and recently too irritating to permit him ever again to confide
in his sincerity he resolved to make Mr. Webster's situation through-
out the session to the last degree humiliating and we shall see how
thoroughly he carried out that determination. He did not attempt
to interfere with the programme of his party according to which
Mr. Webster was to be placed at the head of the Finance committee
but the committee was so constituted otherwise as to have on it a
• majority who were Mr. Clay's friends. To that committee the report
of the Secretary of the Treasury, assigning his reasons for the re-
moval of the deposits, should of right and, if the regular course of
legislative proceedings had not been broken up for the occasion,
would have been referred. The action of the Senate would, in that
case, have been based on the report of that Committee, which would
of course, have been made by its chairman, Mr. Webster, and that

gentleman must thus have been invested with the position of leader-

- - — — ^_ .^— — — . ■-..-■■ i . - ,

• MS. VI, p. 175.

716 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

ship in respect to the great question of the session. Mr. Clay, how-
ever, interdicted the action of the Finance committee on that sub-
ject, with a single exception, throughout the session. He once, after
a protracted parley, consented that the Secretary's report should go
to that committee, but this permission was guarded and clogged by
terms and stipulations, humbly proposed by Mr. Webster himself,
to wit : that he would bring it back to the Senate the next morning
accompanied by a report which he had some time before prepared
and which, in lieu of bill or other form of relief, should conclude
with a recommendation, to the Senate to pass one of Mr. Clay's own
resolutions, which had been long before that body, as the proper
subject for its action, and, further, that the debate on Mr. Clay's
resolutions should be thereupon forthwith resumed.1

To secure both objects, time to create and increase panic by pro-
tracted discussion and the exclusion of Mr. Webster from that promi-
nence in the proceedings of the Senate to which he was entitled by
his position as Chairman of the Finance committee, Mr. Clay moved
to take up for consideration the Secretary's Special Report on the
subject of the removal of the deposits soon after it had been sent in,
which was near the commencement of the session, and, after obtaining
the information he desired from the Treasury Department, to wit : on
the 26th December, he submitted two resolutions upon the subject for
the separate action of the Senate — the first charging the President
with having assumed and acted upon a power over the Treasury of
the United States not granted to him by the Constitution and laws,
dangerous to the liberties of the people, and the second declaring that
the Secretary's reasons for the removal of the deposits were u unsatis-
factory and insufficient " and accompanied their presentation with a
highly inflammatory but able and elaborate speech. By his first reso-
lution he thus advanced a proposition which left the friends of the
Administration in the Senate, no option as to the manner in which
it should be met but drove them to instant, earnest and persevering
opposition to its adoption and at the same time stimulated contention
between the friends and enemies of the President throughout the
land and aggravated the general distraction, the existence of which
was believed to be the most effectual support to the cause of the bank.
Furthermore, and this was its principal value, from its nature and
adroit presentation it enabled the majority to keep the subject under
discussion as long as the agitation produced by that discussion might
seem to them to continue to be useful. It was, in fact, debated de die
in diem three months and a day, a duration unprecedented in this or,
1 believe, any Country and that without the introduction, during all
that period, of a solitary proposition which, if adopted, would have

1 See page 781.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 717

reversed the action of the Secretary of the Treasury or have afforded
redress to the bank or have relieved the distress of any one.

On the 28th of May, 1884, more than five months after the intro-
duction of these resolutions, Mr. Clay presented, in the shape of a
joint resolution, the first definite proposition that was offered for
the reversal of the Secretary's decision and the restoration of the
deposits to the bank of the United States.1 His plan for extending
and aggravating the panic, for which the bank had laid the founda-
tion in the recess and contributed its aid through the winter by
means of inflammatory appeals to the passions and the fears of the
community, was therefore, so far as it afforded ample opportunity
for that experiment, eminently successful.

For obvious reasons the House of Representatives would have been
made the principal theater of these operations but for the circum-
stance that the three leading agitators were members of the Senate
and further that whilst the supporters of the bank outnumbered the
friends of the administration in that body the latter were as yet in
a decided majority in the House — a majority to be broken down
thro' the influence of the bank and the arts and devices of its advo-
cates before any movement promising success could be made in its
behalf.

Mr. McDuffie by several adroit movements, which it is not un-
reasonable to suppose were the results of Mr. Clay's advice suc-
ceeded in effecting the same object that was so successfully accom-
plished in the Senate to an extent beyond what could have been
anticipated. By a motion which the friends of the administration,
thro' inadvertence, suffered to pass, the report of the Secretary of
the Treasury in relation to the removal of the deposits was referred
to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union,
by which that subject was placed beyond the reach of the previous
question. The ground thus lost thro' the inattention of the majority
could only be regained by a reconsideration, the motion for which
was open to debate and was accordingly long debated. When the
proposition for reconsideration was at length brought to a vote and
adopted thro' the instrumentality of the previous question and a
motion was made to refer the report to the Committee of Ways and
Means, a new obstacle was interposed by Mr. McDuffie in tfy& shape
of a motion to amend the motion for a reference, by adding instruc-
tions to the Committee to report a resolution directing the restora-
tion of the deposits to the bank.

•The first of these resolutions was the same as that agreed to March 28, 1884,
In character! ilng the reasons of the Secretary of the Treasury for removing the deposits
as " unsatisfactory and insufficient" See Register of Debates, X, Pt I, 1187 and X, Pt
II, 1817.

718 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

By the use of parliamentary arts like those I have described the
whole subject was kept under discussion in the House of Repre-
sentatives for the space of - — months upon preliminary qnes-

tions before the secretary^ " reasons " were referred to the Commit-
tee of Ways and Means, where they should have been sent in the
first instance. Upon each of these questions, thro* the latitude in
debate which crept into the proceedings of that body, panic speeches
utterly unreistricted in their scope or character were held to be in
order.

Having thus obtained ample security against a speedy disposition
of the subject by either house Mr. Clay entered on the execution of
the task he had assumed — that of bringing Congressional agitation
to the aid of the bank and its outdoor partisans in their efforts to
create a panic in the public mind of sufficient extent and intensity
to effect the subjection of every adverse branch of the Government
to the dictation and control of that institution. This audacious
design he hoped to accomplish thro' the instrumentality of incendi-
ary speeches and vindictive resolutions emanating from the two
Houses to be reproduced at public meetings and in State Legisla-
tures, aimed to aggravate whatever embarrassments in the business
concerns of the Country the bank had succeeded in causing, by
exaggerating their extent, and to exasperate the public feeling and
mislead the public mind into the belief that these evils, altho' in
fact intentionally and causelessly created, so far as they existed at
all, by the bank and its supporters, had arisen from the removal of
the deposits ; aimed also to uproot the confidence of the community
as well in the stability of the institutions which the States had
established as in their capacity to afford the necessary pecuniary
facilities to men of business, to shake its faith in monied establish-
ments of every description,0 in individual resources, in all the busi-
ness pursuits of men which had thitherto afforded support or profit
and in every source of relief or security against the ruin which, as
was asserted and insisted, threatened, nay actually overwhelmed the
material interests of the whole Country, other than that afforded
by the bank of the United States — an institution, as subsequent de-
velopments have demonstrated, then already tottering to its fall !

A leader better fitted for the conduct of such an enterprise could
not have been found in this or, perhaps, in any Country. Neither
the vigor of his intellect nor his reasoning powers were superior,
probably they were inferior to those of Mr. Webster; but these were
not even the chief qualifications for the post. All the " aid and com-
fort " to be derived from these sources had been contributed in full

0 MS. VI, p. 180.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 719

measure by Webster in the veto-message campaign, but without suc-
cess. In the contest in which Mr. Clay was embarked clear and cool
argument, save to confuse and silence the defences of the adminis-
tration against the unjust assaults that were to be heaped upon it,
would be out of place; His reliance was to be an agency at war with
sense and reason — that of panic. To create this — of violence ade-
quate to the occasion and to the purposes to which it was to be ap-
plied— in a Country so extensive and withal so thriving as ours,
was an undertaking of which the difficulties would have discouraged
and dissuaded ordinary minds, but with Mr. Clay and with many of
his confederates not less resolute, backed as they were by a money-
power utterly unscrupulous as to the means it employed, no efforts
to promote its cause were thought too difficult or desperate in that
crisis of their fortunes. Their united exertions were therefore un-
ceasingly employed, as I have said, day in and day out, for the de-
struction of the confidence of the community in public and private
credit — in the success of business pursuits of every description —
in the solvency of all banks and monied establishments in any way
connected with business transactions, except only the bank of the
United States and such State banks as acknowledged fealty to that
institution and in spreading the belief, that the former, whether coi*-
porate or private, would be speedily compelled to suspend payment;
in persuading the Manufacturers that they would be obliged to stop
their mills — their employees that they would be discharged — those
engaged in commerce that their ships were destined to rot at the
wharves — the officers and sailors that they would be turned adrift —
the farmers, planters, founders, miners, and producers of every de-
scription that the products of their labor would be without a mar-
ket—the contractors and builders that the demand for houses would
cease and the numerous workmen dependent upon them and the labor-
ers in every department of industry that all would soon be thrown out
of employment — that there would be neither call for their services
nor a currency of sufficient value to reward them, if they found any
work, unless the public deposits were restored to the vaults of the
bank.

To fright the public mind from its propriety, to stultify it so far
as to make these monstrous assumptions credible was an undertak-
ing the success of which could not be promoted by appeals however
eloquent or plausible to men's judgments. Not arguments nor facts
but bold-faced hyperbole and incendiary harangue addressed to the
worst passions of the heart with the grossest misrepresentations in
regard to the acts of the Government, the actual condition of the
Country and the causes of the limited distress that existed and reck-
less assaults on those whose influence the supporters of the bank

720 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

sought to subvert — these were the appropriate weapons for the occa-
sion and they were wielded to an extent which has secured to it an
enduring and unenviable notoriety.

That Mr. Clay should have consented to become the principal and
most active leader of those who encouraged and sustained the bank in
its crusade not only against the best interests of the Country but
against the vital principle of the Government was a source of deep
regret to his earliest and best friends. What could have been more
humiliating to himself or painful to those who were conversant with
the bright opening of his career than the aspect in which he presented
himself for three months of this memorable session. Even before
attaining the period of manhood the eloquent advocate of liberal
principles and for many proud years of his prime of life the un-
flinching and successful supporter of the pure and self-denying
doctrines of the old Republican party, now, when his temples were
silvered by age, his imposing figure was daily recognized in his well
known place in the Senate Chamber and his melodious voice heard
in forced apologies for, or unfounded justifications of the conduct
of the bank and in indiscriminate denunciations of the Government,
in heralding for the most part fallacious and always grossly exagge-
rated reports of the prevalence of distress in the Country, in urging
the preposterous conclusion — known at the moment and long since
conceded by all intelligent minds to be such — that those distresses
were occasioned by the removal of the deposits and in wailing proph-
ecies of woe to every public and private interest unless those deposits
were restored, intended as key-notes to his followers in every corner
of the land. No man who reads these pages will, I am confident,
believe that I feel any satisfaction in recording the details of these
the most exceptionable proceedings of Mr. Clay's life. Yet the truth
of history requires me to say, painful as it is to do so, that he not only
sought or at least voluntarily assumed the lead in all of them, but
that he suffered no one of his associates to go beyond him in the
violence, in acts and words, with which his ends were pursued.

Whilst Mr. Clay and his followers in both Houses were applying
all their energies to carry into effect the part allotted to them by
the general programme their political friends and the bank and its
employees and dependents were no less actively engaged in supply-
ing them with materials for agitation in the shape of memorials
from all parts of the country and all classes of people, altho' so
much alike in form and substance as to shew that they were made
to order, describing, in terms which echoed Congressional lamenta-
tions, the fulfilment of Congressional predictions of the general suf-
fering and ruin in consequence of the removal of the deposits, and
pointing to their restoration to the vaults of the bank of the U. States
and, in some few cases, referring also to an extension of the charter

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIX VAX BUREN. 721

of that institution as the only panacea for the disorders that per-
vaded the body-politic

° These "distress memorials" (as they came to be called) pre-
sented the first phase of the external aid afforded to the alarmists
in Congress. What I have to say of their character and contents
must of necessity be briefly said as the general subject under con-
sideration— that of the proceedings of the panic session — has already
grown largely on my hands. The ball was opened, after the petition
of the bank, which was little more than a prayer for general relief,
by a memorial from a number of the principal State banks doing
business in the city of Philadelphia. It was the boast of the bank
of the United States and its supporters that the State banks could
not be kept on foot, in a period of commercial embarrassment, with-
out her aid and that she had it in her power, on such occasions, to
compel them to suspend specie payments by merely withholding her
assistance from them. That this was not so was fully proven by
results with which we are all familiar but it is not as clear that
all of the State institutions were sensible of their real ability to take
care of themselves. Whatever may have been the influences by
which the State banks in Philadelphia wer* moved — whether by
dread of the power of the National bank or by a common sympathy —
it so happened that those banks, to the number of nine, under their
corporate seals and the signatures of their respective Presidents,
immediately came forward to sustain that institution and pre-
sented to Congress a joint memorial asking that body to direct a
restoration of the deposits to its vaults. Their communication was

presented on the day of December 1833 * and was ordered to

be spread upon the journal, a mark of respect conceded to that docu-
ment and to the memorial of the bank of the United States, but
not to any other. It was selected not only as an imposing and sat-
isfactory opening representation for the bank but obviously to
serve as a model for those which were to follow. It is therefore en-
titled to special notice and what is here said of its contents will
generally apply to those that proceeded from different sources. It
dwelt upon the importance of a well regulated currency — affirmed
that the nation had enjoyed such a currency and a moneyed system
adequate to its wants for the preceding ten years thro' the instru-
mentality of the existing national bank, which in their opinion had
do superior in the world — it charged that that system, which had
been thus perfect on the first of October preceding, and the signal
prosperity it had produced had undergone a sudden and a powerful

j i ■ i - ■ i i ■ . - . — -- — - — — - —

• Ma. Book VII, p. 1. ^ ^

1 The memorial, dated Dec. 0, was presented Dec. 18, 1888. It Is printed In the De-
bates of Congress, 10, Pt II, 2207.

J27483°— vol 2—20 43

722 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

change — that "the moneyed operations of our commercial cities
were at a stand, the commerce between the States was again laboring
under a tax, which must continue increasing at a loss on all its
exchanges — that the circulating medium already begun to arrange
itself on a scale of depreciation, while, in the train of these evils and
not far behind them, might be apprehended a general abandonment
of specie payments— that, happily for the Country, the remedy for
this distressing state of things was as evident as the cause of it —
that they did not hesitate to express their belief that, as the removal
of the deposits of the U. States from the bank of the U. S. was the
real cause of the distress, so the restoration of them to that insti-
tution would be the effectual remedy." They therefore prayed that
such restoration should be directed by Congress.

This memorial was followed on January 3d by one from the Board
of Trade of the same city, which, having been drawn up at a some-
what more advanced stage of the panic, went far beyond its proto-
type in its gloomy description of the distress and ruin which had
within a few weeks taken the place of previous prosperity and ease
in the pecuniary affairs of the Country, affirming more specifically
that the disastrous change was owing to the fact that the bank of
the U. S. had been deprived of the means she before possessed to
support the currency and to aid men of business by the removal of
the Government deposits without enabling the deposit banks to
supply her place, negativing in explicit terms the idea that the bank
had, either for her own protection or any other motive, taken any
steps by which the prevailing embarrassments had been produced and
insisting that they were entirely chargeable to the acts of the Gov-
ernment, and would be all remedied by the restoration of the deposits.

The statements set forth in these memorials, the preposterous
falsity of which will be hereafter demonstrated, were founded on
those of the bank which, after its defeat in the last canvass and
after it had resolved upon the reckless enterprise in which it was
now engaged, was entirely unscrupulous in the means it employed,
and were adopted by the President and directors of the State banks
in Philadelphia with unhesitating and blind confidence in the mo-
tives and in the infallibility of Mr. Biddle. The same influence by
which these were called into existence produced similar petitions
from all quarters of the Country. They were generally presented
to the Senate by members friendly to the objects of the petitioners
and sometimes by those opposed who had been selected with a knowl-
with the presentation of one or more of these petitions and a speech
from the Senator presenting (which was never omitted) in which
portion and not infrequently the whole of each day was occupied
edge of their views' by the signers for special reasons. The early

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 723

he described the character of the petitioners, their original political
associations, the prostration of their business and the distress pre-
vailing among them, and depicted in most sombre colors the wicked
acts by which such widespread ruin had been produced in a Country
but recently highly flourishing. This was followed by replies to
the allegations of facts in the speech and a running debate in which
many Senators participated, accusatory on the side of the petitions
generally exciting and often very violent. The inflammatory char-
acter of these Senatorial altercations was continually aggravated
by the reading of private letters, the promulgation on the floor of
the Senate, of startling reports importing the confirmation of the
statements of the memorials, and of the proceedings of partisan
meetings denouncing the administration in bitterest terms as the
author of the distress alleged — the greater portion of which had no
existence outside of those proceedings and memorials and for no
part of which was it justly responsible.

These allegations charges and invectives naturally drew out replies
from Senators friendly to the Administration, some of whom repre-
sented States to which those high- wrought descriptions applied, and
who believed them to be in the main groundless. Altho' these re-
plies in one sense promoted the views of the opposition by pro-
longing the discussion and by0 giving additional interest to the
subject, they were nevertheless unavoidable, as it was not in the
nature of such men to listen in silence to representations which
they knew to be, in a very great degree, false and in all respects
grossly exaggerated, especially when they were made the pretext of
denunciations of an administration which they honestly believed
to be deserving of the confidence of the nation. These replies were
not made without cost to their authors, which men less firm than the
noble spirits by whom the administration was defended in that the
moment of its utmost need might have felt willing to avoid. To
question the existence of the distress described in those memorials,
private letters or irresponsible newspaper paragraphs, or even to
deny its prevalence to the extent alleged, exposed the Senators who
ventured so far to an immediate storm of impetuous railing from
Clay or of scowling sarcasm from Webster or to be pounced upon
by Poin dexter, who watched with the alertness of a cat for his
opportunity.

Most prominent among the friends of the administration who
devoted themselves with all their hearts and powers to the support
of the President in this fierce struggle stood Forsyth of Georgia,
Benton of Missouri, Wright of New York, Bedford Brown, of North
Carolina, Roane of Virginia, Wilkins of Pennsylvania, Grundy of

• MS. VII, p. 5,

724 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Tennessee, Shepley of Maine, and Kane of Illinois, with occasional
assistance from King of Alabama, a gentleman of colder tempera-
ment but who cherished and manfully asserted, whenever he was
called out, just and honest views.

An incident illustrating the absorbing excitement of those scenes
recurs to my memory as I write. Feeling quite unwell on the morn-
ing of one of those troublous days I thought it advisable to remain at
home, but as the Senate could not be organised in my absence (under
the rules as they then stood) I decided to wrap myself up warmly to
go to the Capitol, place some one of the Senators in the chair and re-
turn to meet a physician whom I directed to be called and to betake
myself to my bed. Adding a heavy cloak to my ordinary out-door
apparel and a scarf around my neck I drove to the capitol and took
the chair without parting with either and with the determination I
have described. As soon as the reading of the Journal was completed
a distress memorial was presented upon which and upon the remarks
of the Senator presenting it a fiery debate sprang up in which my
friend Forsyth bore a principal part and which lasted without inter-
mission until five o'clock, the hour of adjournment. As the excite-
ment increased I gradually threw aside my surplus coverings and re-
mained in the chair until the Senate adjourned, when, on leaving the
chamber, I invited Forsyth, with whose bearing on the occasion I
had been especially pleased, and two other friends to take seats in
my carriage and to dine with me and it was not until we arrived at
my house and noticed the astonishment of my servant, who met me
with an explanation from the doctor of his inability to wait longer
for me, that I recalled the resolutions of the morning and the instruc-
tions I had left with him.

There was, however, no degree of excitement in the two Houses
that could save the cause of the bank from the damaging effects of
the examinations and discussions which stamped the indelible brand
of imposture on the memorials of the Philadelphia city banks and
of its Board of Trade, and the distrust thus produced naturally ex-
tended to many subsequent memorials, embracing nearly all con-
structed on the same basis. The justice of this condemnation was
fully demonstrated by the facts disclosed and by their array in
juxtaposition with the pretences set up, as was done in counter-
memorials which sprung spontaneously from the bosom of the com-
munity under the influence of a rapidly spreading conviction of
the falsity of the clamor that had been raised on the subject of the
removal of the deposits. These, altho' for obvious reasons not so
numerous as the bank petitions, were yet very imposing in their
character and construction. Disinterested men of clear heads and
honest hearts, uifluenc^d frequently by no other interest in the qnes-

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 725

tion than by love of truth and hatred of imposition, devoted them-
selves to their preparation, exposed the absurd propositions which
had been dogmatically advanced in the Philadelphia memorials to
the contempt of unprejudiced and sensible minds, and their posi-
tions were enforced with great ability and effect by' the supporters
of the public cause on the floor of the Senate.

By these investigations and discussions the following case was
made out against the bank-memorialists:

The order for the removal of the deposits, tho' made in September,1
did not take effect until the first of October and applied only to the
accruing revenue, leaving the balance of the public money which
should on that day be in the bank of the United States to be expended
in the public service and drawn out in the way which had been before
pursued. The memorial of the State banks in Philadelphia was
presented to Congress on the 30th December and that of the Board
of Trade on the 3d January following; thus, assuming that only a
few days elapsed between their preparation and approval by the
respective Boards and their presentation to Congress, leaving some
ten weeks during which the bank had been deprived of the accruing
revenue when those documents were so presented. The receipts by
the Government, during the intervening period, were ascertained

from official sources to have amounted to and the bank

had in its vaults when the order for the removal took effect a bal-
ance of public money amounting to which remained until

drawn out in the regular course of the public service. It was by the
act of withholding from the bank the use of the first mentioned sum,
tho' accompanied by the continuance of a much larger deposit, and
by placing the moneys thus withheld in State institutions — one of
them in the same city — to be used in the same way, that these doubt-
less worthy but certainly very gullible memorialists were made to
believe, or at least to charge that their Government had, in the space
of some ten weeks, produced the wide spread ruin they pathetically
depicted, reaching to the prostration, if not distraction of the cur-
rency and moneyed system of a great nation, the superior of which
in their opinion the world had never seen; had brought the moneyed
operations of our commercial cities to a stand; had subjected the
commerce between the States to a tax, which must continually in-
crease, at a loss on all its exchanges and our circulating medium
to the point of depreciation, and, in the train of these evils, had
furnished good ground for fearing a suspension of specie payments.
No better illustration could be asked of the reckless audacity of thtfte
statements than the necessity they imposed of the preliminary as-
sumption that an interference with the accustomed receipts of the

* September 26, 1888.

726 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

bank to so slight an amount could have so far crippled an institution,
which boasted, in official communications, that its annual moneyed
operations amounted to some three hundred and forty millions.

The leaders of the bank party, (for to that appellation the oppo-
sition had fully entitled themselves) at length became sensible that
the pretence, with which they had commenced the campaign, was
detected by the people and that they were rapidly losing ground
by attempting to maintain the imposture. Accordingly they yielded
to the necessity of a change of position in the face of the enemy —
an always dangerous movement and which proved disastrous in
their case. Abandoning the ground taken in their memorials, that
the pecuniary embarrassment and distress which they alleged to
prevail in the Country were the direct consequences of the removal
of the deposits, it was now charged that they had been caused by
the destruction of the confidence of the community in the banks
generally and in all pecuniary engagements brought about by the
removal of the deposits and by the acts of the President and Sec-
retary of the Treasury in connection with that measure. This
amendment of the indictment was soouted by the friends0 of the
administration as an after-thought, which had not occurred to the
bank managers when the removal of the deposits was selected as
the subject for agitation, nor to the memorialists or their advisers
and which was now acted upon by the latter after being driven
from their first position. In this conclusion the Country coincided
and the ground now taken soon came to be regarded as but a no
less unfounded pretence substituted for one already refuted, a cover
for the retreat from an unsuccessful attempt to practice a gross
imposition upon the community. Few unprejudiced minds failed
to penetrate the artifice, regarding it as manifest on the face of the
memorials, with which they justly identified the bank, that they
would not have been constructed as they were if the view afterwards
taken had been the one originally intended. That a discreet and
timely effort on the part of the President to withhold the revenues
necessary to the public service from a bank already discredited by
the extent to which it had involved itself in party politics, and
which was at the moment notoriously pursuing a lawless and reck-
less course in many respects, would shock and demoralize an intel-
ligent people, a vast majority of whom believed him to be honest
and disinterested, however some of them might differ from him as
to the wisdom of particular measures, so far as to cause them to lose
all confidence in themselves, in the institutions they had created and
in their government, was an assumption dishonoring their character
and which they did not, in the sequel fail to rebuke and disprove.

• MS. VII, p. 10.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN* BUREN. 727

Memorials of the same general character, differing only by urging,
according to the corrected programme, the destruction of confidence
as the cause of the evils under which the Country was said to be
suffering, continued to pour in, day after day, until the number of
the signers to them exceeded one hundred thousand as declared when
a count was made by the Secretary of the Senate at the instance of
Mr. Clay.

A new feature was, after a while, added to the panic machinery
of the bank and its supporters; that of large " distress committees "
appointed to carry the memorials to Washington and commissioned
to add their personal assurances of the existence and extent of the
distress. These committees thronged the galleries of the two Houses
of Congress and the avenues to the Capitol, proclaiming everywhere
the ruin of the country ; they visited the President, repeated to him
their relation of public grievances and in some instances misrepre-
sented his replies to an extent that led him to require that their
further communications to him should be in writing. They fulfilled
their allotted task of adding to the prevailing excitement by start*
ling descriptions of the condition of the people given to their rep-
resentatives and on their return laboring to irritate the constituent
body by exaggerated pictures of the condition of affairs at Wash-
ington, of which the obstinacy of the President was a prominent
and invariable feature.

A memorial from the Building Mechanics of the city of Phila-
delphia, said to have been adopted at a meeting of 3,000 persons,
composed, as Mr. Webster said, of carpenters, masons, bricklayers,
painters, and glaziers, lime burners, plasterers, lumber merchants,
&c., &c., was carried to Washington by a committee of thirty of the
memorialists. This committee was admitted to the Senate Chamber
and were ranged around the seats of the Senator whilst that gentle-
man presented their memorial, in doing which, he pointed to them
and spoke in his most solemn vein of their respectability and use-
fulness and invited the Senators to converse with them and to hear,
from their own lips, their " fearful story."

The flood of memorials in favor of the bank naturally soon pro-
duced a large number of remonstrances from those who thought the
Government had done right, against the interference of Congress in
the matter. Each document, whether denunciatory of the act of the
President, or of the conduct of the bank, was ushered in by a sepa-
rate speech, which provoked replies and these, in turn, rejoinders,
to the exclusion of all other business, until the two Houses presented
a spectacle, which would not have been endured in' any other state
of public feeling than that into which it had been lashed by the
practices of which I have given a faint outline.

728 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

•

From Dec. 26th, 1888, to June 5, 1834, when the vote was taken
on Mr. Clay's joint resolution, the state of the question in regard to
the removal of the deposits and the recharter of the bank, with a
single and limited exception, had remained substantially unchanged.
Mr. Webster had, from the beginning, winced severely under his ex-
clusion from all direct control of, or other than subordinate agency
in the course of proceedings adopted by Mr. Clay. He took occasion,
at an early day, to say, during the formal proceedings of the morn-
ing, that the Secretary's reasons for the removal of the deposits ought
to have been referred to the Finance Committee, of which he was
chairman, that he did not like to interfere with the discussion, a
thing he was, for well understood reasons, very careful not to attempt,
but that he would make a motion to that effect, when the present
discussion was closed, and he was constantly on the lookout for an
occasion when that could be done with the least danger of giving
offense to Mr. Clay. That which he embraced, sprung out of cir-
cumstances in which I took part, and as to the propriety of referring
to which, I have had a good deal of hesitation. The true character
and unprecedented^ equable tenor of the close relations that existed
between Silas Wright and myself, from the beginning to the end of
our acquaintance, were, in their day, appreciated, but not thoroughly
understood even by our mutual friends. There never was a single
occasion, in all the troublesome and trying political scenes through
which we passed, side by side, that disturbed, with even a momentary
ruffle, the calm confidence of my feelings towards him or that in-
spired me with apprehension of any interruption or diminution of
the respect and esteem which he, in turn uniformly manifested to-
wards me. My deference to his judgment in many things and es-
pecially in such as had political relations, was all but absolute, and
never have I been tempted for a moment to regard myself as superior
to him, in any good quality of the head or heart ; indeed I believe he
had no superior in the sincerity, simplicity, and strength of his public
and private virtues, and in that important attribute of a truly admir-
able statesman, perfect disinterestedness — he stood above any man I
ever knew. I have often remarked to my friends, that in all our
long and confidential intercourse, embracing consultations in almost
every gradation of his career, it never appeared to me that the ques-
tion, how a contemplated political step might affect the individual
interests of Silas Wright, had occupied his mind for a moment.

It cost him much to suppress at the time the facts I am about to
mention, and at any period of his after life he would have spoken
of them, if he could have obtained my consent to his doing so.

The panic session had already lasted some months without his
taking a part in its proceedings, in any degree proportioned to

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREtf. 729

his capacities, and also without, as it was thought, a full and suffi-
ciently authoritative expos£, on the floor of either House, of the
views and ultimate intentions of the administration, in respect to
the important matters under discussion. The disadvantages re-
sulting from this ° state of things was felt by some of our most dis-
creet friends, and by none more than Mr. Wright himself. I often
sought to remedy the evil, by hints to him, indicative of a desire
that he should say in a speech on the floor of the Senate, what he
knew our sentiments to be, but without success, and was in the end
driven, by the pressure of the emergency, to call at his lodgings
and to have a talk with him, of which the following was the sub-
stance:

"Mr. Wright!"

" Mr. Van Buren ! '* [a response, the formality of which, was probably pro-
duced, by an unusual earnestness In my manner] "I am about to talk to
you in a way In which I would not venture to speak to any other friend
I have in the world, because I could not feel sufficiently confident that it
would be received in the right spirit'9

"Say on."

"Are you aware that you have not, since you have been in the Senate,
realized the anticipations of your friends?"

" I am, but I am also aware that the fault does not rest on me,"

"On whom then?"

"On my friends, for cherishing expectations which are not authorized by
any thing I have ever done."

"That is a point in respect to which all your friends differ from you. I,
for one, know that in thinking so, you do yourself injustice. Having reference
to a clear and strong intellect, a sound judgment, reasoning powers of the
highest order, and perfect sincerity, integrity and disinterestedness in your
purposes, the proper qualities for the leader of such an administration as the
present, you have not your superior in the Senate. That is the opinion of all
your friends, and you are yourself only prevented from taking the position its
general truth assigns to you, by an excess of modesty, the existence of which
we all deplore."

"The partiality you have just evinced is a fair sample of that by which
my friends have been led into error."

"You must allow us to Judge of that The President, as well as myself,
feels that his real views have not, thus far, been sufficiently developed on the
floor of either House of Congress and that the misrepresentations of his op-
ponents derive their greatest facilities from that source. We are desirous
that a fuller and more authoritative exposition of them should be made at
-the earliest practicable moment, and that you should make it. The presenta-
tion of the proceedings of the New York Legislature upon the principal subjoot
under consideration, which on account of their source, and of ours being the
first legislative body that has come to his aid, will present a suitable occasion
for such exposition, and I come, at his instance, to entreat you to do him that
favor. Are you willing to make it, if I inform you of what the President
desires to have said? "

• M& VII, p. 1&

730 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

" The administration has several friends in the Senate more competent for
the task than myself."

" We do not think so, and even If we did, we wonld for other reasons, prefer
that what Is said should come from you."

"You wish to impose upon me a responsibility I would prefer to avoid. I
may misunderstand you and thus commit you against your will. There are
those who understand the subject better and would be less likely to do so."
[He paused a moment]

" If I reduce all we want to have said to writing, will you then undertake t«»
say It? "

" Write and let me see It"

" I will do it this very night and you shall have it early In the morning."

My promise was promptly performed and I received by the serv-
ant who carried the package a verbal answer, that the matter would
be attended to. Shortly thereafter, I think the next day, he pre-
sented the New York resolutions and accompanied them by observa-
tions, which with the caution and fidelity he observed in all things,
were, with the addition of a few formal expressions, in substance an
almost a verbal recapitulation of the brief I had sent him. They
may be found in the Congressional Globe for the 23d Congress, page
136. He had not spoken ten minutes before Mr. Webster exchanged
his own, for a vacant chair near him and scarcely took his eyes from
him until he finished. Other prominent Senators of whom Mr. Clay
was one, also gathered round him and bestowed very unusual atten-
tion upon what fell from him. Webster replied, instantly and gave
notice, at the close of his remarks, that he would call for farther con-
sideration of the New York resolutions on the morrow; which he
did, and thereupon made another vigorous effort in answer to Mr.
Wright's speech. He commenced his speech, singularly enough, with
the following remarks :

The observations [he said] of the gentleman from New York, he considered
as full of the most portentous Import. He considered the declarations which
had been made by him as conveying the settled purpose of the administration
on the great questions which now agitated the public mind.

Mr. Wright rose to explain " he had," he said, " given his opinions
as an individual and he had no authority to express the views of the
administration."

Mr. Webster said "he perfectly well understood all the gentle-
man's disclaimers and demurrers, but it was from the station of the
gentleman and from his relations, that he had adopted the con-
clusion that every word spoken by the gtentleman had been well con-
sidered, and the subject of deliberation with himself and others."

He appreciated at its true value the effect which Mr. Wright's
speech, on so imposing a subject as were the proceedings of the New
York legislature, was calculated to produce, in raising the cause of
the government in the estimation of the people and his ambition was

♦V

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OK MARTIN VAN BUREN. 781

highly excited to elevate equally that of the bank" and its political
allies. Under the influence of such feelings, he addressed the Senate
on two days in succession and for several hours of each, and as the
newspapers truly reported, with unusual animation and as I felt at
the time, with unusual ability even for him.

But the reader would make a great mistake in assuming that Mr.
Webster regarded the obvious effectiveness of the proceedings of
the New York Legislature and of Mr. Wright's speech, with un-
mitigated regret. On the contrary, though he stood ready to do
what he could to render them inoperative, he yet looked upon their
occurrence as essentially facilitating the steps he was constantly
meditating to relieve himself and the committee of which he was
chairman, from Mr. Clay's interdict against the introduction, by
them of a single substantive measure professedly designed to afford
the country relief from the evils under which they all pretended to
believe it was suffering, because of the removal of the deposits.

To that end, Mr. Webster suggested, in open Senate, to Mr. Clay
and Mr. Poindexter, the latter of whom had already introduced
some resolutions upon the subject, the propriety of referring the
New York resolutions to the Committee of Finance, with the reasons
of the Secretary of the Treasury for removing the deposits. To
this course Mr. Clay professed to have no objection, provided it did
not interrupt ° the debate on his resolutions, but soon exhibited un-
mistakable signs of opposition to it. aThe Committee," he said,
"had the President's message before them, and there was nothing
that prevented them from acting upon that." Mr. Webster replied,
"that the message was not the Secretary's reasons" but seeing in
what fell from Mr. Clay, an indication of the probable fate of his
motion, he added, that if the Secretary's reasons were allowed to
go to the Committee, the latter would not require to have possession
of them for more than a day, and concluded with the remark that
" if the paper was to go to the Committee, it was time it was there."
He finally promised to report the next morning, if the Senate would
refer the Secretary's reasons to the Committee.

Mr. Clay moved to lay the subject upon the table, and it was so
disposed of.

The next day Mr. Webster renewed his motion in a form to which
Mn Clay could not and did not object — that was to refer the Secre-
tary's reasons with Mr. Clay's second resolution to the Committee on
Finance, under a promise to the Senate that he would report them
back the next morning, and beyond all doubt under a promise to Mr.
Clay, negotiated through Poindexter, that a recommendation in
favor of the passage of Mr. Clay's second resolution, should be the

0 MS. VII, p. 20.

732 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

only proposition the committee would report. In this way a docu-
ment, which according to all the rules of legislative propriety be-
longed to the committee on Finance from the beginning, was at
length entrusted to Mr. Webster as its chairman, for a brief period
and a specific purpose, under well guarded restrictions that it should
not be used in any way that would supersede the mode of proceed-
ing introduced by Mr. Clay at the commencement of the session, of
the end and object of which the reader has been informed.

On the following morning Mr. Webster made a report, which had
been long before prepared for a very different purpose, modified to
suit the qualified reference I have described. It was an elaborate and
I presume able paper, which took an hour and a half in the reading
and recommended the passage of Mr. Clay's resolution and nothing
else. As respects any influence or effect, it fell from the hands of its
author still-born. Six thousand copies of it were ordered to be
printed, that being the only action that was ever had upon it and the
debate in the Senate was resumed as it stood the day before.

The Legislature of his State finally came to Mr. Webster's assist-
ance, to enable him to relieve himself from the unpleasant position
into which he had been thrown by the reversal of the usual and only
regular course of legislative proceedings at the beginning, a position
which was becoming every day better understood on all sides, and
upon which he was not a little jeered by his political opponents. This,
it was thought, could only be done by the introduction, through this
agency, either as chairman of the proper committee, or in his capacity
of Senator, of an appropriate and distinct proposition to relieve the
country, founded on principles consistent with the grounds so far con-
tended for by the opposition.

Such a movement appertained of right to the station in which Mr.
Clay had assisted in placing his rival, although he had from the
commencement of the session prevented him from making it.

The Congress had now advanced into the fourth month of its ses-
sion and had been already within a few days of three months debat-
ing the propriety of the removal of the deposits, without even a propo-
sition for their restoration before either body. The public mind was
evidently becoming restless under a proceeding, the false and ficti-
tious character of which, every day was making more and more ap-
parent.

The sagacious members of the Massachusetts Legislature saw that
the time had arrived when a proposition to put an end to the sham
fight about the deposits, and to present for decision the real issue,
the only one in which success could be of value to them, would be
received with favor by their friends. They therefore passed a set
of resolutions, in which, after paying due respect to the matters

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YAK BUKEN. 788

and things upon which Congress had been all the winter engaged,
the necessity of a change of position was shadowed forth in a way
which was thought likely to give the least offense, and promised to
be the most effective. These resolutions were, on the 1st of March,
presented by their senior Senator, Mr. Silsbee and accompanied
by set speeches from him and his colleague, Mr. Webster, in which
all the threadbare subjects of the session were once more skillfully
re-hashed and served up for the benefit of the Senate and the public.

On the 17th of March, Mr. Webster, having tried motions of ref-
erence to the committee of Finance, as the means of arriving at a
proposition of that character in vain, gave notice that he would, on
the next day, move for leave to bring in a Bill " to re-charter the
bank of the United States." On the 18th he made the motion and
submitted, with preliminary remarks, the copy of a Bill, according
to which the charter would be extended as it stood for six years.

Whatever may have been Mr. Clay's thoughts in respect to this
movement, he understood too well the feelings of the hour, to evince
the slightest disrespect to the Massachusetts Legislature, out of
whose proceedings the proposition had sprung, or to interpose ob-
stacles to its prosecution by the Massachusetts Senators. He was
moreover quite sure that Mr. Webster's notice and Bill might safely
be left to the opposition it would receive from other quarters.

When Mr. Webster took his seat, Mr. Leigh of Virginia rose and
said, that the remarks of the Senator from Massachusetts required
that he should define his position. The Legislature of Virginia had,
he said, passed a resolution, denying the power of Congress to
establish a bank, he had accepted his appointment with the knowl-
edge that such were the wishes of his State, and with it the trust of
carrying them into effect, founded, as they were, upon an opinion in
which he fully concurred.

Mr. Wright followed Mr. Leigh, announced his desire to speak
on the subject and moved an adjournment which took place. The
question of leave came up every morning as unfinished business,
when it was farther discussed and again laid over.

Mr. Wright made a long and very able speech against the consti-
tutionality of the present, or any bank of the U. S. He was replied
to by Mr. Webster. Mr. Calhoun announced his wish to address
the Senate and as the day was far advanced, it adjourned on his
motion. The next day he spoke for an hour and a half against the
principles of the Bill, regarding it as being only a temporary expe-
dient, but in favor of a new bank upon the basis of the present one
and prohibiting the issuing of notes under $10, and the payment of
Government dues in any notes of banks under the denomination of
$5. Mr. Benton followed Mr. Calhoun, whom he complimented for

734 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

having restored the debate to the elevation that belonged to the
Senate, in a speech of great length and power, against the present
or any other national bank. Mr. White of Tennessee succeeded to
the floor and made another two days speech against the constitu-
tionality and expediency of a national bank. He finished on the
25th of March, a week after the debate had commenced. When Mr.
White concluded, Mr. Webster rose and, after complaining of the
lengthened debate which had arisen on his motion, a thing which
he believed had never occurred before, moved to lay his own motion
on the table. On that motion, Mr. Forsyth, to mark the satisfaction
which he and his friends had derived from the introduction of Mr.
Webster's notice, by which the veil was rent in twain and the real
matter in controversy, brought before the Senate and promulgated
to the country, and probably to worry Webster, called for the ayes
and noes. Mr. Webster avowed it to be his intention to call it up
on a future day, but he never did so, being too happy to be relieved
from the odium he had incurred by putting his party in a false posi-
tion. But whilst thus yielding to their mandate, he could not
forego playing the part of the dog in the manger, by a fling, as
pointed as the habitual dread in which he stood of Mr. Clay would
admit, at the only proposition for relief then before the Senate.

In his judgment [he said] any relief for the present distress of the country,
must be carried through Congress by the action of pubUc opinion out of doors.
Such was the distracted state of the community, that no relief could be expected,
'till public sentiment gave direction to some specific measures, and with this
object he had moved for leave to introduce the Bill, with a view to action
upon it in due season hereafter.

Mr. Clay did not, in any stage of these proceedings open his lips
upon the subject, farther than to say, by way of reminder, that he
uhad a special order, long locked up in the debates of the Senate,
and to express his wish that another week would bring it to a close.'9
And throughout the residue of the struggle, Mr. Webster appeared
content to regard himself so far as it related to the introduction of
substantive provisions for redress, a functus officio.

There have been brief periods, when the0 personal relations of
Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster were to all appearance cordial and to a
certain extent, of a confidential character. Such was the case
through a considerable portion of Mr. Adams' administration, but
even then, as we have seen, they soon suffered a bitter change. With
those rare and limited exceptions, the description I have here given
of their acts and feelings presents, I cannot but think, a fair and
truthful view of their political and personal relations, between the
time of Mr. Clay's first accession to the Federal Republican party

• MS. vn* p. 2&

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YAK BUREN. 735

and that of his death. This, few well informed members of that
party would consider themselves at liberty to controvert. The per-
petual anxieties attending this state of things and the unceasing
efforts of the prominent supporters of the party to which they be-
longed to mitigate the obstacles to success arising from it, were
matters of notoriety. There were differences in their disposition and
temperaments, which made harmonious action between them, for any
length of time, or even for a short period under trying circum-
stances extremely difficult. I will not attempt to particularise those
differences, nor can it be necessary to say, that in my estimation they
reflect the greater credit on Mr. Clay. But there was an element of
discord more potent than any that arose from such soiirces. Of
those who now composed the political party, to which they then be-
longed, the greatest proportion, by far, probably nearly seven tenths,
had been members of that in which Mr. Webster had been reared, to
which he had always belonged and in which he had become a leader,
whilst the number of the recruits, Mr. Clay had been able to carry
with him, from that in which he had been educated, and by which
he too had been highly honored, was comparatively small.

Mr. Webster had a right to think that his talents were, in some
respects superior, and in. all, at least, equal to those of Mr. Clay.
The latter, however, soon acquired a popularity and influence in the
ranks of their common party, which eclipsed his own, notwithstand-
ing what he naturally regarded as his superior advantages. It was
not in human nature that he could ever become perfectly reconciled
to this preference, even if his dispositions had been more magnani-
mous and placable than they were. But the exceptional occurrences
of hearty concurrence in aims and councils, to which I alluded, inter-
posed from time to time, disqualifying him from resisting the supe-
rior influence of Clay in the movements of their party, otherwise than
by stealth, and hence his side intrigues to check the advance of the
latter, constantly stimulated by the consciousness of the true char-
acter of the relations between them.

It would not be necessary to go beyond the influences resulting
from these considerations, more especially when viewed in connection
with the suspicions imbibed by Mr. Clay, during the recess, for ex-
planations of the character I have ascribed to the relations that
existed between those gentlemen during the panic session ; but there
were not wanting other and not less efficient stimulants to unfriendly
action on that occasion. The Whig party, composed for the most
part of the descendants of men who had never failed to overrate the
political influence of a monied interest like that of the National
Bank, and of such appeals to the self interest and fears of the electors,
as were contemplated, did not permit themselves to doubt of their

736 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

success in discrediting the administration of President Jackson, so
far at least as to enable them to control the election of his successor.
The public man who acted the most efficient part in the straggles to
that end, would be, in the nature of things and according to the
course of parties, their choice for the succession.

Both Clay and Webster so understood the matter, and the former
was determined that the latter should not be that man.

1 No farther attempt was made to change either the shape of the
question or the mode of treating it which had from the beginning
been under Mr. Clay's exclusive control. The debate was accord-
ingly resumed at the point where it stood when Mr. Webster's efforts
to accomplish those changes commenced, and that was done with
the intention, not expressed, but well understood, that things should
go on as they had gone, until Mr. Clay should decide that the time
had arrived for the introduction of a more definite proposition.

We return therefore to our description of the manner in which
the labors of panic making — the great business of the session — the
chief feature in the plan, by which the Government was to be over-
awed— devised in Mr. Biddle's closet and entered upon by him before
the meeting of Congress were carried on.

The author of every proposition for redress that had been, or was
thereafter to be, introduced, Mr. Clay, went also beyond any of his
coadjutors in the variety and violence of the denunciations which
he hurled, from his place on the floor of the Senate, at the President
and his constitutional advisers, for the course they had pursued in
the matters which formed the burthen of his complaints.

Many of the memorials were sent to him for presentation, and
scarce a day passed, for months, in which his tall and erect figure
was not to be seen, towering above his fellow Senators, busiest among
the busy in scattering seeds of discord and alarm throughout the
land.

It would fill a volume to repeat and describe what he said and
did during those days of ceaseless agitation. He did not confine his
observations nor his propositions to the particular measure under dis-
cussion, but introduced into it, or by the side of it, every act or
matter, which he thought might aid in the accomplishment of his
great design, that of alarming and stultifying the public mind.
Mr. Clay's situation was the more harrassing as he was knowingly
warring against truth, for he understood the case in all its bearings,
having largely assisted in its preparation and was thus worse off
than his unfortunate dupes, many of whom, in their clamor against
the Government gave utterance to their real convictions. A less
indomitable spirit would have quailed under the constant and severs

» from this point to the end toe tnuucript Jme been corrected by Van Boreo,

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAK BUBEN. 787

recoils to which he was exposed but he had steeled himself equally
against the rebukes of others and his own reproach.

We can notice only a few of his efforts to give the stamp and
effect of reality to a fictitious case, efforts as unresting, as toilsome,
and as fruitless as those of the unhappy Sysyphus of the classic
fable.

Whilst yet scarcely warm in his official seat and before he was
ready to issue his proclamation of outlawry against the old hero of
the White House, he launched at him a stinging bolt in the shape
of a Senatorial call for a copy of the paper he had read to his
Cabinet containing his reasons for wishing to remove the deposits.
Mr. Clay could not have thought that he had a constitutional right
to make this call, and knew that it would not be complied with, but
it might he thought, irritate an inflammable temper and lead to the
exhibition of some act of disrespect towards the Senate — a branch
of the Executive [Legislative] department which would justify or
excuse the vehement denunciation with which he was prepared to
assault the President. The latter, however, understood a great deal
better than his enemies supposed, when it might be useful to give
free vent to his feelings, and when it was wisest to qualify and sup-
press them. He sent to the Senate a brief respectful message, assign-
ing reasons for refusing ta comply with its request — reasons, the
conclusiveness of which were but feebly controverted, even by the
author of the call, and thus placed on its files a document which
afforded to his friends a gratifying contrast between the course he
thought it proper to adopt in his intercourse with another branch
of the departments of the Government, at the head of which he had
been placed by the people, and that of the Senate, on a subsequent
occasion towards himself. The matter was almost immediately
dropped ifi the Senate. If that body had been denied what was
due to it under the constitution, it would not have submitted so
readily and quietly to the response of the President.

Mr. Clay entered the Senate but a few mornings afterwards
with a woe-begone countenance, which he was very capable of as-
suming, and instantly made the following communication to that
body, which I give in the words of the reporter :

Mr. Clay said he had just heard through the public prints that one of the
incorporated banks of Maryland, situate in Baltimore, had failed. He had
also heard that in consequence of a supposed connexion between that bank
and the Union bank of Maryland, one of the banks selected by the Secretary
of the Treasury as a depository of the public money in that city, a great
run was made hpon that selected bank yesterday, for specie. He had been
Informed that the Secretary of the Treasury was a stockholder to some extent,
he did not know how much, in the Union bank, and there might be great danger
to the public moneys now on deposit there. He hoped It would turn out the

127468V VOL 2—20 47

788 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Union bank was safe, and that the Secretary was not a stockholder to
an amount that his Interest could be supposed to have Induced him to
select that bank as a depository of the public money. He had also heard
that In apprehension of a run on the Union bank, a treasury draft had been
issued In Its favor for $150,000 and that It was the duty of the Senate to
look Into It. He ° had therefore prepared the following resolution, which
he hoped no gentleman would object to Its being adopted Immediately.

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be directed to report to
the Senate, what amount of public money Is now on deposit in the Union
bank of Maryland: On what account it was deposited, and whether any
treasury drafts, contingent or other, have been, during the month of March,
1884, furnished to the said bank, to enable it to meet any demands which
might be made upon it

Mr. F/orsyth, who was never silent when the character of his
friend was assailed, said :

If the gentleman had introduced the resolution without any remarks, he could
have had no objection to it But after what had been said by the gentleman,
he thought we ought to have some time to see the resolution. It was said
that the Secretary of the Treasury was a stockholder in the Union bank — he
knew nothing to what extent But he had no hesitation In saying that the
interest of the Secretary, whatever it might be, had not the slightest effect
on him in selecting the bank as one of the public depositories.

The resolution was passed when it came up in its order. *
The dullest imagination would not find it difficult to appreciate
the injurious effects which such an announcement — coming from
such a man — delivered in such a place and at such an exciting
period, was almost certain to have upon not only the interests, but
the safety even of the bank which was thus assailed, and the sus-
picion and distrust it was calculated to cast upon the character of
one of the purest men in the country, then but just entered upon
the duties of a highly responsible office and upon a great public
measure, then in its earliest stage, and as yet unfortified by the
favorable judgment of the People — now happily, justified and ap-
plauded by every honest heart, of whatever political prepossessions.
If Mr. Clay had stopped with what he had read in the papers, he
would not have been blamed, for he would but have repeated what
was already before the public and what was of no consequence to
any save the bank reported to have failed and its dealers, but the
disturbing matters he thus published, were on mere hearsay author-
ity; he had heard this alarming thing — been informed of that and
had again heard of another ! These hearsays and surmises, so likely
to be injurious to the fair fame of Mr. Taney — to revive the run
upon the Union bank, if it had already commenced — to excite the
apprehension of those who held its paper and of all who might be
interested in the safety of the public funds and to increase the gen-

• M8. VII, p. SO.

1 March 31, 1884. Register of Debates, X, pt 1. 1140-41 and 120*.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MlfiTIX VAN BUREN. 789

eral alarm, were fulminated from the Senate chamber to work their
mischievous effects until they should be overtaken by the compara-
tively tardy movement of official refutation.

Secretary Taney delayed only long enough to enable him to write
to the President of the bank to obtain a statement of his own stock
transactions which he transmitted as soon as received to the Senate,
with a communication, in which he assumed, as he was bound to do,
that the enquiry in regard to the stock he held in the bank, pointed
to the motives by which he had been influenced in his official acts,
and therefore demanded at his hands the fullest disclosure of them.
He stated that the report that had reached Mr. Clay's ears " that a
treasury draft had been issued to the Union bank, to enable it to meet
any demands that might be made upon it" was utterly groundless —
that no " Treasury drafts, contingent, or otherwise, were furnished
to the Union bank of Maryland, during the month of March 1834,"
and that no Treasury draft, or draft of any description contingent,
or otherwise, had ever been furnished to the bank of Maryland, since
he came into office. Mr. Taney's letter was, on Mr. Clay's motion,
ordered to be printed and referred to the Committee on Finance, on
whose files it slept the sleep of death, by the side of hundreds, not
to say thousands of distress memorials, which had also been referred
to it.

Mr. Clay never again alluded to the subject, not even when Mr.
Taney's nomination, as Secretary of the Treasury was considered and
rejected by the Senate, nor was there, I believe, a single man, how-
ever deeply steeped in party politics, not excepting Mr. Clay himself,
who harbored a doubt of the entire purity of his [Mr. Taney] mo-
tives and acts in the whole matter.

Not content with the daily discussions on his general resolutions,
denouncing the .President for the* removal of the deposits and the
separate speeches of the Senators on the presentation of each
memorial, Mr. Clay introduced a resolution instructing the Com-
mittee on Finance to enquire and report on the propriety of giving
relief by extending the time of payment upon revenue bonds. This
resolution was kept before the Senate for more than a month, and
made the subject of protracted debate. There were thus provided
three daily channels for the dissemination of panic — viz : the presen-
tation of distress memorials, and the proceedings of public meetings,
Mr. Clay's general resolutions and his proposition in relation to
revenue bonds, on each of which the speeches of Senators were all
composed of like materials and directed to the same points — the
prevalence of unexampled distress and the proper remedy. There
was not an idea suggested, or circumstance referred to, that was
not equally applicable in either debate, and that was not indis-

740 AMEKICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

criminately used in all. But the sagacious parliamentarian who
introduced two of the subjects and largely participated in the organ-
ization of the other, was aware of the necessity of relieving the
body, and more especially the public mind from the tedium of long
continued debates in a single form and therefore supplied them
both with a constant change of dishes, though the food was in all
cases the same. After the discussions on the latter resolution had
already been of long continuance, It occurred to one of the Sena-
tors, friendly to the administration, to enquire of the Chair whether
the indulgence proposed to be extended, had been asked for by the
merchants, and on being informed that no petition, or applications
to that effect had been made by them, the enquiring Senator ob-
jected further to the resolution, the manifest impropriety of thrust*
ing upon so intelligent and shrewd* a class of the public debtors,
an indulgence of which they had not sufficiently felt the necessity,
to give themselves the trouble of applying for it, and that too, at a
time when the predictions of, and lamentations over the speedy
bankruptcy of the national treasury were among the daily echoes
of the Senate Chamber.

The opposition to the resolution, thus strengthened, was soon in
sufficient force to lay it upon the table and from which, Mr. Clay,
regarding it as having contributed its share towards the creation of
panic, made no attempt to raise it.

Either forgetting that Mr. Webster had some time before sub-
mitted a resolution instructing his Committee to " enquire into the
probable effect of the present state of commercial affairs on the
revenue of the United States," or not convinced, as he ought to have
been, by Webster's subsequent and ominous silence upon the subject,
that the business of panic making would derive no aid from that
source, Mr. Clay offered resolutions calling upon the Secretary tf
the Treasury to report the amount of duties received and accrued on
foreign imports during the 1st quarter of 1834, shewing the com-
parative amount between that quarter and the corresponding one
in 1833, and also whether any thing had occurred since his annual
report to change his opinion in respect to the probable revenue, from
imports for 1834.

The friends of the administration, having had their attention called
to the subject by Mr. Webster's movement, had possessed themselves
of the true state of the case, and dispensed with the. rule requiring
two readings and on different days of said resolutions, allowing it
to pass forthwith. The Secretary's report shewed an excess of
almost ten millions of imports during the first half of 1834, and an
excess also of more than a million and a half over his own estimate
of the accruing revenue for the same period.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YAK BUREN. 741

It is scarcely necessary to say that Mr. Clay, after this to him un-
palatable disclosure was made, became as silent upon the subject as
Mr. Webster. Both were not only disappointed, but discomfited
by the result of their investigations, with the difference, that the lat-
ter had been the most cautious in his movements and had thereby ex-
posed himself to less mortification.

At another time we find Mr. Clay plunged with his usual im-
petuosity in an exciting debate with the New York Senators, Silas
Wright and Nathaniel P. Talmadge, (the latter, Mr. Clay's subse-
quent ally, but then in a state of comparative innocence) in respect
to the solidity of the " New York Safety fund system," upon which
he, aided by Mr. Webster, had made an angry and well prepared
assault. Here we have another and an instructive illustration of the
true character of their complaints in regard to the destruction of the
confidence of the people in the pecuniary concerns of the Country
and of the propositions for their relief. I have briefly referred to
this system before, having aided in its construction and assumed the
principal responsibility for its adoption. It* had, to the day of this
assault upon it, supplied the largest and most commercial state of
the Confederacy with a paper currency, on which her people had not
l6st a single dollar and at that moment possessed their fullest con-
fidence, as it would in all likelihood have continued to do to the pres-
ent time, if the political power of the State had not unhappily fallen
into the hands of a class of men who used it to overturn the financial
and economical systems, devised and matured by those modest and
unpretending, but able public servants and ° benefactors, Wright,
Hoffman, Flagg, and their associates, under the influence of which
the State, in their day, signally prospered.

The safety fund system was therefore naturally an eye sore to the
panic makers, presenting a spot, and that not a small one, either
in its extent or in the amount of business afforded by its influence,
whose condition furnished a standing refutation, practical and con-
clusive, of the assumption of a general derangement of the currency,
so confidently advanced by the advocates of the bank ; and the talents
and industry of Clay and Webster were for that reason actively di-
rected to its prostration. Hence their labored efforts to impair the
confidence which the public at large, and the people of New York in
particular, had in its stability, and to inspire them with apprehen-
sions that it was about to be involved in the wreck of similar insti-
tutions ; which the Bank of the United States aimed to bring about
and for which, the removal of the. deposits, was to be held responsible.

My friend, Mr. Forsyth, happily and truly characterised that
inflammatory and unprofitable debate, when he said at its close that
"the gentlemen from New York, if they had taken his advice,

i

° MS. VII, p. 85.

744 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

paper, as far as they heard the reading, and so expressed themselves,
which together with the interest he himself felt in it, excited Mr.
Clay considerably and he read on with increasing animation. Bat
having all dined out, where the wines had met their approval and
the fire becoming a rousing one — the three counsellors soon yielded
to the genial warmth of the room, and their attention gradually
slackened until they successively fell into a sound sleep. This must
have been their state for several minutes before Mr. Clay's attention
was directed to their condition by Letcher's snoring. Clayton was
himself first aroused by the loud and angry tones of Mr. Clay and
found the latter standing in the middle of the room swearing at
Letcher, who was in the act of making his escape from it, and whom
he vehemently upbraided with coming to him along with the others,
all in a state of intoxication* "Old Jackson himself " said Clayton
describing the scene, "was never in a greater passion, nor ever
stormed louder."

The report was able, and if it had been, in one respect, more skill*
fully constructed, would have been better calculated to produce the
designed effect Its great error consisted in the prominence it gave
to the retention of the Bill at the preceding session, as a grievous
fault on the part of the President. This charge was so palpably
unjust, and the object in sending it to him during the expiring hours
of the session, so obvious, as to shock all unprejudiced minds and to
prevent them from doing justice to the report in other respects.

Mr. Forsyth, ever prompt to seize the advantage offered by such
errors, pressed this objection with decided effect on the coming in of
the report, and was ably seconded, in this movement, by Mr. King,1
of Alabama.

Mr. Clay's co-adjutors in the Senate, participating fully in his
extreme views, all contributed their aid in blowing the trumpet of
distrust and alarm. Every matter that could excite, or revive, or
keep alive prejudices and resentments against the old chief at the
head of the Government, was pressed into service. Mr. Calhoun
brought in a bill to repeal the " Force Bill " of the previous session,
a measure, that at the time of its passage, produced intense excite*
ment in South Carolina, without the slightest intention of even try-
ing to pass it, as his confederates in the great object of the session,
would upon the exhibition of such a design, have been obliged to
unite with the friends of the administration to prevent its passage,
but understanding his motive, they so winked at his endeavors to
resuscitate the public interest in the subject and to use it as a "raw
head and bloody bones " with which to keep alive alarms and resent-
ments which were in danger of becoming obsolete.

1 William E. King.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTItf VAN BUREN. 745

Mr. Ewing,1 of Ohio, a most indefatigable agitator, possessed of
highly respectable talents, and capable of almost any extent of phy-
sical indurance, was made chairman of the Committee on Post Offices.
The overhauling of this department had, from the beginning, been
regarded by Mr. Clay as a rich mine. He had been brought up with
Major Barry, who had unhappily been placed at its head, and
knew him to be an honest man, of kind and generous disposition;
but illy qualified to resist the importunity of that class, which is
always to be found besieging the Treasury, and many of whom, at
the time of which we write, clung to the skirts of such men as Col.
Richard M. Johnson and the Postmaster General. It was equally
well understood that the gallant Colonel, though among the bravest
of the brave and patriotic and honest, was also, to a great extent,
subject to the infirmity which disqualified Major Barry for audi a
post as he filled, and was not more to be relied upon to check the
cupidity of his friends. These were, most of them, Kentucky people,
whom Mr. Clay knew as the saying is, "like a book." It was to the
short comings of that department, therefore, more than any other,
that he looked for essential aid, in the ° work he had undertaken, and
his friend Ewing pursued the Postmaster General with a vengeance.
Certainly no department of the Government had ever before been
subject to so severe an ordeal, and it is equally certain that the ad-
ministration was more damaged by the operations of that branch of
the Government than by that of all the others. Many faults had
doubtless been committed, not a* few petty larcenies had escaped
the notice of its chief, and its general administration had been far
less thrifty and methodical than it ought to have been, but I be*
lieve I do not greatly err when I say that Major Barry left it with-
out any serious impeachment of his character as an honest and hon-
orable man, in the estimation, even of his political enemies, and he
had no other.

Mr. Poindexter, one of the Senators from Mississippi, a man who
was never so much in his element as when surrounded by public ex-
citment aroused to its highest point, and who possessed a talent for
raising it not excelled by any of his contemporaries, was placed at
the head of the Committee on public lands. Endowed with abilities,
which were in my judgment, far superior to those which even his
friends conceded to him, and with an eager disposition for mischief,
he embarked in the business of .panic making with his whole soul ;
and by his incessant exhibition of charges of frauds in the sales of
the public lands, and of other enormities committed by President
Jackson's appointees, threw the whole western Country into a state

> Thomas Bwlng. • MS. VIIf p. 40.

746 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

of excitement more intense and more disturbing than the wire-pullers
in those regions were able to produce by all their clamor and misrep-
resentation about the removal of the deposits.

Numerous other panic enterprises, of the same character, were set
on foot by these leading alarmists in the Senate and their zealous,
and, in some instances, scarcely less able co-ad jutors [outside], during
this memorable session, which I have not room to notice. These ef-
forts were greatly aided by those portions of the public press which
made the cause of the Bank their own, constituting at least three
fourths of those potent instruments of power and embracing with
scarcely a single exception, every paper devoted to the support of that
great political organization then called the Federal Republican
party; besides several [papers] of considerable prominence and
supposed influence, which had advocated the election of General
Jackson, and were friendly to his administration at its commence-
ment, but had been drawn into the support of the bank and sub-
sequently into the opposition ranks, by the arts and appliances of
that formidable institution. It would not be possible, in a work
like this, to give anything like a general selection even from their
articles to shew the false and exaggerated views of the condition of
the country and the conduct of the administration in respect to
them, with which they sought to poison the public mind. An octavo
volume would not suffice to do so. Nothing could serve half so well,
as such an exhibition, if it were practicable, to illustrate the melan-
choly extent to which the credulity of partisan prejudices may, at
greatly excited periods, be played upon by artful and designing
men, in the possession of such means.

Let the following extracts, taken from a publication frequently
referred to in this work, and which, as it was designed as a per-
manent record of public events, assumed a degree of gravity and
sobriety not common to its fellow laborers in the political vineyard ;
and was less gross, if not less bitter, in its denunciations of the Gov-
ernment, serve as a reduced type of the assaults to which the Presi-
dent and his administration were exposed from those quarters:

Many rumors are afloat One says, that certain draughts of the United
States (not of the bank of the United States,) have been dishonoured at
London, and returned— another, that about two millions of the stocks of a
certain state, which were (lately) at a high advance in England, have been
sent back, because of the wreck of confidence in American funds, and that
the bills drawn on the anticipated sale of these stocks have come back pro-
tested—and a third, that the new deposit banks are about to be hardly pressed
to meet the demands of " the government " — with many fears of disasters in
money affairs, whether respecting corporate bodies or private individuals. We
are not swift to give common reports — but this is a time of high feeling and
extraordinary excitement; and, while we would not increase that excitement
by any use of artificial means, we feel it a matter of duty to put our friends
on their guard, at this season of alarm to men in business, though all reason*

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREK. 747

ably prudent persons ought to have stood "at ease*' and employment, with
high wages, abounding for working men. If the keeping of the wholesomeness
of the currency has been violently transferred to stock-gamblers and money-
shavers, through Ignorance of its nature, or from any other cause, the fault
does not rest with us — nor shall we remain neutral, and quietly suffer our
part In the common distress or ruin that seems to Impend.

Confidence In American stocks has been mightily shaken In Europe, and the
" hurrah " of the multitude will not relieve us for the want of credit there. As
a single Instance out of many before us, we may observe, that one of our sub-
scribers, In this city, has received by the last packet ship from Liverpool, a let-
ter from his correspondent, an Intelligent Scottish farmer, In which he directs
that all his funds in the United States be collected from the south and west,
where they are now employed, and Invested as safely as possible In Baltimore,
under the immediate care of his friend — giving as a reason for the change or-
dered, the clamor raised by " the government " against the United States bank,
which would force It to curtail Its accommodations to the Country, and create
great distress In the community, by unsettling the currency.

The writer of the letter above alluded to resided a good many years in the
United States and transacted a large business— on returning home he left be-
hind him no small amount of funds which he thought happily invested, and
without a desire to disturb them ; but at 4,000 miles distance, he has seen ap-
proaching events as we saw them, and peremptorily ordered that all his funds
shall be concentrated In the charge of his friend, and so deposited that they
may be at his own sure disposal, when called for. He feels that our hitherto
unrivalled currency can not be longer relied on, and will probably withdraw
his funds. He had, perhaps, just seen the paper " read to the Cabinet " In the
Register, (which is received by him) and hence the decision that he has made.

But neither the excitement, nor the pressure, has yet nearly reached the ex-
tent to which both will proceed. Every day adds failure to failure, misery to
misery, and reduces the means of the most solvent persons. Many men, as yet,
pay their debts by exhausting their fortunes, in sacrifices to preserve their
credit! A member of the legislature of Massachusetts lately said in his place
that $2,500,000 had been paid, in that State, for extra Interests since the re-
moval of the deposits. We think that this is less than the truth, id a commu-
nity so eminently commercial as the State named. It Is our opinion, derived
from several conversations with persons who ought to know, that the dally
amount of savings in Baltimore amounts to $100,000.

With articles like these, almost wholly unfounded in their mate-
rial assumptions and suggestions, was the country literally flooded
throughout the panic session*

The extent to which the country was thus alarmed, her public
counsels distracted, and her business paralyzed will, even at this day
of indifference to the signs of the times, however ominous of evil,
be scarcely credited, however well established.1

The Senate as a body and the House of Bepresentatives as far as
the power of the Minority extended, having been converted into
laboratories for the construction of panic cries the best adapted to
foster and continue the prevailing alarm — the fruits of their labors,
were, after they had been used in panic speeches there, re-hashed by

their friends in the State legislatures and other public bodies, and

- — i —

1 This portion of the autobiography waa written In the year 1860.

748 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

spread far and wide through a devoted press, and finally returned
to the place from whence they came, in the various shapes of dis-
tress memorials, the inflammatory proceedings of public meetings,
backed, as has been stated, by distress committees from all parts of
the country, bringing tidings of the resentments of the people, and
filling the ears of members with jeremiads of present distress and
coming war.

The denouement of this conspiracy against the supremacy of the
popular will and the independent action of its legitimate representa-
tives had fortunately to be disclosed in the presence of the friends
of the administration in the two Houses, constituting a majority of
the popular branch, and nearly a moiety of the Senate, and contain-
ing in their ranks as noble spirits as ever before graced a popular
cause, by whom the whole scheme was thoroughly understood and of
course denounced with unsparing severity. These denunciations,
and the criminations and recriminations to which they gave rise,
produced on both sides the most angry feelings, and scarcely a day
passed, for three successive months without the exhibition of a war
of words between individual members, some of which were with
difficulty prevented from furnishing occasion for hostile meetings.
The Senate chamber, so long the forum in which grave and venerable
Senators discussed and matured measures appertaining to the public
welfare, was unhappily made to resemble more an arena for gladia-
torial exhibitions of partisan conflicts. The constitutional restraints
by which my official action was principally confined to the duties of
umpirage, and the consequent propriety of my position, saved me
from the temptation of participating in these bitter feuds, and
should have protected me against any attempts to involve me in them
against my will.

My inaugural address, to which not a lisp, in the way of excep-
tion was uttered in any quarter, and the liberal and impartial spirit
in which I entered upon and continued the discharge ° of the duties
of the chair, a liberality, in the sequel, admitted by all, constrained
the leaders of the opposition to postpone, though obviously as it ap-
peared to me, much against their individual wishes, the assaults
upon me which were foreshadowed before my arrival and confidently
predicted on all sides. The mortification occasioned by this restraint
upon the gratification of long cherished anticipations, was, to my
mind, obviously increased by the social and seemingly friendly re-
lations which had, at the period to which I am about to refer, sprung
up between most of the opposition Senators and myself, relations
so inconsistent with the grave charges upon which the rejection of
my nomination as Minister to England by the Senate had been justi-
fied, and so well calculated to sanction the sentence of condemnation

° MS. VII, p. 40.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN YAK BUREN. 749

■which the people of the U. States had pronounced upon the treat-
ment I had received.

To this respectful, familiar and agreeable intercourse whenever
we met, whether whilst performing our respective duties in the
Senate, or at social meetings elsewhere, and in which many co-
operated, who I was well satisfied deprecated its existence, there were
a few minor, and two prominent exceptions, viz : Mr. Calhoun and
Senator Poindexter. In the account I have heretofore given of the
political relations which, at different times, existed between Mr.
Calhoun and myself, I did not give as full an account of our per-
sonal demeanour towards each other on the occasion of the breach
in our friendly feelings which wad made public in 1831, as may now
be useful.

Mr. Calhoun sent his letter, by which the personal and political
friendship which had so long existed between General Jackson and
himself was finally severed, at the close of the session of Congress of
1829-80, and soon thereafter left Washington for South Carolina.
He did not return to that city until late in the month of December
thereafter and in the mean time we never met. It will be remem-
bered that I declined to read the correspondence between the Gen-
eral and himself before its publication, neither did I make any
attempt to inform myself of its contents, or in any way become
possessed of them, until I read it in Mr. Calhoun's pamphlet, on its
appearance at Washington in the latter part of February 1831. The
fact of its having been prepared became generally known at the
seat of Government, and speculation as to its character rife. He
submitted it before publication, to many of his friends, and in that
way and probably in others, the impression became general that my
conduct, in some of the transactions referred to, was virtually im-
peached. As Mr. Calhoun had made no complaints to me and
knowing that there was not the slightest ground for any imputa-
tions of that character, as Mr. Calhoun himself, at a subsequent
period, virtually admitted, and as is now demonstrated in Mr. Par-
ton's life of Jackson;1 and not thinking that the difficulties which
had arisen between him and the President furnished a sufficient
ground for disturbing the courtesies which had before been inter-
changed between the Vice-President and myself, an opinion, in which
President Jackson cordially concurred ; I left my card for him as
usual, he as Vice President, being by the etiquette of the place, enti-
tled to that attention from the Secretary of State, and it was duly

reciprocated. An invitation to one of my weekly dinners followed of
course. On the night preceding the appointed day there set in a

storm of snow and wind of unprecedented severity in that region,

and I despatched my servant, early in the morning, with notes to

* James Jd. Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson (N. Y. 1860).

750 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

my intended guests, postponing the dinner from Saturday to the
following Monday. In the course of Saturday I received from Mr.
Calhoun, the following note :

Mr. Calfioun regrets that owing to the state of the weather and a cold with
which he Is afflicted he can not dine with Mr. Van Buren to day. Saturday.

The impression it made upon me at the moment, an impression
which was I doubt not greatly strengthened by other circumstances
which have now passed from my mind, was, that he was embarrassed
by my invitation, and had gladly availed himself of the state of the
weather to avoid placing himself in a position which was incon-
sistent with the hostile attitude he would be obliged to assume to-
wards me, when his correspondence with the President was published.

So regarding his note, and apprehending that I might in conse-
quence of the renewal of my invitation, be regarded as having evinced
too great a desire to conciliate him, I made the following endorse-
ment upon the note : " Not received when my note for Monday was
sent," and placed it upon my file, where is has remained for thirty
years. Very unexpectedly to me Mr. Calhoun appeared on Monday
among my guests, consisting of some thirty ladies and gentlemen,
among whom were, besides himself, the Speaker of the House of
Representatives and his lady, and Senator Grundy and his lady.
The latter gentleman, as it subsequently appeared, being at that mo-
ment, but without my being aware of it, one of Mr. Calhoun's con-
fidential advisers as to the disposition that should be made of the
correspondence, had, I now believe exerted a controlling influence
over his action in respect to the dinner. The company was not only
numerous and brilliant, but, with the exception of Mr. Calhoun, lively
and jocular. His demeanor on the contrary, though highly respect-
ful, was throughout obviously constrained. He, at my request, took
Mrs. Grundy in to dinner and placed her between him and myself.
In the course of a long dinner, I made several unsuccessful attempts
to restore him to his usual vivacity and to a participation in the con-
versation of the table, a thing I never before knew him to omit, but
he continued in the mood he assumed upon his entrance and retired
soon after the company had returned to the drawing room ; leaving
me thoroughly convinced of the correctness of the construction I
had placed upon his note, and satisfied that the character of our
future relations would, so far at least as he was concerned, be mainly
dependent upon the suppression or publication of the correspondence
which had taken place between him and the President ; not then sus-
pecting that a qualified publication was under consideration. If the
first course was pursued and really amicable relations between him
and the President restored, there would not, I supposed, be a desire
for an open rupture with me. It was well known at the time that an
active discussion was going on between Mr. Calhoun and the more

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BtJBEN. 751

considerate of his friends on the subject of its suppression. Senator
Bibb * informed the President that he had warned Mr. Calhoun that
the publication of the correspondence would be his destruction, and
had conjured him to commit it to the flames. The latter gentleman,
not only thought differently, but anticipated a signal triumph, and we
have no evidence that they ever prevailed on him to go farther in that
direction, than to consent, which he did, that his friends might make
an attempt to reconcile the President to its appearance, by such modi-
fication of it and explanation of what he should farther say as would
be sufficient to effect that object, without lessening the injurious
effects of the correspondence upon myself. To this was added,
through the same instrumentality, an effort to prevail upon the editor
of the Globe to publish Mr. Calhoun's appeal first, and accompany
it with favorable comments. As we have already seen, an intrigue
was consequently set on foot by my subsequent friend Grundy to
accomplish the first of these objects through their friend, Major
Eaton, and by the same gentleman and Col. Johnson, who was every-
body's friend, to obtain Mr. Blair's consent to the latter, the failure
of both of which has also been seen. Mr. Blair refused altogether,
but Mr. Grundy thought he had succeeded upon the first and prin-
cipal point The correspondence was published and Mr. Calhoun's
success in political life forever destroyed. That the President dis-
claimed the encouragement which had beep given by Major Eaton,
and indignantly resented the attempt that had been set on foot to use
him for the destruction of his friend, has also been already stated.

Immediately after the failure of the Grundy and Eaton negotia-
tion and on the appearance of the Globe which announced the Gen-
eral's feelings in the matter, I was favored with a visit from Dr.
Jones, a devoted and very active friend of Mr. Calhoun, who was
soon followed by Mr. Blair at the Doctor's instance; the object of
their joint appearance being to afford the latter an opportunity to
remonstrate, in my presence, against the course which the Globe
was taking. The Doctor's desire was to arrest and suppress the
paper war, which had that morning been commenced; which he
claimed the power of doing on Mr. Calhoun's side, if the President
and myself would prevail upon our friends to do the same on ours.
Perceiving that he was not advancing his object, by the explana-
tion he made of Mr. Calhoun's course and the excuses he founded
upon them, as these were readily, and, as it appeared to me, con-
clusively overthrown by Mr. Blair, he at length directed his obser-
vations to the injurious consequences which would result to the
party and to all belonging to it from the schism, which he charged
that Mr. Blair's course was producing. After dwelling at great
length, and with an earnestness that was almost amusing upon the

* George M. Bibb, of Kentucky.

752 AMERICAN HISTOBICAL ASSOCIATION.

disasters which the distraction and consequent overthrow of the
party would entail on all of its supporters, and misled by Blair's
serious countenance, he ventured to draw his attention to his [Blair's]
own case, spoke of the press which he had recently established, of its
prospects and of the fortune he might reasonably expect to reap
from it, and of its probable failure, if the schism, he so earnestly
dreaded was not arrested, and the ruin in which he and his family
would be involved, &c. When he closed his remarks, Mr. Blair
assented to the probable occurrence of some of the consequences the
Dr. had depicted as results of a continuance of the war, said he
would be as sorry as the Dr. if it should turn out so, but that he
could not alter the course upon which he had entered. He was
fully satisfied that Mr. Calhoun was not only at the bottom of all the
difficulties that had arisen but had voluntarily produced them to
promote his own ends, -that he had commenced the war by his
pamphlet, without good cause, and must abide the consequences,
and in the conclusion of a brief and obviously sincere speech,
thanked the Dr. for the sympathy he had expressed for the loss
which the struggle might entail upon him; but begged the Dr. to
give ° himself no uneasiness on that account. It was true, he said,
that he was poor, but he had long been so and never expected to be
otherwise, that he nevertheless felt himself to be independent as
his wants were few, and if the ruin overtook him, to which the
Dr. alluded, he could " live by his rifle," and would have nothing to
do but go back to old Kentucky, where he knew he could always
find plenty of employment for it; and enjoy greater and more
lasting satisfaction than he could derive from making himself sub-
servient, in any form, to the promotion of Mr. Calhoun's ambitious
schemes.

The Dr. was a cripple, walked seldom and with a sort of dot and go
one motion, which, far from graceful when he was at his ease, became
absolutely ludicrous when he was excited or hurried. Deeply dis-
gusted with the mode of obtaining his living, to which Blair had
shewn himself willing to resort, greatly irritated to madness by his
obstinacy, and seeing moreover that the game was up, the Dr. indig-
nantly leaped from his chair and limped towards die door, exclaiming
as he made his exit, at the top of his voice, u Well, by GK— d, I cannot
live by my rifle."

Whilst the fate of the correspondence, of the contents of which,
although the information was within my reach, I knew as little as
anyone in Washington, was in suspense, it was made my duty, as
well by the rumors that were afloat, as by what had taken place at,
and in respect to my dinner, to see that my personal relations with
Mr. Calhoun were kept on a footing that would suit any contingency

• MS, VII, p. 50.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTItf VAN BUBEN. 758

that might happen. We were together, a few days after the dinner,
at a meeting of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, of which his
friend, Mr. Ingham, the Secretary of the Treasury, and Chief Jus-
tice Marshall were members and present. We shook hands respect-
fully but in our intercourse there was, on his part, a greater formality
even than that which was observed on the former occasion, which I
attributed to the presence of the latter gentleman and a design to give
to our personal relations an appearance which would be in harmony
with the character the Chief Justice, who though a gentleman of quiet
manners generally understood whatever passed about him, supposed
them to bear.

After these occurrences, I felt myself justified in insisting that the
first advance towards the continuance of social intercourse between
us should proceed from him ; and I determined to embrace the first
fitting opportunity to drive him to the necessity of deciding that point
himself. A suitable occasion for carrying this resolution into effect
was afforded me, some time, probably a week or so, before his publica-
tion, at a party given by the French Minister. I perceived, on enter-
ing the principal room, that Mr. Calhoun was standing near the center
of it, with Mrs. [Samuel] Harrison Smith, an old confederate of my
own in the Crawford war, but now a friend of his, leaning on his arm.
When I reached them, in taking the circuit of the room, I addressed
Mrs. Smith familiarly, then looked Mr. Calhoun fully in the face,
respectfully, but without extending to him the ordinary salutation —
a ceremony, which would, under ordinary circumstances, have been
due to his rank, but was withheld upon the grounds I have stated.
He looked me also full in the face, but made no motion, nor did he say
anything. I gave to my countenance no expression, nor was there
anything in my demeanor that was not respectful, and his wag the
same in both respects. It seemed to me that he understood what I
meant, and that .was all I desired. I continued my conversation a
few minutes with the lady, when bowing to her I proceeded on. An
intimacy of long standing, and at times very close, was thus quietly
broken off — a proceeding, which left nothing further iov us to do, in
that regard, when his pamphlet appeared. I do not recollect to have
heard of a single disrespectful remark made by him of me, during the
long estrangement that endued, and I endeavored to observe the same
reserve in respect to him. When we met we took no notice of each
other, with the exception of a single occasion, which will be referred
to, when, under very peculiar circumstances, he literally gazed at me
for a moment or two. Such continued to be the character of our per-
sonal relations until 1837, a period of more than six years when he, as
has been elsewhere stated, of his own accord, tendered, and I accepted.,
the resumption of friendly intercourse between us.

127483°— vol 2—20 48

CHAPTER XLVII.

It so happened that my personal relations with Senator Poindex-
ter, were, from the first, of an arms length character, I need not, I
am sure, say to any of my acquaintances, whether they have ranked
among my friends or my opponents, how greatly such a state of
things was at variance with the general tenor of my feelings in such
matters. •

He had justly acquired very considerable distinction by his sup-
port of General Jackson in the great debate in the House of Rep-
resentatives, in which the conduct of the latter in the Seminole war,
was sought to be deeply implicated; and had now been elected a
Senator of the United States by the General's friends and support-
ers in the State of Mississippi. He presented himself at Washing-
ton for the first time, in that capacity, a few days before the session
of 1830-31, drove to the White House in a coach drawn by four
cream colored horses, and was announced to the President whilst he
and myself (I then being Secretary of State) were engaged on
business in. the President's office. We repaired at once to the Draw-
ing room, where he was received by the General with cordiality and
respect Having never met him before, I was introduced and a long
and sprightly conversation ensued, which was chiefly confined to the
President and his visitor. In the course of it, old times and scenes
wer^ in succession introduced by the latter and freely spoken of,
whilst the exciting political questions of the day were, as it appeared
to me, studiously avoided on the part of the Senator, and singularly
enough, having regard to the nature of the President's relations
with that gentleman, Mr. Clay's sayings and doings constituted the
principal theme. The conversation received that direction from
the Senator, who introduced and dwelt on the positions which he
and Mr. Clay occupied towards each other, and the stirring scenes
which had occurred between them, more particularly in the sporting
way, at different periods of their busy lives. On the latter head, he
gave us the particulars of a famous brag party, at which Mr. Clay,
stung to madness by his losses, had bragged him, against a named
sum, his Hotel establishment at Cincinnati — an estate of great
value, a brag which he had declined to meet, although he held a hand
which could not fail to win, that of two aces and a bragger, and his
the oldest hand, which he laid down on the table at the moment of
754

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 755

refusal. Mr. Clay, he said, had often told him, that he was the only
man who had ever had him in his power. I remember these particu-
lars the more distinctly, from the effects produced on my northern
ears by this revelation of the enormous sums of money which were
lost and won between them. To the General's they did not, it must
be admitted, produce equally astounding effects; but were listened
to, as Poindexter knew they would be, as racy reminiscences of some-
what similar scenes through which he had himself passed, at an
early period, on the famous " Clover bottom race course " between
him and his life long competitors in all things, the McNairys, the
Ervings and the Cannons — cum mvltis dUisy in the progress of
which land patents and class rights in bundles, and horse flesh by
droves had been staked on their respective racing steeds in which
the General had generally been the favorite of fortune.

Suspicions unfavorable to Mr. Poindexter's fidelity to the admin-
istration he had been elected to sustain were already extensively
entertained in political circles. With me, at least, they lost none
of their force from a personal acquaintance. The remarkably sin-
ister expression of his countenance, a point, in respect to which,
there was no room for two opinions, and his whole demeanor at our
first interview, coming on the back of the invariably unfavorable
reports I had received of his character, differing only in the degree
of odium that was heaped upon it, satisfied me of his hostility, and
that this formal visit was one of exploration only. The President
accompanied him to his carriage, but hastened back after he
took his departure, with the question, " Well, what is your opinion
of Poindexter?" My conviction of his hostility and the certainty
that he would soon be found in the ranks of the opposition, were
of course freely expressed; to which the reply was u You are cer-
tainly right. We are not to his taste, and it will be thought no dis-
credit to us that such is the case, but we will soon shew him that we
can do without him."

Had this interview taken place shortly after the Seminole debate,
the result might have been different, for as I have elsewhere said,
I have seldom known a man, who was seemingly more blind to the
faults, and indulgent to the short comings of friends who had stood
by him in a crisis and whom he believed to be honest, than General
Jackson ; and their concurrence in opinion with him on such ocasions
went far to satisfy him that they were so. But many years had
passed away since those exciting scenes, and he had in the interim
enjoyed, as he thought, sufficient opportunities to become well ac-
quainted with Mr. Poindexter's real character, and we both looked
[upon] his open junction with the opponents of the administration as
a question of time only.

756 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

After a month or two of brisk fighting, which, however well it may
have been calculated to mystify his constituents did not, in the least,
obscure the clear conception we had formed of his designs, and before °
the close of his first session, he threw off the mask and took open
ground against the administration by aiding Messrs. Calhoun, Taze-
well and Tyler in their attempts to fix upon the President the impu-
tation of having been guilty " of a manifest violation of the rights of
the Senate, a flagrant usurpation of their constitutional powers and
a gross violation of the Constitution," in the negotiation of the Treaty
with the Sublime Porte, a matter which has been heretofore spoken of.

Agreeable, as this assault was to the Mississippi Senator, whose
belligerent spirit panted for active service, it did not afford him half
the satisfaction which he hoped to reap from the action of the Senate
upon my nomination as Minister to England. There were features
in the latter proceeding, such, for instance, as the opening it would
afford for assaults upon the personal and private character of his
intended victim, which rendered it a far more acceptable service to
his accusatory and aggressive spirit, the indulgence of which, all who
were acquainted with him knew to be the ruling passioiwof his soul
The scope for that indulgence was materially enlarged by the shame-
ful abandonment by Holmes, of Maine, of the resolution he had offered
for the appointment of a committee of investigation, on which the
majority of the Senate would have found itself constrained to place,
at least one sincere friend, through whose agency the machinations
and practices of the chairman and his associates might have been
detected and exposed — an abandonment, accompanied by an express
and unblushing reservation to each Senator to supply his green bag
with such bits of scandal for exhibition in secret session, as it might
be consistent with his individual taste to gather from sources of his
own selection.

The action of the Senate was postponed for several weeks on ac-
count of Mr. Poindexter's inability, from sickness, to attend its meet-
ings ; not because the majority stood in need of his vote for as has
already been stated, they had a convenient supernumary in the per-
son of Senator Bibb, who agreed to be within call, if he should be
wanted to make a tie and thus compel the Vice President to perform
his part of the agreement, which the Senator was to do by voting
for, or against my confirmation, as the occasion might require. The
postponement was in deference to the excess of his zeal and the ex-
tent of the contributions he was expected to make to the mass of acca*
sati***^^ wore to be presented against the nominee.

^V>° ***>C s own acc<>UIlt> he was, when his speech was made,
^s^ ^\? stand continuously during its delivery; but the

MS. VII, p. 55.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 757

budget of calumnies which he in conclave Jx>ured upon the ears of
the Senators disclosed the extent to which the invalid had notwith-
standing explored the kennels and ransacked the gossiping circles
of the capital for defamatory reports; the whole being wound up
with a letter addressed to himself by a man, whom I was not con-
scious of ever having known, setting forth a statement, supposed to
have been made to him by me of the motives by which I had been gov-
erned in bringing about the dissolution of the Cabinet, which every
one acquainted with me, whether friend or opponent, was ready to
pronounce unmitigated falsehoods. By the side of the sayings and
doings of this veteran combatant, it mortified me to find displayed
on the journals exhibitions of illiberality and injustice not far behind
his own on the part of a clever young southern Senator, whom I
once held in high estimation, but who sunk himself for the occasion
in the pursuit of vengeance for imaginary intrigues, which his leader,
Mr. Calhoun, the party to be injured by them, subsequently nailed to
the counter as unfounded suspicions.

The conduct of the first named Senator, bad as it was, had but
little effect upon our personal relations, on account of pre-existing
barriers to anything like friendly or social intercourse between us.
Once only, during our whole acquaintance, did he, to my surprise,
approach me with friendly greetings.

A violent altercation had taken place, on the floor of the Senate,
between him and my friend Forsyth ; which it was for a while sup-
posed would lead to a hostile meeting — a matter about which, as
was well known, no one could have been more solicitous than myself.
The morning after that result had been avoided, he saluted me, on
my entrance, with much cordiality. Nothing was on my part want-
ing in the reception of his civility, for I felt relieved And happy,
but there the matter ended. We passed through the panic session,
in which he was the busiest of the busy, and probably had more to
do with the chair than any other Senator, with the same unvarying
rigidity of countenance on both sides that had, with the single ex-
ception referred to, distinguished our personal intercourse from the
beginning, and what was really miraculous, without his finding. a
single occasion to complain of the treatment he received at my hands
as presiding officer of the body. But the panic session had scarcely
passed away before the party, to which Mr. Poindexter had attached
himself, became sensible of the popularity I had acquired by the
fearless and faithful discharge of my delicate and difficult duties at
that trying period, as well as apprehensive of the political conse-
quences to which it might lead. Senator Poindexter was not an
indifferent or inattentive observer of the signs of the times, nor a

T58 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

sluggard in devising means to obstruct the way of political opponents
whom he hated and whose advancement he deprecated, both of which
was emphatically the case in respect to myself. The frustration in
Congress of the elaborate and artfully devised plans of the bank
and its confederates, the leaders of the opposition, aggravated as
they were, by the signal success of the administration at the suc-
ceeding election with the obvious impracticability of every attempt
to reexcite the public mind through the agency of new public ques-
tions in season for the approaching session of Congress, the only
one to be held before the Presidential election, cast a gloom over
their prospects and caused unusual despondency in their ranks.
Poindexter, generally among the foremost and seemingly the most
fearless in partisan fights was among the first to feel the influence
of the re-acting panic, and to see the necessity of a change of tactics.
His confidence in all efforts to cripple an opponent or overthrow an
administration that were unaccompanied by personal broils, was
habitually slight. The reader has already been supplied with a
striking exhibition of [his] preference for and adaptation to that
feature in partisan warfare in his very gross assault upon Daniel
Webster, when that gentleman ventured to assume a different posi-
tion from that occupied by the chosen leader of his party on the
passage of the force bill in nullification times ; an assault which was
not only unprovoked but obviously made upon calculation and to
answer a political purpose. Senator Poindexter's plan for re-
kindling the public mind and dispelling the prevailing apathy in
their party, therefore, was to lay aside for a season their threadbare
denunciations of General Jackson, by the hackneyed use of which
the public taste had been annoyed and its judgment insulted, and get
up a sort of semi-official quarrel with me, the probable democratic
candidate for the presidency; a quarter more likely, perhaps, to be
effectual, and to try to work it into a personal fracas at the capital of
the union. This naturally struck him as a proceeding more likely to
produce distrust, an indispensable element to their success, and give
animation to the approaching session than any scheme that could un-
der existing circumstances be devised. That he attempted to draw
me into such an affair, and that he consulted more than one of his
brother Senators in respect to its expediency, I did not, at the time
entertain a particle of doubt. I received from a reliable source
early inklings of what was in the wind, of the source from which
the attack was to proceed, and of its probable abettors.

Thus forewarned, I possessed fair opportunities, from what was
daily passing before my eyes, to identify, in my own estimation at
least, the Senators by whom the step was probably favoured; and

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BtTREN. 759

suspicions settled down upon two gentlemen who had probably been
consulted at least from the beginning by the principal actor. But
these were but suspicions, without anything that deserved the name
of proof to sustain them, and therefore, though effective upon
my own mind, it would be wrong in me to give names. I there-
fore content myself with saying that Mr. Clay was not one of them,
and I do so as well because I sincerely believed him as well as the
great body of the Senate to have been altogether above countenancing
such a proceeding as on account of his well known influence over
Poindexter, which might otherwise give rise to the impression that
I alluded to him.

Those who are conversant with the political history of that period
will remember the violent assault Mr. Clay made upon me at the
commencement of the session, on account of my non-appearance at
its commencement to organise the body ; or how earnestly my prede-
cessor, Mr. Calhoun, denied the fact set up by my friends in explana-
tion of my absence, viz : that it has been the practice of the Vice Presi-
dents to avoid so early an attendance, to give the Senate an oppor-
tunity to choose their standing committees before his arrival, a selec-
tion which if present, it would have been his duty to make himself.

At the present session I was at my post on the first day and strange
enough, that very fact was seized upon by my opponents and made
the principle pretext for opening with me a correspondence, virtually
hostile at its commencement, and designed to become more so as it
progressed. On the 5th of January, when the lapse of time and the
occurrence of circumstances, had rendered the moment for the de-
nouement of the plot as favourable as they could expect it to become,
I received from Senator Poindexter the following letter :

Washington city, Jan? 5th 1835.

Sib: *

The unusual punctuality, with which you attended, as the Presiding officer
of the Senate at the commencement of the present session of Congress, has
been attributed by certain newspapers edited by your friends and supporters,
to considerations having a direct personal relation to myself.

This innovation on the uniform practice of your predecessors would have
received no attention from me, as It was an act resting exclusively on your own
sense of propriety, and therefore wholly unimportant in reference either to my
feelings or wishes, had It not, vauntlngly, been put forth by presses under your
control with explanations well calculated to attract my notice, and doubtless
designed to make impressions Incompatible with my honor. I refer especially
to an article In the Newburg Telegraph, which has been copied into other
kindred prints, and cannot have escaped your observation :

The President of the Senate was in his chair at the opening of the session and
thus preserved it from being disgraced by " ° that bloated mass of corruption —
Poindexter."

° MS. VII, p. 60.

760 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

I have waited a reasonable length of time, to afford yon, or your friends an
opportunity to disavow the foul motive attributed to you in the paragraph
above quoted ; none has been made — altho explicitly called for In one of the
public journals of this city. I desire to be distinctly understood as not in-
tending to claim the right to hold you answerable for this offensive article, or
any other of like character which may have appeared, but the novel and
extraordinary circumstances attending this whole matter, authorizes me to ask
of you, that which Is due to me — and to the station which you occupy — a dis-
avowal of all connection between your conduct on the occasion and the relations
in which I stand to the Senate, and to the country. I will not permit myself
to believe that in taking your seat at the opening of the session, you were actu-
ated by the unworthy motives, which your friends have so indiscreetly attributed
to you, until you manifest a disposition to place yourself in that attitude. I
should much prefer for your own sake, and that of the august body over whose
deliberations you have been called to preside, to regard your early attendance as
an evidence of the promptitude and industry, with which you were anxious to
discharge your public duties. It Is now in your power, to give me this assurance
which I consider absolutely necessary to avert the consequences of an opposite
conclusion.

I address you thro' the Post Office, not wishing to consult anyone in this
affair, in the present doubtful state of my mind concerning it
I have the honor to be, Sir, Yr Obt Servt

Geo. Poindexteb.*

It came to my hands as I was leaving the Capitol, and was read
in the carriage on my way home. Its construction and everything
connected with it satisfied me that its design was to accomplish the
object I have described. I caHed at the State Department on my
way down and shewed it to my friend Mr. Forsyth, who at the
instant concurred in the construction I have placed upon it — an
opinion, in which no one, acquainted with the writer and the state of
feeling then existing between the opposing parties at Washington,
could not fail to concur.

A second perusal on reaching my house, confirmed me in this view
of the Senator's epistle, and at the same time satisfied me that in
this, as is apt to be the fate of similar feats of left-handed wisdom,
the very cunning employed in its construction, supplied me with ade-
quate means to frustrate its design. Nothing was wanting beyond
the studied protests, concessions and reservations which had been
inserted in the letter for subsequent use; and his appeal to our official
relations for protection against the assault that had been made upon
him, to enable me not only to discharge my whole duty in the matter
without the slightest sacrifice of personal or official dignity, but to
do that in a way, which would not only leave him without cause of
complaint that his questions had not been fully answered, but render
it in the last degree undesirable on his part to place my letter in
juxta-position with his own before the country.

* Van Buren Papers.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 761

The following short letter was therefore, forthwith prepared and
aft^er receiving the approval of my friends General Jackson, Mr.
Forsyth and Mr. Wright, sent the next morning through the Post
Office*

Washington Jan* 6th, 1835.
Sib,

Yon are quite correct In not permitting yourself to believe that the official
act to which' you allude, in your letter of yesterday, was designed to arrogate
to myself the right of deciding upon the propriety of the Senate's choice of
their President pro tempore, or to interfere with the relations in which you
or any other member, may stand to that body, and to the country.

Tour very proper and explicit disclaimer of all idea of holding me responsi-
ble for the commentaries or constructions of the public press has enabled me
so far to respect the official relations existing between us, and to which you
refer, as to give you this answer. ,

I am Sir, your humble servt

M. Van Buben.
To the Hon*1* Gbobge Poindbxteb.1

I might, perhaps ought to dismiss the subject here; but as there
is another matter which grew out of it and not destitute of interest,
as descriptive of the character of the times, I will briefly notice it.
That my adversary would be embarrassed in respect to his farther
movements, by the character of my reply was what I confidently
anticipated. A quiet publication of the correspondence, indicative
of satisfaction with my reply, was a result I did not expect* Such
n course would, I thought, be inconsistent with the opinion I had
formed of his character and the design in which his letter originated.
I was, on the contrary, led by these considerations to look for a
publication, accompanied by offensive comments, opening new issues
calculated to increase existing irritation. That he would suppress
both letters, and leave the public to draw the inference that I had
sanctioned the publications in question, an inference he so sorely
deprecated and which he claimed would be the certain consequence
of my silence, was a result which neither my friends nor myself
allowed ourselves to expect, especially after the appearance of an
intimation of the existence of such a correspondence had appeared
in a paper hostile to me. These views led to the* suspicion that the
Senator, after what had been done, might think a parol altercation
with me, a more eligible way of bringing about the fracas upon
which we believed him to be bent, and consequently to a considera-
tion of the expediency of placing myself in a situation to prevent
at the instant any hostile attempt that might be made upon my
person. I therefore, for the first and only time in my life, placed
about my person, a pair of loaded pistols, of a size which I could

'Van Burea Papers.

762 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

carry without danger of exposure, and wore them in the chair- and
out of it, until I became fully satisfied that my adversary had m&de
up his mind to drop the whole matter where my answer had left it,
and neither to say, nor to do, nor to publish anything further upon
the subject. Those of my friends, who were conversant with what
had been done, and who took a special interest in the matter on my
account, looked to the papers from day to day for the correspond-
ence, and were not less surprised than myself that a gun, which had
been so carefully, and I may add, so ceremoniously loaded, should
have been so soon and so quietly spiked. My own opinion has al-
ways been, that Mr. Clay was consulted on the receipt of my letter,
that he pronounced the movement to have been, to say the least of
it, an unwise one from the beginning, predicted that it would grow
worse, the further it was pushed, and advised Mr. Poindexter to
drop it where it stood. At all events, so it was, that the affair was
never again alluded to, in any way that has come to my knowledge.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

These two Senators constituted the principal exceptions to the social
and seemingly amicable relations which had sprung up between the op-
position Senators and myself, notwithstanding the adverse circum-
stances under which we met. Yet, it is doing no injustice to the prin-
cipal leaders of the opposition in that body, nor to most of the mem-
bers of the second class who though not regarded as leaders were yet
men of great experience and distinguished ability to say that they
were all the while lying in wait, nay pining, for the performance on
my part, of some act by which they might be enabled to qualify, if
they could not reverse, the vantage ground I had acquired through the
action of the people upon the course they had pursued towards me,
an advantage of which my quiet bearing at the head of the Senate,
presented a daily, and to most of them, a very grating memento. I
had passed through the ordeal of my inaugural address, an affair,
which under existing circumstances, could hardly have been expected
to pass off without giving offense in any quarter, to the fifteenth week
of the session without the happening of any such occurrence.

Now, however, the hoped for transaction was believed to be on the
point of being perpetrated. The straight forward and sturdy Democ-
racy of old York county Pennsylvania having had their feelings
greatly excited by the controversy which the bank and its leading
supporters had waged against President Jackson, in respect to the re-
moval of the deposits held their meeting also, and headed by their
undaunted former representative, Adam King ° adopted a memorial to
Congress on that stirring subject. They condemned in no very meas-
ured terms, the conduct of a majority of the Senate, denounced the
motives by which they believed their leaders to be actuated and
plainly imputed venality to Senator Webster by name. This paper
they, for reasons of their own, resolved should be sent to me its pre-
siding officer for presentation to the Senate. One of their Senators
Mr. McKean,1 an honest, but exceedingly prejudiced man, had with-
out cause, though he doubtless thought otherwise, made himself one
of my bitterest enemies, and Mr. Wilkins * his colleague, the liberality
and gentleness of whose bearing had secured for him the esteem of all
who knew him, had permitted his name, wrongfully, as the people
of York thought, to be used to prevent my nomination as the candi-
^MS. VII, p. 65. • William Wilkin* t Samuel McKean.

768

764 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

date of our party for the Vice-Presidency. How far these circum-
stances influenced the course the meeting pursued in regard to the
presentation of their memorial, I do not know, but I thought it not
unlikely that those circumstances, aided probably, by a not unnatural,
but very erroneous supposition that I would be pleased with the un-
usual notoriety thus given to a denunciation of the former proceed-
ings of the Senate%gainst me from a quarter so imposing, as well in
the revolutionary as political history of the country as old York, had
exerted some influence on the course that was pursued. Similar
views of the matter, I was in the sequel forced to conclude, had
led Mr. Webster and his co-adjutors of the Senate to think I was
advised of the proceeding, and would take pleasure in presenting
them. So wide a departure from the comity due from me to the
members of a body, the presidency over which had been conferred
upon me without their agency, and to which I was not responsible
for my conduct, would have presented my enemies, for such they
really were, a most desirable opportunity for their first attack. Their
leaders, apprised by letter of what had taken place at York, of which
I was myself wholly uninformed, entertaining the views in regard
to my course, which I have attributed to them, determined in ad-
vance, as I had reason to believe, to make the presentation of that
memorial, the occasion for their long premeditated assault. That
Mr. Webster should, on the first presentation of the subject, haTO
made himself officious in the movement, was perhaps natural enough,
but that he should have continued to do so after he became ac-
quainted with my feelings upon the subject will not, it is believed, be
approved by fair minded men. A full account of what was done at
the meeting was sent to him by his friends ; but the communication
of the commitee, enclosing the memorial, did not reach me until three
or four days after his letter was received. In the mean time he en-
quired of me whether such memorial had come to my hands, and
was informed that it had not. The next morning the enquiry was
repeated and the same answer returned ; and he, at the same time, in-
formed that my mail was sometimes taken to my house, where the
papers and letters were liable to be mislaid, that such might have been
the case with the communication in question, that I would cause a
search to be made and inform him of the result in the morning, which
was, that no such memorial had yet been received.

That evening the letter containing it arrived, when, influenced by
Mr. Webster's repeated enquiries, I forthwith read the memorial
and discovered, as I supposed, the cause of his solicitude. Although
not precise, the memorial, or rather the preamble to it, contained a '
paragraph which was regarded by his friends as exhibiting a direct
charge against him of being bribed by the bank.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 765

I decided, at once, that it was a paper which ought not to be
communicated to the Senate through me; and that I would write
to that effect, to the Committee, by whom it had been sent. On my
way to the Capitol, I fell in with my friend, Senator Wright and
related to him the circumstance. He informed me, as he afterwards
stated on the floor of the Senate, that a memorial had, some days
before, been sent from our State, to an opposition Senator for pre-
sentation, reflecting severely upon him (Mr. W.), that the Senator
had informed him that he had on that account refused to present
it, unless, one of our representatives, also of the opposition, who
lived in the vicinity of the memorialists, should feel himself at lib-
erty to strike out the objectionable paragraph, which was done, and
the memorial in that state presented to the Senate and referred.
This statement, suggested to me the propriety of submitting the
York memorial to the Pennsylvania Senators, with a similar expla*
nation, before I returned it to the committee, by whom it had been
forwarded- to me. Mr. Webster approached me, as I entered the
Senate chamber, with an enquiring look, and was informed of the
receipt of _ the memorial, — that I had read it and deemed it unfit
to be presented fo the Senate, on account of a paragraph it con-
tained in relation to himself — and of my determination to submit it
to the Pennsylvania Senators with an explanation of my intentions
to return it, unless they felt themselves authorised to strike out the
objectionable paragraph. To my amazement, instead of expressing
his satisfaction at the view I had taken of the matter, Mr. Webster
appeared disconcerted, seemed perplexed and acted as if what I had
communicated would interfere with some favored scheme — hemmed,
hawed, muttered gutteral intonations, without expressing a single
intelligible idea and left me for his seat. I was, % for a moment,
confounded by a result so unexpected ; but soon the use which he and
his confederates had intended to make of the York memorial, if I
had presented it, flashed across my mind and I became re-composed:
I called Senator Wilkins to me, gave him the memorial, pointed out
the objectionable paragraph, informed him of the determination I
had formed, desired him to consult his colleagues as to what they
ought to do, but to understand for himself, and to say to his col-
leagues particularly, that I expressed no opinion in regard to their
rights or duties in the matter. Thus forewarned, I took the chair,
confident that I should, in due time, be able to possess myself of the
details of the plot, and considering that as I had neither done nor
meant to do anything that was wrong, I felt no apprehension in
regard to my ability to counteract their hostile views.

A memorial from the people of Shenandoah in Virginia, one of
the counties which compose what is called, the 10th legion, in favor

768 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

full justice to the motives and also to the character and standing,
political and personal, of those who had taken part in its proceedings.
His statement .removed, as well in point of fact as of principle,
every pretence of complaint of the agency that I had exercised in
the affair. Seeing that he had commenced his attack upon me under
a mistaken view of the facts, Mr. Preston owed it to himself to
have abandoned it, in the frank and manly manner and temper, in
which he sometimes acted, and in which, as a general rule he pre-
ferred to act But the temptation to push on the assault was too
strong to be resisted by so unskilful a politician as Mr. Preston.
He had just taken his seat, as the colleague of Mr. Calhoun, had been
elected under the influence of those feelings of personal hostility
against myself then common with a particular class of the public
men of South Carolina, and was anxious to distinguish himself in
the business of hunting down a man, whose political overthrow lay
so near the hearts of many of her sons. He had been promised a
field for the display of his talents in that direction on this occasion,
but the feast to which he had been invited, had fallen through in
two important particulars— one before, and one after he had en-
tered the arena. I had not presented the memorial in its objectiona-
ble shape, as was expected, nor had I made the erasure, upon which
he seized in the first moments of his disappointment. Under these
adverse circumstances, he was driven to carry on the war upon
the grossly untenable and to the Senate itself, suicidal assumption,
that when a paper was* addressed to its President, with a request
that it should be laid before the Senate, that paper became ipso facto
the property of that body, and could not be withheld from its con-
sideration; and that, whilst every member, had a right to comply
with a request to present it or refuse to do so, as he in his discretion
should think to be most consistent with his duty to his constituents
and the body to which he belonged, the President of the body pos-
sessed no such discretion and was bound to present to them what-
ever was sent to him for that purpose however abusive of them or
defamatory of himself ; and that I had therefore committed a great
offence in submitting a memorial of the citizens of Pennsylvania
to the discretion of the Senators of that state, with the view and
for the purposes which have been stated. Having taken that ground,
he made in support of his proposition one of the ore rottfndo
speeches, in which he called into action all the eloquence and declama-
tion for which he was distinguished ; but did not succeed in satis-
fying anybody else, nor, as it appeared to me, himself either, that
he had succeeded in proving anything beyond the extent 6t his
own zeal in the anti-administration and anti-Van Buren cause. But,
it was not at the moment, nor has it ever been, clear to my mind

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURKN. 769

that there was, even then, in the breast of the Speaker any consid-
erable share of personal hatred towards the principal subject of
his vituperation. The Prestons are a peculiar race. Having a large
share of the bulldog spirit in their composition, they never fail to
shew it under excitement; but they are at the same time not less
sparingly endowed with the generous impulses of that noble mastiff
which seldom fail to show themselves when their passions are at
rest. I have witnessed the action of these varying dispositions in
the subject of my remark on more than one occasion. In this very
matter, when the subject came again before the Senate, in conse-
quence of the return of the memorial by the honest and stubborn
Oermkns of old York; and when time and reflection had made him
sensible of the preposterous grounds, he had, under the excitement
of the ^moment, been led to assume, he made a reasonable atonement
for his former excesses. But a still stronger illustration of this
feeling occurred in the progress of our personal intercourse, which
though it happened long afterwards, may as well be mentioned
here. Few will have forgotten the gold spoon story, which cut so
conspicuous a figure and is supposed to have exerted so large an
influence upon the Presidential canvass of 1840.

As far back as the commencement of Mr. Monroe's administration,
a quantity of very extravagant French furniture was purchased for
the Presidential mansion, through the agency of Consul Lee,1 himself
an ostentatious man ; and among the rest, a parcel of spoons, which
were alleged to be of pure gold. These, with other portions of that
furniture, were still at the White House in my time. I was charged
with having purchased them, and the alleged extravagance made
matter of accusation against me in the canvass. Several prominent
Whig politicians who were perfectly conversant with the facts, so
far forgot themselves as to introduce the subject in their election-
eering speeches, with the exaggerations and falsifications that had
been attached to the subject by their tools, and Mr. Preston was, un-
happily, one of that number. Circumstances had occurred in our
social relations, which in addition to the favorable opinion I had
formed of his character, more particularly in all that related to the
courtesies of life, made this course, on his part, particularly annoy-
ing. I therefore determined to make him an exception to my gen-
eral course, by noticing the matter, but to do it in. a way which
whilst it should impress him with a sense of my feelings upon the
subject should not be inconsistent with the respect I had always' felt
for him, and the decorum that was due to our relative positions.
When he called, on the first day of the session, to pay his respects,

1 William Lee, Consul at Bordeaux.
127483°— vol 2—20 49

770 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

as was his invariable habit, he found. me in the office, surrounded by
some dozen friends engaged in a lively conversation, and one or two
doing business with me. I received him with unaffected respect, but
sufficiently deficient in that cheerful cordiality, which had generally
marked our intercourse, to show him that I felt the unhandsome
treatment I had received at his hands, but might not have served to
make our interview quite as abrupt, as he saw fit to render it, if he
had not approached me with a deep consciousness of the impro-
priety of the course he had pursued towards me, uppermost in his
mind. He took the chair, to which I invited him, but occupied it only
long enough to allow me to remark upon the unusual severity of the
weather, then arose, made me a formal bow, and retired. His sudden
exit attracted the attention of the company. Senator Boane of
Virginia, in particular, exclaimed, " What has become of Preston —
what made him leave so soon ? " One or two others adverted to the
matter, but no one even suspected that anything of an unpleasant
nature had occurred. Nothing was therefore said which made it nec-
essary for me to explain and I resumed the business from which his
visit had diverted me, and my friends their chat. If the matter had
been left to me, the extraordinary circumstance would not have again
been referred to, except perhaps, with the members of my family,
but Col. Preston thought and acted differently. To the first friend
he met, on the Avenue, he said, as I was thereafter informed :

" Well, I have been to pay my respects to the President He received me with
all the respect that was due to a Senator of the United States. Spoke of the
coldness of the weather, and treated and received me in a way that was a

d deal colder than the weather," and added, " But that is not the worst of

it; he was perfectly right, and treated me no worse than I have deserved.1*
"How so?" "Why, I was goose enough, during the recent canvass to make
myself a party in one of my Virginia speeches to the absurd gold spoon story — a
step, of which I was heartily ashamed, the moment I had done it, and have been
so ever since.*'

And ever afterwards, he spoke of our interview to his friends and
others, in the same unreserved way. It so happened that we never
met again ; but my eldest son who married an intimate friend of his
family, visited him frequently in South Carolina, and through him
we often talked at each other in a way altogether respectful and
0 kindly. Such was the real character of my feelings towards him;
and I have never doubted that they were, in the main, sincerely re-
ciprocated by him to the day of his death.

But, in respect to the erasure impeachment, there was, for the
moment, no let up on his part ; he, on the contrary, instigated and
aided, in keeping on foot a debate on the untenable proposition he
had advanced, in which a majority of the Senators participated,

• MS. VII, pw 75*

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAtf BUREN. 771

which haying commenced early in the day lasted until an advanced
hour in the evening, and was, as Niles said in his Weekly Register,
" listened to, by one of the most closely packed auditories that ever
filled the galleries (and he might have added the floor too) of the
Senate."

During all this time I was literally on trial The reader has
seen for what — not certainly for the offence upon which it was
intended that I should be arraigned; as I had shewn too just a sense
of what was becoming jgt me to do, to take the step for which that
arraignment was hoped to be set up as a justification. But, upon a
charge trumped up on the spur of the occasion, because the leaders
of the opposition, had promised their friends a sort of auto da fe
and were determined netfher to disappoint them, nor to be disap-
pointed themselves, in any attempt, at least, to disparage me for
which there was supposed to exist the slightest pretence. Occur-
rences not destitute of interest presented themselves in the course of
the day the most of which must pass unnoticed. The Congress
going ladies whose name was legion apprised that a scene was ex-
pected to come off, a species of information, which was never be-
yond their reach, were early in the seats allotted to them, and in
many that were not. The Senate galleries were also early filled to
the exclusion, in a great measure, of sober minded spectators, by
the outside representatives of the bank, distinguished in the streets
by the appellation of "bank bullies." The opposition members of
the House, apprised of what was to be done, dropped off, one after
another, and repaired to the Senate chamber. Friends of the admin-
istration, even, impelled by an uncontrollable curiosity, followed
suit, in considerable numbers, until it was found difficult to pre-
serve a quorum and an early adjournment consequently effected.

The Senate chamber was literally swamped by the currents that
were turned upon it from these sources and willing that my oppo-
nents should have a full swing, I directed our worthy doorkeeper, the
well known and long remembered Judge Haight 1 to light the lamps
the moment there was a necessity for it, which he did not fail to do.

Every thing being thus gorgeously arranged, grave Senators mak-
ing vehement speeches about nothing; but not the less successful in
drawing forth testimonials of admiration and subdued applause from
a giddy and excited audience; we were presented, with a full dress
exhibition of the modus operandi, through the influence of which the
bank hoped to carry away from their duty to their constituents
enough of the weak and the venal to undermine and finally overthrow
the majority against its pretensions in the House of Representatives —
exhibitions, which occurred, sometimes daily, but seldom at greater

^Stephen Haight, assistant doorkeeper.

772 AMEBICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

intervals than twice a week, during the principal part of that dis-
reputable session. Exhibitions, which were at the time the source of
no slight consolation to those who were designed to be injured by
them, because we believed, and that on good grounds, that whilst these
things were going on at Washington, there were all the while thou-
sands upon thousands, in every quarter of the country, sincere friends
to our institutions and desirous to see them maintained in their purity
and simplicity, who mourned over these excesses and determined, at
the proper time, to hold their authors to a qjgid and severe responsi-
bility. The wonder to me was, that men like Clay, Webster and Cal-
houn did not foresee that such would be — must be the case, if the
American people remained true to themselves. But all such reflec-
tions were smothered in the reciprocal excitements that these political
debaucheries produced upon those engaged in them, or were drowned
in the dinners and party going dissipations, which had never before
been so prevalent or half so animated at Washington. Mr. Clay,
becoming convinced that the particular proceeding on foot, was doing
them no good, not on account of the array, which I have described,
for strange to say, that was to his taste, but on the ground of the
utterly baseless character of the position which Preston had taken,
and the absence of even a decent pretence for the persevering assault
that was made upon me, resorted to one of his dexterous parliamen-
tary movements to extricate his party from the dilemma in which it
had been placed. To this end, he approached towards the chair, and,
in his smooth, seemingly friendly and well digested terms, suggested
the propriety of passing the subject over, till the next morning; to
give, as he said, the chair a better opportunity to look into the matter,
with more deliberation than that which had yet been allowed him, and
adopt such a course then, as he should judge advisable. My particu-
lar friends in the body, had mainly gathered round Mr. Forsyth's seat,
where they kept very quiet, taking no further part in the debate, than
was sufficient to preclude the idea of abandoning, in any respect, the
ground upon which I had acted; but prepared for any duty. Not
one of them had, throughout the day, either approached the chair,
or communicated with me, in any form, other than such as were
addressed to it from their respective seats. They were, however, as
I saw, alarmed, lest I might be induced to acquiesce in Mr. Clay's
suggestion, whiclt they believed to be a trap set for me, by him,
designed to make a drawn battle of the affair by the postponement
for the day, to be laid aside in the morning — an opinion in which,
they soon saw, I fully participated. I thanked Mr. Clay for his
polite suggestion, but assured him and the Senate, that I wanted no
time, either to form, or to prepare for an expression of my opinion
upon every question which any Senator might think grew out of the

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BTJBEff. 773

subject, as it stood. That I was therefore opposed to delay of any
kind, would wait patiently the action of the body, and after every
Senator had been allowed an opportunity to say all that he desired
upon the subject, the Chair would submit its own views upon so much
of it, as he should deem necessary to notice. Satisfied by these re-
marks that I understood the game of our opponents, in all respects,
and was in no danger of being taken in by their civilities, my friends
obviously dismissed from their minds all concern in regard to the
result. The venerable Ex-President Adams stood below the chair
from nearly the beginning to the close of the proceedings, a period of
several hours, a watchful and seemingly interested spectator of the
scene. I invited him to take a seat with me on the platform, which
he respectfully and kindly declined, then caused a chair to be placed
near him which he did not occupy, because he could, as he told the
messenger, see better as he stood. In that position he remained till
the adjournment, certainly the most imperturbable and apparently
the least exhausted person of the entire assemblage.

Mr. Webster, at a late period in the discussion, renewed Mr. Clay's
attempt to get rid of the subject in a side way. His suggestions, as
might be expected, were of a character far less entitled to respect
than those of the former gentleman, and were therefore less cour-
teously received. Entirely conscious of the entire security of my
position, I had but little to think about and occupied some of my
unemployed time in speculations upon the appearance as well of the
Senatorial actors in the scene, as of the various classes of spectators,
with which every nook and corner of the chamber was filled. The
seats of my friend, Thomas W. Ludlow Esq. of New York, long
familiarly known and esteemed by all who were thus favored, by the
name of Tom Ludlow; and his very intelligent and sensible lady,
were so open to my observation, and my recollection of the interest
they took in the scene, is even at this late day, so vivid, that I cannot
withhold a brief notice of the excitement they evinced. They were,
accidentally, early in their places and continued in them to the end,
obviously without thinking of their dinners ; not a slight matter to
persons who were so favorably known as the patrons of good living,
and would, to all appearance, have remained 'till morning, if that
had been necessary to enable them to see the matter out. One or the
other was constantly standing to make sure that nothing should
escape them. Their oft repeated glances at me, as if to see how I
stood it, would, of itself, have been sufficient, or if I had been ignor-
ant of the depth and disinterestedness of their friendship, to satisfy
me of the deep interest they took in the proceedings and of their
apprehension that something very injurious to me might grow out
of the matter. As I anticipated, when I reached the vestibule, I met

774 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

my relieved friends and received their earnest congratulations on the
satisfactory termination of the affair. The contrast between the
appearance and action of my friends, and those of the accusing Sen-
ators was very striking. Whilst the latter, throughout that loUg
sitting, seemed restless, excited and passionate— occupied the floor
more than three fourths of the time — making vehement speeches,
signifying nothing; the former, to use Senator Frelinghuysen's cele-
brated remark in respect to Mr. Biddle, seemed " as calm as a sum-
mer's morning." Conscious that no harm had been done by any body,
to any person, or thing, that the clamor that was raised about my
action in the matter was simply absurd, and satisfied that every
f airminded ° man, including most of the assailing Senators them-
selves, would in the end, see the matter in that light, my discreet
friends spoke but seldom, and then briefly, dispassionately and to the
point. This difference could be easily accounted for. Adroit men,
expert actors, experienced in public life and conversant with the ways
of the world, may sometimes succeed in concealing from those in
whose presence they are acting, the unworthiness of the motives by
which they are influenced, but they ca*n never hide it from them-
selves. There is in the breasts of even the worst of men a monitor,
which keeps the truth before them ever, and ruffles their complacency,
turn which way they will. It is this conviction and the apprehension,
that being known to them, it is also seen by others, by which they are
disturbed. Hence the disparity in the conduct and appearances of
the respective actors in those extraordinary scenes.

Though usually slow in arriving at correct conclusions on such
points all the leaders of the opposition saw, in the sequel, that they
were engaged in a losing concern, and became anxious to get rid of
the subject. Mr. Clay left his seat, on one of his snuff taking expedi-
tions, his common resort, when anything was going on, of which he
wished to wash his hands, and occupied his time in badinage and the
exercise of his skill in repartee with my friends, Wright and For-
syth, a repartee in which they frequently indulged. As soon there-
fore as they felt themselves safe in assuming that their rank and file
had been allowed sufficient time to have their respective says, the
signal for the close of the debate was given. After asking whether
any other Senator wished to address the chair, and receiving no re-
sponse, I made them the address which will be found in the Congres-
sional Globe, and the drift of which will be made sufficiently apparent
by the following extract:

The subject matter out of which the present question has arisen presents two
points for decision; that is to say, first, Does a communication intended to be
laid before the Senate through the medium of the Presiding Officer, from the

• MS. VII, p. 80.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 775

moment of Its reception by the Chair, become, ipso facto, as Is contained, the
property and part of the archives of the Senate, so as to deprive the Chair of
all discretion, as to the disposition to be made of it, without the approbation
of the body? And if that be not the case, then, secondly, Under what responsi-
bility does the Chair rest to the Senate, in regard to the character of the com-
munications which it suffers to reach the body through its agency? These are
certainly questions of a very grave character, well deserving the deliberate con-
sideration of the Senate. They are questions in respect to which there would
seem to be a diversity of opinion among the members; and it is certainly far
from being the intention of the Chair to pass, in this form, upon the correctness
of the conflicting deductions which have, in this respect, been drawn from the
premises before us, by honorable Senators. Its only purpose is to state its
own views, and, in doing so, it feels that it may safely assume, that if it be
correct to say that the Chair has no rightful authority over communications
addressed to it for the use of the Senate ; no right to return them to those from
whom they came; to deliver them over to their representatives on this floor,
and withhold them from the Senate, then most clearly the Chair cannot be
held responsible for the contents of any paper thus presented. It can only be
necessary to state this proposition, to render the incongruity and injustice of the
opposing pretension obvious to the meanest capacity, and to secure its rejection
by every "unprejudiced mind. What then is the true rule as to the power and
duties of the Chair, in regard to the disposition of papers addressed to it with
a view to their submission to the Senate? Could the Chair allow itself to con-
sult Its convenience only, and to relieve Itself from responsibility, there is no
rule that could be suggested, by which those objects could be more effectually
accomplished, than that which has been contended for— by which its office, in
this respect, is converted into one of a purely ministerial character, and by
which every paper received by it for the use of the Senate, is at once converted
into a portion of the Senatorial archives. But the Chair has not been able to
satisfy itself, that It could thus be relieved from a duty which it owed to the
Senate. It has, on the contrary, considered it to be a portion of that duty to
withhold such communications as, in the exercise of its best discretion, it con-
sidered to be so framed, as to render their presentation inconsistent with the
respect due to the Senate, as well as such as were, from other considerations,
Justly subject to the operation of the same rule. Scarcely a week passes, in
which communications are not received by the Chair, with a request to have them
laid before the Senate, in respect to which it is apparent that their authors are
suffering under mental aberrations.

Communications of this sort, of which many are constantly in the possession
of the Chair, would, on the supposition referred to, be entitled to the disposi-
tion which is claimed for the paper under consideration. But the exercise ot
the discretion referred to has not been confined by the Chair to papers of
this description, which might Justly be regarded as extreme cases. It has,
on the contrary, felt it to be within the line of its duty, to withhold from the
Senate communications which, however high and sound the source from which
they emanated, contained reflections upon the Senate, plainly derogatory to
its honor. It is but a few weeks since, that the' Chair received, with a
request to lay them before the Senate, the proceedings of a public meeting
held in the city of Philadelphia, which, it was obvious, had been a very large
one, an4 which the Chair does not doubt to have been also very respectable,
in which the severest censure was denounced against this body, for an act
in which the present incumbent of the Chair happened to have had a par-
ticular Interest. Under the influence of the sense of duty which has been

776 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

expressed, the Chair did .not hesitate to deliver the paper to one of the
Senators from that State, with a request that it should be respectfully
returned to the source from which it had come, with the information that the
Chair felt it to be inconsistent with Its duty to lay a paper containing such
matter before the Senate. The Chair would have preferred in this, as It
would in every similar case, to have pursued the course authorized by the
rules of the Senate, and which has heretofore, In other respects, been so
extensively adopted, of taking the sense of 'the Senate, In the first Instance,
upon the propriety of receiving the paper In question. But it has hitherto
appeared to the Chair, that that could not well be done without exposing
the Senate to the indignity against which the discretion exercised by the
Chair was calculated to protect It, viz. the Indignity of having a paper read
to it which reflected upon Its character and motives.1

That the talented men who lent themselves to this second and
equally unfounded assault upon a political opponent, against whom
they had no ground for hostility other than political rivalry, in ad-
dition to its injustice, committed a grievous error as it respected
themselves, soon became obvious to alL

The course which might, on the part of his co-adjutors, be re-
garded by their friends in the subdued light of an error in partisan
warfare, in regard to Mr. Webster, bore a far worse aspect, as long as
that gentleman suspected me of being willing to present to the
Senate, in the character of its presiding officer, a memorial contain-
ing an impeachment of his conduct, for the avowal of which, by a
Senator in his place, it would have been my duty to have called that
Senator to order — and still more so, if he credited the slanderous
suspicions, promulgated by Senator Poindexter, no one could or
would have blamed him for meditating, and if it had so turned
out, for prosecuting with all his power the severest measures of re-
taliation. But in proportion to the vigor of his assault under
such circumstances should have been the measure of his forbearance,
when he found that such suspicions were not only without the
shadow of foundation but that I had, without consulting him, en-
tered upon active measures to prevent its presentation, and satis-
fied, as he doubtless was of my sincerity in that movement, he owed
it to me, to himself and to his position to have abandoned at the
instant, cordially and cheerfully the hostile proceedings upon which
he was bent. What further effect the consciousness of the injus-
tice he had done me, was calculated to produce in ingenuous minds
and what more he might have said or done in the premises, was
of course left to his own sense of propriety. But to have received
my friendly communication in the way I have described, one too
abhorrent to my feelings at the moment, and still too fresh in my
recollection to admit of mistake in the account I have given of it,

»The MS. refers to the Congressional Globe of 1834, pp. 246-246. In Van Buren's
library as marked. The above extract Is selected from the Globe for 1834, Mar. 22, YoL
1. No. 10, pp. 245-246.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREff. 777

to have separated from me with the full knowledge of my dispo-
sitions not only liberal but friendly, yet determined to deal with
me in a spirit of unabated hostility and a determination to carry
out his first views, embarrassed only by the obstacles which the
liberality of my course had interposed to the full gratification of
his vindictive designs, crowned the un worthiness of which no epithets
could aggravate.

But this was not the most delicate of the various relations in
which Mr. Webster stood towards these proceedings. There was,
unhappily another, the true character and bearings of which are
indispensable to a fair consideration of the merits or demerits of
all who participated in them. They occurred at the most excited
period of the memorable struggle of the bank of the United States
for an extension of its charter whilst the Country in general and
York county in particular were literally ringing with accusations
and denunciation of the corrupt uses of its funds by that institution
to the furtherance of that object.

President Jackson, who stood at the head of the opposition to a
compliance with its wishes was less dependent than others for cor-
rect information in respect to its proceedings on account of access
to that portion of the board of directors which represented the Gov-
ernment, the selection of which was made by himself. In the vigi-
lant watch which he kept upon all its movements, its dealings
with members of Congress occupied the front ground, and the fear-
less and independent Editor of the Globe, Mr. Blair, was not slow
or backward in arraigning at the bar of the people, those whom
either the Executive or himself had, as they thought, good reason
to suspect of participating in the wages of corruption. The most
prominent among those who were thus placed before the country
and against whom the charges of the Globe were specific, were
George Poindexter and Daniel Webster. Both, defended themselves
against these charges, Poindexter under his own name, Webster
through the instrumentality of a Boston editor, and it so happened
that the defences in both cases were of the same general character,
viz: that the monies they had received from the bank were the
avails of regular discounts of notes and drafts drawn in the course
of business, and in no way connected with any matter or inducement
like that imputed to them.

The truth or falsehood of the charges which were thus exhibited
against Mr. Poindexter are not intended to be enquired into, or
passed upon here. The matter was, at the time, discussed at large in
the public papers and proof produced, or referred to on both sides.
Those who have any curiosity on the subject will find the subject
fully canvassed in the papers of the day and can judge for them-
selves. In respect to Mr. Webster's case, the same course could not, with

780 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION,

and Mr. Webster, by allowing himself to be defended against simi-
lar charges, proceeding from the same source, precluded himself from
objecting to the credibility of his accuser, if there had ever been
room for any such exceptions. But how stood the case in that re-
gard ? They had been put forth by the State paper, the organ of the
Federal administration; the independent editor of which was him-
self a man of unblemished character, possessing the unbounded con-
fidence of the President of the U. States, with whorrujs the head of
the Executive department of the Government, the bank was contend-
ing for a renewal of its charter; a department which possessed the
power and had exercised it to appoint a portion of the bank board of
directors, whose duty it was — a duty which they performed — to re-
port to the Executive all proceedings of the bank, of which they
thought he ought to be informed. Under such circumstances, state-
ments put forth by the-well understood organ, that department might
well* claim to be regarded as founded on the authority of a portion of
the board of directors. There were besides interests of the greatest
magnitude, which it was fair to presume would be promoted by a
successful exculpation of Mr. Webster from the imputations con-
veyed by these revelations. These interrogations appeared in the
State paper, less than three months before the Presidential election
of 1832, on the result of which, the fate of the bank was, on all sides,
supposed to depend. Both the bank and General Jackson, after
his veto, went to the Country with the understanding that the de-
cision of the people upon the issue which had thus been raised should
conclude the question, as to the extension of its charter. Mr. Webster
had been selected by the bank as its spokesman on that discussion
above all others, not even excepting Mr. Clay, and he had placed its
claims before the Country in a speech, of unsurpassed ability. The
bank relied mainly upon the influence which that speech was calcu-
lated to exert upon the public mind in its cause for the ultimate
success of its application. It was the plea on which it had virtually
consented that the great issue in which it had joined with the Presi-
dent, should be heard and determined. It was consequently scattered
through €he country, as no speech had ever before been distributed.
Copies were stricken off by the million at the expense of the bank,
and the design was to bring it as nearly to every man's door as was
possible. This was done to an extent never before attempted. The
triors [jurors?] were to be the mass of the people — the farmers,
mechanics, and laboring men of every hue, in addition to the mer-
cantile and professional classes of whom the three former consti-
tuted a vast majority. The extent to which their decision would be
influenced by the opinion they should form of the purity, intergrity,
and disinterestedness of the author of this great performance, was
a point on which there could be no room for conflicting opinions

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VA3S" BUREtf. 781

among sensible men. If they were led to regard him as a wise, dis-
interested and upright statesman whose only object was to assist them
in arriving at a correct conclusion in respect to a great public ques-
tion, by which the country had long been convulsed and which was#
now to be brought to an end, that result could not fail to be in the
highest degree favorable to the bank. If, on the contrary, they
should have reason to suspect that he was a necessitous and un-
scrupulous politician, one, who under specious disguises, brought
his great mental power into market, and used the political power
which had been placed in his hands by his confiding constituents
for wise and beneficient public purposes, to the advancement of his
individual interests — to believe that he had been so lost to decency,
so indifferent to the respect of his countrymen, as .to have acted,
after the speech which was submitted to them had been delivered
as he was, in those interrogatories, supposed to have acted, that great
effort would not exert more influence upon their decision than so
much waste paper. A man of Mr. Biddle's sagacity could not have
failed to see the matter in that light, and would have hastened to Mr.
Webster's exculpation, if there had not been a feature in the transac-
tion, by which silence was rendered the only safe course to be taken.
The circumstances alluded to, in the 'interrogatories, were nearly
all supposed to have occurred at, and in the neighborhood of Phila-
delphia, and whether they were truly or falsely set forth was pe-
culiarly within the cognisance of the President and officers of the
bank. Nothing therefore, could have been easier than to give them
the lie in detail, and thus overwhelm Mr. Webster's detractors,
among whom they could on that account with no small degree of
plausibility, have placed the President himself. How important
would such a triumph have been to the bank, and how embarrassing
to its opponents at that critical moment. Whatever may have>
caused the omission, it is well known that no attempt to cause their
opponents0 so great a discomfiture, was made by the bank or its po-
litical allies. The President and his Cabinet, the State paper and
the great party whose cause it sustained were left free to press upon
the people the inferences that naturally arose from Webster's silence
and the silence of the bank also upon the subject of these revelations,
through which if neither refuted nor explained, the character of its
selected standard bearer, as an upright and incorruptible man was
doomed to be blasted beyond redemption ; and the result of the great
contest was what might have been anticipated. Circumstances oc-
curred subsequently, but whilst the bank still in full blast,

which may perhaps throw some light upon the otherwise extraor-
dinary course purtued by Mr. Webster, Mr. Biddle and the bank
upon the occasion of which we have been speaking.

* MB. VII, p. 90.

a.
782 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

After the close of the panic session, and whilst the two great
parties of the country were preparing their issues for the succeed-
ing election then at hand, at which the Country was to pronounce
#upon the acts and doings of that session and the conduct of the
bank, the subject of Mr. Webster's dealings with it was again
brought into view in the Extra Globe, edited and owned by the same
fearless partisans. Speaking at a time when the public mind was
yet alive to the whole subject as well of the $22,000 reported by the
Clayton Committee,1 as of the $10,000 to which the interrogatories
related, the Editor of that paper expressing himself in a way which
justified the assumption that his information was derived from the
government directors said:

For a portion of those loans to Mr. Webster, a man was taken as security,
who was notoriously Insolvent, a defaulter to the bank at the time, who after-
wards compromised his debts In that Institution, by securing or paying fifteen
or twenty cents on the dollar.

< This charge which was also submitted to in silence, was not spe-
cifically applied to the $10,000 debt at the mother bank; but the ex-
treme probability that such an occurrence could have happened at
the Boston branch ; and its being so much in harmony with the other
transactions by which the advance of the ten or fifteen thousand dol-
lars, obtained from Mr. Biddle at his country seat was characterized
leaves scarcely a doubt that such was their meaning — and if so, and
if the statements were well founded, we have here the explanation
of Mr. Biddle's persistent silence upon the subject. But be that as
it may, one thing is, I fear, morally certain, if the notes and pro-
fessed securities of the bank were reserved from the sale to the manu-
facturers of its archives by the ton, as waste paper, before referred
to, have been preserved, and but a tithe of the reports of the heavy
losses which that institution sustained from its loans to Mr. Webster,
on straw securities, so prevalent at the time of its total failure, and
then generally credited, be true, the note that was given for those
ten or fifteen thousand dollars, or its representative, equally worth-
less, will be found amongst them. If so, and without the slightest
personal knowledge upon the point, I feel as confident of the fact as I
do of my existence, farther explorations of the dusty labyrinth of a de-
funct bank parlor, to trace the real character of the principal transac-
tion, would seem to be superfluous, and the reader will decide whether,
in such an event, farther speculations in regard to the political ethics
or official purity of Daniel Webster would be equally useless.8

1 Augttstin S. Clayton, of Georgia. Majority report of the Select Committee to ini
tlgate the Bank, March 14, 1832. House Reports, No. 460. 22d Congress* 1st 8esslon.

9 From the rough notes and loose pagea of Van Baren's first dsnft of the Autobiography
among the Van Baren Papers In the Library of Congress It Is erident that there was no
intention, at the time, of carrying the autobiography beyond this point

INDEX

A.

A. B. plot, 181, 187, 576, 578*.
Aberdeen, Earl of, 400, 628, 520.
Abolitionists, 188, 402.
Act (of 1802) to regulate trade, etc., with

Indians, 280.
Adams, Henry, History of the 17. 8., 56»,

50fk
Adams, John, 128, 180, 140, 170, 188, 188,
180, 100, 101, 484, 485 ; assailed by Ran-
dolph, 480, 440; character, 180, 100,
101 ; correspondence with Cunningham,
188n; Franklin's opinion of, 101; opin-
ion of Franklin, 101 ; supported by Pat-
rick Henry. 488. 484, 485 ; Van Buren's
visit to, 188.
Adams, John, of Virginia, 480.
Adams, John Qnincy, 108, 128, 141, 148,
145, 148, 150, 152, 158, 155, 157, 158,
150, 180, 182, 185, 181. 182, 108, 104,
107. 108, 100, 200. 205, 210, 220. 288,
514, 515, 521, 522, 520, 584, 560, 575,
244, 258, 255, 278, 278, 282, 284, 208,
808, 806, 807. 808, 418. 421, 420, 511.
500, 666, 868, 710, 784, 742, 778; ad-
dress on Lafayette, 226n; administra-
tion, 108, 100; capitalises prejudice
against England to gain Presidency, .404,
405, 406 ; character, 208, 271, 272 ; colli-
sion with Senate on Panama mission,
201; election, 142, 152, 810; first an-
nual message, 105, 106; Fourth of July
oration, 405; friends politically pro-
scribed, 247 ; Inaugural address, 104 ; In-
dian message, 288; Jackson's feeling
against, 260, 270, 271; latltudlnarian
doctrines, 440 ; minister to Bussia, 102 ;
personal relations with Jackson, 271;
Presidential candidacy, 116, 181; Van
Buren's opinion of, 102 ; Van Buren's op-
position to, 100; Van Buren's visit to,
260; warns Van Buren, 270.

Adams, Samuel, 188, 180.

Addington, Henry, letter to, 208.

African sebrares, see Great Britain, seiz-
ures of American slave ships.

Alabama, Indians claim self-government
in, 277, 286.

Albany, N. Y., Anti-nullification meeting,
562, 568, 564; citizens' regard for Van
Buren, 227; postmastership, 125, 126,
284; Republicans, 126.

Albany Argus (The), 57, 61, 108, 180,
147, 106, 107 ; comment on N. Y. legisla-
ture's report on Nullification proclama-
tion, 558. ^

Albany county, N. Y., 105.

••Albany Regency," 118.

Alexander, Mark, 207.

Allen and Sedition laws, 100, 412, 414.
420, 440; Cooper's Imprisonment, 150,
160; Henry's support of, 438, 437;
Lyon's imprisonment, 430, 440; Madi-
son's report on, 302; Randolph's speech
against, 430.

Allen, Peter, contested election, 78.

Alley, Saul, 264, 547.

Althorp, Lord, Van Buren's opinion of, 476,

477.
"Ambrosiad" articles, 41, 42, 48. /

America, South, independence, 806; re-
publics, 484.

American Board of Foreign Missions and
Indian question, 208.

American Citizen (newspaper), attacks
Spencer, 41, 48.

American Quarterly Review, 648. %

"American %stem" (Clay's tariff), 411,
554, 555, 556, 550, 682.

Ames, Fisher, 813, 410.

Appointment, N. Y. Council of, 88, 80»,
06, 60, 70, 73, 76n, 70, 80, 86n, 01, 02,
08, 04, 04n, 102n» 108, 108n, 174 ; abol-
ished, 106, 107; removes Van Buren,
80, 04n.

Appointments, poltical, by Jackson, 240,
250; Van Buren's suggestions in N. Y.,
*107.

Appleton, Nathan, 658, 658m.

"Appeal" Calhoun's. See under Calhoun,
John C.

Appomatox River, Virginia, barons of, 481.

Archer, William S., 151, 567, 576.

•• Aristides," pamphlet, 100, 100ft.

Armstrong, John, 42, 48, 66, 67, 74.

Army, Provisional, 420*

Arnold, Benedict, 180.

Astor, John Jacob, 175.

Astronomical observatories, 105.

Attorney General of U. S., 258, 508, 606;
Butler for, 508 ; offered to McLane, 257.

Attorney General of N. Y., 88, 42, 68, 60,
70, 71, 78, 174 ; appointment, 88, 80, 04*,
150 ; Van Buren's appointment, 224 ; Van
Buren's removal from, 02, 08, 04, 225.

788

784

INDEX.

Atwater,

-, Judge, 70.

Auctioneer officers, New Xork, 223.
Aukland, Lord, 457, 473 ; opinion of Senate
rejection of Van Buren's nomination, 458.
Aurora (The), (Philadelphia), 183, 600.
Austria, 485.

B.

Balch, Alfred, -letters to, 867, 867n, 868.

Baldwin, Abraham, 415, 578.

Baldwin, Henry, 237, 287n, 292, 292*. .

Baltimore, Maryland, Convention (of 1882),
584, 586, 587, 588, 501 ; (of 1840), 227 ;
State bank failure, 787.

Bank, National, 671; a disturbing ques-
tion from the beginning, 631.

Bank of North America, 28, 82, 45, 40;
bonus, 82, 44; bribery, 06, 110; mania,
86.

Bank, (First) U. S., controlling influence
in Congress, 638.

Bank, (Second) U. S., 207, 200, 800, 312,
820, 863; 411, 605, 648, 700, 704, 709,
710; adherents in Congress, 659; aid to,
581, 508, 504, 705 ; aided in Senate, 713.
716, 717, 717n, 718, 710, 720, 728, 728,
731, 738, 779, 780; attempt to control
Government, 640, 641 ; attempt to con-
trol public opinion, 641, 642; campaign
aided by removal of deposits, 658 ; can-
didate for President of U. S., 626;
charged with bribery, 764, 777 ; charter,
275, 204, 424, 440, 510, 521, 581, 566,
593, 601, 603, 616, 617, 618, 619, 620,

621, 622, 623, 624, 628, 833, 638, 638,
646, 647, 655, 657, 658, 659, 662, 715.
728, 788, 777; claims credit for well-
regulated currency, 721; Antrol of the
press, 658; controversy, 287, 294, 584,
G32, 683, 768, 777 ; corrupt use of funds,
124, 641, 642, 777, 778; criminal in-
trigues, 124 ; dealings with Members of
Congress, 777 ; defeated, 626, 627, 631 ;
difficulties of winding up Its affairs, 621,

622, 647; directors, 642, 648, 649, 651,
657; directors empower president to use
Bank's funds, 648, 649, 651, 657; dis-
counts, 621 ; engineers the panic, 60 7,
640, 641, 642, 651, 65 In, 654, 655, 656,
650, 712, 741, 717, 710, 726, 727; ex-
change committee, 641, 642, 643, 644,
645, 647, 656 ; fears Jackson, 619 ; finan-
cial measures, 646, 646*, 647, 649, 649*,
650, 651, 651*, 655, 656, 657; French
indemnity case decided against, 649n;
government directors, 641, 648, 649*,
777 ; government directors refused infor-
mation, 643, 648, 649 ; government stock
and deposits, 642 ; influence to turn Jack-
son from his course, 626; investigation
of, 643; investigation report of select
committee of House of Representatives,
778, 778*, 782, 782*; Irving on, 610
611 ; Jackson's attitude, 619 ; Jackson's
reelection a mandate to suppress, 657;
Jackson's remark about, 626 ; leadership
of affairs In Senate, 661, 662, 668, 664 ;

loan curtailment Independent of removal
of deposits, 656, 657 ; loans made to gov-
ernment officers, 778 ; mathematical state-
ment of condition, 652, 653; memorial.
721 ; menace to country in struggle for
renewal of charter, 628; newspaper sup-
port, 746, 748; opposition to, 183, 184.
184*, 449, 619, 626, 628, 647, 656, 657.
733, 734, 766; opposition to Jackson,
449, 450, 531, 616 ; peoples' judgment on,
628, 640 ; plans frustrated, 758 ; plan of
campaign, 620, 621, 62*2, 623, 624, 636,
637, 638, 639, 640, 641, 642, 643, 645,

646, 647, 648, 650, 651, 651*, 652, 653,
«54, 655, 656, 657, 662, 687, 696, 704:
political advantage, 658 ; postponement of
payment of public debt, 645, 646, 647,
649; power given to Its president, £41,
642, 643 ; power over Webster, 661 ;
preparations for struggle, 620, 621 ;
president of, 638, 647, 648, 649 ; See also
Biddle, Nicholas; president's control of
funds, 633; pressure exerted by, 696;
pressure on State banks, 653, 654, 656;
publications, 648, 780; publishes and
distributes Webster's speech, 780; re-
fusal to abide by decision at the polls,
627, 632, 633; restoration of deposits,
717, 710, 721, 722 ; revelations of course
of, 604; "rule or ruin" policy, 627;
secret arrangement with Baring Bro*.,
645, 646, 647, 649 ; size of financial busi-
ness, 633; stock, 449, 642; strength in
Congress, 636, 638; supported by Su-
preme Court, 126; tactics In Congress,

647, 678, 717, 726, 771, 777 ; Taney's re-
port on, 643, 643n; unscrupulous meth-
ods, 719, 722, 726, 727 ; Van Buren's re-
view of controversy, 618, 619, 620, 621,
622, 623, 624, 636, 637, 638, 639, 640;
Webster's financial dealings with, 778,
779. 780, 781, 782.

Banks, monoply and failures In New York,
Van Buren's bill, 221.

Banks, State, 601, 602, 696, 725; curtail-
ment of loans, 653, 654, 656 ; pressure on
from TJ. S. Bank, 658, 654, 656; public
money deposited in, 603, 607.

Banks, of U. S., attempts to continue, 631.

Bankhead, Charles, 455.

Bankrupt law, 218, 214, 215, 217.

Barbour, Philip, 278, 299, 808, 808. 309,
522 ; desires Vice-Presidency, 584.

Baring Bros. & Co., secret agreement of
U. S. Bank with, 645, 646.

Barker, Jacob, 75; suggests elevation of
Van Buren to N. Y. Supreme bench,
90, 91.

Barnum, , 89n.

Barnwell Courthouse, 8. C, Hammond's
speech at, 411, 411*.

Barry, William T., 325, 325*. 850, 350»,
406, 508, 546, 581, 588, 589; character
and management of U. S. Post Office, 745.

Barstow, , 108*.

Barton, David, 201n, 215.

INDEX.

785

Bassett, John Spencer, Life of Andrew
Jackson, 888n.

Bay, , 111.

Belknap, , 87.

Bell, John, elected Speaker of House of Rep-
resentatives, 226n; interview with Van
Buren, 226n.

Bell, 8amnelt 677.

Benson, Egbert, 18.

Benton, Jesse, 666n.

Benton, Thomas H., 884, 410, 420, 504,
611, 513, 538, 584, 585, 648, 665, 669,
676, 708, 778 ; account of Clay, 585 ; let-
ter, 668 ; relationship to Clay, 666n, 668,
669 ; speech on the Bank, 788, 734 ; sup-
port of Jackson, 723; •• Thirty Tears
View," 115, 204, 867, 891, 892n, 393n,
585, 668.

Berrien, John Macpherson, 218, 213n, 214,
215, 216, 850, 850n, 852, 856, 857, 358,
859, 860, 861, 862; appointed Attorney
General, 257 ; letter to, 859 ; offered mis-
sion to England, 257 ; relations with Van
Buren, 216.

Bert rand, Marshal, 459.

Bibb, George M., 874, 454, 464ft, 678, 751,
756 ; absent from Senate on vote on Van
Buren's nomination, 588.

Biddle, Charles John, 684.

Blddle, Nicholas, 617, 688, 684, 686, 688,
644, 646, 647, 647f», 648, 657, 660, 661,
668, 688, 694, 704, 722, 786, 774, 781,
782 ; actions, 684, 648, 649 ; Clay's Visit
to, 660, 664 ; engineers campaign by mall
against removal of deposits, 607 ; In-
fluence and power, 688, 634; interview
with Jackson, 619, 619* ; misunderstand-
ing of Jackson, 647n; personal honesty,
650; Webster's visit to, 779.

Blrdseye, , 106n.

Bishops, in House of Lords, and the Re-
form bill, 460, 461.

Black Sea, negotiation for open navigation
for American vessels, 267, 270.

Blair, Frank Preston, 821, 828, 858, 859,
877, 882, 582, 584, 685, 668, 571, 692,
601n, 606. 607, 614, 667, 668, 751, 752,
777 ; feud with Clay, 667 ; informs Van
Buren of McLane's hostility, 569, 570;
Jackson's papers bequeathed to, 667;
letters, 607, 614, 669; letter to, 669;
regrets praise of McLane, 614; regrets
preventing resignations of Cast and Mc-
Lane, 608.

Blair, Mrs. Frank P., 667.

Bleeker, Hermanns, 429.

Bloodgood, Abraham, 547.

Blood good, DeWltt, 165.

Bloodgood, Francis A., 39ft.

Bloom, Henry, 76n.

Boiling, Powhatan, 486.

Bonney, Catharlna Van Rensselaer, Legacy
of Historical Gleanings, 125ft.

Bonus bill, Calhoun's, 298, 299, 800, 828,
880, 831, 884.

127483°— vol 2—20 50

Boston, cltlsens meeting on nullification
proclamation, 647 ; mechanics' proceed-
ings prior to adoption of Constitution,
698, 694.

Boston Gasette (The), 680.

Boullgny, Dominique, 201n.

Bourbons, restoration of, 585.

Bowne, Walter, 76», 108, 103n, 647, 579.

Bralntree, House of, 190.

Branch, John, 211, 21 In, 212. 216, 850.
850n, 861, 852, 856, 868, 360, 861, 862.

Brent, Daniel, 421, 421n.

Bright, John, opinion of United States, 479.

Brockenborough, William, 259, 259n.

Broome county, N. Y., 80.

Brougham, Lord, Van Buren 's opinion of,
472, 478, 474, 475.

Brown, Bedford, 676; support of Jackson,
728.

Brsjrn, James, 128 ; speech, 129.

Brown, Mrs. James, 128.

Brnyn, Johannes, 89n.

Bryan, Mrs., 486.

Buchanan, James, 289, 496, 666, 556ft, 597 ;
capitalises prejudice against 'England to
gain Presidency, 496; conduct at Eng-
lish court, 497; envoy to England, 496,
497; on Webster and Clay, 662, 663,
668».

Bucktall Bard, 94*.

Bucktall Bard, 04f».

Buel, Jesse, 106n.

Buel, , 61.

Buffalo and New Orleans road, 811.

Buren, town of, 10, lOn.

Burr, Aaron, 18, 21, 28, 82, 55, 109, 120;
charges against, 109n ; conversation with
Van Buren, 400; duel with Hamilton,
16, 29 ; Van Buren's relations with, 16.

" Burrftes," 109.

Butler, Benjamin Franklin (of N. T.), 636,
566, 697, 698, 605; approved for At-
torney Generalship by Van Buren, 598.

C.

Cabinet Jackson's, 282, 244, 246, 249, 269,
610, 614; appointments, 598, 694, 595;
changes, 596, 604, 606, 608 ; dinner, 348,
849, 850; disruption, 866, 620; Federal
tendencies in, 645, 646; meetings, 250,
251, 820 ; offer of place to Webster, 701,
706; paper on removal of deposits read
to, 601. 601fi, 608, 737; reception, 851;
resignation, 866.

Cadwallader, Thomas, 647*.

Calhoun, John C, 12, 27, 122, 124, 157,
169, 194, 199, 200, 204, 209, 210, 220,
240, 244. 278, 297, 808, 806, 807. 825,
845, 856, 864, 869, 870, 871, 872, 878,
874, 879, 880, 881, 882, 388, 889, 899,
410, 411, 415, 464, 606, 619f», 582, 588,
686, 561, 667, 568, 575, 576n, 617, 685,
652, 668, 666, 667, 670, 677, 685, 685»,
701, 708, 707, 708, 709, 766, 757, 759,

786

INDEX.

772, 766, 767, 768 ; M Appeal " pamphlet,
367, 877, 878, 379, 880, 888, 884, 889,
898, 669, 749, 760, 761, 762; appointed
Secretary of War, 300 ; approves appoint-
ment of Van Bnren as Secretary of State,
617; attacked by Clay, 890, 391, 892;
attacks Van Buren, 676; Bank speech,
738 ; bill to repeal Force bill, 744 ; Bonus
bill, 298, 299, 800, 828, 380; breaks with
Adams' supporters, 614; charges against
Van Bnren, 366, 367, 368, 884; charges
against Webster, 681, 682 ; coalition with
White, 226n; committed to nullification,
641; construction of U. S. Constitution,
513; contest with Jackson, 762; conver-
sation with Van Bnren, 409 ; correspond-
ence with Jackson, 866, 876, 876, 876n,
888, 884, 886, 386; debate with Clay,
392, 398n; declines Van Bnren's dinner
invitation and afterwards appears, 760 ;
disposition, 619; elected Vice President,
220, 514 ; Federal proclivities, 686 ; feud
with Clay, 564, 555, 560, 661; idea of
Jackson's purpose as to a successor, 604,
505; inconsistency on tariff, 411, 412;
Jackson's desire to arrest, 544 ; letter on
Jackson's Seminole War conduct, 506 ; let-
ters, 371, 874n, 875, 376n, 381», 514, 516 ;
nomination for President, 884, 393, 394 ;
nomination for Vice President, 515, 516;
nullification scheme, 882, 395, 410, 541 ;
on Adams-Clay-Crawford-Jackson contest,
515 ; opposes the money power, 889, 890 ;
^opposition to, 867; opposition to Jack-
son and his administration, 257, 668;
opposition to Van Buren, 518, 517, 518,
519, 620; originates Internal Improve-
ment policy, 411 ; personal relations with
Van Buren, 889, 890, 891, 892, 393, 894.
895. 518, 514, 584, 585, 749, 750, 758;
political principles, 518; political ruin,
751; Presidential candidacy, 116, 131.
884, 668; pronunciamento, 856; quarrel
with Crawford, 866, 867, 368, 369, 388;
quarrel with Jackson, 866, 867, 373. 374,
875, 377, 878, 879, 880, 881, 884. 888,
410, 605, 506, 520, 749 ; reaches the nul-
lification idea, 410; report on Internal
Improvements, 800, 800n; responsibility
for starting Idea of rejecting Van Buren's
nomination to England, 512, 513 ; respon-
sibility for U. 8. Bank, 411 ; selects Jef-
ferson's birthday dinner to launch nulli-
fication, 413; severs friendship with
Jackson, 749 ; successor to Jackson. 604 ;
tariff, 409, 410, 411, 412 ; toast at nulli-
fication dinner, 416; Webster's remarks
on, 682.

Callender, James Thomas, 166; charges
against Hamilton, 120.

Cambreleng, Churchill C. 231, 268, 367,
423n, 614, 515, 673, 595, 604, 606; de-
scribes rejection of Van Buren's nomina-
tion in Senate, 454; letters, 268*, 454,
502; opinion on proper time of Van
Buren's return to TJ. 8., 503; speech on
Bank panic, 666, 666; Van Buren's
opinion of, 656.

Campbell, John, 441.

Campbell, , 385.

Canada, rebellion, 466.

Canadian Fisheries dispute, 498, 499.

Webster's actions and speech on, 498.
499, 500.

Canals, 809.

Canning, George, 481, 621.

Cannons, the, 755.

Cantlne, Moses J., 82, 82*, 85, 86.

Cards, " brag " game between Clay and
Polndexter, 764.

Carman, , 89n.

Carolina, North, 654.

Carolina, South, 415, 424, 668, 561, 662,
699, 709, 744; against Jackson, 642;
antagonism to Van Buren, 768; Clay's
bill to pacify, 679, 681, 685, 693, 695;
force raised to support nullification, 644 ;
Jackson's desire to aid, 668; latitu-
dlnarlans, 416; nullification, 396. 409.
680; nullification ordinance, 642; op-
poses abolition of slave trade, 186; op-
poses Clay, 653; policy in forcing nulli-
fication, 541, 542; position on nullifica-
tion, 664 ; refuses to support Clay, 642 ;
submission of, 557.

Caroline, burning of the, 466, 466*.

Carrlngton, Edward, 484; letter to, 483;
report on Henry, 438.

Carson, Samuel P., 825, 325*.

Cass, Lewis, 497, 587, 602, 606 ; capitalises
prejudice against England to gain Presi-
dency, 496, 496 ; claims credit for removal
of deposits, 608; Jackson's opinion of
resignation, 608; opposes removal of de-
posits, 608, 604 ; opposes veto of reehar-
ter of Bank, 608, 604.

Cattarall, R. C. H., Second Bank of the
United States, 646*.

Chambers, Hsekiel F., 677.

Chambers, Henry, 201ft.

Chancellor of New York, 110, 111. Bee
also Kent, James.

Chandler, John, 201n.

Charlotte Court House, Vs., 486; resolu-
tions, 424. 425.

Chauncey, Isaac, 849, 849*.

Cheetham, James, 41.

Cherokee Indians, 295 ; address to people of
U. S., 292; case of vs. Georgia, 291*,
292; conflict with Georgia, 282; Inde-
pendent government, 282; Jackson's ef-
forts with, 294; lands, 281. 290, 291;
memorial, 290; missionaries In country,
298 ; stand on removal, 290.

Chesapeake and Ohio canal, 809, 868.

Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company,
315, 327, 829, 386.

Cheves, Langdon, 122, 411.

Chickasaw Indians, Jackson's advice to,
294.

Child, , 106*,

Chllds, P. G., 52.

Chittenden, , 664.

Choctaw Indians, Jackson's advice to, 294,

Cholera, in New York, 510.

INDEX.

787

Church, the, auxiliary of political, partisan
advantage, 290, 208.

Cincinnati, Ohio, Webster's speech at, 691.
Circuit judges, appointment, 218.
Class, social obligation, Van Buren on, 461.
Classification bill (N. Y. militia), 66, 66,
67, 68.

Clay, Henry, 108, 122, 146, 148. 151, 162.
168, 162, 168, 166, 181. 198, 194. 196,
197, 200, 220, 244. 248, 266, 299, 800,
801, 806, 807, 808, 809. 820, 323, 866,
864, 882, 890, 893. 898, 426, 449, 454,
608, 611, 615, 520, 521, 532, 584, 685,
587. 641, 642, 552», 567, 575. 617. 688,
684, 685, 687, 688, 652, 668, 663ft, 665,
666, 669, 672, 674, 676, 677, 678, 683,
684, 703, 707, 709, 710, 711, 730, 731,
742, 746, 754, 759, 762, 767. 772. 778.
774, 778, 780; "American System," 411,
564, 555, 556, 559, 682 ; analysis of Web-
ster's action, 688, 689, 694 ; appointed Sec-
retary of State, 810 ; appreciates Benton's
account of the Adams-Clay charges. 668 ;
attacks Calhoun, 890, 391, 892; attacks
Jackson, 737; attacks N. Y. safety fund
system, 741; attacks Van Buren, 675,
759; attacks upon, 556, 657; backs in-
ternal improvement policy, 411 ; Ben-
ton's treatment of, in his Thirty Years
View, 585 ; bill to distribute proceeds of
public land among the States, 742, 742*.
748, 744; bill for pacification of Soutb
Carolina, 679. 681, 682, 685, 693, 698ft,
699 ; blocks Webster's leadership in Sen-
ate, 716 ; " brag " game with Poindcz-
ter, 764, 756; calls for report on duties
from Secretary of Treasury, 740 ; char-
acter, 559, 560, 561 ; charges against,
666, 668; charges against Taney,
644 ; compared with Webster, 560,
561, 718, 719; compromise bill, 556;
conduct contrasted with Webster's. 560,
561 ; courage, 662 ; death, 685 ; debate
with Calhoun, 892, 898; defeated by
Jackson, 626; defeated for Presidency,
682, 686 ; duel with Randolph, 204, 207,
684 ; efforts to induce him to run as
Vice-President with Crawford, 665;
fame, 713; favors Force Bill, 698; feud,
with Blair, 667; feud with Calhoun,
664, 555, 581; the "Great Pacificator,"
685 ; hostility to Van Buren, 521 ; hos-
tility to Webster, 679; Influences Van
Rensselaer, 152 ; instructions .in West
India trade negotiation, 521 ; last chance
for Presidency, 685; leadership in Sen-
ate, 712, 716 ; leads Bank campaign, 639,
648, 644; letter, 203n ; letter to, 069;
Livingston's resentment, 705, 706 ; love
of brilliant political effects. 200. 203;
McDuffle's cooperation with, 717; on
Maysville veto, 329; meeting with Van
Buren, 568 ; move to overturn his Sen-
ate leadership, 677, 079 ; move to trap

— .Van Buren, 772; nominated for Secre-
tary of State, 666, 667, 668; opinion of

Webster, 670; opposed to nullification,
698; opinion of South Carolina, 668;
personal relations with Van Buren, 584,
636, 668. 665, 667, 668, 669, 670; per-
sonal relations with Webster, 734, 785.
786 ; plan tor Increasing panic, 717, 718.
719, 720, 786; on political allegiance,
670, 671; political career, 601; polit-
ical control of Bank campaign, 660, 662.
664 ; political course, 670, 671 ; political
maneuvers, 686; political relations with
Webster, 660, 662, 668, 670, 681, 682,
684, 686, 687, 688, 689, 694, 696, 698.
699, 700, 702, 708, 705, 706, 715; posi-
tion in nullification crisis, 654, 555, 557 ;
prejudice against England, 501, 502;
Presidential aspirations, 663; Presiden-
tial candidacy, 116, 181; Presidential
chances, 711, 714; private correspond-
ence, 587f»; quarrel with Jackson, 660;
reconciles Webster and Poindexter, 685,
686; relationship to Benton, 666n; re-
. marks on postponing Senate committee
appointments, 676; report on bill to dis-
tribute proceeds of public lands among
the States, 743, 744; reports failure of
Union Bank of Maryland, 787, 788 ; res-
olution calling for Jackson's paper to
Cabinet on removal of deposits, 737:
resolution calling for report on the Union
bank, 788; resolutions on removal power
of the President, 742, 742n; resolutions
to restore deposits to U. 8. Bank, 717,
717n, 728, 781, 782 ; Secretary of State,

157, 310; services to nation, 500, 561;
speech against the Bank, 808; speech
against Jackson's veto of recharter of
Bank, 622 ; speech on his South Carolina
pacification bill, 684; speech In reply to
Webster, 556, 557, 668 ; supports M Force
BUI," 681 ; tactics to aid the Bank, 684,
635. 712, 718, 714, 716, 716, 720, 723,
727, 781. 736, 737. 788, 739, 740, 741,
742, 744; tactics to increase panic, 717,
718, 719, 720, 786, 788, 739, 744; on
tariff, 240; Van Buren's visit to, 158;
visits Blddle, 660, 664 ; visits Van Buren,

158, 684, 684 ; Webster's attempt to take
control of Bank campaign from, 728, 781,
732, 788, 784, 786; Webster's .fear of,
682, 728, 784; Webster's opposition to,
682, 688 ; Webster's speech against, 683.
684.

Clayton, Augustin 8., 782, 782n.
Clayton, John M., 201* ; visit to Clay, 748.
Clergymen, complicate the Indian question,
284, 298.

Clinton. De Witt, 29, 80, 86, 37, 38, 89,
89n, 41, 42, 48, 64, 7ln, 72, 78, 85, 86,
86n, 87, 89n, 90, 91, 92, 98, 98, 99, lOOn,
101, lOln, 102, 102n, 104, 105, 100, 188,
144, 145, 160, 161, 182, 163, 164, 165,
197, 227, 228, 282, 238, 401, 515; atti-
tude on amendment of Constitution,
102n; character, 167, 168; death, 157,
160, 166, 166n, 167 ; Democratic support,

788

INDEX.

158, 150; elected, 104, IBS; Brie Canal
policy, 84, 157 ; Federalist connections,
45, 46, 48, 49, 49*, 158, 159 ; inaugura-
tion, 88 ; message to Van Buren, 89 ; op-
posed by Van Buren, 105, 163, 164 ; popu-
larity, 158; Presidential candidacy, 87,
88, 89, 40, 41, 157, 158; reelected gov-
ernor, 99, 144, 147, 164, 165; reelection
chances, 160, 161 ; removed from Canal
Board, 148, 147, 159; retirement, 108,
112 ; return to political power, 74, 75, 76,
76», 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83 ; supported
by Van Buren, 37, 88, 40, 41, 42, 75, 158 ;
supports administration, 88 ; Van Buren'e
address on death of, 166, 166*, 167 ; Van
Buren's break with, 45, 46, 47, 48, 101 ;
Van Buren's feeling toward, 96; Van
Buren's relations with, 149.

Clinton, Mrs. DeWitt, 140.

Clinton, George, 227, 411, 631.

Clintonians, split with Republicans, 89;
union with Federalists, 90.

"Clover bottom race course," 755.

Cobden, Richard, 412; opinion of United
States, 479.

Cochrane, Sir Alexander Forester Inglis,
letter, 58n.

Cocke, Philip St. George, 576*.

Colden, William, 401.
, Collins, , 106*.

Colton, Calvin, Private Correspondence of
Henry Clay, 537*.

Columbian Sentinel (The), 209.

Commerce, witn BritlBh West Indies and
North America, 274.

Congress, attitude toward appropriations,
310 ; anticipation of receipts from sale
of public lands, 117 ; Bank adherents in,
658, 659 ; Bank debate in, 719, 720, 726,
727 ; Bank's efforts to influence, 651, 656 ;
Bank's plans frustrated in, 758 ; Bank
pressure on, 659 ; Bank strength in, 714 ;
Bank tactics in, 712, 713, 714, 715, 716,
771 ; calls for Instructions to troops Bent
to South Carolina, 548; distress memo-
rials in, 721, 722, 723, 724, 726, 727,
736, 789, 740, 748 ; extravagance, 321 ;
plan to foment panic, 712, 713, 716 ; pow-
ers, 802, 816, 817 ; pressure on in behalf
of Bank, 687, 639, 640, 641. 642. Bee
alto House of Representatives also
Senate.

CongreBBional Globe (The), 857, 858, 860,
877, 884, 886, 898, 582, 568, 587, 614,
780, 751, 774, 776n, 777; article, 878;
charges bribery by the Bank, 777, 778,
779, 780, 781, 782; establishment of,
885; questions Webster, 778, 779.

Conklin, Frank J., 9n.

Conscription. See Classification bill.

Constitution, U. S., 647; adoption opposed,
431, 432, 448; amendments, 118, 315,
816, 817, 468n; Convention, 135, 135n,
471, 472; implied powers, 204, 297. 298,
299 ; on Internal improvements, 327. 828 ;
Interpretations, 513, 545, 546, 549, 695;
President's appointive and removal power
-\ 742 ; guarantees slavery, 187.

Convention*, at Baltimore (1882), 685, 587.
588, 591; (of 1840), 227; first of Its
kind, 684.

Conway Cabal, 444.

Cook, Daniel P., 182.

CoolJdge, Mrs. Joseph, 183.

Cooper, Thomas, 159, 159*. 160; convicted
under the Alien and Sedition law, 159,
160, 188; Jefferson's opinion of, 159;
opinion of Jackson, 160 ; opposed to Clin-
ton, 160; relations with Van Buren,
160.

Cooper, Mrs. 228.

Corporations, Jackson's opposition to gov-
ernment being a shareholder in, 595.

"Corrector" (The), 109.

Cotton, tariff on, 240.

Courts, auxiliaries of political, partisan ad-
vantage, 290.

Cox, , claim, 128, 129, 130.

Cox, Mrs., 128.

Cramer, John, 146.

Crawford. William EL, 108, 122, 124, 147,
149, 150, 157, 162, 194, 198, 241, 244,
803, 807, 870, 871, 872, 878, 874, 375.
876, 880, 386. 386, 888, 449, 514, 615,
617, 666, 575, 676n, 666, 667, 753;
charges against, 181, 182; House report
on charges against, 182* ; King's opinion
of, 181; letters, 867, 868; Presidential
candidacy, 116, 181, 142, 146; quarrel
with Calhoun, 866, 867, 868, 869, 888;
supported by Van Buren, 140 ; supporters,
286, 240 ; Van Buren's visit to, 867, 868.

Creek Indians, arrest surveyors and appeal
to the President, 280; Jackson's advice
to, 286. 294 ; lands, 281.

Creek-Cherokee Confederacy, 279.

Croker, , 477.

Crosby, Darius, 145, 145*.

Crosby, — , 81, 82.

Croswell, Edwin, letter, 197, 198*.

Croswell, Harry, 401.

Croswell, , 598.

Cumberland Road, bill, 117; expense, 302;
toll-gates, 802, 807, 815.

Cunningham, William, correspondence with
Adams, 188n.

Currency, TJ. S. Bank claims credit for, 721,
722.

Curtis, Edward, 536, 588; conduct in
Gardner fraud case, 537; Influence over
Webster, 536, 537.

Custls, G. W. P., 418.

Customs, duties ("Force BUI"), bill to en-
force collection, 544n.

Cuthbert, Alfred, 149, 149*, 151, 575, 576*.

D.

Dallas, George M., 597, 626; opinion on
Bank memorial for recharter, 622.

Dand ridge, Nathan, 441.

Davis, Warren R., 358.

Davis, , 88.

Dayton, Jonathan, 67, 69, 70, 71* ; letter to,
298, 298*.

INDEX.

78d

Debt, Imprisonment for, 212.

Debt, Public, payment of, 645, 647; U. 8.
Bank's obstructs paying; off of, 645, 646,
647, 649.

Decatur, Mrs. Stephen, 152.

Democrats, N. Y., alliance of " nighminded
Federalists" with, 105, 108; support
Clinton, 150, 150.

Democracy, perpetual struggle with mon-
archy, 485.

Democratic Convention. See Convention.

Democratic Party, opponents, 489 ; distrust
of England, 498.

Denlson, John Evelyn, 479n.

Denmark, successful negotiation of claims
against, 275.

Dennlston, . See Denlson, John

Evelyn.

Deposits, Removal of the, 600, 601, 603,
603n, 607, 608, 609, 648, 656, 657, 659,
696, 708, 714, 717, 718, 722, 726, 731,
789, 746, 747, 766; an aid to Bank's
campaign, 658 ; analysis of, 725", debate
In House of Representatives on, 717, 718 ;
decided upon, 657, 658 ; effect on country,
602, 607 ; Jackson's paper read to Cabinet
on, 601, 601n, 608, 787; independent of
Bank's loan curtailments, 656, 657 ; legal
procedure for, 714, 715 ; public sentiment
in favor of, 604, 606 ; restoration of, 717,
717*, 721, 722, 724, 725, 726, 728;
strengthens Bank, 688; Taney's report
on, 652; Van Daren's defense of, 603n;
Webster on, 708.

Derby, Lord, 464, 491, 499; Van Buren's
opinion of, 475, 476.

"Dick Shift" of the Bucktail Bard, 94n,
109.

Dickerson, John D., 574.

Dlckerson, Mablon, 182, 188, 201*, 241,
242, 267, 585, 685; desires Vice Presi-
dency, 584.

Dickerson, Philemon, 118.

Dirking, Asbury, 162.

Dlno, Dutches* de, 458, 460, 478.

Diplomacy, effect of Jackson's character
on, 274, 275.

Diplomatic appointments, 251, 252; corps'
adverse ideas of Jackson, 260, 261, 262 ;
corps' apprehensions relieved, 262.

Disraeli, Benjamin, 467, 468.

Doddridge, Philip, funeral, 270.

Donelson, Andrew Jackson, 270, 270*, 823,
341, 851, 353, 408, 418, 558, 602, 608,
612, 618, 614; letter, 846; letter to,
002.

Donelson, Mrs. Andrew Jackson, 848, 844,
845, 848.

Drayton, , 169.

Duane, William, 600.

Duane, William J., 593*, 602, 607; com-
missioner under French treaty, 600;
favors Bank, 594, 606 ; health, 602 ; Sec-
retary of the Treasury, 598, 594, 596,
597, 698; refusal to remove deposits,
603 ; removal from office, 608, 603*, 656,
696, 704; resignation, 609.

Dudley, Charles B., 169, 263, 263n, 430,
502, 595.

Duer, John, 89*, 104, 108, 109, 401.

Drier, William A., 188.

Duncan, Alexander, 495.

Duncanson, J. M., 884, 885, 399.

Dutchess county, New York, contested dele-
gation, 82.

Duval, Gabriel, 677, Q88, 584.

Dwight, Henry, W., 5^4, 674*.

H.

-, 877.

Earle,

Easton, Miss, 348, 844, 345.

Eaton Affair, 250, 389, 840, 841, 842, 848,
344, 345, 847, 348, 850, 851, 352, 856, 357,
858, 360, 878, 805, 397, 403, 520 ; 'the
first Cabinet dinner, 848, 849, 850.

Eaton, John II., 225*, 288, 241, 242, 242n,
825, 325fi, 340, 342, 845, 850, 852, 854,
865, 856, 857, 858, 359, 860, 861, 863,
364, 865, 377, 379, 380, 405, 406, 50S.
586, 587, 589, 590, 701, 751 ; appointed
Governor of Florida, 864; appointed
Minister to Spain, 364 ; Jackson's wish
for his return to place of Secretary of
War, 705 ; letter, 590 ; opposes Jackson,
868, 865; recalled from Spain, 864;
resignation as Secretary of War, 850,
856, 406, 407.

Baton, Mrs. John Ilenry (Peggy O'Neale),
842, 848, 344, 351, 852, 854, 358, 859,
861, 865, 407; Jackson's and Van
Buren's last call on, 407, 408.

Edwards, Nlnlan, 181, 576*; appointed
Minister to Mexico, 181 ; charges against
Crawford, 181, 162.

Edwards, Ogden, 102n, 106, 106*.

Eldred, , 104*.

Electors, Presidential, New York mode of
choosing, 142, 145, 146, 146*, 147.

Elections, N. Y., use of money In, 222, 228 ;
Van Buren's bill againV nse of money in,
221.

Blmendorff, Lucas, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71», 72.

Elwu8, Dr., 606.

Embargo, 28, 192.

Emmett, Thomas Addis, 21, 24, 68, 96, 160,
176 ; appointment as attorney general of
N. Y., 89, 96 ; death, 172, 178, 175.

Emott, James, 76*.

England. See Great Britain.

Eppes, John W., 485.

" Era of Good Feeling," 124, 126, 429.

Erie Canal, New York, 84, 84*, 85, 148,
167 ; commissioners, 91 ; opening celebra-
tion, 157.

Brvings, the, 755.

Europe, political alignment, 485.

Evans, Edward E.. 108, 108*.

Everett, Edward, 499, 529, 707 ; letter, 528 ;
Webster's Works, 708.

Swing, Thomas, 567, 677, 745, 745n ; chair,
man of Committee on Post Offices, 745.

Exeter, Bishop of, 460, 461.

790

INDEX.

F.

Faneuil Hall, Boston, meeting, 688, 689,
895; Webster's speech at, 698.

Federal Republican party, 784, 746.

Federalist Party, 494 ; continuance of, 124,
125; deserts principles in capitalizing
prejudice against England to gain Presi-
dency, 494, 495, 496 ; ruined by Hartford
Convention, 489 ; tendencies in Jackson's
Cabinet; theory of adoption of Constitu-
tion, 545.

Federalists, 89, 40, 41, 48, 45, 47, 48, 49,
49ft, 69, 80». 81, 82, 102w, 104, 116, 158,
159, 186, 193, 218, 220 ; address against,
88* ; and anti-Federalists played against
each other, 468n ; Cllntonians union with,
90; hatred of Henry, 482; New York
against Council of Appointment, 106 ; op-
position in New York legislature to War
of 1812, 49, 50, 51, 52, 56, 88* ; in U. 8.
Senate, 710, 711 ; withdraw support from
Jackson, 449.

Fellows, Henry, contested election, 78.

Ferguson, John, 264.

Fillmore, Millard, nomination vote, 500.

Finance, Senate Committee on, Webster's
move to obtain reference of resolutions
to, 781, 732.

Findlay, William, 210*, 235, 235*.

Fish, Preserved, 43.

Fitzhugh, Mr. and Mrs., 514.

Flagg, Asarlah C, 147, 147*, 222, 222*,
586, 587. 598, 741 ; letter to. 591.

Florida, Jackson's conduct in, 878, 375, 383.

Floyd, John B., 181, 553.

Foot, Bbenezer, 82, 88.

Force Bill, 544, 544*, 548, 554, 554*, 681,
698, 701, 758 ; repeal, 744 ; Tyler's vote
against, 710*; Webster credited with
passage of, 708.

Foreign relations, reciprocity in, 494;
party feelings in, 512; Van Buren's
labor on, 273.

Forman, Joshua, 291 ; letter, 221*.

Forsyth, John, 272, 272*, 279, 365, 870,
871, 872, 373, 374, 880, 381, 386,. 573,
598, 606, 662, 676, 708, 784, 744, 760,
761, 772; altercation with Poindexter,
757; appointed Secretary of State, 618;
defense of Taney, 738, 741; defense of
Van Buren, 539, 540 ; desires Vice Presi-
dency, 584 ; explanation, 373, 374 ; let-
ters, 370, 373, 389; letter to, 869; op-
position to Van Buren, 684; supports
Jackson, 723, 724.

"Forty Thieves," 104.

France, 485; claims against, 609; negotia-
tion with, 274 ; Envoy from, party, 753 ;
non-payment of draft by, 612; treat-
ment accorded U. S., 487; treaty with,
599; U. S. disregards treaty alliance,
485 ; U. S. envoy to, 229, 251, 252, 433,
434; war with, 429.

Franklin, Benjamin, 189 ; Adams on, 191 ;
letter, 191 ; opinion of Adams, 191.

Free trade, in England, 411, 465.
Frelinghuysen, Theodore, 288, 676, 676,

774.
French Indemnity bill, case, 649, 649*.*
French Spoliation claims, 251, 272 ; Adams

on Webster's unpatriotic speech, 271.
Friends, Society of, complicates the Indian

situation, 285, 289.
Frothingham, , 103m

G.

Galllard, John, 115.

Gales & Beaton, 556 ; Register of Debates,
211*, 215, 215*, 219*.

Gallatin, Albert, 117, 297*, 521; mission
to England, 521, 522 ; report on internal
Improvements, 297.

Gardinier, Barent, 88.

Gardner fraud, 537.

Garland, Hugh A., 485, 438.

Georgia, 414, 415; Cherokee lands, 291,
292; cited to appear before U. B. Su-
preme Court, 290; conflict with Indian
rights, 282 ; conflict with U. 8., 291 ; gov-
ernor asks withdrawal of missionaries in
Cherokee country, 293; Indians, 286,
290; Indians claim self-government, 277,
278, 279 ; missionary imposture, 626 ; op-
poses abolition of slave trade, 135 ; orders
survey of Indian lands, 280; radicals,
416 ; versus Cherokee Nation, 291*. 292.

German, Obediah, 47, 66, 93, 99; candi-
dacy for Speaker of'N. Y. Assembly,
89, 90.

Gibson, Milner, 467.

Gilbert, W., 38, 89.

Girard, Stephen, 596.

Gladstone, William E., 468.

Globe. See Congressional Globe.

Goat Island, purchase of a class right, 72.

Goes [Hoes], Maria, 10*.

Gold Spoon story, 769, 770.

Goldsborough, Charles W„ 426.

Gooch, Anne, 665*.

Gore. Christopher, 76*.

Gorham, Benjamin, 575, 575*.

Government officers, appointment, 742;
power to raise money, 304 ; removal, 742.

Governor of New York, state dinner, 68.

Graham, Sir James, 468.

Graham, John A., 75.

Granger, Gideon, 82, 99.

Great Britain (England), alliance with
U. S., 485, 486, 498 ; circular excluding
American fishermen from Canadian fisher-
ies, 498, 499; claim to right of search,
528, 529 ; conduct in War of 1812, 58, 54,
58, 60; convention with, 203*; Demo-
cratic party's distrust of. 498; effort to
favorably impress foreign minister*, 448 ;
feeling about War of 1812, 490; free-
press in, 680 ; free trade In, 411 ; friend-
ship with U. S., 491, 492, 494; govern-
ment system compared with U. 8., 480,
481, 482. 488, 492, 498 ; King, 451, 458 ;
King's judgment of Jackson, 450, 461,

INDEX.

791

* 457; King on Van Buren's rejection by
8enate, 455, 406 ; negotiation* with U. S.
on West Indies trade, 251, 258, 272, 274,
522, 028, 020, 526, 580; news of Van
Buren's rejection by Senate received in,
458, 454, 400, 456, 407 ; North American
trade negotiations, 274 ; power of public
opinion in, 481, 488; prejudice against
494, 496, 496, 497, 498, 499, 600, 601,
502; Queen, 456, 457; Queen's drawing
room, 405 ; right of search In slave trade,
208, 028, 029; refusal of West India
trade privileges to U. &., 022, 028 ; secre-
tary to U. S. mission, 208; seisures of
American slave ships, 028 ; simplicity of
nobility, 478, 474; treatment accorded
U. S., 486, 487, 490 ; treatment accorded
Van Buren on news of his rejection by
Senate, 406; U. S. envoy to. 251, 252,
257, 258, 260, 278, 820, 408, 496; Van
Buren appointed envoy to, 404, 400 ; Van
Buren's nomination rejected by Senate,
890. 400, 406, 748, 756; war with Rus-
sia, 467.

Green, Duff, 866, 876n, 884, 897, 514;
scheme to defeat Jackson and elect Cal-
houn, 884.

Greene county, N. Y., attempted depriva-
tion of its state senator, 86, 87, 88.

Gregory, Matthew, 69.

Grey, Lord, 479, 491; speech on the Re-
form bill, 460, 461, 462; Van Buren's
opinion of, 460, 461.

Grosvenor, Thomas P., 27, 28, 62, 401.

Grundy, Felix, 226n, 825, 825n, 877, 878,
879, 880, 881, 882, 410, 068, 675, 676,
677, 681, 686, 687, 688, 690, 699, 70O,
708, 704, 707, 710, 711, 750, 751 ; belief
that Webster would cooperate with
Jackson, 677, 678, 679; meeting with
Jackson and Van Buren, 671, 672; re-
marks on Senate postponing committee
appointments, 676; support of Jackson,
728.

H.

Hager, Henry, 44, 44ft.

Haight, Stephen, 771, 771 n.

Hamilton, Alexander, 150, 189, 190, 191,
195, 227. 249, 805, 488, 486, 488, 490,
681 ; advocacy of monarchy, 471 ;
charges against, 120; duel with Burr,
16, 29; favors special Interests, 600;
failure In Constitutional Convention, 471,
472; Jefferson's opinion of, 186, 600;
lack as a political leader, 470, 471, 472 ;
letter, 289, 298*, 488; method of an-
alysing a subject, 106; Monroe's actions
towards, 120, 121 ; on Implied powers of
Constitution, 297, 298 ; on 'power of gov-
ernment to raise money, 804; personal
honesty, 600; report on manufacturers,
297, 304 ; the Reynold's affair, 119, 120,
120n ; sons, 109 ; theory of government,
639 ; Van Buren's opinion of, 121.

Hamilton, James, 101, 169, 231; Jackson's
desire to arrest, 544.

Hamilton, James A,, 110, 868, 869, 870,
871, 872, 878, 874, 880, 881, 886, 887,
888, 889; appointment as district attor-
ney for southern district of N. Y., 260,
268 ; letters, £69, 870, 871, 872 ; letters
to, 870, 871.

Hammond, Jabez D., 86, 87, 88, 102n, 150 ;
Political History of New York, 9, 37,
39ft, 41», 44ft, 48, 49*, 67ft, 69ft, 72, 73,
76n, 79s>, 84, 84n, 86, 86», 86», 90ft, 91 n,
94ft, 98ft, 100ft, 102ft, 104ft, 100ft.

Hammond, James H., speech, 411, 411*,
412.

Hancock, John, 189.

Hardin, Benjamin, 808, 808n.

Harper, Robert Goodloe, 070, 075ft.

Harris, Levitt, 441.

Harrison, Richard, 21. _-^

Harrison, William Henry, 248, 086, 671.

narrowby, Lord, 482, 483.

Hart, Bphraim, 91.

Hart, Thomas, 66$*.

Hartford Convention, 49, 489, 047, 605,
696.

Hay, , 230, 286.

Hayne, Robert Y., 218, 218ft, 216, 218, 820,
414, 410, 404, 454n, 020, 667 ; experience
in Senate, 217 ; Jackson's desire to arrest,
544 ; Nullification proclamation, 681 ; re-
lations with Van Buren, 216; Van
Buren's opinion of, 216; Webster's reply
to, 680.

Hays, , 83. *

Hemphill, Joseph, 808, 808n, 309. 810,
814.

Hendri?kB, William, 454, 404ft, 676.

Henry, John V., 21.

Henry, Patrick, 487; Carrlngton and Mar-
shall's report on, 488; character, 440,
441, 442; debate with Randolph, 435,
436, 437, 488, 439; defeats Madison,
432; dissatisfaction with U. 8. Consti-
tution, 481, 482 ; genius, 187 ; Jefferson's
account of, 186, 187, 441 ; last speech,
430, 437, 440 ; letter, 438 ; letter to, 483 ;
nominated envoy to France, 433, 435;
offered Secretary of State, 433, 434 ;
opposes U. 8. Constitution, 443; plot
against, 488, 484 ; political relations with
Jefferson, 444; political services, 431,
432, 440, 442, 444; pursuit of wealth,
438; reading habits, 441, 442; repug-
nance to slavery, 188; supports Adams
and Allen and Sedition laws, 483 ; sup-
ports Washington in Conway Cabal, 444 ;
Washington's impression of, 448, 444.

Herbert, Bushrod W., 177ft.

Herbert, Noblet, 177ft.

Herkimer, N. Y., convention, 161, 168.

" High-minded Federalists," 104, 109 ; alli-
ance with Democrats, 100, 108; Van
Buren's relations with, 100, 108.
Hildreth, Matthias B., 88n; death, 88.

Hill, Isaac, 584, 676. " •

Hoes, Maria. See Goes.
Hoffman, Josiah Ogden, 61,

""fftnan, Michael, 741.

792

INDEX.

Hdfte, Moses, 486*

Hogeboom, John C, 29, 40 ; break with Van
Buren, 47, 48.

Holland, King William I, 9.

Holland, Lord and Lady, ^78.

Holland's life of Van Buren, 139*, 205*.

Holmes, Eldad, 647.

Holmes, John, 201*, 242, 840, 520, 684;
attacks Van Buren, 524, 525; deserts
Van Buren, 756; difficulty with Ran-
dolph, 206, 209; proposes amendments
to rule of Senate, 208, 209.

Holy Boman Empire (Holy Alliance), 200,
484.

Horn, Henry, 894; letter, 894.

Horse racing, 755.

House of Commons, power, 462.

House of Lords, debate on Reform bill In,
461 ; ftshops' bench in, 460, 461.

House ->f Representatives, aid to panic in,
747, 748; anti-Bank majority in, 714,
771 ; Bank's effort to reduce hostile ma-
jority in, 717; debate on restoration of
deposits, 717, 718; Presidential election
In, 149, 151, 152; Select Committee re-
port on Investigation of TJ. 8. Bank, 778,
778* ; speaker, 226n ; Van Buren's recep-
tion in, on his return from Europe, 567.

Hoyt, Jease, 536 ; letters, 536, 536*., 538.

Hubbard, Ruggles, 45, 46, 66, 67, 68, 69,
70, 71*, 72 ; letter to Van Buren, 68.

Hull, Isaac, 349, 349*.

Hume, Joseph, Van Buren's opinion of, 478,
479.

Humphreys, (Judge), 40.

Huntington, James, 47.

Huskisson, William, 521.

Huygens, Baron, 261, 353, 864.

Huygens, Madame, 352, 353, 854, 865.

I.

Impeachment, Jefferson on, 184.

Imports, act to modify duties (Clay's bill),
698*.

Impressment of seamen, 59, 491 ; negotia-
tion. 452, 453.

Imprisonment for debt, 212.

Independent Treasury bill, 390.

Indiana, application for relief from Ordi-
nance of 1787, 185; letter to governor
of, 327.

Indians, claim to self government, 277, 283,
286, 288, 290, 291 ; Congress' proceedings
on land question, 281; land question,
279, 280, 281, 290; policy, 285, 289;
question complicated by clergymen an<\
Friends Society, 284 ; removal beyond
the Mississippi, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279,
285, 286, 286*, 287, 288, 289, 289*, 294,
312, 314, 320; trade, 280; treaty, 279.

Ingham, Samuel D., 231, 263, 263*, 850,
350n, 362, 856, 857, 358, 359, 361, 862,
378, 379, 814, 560, 758; appointed Sec-
retary of the Treasury, 504, 505; desire
to succeed to the Presidency, 504, 506 ;
letter to, 860 ; opinion as to Jackson's

successor, 605 5 opposes Van Buren, 505';
Van Buren's opinion of, 504, 506.

Ingham, Mrs. Samuel D., 348, 350, 352.

IngUs, Sir Robert, Van Buren's relations
with, 482, 488.

IngUs, Bishop, claim, 172, 175.

Internal Improvements, 186, 194, 195, 297,
300, 800*, 801, 802, 308, 309, 312. 813.
814, 315, 816, 820, 822, 329, 330, 331,
887, 338, 411, 671, 704 ; conflict of State
and Federal power, 117; Constitutional
amendment, 315, 316; Gallatin's report
on, 297; Hamilton on, 298; Jackson's
policy, 297; Jefferson on, 297; Madison
on, 830, 333 ; Monroe's position, 801, 302,
802*, 308, 804, 805, 306, 807, 808 ; over-
throw of policy, 172; policy, 115, 116,
172, 297; political Importance, 297;
power behind, 320, 827; stopped, 275;
Van Buren on, 117, 319, 321.

Irish, William B., 284, 234*; appoint-
ment, 127.

Irving. John T., 88, 258, 611.

Irving, Peter, 109.

Irving, Washington, 109, 454, 610; feeling
towards McLane, 610, 611 ; letters, 610,
611; letter to, 611; on the Bank ques-
tion, 610, 611; secretary to English
mission, 258.

J.

Jackson, Andrew, 149, 150, 152, 157, 160,
162, 168, 181, 194, 198. 199, 200, 213,
216, 220, 225n, 281, 289, 247, 249, 260,
256, 257, 284, 293, 806. 310, 840, 846.
870, 872, 380, 381, 885, 886, 887. 388,
898, 399, 401, 402, 409, 410, 415, 417,
418, 419, 420, 423*, 424, 425, 426, 429,
445, 446, 450, 451, 465, 502, 506, 614,
517, 518, 522, 523, 524, 529, 588. 541,
656, 569, 578, 575, 577, 579, 581, 584,
686, 587, 590. 592, 601, 605, 607. 610,
614, 615, 616, 618, 634, 638, 644, 649*,
666, C67, 674, 676, 677. 678, 680, 686,
688, 691K 692, 694, 695, 696, 697, 698,

700, 702, 704, 706, 708, 715, 736, 744,
746, 751, 761, 763, 780; accident, 403;
administration, 244, 246, 251, 321, 581 ;
administration opposed, 250, 257, 287,
288, 289, 290, 292, 295, 709, 746, 768;
administration's social side. 229, 230;
advice to Monroe, 234, 235; advice to
Van Buren, 571 ; aid to, 314, 320 ;* alli-
ance with Webster, 672. 677, 678, 679,
688, 689, 690, 691, 697. 698, 699, 700,

701, 703, 707, 709, 711 ; ambition to pay
off national debt, 645; appointment of
foreign ministers, 251 ; appointment of
editors to political positions, 247; ap-
pointment rule, 249, 250, 253; arrest at
New Orleans, 369, 370, 371 ; asks power
from Congress to deal with South Caro-
lina situation, 544; assassination at-
tempted, 353 ; assumption of responsibil-
ity for administrative acts, 428, 694 ; at
Tammany dinner, 233 ; attacked by Clay,
787; attacked by press, 746; attacked

INDEX.

793

by Polndexter, 745; attacked by Ran-
dolph, 047; attitude toward Bank, 619,
686; attitude toward South Carolina,
518; Bank policy, 508; belief In Inten-
tional disrespect of Senate, 590, 600;
Blddle'e Interview with, 610, 610n;
Riddle's misunderstanding of, 64 7n;
Cabinet, 244, 240, 261, 260, 840, 841,
508. C01, 601n, 608, 014; Cabinet ap-
pointment troubles, 608, 504, 505; Cabi-
net changes, 506, 604, 606 ; Cabinet din*
ner, 848; Cabinet disappointments, 220,
280, 281 ; Cabinet disruption, 620 ; Cabi-
net's federal tendencies, 545, 546; Cabi-
net meetings, 250, 820; Cabinet differ-
ences of opinion and Jackson's method
of settling, 262; Cabinet resignations,
850, 856, 406, 407, 612, 613; Cabinet
scheme of Webster, 672, 701, 706; Cabi-
net worries, 610; character, 220, 267,
276, 276. 812, 818, 853, 880, 307, 403,
543, 544, 710 ; charges against, 756 ; con-
duct in Florida, 878. 875. 388, 754, 753 ;
conduct at New Orleans, 883; conduct
in Seminole War, 754, 755; Coopers
opinion of, 160; correspondence with
Calhoun, 866, 875, 376, 870n, 383, 384 ;
course in West India trade negotiation,
627, 528, 520; decides to remove de-
posits, 657, 658; denounced, 424, 425,
606, 730, 758 ; desires to aid South Caro-
lina, 653 ; diplomatic corps' adverse Ideaa
of, 200, 261, 262; dismissal of Duane,
608, 603 a, 658, 606, 704; domestic
policy, 275; Eastern tour, 602; Batou
affair, 880, 841, 853, 858, 850, 360, 361,
864, 365; last call on Mrs. Baton, 407,
408; efforts to pay off public debt, 647;
elected President, 220 ; election (of 1824),
440; embarrassed by question of Consti-
tutional theory In nullification excite-
ment, 545 ; enemies, 658, 650 ; escorts Van
Buren to Capitol on latter's return from
England, 566; faith in the people, 625;
feeling as to Cabinet meetings, 250 ; feel-
ing of English people toward, 440, 450;
feels Van Buren's absence, 508; friend-
ship, 814, 582, 755 ; friendship severed by
Calhoun, 740; health, 625, 637; horse
racing, 755 ; Inaugural address, 246 ; in-
clination to personally arrest Calhoun and
others, 544 ; Indian policy, 276. 285, 286.
286n, 204, 205; Internal Improvement
policy, 207, 310, 811, 812, 815, 320, 321,
827, 335, 336, 837, 863 ; "judicious tariff,"
116, 240; the King's estimate of, 450,
451, 457; letters, 108, 108n, 224, 224*,
233, 234, 235, 238, 248, 263, 264, 321,
322, 354, 861n, 874, 887, 507, 507n, 508,
508ft, 505, 603, 604, 705, 705n; letters
on removal of deposits not published by
opponents, 608 ; letters to, 245, 261, 821,
361n, 546, 578, 580, 508, 606, 606 ; Liv-
ingston's opinion of, 220; Livingston's
opposition to, 705; McLane's attempt to
sow dissension between Van Buren and.
560; mall pressure on, 007; meeting

with Van Buren, 282 ; meeting with Van
Buren and Qrundy, 671, 672; meets
nullification threat, 416, 416, 417;
message, 420, 421, 543, 544, 546,
505 ; annual message, 885, 887, 420, 421,
445, 045; message on Georgia Indian
land case, 280, 281, 286, 286n; sea also
under veto infra; message to McLane,
682; method of settling Cabinet differ-
ences, 262; the Monroe letter, 288, 284,
235, 286, 287, 288, 280; New Orleans
visit, 868, 860 ; nominated for President,
515 ; nullification dinner toast/ 415, 416,
417; Nullification Proclamation, 543,
546, 547, 548, 550, 552, 558, 680, 684,
608, 705, 705n, 706; nullification threat
and preparations to meet it, 418, 414,
offers Van Buren Secretary of State port-
folio, 224; openess in public matters,
322; opinion of Livingston, 704, 705;
opinion of Van Buren, 12, 608; opinion
of Cass and McLane's resignation, 608;
opposed by Bank, 581, 616, 617, 640,
644; see also under Bank (Second), U.
8. ; opposed by Calhoun, 668, 740, 750,
751, 762; see alto under Calhoun; op-
posed by monled interests, 440, 450; op-
posed by South Carolina, 542 ; opposition
to, 718, 716; opposition to Bank, 626,
047, 656, 657, 777; opposition to cor-
porations with the Government as a
shareholder, 506; overthrows internal
Improvement policy, 172; paper read to
Cabinet on removal of deposits, 601,
601*> 608, 787 ; papers, 821, 821n, 571 ;
Parton's Life of, 740, 740it; personal
feeling against J. Q. Adams, 260, 270,
271 ; personal relatione with Van Buren,
232, 238, 242, 248, 245, 402,* 408, 406,
406, 506, 507. 515, 516; plan of electing
Van Buren Vice-President and then re-
signing the Presidency in his favor, 506.
507; pledge to pay off the public debt,
824; Polndezter's support, 754; Poln-
dexter's antagonism, 755, 756 ; policies,
318, 821 ; popularity, 253, 265, 710 ; por-
trayal by Van 'Buren, 812; position on
tariff, 116, 280, 240, 241, 242, 554;
preference for Pennsylvania in selecting
a Secretary of the Treasury, 506, 607 ;
preparation of public papers, 818 ; Presi-
dential receptions, 280; proposed for
President, 108; quarrel with Calhoun,
866, 867, 878, 874, 875, 877, 378, 870.
380, 881, 884, 888, 410, 505, 506, 520;
quarrel with Clay, 560; reelection, 626,
636, 680, 657 ; refuses to send to Senate
paper read to Cabinet, 787; regards re-'
election as mandate to suppress the
Bank, 657 ; relations with White, 226n,
674; remark about the Bank, 626; re-
moval of deposits, 600, 601, 601n, 60%,
603, G08», 604, 607, 608, 667, 658, 710,
726, 727; resemblance to Duke of
Wellington, 464; resignation from Sen-
ate, 242 ; retirement, 508 ; at Rip Raps,
001*, 008, 605, 607, 608 ; scheme to de-

794

INDEX.

feat, 884; second term, 606; Seminole
War controversy, 271, 366, 368, 371,
378, 374, 883, 388, 606; Senatorial sup-
port, 728, 724 ; sends troops to Sooth
Carolina, 643; struggle with the Bank,
626, 626; successor to, 604, 606, 606;
suggests Duane for Secretary of the
Treasury, 696; talk to Creeks, 286;
urges modification of tariff, 664; Van
Buren and Calhoun cooperate to elect,
614; Van Buren's defense of removal of
deposits, 603* ; Van Buren's opinion of,
246, 260; veto of Clay's Public Land
Sales bill, 748, 744; veto of Bank re-
charter, 294, 610, 631, 666, 601. 603,
622, 623, 624, 629, 647, 662; veto of
Maysville turnpike bill, 172, 172n, 322,
323, 824, 826, 326, 827, 828, 829, 330,
336, 337; Vice-Presidential candidate
for, 684, 687, 689; visit to Eastern
States, 689, 690; vote against thanks to
Washington, 313; Whig effort to sepa-
rate from Van Buren, 649 ; wishes Van
Buren to return to Secretary of State
position, 705*; wishes Van Buren to
return to U. S., 608; wishes Van Buren
to be Vice-President, 689, 690.

Jackson, Rachel (Mrs. Andrew), attack on,
269.

Jackson, William, 120.

James River, barons of the, 431.

Jay, John, 18, 19, 142.

Jay. Peter A., 78, 547, 649.

Jefferson, Thomas, 9, 28, 36, 117, 119, 121,
122, 124, 126, 127, 134, 139, 140, 141,
147, 166, 169, 168, 177, 184, 186, 186,
188, 189, 192. 193. 218, 219, 249, 818.
319, 412, 413, 418, 428, 432, 438, 436,
448, 449, 494, 495, 650, 705; account
of Patrick Henry, 186, 187; belief in
Hamilton's personal honesty, 660; birth-
day celebration dinner at which nul-
lification was launched, 413, 414, 415,
416 ; freedom from political rancor, 183 ;
letters, 185, 186, 180*, 190, 190*.
432, 432*, 441, 441n; mistake as to
Henry, 488; on evils of life tenure in
Supreme Court, 183, 184 ; on impeach-
ment, 184 ; on Internal Improvements,
297 ; on Patrick Henry, 186, 187, 441 ; on
punctuality, 187, 188 ; opinion of Hamil-
ton, 186, 650 ; opinion of Washington, 185,
186; policy, 140; political relations with
Henry, 444 ; principle of patronage, 128 ;
Randolph's hostility, 208; repugnance to
slavery, 133, 186; Van Buren's visit to,
182, 183, 184, 185, 186. 187, 188.

'Jenkins, Blisha, 67, 70.

Jenkins, Robert, 80, 82.

Jenkins, Seth, 80, 81.

Johnson, Francis, 150.

Johnson, Peter, 436.

Johnson, Richard M., 20 In, 218, 218*, 823,
824, 825, 855, 858, 359, 361, 877, 381,
568, 751 ; character. 746 ; desires Vice-
Presidency. 684. 589; letters, 359, 360;
Van Buren's opinion of, 881, 882.

Johnson, William, 64*, 292, 292*.

Johnston, Josiah 8., 201*, 464, 454», 611,
666, 566*.

Johnston, Josiah Stoddard, Mrs., 128.

Jones, Henry F., letter, 100*: letter to,
100*.

Jones, James, 149.

Jones, Samuel, 401; confirmed as Chan-
cellor, 168.

Jones, Dr., visit to Van Buren, 751, 762.

Judiciary Bill, 19a

Judiciary officers, appointment, 107.

Judiciary system, 218, 219, 220 ; as a politi-
cal machine, 219.

Justices of the peace, appointment, 107.

Kane, Ellas E., 201*, 570, 573, 676; sup-
ports Jackson, 724.

Keese, Mrs., 42.

Kendall, Amos. 584, 601*, 602, 607. 610.

Kent, James, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 64*.
102, 175, 547, 549; anecdotes of, 64, 66;
decisions reversed, 64, 64* ; legal ability,
63, 64, 64* ; Memoirs and Letters, 64*.

Kent, Joseph, 677.

Kentucky Argus (The), 885.

Kentucky Resolutions, 319.

Keyes, Perley, 82. 85, 161, 163.

Keystone State, 314.

Klnderhook, N. Y., the Van Burena at, 10,
10*.

King, Adam, 763.

King, Charles, 109, 110.

King, James Gore, 109*.

King, John A., 89*, 99*, 100*, 101*.

King, John P., 676.

King, Rufus, 59, 89*, 99*, 100*, 102*, 104*,
105, 114, 180, 138, 139, 139*, 140, 141,

146. 147, 149, 461, 574, 674*; appoint-
ment, 139* ; attacks council of appoint-
ment, 107 ; attacks Shaker petition, 153,
154; career, 156; character, 166, 166;
death, 155; election, 45. 48; Jefferson's
characterization of, 156; letter, 101* ;
Life and Correspondence, 46, 49*, 59*.
78», 76*, 100*; Minister to England,
155; opinion of Crawford, 131; opposi-
tion to slavery, 189 ; reelected U. 8. Sena-
tor, 100 ; relations with Van Buren, 100,
101*, 108, 180, 181, 182, 189, 140, 141,

147, 154, 155 ; support of War of 1812,
139; Van Buren's pamphlet on, 139*.

King, William, 41.

King, William R., 209, 210, 744, 744*;

supports Jackson, 724.
Knight, Nehemlah M., 676.
Knower, Benjamin, 166, 169. 170, 171, 662,

663.
Knox, Henry, 190.
Kossuth, Louis, dinner, 608.
Krehmer, George, 235, 238, 560; letter to,

288.
Krudener, Baron, 862, 353, 864.

INDEX.

795

Labouchere, Henry, 479.

Lacy* Drury, 480.

Lafayette, Marquis de, Adams' address on,
226n.

Lands, Public, cession, 891; chairman of
Senate Committee on, 745 ; frauds, 745 ;
Indians, 279, 280, 290, 291 ; proceeds of
sale of, 117, 742, 742n.

Lansdowne, Marquis of, 461.

Larwlll, Joseph H., 586, 586», 687; hon-
esty, 586.

Latimer, «, 572.

Leake, — i , 96.

Leavenworth, , 47.

Lee, William, 769, 769*.

Lee, Henry, 484, 444 ; plot against Henry,
438, 484 ; letter, 488 ; letter to, 488.

Leigh, Benjamin Watkins, 422, 425, 557,
788; attitude on Bank question, 659;
Tlsit to Clay, 748.

Lelper, George O., 119, 289.

Letcher, Robert, visit to Clay, 748, 744.

Lewis, Morgan, 18, 28, 82, 44, 45, 605 ; Van
Buren supports, 15.

Lewis, William B., 282, 826, 825», 840, 869,
871, 872, 878, 876, 887, 888, 889, 408,
405, 406, 579, 580, 581, 686, 588, 592.
616; letters, 248*, 870, 588, 586, 591;
letters to, 370, 582, 500.

"Little Band" (Burrites), 109.

Little Prince. Indian chief, 280.

Livingston, Edward, 181, 508, 565, 614,
688, 701, 702, 704, 706, 705* ; appointed
Minister to France, 229, 251, 258, 259 ;
declines French Mission, 259, 260, 260n ;
forebodings of Jackson's administration,
229, 261 ; French Mission, 598, 695, 698,
705, 705n; defalcation charges against,
705; drafts Nullification Proclamation,
705, 705n, 706, 707; Jackson's opinion
of, 704, 706; letter, 260n; opinion or
Jackson, 229 ; opposes Bank charter veto
and removal of deposits, 603; opposes
Jackson on the Bank, 705 ; relations with
Webster, 715; report to Webster, 705,
706 ; resentment against Clay, 705, 706 ;
Secretary of State, 705; Van Buren's
friendship for, 704.

Livingston, Edward P., 82, 88.

Livingston, Harry, 27.

Livingston, Peter R., 50.

Livingston, Robert, land patents, 22, 28.

Livingston, Robert R., 44, 50, 259; letter
to, 189.

Livingston Manor, patent suit, 22, 28, 24 ;
town meetings, 25.

Uoyd, James, 209, 210.

Loans, curtailment by U. 8. Bank, 652,
658, 664, 656.

London Times (The), opposition to Aboli-
tionist efforts In U. 8., 492.

Londonderry, Marquis of, 459.

Loomls, — ! , 84.

Lot, 1 99.

Louis Napoleon, 586.

Louisiana, and slavery, 186.

Lowndes, William J., 122, 800, 801, 411,
411n, 412.

LowrLe, Walter, 285, 285n, 289, 242 ; char-
acter, 288, 289; controversy with Mon-
roe, 286, 287; elected Secretary of the
Senate, 288, 289.

Lucas, Robert, 591.

Ludlow, Thomas W., 778.

Lyon, Matthew, imprisoned under the
Allen and Sedition law, 489, 440.

M.

Me Arthur, Duncan, 181.

Macauley, Thomas Bablngton, Lord, 464,
468, 469.

McDuffle, George, 394, 416, 560, 560»; an-
tagonism to Jackson, 718; cooperation
with Clay, 717; Jackson's desire to
arrest, 544 ; supports Bank, 718.

Mclntyre, Archibald, 99; letter, 95, 95t»;
letters to, 95n. «■«

McKean, Samuel, 768, 766.

McKensle, William L., 536, 588; Lives
and opinions of B. F. Butler and Jesse
Hoyt, etc., 586w, 588.

McLane, Louis, 146, 149, 149n, 150, 151,
211, 278, 422, 482, 502, 503, 508, 510,
511, 575, 575*, 580, 598, 699, 600, 602,
606, 609, 612, 613, 614; accepts Eng-
lish mission, 258; aided by Van Buren,
577, 578, 605, 609, 610, 615 ; appointed
president of banking company, 617; ap-
proves of Duane as Secretary of Treas-
ury, 597, 601 ; belief in failure of Jack-
son's administration, 280, 579; chance
of appointment on Supreme Court, 677,
678 ; character, 677, 679, 590, 592 ; con-
firmed as Secretary of Treasury, 581,
532 ; continuance In office, 609, 611 ;
conversation with Jackson on cabinet
changes, 696, 597 ; course on protest of
French draft, 612; desires Supreme
Court appointment, 588, 584 ; differences
of opinion with Van Buren, 605; dis-
appointment at not being in Jackson's
cabinet, 280; disposition to meddle in
the Bank controversy, 601 ; duplicity In
obtaining appointment of Duane, 594,
596 ; first annual report as Secretary of
Treasury, 681, 600, 601; friend attacks
Van Buren, 569; friendship for Van
Buren, 681, 601 ; hostility to Van Buren,
569, 670, 571, 572, 578, 581, 582, 588,
584, 688, 589, 590, 692; Instructions to,
•521, 526, 529, 530, 581n, 595; Ir-
ving's feeling towards, 610, 611 ; Jack-
son's message *to, 582; Jackson's opinion
on resignation, 608; letters, 280, 530n,
548, 548n, 571, 575, 579, 596, 600, 601,
602; letters to, 572, 678; mission to
England, 267, 274, 528, 581, 588, 614;
offered Attorney Generalship, 257 ; on
aid to destitute Americans abroad. 546;

796

INDEX.

opposes veto of bank charter and re-
moval of deposits, 608, 604; partiality
for Bank, 593, 600, 601, 602, 605, 616,
617 ; personal relations with Van Buren,
578, 574, 675, 576, 577, 578, 579, 598,
611, 613, 614, 615, 616, 617; political
practices, 614; presidential aspirations,
583, 588, 615, 616, 617 ; recommends re-
charter of U. S. Bank, 581 ; on removal
of deposits, 602; requests explanation
from Van Buren, 572 ; resignation, 605,
608, 609, 610, 612, 613, 614, 615, 617;
Secretary of State, 593, 598; Secretary
of Treasury, 598 ; self Interest, 614, 616,
617; successful negotiation with Great
Britain, 274, 523, 531; suggests Van
Bnren's declining Secretary of State ap-
pointment, 230; suggestion as to his
instructions, 630; threat to retire from
public life, 694; visits Van Buren, 570.

McLeod, Alexander, case, 466, 466n.

McNairys, the, 755.

Macomb, Alexander, 849, 349a.

Macon, Nathaniel, 129, 129m 200, 211, 221,
236, 241, 242. 868, 655, 667; Intercedes
with Jackson to change removal of depos-
its plan, 607.

Madison, James, 28, 36, 87, 40, 41, 42, 43,
47, 57, 63, 117, 119, 121, 122, 124, 126,
189, 192, 193, 319, 328, 411, 412, 418,
421, 449, 471, 494, 681 ; defeated for U. S.
Senator, 432; on internal improvements,
380, 881, 334 ; letters, 880, 881, 384 ; let-
ters to, 190, 190n, 880 ; principle of pat-
ronage, 128; Randolph's hostility, 208;
report on Allen and Sedition laws, 802;
repugnance to slavery, 183; tactics Jn
securing first amendments to U. S. Con-
stitution, 468fi ; veto of Bonus bill, 299,
300, 330, 381, 834.

" Magician, The " (Van Buren), 226n.

Maison Rouge Tract, bill, 128, 129, 130.

Mallary, Rollin C, 169, 170a.

Mangum, Willie P., 677.

Manufacturers, annual petition to Congress,
169 ; craving for tariff benefits, 559.

Manufactures, Hamilton's report on, 297.

Marbury vs. Madison, 291.

March, Charles W., 681, 689, 702, 708, 704,
706, 707, 708 ; Reminiscences of Congress,
700, 700* ; Van Buren's opinion of, 701 ;
Van Buren's opinion of his book, 708,
709.

Marcy, William L., 101, 168, 166, 169, 503,
504, 562, 595, 598 ; letter to, 509.

Maritime rights, 60, 60».

Marshall, John, 175, 178, 219, 259, 484.
753; appointment to Supreme Court,
179 ; citation to State of Georgia, 290 ;
decisions favor U. 8. Bank, 126, 188;
decisions undermine Constitution to
favor U. S. Bank, 126; elected to Con-
gress, 179; extra-judicial opinions, 291;
Jefferson's dislike of his decisions, 183;
quoits with Tasewell, and others, 259;
report on Henry, 433.

Maryland State Bank, failure, 787.

Mason, George, repugnance to slavery, 188.

Masons, Antl, excitement, 220.

Massachusetts, Jackson In, 689, 690; and
the protective tariff, 698; resolutions of
legislature, 782, 788.

Mayo, , Dr., 11.

Maysville, Washington, Paris ft Islington
Turnpike Company, bill, 811, 820, 821;
Constitution on, 827, 828; Pennsylvania
Congressmen favor, 825; veto of, 172.
172n, 828, 824, 825, 826, 827, 828, 829,
380. 885, 837.

Meigs, William M., Life of Calhoun, 800*.
576*

Melbourne, Lord, 528 ; administration, 465.

Memorials, counter distress, 724, 725, 727;
" distress," 721, 722, 728, 724, 725, 727.
736, 789, 740, 748 ; Van Buren's opinion
on discretion of President of Senate in
presenting, 774, 775, 776.

Mercer, Charles Fenton, 575, 575*.

Mercer, Charles Francis, 177.

Merchants, financial situation of, 652, 656.

Middle States, free of passion for official dis-
tinction, 259.

Mlddleton, Henry, 419, 419*.

Miller, Stephen D., 454, 454n.

Militia, officers, election, 107.

Mllnes, Monckton, 483.

Minister to England, Van Buren's appoint-
ment to, 225.

Missionaries, to Indians, 284, 285.

Missionary, Georgia, imposture, 626.

Mississippi, Indians claim self government
in, 277.

Missouri, admission as a slave state, 187,
188, 140 ; and slavery, 136, 137.

Missouri Question, 185, 187, 138, 189, 684 ;
Van Buren's attitude, 99, 100.

Monarchy, strength of Idea in Europe, 484,
485 ; struggle with democracy perpetual,
485.

Money, Government's power to raise, 304.

Money Power, the, 449; attempts to prej-
udice England against Jackson, 450;
opposes Jackson, 449.

Monopolies, odium of in public mind, 658.

Monroe, James, 56, 56*, 57, 76, 76*, 80, 94,
115, 116, 122, 123, 126, 128, 140, 177,
181, 192, 193, 233, 238, 277, 279, 800,
304, 306, 307, 808, 819, 412, 418, 429.
433, 495, 595, 769 ; cabinet deliberations
on Jackson and the Seminole War, 366,
368, 869, 370, 371, 878, 374, 375, 376s,
380, 887, 388 ; character, 119, 121 ; com-
mittee to Investigate charges against
Hamilton, 119; course with Lowrie, 236,
237; election to Presidency, 122; fusion
policy, 197; Indian message to Congress,
277, 278; Indian power at close of ad-
ministration, 278; the Jackson letter,
233, 284, 235. 286, 287. 288, 239 ; Jack-
Bon's private letter to, 888; letters to.
58», 198, 198n, 233, 234, 236, 383, 432,
432n; message, 802, 802n> 606, 308;
political policy, 234 ; position on Internal
Improvements, 801, 802, 308, 304, 305,

INDBX.

797

806, 307, 808; principle of patronage,
124, 125, 126, 127 ; Randolph's hostility,
208; In the Reynold* affair, 119, 120,
121 ; successor to, 116 ; Van Buren's last
visit to, 153; Van Buren's opinion of,
121 ; veto of Cumberland Road blU, 117,
815.

Moore, Gabriel, 454, 454*, 676.

Moore, John L., 108*.

Morell, , 25. 27, 28.

Morgan, John J., 586.

Morgan, William, abduction, 220.

Morning Chronicle, The, 109.

Morrii Gavel & Banking Company, 617n.

Morria, Thomas, 676.

Mount Vernon, Van Buren's visit to, 177.

N.

Napier, Lord, 405, 497.

Napoleon I, 484; distrust of Talleyrand,
469. See alto Louis Napoleon.

National Advocate (The), 101, 188.

National Gazette and Literary Register,
199, 199*.

National Intelligencer (The), 859. 866, 416,
417, 525, 526, 690.

National Republicans. See Republicans.

Naudaln, Arnold, 677.

Navigation Acts, a political deal for pro-
longing slave trade. 135,

Nolsori, John, 676, 575 n.

Newburgh Telegraph (The), 759.

New England, character. Van Buren on,
710 ; Jackson's visit. 689, 690 ; liking for
official distinction, 258; senators attack
Van Buren, 524; senators delay denun-
ciation of West India trade negotiation
success, 523; senators vote for resump-
tion of West India trade and denounce
it when accomplished by Van Buren, 522 ;
tariff, 116.

New Hampshire, legislature, recommends
a convention, 584.

New Jersey plan, for amendment to the
Constitution, 118.

New Orleans, battle of, feeling of English
toward, 461.

New Yorjc auctioneer officers, 223; Cham-
ber of Commerce, 268; cholera in, 610;
Collector of Customs, 262, 263, 505, 536 ;
Constitution, adopted, 112, 112n.

Constitutional Convention, 102, 102n,
105, 110, 111, 112; committee on ap-
pointments, 106, 106* ; Van Buren's
course in, 112.

Contested election, 73 ; Democratic citi-
zens, letter to Van Buren and the
reply, 603, 508n; election, 78, 158; elec-
tion (of 1814), 68; (of 1820), 102;
electors favor Crawford, 142; Federalist
conduct In, 49, 60, 51, 52, 56, 59 ; Gov-
ernorship, Van Buren, 220, 225, 227,
501.

Legislature :' 550, 552 ; struggle to con-
trol, 80, 86; support of administration,
720, 730, 731.

Assembly : attitude in War of 1812, 44 ;
investigation of Van Ness bribery, 110,

HOn; Senate: Van Buren's election to,
224.

Loan to U. 8., 44 ; Middle district Con-
vention, 88*) ; militia bill, 55, 56, 57, 58 ;
politics, 142, 145, 147, 157; protective
tariff, 169, 170, 698, 696; Republican
struggle with Federalists, 81, 82, 90;
Safety fund system attacked, 741, 742;
supports John Qulncy Adams, 142, 145;
supports War of 1812, 57; tariff con-
vention, 169, 170; Union meeting on
Nullification Proclamation, 547; U. S.
district attorney for southern district,
265.

New York vs. John Jacob Astor, 175.

New York American (The), 109; charges
against Van Ness, 110.

New York Courier and Enquirer (The),
898.

New York Evening Post (The), comments
on New York legislature's report on
Nullification proclamation, 552.

New York Journal of Commerce (The),
421.

Newspapers. Bee Press, The.

Nicholas, Wilson Cary, 412, 412*.

Nicholson, John, 268, 536.

Nlles' Register, 282, 526, 626n, 654, 691,
694, 696.

Noah, M. M., 898; letter to, 101, lOln, 188.

Nobility, English, simplicity of, 478, *74.

North Carolina. See Carolina, North.

North Eastern boundary question, 278, 452,
465.

Northern Whig, newspaper, 28*.

Northwest Territory, Ordinance of 1787,
134, 135.

Noyes, John, 76*.

Nullification, 882, 895, 896, 409, 410, 562,
679, 680, 681, 682, 684, 685, 691, 692,
696, 697, 698, 758; Cahoun committed
to, 541; crisis, 554; doctrine, 542;
Hayne's proclamation, 681; Jackson's
toast at dinner, 415, 416; .launched at
Jefferson birthday banquet^ 418, 414,
415; meeting at Albany, 562, 568, 564;
meeting at Boston, 647 ; meeting at New
York, 547; meeting at Shocco Springs,
562; Proclamation: 648, 680, 684, 694,
696, 698, 706, 707; defects, 546, 547,
548; denounced, 424, 425; federal ten-
dencies in, 706, 707 ; Livingston's draft,
706, 705*; newspaper comment on, 552,
558; political capital made out of, 547,
558; Van Buren's report on for New
York legislature, 550, 552; South Caro-
lina's ordinance of, 542, 680, 688 ; toasts
at banquet, 415, 416, 417.

Nulliflers, 696, 697.

O.

Oakley, Thomas J., 88, 94*, 166*, 401.
O'Connell, Daniel, 476.
Office seekers, Importunity of, 281.
Officer*, Revolutionary War, half pay, 211,
212.

798

INDEX.

Official distinction, a New Bngland feel-
lag, 208.

Ogden, David R, 21, 50, 127, 178, 401.

Ohio, circuit judge In, 219 ; protective tariff,
698, 696.

O'Neale, Peggy* See Baton, Mrs. John
Henry.

Ontario County, N. Y., contested election,
78; senator from, 86, 87.

Ordinance of 1787, 184, 186.

Oswego, N. Y„ branch of Erie canal to, 85.

Otis, Harrison Grey, 429, 547, 574, 675»,
695.

Otrarito, Duke of, 445.

Otsego county, N. T., 105 ; senator from, 86.

Overton, John, 587, 587», 588, 589, 591.

Owen, George W., 181.

P.

-,586.

Pageot,

Parliamentary reform, 468.

Palmerston, Lord, 456, 457, 458, 460, 477,
628, 529; attack on administration (in
1855), 467, 468; on Van Buren*s rejec-
tion by Senate, 456; opinion of Talley-
rand, 458 ; Van Buren's negotiation with,
452, 458; Van Buren's opinion of, 466,
466, 467.

Panama Mission, 198, 199, 200, 200n, 201,
202*. 202n, 204, 246 ; abandoned, 201 ; de-
feated, 208; vote on, 201».

Panic, distress committees, 727; distress
memorials, 721, 722, 728, 724, 725, 726,
727 ; efforts to cause, 717, 718, 719, 788,
739, 740, 741, 742, 745, 746, 747, 748;
engineered by Bank, 640, 641, 642, 651,
651*, 654, 655, 656, 657, 696, 712, 717,
722, 728, 725, 726, 786; plan of action
In Congress, 712, 718; responsibility
charged for, 722.

Panic session, 618, 682, 688, 664, 671, 688,
707, 712, 718, 721, 722, 728, 724, 725,
726, 727, 786, 786, 742, 757, 782; how
named, 618. —

Paris, Maritime congress at, 60*.

Parker, Richard Elliott, 606.

Parrls, Daniel, 44, 44n.

Parties, political, 126.

Parton, James M., Life of Jackson, 818n,
749, 749n.

Patronage, political, 106, 123, 124, 125,
126, 127, 228, 899, 401 ; under Jackson,
247, 249, 250 ; Van Buren on, 448.

Patterson, Walter, 674.

Paulding, J. K., 586.

Paulding, William, 161, 168.

Pea Patch Island, Delaware Elver, 676,
576n.

Peel, Sir Robert, 466, 529; Van Buren's
opinion of, 464 ; sketch of, 464, 466.

Pendleton, Edmund, 187.

Pennsylvania, aid in electing Jackson, 814,
820; Duane's appointment a compliment
to, 596 ; on Internal improvements, 314 ;
the "Keystone State," 314; mem-
bers of. Congress fail to support Jackson

on Indian hill, 289; members of Con-
gress In favor of MaysvUle turnpike bin.
826; on removal of Indiana, 814, 820;
Secretary of 'Treasury from, 696, 697;
senators, York memorial submitted to,
766; support of Jackson, 289, 814, 820;
tariff, 289, 814, 691, 696; western dis-
trict marshal appointment, 127, 284, 285.

Pensacola, Florida, Jackson's occupation of,
875.

Pension agency, 649.

Pension funds, control of, 649*.

Perkins, Thomas H., 647, 547*.

Perkins, , 696,

Peters, Richard, 292, 298.

Peyton, Baylle, 196.

Philadelphia, Board of Trade, memorial.
722, 724, 726 ; building mechanics, memo-
rial, 727; State banks' memorial to re-
store deposits, 721, 724, 726.

Pickering, Timothy, 179, 188, 188*, 299.
486, 488 ; letter to, 488 ; removed as Sec-
retary of State, 190; Review of corre-
spondence of John Adams and William
Cunningham, 188*.

Pierce, Franklin, 496.

Plnckney, Charles Cotesworth, 190.

Plnckney, Thomas, 171.

Piracy, slave trade declared, 186; Tan
Buren on, 118.

Pitt, William, 468, 469.

Pittsburg, Webster's speech at, 691, 692,
698, 695, 696, 697, 698, 700, 708.

Piatt, * Judge, 64, 64», 102.

Polndexter, George, 464, 464», 677, 681*,
759; altercation with Forsyth, 757:
antagonism to Jackson, 745, 755, 756:
antagonism to Van Buren, 766. 767 ; at-
tack on Webster, 681, 686, 686a, 687,
758 ; attacks York memorial, 766 ; "brag**
game with Clay, 754, 755 ; bribery charge
against, 777; calumnies against Tan
Buren, 757, 776; chairman of committee
on public lands, 745 ; character, 756, 758;
course in Senate In aid of Bank. 723.
781; efforts to cause panic, 745; effort!
to embroil Van Buren, 758, 759, 760, 761,
762 ; letter, 769 ; letter to. 761 ; meeting
with Jackson, 764, 755; personal rela-
tions with Van Buren, 754, 757; politi-
cal relations with Van Buren. 749 ; sup-
port of Jackson, 754 ; Van Buren's opin-
ion of, 766, 756.

Politics, campaign (of 1840), 8; delegated
power abused, 184; difference between
state and national, 401 ; early national.
122, 128, 124; New York, 18, 26, 142;
see aUo under New York; party, 126:
partisan, 712; partisan prejudice, 746;
parties growing out of War of 1812, 671 :
qualifications necessary for leadership in,
469, 470; rivalry within organisation.
519a; Van Buren on, 124,, 125.

Polk, James K., 226% 614.

Porter, David, 269.

Porter, Peter B., 70, 71, 72. 81, 82, 145,
282, 283, 295, 637, 587*

INDEX.

799

Pott Office* inquiry Into* 748.

Preble, William Pitt, 278 ; appointed U. S.
minister to the Netherlands, 260, 200*.

Prendergast, John I., 76*.

Prentiss, Samuel, 464, 454ft, 088, 676.

President of the United States, 742, 742n ;
appointing power, 742; canvass (of
1824), 666; election by House of Repre-
sentatives, 118 ; evils to which an admin-
istration Is exposed by the Secretary of
State desiring succession to the, 89S;
Jackson's plan to resign in favor of Van
Buren, 606, 507 ; loss of power at close
of an administration, 284; maneuvers
for, 616, 617 ; prejudice against England
capitalised to gain, 494, 406, 406, 407,
408, 400, 600 ; removal power, 742 ; step-
ping stone to, 122 ; successor to Jackson,
618 ; Van Buren's chances of, 446, 447 ;
Van Buren's idea of the honor, 448 ; Van
Buren's nominations, 226, 226, 227;
White's nomination, 226fi.

President, packet, 446, 460.

Press (The), (newspapers), aids Bank and
opposes Jackson, 746 ; auxiliary of parti-
san political advantage, 200; controlled
by Bank, 668; freedom endangered by
Jackson's political appointments, 247;
power of, 107 ; panic rumors, 747, 748 ;
rumors Bank stock transactions In Lon-
don, 746.

Preston, William C, 677, 766; attack on
Van Buren, 766, 767, 768, 772 ; personal
relations with Van Buren, 760, 770 ; rea-
sonable atonement for his attack, 760.

Preston family, characteristics, 760.

Priestly, Joseph, 150, 159*.

Privateers (N. Y.), bill to encourage, 57,
68.

Prussia, 486.

Public debt, payment of, 621.

Public opinion, control of by Bank funds,
642 ; power in England, 481, 488.

Punctuality, Jefferson on, 188.

Quakers. Bee Friends.

Ramsay, Robert, 826, 826ft, 827.

Randall, Henry S., 442.

Randall, , 175.

Randolph, Edmund, 180.

Randolph, Ellen Wayles, 183ft.

Randolph,. John, of Roanoke, 12, 135, 181,
221, 288, 326, 435, 554, 504, 605; ap-
pointed minister to Russia, 260, 200ft,

„ 418, 410 ; approves Jackson's Bank veto,
424 ; assails Adams, 430 ; assails Holmes,
205, 206, 200; attempts to sow discord
between Van Buren and Jackson, 420;
character, 205, 426, 427, 428, 420, 480,
431 ; charges against Jackson, 647 ;

Charlotte resolutions, 424, 426 ; on com-
mittee of rules of Senate, 208; death,
426; debate with Henry, 486, 436, 487,
488, 480, 440; demands letters from
Jackson, 426, 426; denounces the Nulli-
fication Proclamation, 424, 425, 647 ; duel
with Clay, 204, 207, 684; entertaining
qualities, 208; fails in reelection, 207,
208 ; hostility to Jefferson, Madison, and
Monroe, 208 ; letter, 428ft ; leaves Russia,
420, 421, 427, 428, 420; leaves Senate,
210, 420, 480; opinion of Washington
City, 208; personal relations with Van
Buren, 421, 428, 426, 427, 420, 430, 481 ;
physical appearance, 205, 207; political
services, 121, 428, 420 ; presents a horse
to Van Buren, 421, 422; protest, 121;
quarrels, 418; speech against Allen and
Sedition law, 430, 440; speeches, 425;
Van Buren's reasons for appointing, 418,
410 ; on Van Buren's resignation, 428n ;
violence in debate, 204, 205, 206.

Randolph, Mrs. Thomas Mann, 840, 580.

Redfleld, Herman J., 158.

Reform, political, 247, 248.

Reform Bill (English), 460, 461, 462, 468,
477, 478, 482.

Beld, , 486.

Religion, 284; in politics, 208.

Reminiscences of Congress (March's), 700,
700».

ReneBQtoereieyck^ ship, lift.

Republican creed, 124.

Republican party, 102, 106, 106, 107, 108,
808 ; advocate of State theory of adop-
tion of Constitution, 545; danger of de-
struction, 665; foreign policy, 404; in-
trigues for Presidency, 808.

Republican (The Washington), 676n.

Republicans, 220; desire appointment of
Van Buren, 224; factional split, 226ft;
National, 1QJB; New York, Clinton lens
and Van Buren's anti-federalist address,
88ft; split with Cllntonlans, 60; Vir-
ginia, 208.

Revision, Council of (New York), 67, 102,
102ft.

Reynolds, James, 110.

Reynold's Affair, 110, 120.

Rice, John H., 486, 437.

Richardson, , Judge, 88.

Richmond, Duke of, 451, 461.

Richmond Enquirer (The), 126.

Rlker. Richard, 38, 80, 41, 48.

Rip Raps, Hampton Roads, Virginia, Jack-
son at, 601», 605, 607, 608.

Ritchie, Thomas, 245, 246, 248, 240, 256,
425, 614; letters, 245, 886; letters to,
240, 614.

Rives, William Cabell, 278, 612, 076 ; ap- . ^ ^ .
pointed Minister to fliua* Pillalu, 260;
success in negotiation with France, 274.

Rhea, John, 888.

Rhlnelander, , 106ft.

Roads, Buffalo to New Orleans, 811.

--_.e^bu ^

800

INDEX.

Roads and canals, 194, 298, 299, 800, 301,
315, 329; reports on, 814.

Roane, Spencer, 890, 770; articles on Mar-
shall's decisions, 126 ; support of Jack-
son, 723 ;' Van Buren's visit to, 126.

Roane, WUlfem H., 390.

Bobbins, Asher, 454, 454t», 671.

Robblns, Jonathan, 179.

Robinson, John M., 676.

Rochester, William B., 164 ; nomination for
governor, 162, 163.

Romalne, , 104n.

Root, flrastus, 44, 47, 56, 95, 110.

Rose, William Lucius, 41, 43.

Rosencrantz, George, 89*.

Ross, F. William, 89ft.

Ross, James, 691.

Ross, William, 43, 43», 86, 108».

Ruffln, Thomas, 606.

Buggies, Benjamin, 454, 454» ; Van Buren's
opinion of, 566, 566n, 567.

Rush, Richard, 521.

Russell, Benjamin, 209, 209».

Russell, Lord John, Van Buren's opinion
of, 477, 478.

Russia, 485; appointment of minister to,
418, 419 ; Great Britain's war with, 467 ;
treaty with, 419, 420.

Rutgers, , 77.

Rutledge, Henry M., 419, 419*.

S.

Safety Fund System, N. Y., 221, 222; at-
tacked, 741, 742.

Sailor's Snug Harbor, suit, 172, 175.

St. Marks, Florida, Jackson's occupation
of, 375.

St Paul, 468*.

Sanford, Nathan, 67, 68, 69, 70, 213, 213n,
263, 263», 515, 563 ; candidate for U. S.
Senate, 66, 67, 67», 104, 104n.

Sardinia, 483^ 485.

Sargeant, , 82.

Schuyler, Philip, 227.

Scotch character, 496.

Scott, Winfleld, 56, 353; nomination rote,
500.

Seamen, destitute, aid for, 546.

Search, right of, on high seas, 203 ; Great
Britain's claim, 528, 529.

Sedgwick, , 18.

Sefton, Lord and Lady, 473.

Seminole War, Jackson's conduct in, 388,
388, 754, 755; Jackson's correspondence
with Calhoun on, 366, 368, 394.

Senate, U. 8., action on recbarter of U. S.
Bank, 618; aid to panic, '747, 748; see
also under Calhoun, Clay, Poindezter and
Webster; attack on Van Buren In, 764,
771, 772, 778, 774; Bank majority in,
714 ; bitterness of debate In, 748 ; breach
with President on Panama mission, 201 ;
choonlng of standing committees, 671,
078, 674. 675, 676, 677. 711, 713, 759;
debate on panic memorials, 722, 723, 724.
789, 740; debate prolonged in, 716;

finance committee* 715, 718; Jackson
support In, 72S, 724; mottoes Inducing
rejection of Van Buren's nomination,
531 ; President of, 673 ; President pro
tern, 673, 674, 675 ; President's discretion
In presenting memorials, 774, 775. 776;
rejection of Simpson's nomination, 599;
rejection of Van Buren's nomination as
minister to Great Britain, 278, S95, 396,
453, 454, 455, 456, 457, 509, 511, 512.
513, 631, 584, 585, 587, 590, 591, 748,
756, 757 ; resolution changing method of
committee selection, 675, 676, 677 ; roles,
amendments, 206, 209, 210; standing
committees intrigue against Van Buren.
671; suspected of intentional disrespect
by Jackson, 599, 600; treatment of new
Senators, 217 ; Van Buren's first appear-
ance as Vice President in. 671, 672 ; Van
Buren's opponents In, 673, 763; Van
Buren's reception In on his return from
England, 566 ; Van Buren triumphs over,
595; York memorial in, 766, 767, 768,
770, 771, 772, 778, 774, 775, 776.

Senators, U. S., New York, 100, 100*s 104,
104*

Sergeant, John, 291, 612.

Seward, William H., 549, 549*.

Seymour, Henry, 91.

Seymour, Horatio, 91, 129, 454, 454*.

Shakers, petition exemption from military
service, 168, 154.

Shenandoah County, Virginia, memorial,
766.

Sbepley, Bther, 676; supports Jackson,
724.

Shocco Springs, North Carolina, meeting,
562.

Silsbee, Nathaniel, 218, 218*, 677, 788.

Silvester, Cornelius, 14.

Silvester, Francis, 18*.

Silvester Family, 18.

Simpson, Stephen, nomination rejected by
Senate, 599.

Singleton, , 394.

Skinner, Roger, 103, 108n, 106, 144.

Slave States, 186.

Slave Trade, abolition of, 185, 208; de-
clared piracy, 135.

Slavery, 136, 137, 138, 139 ; agitation, 411,
412; Slave and Free States representa-
tion in Congress, 135; Van Buren on,
182, 188. 184, 185.

Smith, Nathan, 677.

Smith, Samuel, 201n, 218, 218*, 618 ; can-
didacy for Vice President, 688.

Smith, Mrs, Samuel Harrison. 758.

Smith, William, 198 ; offered seat on TJ. S.
Supreme Bench, 199.

South, free from passion for official dis-
tinction, 268; injuries inflicted on, 411.

South America. Bee America, South.

South Carolina. See Carolina, South.

Southard, Samuel L., 808, 803m, 869, 677.

Southwick, Solomon, 19, 48, 96, 125, 220.
401.

Spain, U. S. Minister to. 252, 253, 260,

INDEX.

801

Spanish claims, payment of, 662.

Specie, curtailment, 658, 664, 606.

Spencer, Ambrose, 88, 41, 42, 48, 47, 64,
66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 71n, 72, 78, 75,
76»i, 70, 80, 88, 89, 80n, 00, 01, 102, 111,
170, 224, 401, 548; attempt to restore
Clinton, 74, 75, 76, 76n, 77, 70, 80, 85;
interview with Van Baren, 02, 93 ; op-
posed to Van Baren, 67, 68, 60, 70; po-
litical intrigue, 86, 01, 92 ; political lead-
ership, 74, 70.

Spencer, John C, 100, lOOn.

Spencer, flarl. Bee Altrop, Lord.

Bpotswood, Mrs., 441.

Sprague, Peleg, 077 ; attacks Van Baren,
524.

State Department, no secrets can be kept
In, 270.

State Secretary of, (New York), 60, 70.

State, Secretary of (United States), 280;
Appointed, 224, 225, 810, 517, 508, 614;
Clay's nomination, 666 ; Jackson's wish
for Van Buren's return to, 705n ; labor
of, 278 ; Livingston as, 705 ; McLane ap-
pointed, 608 ; offered to Henry, 488, 484 ;
stepping stone to Presidency, 121, 122,
808; Van Buren appointed, 224, 225,
517 ; Van Buren's resignation, 268, 398,
899, 402, 403. 404, 405, 406, 407, 423n;
Van Buren selection for, 267.

States, plan, of districting, 118; proceeds
of sale of public lands distributed among,
742, 742n; rights, 416, 424, 425, 546,
547 ; rights as to roads and canals, 817,
818, 810.

Stebblns, Francis, 26*.

Steuben county, N. T., election result, 164.

Stevenson, Andrew, 146, 237, 237ft* 864,
528, 528n, 575, 575*, 580.

Stocks, American, rumors of lack of Euro-
pean confidence in, 747.

Stone, William L., 85.

Stranahan, Farrand, 67, 68, 69, 71*.

Strong, , 71.

Strother's Hotel, Washington, D. C, 574.

Sublime Porte, treaty with, 257, 270, 756.

Suffrage (Votes), restriction in N. T., 112.

8ullivan, George, 272.

Supreme Court, New York, Increase of, 68;
Van Buren offered a place on, 00, 91.

Supreme Court of U. 8., assumption of
authority,' 184; elective, 185; justices,
110; justices and the circuit, 218, 219;
undermines Constitution to support U. 8.
Bank, 126; used for political partisan
purpose, 292, 293; Van Buren offered a
place on, 140, 141.

Survey bill, 828, 829.

Sussex, Duke of, 456, 459.

Suydnm, John, difficulty with Van Buren,
27, 28.

Swart, Moak, 80.

8wartwout, Samuel, 877, 381 ; appointment
as Collector of New York, 262, 268. 266,
268, 272. 505 ; opposition to, 264, 268.

8wlftt Benjamin, 677.

127483°— vol 2—20 81

T.

Taghkanle (Tackkanlc) patent, 22.

Talcott, Samuel A., 21 ; appointed attorney
general, of N. Y.( 174; intemperance,
174, 175, 176 ; relations with Van Buren,
178, 174, 176 ; talent, 175, 176.

Talleyrand, Charles Maurice Perlgord,
Prince, 457, 460, 473; attacked, 459;
defended by Wellington, 459 ; distrust of
Napoleon, 459; Inability to speak Eng-
lish,, 458, 460; Palmerston's opinion of,
458.

Tallmadge, James, 148.

Tallmadge, Nathaniel P., 549, 677, 741.

Tammany Society, 265 ; dinner, 288.

Taney, Roger B., #64, 511, 579, 680, 507,
598, 605, 601 n, 605, 613, 657 ; appointed
Secretary of Treasury, 608 ; appointed lo
Supreme Court, 584 ; charge against, 044,
788 ; defended by Forsyth, 788 ; prophecy
of result of Cass and McLane remaining
in Cabinet, 608; refutation of Clay's
charge, 789 ; report on Bank, 643, 643n,
644; report on removal of the deposits,
652, 653, 654, 655, 656 ; Van Buren ap-
proves for Secretary of Treasury, 593.

Tariff, 200, 541, 569; (of 1824), Jackson's
position, 289, 240, 242; opposition to,
240, 242 ; Van Buren's vote on, 241, 242 ;
(of 1832), act, 542, 542n; Clay's
"American System," 554, 555, 556 ; modi-
fication, 554, 555, 557, 558, 562, 563,
564 ; protective, 115, 116, 117, 169, 172,
409, 411, 412, 556, 671, 682, 683, 691,
693, 698m 694, 696.

Abuses, 275 ; bill, 170n ; character, 171 ;
opposition, 240, 242; reduction, 553; re-
port on amount of duties, 740, 741 ; sys-
tem, 409. 555, 682, 688; Van Buren's
opinion of as a political issue, 556 ; Web-
ster on, 698, 699 ; Webster's speech sus-
taining, 688, 684.

"Tarquin," 851.

Tayloe, Benjamin Ogle, 612.

Taylor, Creed, 486.

Taylor, John, 40, 41, 48, 46, 47, 228, 412 ;
death, 227; relations with Van Buren,
227, 228.

Taylor, John W., 181, 158 ; Speaker of the
House of Representatives, 157.

Taylor, Zachary, 106.

Tasewell, Lyttleton W., 200, 210, 210»,
256, 258, 250, 454, 454n, 766; appoint-
ment as minister to England, 251 ; de-
clines, 256; quoits with Marshall and
others, 259.

Telegraph (The), 857, 858.

Tennessee, U. S. Attorney, appointment left
to Van Buren, 265.

Thomas, . 48, 49, 96.

Thompson, Smith. 19n, 74, 75, 77, 81, 88,
96, 138. 140, 141, 141n, 173; appointed
Secretary of the Navy, 94, 140, 140a;
defeated for Governor of New York, 220,
221 ; Presidential aspirations, 141 n.

802

INDEX.

Thompson, William, nominated for speaker,
90.

Throop, Enos Thompson, 88, 562, 595, 598.

Timberlake, J. B., 341.

Tipton, John, 677.

Tomlinson, Gideon, 454, 454», 677.

Tompkins, Daniel D., 28, 29, 46, 48, 49, 58,
69, 70, 75, 76, 76n, 79, 98, 100, 106, 110,
122, 188; accounts, 95, 97, 99, 99*;
charges against, 95, 97, 98; intemper-
ance, 96, 97 ; joint letter with Van Boren,
125, 126; letter, 95n; Jotter to, 95n ;
nominated for governor, 99», 105, 225;
reply to charges, 98; resignation, 76*;
Secretary of State position offered to, 57,
95; Van Bnren's pamphlet in favor of,
101.

Townsend, J., 170.

Townsend, , 103n.

Towson, , 358.

Trade, with Indians, 280.

Treasury, IT. S., besiegers of, 745.

Treasury, Secretary of, 593, 594, 597, 737 ;
appointed, 593, 594, 596, 597, 598, 603,
605, 614; called on for and reports on
amount of duties, 740, 741 ; censured for
removing deposits, 717, 717*, 726;
charges against, 737, 738 ; dismissed, 603,
603»; Jackson's difficulty in finding a,
595 ; power to remove deposits, 714 ;
reasons for removal of deposits, 731 ; re-
port on Bank, 643 ; report on removal of
deposits, 715, 716, 717.

Treaty, obligations disregarded by nations,
485 ; with Russia, 419, 420.

Trimble. William A., 307, 307*.

"Trio," 416.

Trist, Nicholas P., 345, 349, 441, 580.

Trist, Mrs. Nicholas P., 349.

Troup, George Mcintosh, 415, 416; toast,
416.

Tucker, Henry St. George, 300, 300m, 412.

Tyler, John, 124, 208, 454, 454*, 671, 677,
756; opposition to removal of deposits
and to the Bank, 766, 766* ; vote against
the Force Bill, 710n.

U.

Union, sustaining of, 416.

Union Bank of Maryland, 644; Secretary
of Treasury charged with being a stock-
holder in, 787, 788, 789.

United States, accession of territory, 186;
advantage derived from War of 1812,
490, 491; alliance with England, 485,
486, 488, 491, 492, 493, 494 ; allows time
limit of West India trade regulations to
elapse, 521 ; attitude In West India trade
negotiation, 522; authorises resumption
of West India trade, 522, 522*; disre-
gard of treaty obligation, 485 ; domestic
wrangles over foreign situation, 487,
489; interdicts West India trade, 622;
N*w York loan to, 44; refused West
India trade privileges, 522 ; remonstrance

with West Indies, 522, 522*, 527; sys-
tem of government compared with Eng-
lish, 480, 481, 482, 483; treatment re-
ceived from England, 486, 487, 488;
treatment received from France, 487, 488.

United States Telegraph (The). 378. 880.
884, 898, 899. 506. 512. 514, 520. 582,
533 ; Article in, 886.

University, National, 195.

University of Virginia, president, 150.

V.

Vail, Aaron, 445.

Van Alen, Johannes, 10*.

Van Buren, Abraham, 10.

Van Buren, Catalynje Martense, 10*.

Van Buren, Cornells Maeasen, 10m.

Van Buren, John, 109, 196, 402, 445, 576,

Van Buren, Marten, 10, 10*.

Van Buren, Martin (grandfather), 10 lOn.

Van Buren, Martin, abandons chance of
presidency, 446, 447; absence felt by
Jackson, 508 ; absence from Senate on
Woolens bill vote, 169 ; absence from Sen-
ate as Vice President, 673; abused by
wealthy, 56 ; acquires Van Ness estate at
Klnderhook, 17; action on Clay's nom-
ination as Secretary of State, 667 ; action
to arouse opposition to Swartwout's ap-
pointment, 263 ; address on death of Clin-
ton, 166, 166*, 167 ; address to people on
nomination of Tompkins and Taylor, 47.
47 n ; address to Senate In York memorial
debate, 774, 775, 776; administration.
392 ; on admission of Missouri. 188, 140 ;
admitted to bar, 18 ; advice on Jackson's
message, 546; advice on handling nulli-
fication proclamation in New York legis-
lature, 549; advised to decline appoint-
ment as Secretary of State, 230, 231 ;
Albany resolutions, 50, 51, 52, 52n ; on
alliance with England, 485, 486, 488. 493 ;
aids McLane, 609, 610, 615; analysts of
Bank situation, 686, 687, 638; analysis
of claim of Webster's aid to Jackaon,
709; analysis of McLane's resignation.
617 ; analysis of New York political situa-
tion, 162; analysis of working of the
public mind, 168 ; answer of N. Y. Senate
to, governor's speech, 53, 55* ; appoint-
ment as attorney general of N. Y., 71*.
96, 224; appointed Minister to England.
225; appointed Secretary of State. 224,
517; appointed U. S. Senator, 99. 225;
on appointments, 107; arrival at Wash-
ington as Vice President, 677 ; article on
Chancellor Kent, 61, 62; attacked for
Cherokee policy, 293; attacked by Clay
and Calhoun, 675; attacked by Clay.
759; attacked by McLane's friend, 569:
attacked in Senate, 748, 758, 759, 760.
764, 765, 767, 768. 770, 771, see also
confirmation as Minister to England ; at-
tacked by Webster and Sprague, 524;
attacked on West India trade instruction.
523, 627 ; attacks on, 169, 764, 765, 768,

INDEX.

803

769; attempt to Injure, 588; attend!
N. Y, tariff convention, 170.

Attitude : toward Bank, 36, 44 ; on the
Bank of the U. 8., 184, 184n ; on a Bank
debate in Senate, 724 ; on bankrupt law,
214, 218 ; on Erie canal, 84, 84n, 85 ; to-
ward Federalists, 88* ; on protest of
French draft, 612; In Jackson-Calhoun
quarrel, 876; on Missouri Question, 99,
100 ; on political patronage appointments,
309, 401; on slavery, 136, 137, 138; to-
ward War of 1812, 86, 37, 44, 48.

Belief in Blddle's personal honesty, 651 ;
belief that party feeling should not influ-
ence foreign policy, 512 ; belief in the peo-
ple, 8, 9, 19, 34, 112, 509, 678, 772 ; Bell's
interview with, 226n; besieged by of-
fice seekers, 281; break with Clinton,
45, 46, 47, 48, 101; break with
Hogeboom, 47, 48 ; brief on Internal Im-
provements, 319, Q21 ; Cabinet dinner,
348, 849, 860, 750; Cabinet reception,
351, 862 ; call on J. Q. Adams, 269 ; candi-
date for attorney general of N. 7., 88,
42, 68, 69, 70, 71; candidate for State
Senate, 29, 80, 31, 32 ; candidate for U. S.
Senator, 104, 104*; candidate for Vice
President, 684, 585, 586, 587, 588, 689,
590, 691 ; carries pistols, 761, 762 ; charge
of non-committalism against, 196, 197,
198, 198n; charged with aspiring to
Presidency, 398, 899; charged with pur-
chase of gold spoons for the White House,
769, 770; charged with authorship of
Maysville veto message, S29 ; charges
against, 26, 866, 367, 368, 880, 381, 384,
385, 886, 887, 889, 397 ; character sketch
of John Randolph of Roanoke, 426, 427,
428. 429, 430, 431 ; Clay's visit to, 634,
664 ; commencement of his term as Presi-
dent of the Senate, 673, 674 ; compares
TJ. S. and English governmental systems,
480, 481, 482, 483, 492, 493; conduct
as presiding officer of the Senate, 708 ;
confirmation as Minister to England re-
fused by Senate, 273, 395, 896, 453, 454,
455, 456, 457, 509, 511, 612, 513, 531.
589, 540, 584, 585, 587, 590, 591, 748,
756, 757 ; " Considerations in favor of ap-
pointment of Rufus King" (pamphlet),
139n; considers resigning as Secretary
of State, 262, 266, 267 ; on Constitution's
implied powers, 297, 298 ; controversy
with Chancellor Kent, 58, 60 ; conver-
sation with Aaron Burr, 400; coopera-
tion with Calhoun to elect Jackson, 514 ;
county convention delegate, 13, 14 ;
course on Internal Improvements, 315,
316 ; course in N, 7. Constitutional Con-
vention, 112 ; course in Presidential elec-
tion in House of Representatives, 149,
150; on Cumberland Road veto, 117; de-
feated for renomlnatlon for President, 8,
226, 227. 394, 518; defended, 539, 540;
defends administration's action resulting
is his rejection as Minister to England,
510n ; defends removal of deposits, 602 ;

defends Van Ness, 110, 111 ; on Delaware
county circuit, 98, 94; delegate to N. T.
Constitutional Convention, 106; on
democracy's straggle with monarchy, 485 ;
denounced for success In West India trade
negotiation, 622, 624; deserted by
Holmes, 766; describes debate in House
of Lords on Reform Bill, 460, 461; de-
scribes Jefferson dinner at which nullifica-
tion was launched, 414, 415, 416, 417;
difference of opinion with McLane, 605;
difficulty with Suydam, 27, 28 ; diplomatic
activities, 452, 458; discourages succes-
sion to Presidency, 898; discusses Web-
ster's dealings with the Bank, 778, 779.
780, 781, 782; dissension with Jackson
attempted by McLane, 669, 671; on
Duane'a selection as Secretary of the
Treasury, 598, 600 ; early politics, 15, 28,
29, 80, 81, 82, 38 ; efforts to abolish Im-
prisonment for debt, 212; efforts to ad-
just nullification difficulty, 641; effort to
deal Justly In autobiography, 867 ; efforts
to induce Clay to run as Vice President
with Crawford, 666; efforts to reconcile
Jackson and J. Q. Adams, 270, 271; an
effort to trap, 772; elected Governor of
N. Y., 220, 221; elected President of
U. 8., 225n, 510 ; elected Vice President,
510, 618 ; elected to K. T. Senate, 88, 73,
224, 225 ; election bets, 149 ; on election
of President in House of Representatives,
118; escorted to Capitol by Jackson on
his return from England, 566; estimate
of N. T. political situation, 160, 161;
faith in Jackson's friendship, 700; faith
in the people, 8, 9, 19, 84, 112, 509, 678,
772 ; false reports about, 127 ; feeling re-
garding Federal tendencies in Jackson's
cabinet, 646, 546; first political office,
28 ; first vote, 18, 16 ; friendship for Mc-
Lane, 601 ; friendship for Livingston,
704 ; Governor of N. Y., 221, 225 ; guber-
natorial canvass, 19; on Hamilton's Im-
plied powers of Constitution and Internal
improvements, 297, 298; handwriting,
821 ; in Holland, 9, 10 ; horse presented
to, 421, 422 -.hostility of McLane, 571, 572.
573 ; idea of political power, 447 ; idea of
the Presidency, 447, 448 ; instructions for
West India trade negotiations, 526, 521,
528, 524, 626, 629, 530, 581ft; on Im-
plied powers of Constitution, 297, 298;
on Internal Improvements, 117, 297, 298,
815, 316; on politics of the Internal Im-
provements question, 809 ; intrigue
against as President of Senate, 672; in-
vitation to Calhoun to dinner, 749, 750;
Jackson's opinion of, 12; Jackson's plan
to elect as Vice President and resign the
Presidency in favor of, 506; Jackson's
remark to about the Bank, 625 ; Jackson's
wish for him to return to office of Secre-
tary of State, 706n; Dr. Jones' visit to,
751, 752; Joint letter with Tompkins.
126 ; King of England's feeling on his re-
jection by the Senate, • 466, 466, 457 -,

804

INDEX.

labor on Instructions to U. 8. ministers,

272, 273; last visit to Monroe, 158; in
law offices, 18, 14; learns of McLane's
resignation, 612; legal practice, 21, 26,
27 ; length of office as Governor of- N. 7.,
221 ; letters, 15», 25, 138, 245, 249. 261,

321, 830, 361, 361», 394», 407n, 509, 517.
540, 558, 563, 572, 578, 580, 582. 598,
605, 606, 611, 669, 761; letter on Mis-
souri Question, lOOn ; letter to Noah, 101,
101ft; letters to, 15*, 109n, 185, 186,
186n, 197, 198*, 245, 248, 263, 264, 321,

322, 830, 831, 384, 346, 364, 885, 387,
894n, 407», 428, 502, 503, 503», 507,
507», 508», 514, 516, 518, 530n, 548,
548n, 571, 575, 570, 583, 586, 695, 596,
600, 601, 608, 604, 607, 610, 611, 614,
615, 668, 705, 706», 759 ; " Life of Van
Buren" by McKensle, 536n; Livingston
land patent case, 22, 23, 24, 26; loss of
state votes, 225n ; McLane's visit to, 570 ;
the " Magician," 228*, 447 ; meeting with
Clay, 557, 658; meeting with Jackson,
232; meeting with Jackson and Grundy,
671, 672 ; meeting with Webster, 567 ; on
hia " Memoirs," 34, 35 ; message to N. T.
legislature, 221 ; method adopted to re-
move diplomatic corps' wrong impression
of Jackson, 261, 262; militia bill (N.
Y.), 56, 67; Minister to England, 404,
405, 589, 540; 'misrepresented on re-
moval of deposits, 602; mistake as to
Clinton, 96; mistakes in nullification
proclamation, 548, 649; mother and
father, 10; negatives plan of Jackson's
resigning the Presidency in his favor, 506,
507 ; on the New England character, 710 ;
on New Jersey plan, 118; In New Tork
Constitutional Convention, 106; New
York Senate committee to answer Gover-
nor's speech, 41, 58; first and last nom-
ination for office, 29 ; nominated for gov-
ernor of New York, 225 ; nominated for
President, 225, 226; nomination as Min-
ister to England rejected by the Senate,

273, 825, 895, 396, 453, 454, 455, 456,
457, 502, 508, 509, 511, 512, 513, 531,
584, 585, 587, 590, 591, 748, 756, 757;
nomination rejected because of Maysville
veto, 325; nominee for Vice President,
603, 508, 509 ; on nullification crisis, 668,
559, 562, 562n, 563, 564; objections to
Swartwout, 264, 268; offered seat on N.
Y. Supreme Court, 90, 91 ; offered seat on
U. S. Supreme Court, 140, 141, 141n ;
offices held by, 7, 33.

Opinions: of J. Q. Adams, 192; of
Lord Althorp, 476, 477; of Broug-
ham, 472, 473,. 474, 475; of Cany
breling, 655; on discretion as Presi-
dent of Senate in presenting memorials,
774, 775, 776 ; of Lord Derby, 475, 576 ;
on duelling, 27 ; of English people, 463 ;
of Lord Grey, 460, 461; of Hamilton,
121 ; of Hayne, 216 ; of Joseph Hume,
478, 479; of Ingham, 504, 505, 506; of
Jackson, 245, 250 ; of R. M. Johnson, 881,

882 ; on Livingston and Tazewell appoint-
ments, 251 ; of March, 701 ; of March's
book, 708, 709 ; of Monroe, 121 ; on ob-
ligation to class, 461 ; of Palmerston,
465, 466, 467; on patronage, 106,
223, 448; of Sir Robert Peel, 464;
of Poindexter, 765, 761 ; on political
patronage, 106, 223, 448; of Spencer
Roane, 126; of qualities necessary for
political leadership, 469, 470; of Lord
Russell, 477, 478 ; of tariff as a political
question, 555 ; of Webster, 561, 710 ; of
Wellington, 462, 463 ; of Washington, 170.
Opponents In Senate, 673, 674, 675,
763; opportunity for knowing the truth
about the Panic Session, 618 ; opposed to
Adams' administration, 192, 198, 199;
opposed to Bank, 221, 222, 626 ; opposed
to Clinton, 76, 76*, 77, 78, 98, 105 ; op-
posed to coalition of Jackson with Web-
ster, 678 ; opposed to N. Y. Judiciary bill,
198 ; opposed to Monroe, 197 ; opposed to
Panama mission, 198, 200, 201 ; opposed
to tariff, 171 ; opposed to vacating judi-
ciary offices by N. Y. Constitutional Con-
vention, 110, 111 ; opposition to, 505,
517, 518, 519, 520, 526, 527, 581,
582, 581, 582, 583, 584, 586, 588, 589,
590, 592. 668, 756, 757, 768 ; pamphlet in
favor of Tompkins, 101 ; part in Eaton
Affair, 840, 342, 348, 844, 845, 848, 350,
351, 852, 355, 861 ; part In Webster's at-
tempt to regain control in Senate, 728;
personal relations with Calhoun, 513, 514,
515, 516, 534, 535, 749, 750, 753 ; personal
relations with Clay, 534, 535, 568, 665,
667, 668, 669, 670; personal relations
with Jackson, 232, 283, 242, 243, 245,
402, 408, 405, 506, 507; personal rela-
tions with McLane, 573, 574, 575, 576,
577, 578, 579, 611, 613, 614, 615,616,
617 ; personal relations with Preston, 769,
770; personal relations with Poindexter,
754, 757, 768, 759, 760, 761, 762; per-
sonal relations with Randolph, 421, 422,
428, 426. 427, 429, 430, 431 ; on piracy,
118; plans political course, 448; pleads
with Jackson for McLane, 605 ; Poindex-
ter's effort to quarrel with, 758, 759,
760, 761, 762; political enemies, 15,
16, 18, 19. 24, 25, 26; political labors,
445; political principles, 112; political
relations with Poindexter, 749, 758,
759, 760, 761, 762; on politics, 124,
125 ; portrayal of Jackson, 812 ; post-
ponement of speech on his rejection,
510; prepares N. Y. legislature's re-
port on Nullification proclamation, 550,
553, 558; President of the Senate,
618, 673, 674 ; Presidential chances, 506,
584; prophecy as to Clay, 150; pro-
poses amendment to Constitution, 315,
316 ; proposes Jackson for President, 198 ;
public offices unsolicited by, 224, 225;
questioned on Nullification, 562; reason
of his appointment as Secretary of State,
267, 268; reasons for desiring appoint-

INDEX.

805

ment of Randolph to Russia, 419, 427,
428, 429 ; recall! Baton from Spain, 864 ;
record as governor of N. Y., 221 ; received
by the King and his minister, 448 ; recep-
tion in Honse of Representatives on re-
turn from Europe, 667, 568 ; reception
in Senate, 566, 568; reelected to Senate,
165 ; regard shown by Albany cltisens
for, 227; rejection by Senate vote, 454,
454n, 532, 533 ; rejection, 539, 540, 584,
587, 590, 591 ; rejection fails to humiliate,
457 ; relations with Berrien and Hayne,
216 ; relations with Burr, 15 ; relations
with Calhoun, 887, 889, 890, 891, 892,
393, 394, 895; relations with Clinton,
149, 164, 166; relations with Cooper,
160; relations with the "Highminded
Federalists," 105; relations with Sir
Robert Inglls, 482, 488; relations with
Chancellor Kent, 62, 63; relations with
Rufus Kins;, 100, 101ft, 105, 108, 180, 181,
182, 141, 147, 154, 155; relations with
Talcott, 178, 174, 176; relations with
Taylor, 227, 228; relations with Van
Ness, 14, 15, 17, 18, 111 ; relations with
Webster, 535, 586 ; relations with Wright,
728 ; relations with Yates, 118, 114, 146 ;
relinquishes all thought of the Presi-
dency, 606 ; on removal of deposits, 602 ;
removal from N. Y. attorney-general-
ship, 88, 92, 98, 94, 225; renomlnatlon
for Presidency, 893, 894; reply to Clay
In York memorial debate, 772, 778; re-
quested to suggest a Secretary of the
Treasury, 595; resignation as Governor
of N. Y., 227n; resignation as Secretary
of State, 262, 266, 267, 268, 850, 856,
898, 899, 400, 402, 403, 404, 405, 406,
407, 428ft ; resolutions in favor of Tomp-
kins nomination as Governor, 99n ; re-
sponsibility for political sharp practice,
78; retaliates on Van Schaack, 16; re-
view of bank controversy, 618, 619, 620,
621, 622, 623, 624, 686, 637, 688, 689,
640; reviews his political course, 446;
return home from England, 502, 508, 508,
566; "Rising Sun" story, 199; school-
ing, 10, 12; self-analysis, 8, 9, 11, 12, 33,
34, 447, 568, 573. 574; in Senate, 111,
113, 115, 128, 129, 396, 748, 749, 763;
on Senate committees, 115 ; In Senate as
Vice President, 671, 672; on Senate's
refusal to confirm him as Minister to
England, 511 ; separation from Jackson
attempted by Whigs, 549 ; share In Jack-
son's annual message, 445; on slavery
and Southern States management of
slavery, 132, 188, 184, 135; social rela-
tions with Senate, 748, 749, 763.

Speeches: on amendment of Constitu-
tion, 316, 317 ; against Bank, 184, I84n ;
on bankruptcy bill, 215, 215n; first In Sen-
ate, 128, 129 ; on half pay to Revolution-
ary officers, 211 ; on Judiciary Bill, 219,
219* ; on the Panama Mission, 202, 202ft ;
on Tompkins' claim, 99, 99*; on West

India trade, 511, 512; on the Woolens
bill, 170, 171, 172.

Stay at Windsor Castle, 456, 457 ; study
of Internal Improvements, 312; submits
York memorial to Pennsylvania senators,
765 ; success In State politics, 400, 401 ;
successor to Jackson, 518 ; on suffrage re-
striction, 112; suggested as Governor of
N. Y., 591 ; suggests abolishing N. Y. Coun-
cil of Appointments, 106, 107 ; suggests
terms of expression of Jackson's attitude
toward foreign countries to diplomats at
reception, 262; suggests Duane as com-
missioner under the French treaty, 600;
suggests William B. Rochester as gover-
nor of N. Y., 162 ; supports Clinton, 87,
88, 40, 41, 42, 76, 76», 77, 89, 98, 159 ;
supports Crawford, 140; supports N. Y.
loan to TJ. 8., 44 ; on Supreme Court, 164,
185; suspects Calhoun's nullification
scheme, 418, 414; sympathy of English
on his rejection by Senate, 455, 466;
talk with Wright, 729; tariff conversa-
tion with Calhoun, 409; thwarts Web-
ster, 672 ; title of " Magician," 226», 447 ;
toast at Nullification banquet, 416 ; train-
ing, 11, 12, 18 ; triumph over Senate, 595 ;
urged to become a Federalist, 14, 15;
urged to become Vice - Presidential
nominee, 508, 506, 509; views coincide
with Jackson's, 595.

Visits: to Adams, 188; to and from
Clay, 158 ; to Crawford, 867, 368 ; to Mrs,
Eaton, 407, 408; to England (second),
474, 476 ; to Holland, 9, 10 ; to Jefferson,
182, 188, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188 ; to Mon-
roe (last), 153; to Mount Vernon, 177;
to Richmond, Va., 126; to Talleyrand,
458 ; vote challenged, 144 ; vote on Cum-
berland road, 315; vote on tariff, 241,
242 ; voyage to England as TJ. S. Minis-
ter, 445, 446 ; warns against superficiality,
12 ; Webster's actions towards, 776, 777 ;
Webster's attack on, 764, 765; Webster
refrains from attacking, 675; Webster's
hostility, 524, 525, 585, 636 ; willingness
to accept Vice-Presidential nomination,
509.

Van Buren, Martin, jr., 9, 585.

Van Buren, Pleter Martense, 10a.

Van Buren Family, 9, 9n, 10, lOn; emi-
lgrate to America, 10; name, 10, 10»;
record, 9ft, 10.

Van Courtlnndt, , 47.

Van Dyke, Nicholas, 201n.

Van Noes, Cornelius Peter, appointed U. S.
minister to Spain, 260, 260ft.

Van Ness, John P.. 13, 16, 17, 18, 64, 419,
419* ; death, 18 ; elected to Congress, 14 ;
monument to his father, 18 ; relations
with Van Buren, 14, 15, 17, 18.

Van Ness, Peter, 15, 16, 17, 18.

Van Ness, William P., 14, 15, 29, 80, 81, 82,
62, 109, 401 ; attempt to impeach, 109,
110. llOn; death. 111; letter, 15n; let-
ter to, 15n ; relations with Van Buren,

806

INDEX.

Ill ; second to Bur in duel with Hamil-
ton, 16, 29 ; Van Buren's defense of, 110,
111.

Van Ness, William W., 88, 90, 92, 401.

Van Ness, , 102.

Van Ness Family, 18.

Van Rensselaer, Jacob Rutsen, 24, 27, 70;
charge against Van Buren, 25, 26.

Van Rensselaer, Solomon, 89, 125.

Van Rensselaer, Stephen, 47, 71, 91, 146,
149. 149*, 158, 169*, 170, 171, 207, 514,
574, 575*, 576 ; course in election of John
Qulncy Adams, 150, 151, 152; influences
that made him vote for Adams, 152.

Van Rensselaer properly, 11*. x

Van Schaack, Peter, 18, 15, 21, 27; bio-
graphical sketch of, 18, 19, 20; death,
20 ; relations with Van Bona, 16, 18, 19 ;
son, 15, 16.

Van Schaack Family, 18.

Van Vechten, Abraham, 21, 84, 71*> 401.

Vanderpoel, Aaron, 547, 547*, M8£

Vaughan, Sir Charles R., 266,* 261, 861,
457 ; knowledge of Jackson, 450.

Venable, Abraham B., 119.

Venison, 459.

Verplanck, Gnllan C, 544, 558.

Verplanck, Johnston, 110; letter, 109*.

Vice President, TJ. 8., absents himself by
custom at commencement of the session,
673, 674, 759 ; ns presiding officer of the
Senate, 673; candidate*, for, 584. 587,
588, 589 ; election by House of Represent-
atives, 118 ; Van Buren's candidacy, 582,
688, 584, 587, 588, 589, 591; Van Bu-
ren'* first appearance in Senate as, 671,
672.

Yienna, Congress, 467.

Virginia, 424, 425, 431 ; Constitutional Con-
vention, 448 ; legislature, 788 ; producer
of Presidents, 121 ; resolution denying
power of Congress to establish a bank,
733; resolutions, 819; used as stalking
horse by nulllflers, 418, 414.

Votes. Bee Suffrage.

Wager,

(Judge), 30, 81.

Waggaman, Qeorge A., 566. 566n.

Walsh, Robert, 199, 199n, 416, 416*.

War, Secretary of, appointed, 300; Jack-
son's wish for Baton's return as, 705;
resignation, 406, 407. See also Baton,
John Henry.

War of 1812, 60, 192, 493 ; advantage de-
rived from, 490; Albany meeting on, 49,
50; British demands, 59, 60; British
depredations, 58; feeling of English
toward, 451 ; military and naval vic-
tories of, 490, 491 ; New York Federalist
opposition to, 48, 44, 49; political reor-
ganization growing out of, 671; Web-
ster's conduct in, 682, 686*.

Warfield, Henry W., 576, 675*.

Warner, Daniel, 52.

Warrington, Lewis, 849, 849*.

Washington, Bushrod, 68, 177, 179, 219;
appointment to Supreme Court, 179.

Washington, George, 123, 177, 190, 249,
438, 434, 435, 437, 471, 485, 486.. 650,
695; death, 179, 180; impression of
Henry, 443, 444; Jackson's vote against,
818, 419; Jefferson's opinion of, 183,
186; letter, 433; letter to, 433; repug-
nance to slavery, 138; wishes Marshall
and Bushrod Washington to run for Con-
gress, 178 ; Van Buren's opinion of. 179.

Washington, D. C, burned by British, 53,
54, 58.

Washington Journal (The), 351; attacks
Mrs. Jackson, 269.

Washington Republican (The), 181.

Wayne, James Moore, 415.

Webster, Daniel, 21, 161, 175, 181, 219.
226*. 259, 800, 804, 364, 390. 425, 454,
464, 520, 525. 529, 582, 536, 547, 617,
631, 635, 652, 668, 668*, 676, 677, 688.
692, 700, 702, 704, 705, 706, 709, 718,
719, 784, 740, 741, 764. 767. 772, 773;
replied to by day, 556, 557 ; reply to
Hayne, 680 ; reply to Wright, 730, 781 ;
seat in Jackson's cabinet 701, 706;
speech in defense of Bank, 779, 780;
speech on Force Bill, 681 ; speech on
French Spoliations, 271; speeeh against
Bank veto, 623, 624, 624*; advances
toward Van Buren, 585. 636; alliance
with Jackson, 707, 709, 711 ; antagonism
toward Van Bnren, 524. 525, 586, 764,
776, 777; attacked by Poindexter, 681,
685, 685n, 758 ; Bank's power over, 661 :
bill to rechnrter Bank, 733; biography,
700, 700*; "Bob and Sinker" speech.
498, 499, 500; bribery charge against.
764, 766, 777. 778. 779, 780, 781, 782:
capitalizes prejudice against England to
gain Presidency, 498, 499, 500; chair-
man of Finance Committee of Senate,
716; chance of Presidency, 711; change
of politics intended, 672 ; change of posi-
tion on slavery, 500; character. 525.
526, 535, 536, 561, 776; Cincinnati
speech, 690, 691 ; Clay's opinion of, 670 ;
claim of aid to Jackson analysed by Van
Buren, 709; claims credit, by inference,
for Nullification proclamation principles,

680, 689 ; commends Nullification procla-
mation, 680, 688, 694, 707; conduct In
Bank's behalf, 723, 738, 763. 764, 765,
766 ; conduct contrasted with Clay's, 560,
561; conduct on Nullification. 561, 680,

681, 682. 688, 684, 688. 691, 693, 694.
698, 609, 707 ; conduct in War of 1812,
681, 685ft ; conduct toward Van Buren,
539; credited with passing the Force
Bill, 708; defeated for nomination for
Presidency, 500; defense of, 777, 778,
779; deficient in physical and moral
courage, 662 ; desire for Presidency, 497,
498, 499: effort to regain control of
Bank question in Senate, 728. 781, 7S2.
783, 734, 786; England's knowledge of
his character, 499, 500 ; English press on

INDEX.

807

the Marehfleld speech, 600; excluded
from leadership In Senate, 716 ; Faneuil
Hall meeting 680, 68ft, 695; fear of
Clay, 682, 728, 784; financial dealings
with Bank, 778, 770, 780, 781, 782 ; hope
to obtain place in Jackson's cabinet, 672 ;
hostility to Clay, 679, 680, 684; influ-
enced by Curtis, 586, 537; Influences
Van Rensselaer, 152; intended alliance
with Jackson, 688, 689, 690, 691, 697.
698, 699, 700, 701 ; knowledge of Intended
publication of McKensie's book, 589 ; lack
of Influence in Senate, 710 ; leadership in
Bank campaign, 661, 662, 668, 664 ; let-
ter to, 528; Livingston's report to, 706,
706; manoeuver when Jackson visited
New England, 689, 690. 691, 692, 698,
702, 708; Marshfleld speech, 498, 499,
500; nomination vote, 500; Nullification
proclamation an aid to, 680; opposition
to Hay's bill for pacification of South
Carolina, 679, 680, 681, 682. 688, 684,
685, 899; panic efforts, 741; part In
Senate intrigue against Van Buren, 672 ;
passion for official distinction, 258; per-
sonal apprehensions, 680, 682, 683; per-
sonnl relations with Clay, 734, 735, 786 ;
Philadelphia mechanics distress memo-
rial, 727 ; Pittsburg speech, 691, 692, 898,

694, 695, 696, 697, 698, 700, 708 ; politi-
cal manoeuvers. 688, 693, 694; political
relations with Clay, 681, 682, 683, 686,
687, 688. 689, 694, 696, 698, 699, 700,
705, 706, 715; political sense, 682, 694,
698; position on South Carolina's sub-
mission, 557; prepared article on the
West India trade, 525; presidential as-
pirations, 668, 688; questioned by the
Globe, 778, 779 ; recklessness in financial
matters, 661 ; refrains from hostility
toward Van Bur en, 675; relations with
Clay, 660, 662, 668, 870; relations with
Livingston, 715; remarks on postponing
Senate committee appointments, 676 ; on
removal of deposits, 708 ; speech against
York memorial, 766; speeches, 498, 499,
500, 676, 680. 690, 691, 692, 698. 694,

695, 698, 697, 698, 700, 708; on tariff,
698; thwarted by Van Buren, 672; un-
patriotic speech on French Spoliations,
271; Van Buren's meeting with, 567;
Van Buren's opinion of, 561, 710 ; visit to
Blddle, 779 ; western tour, 690, 691, 698,
701, 702, 708; willingness to cooperate
with Jackson, 677, 678; Worcester
speech, 680; Works, 708.

Weed, Thurtow, 537.

Wellington, Duke of, attitude on Reform
Bill, 468; defends Talleyrand, 459; ora-
torical power. 468, 464; Van Buren's
opinion of, 461, 462, 468, 464.

Wells, John, 21.

Wessels, Derick, 10.

West, excitement caused in by Polndexter's
charges of land frauds, 745, 746.

West Indies, British trade regulations, 521 ;
trade negotiations, 251, 256, 272, 274,
511, 522, 528, 525, 526, 530; Jackson's
course in, 527, 528; McLane's instruc-
tions, 595; Van Buren's instructions,
520, 521, 623, 524, 526, 529, 680, 531n ;
U. S. resumption of trade. 522, 522n,
527.

Westmoreland, Earl of, 456.

Whallon, , Van Buren's letter to, 25.

Wharton's Digest of International Law,
60*

Wbeaton, Henry, 143.

Whig Party, 785 ; attitude toward nullifica-
tion, 553; convention (1852) votes, 500,
500fi; use of Nullification Proclamation
to attempt a separation of Van Buren
and Jackson, 549.

Whigs, 124, 125 ; attempt to make political
capital out of Nullification Proclamation,
546; "Hlghmlnded Federalists" become,

108.

White, Hugh Lawson, 226*. 382, 382ft, 595,
874, 674*, 675, 677 ; coalition with Cal-
houn, 225* ; deserts Jackson, 226» -r ex-
cused from voting on committee appoint-
ment resolution, 675; nomination for
President, 226* ; Presidential nominee.
674 ; relations with Jackson, 674 ; speech
against the Bank, 734.

White House, French furniture, 769; g*M
spoons. 769, 770.

Wickham, John, 259, 269*.

Wilkin, John W., 45.

Wllklns, Martin S., 97, 98.

Wllkins, William, 544*, 591, 597, 677, 768,
765, 766, 767 ; desire for vice presidency,
584, 589, 590; failure to withdraw In
favor of Van Buren, 590; supports
Jackson, 728.

Williams, David R., 368 ; letter, 618 ; letter
to, 517.

Williams, Blisha, 18, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 66,
62, 92, 104, 401 ; legal skill, 21, 22.

Williams, Nathan, 82.

Wilson, Henry, 814, 814*.

Wirt, William, 291, 292, 298, 808, 486, 436,
437, 438, 441 ; letter to, 441*.

Wood, , 171.

Woodbury, Levi, 201*, 255, 256, 258, 259,
260, 598, 602, 606; disappointment at
not being in Jackson's Cabinet, 229 *, fore-
bodings of Jackson's administration, 229 ;
letters to, 252*, 254; offered Spanish
mission, 252, 253, 254.

Woodworth, John, 67, 68, 69, 71, 71*, 82,
90, 102, 548 ; candidacy for attorney gen-
eral of N. T., 68, 71.

Woolens' Bill, 169, 170.

Worthlngton, Thomas, 297, 297*.

808

INDEX.

Wright, Silas, jr., 161, 168, 172, 608, 598,
614, 677, 741, 748* 761, 765; asked to
present administration's side of Bank
controversy, 780; character, 728; faith
in the people, 625; letter to, 563, 564;
relations with Van Bnren, 728; speech
against the Bank, 738 ; speech in support
of the administration, 730; support of
Jackson, 728, 729, 730; Webster's reply
to, 730, 783.

Wythe, George, 186.

T.

Yates, Henry, Jr., 39ft.
Yates, John Van Ness, 148.
Yates, Joseph C, 64, 75, 80, 89ft, 102, 112,
118, 114, 145, 147, 147ft, 148 ; message

as governor, 146, 146f»; position ft I
mode of appointing electors, 146. 14fe|
147 ; relations with Van Buren. 113, ml
115, 146 ; retirement, 148 ; sketch 4]
113.

Yasoo frauds, 429.

York County, Pa., attacks Webster's Bad! I
course, 768, 777 ; charges bribery of Web-
ster by Bank, 778; Democratic memorial
763, 764, 766, 768, 769, 771. 777 ; erasure!
in memorial from, 765, 766, 767, 763,
770, 771, 772, 773, 774, 775. 776:
memorial sent to Van Buren, 763, 764;
supports the President, 768.

Young, Samuel R., 57, 68, 60, 67, 60, 70, 71,
100, lOOn, 104ft, 115, 145, 147ft, 148.

O

I

3 LIDS 010 701 111

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