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LIFE OF ANDREW JACXSON.

o LIFE

o K

ANDREW JACKSON

IN THREE VOLUMES.

B Y J AM E 8 i' A It T O N ,

ACrilMK OK "LIKK OK AAROX IHBK,'' " lllTMiiK'n'H TOKFRY OV TIIK KNOUSH I.4XM; AHK," KTC.

- Dnsi'UKAiit (\>rr.4(iK makis onk a Majokitv."'

vol. I II.

N E W Y O U K :

M ^Y S O X^ li 11 C> T H K R S,

a & 7 M K K(? K i: ST i: ket.

1 8 0 (►.

HARVARD COLLEGE V'BK^.W

0EC99t883

Entered, acronllrii; to Act of C-oniicress, In the yoar ISiJO,
By mas < ) N n U < ► T II E li S ,
In the CIerk'8 Ofllcc of the ni!*trict Om rt for the Southern DiBtrlct of Now York.

RTKBCOTTl'En IIT

SMI TH & Mc DOUQAL,

83 & &4 Beeknun-Bt., N. Y.

PUI>fTKI» BY
C. A. ALVORD.

\T> Vandi<!n-iitnr*8t

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAflB

GENERAL JACKSON NOMINATED 11

CnAPTER II.

KING CACCrs DETHRONED 24

CHAPTER III.

GENERAL JACKSON IN THE SENATE 82

CHAPTER IV.

SENATOR JACKSON BURIES THE TOMAHAWK 44

CHAPTER V.

THE RESULT OF THE CAMPAIGN 49

CHAPTER VI.

HENKV CLAY ELECTS A IMiESIDENT 54

CHAPTER VII.

•lACKSO.NS PKIVATE OIMNloN OF THESE TRANSACTIONS 71

CHAPTER VIII.

PRESIDENT ADAMS KEVIVES AN OLD CONTKOVEKSY 81

CHAPTER IX.

GENERAL .lACKSON RENOMINATED 94

CHAPTER X.

THE BARGAIN AND CORRUPTION CUY 102

CHAPTER XI.

MARTIN VAN BUREN 120

• ••

Vlll CONTENTS.

CIIAPTEK Xir.
THK CAMlWKiN OF l-^'JS 1S7

CIIAPTEU XIII.
BKSnLT OF THE KUK(TION ISO

CHAPTER XIV.

DKATil AT Tin: IIKUMITACJK IM

(UIAPTER XV.

INArr.KKATION IM

CirAPTKR XVI.

TlIK CAIJINKT ANI> TIIK KITCIIKN (WBINKT 17«

CHAPTER XVII.
Mi:S. KATOX 1S4

CHAPTER XVIII.

TKKHOi: AMONO THK OFFirK-IKU.DKIIS 206

CHAPTER XIX.

A SIKM'MSSFIIL roLlTlClAN'S STOUY 227

CHAPTER XX.

FIliST ULOW AT TIIK BANK 2Af*

CHAPTKR XXI.
con<;i:f»ss mkkts 26a

CHAPTER XXII.

INCUDKNTS OF TIIK ftKSSlO.N 278

CHAPTER XXIII.

.MU. VAN Br:UKN CAU*** ON NfU:*. F..VTON 287

CHAPTER XXIV.

AN irNIIAltMONlors CAHIXET 802

CHAPTER XXV.

TIIK PKKSIDKNT BREAKS WITH THE VICE-PKESIDKNT «09

CHAPTER XXVT.

THE OLOBE ESTABLL8IIEI) »«

CONTENTS. IX

CHAPTER XXVIL

PAOie
(.X)NGRKSS Ui SESSION iWO

CHAPTER XXVIIL

DlSSOLl.TIOX OF THE CARINET JW4

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE BANK-VKTO SESSION 37i

CHAPTER XXX.

THE BANK VETO a9»

CHAPTER XXXI.

KEELElTION OF GENERAL JACKSON 417

CHAPTER XXXn.

XULLIFICATI02J AS AN IDEA 483

CHAPTER XXXm.

NULLinCATloX AS AX EVENT 447

CHAPTER XXXIV.

NI:LLIFK'.\TI«A' explodes and TRIUMPHS 46.?

CIIAPTEU XXXV.

THi: SlMMKi: TRAVELS OF THE rUKSIDKNT 485

CHAPTER XXXVL

war upon THE RANK RENEWED 498

CHAPTER XXXVir.

MR. DUANES NARRATIVE 503

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

rHK RANK CURTAILS M9

CHAPTER XXXIX.

THE PANIU SESSION OF tON('.RESi» .\'»7

X CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XL.

PAGK

THE FBENCH IMBBOOLIO Cei

CHAPTER XLL

OTHEE EVENTS OF 1S35 AND IS.% 360

CHAPTER XLTT.

WHITE HOUSE ANECDOTES 606

CHAPTER XLIIL

CLOSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION «1T

CHAPTER XLIV.

IN RETIREMENT 029

CHAPTER XLV.

GENERAL JACKSON JOINS THE CHURCH M9

CHAPTER XLVI.

GENERAL JACKSON ANNEXES TEXAS 658

CHAPTER XLVII.

THE CLOSING SCENES 667

CHAPTER XLVITI.

POSTHUMOL'S 680

CHAPTER XLIX.

CONCLUSION 684

INDEX T08

CHAPTER I,

GENERAL JACKSON NOMINATED.

Wire-puller is an opprobrious name, the popular theory
being that a President of the United States is the choice of
the people, expressed spontaneously. But a little reflection
will lead any intelligent person to the conclusion that the
popular choice can not often be spontaneous. In order that
the people may be enabled to give effective expression to their
desires, it is necessary that, from the mass of those who
aspire to serve them, the two men should be selected who,
more than any others, represent the divergent tendencies of
the time. It will not happen once in a century that two men
will stand before the people so distinctively representative that
the two parties will spontaneously look up to them as their
standard-bearers. And when that does happen, the superior
claims of those two individuals will not be apparent to their
rivals.

Therefore, before the presidential course can be cleared for
a fair contest between two candidates, there must be a great
deal of work done of the kind commonly stigmatized as wire-
pulling. Rival interests must be conciliated ; competing
vanities soothed ; undeniable claims postponed ; groundless
pretensions put aside ; local pride flattered or allayed ; local
prejudices ascertained and considered. Long journeys must
be performed and long letters written ; there must be con-
sultations in editorial sanctums, in custom-house parlors, in
countrj' mansions, in law-offices, in the inner snugi^eries of
great hotels, in the lobbies and committee-rooms of legislative
halls.

12 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1823.

As these prelimiuary labors are absolutely necessary to
enable the people to give effectual expression to their will,
they are not necessarily dishonorable. As a general nile,
such labors will ho performed l>y the friends of the men whose
elevation is sought, by the advocates of the opinions they
represent, and by those who expect honor and advantage from
the success of the candidate whose cause they espouse. Wire-
pulling can not be dispensed with in a republic. We liave
only to d(>niand, therefore, of the wire-puller that his ends
and aims be patriotic, more than they are personal, and that
all his movements, though necessarily secret, should be such
as will bear exposure when their object is accomplished.
Nothing is fair in politics but fair play.

The man who contril)uted most to the elevation of G-en-
eral Jackson to the presidency was Major William B. Lewis,
of Nashville. General Jackson himself said as much. From
the year 1822 to 1829, the principal employment of Major
Lewis' leisure hours was electioneering for General Jackson;
and when his efforts had been crowned with success, he
accomjyauied the General to Washington, and lived with him
in the presidential mansion, sharing the private apartments
of the President, and not unfrequently his bed-chamber.
Major Lewis, in most matters i)olitical and domestic, was Gen-
eral Jackson's second self Nothing was done without his
cognizance, and few things without his aid. Possessed of an
am{)le estate, modest and unaspiring, the labors of Major
Lewis on behalf of General Jackson were disinterested and
voluntary, and his influence upon the General was at all times
salutary. He almost alone retained to the last the friendship
of General Jackson, without agreeing with him in opinion
upon subjects of controversy.

In the enjoyment now of a green and vigorous old age,
Major Lewis has spent many laborious hours and days in the
service of the readei*s of these pages, recalling and recording
the scenes of the past, in which he acted a part so distin-
guished. What he did for General Jackson's elevation will
bear exposition. Nothing need be concealed ; nothing shall

1823.] GENERAL JACKSON NOMINATED. 13

be concealed. By the aid chiefly of this worthy and obh'ging
gentleman, nearly every controverted question relating either
to the election or the administration of General Jackson, I
shall be enabled to set at rest for ever. The reader shall
know as much of those singular afiairs as though he had been
daily closeted with General Jackson at the Hermitage, and
nightly pillowed with him at the White House.

It is due to Major Lewis to state that he is not to be held
responsible for any opinion, or intimation of opinion, not
expressetl in his own language. Often I have had to regret
being compelled to arrive at conclusions different from those
of gentlemen to whom the reader is under great obligations,
and with whom it would have been a pleasure to agree. " I
have no doubt," writes Major Lewis, " that I shall be abused
by the former enemies, as well as by some of the pretended
friends of General Jackson. But I shall little heed their
abuse. My object in furnishing you with documents, letters,
and information relating to the life and character of the
General, has been to let the whole truth be told — to let him
speak for himself on all proper occasions. This, I think, has
been your policy from the commencement, and I approve it.
Every thing that I have said or written to you, connected
with your Life of Jackson, has been uttered with tis much
solemnity and truthfulness as if I had been under oath."

Major Lewis shall now tell us the curious story of Gen-
eral Jackson's starting for the presidential race.

The facts have never before been made public. The pop-
ular stor}' is, that at some toAvni meeting in western Penn-
sylvania, a mechanic, seized with a sudden and uncontrollable
enthusiasm, tossed liis old hat skyward, and roared out the
magic cry, '^ Hurrah for Jackson !" The meetini^ responded
with sliouts unanimous.* The Alleghanies took it up, and

* Another Torsion is the following :

" No org:inizo<l body of piirtisans, no faction, no caucus, no convention, no
committeo first nomInat.\l him. A siinpl.; mechanic in a western village of
Pcunsylvanii^, in the sumnier of 1822, amid.-^t a ^roup of his fellow-villagers,
'.rho wore di.scoureing on tiie services he had performed and the persecutions

14 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1823.

sent it ecliuing through tlie valley of the Mi88issij)pi, and all
along the Atlantic coast. And so forth. Mr. Colt(.)n, the
biograplier of Henry Clay, gives an account infinitely more
absurd : " On the 8th of January, 1824, the lion. J. Q. Adams
made a party in honor of General Jackson. The jwirty was
a brilliant one, attended by the President of the United States,
the foreign ambassadors, memlxirs of Congress, j)ublic func-
tionaries, and a host of distinguished stmngers. General
Jackson wjus, of course, the star of the evening, * the observed
of all observers,' with Mrs. Adams on his arm, who, with
grace and dignity, did the honors of hostess, in presenting the
General to her various and numerous guests. General Jack-
son, certainly, was not unknown before ; but this occasion
lift<3d him, from the comi)aratively vulgar place of a meteor,
in the atmosi)here of earth, to the position of a fixed orb in
the firmament above. From that momvnt he began to bt
thoutjht of as a candidate for the preHidenrti"

The narrative about to be given was drawn uj) in one of
the later yeara of General Jackson's presidency, for the grat-
ification of a leading member of the cabinet, who (in 1859)
is again a member of the cabinet, Cieneral Cass. Major
Lewis begins by refuting two common errors : first, that
Aaron Burr's letter to Governor Alston, in 181;>, was the
direct cause of General Jackson's nomination ; secondly, that
that nomination was elFected bv a union of the federalists
with a faction of malcout(?nt republicans. He shows that
Burr's letter was never seen by General Jackson, nor l)y any
man who took a leading part in his election, until after his
election to the presidency. He denies, too, that any feder-
alist had any agency in the production of those letters of
General Jackson to Mr. Monroe, the publication of which,

ho ondurod, oxclsiimed, ' Lot us have liim for our next president, ami show Iuh
slandeivri* that we don't hi-hov*' thoni.' The projurtal was cau^rht with enthu-
siofltn ninl assented to witli aeoljiination. It wjw soon in notive ciroulation
round the mljact-nt country ; for beinjj appnived of by fvery heart, it was re-
peated by every lonirue. It made iuj way into the nowspajK'rs ; the whole
nation heard it ; and millions who knew not wlijueo tlie su^^^o^tioii originated,
lespouded to its propriety.*'— Jacftwn Wrcaih^ 1829, p. 61.

1823.] GENERAL JACKSON NOMINATED. 15

he admits, did win to the Gkneral's support a large number
of the old party.

" I know," writos Major Lewis, " that no federalist wrote
the letters referred to. The principal letter was written at
my residence in the vicinity of Nashville, and was not seen
by any one, with the exception of the General and myself,
until it was received by Mr. Monroe. In fact it was copied
by me, at the General's request, and sent to Mr. Monroe in
my handwriting. The truth is, I was so struck with the
noble sentiments it breathed, that I took an extra copy of it
to be put upon my own private files, with the intention,
should I outlive the General, to place it in the hands of his
future biographer.

" Candor, however, requires that I should admit, as I
freely do, that the publication of this letter, together with
that of the 6th January, 1817, had the effect of rallying to
the support of General Jackson many of the federalists, par-
ticularly that portion of them who supported the war, and
hated John Quincy Adams for having turned traitor to his
party. But in making this admission I must not be under-
stood as countenancing, in the slightest degree, the charge
which some have labored to establish of a combination be-
tween him and the federalists. It must be borne in mind
that the publication of these letters did not take place until
May, 1824, about six months only before the presidential
election, and could not, therefore, have been instrumental in
bringing about a combination.

" That these letters, when published, must have had a
powerful effect upon that portion of the federalists named
above, I can readily imagine from my own personal observa-
tion in relation to several individuals, who had always be-
longed to the federal party. I will name one. A friend of
mine, a distinguished and leading federalist of North Caro-
lina, was spending a few days with me, in the summer, or
fall of 1823, and in our conversations upon political subjects
I found he was quite undecided as to which of the presiden-
tial candidates he would support. I pretty soon discovered.

16 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1823.

however, that he was bitterly opposed to Mr. Adams, whom

he spoke of as a ^ d d traitor;' but he said nothing that

induced me to believe he was favorably inclined toward
General Jackson, though tliey had long been peraonal friends.
Upon the whole, I thought his leanings were rather in favor
of Mr. Crawford, but not by any means definitely so. After
conversing with him the previous evening upon these sub-
jects, I determined to make an experiment upon him the
next morning witli General Jackson's letter of 12th Novem-
ber, 1816, and accordingly got the copy of it I had kept, be-
fore I went to bed, and laid it upon my table. I rose early
the next morning, and finding my friend already up and tak-
ing a walk in the garden, I sallied forth, and on approach-
ing him handed liim the Gencrars letter, begged him to read
it, and tell me what he thought of it. He took it, gave it
an attentive perusal, and addressing himself to me, with an
air of incredulity, imiuired if General Jackson had really
written such a letter to Mr. Monroe.

" ^ Certainly,' I replied.

" ' And actually sent it ?'

" * Yes,' I again replied.

" ^ Lewis, you are ([uizzing me,' he said.

" ^ No,' I assured him, ^ I am not.'

" Upon this his countenance became animated with joy
and delight, and he replied,

" ^ Then Ac is my man for the presidency. Henceforth,
from this very moment, until the election is over, will I give
him my cordial and zealous support.'

" He returned shortly afterward to North Carolina, and
took a decided and energetic part in the contest, rallied his
friends under the Jackson banner, and, in conjunction with a
large and zealous portion of the democratic party, succeeded
in carrying the State by upward of five thousand majority
over the regular caucus candidate, William H. Crawford.

" Who was this friend, methinlcs I hear you Jisk. It was
no other than General William Polk, of Raleigh, who, on ac-
count of his high military services in the revolutionary war,

1823.] GENERAL JACKSON NOMINATED. 17

his energy of character, his moral worth, and great wealth,
was one of the most distinguished and influential men in the
State. Although the Jackson men triumphed in North Car-
olina, yet their candidate was defeated. My gallant friend,
however, nothing daunted, again buckled on his armor, and
continued the conflict until complete success crowned the
efibrts of himself and friends, in the election of General
Jackson in the autumn of 1828."

Having disposed of these errors, Major Lewis proceeds to
relate the indubitable events, as they occurred under his own
eye, and many of them at his own suggestion.

MAJOR lewis' narrative.

'* When General Jackson was fighting the battles of his country, and
acquiring for himself and it imperishable glory, he never once thought, as
I verily believe, of reaching the presidency. He did not dream of such a
thing — ^the idea never entered his imagination. All he aimed at. or .de-
sired at the time, was military renown acquired by patriotic services. This
he prized far above all civil fame, and does even now, if I know any thing
of the feelings of his heart. He was naturally and essentially a military
man. Full of ardor, of indomitable courage, possessing the rare quality
of inspiring every man about him with feelings as enthusiastic and daunt-
less as his own ; quick to conceive and as prompt to execute ; vigilant and
of untiring industry ; and, in addition to all these high and noble qualities,
he was endowed with a sound judgment and discriminating mind. In
fact, he had all the requisites of a great military commander, and, witli
the s«ime theater to act upon, he would not, in my opinion, have been in-
ferior to any of the great of either ancient or modern times. This you
may consider extravagant ; but, I assure you, I do firmly and conscien-
tiously believe, that by nature he was not, as a military man, inferior to
either Alexander, Julius Caesar, or Napoleon Bonaparte, and had he oc-
cupied the place of either, under like circumstances, would not have been
less successful or distinguished !

" With these feelings and views, thirsting for military fame, and am-
bitious of being distinguished as a great commander, is it unreasonable to
suppose that civil honors were but little coveted, or cared for by liim ?
No, my friend. lie did not even dream of the high civic destiny that
awaited him, and which was to be the crowning glory of his life and char-
acter. The first suggestion of that sort came from Kentucky, and was
made, in the summer of 1815, by an officer who was under his command
and assisted in the defense of New Orleans. (Mr. Edward Livingston,

VOL. III. — 2

18 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1823.

too, about this time, suggested the same thing.) The letter of this officer
was addressed to a third person, a mutual friend, who inclosed it to Gen-
eral Jackson, as was undoubtedly expected by tlic writer. In this letter
it was proposed that he should be forthwith brought out as a candidate ;
but the General laughed at the idea, and, returning the letter to his friend,
begged that nothing further might be either said or done in relation to the
matter. The proposition was too absurd, he said, to be entertained for a
moment In fact, nothing further was thought or said, as I believe, upon
the subject of his being a candidate, until about the close of Mr. Monroe's
first term. Thus began and thus ended tlie first movement in favor of
bringing out General Jackson for the presidency. Colonel Burr, I am
well assured, had no agency in this, for it occurred some three months be-
fore the date of his letter to Governor Alston ; nor was it put in motion
by any combination of militant federalists and anti-Jeffersonians.

" As long as General Jackson remained in the miUtary service of his
country, little was said about bringing him out for the presidency. Having
been appointed Governor of Florida by the President of the United States,
he resigned his commission in the army about the first of June, 1821, and
repaired forthwith to Pensacola, to receive the territory from the Spanish
authorities. After organizing a territorial government, and putting it in
operation, he withdrew from all public employment, and returned to Ten-
nessee, where he expected to spend the rest of his4ife as a private citizen.
Nor, indeed, was it believed by his friends that tliey would bo blcvSt with
his society very long, as his health was at that time, an<l had been for six
or seven years previous, very feeble, and his constitution apparently
exhausted and broken down. No sooner, however, had he become a
private citizen, and had set himself down once more upon his own beauti-
ful estate, the Ilermitage, than the eyes of his fellow-citizens were turned
toward him, as having eminently entitled himself, by his brilliant and
patriotic services, to the highest honors within the gift of a free and
enlightened people.

" In Tennessee, and particularly at Nashville, his friends began now to
speak of him as a candidate, and in good earnest to take the necessary
steps to place his name prominently before the country. It is true that
some four or five candidates were already in tlie field ; but so confident
were they of General Jackson's strength and popularity with the people,
on account of his great public services, that they had no fears for the re-
sult They not only, therefore, began to speak out upon the subject^ but
to make their wishes and intentions known through the public journals.
The first demonstration of this latter method of supporting him was made
January, 1822, in one of the Nashville papers. Soon afterward, the editor
of tlie NcuhvUle Gazette^ Colonel Wilson, took the field openly and boldly
for the General, as his can(hdate for the Presidency. The proposition was

1823.] GRNEBAL JAOKSOK NOMINATED. 19

cordially responded to by the people of Tennessee, and was also well re-
ceived in other States, particularly so in the democratic and patriotic State
of Pennsylvania. The inquiry now was, in what way shall his name be
presented to the nation ? The most imposing manner of bringing him
forward and presenting to the other States of the Union, it was finally
agreed, would be by the Legislature of his own State. This would not
only give weight to the nomination, it was beUeved, but would show to
the whole country that we were in earnest It was determined, there-
fore, that the necessary steps should be taken to bring him forward at the
next session of the Legislature.

" In these preliminary movements, it appears to me, you will be scarcely
able to perceive any agency on the part either of Colonel Burr or the
^ militant Federalists,' of whom so much is said. Nor had the officers
of the army, whom he also represents as taking an active and leading
part, anything to do with them. The truth is, they were the voluntary
and spontaneous acts of his Tennessee friends, without the suggestions or
promptings of any person or persons out of the State.

" About this time, spring of 1822, I left home on a visit to North Garo
lina to see the family of my father-in-law. Governor Montfort Stokes, who
was then a Senator of Congress. The Governor had always belonged to
the democratic party, and was one of its prominent and most influential
leaders. His friendship and political support was, therefore, considered a
matter of importance by those who were seeking favors at the hands of
the people. What were his predilections at that time, in relation to the
presidential aspirants, I knew not ; but, as you may well suppose, I felt
anxious to enlist him on the side of General Jackson. He had not re-
turned from Washington at the time I reached his residence, but arrived
soon afterward. During my continuance at his house, I had frequent con-
versations with him upon political subjects, and found him a warm, per-
sonal friend and admirer of General Jackson ; but he gave not the slightest
intimation that he preferred him for the presidency. This occasioned me
some uneasiness, for I thonght it a matter of very great importance, as it
regarded the General's success in North Carolina that he should have the
support of the Governor. I determined, therefore, to have a full and frank
conversation with liim before 1 left, upon the subject ; and it was not long
before I had an opportunity of doing so, and learning his opinions and
views without reserve. He frankly remarked to me that so little had as
yet been said about General Jackson as a candidate, he had not supposed
it was seriously intended to run him, and asked me if such was really the
intention of his friends.

"' Unquestionably j' I replied, and added that the Legislature of Tennes-
see would certainly nominate him at its next session.

20 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1823.

"* What support do his friends expect him to get?' he inquired, *if
nominated ?'

" I answered, * they expect him to be supported by the whole country.*

" Then,' he facetiously replied, ' he will certainly be elected.'

" Assuming then a graver air and tone, he said to me that he had known
Qeneral Jackson from boyhood, he having read law with his brother when
quite a youth, and that there was no living man he so much admired ; but
being already conmiitted to the suppoi-t of Mr. Calhoun, he could not
advocate his election. This was very unwelcome news to me, but I can not
say that it was altogether unexpected, for I was led to anticipate some-
thing of the sort from his silence, as regarded his preference, in my previ-
ous conversations with him. I then remarked :

" ' But suppose Mr. Calhoun sliould not be a candidate, can not you sup-
port the General as your next choice ?'

" * Yes,' he promptly replied, * with great pleasure ;' but added that, at
the same time, he had no reason to believe that anything could or would
occur to prevent lus being a candidate.

" Under such circumstances, this was all I had a right to expect or ask,
and I parted with the Grovernor, when about to leave for Tennessee, fully
satisfied that in case Mr. Calhoun should not be a candidate, he would go
for General Jackson. In this I was not mistaken. The moment Mr. Cal-
houn was withdrawn by his Pennsylvania friends, the Governor rallied
upon the General, and supported him with great energy and zeal. Having
now the support of both General Polk and Governor Stokes, the two
leaders, I may say, of the federal and democratic parties in North Carolina,
his friends became confident of being able to carry that State for him.
They were not mistaken ; its vote was given to him by a large majority.

'* I returned to Nashville about the first of June, and found the friends
of the General in high spirits, and sanguine of success. Indeed, this feel*
ing was not confined to Nashville : it pervaded the whole State. Under
this state of things the legislature met, and, in a few days thereafler, the
20th July, 1822, adopted a preamble and resolutions which placed the
General before the country as a legitimate candidate for the presidency.
Being now formally nominated, his fiiends in every section of the Union
entered into the contest with increased vigor and energy. But few of the
federalists, however, took any part in it until afler the publication in May,
1824, of the General's celebrated letters to Mr. Monroe. Indeed, but few
of them, if any, knew of their existence until then, though they, it has been
alleged, had won their hearts as early as 1815. I should, however, except
General William Polk, to whom I sho^^red the letter of the 12th Novem-
ber, 1816, in the autumn of 1823, as before stated ; and perhaps John
Quincy Adams also, to whom Mr. Monroe, I have no doubt, showed both
letters, which accounts, to my mind at least, for his having sustained the

1823.] QSKBBAL JACKSON NOMIKATBD. 21

General in his Seminole campaign with so much ability and zeal, in his
dispatch to our Minister at Madrid.

" The General being now fairly out as a candidate, it was considered in-
di^nsable, in order to make his success the more certain, that the con-
gressional caucus should be broken down. This was an engine of great
political power, and had been used by the politicians of the country for
twenty years in manufacturing Presidents, and unless it could be destroyed
it would be difficult to overcome its inflaence upon those who had so long
looked upon its nominees as the only true and legitimate party candidates.
Wiih a view to accomplish this object, Judges Overton and Haywood,
both able and distinguished lawyers, opened a heavy and effective fire
upon it in a series of well written numbers, which were published in the
Nashville papers. These, with the attacks made upon it in other quarters,
added to Greneral Jackson^s great personal popularity, contributed greatly,
doubtless, to the overthrow of that renowned personage, * King Caucus,'
as it was then derisively called. It is true he mounted his throne again in
the winter of 1823-'24, and nominated, as Mr. Monroe's successor, Mr.
William H. Crawford; but his majesty had become powerless, and his
nominee for the first time was badly beaten. This was the last time he
ascended his throne, having died soon after of the wounds he received in
the campaign of 1824, and has never been heard of since. Not even his
ghost made its !ippearance in the presidential contest of 1828. It strikes
me that you will be equally at a loss to perceive in all this any agency of either
Colonel Burr, his militant federalists, or anti-Jeffersonians.

^ As Tennessee was almost unanimous in favor of General Jackson, it
might have been supposed that his friends would have had little or no
trouble in that State afler his nomination. Such, however, was not the
fact. Colonel John Williams had been a Senator from our State in Con-
press for eight years, and as his term of service expired on the 3d of
March, 1823, the legislature, which met in October of that year, had to
elect a new Senator. Colonel Williams was a candidate for re-election ;
but being a personal and political enemy of Greneral Jackson, it was de-
termined, if possible, to defeat him, unless he would pledge himself to the
support of the General for the presidency. This he refused to do, having
ah-eady engaged to support Mr. Crawford. The General's friends had no
alternative lefl them but to beat him, and this was no easy task. East
Tennessee claimed the Senator, and the Colonel was a great favorite with
the people of that end of the State. Besides, with the view of strength-
ening himself in other sections, soon after the elections in August were
over, he mounted his horse and rode through the whole State, calling on
the members-elect to the legislature, and obtaining promises from most of
tliem K) vote for him. They should not have thus committed themselves ;
but, having done so, the greater part of them were disposed to redeem

22 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1823.

their pledges, thougli admitting they had done wrong. The most devoted
and zealous of the General's friends were determined, however, to leave
no stone unturned to defeat his election. vSeveral persons were spoken of
as opposing candidates, but noue of them could obtain, it was ascertained,
the requisite number of votes. The Ghjneral's old friend, Johnny Rhe<i.
could come the nearest, but he lacked three votes. This was a very un-
pleasant state of things. To elect a bitter, personal enemy of General
Jackson, and one who was known to be in favor of Mr. Crawford for the
presidency, would have a most injurious effect^ it was believed, upon his
prospects. Notwithstanding he had been nominated by the legislature
some fifteen months before, it was apprehended, if an enemy of his should
be sent to the Senate, it would be difficult to make the other States be-
lieve that Tennessee was in earnest in her support of him. It would cer-
tainly have the appearance of great inconsistency, and well calculated to
nullify the effect of his nomination.

" This could not be permitted, and it was resolved, at all hazards, to
defeat the election of Colonel Williams. It became necessary now to play
a bold and decisive game. As nobody else could be found to beat the
Colonel, it was proposed to beat him with the General himsdf! This
having been made known produced great uneasiness and alarm among the
more timid members, from an apprehension that even he could not be
elected ; but Mr. Eaton and myself, who were on the ground, took upon
ourselves the responsibility of the step, and insisted on his being nomina-
ted to the Legislature as a candidate for the Senate. We came to the con-
clusion that if the General must be politically sacrificed, it mattered little
in what way it was done — whether by being defeated himself in the elec-
tion of a United States Senator, or by the election of his bitter enemy I
But I had no fear of liis being defeated — I did not believe it possible that
a majority of the members would be willing to take upon themselves the
responsibility of voting against him. He was, accordingly, nominated to
the Legislature by Major Maney, a highly respectable member from Wil-
liamson County — and he was elected, as I anticipated, by quite a large
majority I Had he been beaten it might passibly have destroyed, or at
least impaired, his prospects for the presidency ; but his defeat, it was be-
lieved, would not be more blasting in its effect than the election of Colonel
Williams under all the circumstances of the case.

" These are the reasons which induced the friends of General Jackson
to send him to the United States Senate in the winter of 1823-24 ; which
was thought by many of his friends at the time to have been rash and im-
politic. The General himself was far from desiring it; but there was no
help for it, and ho submitted with a good grace. He was a soldier, and
knew how to obey as well as to command 1 It is proper, however, to
state that the members of the Legislature who were in favor of electing

1823.] GENERAL JAOKSOK NOMINATED. 23

Colonel Williams, declared themselves to be decidedly the Mends of Gen-
eral Jackson ; but they maintained that to support the latter did not make
it necessary to sacrifice the former. The active and most decided of the
G^eneraVs friends, however, differed with them in opinion. They had no
doubt that to sustain Colonel Williams, under such circumstances, would
be injurious to the prospects of the General for the presidency."

And 80 General Jackson was, at once, a Senator and a
candidate for the presidency.

In connection with this interior view of his election to
the Senate, the correspondence that passed between the Gen-
eral and one of the members of the Tennessee Legislature,
previous to the election, has a certain interest. " AH we
want," said the member, " is a belief that you will permit
your name to be used " To which General Jackson replied :
" I have earnestly to request my friends, and beg of you, not
to press me to an acceptance of the appointment. If ap-
pointed I could not decline, and yet, in accepting it, I should
do great violence to my wishes and to my feelings. The
length of time I have passed in public service authorizes me
to make this request, which, with my friends, I trust, will be
considered reasonable and proper." «

Only twenty-five members of the Legislature ventured to
vote against General Jackson for the senatorship ; and such
was the power of his name in Tennessee, that of those
twenty-five but three were re-elected to the next legislature.
Indeed, his popularity exercised a despotic sway in some
portions of the State. There were districts of Tennessee in
which a man would scarcely have been safe who was known
to have voted against him.

In the northern States, where the leading presses and
politicians were already enlisted in behalf of Adams, Craw-
ford, or Calhoun, these proceedings of the Tennessee legisla-
ture were received with a general pooh-pooh. " Great
General, but unfit for civil employment." ^^ The Tennessee-
ans can not be in earnest." " Vice-President, perhaps ; but
President — absurd 1" " Adams and Jackson — that's the
ticket !"

24 LIFE OF ANDREW JAORSON. [1824.

CHAPTER II.

KING CAUCUS DETHRONED.

A TERRIBLE affliction fell upon Mr. Crawford. In August,
1823, when he was fifty-one years of age, he was stricken
with paralysis, which left him helpless, speechless, nearly
blind, and scarcely conscious. He rallied a little in the
course of the month, but he lay during the rest of the can-
vass a wreck of the once stalwart and vigorous CraAvford,
slowly, very slowly regaining his faculties. By the aid of a
mechanical contrivance, he was just able to affix his signature
to public documents, and thus retain his office of Secretary
of the Treasury. He was removed ere long to a pleasant and
retired cottage near Washington, the quiet of which was
essential to the preservation of his life. There he lived for
some months, visited only by his confidential clerk and his
nearest friends. The very papers necessary to refute the cal-
umnies of the campaign were written for him by subordinates
in his office.

Prostrated thus on the last reach of the course, he had
fallen with his face toward the goal, with his eyes and his
heart fixed upon it. He could not give up the race. Then
was seen the sorry spectacle of politicians contending, as it
were, over the body of the stricken chief. The Crawford
papers and partisans strove to conceal the calamity from the
public, asserting in a hundred paragraphs that the attack
had not been severe, and that the patient was rapidly recover-
ing. Friends and organs of tlie rival candidates exaggerated
the truth, if exaggeration were possible. Piteous attempts
were made to show the afflicted man, by driving him, prop-
ped with cushions, about the streets of Washington. In
January a formal bulletin of the attending physicians pro-
nounced him free from disease, and on the way to certain,

1824] KINO CAUCUS DETHRONED. 25

though slow recovery. Mr. Cobb, however, his chief of
fnends, wrote, almost on the same day, to a confidential ally:
'^ As an honest man, I am bound to admit that Crawford's
health, though daily improving, affords cause for objection.
He is very fat, but his speech and vision are imperfect, and
the paralysis of his hand continues. His speech improves
slowly. His right eye is so improved that he sees well enough
to play whist as well as an old man without spectacles. His
hand also gets stronger. Yet defect in all these members is
but too evident."*

The canvass raged on meanwhile. It was well to remove
the sick man from the maddening excitements of a city where
" every citizen was an electioneerer for the one party or the
other, and every visitor within its walls was an active, work-
ing partisan." " The hotels," continues the author of ^ Leis-
ure Labors,' " were only so many caucus or club-rooms, in
which to plan and direct the various schemes of party pro-
cedure. The drawing-rooms were thronged alike with the
votaries of fashion and the satellites of the different cham-
pions; nor were these limited to the sterner sex. The theater
was monopolized by one particular set of partisans in regular
turn, as the most proper place for a public demonstration;
but the artificial representations of the stage flagged and
faded before the real exhibitions of the political drama. The
legislative business of Congress received little or no atten-
tion. The members thought about nothing, talked about
nothing, and wrote home about nothing but the presidential
election."

During these months the questions agitated in all journals,
all gatherings, were these : Will there be a congressional
caucus ? and, if yes, will the party accept its nominee ?
What a fire was kept up upon the pretensions of King Cau-
cus, whose voice had once been so potential and unquestioned!
All the candidates but Crawford were against the caucus.
All the newspapers, except those devoted to Crawford, were

♦ Cobb's Leisure labors, p. 215.

26 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1824.

against it. Several of the State legislatures adopted strong
resolutions in reprehension of it. Public meetings denounced
it. Ponderous essays were hurled at it ; facetious squibs
assailed it. Martin Van Buren and his friends strove might-
ily to stem the torrent, but it rolled on in ever-increasing
strength.

A caucus, however, was destined to be held. On a certjiin
day, early in February, 1824, appeared in the National In-
telligenccr^ of Washington, two brief documents relating to
the Bone of Contention. This was one :

'' In consequence of the statements which have gone abroad in relation
to a congressional nomination of candidates for President and Vice-Presi-
dent of the United States, the undersigned have been requested, by many
of their repubhcan colleagues and associate^', to ascertain the number of
members of Congress who deem it inexpedient at this time to make such
a nomination, and to publish the same, for the information of the people
of the United States.

" In compliance with this request, they have obtained from gentlemen
representing the several States satisfactory information that of two hundred
and sixty-one, the whole number of members composing the present Con-
gress, there are one hundred and eighty-one who deem it inexpedient,
under existing circumstances, to meet in caucus, for the purpose of nomi-
nating candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States ;
and they have good reasons to believe that a portion of the remainder will
be found unwilling to attend such a meeting."

This paper was signed by twenty-four members of Con-
gress, among whom were Colonel Richard M. Johnson, of
Kentucky; Major Eaton, of Tennessee ; Robert Y. Hayne,
of South Carolina; S. D. Ingham, of Pennsylvania; George
Kremer, of Pennsylvania; Sam Houston, of Tennessee; and
J. R. Poinsett, of South Carolina.

The other document referred to was the following :

*' The democratic members of Congress are invited to meet in the Rep-
resentatives Chamber, at the Capitol, on the evening of the 14rh of Feb-
ruary, at 7 o'clock, to recommend candidates to the people of the United
States for the offices of President and Vice-President of the United
States."

1824.] KINO CAUCUS DETHRONED. 27

This was signed by ten members, one of whom was John
Forsyth. Mr. Van Buren did not sign it.

The caucus met at the time appointed, in the hall of the
House of Bepresentatives. A concession was made to public
opinion and good policy so far as to admit spectators to the
scene. This should be at least no " secret conclave/' as the
caucus had been styled. Accordingly, the doors were no
sooner opened, than a crowd, dense and eager, rushed to the
galleries, and filled them to overflowing. But, alas ! there
was no crowd upon the floor of the hall. By ones, and twos,
and threes the members dropped in ; counted, as they en-
tered, by politicians in the galleries, note-book in hand ; each
accession hailed by the Crawford men with the delight of Mr.
Crummels announcing to the mother of the Infant Phenom-
enon that another man had come into the pit. By seven
o'clock — all had arrived who were coming, and the caucus was
called to order. Sixty-six gentlemen were present, of whom
two held the proxy of an absentee. A member, looking
round upon the scene of empty chairs, which presented a
rather ridiculous contrast to the surging show of heads in the
galleries, moved to postpone the meeting until the next
month, when a fuller assemblage might be expected.

Mr. Van Buren opposed the motion. It would be impos-
sible, he said, to fix on any time that would be perfectly con-
venient and agreeable for all to attend. The people were
anxiously waiting for a nomimition, and he felt confident
that a large portion of the republicans of the Union were
decidedly in fiivor of this mode of nomination, and that it
was quite time it should be made.

So the balloting was forthwith begun. The following
was the result of the balloting for a presidential candidate :
William H. Crawford, 64 ; John Quincy Adams, 2 ; Na-
thaniel Macon, 1 ; Andrew Jackson, 1. Tlie Ixilloting for
a candidate for Vice-President immediately followed, with
this result: Albert Gallatin, 57; John Q. Adams, 1; Eras-
tus Root, 2 ; Samuel Smith, 1 ; William Eustis, 1 ; Wal-

16 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1823.

however, that he was bitterly opposed to Mr. Adams, whom

he spoke of as a ^d d traitor;' but he said nothing that

induced me to believe he was favorably inclined toward
General Jackson, though they had long been personal friends.
Upon the whole, I thought his leanings were rather in favor
of Mr. Crawford, but not by any means definitely so. After
conversing with him the previous evening upon these sub-
jects, I determined to make an experiment upon him the
next morning with General Jackson's letter of 12th Novem-
ber, 1816, and accordingly got the copy of it I had kept, be-
fore I went to bed, and laid it upon my table. I rose early
the next morning, and finding my friend already up and tak-
ing a walk in the garden, I sallied forth, and on approach-
ing him handed him the Gcnerars letter, begged him to read
it, and tell me what he thought of it. He took it, gave it
an attentive perusal, and addressing himself to me, with an
air of incredulity, inquired if General Jackson had really
written such a letter to Mr. Monroe.

" ^ Certainly,' I replied.

" ^ And actually sent it ?'

" * Yes,' I again replied.

" 'Lewis, you are quizzing me,' he said.

" ' No,' I assured him, ' I am not.'

"Upon this his countenance became animated with joy
and delight, and he replied,

" ' Then he is my man for the presidency. Henceforth,
from this very moment, until the election is over, will I give
him my cordial and zealous support.'

" He returned shortly afterward to North Carolina, and
took a decided and energetic part in the contest, rallied his
friends under the Jackson banner, and, in conjunction with a
large and zealous portion of the democratic party, succeeded
in carrying the State by upward of five thousand majoBlty
over the regular caucus candidate, William H. Crawford.

" Who was this friend, methiuks I hear you ask. It was
no other than General William Polk, of Raleigh, who, on ac-
count of his high military services in the revolutionary war,

1823.] GENERAL JACKSON NOMINATED. 17

his energy of character, his moral worth, and great wealth,
was one of the most distinguished and influential men in the
State. Although the Jackson men triumphed in North Car-
olina, yet their candidate was defeated. My gallant friend,
however, nothing daunted, again buckled on his armor, and
continued the conflict until complete success crowned the
efforts of himself and friends, in the election of General
Jackson in the autumn of 1828."

Having disposed of these errors. Major Lewis proceeds to
relate the indubitable events, as they occurred under his own
eye, and many of them at his own suggestion.

MAJOR lewis' narrative.

^* When General Jackson was fighting the battles of his country, and
acquiring for himself and it imperishable glory, he never once thought, as
I verily believe, of reaching the presidency. He did not dream of such a
thing — ^the idea never entered his imagination. All he aimed at. or .de-
sired at the time, was military renown acquired by patriotic services. This
he prized far above all civil fame, and does even now, if I know any thing
of the feelings of his heart. He was naturally and essentially a military
man. Full of ardor, of indomitable courage, possessing the rare quality
of inspiring every man about him with feelings as enthusiastic and daunt-
less as his own ; quick to conceive and as prompt to execute ; vigilant and
of untiring industry ; and, in addition to all these high and noble qualities,
he was endowed with a sound judgment and discriminating mind. In
fact^ he had all the requisites of a great military commander, and, with
the same theater to act upon, he would not, in my opinion, have been in-
ferior to any of the great of either ancient or modern times. This you
may consider extravagant ; but, I assure you, I do firmly and conscien-
tiously believe, that by nature he was not, as a military man, inferior to
either Alexander, Juhus Caesar, or Napoleon Bonaparte, and had he oc-
cupied the place of either, under like circumstances, would not have been
less successful or distinguished I

" With these feelings and views, thirsting for military fame, and am-
bitious of being distinguished as a great commander, is it unreasonable to
suppose that civil honors were but little coveted, or cared for by him ?
No, my friend. He did not even dream of the high civic destiny that
awaited him, and which was to be the crowning glory of his life and char-
acter. The first suggestion of that sort came from Kentucky, and was
made, in the summer of 1815, by an officer who was under his command
and assisted in the defense of New Orleans. (Mr. Edward Livingston,

VOL. III. — 2

18 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1823.

too, about this time, suggested the same thing.) The letter of this officer
was addressed to a third person, a mutual friend, who inclosed it to Gen-
eral Jackson, as was undoubtedly expected by the writer. In this letter
it was proposed that he should be forthwith brought out as a candidate ;
but tlie Q-eneral laughed at the idea, and, returning the letter to his friend,
begged that nothing further might be either said or done in relation to the
matter. The proposition was too absurd, he said, to be entertained for a
moment In fact, nothing further was thought or said, as I believe, upon
the subject of his being a candidate, until about the close of Mr. Monroe's
first term. Thus began and thus ended tlie first movement in favor of
bringing out General Jackson for the presidency. Colonel Burr, I am
well assured, had no agency in this, for it occurred some three months be-
fore the date of his letter to Governor Alston ; nor was it put in motion
by any combination of militant federalists and anti-Jeflfersonians.

" As long as General Jackson remained in the military service of his
country, little was said about bringing him out for the presidency. Having
been appointed Governor of Florida by the President of the United States,
he resigned his commission in the army about the first of June, 1821, and
repaired forthwith to Pensacola, to receive the territory from the Spanish
authorities. After organizing a territorial government, and putting it in
operation, he withdrew from all public employment, and returned to Ten-
nessee, where he expected to spend the rest of his "life as a private citizen.
Nor, indeed, was it believed by his friends that they would be blest with
his society very long, as his health was at that time, and had been for six
or seven years previous, very feeble, and his constitution apparently
exhausted and broken down. No sooner, however, had he become a
private citizen, and had set himself down once more upon his own beauti-
ful estate, tlie Hermitage, than the eyes of his fellow-citizens were turned
toward him, as having eminently entitled himself, by his brilliant and
patriotic services, to the highest honors within the gift of a free and
enlightened people.

" In Tennessee, and particularly at Nashville, his friends began now to
speak of him as a candidate, and in good earnest to take the necessary
steps to place his name prominently before the country. It is true that
some four or five candidates were already in the field ; but so confident
were they of General Jackson's strength and popularity with the people,
on account of his great public services, that they had no fears for the re-
sult They not only, therefore, began to speak out upon the subject, but
to make their wishes and intentions known through the public journals.
The first demonstration of this latter method of supporting him was made
January, 1822, in one of the Nashville papers. Soon afterward, the editor
of the NcuhviUe Qazettej Colonel Wilson, took the field openly and boldly
for the General, as his candidate for the Presidency. The proposition was

1823.] ORNERAL JAOKSON NOMINATED. 19

cordially responded to by the people of Tennessee, and was also well re-
ceived in other States, particularly so in the democratic and patriotic State
of Pennsylvania. The inquiry now was, in what way shall his name bo
presented to the nation ? The most imposing manner of bringing him
forward and presenting to the other States of the Union, it was finally
agreed, would be by the Legislature of his own State. This would not
only give weight to the nomination, it was believed, but would show to
the whole country that we were in earnest It was determined, there-
fore, that the necessary steps should be taken to bring him forward at the
next session of the Legislature.

" In these preliminary movements, it appears to me, you will be scarcely
able to perceive any agency on the part either of Colonel Burr or the
' militant Federalists,' of whom so much is said. Nor had the officers
of the army, whom he also represents as taking an active and leading
partj anything to do with them. The truth is, they were the voluntary
and spontaneous acts of his Tennessee friends, without the suggestions or
promptings of any person or persons out of the State.

" About this time, spring of 1822, I lefl home on a visit to North Caro
lina to see the &mily of my father-in-law, Governor Montfort Stokes, who
was then a Senator of Congress. The Governor had always belonged to
the democratic party, and was one of its prominent and most influential
leaders. His friendship and political support was, therefore, considered a
matter of importance by those who were seeking favors at the hands of
the people. What were his predilections at that time, in relation to the
presidential aspirants, I knew not ; but, as you may well suppose, I felt
anxious to enlist him on the side of General Jackson. He had not re-
turned from Washington at the time I reached his residence, but arrived
soon afterward. During my continuance at his house, I had frequent con-
versations vnth him upon political subjects, and found him a warm, per-
sonal friend and admirer of General Jackson ; but he gave not the slightest
intimation that he preferred him for the presidency. This occasioned me
some uneasiness, for I thought it a matter of very great importance, as it
regarded the General's success in North Carolina that he should have the
support of the Governor. I determined, therefore, to have a full and frank
conversation with him before I left, upon the subject ; and it was not long
before I had an opportunity of doing so, and learninj^ his opinions and
views without reserve. He frankly remarked to me that so little had as
yet been said about General Jackson as a candidate, he had not supposed
it was seriously intended to run him, and asked me if such was really the
intention of his friends.

" * Unquestionably^' I replied, and added that the Legislature of Tennes-
see would certainly nominate him at its next session.

20 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1823.

"'What support do his friends expect him to get?' he inquired, *if
nominated ?'

" I answered, * they expect him to be supported by the whole country.*

" Then,' he facetiously replied, * he will certainly be elected.'

'^ Assuming then a graver air and tone, he said to me that he had known
Qeneral Jackson from boyhood, he having read law with his brother when
quite a youth, and that there was no living man he so much admired ; but
being already conmiitted to the support of Mr. Calhoun, he could not
advocate his election. This was very unwelcome news to me, but I can not
say that it was altogether unexpected, for I was led to anticipate some-
thing of the sort from his silence, as regarded his preference, in my previ-
ous conversations with him. I then remarked :

" ' But suppose Mr. Calhoun should not be a candidate, can not you sup-
port the General as your next choice ?'

" * Yes,' he promptly replied, * with great pleasure ;' but added that, at
the same time, he had no reason to believe that anything could or would
occur to prevent his being a candidate.

" Under such circumstances, this was all I had a right to expect or ask,
and I parted with the Governor, when about to leave for Tennessee, fully
satisfied that in case Mr. Calhoun should not be a candidate, he would go
for General Jackson. In this I wa^ not mistaken. The moment Mr. Cal-
houn was withdrawn by his Pennsylvania friends, the Governor rallied
upon the General, and supported him with great energy and zeal. Having
now the support of both Gk»neral Polk and Governor Stokes, the two
leaders, I may say, of the federal and democratic parties in North Carolina,
his friends became confident of being able to carry that State for him.
They were not mistaken ; its vote was given to him by a large majority.

** I returned to Nashville about the first of June, and found the friends
of the General in high spirits, and sanguine of succesa Indeed, this feel*
ing was not confijied to Nashville : it pervaded the whole State. Under
this state of things the legislature met, and, in a few days therealler, the
20th July, 1822, adopted a preamble and resolutions which placed the
General before the country as a legitimate candidate for the presidency.
Being now formally nominated, his fiiends in every section of the Union
entered into the contest with increased vigor and energy. But few of the
federalists, however, took any part in it until afler the publication in May,
1824, of the General's celebrated letters to Mr. Monroe. Indeed, but few
of them, if any, knew of their existence until then, though they, it has been
alleged, had won their hearts as early as 1815. I should, however, except
Gkneral William Polk, to whom I sho^^ed the letter of the 12th Novem-
ber, 1816, in the autumn of 1823, as before stated ; and perhaps John
Quincy Adams also, to whom Mr. Monroe, I have no doubt, showed both
letters, which accounts, to my mind at least, for his having sustained the

1823.] GENERAL JACKSON NOMINATED. 21

General in his SemiDoIe campaign with so much ability and zeal, in his
dispatch to our Minister at Madrid.

" The Gkneral being now fairly out as a candidate, it was considered in-
dispensable, in order to make his success the more certain, that the con-
gressional caucus should be broken down. This was an engine of great
political power, and had been used by the politicians of the country for
twenty years in manufacturing Presidents, and unless it could be destroyed
it would be difficult to overcome its influence upon those who had so long
looked upon its nominees as the only true and legitimate party candidates.
With a view to accomplish this object, Judges Overton and Haywood,
both able and distinguished lawyers, opened a heavy and effective fire
upon it in a series of well written numbers, which were published in the
Nashville papers. These, with the attacks made upon it in other quarters,
added to General Jackson's great personal popularity, contributed greatly,
doubtless, to the overthrow of that renowned personage, ' King Caucus,*
as it was then derisively called. It is true he mounted his throne again in
the winter of 1823-24, and nominated, as Mr. Monroe's successor, Mr.
William EL Crawford; but his majesty had become powerless, and his
nominee for the first time was badly beaten. This was the last time he
ascended his throne, having died soon after of the wounds he received in
the campaign of 1824, and has never been heard of since. Not even his
ghost made its Appearance in the presidential contest of 1828. It strikes
me that you will be equally at a loss to perceive in all this any agency of either
Colonel Burr, his militant federalists, or anti-Jeffersonians.

^ As Tennessee was almost unanimous in favor of General Jackson, it
might have been supposed that his friends would have had little or no
trouble in that State after his nomination. Such, however, was not the
fact. Colonel John Williams had been a Senator from our State in Con-
gress for eight years, and as his term of service expired on the 3d of
March, 1823, the legislature, which met in October of that year, had to
elect a new Senator. Colonel Williams was a candidate for re-election ;
but being a personal and political enemy of General Jackson, it was de-
termined, if possible, to defeat him, unless he would pledge himself to the
support of the General for the presidency. This he refused to do, having
already engaged to support Mr. Crawford. The General's friends had no
alternative left them but to beat him, and this was no easy task. East
Tennessee claimed the Senator, and the Colonel was a great favorite with
the people of that end of the State. Besides, with the view of strength-
ening himself in other sections, soon after the elections in August were
over, he mounted his horse and rode through the whole State, calling on
the members-elect to the legislature, and obtaining promises from most of
tliem to vote for him. They should not have thus committed themselves ;
butj having done so, the greater part of them were disposed to redeem

22 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1823.

their pledges, though admitting they had done wrong. The most devoted
and zealous of the General's friends were determined, however, to leave
no stone unturned to defeat his election. Several persons were spoken of
as opposing candidates, but none of them could obtain, it was ascertained,
the requisite number of votes. The General's old friend, Johnny Rhea,
oould come the nearest, but he lacked three votes. This was a very un-
pleasant Btate of things. To elect a bitter, personal enemy of General
Jackson, and one who was known to be in favor of Mr. Crawford for the
presidency, would have a most injurious effect, it was believed, upon his
prospects. Notwithstanding he had been nominated by the legislature
some fifteen months before, it was apprehended, if an enemy of his should
be sent to the Senate, it would be difficult to make the other States be>
Hove that Tennessee was in earnest in her support of him. It would cer-
tainly have the appearance of great inconsistency, and well calculated to
nullify the effect of his nomination.

'' This could not be permitted, and it was resolved, at all hazards, to
defeat the election of Colonel Williams. It became necessary now to play
a bold and decisive game. As nobody else could be found to beat the
Colonel, it was proposed to beat him with the General himself/ This
having been made known produced great uneasiness and alarm among the
more timid members, from an apprehension that even he could not be
elected ; but Mr. Eaton and myself, who were on the ground, took upon
ourselves the responsibility of the step, and insisted on his being nomina-
ted to the Legislature as a candidate for the Senate. We ca,jne to the con-
clusion that if the General must be politically sacrificed, it mattered little
in what way it was done — ^whether by being defeated himself in the elec-
tion of a United States Senator, or by the election of his bitter enemy 1
But I had no fear of his being defeated — I did not believe it possible that
a majority of the members would be willing to take upon themselves the
responsibility of voting against him. He was, accordingly, nominated to
the Legislature by Major Maney, a highly respectable member from Wil-
liamson County — and he was elected, as I anticipated, by quite a large
majority I Had he been beaten it might possibly have destroyed, or at
least impaired, his prospects for the presidency ; but his defeat, it was be-
lieved, would not be more blasting in its effect than the election of Colonel
Williams under all the circumstances of the case.

" These are the reasons which induced the friends of General Jackson
to send him to the United States Senate in the winter of 1823-24 ; which
was thought by many of his friends at the time to liave been rash and im-
politia The General himself was far from desiring it ; but there was no
help for it) and he submitted with a good grace. He was a soldier, and
knew how to obey as well as to command I It is proper, however, to
state that the members of the Legislature who were in favor of electing

1823.] GENERAL JAOKSON NOMINATED. 23

Colonel Williams, declared themselves to be decidedly the friends of Gen-
eral Jackson ; but they maintained that to support the latter did not make
it necessary to sacrifice the former. The active and most decided of the
Generars friends, however, differed with them in opinion. They had no
doubt that to sustain Colonel Williams, under such circumstances, would
be injurious to the prospects of the General for the presidency."

And so General Jackson was, at once, a Senator and a
candidate for the presidency.

In connection with this interior view of his election to
the Senate, the correspondence that passed between the Gen-
eral and one of the members of the Tennessee Legislature,
previous to the election, has a certain interest. " All we
want,'' said the member, " is a belief that you will permit
your name to be used " To which General Jackson replied :
" I have earnestly to request my friends, and beg of you, not
to press me to an acceptance of the appointment. If ap-
pointed I could not decline, and yet, in accepting it, I should
do great violence to my wishes and to my feelings. The
length of time I have passed in public service authorizes me
to make this request, which, with my friends, I trust, will be
considered reasonable and proper." ^

Only twenty-five members of the Legislature ventured to
vote against General Jackson for the senatorship ; and such
was the power of his name in Tennessee, that of those
twenty-five but three were re-elected to the next legislature.
Indeed, hie popularity exercised a despotic sway in some
portions of the State. There were districts of Tennessee in
which a man would scarcely have been safe who was known
to have voted against him.

In the northern States, where the leading presses and
politicians were already enlisted in behalf of Adams, Craw-
ford, or Calhoun, these proceedings of the Tennessee legisla-
ture were received with a general pooh-pooh. " Great
General, but unfit for civil employment." " The Tennessee-
ans can not be in earnest." " Vice-President, perhaps ; but
President — absurd !" " Adams and Jackson — that's the
ticket !"

24 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1824.

CHAPTER II.

KING CAUCUS DETHRONED.

A TERRIBLE aflfliction fell upon Mr. Crawford. In August,
1823, when he was fifty-one years of age, he was stricken
with paralysis, which left him helpless, speechless, nearly
blind, jand scarcely conscious. He rallied a little in the
course of the month, but he lay during the rest of the can-
vass a wreck of the once stalwart and vigorous Crawford,
slowly, very slowly regaining his faculties. By the aid of a
mechanical contrivance, he was just able to affix his signature
to public documents, and thus retain his office of Secretary
of the Treasury. He was removed ere long to a pleasant and
retired cottage near Washington, the quiet of which was
essential to the preservation of his life. There he lived for
some months, visited only by his confidential clerk and his
nearest friends. The very papers necessary to refute the cal-
umnies of the campaign were written for him by subordinates
in his office.

Prostrated thus on the last reach of the course, he had
fallen with his face toward the goal, with his eyes and his
heart fixed upon it. He could not give up the race. Then
was seen the sorry spectacle of politicians contending, as it
were, over the body of the stricken chief The Crawford
papers and partisans strove to conceal the calamity from the
public, asserting in a hundred paragraphs that the attack
had not been severe, and that the patient was rapidly recover-
ing. Friends and organs of the rival candidates exaggerated
the truth, if exaggeration were possible. Piteous attempts
were made to show the afflicted man, by driving him, prop-
ped with cushions, about the streets of Washington. In
January a formal bulletin of the attending physicians pro-
nounced him free from disease, and on the way to certain,

1824] KINO CAUCUS DETHRONED. 25

though slow recovery. Mr. Cobb, however, his chief of
friends, wrote, almost on the same day, to a confidential ally:
" As an honest man, I am bound to admit that Crawford's
health, though daily improving, affords cause for objection.
He is very fat, but his speech and vision are imperfect, and
the paralysis of his hand continues. His speech improves
slowly. His right eye is so improved that he sees well enough
to play whist as well as an old man without spectacles. His
hand also gets stronger. Yet defect in all these members is
but too evident."*

♦ Cobb's Leisure Iiabors, p. 215.

LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON.

[1824.

A caucus, however, was destined to be held. On a certain
day, early in February, 1824, appeared in the National In-
telligencer, of Washington, two brief documents relating to
the Bone of Contention. This was one :

" In consequence of the statements which have gone abroad in relation
to a congrepsiooal nomination of candidates for President and Vice-Presi-
dent of tlic United States, the undersigned have been requeste<3, by many
of their republican colleagues and associates, to ascertain the number of
members of Congress who deem it inexpedient at this time to make such
a nomination, and to publish the same, for the information of the people
of the United States.

'^ In compliance with this request, they have obtained from gentlemen
representing the several States satisfactory information that of two hundred
and sixty-one, the whole number of members composing the present Con-
gress, there are one hundred and eighty-one who deem it inexpedient,
under existing circumstances, to meet in caucus, for the purpose of nomi-
nating candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States ;
and they have good reasons to believe that a portion of the remainder will
be found unwilling to attend such a meeting."

This paper was signed by twenty-four members of Con-
gress, among whom were Colonel Kichard M. Johnson, of
Kentucky; Major Eaton, of Tennessee ; Kobert Y. Hayne,
of South Carolina; S. D. Ingham, of Pennsylvania; George
Kremer, of Pennsylvania; Sam Houston, of Tennessee; and
J. R. Poinsett, of South Carolina.

The other document referred to was the following :

*^ The demociatic members of Congress are invited to meet in the Rep-
resentatives Chamber, at the Capitol, on the evening of the 14Lh of Feb-
ruary, at 7 o'clock, to recommend candidates to the people of the United
States for the offices of President and Vice-President of the United
States."

1824] KINO CAUCUS DETHRONED. 27

This was signed by ten members, one of whom was John
Forsyth. Mr. Van Bmt^n did not sign it.

The caucus met at the time appointed, in the hall of the
House of Bepresentatives. A concession was made to public
opinion and good policy so far as to admit spectators to the
scene. This should be at least no " secret conclave," as the
caucus had been styled. Accordingly, the doors were no
sooner opened, than a crowd, dense and eager, rushed to the
galleries, and filled them to overflowing. But, alas ! there
was no crowd upon the floor of the hall. By ones, and twos,
and threes the members dropped in ; counted, as they en-
tered, by politicians in the galleries, note-book in hand ; each
accession hailed by the Crawford men with the delight of Mr.
Crummels announcing to the mother of the Infant Phenom-
enon that another man had come into the pit. By seven
o'clock — all had arrived who were coming, and the caucus was
called to order. Sixty-six gentlemen were present, of whom
two held the proxy of an absentee. A member, looking
round upon the scene of empty chairs, which presented a
rather ridiculous contrast to the surging show of heads in the
galleries, moved to postpone the meeting until the next
month, when a fuller assemblage might be expected.

Mr. Van Buren opposed the motion. It would be impos-
sible, he said, to fix on any time that would be perfectly con-
venient and agreeable for all to attend. The people were
anxiously waiting for a nomination, and he felt confident
that a large portion of the republicans of the Union were
decidedly in favor of this mode of nomination, and that it
was quite time it should be made.

So the balloting was forthwith begun. The following
was the result of the balloting for a presidential candidate :
William H. Crawford, 64 ; John Quincy Adams, 2 ; Na-
thaniel Macon, 1 ; Andrew Jackson, 1. The balloting for
a candidate for Vice-President immediately followed, with
this result: Albert Gallatin, 57; John Q. Adams, 1; Eras-
tus Root, 2 ; Samuel Smith, 1 ; William Eustis, 1 ; Wal-

C' . .A. l-nh,.J.

1824.] KING CAUCUS DETHRONED. 29

A large meeting, summoned by the friends of Calhoun, as-
sembled in that town, and a series of resolutions were read,
recommending Mr. Calhoun as Pennsylvania's candidate.
The vote of the meeting was about to be taken, when a
gentleman rose and quietly moved that the resolutions be
amended by striking out the name of John C. Calhoun and
inserting in its place that of Andrew Jackson. The as-
sembly rose en masse and carried the amendment by accla-
mation.

Philadelphia took up the magical name. At a meeting
called in Philadelphia to select delegates to a State nomi-
nating convention, Mr. George M. Dallas, who had been, up
to this tinae, the advocate of Mr. Calhoun, proposed the
name of Jackson ; saying that he did so only in deference
to the known wishes of the people. The convention met at
Harrisburg on the fourth of March, 1824, and made short
work of the business before them. A spectator of the pro-
ceedings briefly writes : " Jonathan Roberts moved that the
convention approve the nomination agreed upon at the cau-
cus at Washington City. This motion was negatived, ayes
2 ; nays 123. He then moved that the electors be appointed
without instructions to vote for any particular candidates as
President and Vice-President. This motion was also lost —
ayes 33 ; nays 92. Andrew Jackson was then nominated as
the candidate for President, Jonathan Roberts being the only
member of the convention who voted against him. John C.
Calhoun was afterward nominated as the candidate for Vice-
President. The vote stood thus — J. C. Calhoun, 87 ; Henry
Clay, 10 ; A. Gallatin, 10 ; Wm. Findlay, 8 ; John Tod, 8 ;
Daniel Montgomery, 1. Most of the above candidates except
Mr. Calhoun, were voted for as Vice-President, by instruc-
tion ; and I am informed, that had there been a necessity for
a second ballot, there would have been almost an unanimous
vote for Mr. Calhoun, as Vice-President."

Mr. Calhoun was wise. He made a virtue of necessity,
and withdrew his name from the list of presidential candi-
dates in favor of General Jackson. The canvass was then

32 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1824

New York against Mr. Adams and General Jackson, Mr.
Van Buren was that man. He had a powerful inducement
to exertion. The New York American was not far out of
the way when it remarked, that *^ The apparent question now
before the public is, who shall be our next President ? but
the real question is, whether Martin Van Buren shall be
President of the United States on and after the 4th of March,
1833 ?" The American explains its meaning thus : " At
that time, the great State of New York, having never fur-
nished a President, will have irresistible claims to that honor.
If any of her citizens are now qualified, the blossoms of eter-
nity, fast gathering on their heads, will have fallen, they will
be superannuated, that is, they will have passed the age of
sixty years, that gloomy period, when the Constitution of
New York declares that judges lose their senses, and that all
flesh is grass. In that day Mr. Van Buren will be in the full
strength of life, the only New Yorker fit for the Presidency."
These slight indications of the nature of the presidential
campaign of 1824, will enable the retider to follow under-
standingly the personal movements of General Jackson ; to
whom we now return.

CHAPTER III.

GENERAL JACKSON IN THE SENATE.

" Andrew Jackson, appointed a Senator by the Legis-
lature of the State of Tennessee for the term of six years,
commencing on the fourth day of March last, produced his
credentials, was qualified, and took his seat."

Decemlxir 5th, 1823, is the date of this entry in the jour-
nal of the Senate. Twenty-six years had passed away since
last Andrew Jackson had pressed the senatorial morocco ;
during which period the number of senators had increased

1824.] GENERAL JACKSON IN THE SENATE. 33

from thirty-two to forty-eight. And again, as we look down
the list of names, we are astonished to observe how few of
them are known to the present generation. Bufus King,
Martin Van Bm-en, Nathaniel Macon, John Branch, Bohert
Y. Hayne, Bichard M. Johnson, John M. Eaton, Thomas H.
Benton, are all the names universally remembered at the
present day. In the House of Bepresentatives were Henry
Clay, Daniel Webster, C. C. Cambreleng, Egbert Ten Eyck,
Stephen Van Bensselaer, James Buchanan, Samuel D. Ing-
ham, Louis McLane, John Bandolph, William C. Bives,
Andrew Stephenson, WQlie P. Mangum, George McDuffie,
Joel B. Poinsett, John Forsyth, Sam Houston, Elisha Whit-
tlesy, Edward Livingston. The delegate from the Territory
of Florida was Bichard K. Call, General Jackson's former
aid-de-camp.

The session lasted six months, and General Jackson sat it
nearly out. He made four speeches of about two minutes
each ; one in which he testified to the valor and good service
of an officer who had fought at New Orleans ; the others
brief explanations respecting a projected road in Florida. He
voted, however, on almost every question that came to a di-
vision.

He voted for the construction of that Florida road, on
the ground that it was necessary to the defense of the Ter-
ritory. He voted for the abolition of imprisonment for debt.
He voted against reducing the duty upon imported iron ;
against reducing the duty upon cotton goods ; against re-
ducing the duty upon wool and woolen goods ; against in-
creasing the duty on India silks ; against removing the duty
on cotton bagging ; for lowering the duty on blankets; for
removing the duty of ^^four cents per pound " on frying-
pans.

For the sake of economizing space, it may may be stated
here, that during the two sessions of General Jackson's service
in the Senate he voted in the affirmative on the passage of the
following internal-improvement bills : A bill authorizing a
road from Memphis in Tennessee to Little Bock in Arkan-

voL. in. — 3

34 LIFE OP ANDREW JACKSON. [1824.

sas ; a bill for making a road in Florida ; a bill to procure
necessary surveys for roads and canals ; a bill to improve the
navigation of the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri ; a bill for
making a road in Missouri ; a bill to subscribe to the stock
in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company ; a bill to
extend the Cumberland road to Zanesville ; a bill authorizing
a subscription to the Portland and Louisville Canal Com-
pany.

The great topic of the session was the tariff. General
Jackson, as his votes show, was a tariff man — an advocate
of the system of " protecting " native industry by the impo-
sition of high duties upon the importation of manufactured
articles. We are not left to the testimony of General Jack-
son's votes on this question. While the revision of the tariff
was proceeding in Congress, Dr. L. H. Colman, a member of
the Virginia Legislature, wrote to General Jackson, asking
his opinion upon the subject. This correspondence was very
famous in its day, and won votes for General Jackson even
from anti-tariff men — the General's candor and boldness
atoning for his alleged heterodoxy of opinion.

DR. COLHAN TO GENERAL JACKSON.

*» Warrkmton, Va., April 2l8t, 1344.

^Dear Sir: Being one of the six members of the Virginia Assembly
in the caucus last winter who voted for you as a fit and proper person to
be supported by the people of the State for the presidency of the United
States, and having since heard that you are in favor of the ^^ protecting duty
policy ^^^ I take the liberty of desiring you to inform me whether you intend
voting for the Tariff Bill now before Congress. I wish to have informa-
tion on the subject as soon as your convenience will permit^ that I may
answer the Fredericksburg Committee who invite my cooperation in get-
ting up a ticket for the Hero of New Orleans. In this county you have
many friends, and some think your support will be better in Petersburg
than in any of the contiguous counties. Wo are anti-Tariff here ; and can-
dor requires me to say that should you be the advocate of a measure to
which our interest is evidently opposed — ^the zeal with which you have
been hitherto supported will be relaxed.

" I am, ^.y L. H. Colman."

1824.] GENERAL JACKSON IN THE SENATE. 35

GENERAL JAOKSOy TO DR. COLMAN.

^ Wabhikutov Cmr, April 86tli, 1934
" Sir : I have had the honor this day to receive jour letter of the 2l8t
instant) and with candor shall reply to it My name has been brought be-
fore the nation by the people themselves without any agency of mine : for
I wish it not to be forgotten that I have never solicited office, nor when
called upon by the constituted authorities have ever declined where I con-
ceived my services would be beneficial to my country. But as my name
has been brought before the nation for the first office in the gift of the peo-
ple, it is incumbent on me, when asked, frankly to declare my opinion upon
any political or national question pending before and about which the
country feels an interest

" You ask me my opinion on the Tariff. I answer, that I am in favor
of a judicious examination and revision of it; and so far as the Tariff be-
fore us embraces the design of fostering, protecting, and preserving within
ourselves the means of national defense and independence, particularly in
a state of war, I would advocate and support it The experience of the
late war ought to teach us a lesson ; and one never to be forgotten. If
our liberty and republican form of government, procured for us by our rev-
olutionary fathers, are worth the blood and treasure at which they were
obtained, it surely is our duty to protect and defend them. Can there be
an American patriot^ who saw the privations, dangers, and difficulties ex-
perienced for the want of a proper means of defense during the last war,
who would be willing again to hazard the safety of our country if em-
broiled ; or rest it for defense on the precarious means of national resour-
ces to be derived from commerce, in a state of war with a maritime power
which might destroy that commerce to prevent our obtaining the means
of defense, and thereby subdue us ? I hope there is not ; and if there is, I
am sure he does not deserve to enjoy the blessing of freedom.

" Heaven smiled upon, and gave us liberty and independence. That
same providence has blessed us with the means of national independence
and national defense. If we omit or refuse to use the gifts which He has
extended to us, we deserve not the continuation of His blessings. He has
filled our mountains and our plains with minerals — with lead, iron, and cop-
per, and given us a climate and soil for the growing of hemp and wool.
These being the grand materials of our national defense, they ought to have
extended to them adequate and fair protection, that our own manufacto-
ries and laborers may be placed on a fair competition with those of Europe;
and that we may have witliin our own country a supply of those leading
and important articles so essential to war. Beyond this, I look at the
Tariff with an eye to the proper distribution of labor and revenue ; and
with a view to discharge our national debt. I am one of those who do
liot beUeve that a national debt is a national blessing, but rather a curse to

36 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1824.

a republic; inasmuch as it is calculated to raise around the administra-
tion a moneyed aristocracy dangerous to tlie liberties of the country.

*' This Tariff — I mean a judicious one — ^possesses more fanciful than real
dangers. I will ask what is the real situation of the agriculturalist ? Where
has the American farmer a market for his surplus products ? Except for
cotton he has neither a foreign nor a home market Does not this clearly
prove, when there is no market either at home or abroad, that there is
too much labor employed in agriculture ? and that the channels of labor
should be multiplied? Common sense points out at once the remedy.
Draw from agriculture the superabundant labor, employ it in mechanism
and manufactures, thereby creating a home market for your breadstuHs,
and distributing labor to a most profitable account, and benefits to the
country will result Take from agriculture in the United States six hun-
dred thousand men, women, and children, and you at once give a home
market for more breadstuffs than all Europe now furnishes us. In short,
sir, we have been too long subject to the policy of the British merchants.
It is time we should become a little more Amejncanized , and instead of
feeding the paupers and laborers of Europe, feed our own, or else in a
short time, by continuing our present policy, we shall all be paupers our-
selves.

" It is, therefore, my opinion that a careful Tariff is much wanted to
pay our national debt, and afford us the means of that defense within our-
selves on wliich the safety and liberty of our country depend ; and last,
though not least, give a proper distribution to our labor, which must prove
beneficial to the happiness, independence, and wealth of the community.

" This is a short outline of my opinions, generally, on the subject of
your inquiry, and believing them correct and calculated to further the
prosperity and happiness of my country, I declare to you I would not
barter them for any office or situation of a temporal character that could
be given me.

" I have presented you my opinions freely, because I am without con-
cealment, an 1 should indeed despise myself if I could believe myself ca-
pable of acquiring the confidence of any by means so ignoble.

" I am, sir, very respectfully your obedient servant,

" Andrew Jackson."

Did Henry Clay ever deliver a speech, or Horace Greeley
write an editorial article, more completely pervaded with the
spirit of the protective policy, than this letter of Andrew
Jackson ? The General really exhausted the subject. Not
an argument escaped him.

The residence of General Jackson this winter at the seat

1824] GENERAL JAOKSON IN THE SENATE. 37

of government rendered him an object of attentions pecu-
liarly flattering. On New Year's day, we read in the Intel*
ligencer, Mr. Custis, of Arlington, in the presence of a nu-
merous company, presented him with the pocket-telescope
carried by General Washington during the revolutionary war.
" General Jackson received the relic," says the reporter, " in
a manner peculiarly impressive, which showed that however
time, hard service, and infirmity may have impaired a frame
no longer young, the heart was still entire, and alive to the
heroic and generous feelings of the soldier, the patriot, and
the friend."

The eighth of January was celebrated this year with un-
usual zest in all parts of the country. At Washington, as
we have before recorded. General Jackson figured at a grand
l)all given in honor of the occasion by the Secretary of State.
In the morning of the same day another interesting gift was
bestowed upon the General — the pistols of General Wash-
ington, which had been given him by Lafayette, Charles F.
Mercer, of the House of Representatives, accompanied by Mr.
Van Rensselaer, waited upon the General at his lodgings,
and addressed him in these words :

" General : Allow me to fulfill the request of a friend and constituent^
Mr. Wm. Robinson, of Sudley, one of the legatees of General George
Wa.-^hington, by delivering to you the arms that he wore during many of
the vicissitudes of that revolution which conducted him to the summit of
renown and our country to independence.

" Tliey were tlie gift of his distinguished pupil, Lafayette, and they as-
sociate the name of the steadiest friend of liberty in the old, with the mem-
ory of her most distinguished champion in the new world.

" Another interest will be imparted to these arms. In becoming yours
on this day, they are destined to multiply the memorials of the most bril-
liant and extraordinary achievement in the military annals of this eventful
age."

And yet another pageant of similar nature awaited him,
of which the papers of the day give glowing accounts. The
General's own simple, brief allusion to it, in a letter to his
nephew, Andrew Jackson Donelson, will better please the

38 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1824.

reader : " Yesterday," he wrote on the 16th of March, " being
my birth-day, and having entered upon my fifty-eighth year,
I had a few friends to dine with me, and the evening was
spent agreeably. Thus I have entered my fifty-eighth year.
How I may end it is for Providence to decide. To-day, at
eleven o'clock a. m., I was notified by the President to attend
him, that he might present me with the medal voted by Con-
gress on the 27th of February, 1815. Accordingly, attended
by Major Eaton, General Cobb, and Mr. E. Livingston, I
waited upon him, when, in the presence of the heads of de-
partments, the ladies of the heads of departments, the ladies
of the executive head, cum muHis alios ^^ in due form and
pomp, it was presented. Of all things I hate to speak of
myself, and these parades and pomp are most disagreeable to
me ; you will see it all in print, and to that I refer you."t

Early in the session mysterious whispers began to be cir-
culated in Washington that a correspondence had passed,
some years before, between General Jackson and Mr. Monroe,
which, if published, would prove the General more than half
a federalist, and blast his prospects of the presidency. The
whispers found their way into print. So much was said and
written respecting the correspondence that the whole nation
was on the qui vive respecting it, and its publication was
universally demanded. George Kremer, of Pennsylvania, a
member of the House of Representatives, devoted to Jackson,
wrote to the General, asking him if he had ever expressed the
federal sentiments attributed to him.

" No," replied the General. " My advice to the President
was, that in the selection of his Cabinet, he should act upon
principles like these : consider himself the head of a nation,
not of a party ; that he should have around him the best
talents the country could afford, without regard to the sec-
tional divisions ; and should, in his selection, seek after men
of probity, virtue, capacity, and firmness ; and in this way

* So in the original

t Autograph collection of II. C. Van Schaach, Manlius, N. Y.

1824.] GENERAL JAOKSON IK THE SENATE. 39

he would go far to eradicate those feelmgs which, on former
occaaions, threw so many obstacles in the way of government,
and be enabled, perhaps, to unite a people heretofore politic-
ally divided."

The correspondence was published. It was read with ex-
treme interest, and made an impression upon the people most
favorable to General Jackson's success. One unlucky pas-
sage, however, called forth adverse comment. General Jack-
son said in one of his letters that if he had been in command
of the eastern division of the army when the Hartford con-
vention met, he would have brought its members to court-
martial. The Boston Gazette retorted : . " If this Hotspur of
the South had been commander of the military department
where the Hartford convention sat, it would have been the
last act of his life to have interfered with that body ; all the
forces the general government ever provided for the sea coast
defense in New England could not for a moment have con-
tended with the train bands of the smallest district. Had
he attempted to punish even the doorkeeper of the Hartford
convention, he would, like Haman, have found himself eleva-
ted on the gaUows he had erected for others ; for among these
quiet spirits, deliberating for the public good, were men whose
pluck was not inferior to his own ; and who, if they were less
fierce, were not less firm."

Notwithstanding many little hits of this nature, it is evi-
dent from the political writings of that day, and of subse-
quent times, that no single event of the campaign of 1824
won General Jackson so many votes as the publication of the
Monroe correspondence. There are federalists still living who
well remember laying down the newspaper containing it with
the feeling that a second Washington had come to judgment.
The reader has but to turn back and glance over the Gen-
eral's principal letter, in order to see how transporting it
must have been to the moderate, the conservative, the respect-
able voter of 1824 ; and, above all, to the remnant of the old
federal party, '^ proscribed" for twenty years.

Amid the hurly-burly in which General Jackson lived this

40 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1824.

winter, was he an indifferent spectator ? I have before me
several of his private letters, written to confidential friends
at this stage of the struggle, which may serve to reveal his
feelings :

GENERAL JACKSON TO OAPT. JOHN DONELSON, SEN.

" City of Wasiiisgton, Feb. 9th, 1824

" Dear Sir : The presidential question begins

to agitate the minds of the people much. The attempt of a small minor-
ity of the members of Congress to get up a caucus and force public opinion
to take up a particular candidate, will still agitato it more, and [ trust will
eventuate in prostrating the caucus system altogether. Should the people
suffer themselves to be dictated to by designing demagogues, who carry
on everything by intiigue and management, they can not expect to see
their present happy government perpetuated. It must sink under the
scenes of corruption that will be practiced under such a system ; and, in
time, open bribery may, and I have no doubt will be resorted to, to obtain
a scat in the presidential chair, if the people do not assume their rights of
choosing a PrCvSident themselves.

" In this contest I take no part. I have long since prepared my heart
to say with heart-felt submission, ' May the Lord's will be done !' If it is
intended by Providence that I should fill the presidential chair, I will sub-
mit to it witli all humility, and endeavor to labor four years with an eye
single to the public goo<l, imploring the guidance of Providence in all
things. But be assured, it will be an event that I never wished, nor ex-
pected. My only ambition was to spend the remainder of my days in
domestic retirement, with my Uttle family. It has turned out otherwise,
to my 'great annoyauce. Still, I submit with proper resignation. I thank
you for your kind attention to Mrs. J. Be good enough to continue your
attention to her. Present me respectfully to your good lady, Emily, and
little family, and believe me your friend,

" Andrew Jackson."

general jackson to major wm. b. lewis.

" City or Washinotox, Feb. 22d, 1884.

" Dear Major : Mr. Crawford's friends have

become desperate, and will do any thing — their motto, tlie end is worthy
of tlie means. Their minority c;iucus has recoiled upon their own heads,
and the unanimity of Pennsylvania has defeated all their plans. I refer
you to tlie newspapers for the current news of the day. Wonder not if
you see the attempts made to make me a federalist. The proof — a letter I
wrote to Mr. Monroe in 1816 or '17. You no doubt recollect it It was

1824.] OKNBRAL JACKSON IN THE SENATE 41

copied by you ; wrote to bring into the war department Col. Drayton,
who served throughout the late war. By some means, Mr. Monroe*s
letter in answer to mine has got into their hands, Mr. Monroe says by
stealth ; and I have no doubt but all my private letters are also in their
hands. But one thing I know, that the opinions expressed are the true
republican course ; and men, call them what you will, who risk life, health,
and their all in defense of their country, are its real support, and are en-
titled to share the offices of the government. Col. Drayton was said to be
a federalist before the war. I can say truly of such that we are all federal-
ists, we are all republicans ; and I would to Gk)d we had less professions
and more acts of real patriotism.

" I am truly crowded with various business ; I beg you to tender me
affectionately to your sister, your daughter, and kiss the babes for me.

" I had not influence enough to obtain the mission to Mexico for our
friend, Gkneral Stokes. As soon as I found we could not succeed with
Greneral Crabb, I threw my weight in the General's scale. I am disgusted
with the manner and means all things are carried on here. When I was
told that General Stokes could not be appointed because he dissipated
sometimes at a card-table, I then tried Mr. Baldwin, with as little effect as
any other. Governor Edmonds, of Illinois, is before the Senate. I write
in haste and for your own eye. Your friend,

" Andrew Jackson."

general jackson to major wm. b. lewis.

" WAsniNGTON, March Slst, 1824.

" Dear Major : . . . .On the subject of Mr. Calhoun, I
have no doubt myself but his friends acted agreeable to his understanding
and instructions, and that he is sincere in his wishes. Some have doubted
this, but I have not ; and I can give you, when we meet, reasons that will
convince you I can not be mistaken. As far as his friends to the south
have acted, it is conformable to this, and I have no doubt but both the
Carolinas will unite in my support. You have seen the result of Pennsyl-
vania. New York is coming out, and, it is said, some of the New England
States, A few weeks will give us the result of the movement of New
York. If Crawford is not supported in that State, I have but little doubt
but he will be dropped, and, from what you will see in the National In-
icJligencer of this morning, Mr. Clay taken up. I have no doubt if I was
to travel to Boston, where I have been invited, that it would insure my
election. But this I can not do ; I would feel degraded the balance of my
life. If I ever fill tliat office, it must be the free choice of the people. I
can then say I am the President of the nation, and my acts shall comport
with that character.

" I am so constantly engaged witli visitors that I have but little time

42 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1824

to write, except in the night You must^ therefore, pardon this hasty
scrawl

" Present me to the young ladies, and accept my best wishes for your
health and liappiness, and believe me your friend,

"AjfDBEW Jackson."

GENERAL JACKSON TO COLONEL GEORGK WILSON.

»* Washington, April 17th, 1824.

"Dear Sir: Yours of the 2d instant is received The

vote in the House of Representatives was yesterday takt?n, after ten weeks
debate, on the TarifF, and passed, one hundi-ed and seven ayes, and one
hundred and two noes. What may be its fate in the Senate I can not
say.

" It is well known that I am in favor of tlie general principle of the
bill — that I am in favor of encouraging by a fair competition the manufac-
tory of the national means of defense within ourselves ; and not to de-
pend in time of war to procure those means fi*om the precarious source of
commerce, wliich must always be interrupted by war, and, as in the last
war, could not be obtained, and when obtained it was at a war price, to
the great injury of the treasury. I am for pursuing a plan that will insure
our national defense and national independence, encourage our agricultural
portion of the community, and with it manufactures and commerce as the
handmaids of agriculture, and look to the Tarifl' — after these objects are
obtained — with an eye to revenue, to meet and extinguish our national
debt This is my course : my conscience tells me it is right, and I will
pursue it.

" It is strange to me to hear men who once agreed that a national
debt was a national curse, now advocate the policy of meeting it by loans,
ratlier than levy an impost to pay it. I individually have always thought
this was an improper course to pursue witli my private debts ; and, as na-
tions are a composition of individuals, I can not believe, when applied to
them, it is a wholesome rule. I am tlicrefore opposed to prolong the pay-
ment of our national debt, and thereby raise up in our country a moneyed
aristocracy dangerous to our liberty.

" How long the TarifF bill may be before the Senate I can not say ; so
soon as it is disposed of, and some other bilb^ I intend leaving here.

" The papers will have given you tlie news of tlie late policy of the
State of New York. The feelings of the people are aroused, and can not
be allayed until their vengeance reaches those representatives who, they
believe, have attempted to sell them for promised office. New Jersey, it
is believed, will follow Pennsylvania. Virginia lias taken a stand against
the caucus, and her State elections are canvassed on that ground. In Lon-
don a Mr. Osbom has been elected by a large majority on tliis avowed

1824] GENERAL JACKSON IN THE BENATB. 43

principle. It is even now doubtful whether Mr. Crawford will get Vir-
ginia I write in haste, and for your own eye. Accept a

tender of my good wishes^ and believe me your friend,

" Andrew Jaokson."

gsnebal jackson to colonel george wilson.

" HxBinTAeK, AQgiut 18th, 1834

" Dear Colonel : 1 received last evening by mail the inclosed letter.
I send it Tor your perusal. I have not seen the paper of Richie, of the
20th ultimo, alluded to ; can not, therefore, judge of the necessity or pro-
priety of giving any notice to this publication. Was I to notice the false-
hoods and Mse insinuations of Richie and such unprincipled editors,* I
could have time for nothing else. Should you, upon reference to the piece
alluded to, think it deserves any notice, such a one as the following might
be proper : That General Jackson's course requires neither falsehood nor
intrigue to support it. He has been brought before the nation by the peo-
ple, without his knowledge, wishes, or consent His support is the people.
And so long as they choose to support him, as to himself he will not inter-
fere. He will neither resign his pretensions, intrigue, nor combine with any
man nor si^t of men, nor has he ever so combined or intrigued. Mr. Richie
may, therefore, be calm. The General or his friends will never adopt the
course of intrigue, combination, and corruption pursued by Mr. Richie and
his political friends, for any purpose whatever. Their cause requires neither
fisdsehood nor corruption to support it. It is the people's cause. They have
brought A. J. before the nation.

"I am very respectfully your friend, Andrew Jaokson."

These letters exhibit our candidate in an honorable light.
If any one should say, with Hamlet's mother, the gentleman
" doth protest too much," we might reply, that like all can-
didates he was the object of ceaseless attack. Nor did any
man ever run for the presidency who was, at every moment
of the canvass, entirely worthy of himself.

* " General Jackson is elected to the Senate. He was the only man in
Tcune&see who could out turn John WUliama He has done it The country
uiay yet rue the change." — Richmond Inquirer^ November, 1823.

44 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1824.

CHAPTER IV.

SENATOR JACKSON BURIES THE TOMAHAWK.

General Jackson was in excellent spirits and high good
humor during the whole of this contest. His frioods as-
sured him that his success was certtiin, and they believed it
was so. He could see for himself that no name had such
power with the masses of the people as his. He lived in a
cloud of incense.

In the course of the winter he was reconciled to several
gentlemen whom he had been long wont to reckon in the cat-
alogue of his foes. General Winfield Scott was in Wash-
ington at the beginning of the session ; and, desirous to
know what he had to expect in case he should meet General
Jackson, addressed to him the following note : " Sir, one
portion of the American community has long attributed to
you the most distinguished magnanimity, and the other por-
tion the greatest desperation in your resentments — am I to
conclude that both are equally in error ? I allude to circum-
stances which have transpired between us, and which need
not here be recapitulated, and to the fact that I have now
been six days in your immediate vicinity without having at-
tracted your notice. As this is the first time in my life that
I have been within a hundred miles of you, and as it is barely
possible Chat you may be ignorant of my presence, I beg leave
to state that I shall not leave the District before the morning
of the 14th instant."

To this General Jackson returned the following answer :
" Sir, your letter of to-day has been received. Whether the
world are correct or in error, as regards my ' magnanimity,'
is for the world to decide. I am satisfied of one fact, that
when you shall know me better, you wdll not be disposed to
harbor the opinion, that any thing like ^ desperation in re-
sentment' attaches to me. Your letter is ambiguous ; but,

1824.] BURIES THE TOMAHAWK. 45

concluding from occurrences heretofore, that it was written
with friendly views, I take the liberty of saying to you, that
whenever you shall feel disposed to meet me on friendly
terms, that disposition will not be met by any other than a
corresponding feeUng on my part."*

The two Generals met soon afterward, exchanged friendly
salutations, and remained on terms of civility for several
years.

A still more unexpected reconciliation was that which oc-
curred between Mr. Clay and General Jackson. Mr. Clay
himself tells the story :•)" " My personal acquaintance with
General Jackson commenced in the fall of 1815, at the city
of Washington. Prior to that time I had never seen him.
Our intercourse was then friendly and cordial. He engaged to
pass a week of the ensuing summer at my residence in Ken-
tucky. During that season I received a letter from him,
communicating his regret that he was prevented from visiting
me. I did not again see him until the session of Congress,
at which the events of the Seminole war were discussed. He
arrived at Washington in the midst of the debate, and after
the delivery, but before the publication, of the first speech,
which I pronounced on that subject. Waiving all ceremony,
I called to see him, intending by the visit to evince, on my
part, that no opinion, which a sense of duty had compelled
me to express of his public conduct, ought to affect our per-
sonal intercourse. Mv visit was not returned, and I was
subsequently told that he was in the habit of indulging in
the bitterest observations upon mi>st of those — myself among
the number — who had called in (Question the propriety of his
military conduct in the Seminole war. I saw no more of him,
except possibly at a distance, during the same winter, in this
city, until the summer of the year 1819. Being, in that
summer, on my way from New Orleans to Lexington, and
traveling the same road on which he was passing, in the

* Mansfield's Lifo of General Seolt p. 175.
f Address to the Public, 1828, p. 22.

46 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1824.

opposite diiection, from Lexington to Nashville, we met at
Lebanon, Kentucky, where I had stopped at breakfast. I
was sitting at the door, in the shade, reading a newspaper,
when the arrival of General Jackson and his suite was an-
nounced. As he ascended the steps, and approached me, I
rose and saluted him in the most respectful manner. He
darted by me, slightly inclining his head, and abruptly ad-
dressing me. He was followed by some of his suite, who
stopped and conversed with me some time, giving me the
latest information of my family. I afterward learnt that
General Jackson accompanied President Monroe, in a visit to
my family, and partook of some slight refreshment at my
house. On leaving the tavern at Lebanon, I had occasion to
go into a room where I found General Jackson seated, read-
ing a newspaper, and I retired, neitlier having spoken to the
other, and pursued my journey, in company with four or five
traveling companions.

" Sucli was the state of our relations, at the commence-
ment of the session of Congress in 1823, the interval having
passed without my seeing him. Soon after his arrival here
to attend that session, I collected from certain indications,
that he had resolved upon a general amnesty, the benefit of
which was to be extended to me. He became suddenly rec-
onciled with some individuals, between whom and himself
there had been a long-existing enmity. The greater part of
the Tennessee delegation — all, I believe, except Mr. Eaton
and General Cocke — called on me together, early in the ses-
sion, for the express purpose, as I understood, of producing
a reconciliation between us. I related in substance all of the
above circumstances, including the meeting at Lebanon. By
way of apology for this conduct at Lebanon, some of the
gentlemen remarked, that he did not intend any disrespect to
me, but that he was laboring under some indisposition. I
stated that the opinions which I had expressed in tlie House
of Eepresentatives, in regard to General Jackson's military
transactions, had been sincerely entertained, and were still
held, but that, being opinions in respect to public acts, they

1824.] BURIES THE TOMAHAWK. 47

never had been supposed by me to form any just occasion for
private enmity between us, and that none had been cherished
on my part. Consequently, there was, on ray side, no obsta-
cle to a meeting with him, and maintaining a respectful in-
tercoursa For the purpose of bringing us together, the
Tennessee representatives, all of whom, according to my rec-
ollection, boarded at Mrs. Claxton's, on Capitol Hill, gave a
dinner, to which we were both invited, and at which, I re-
member, Mr. Senator White, then acting as a commissioner
under the Florida treaty, and others, were present. We there
met, exchanged salutations, and dined together. I retired
from the table early, and was followed to the door by General
Jackson and Mr. Eaton, who insisted on my taking a seat in
their carriage. I rode with them, and was set down at my
lodgings. I was afterward invited by General Jackson to
dine with him, where I met Mr. Adams, Mr. Calhoun, Mr.
Southard, and many other gentlemen, chiefly members of
Congress. He also dined, in company with fifteen or eight-
een members of Congress, at my lodgings, and we frequently
met, in the course of the winter, always rc8])ectfully address-
ing each other."

But the most remarkable case of reconciliation was that
which occurred between General Jackson and Colonel Thomas
H. Benton, whose brother Jesse's bullet General Jackson still
carried about with him, embedded in the flesh of his left arm.
" Well,'' exclaimed Colonel Benton, in one of his letters of
this period, '" how many changes in this life ! General Jack-
S(»n is now sitting in the chair next to me. There was a
vacant one next to me, and he took it for the session. Sev-
eral Senators saw our situation, and offered mediation. I
declined it upon the ground that what had hap|>ened could
neither be explained, recanted, nor denied. After this, we
were put upon the same committee. Facing me one day, as
we sat in our seats, he said to me, ^ Colonel, we are on the
same committee ; I will give you notice when it is necessiiry
to attend.' (He was chainnan, and had the right to summon
us.) I answered, ' General, make the time suit yourself; it

^->

48 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1824.

y^ill be convenient for me to attend at any lime/ In com-
mittee we did business together just as other persons. After
that, he asked mo how my wife was, and I asked him how
his was. Then he called and left his card at my lodgings —
Andrew Jackson for Colonel Benton and lady ; forthwith I
called at his and left mine — Colonel Benton for General
Jackson. Since then we have dined together at several
])lace8, and yesterday at the President's. I made him the
first bow, he held forth his hand, and we shook hands. I
then introduced him to my wife, and thus civil relations are
perfectly established between us. Jackson has gained since
he has been here, by his mild and conciliatory manner."*^

Brother Jesse, however, who still lived near Nashville,
burned with as furious a wrath against General Jackson as
when, in 1813, he had laid him low with his pistol. He
came out, during th(i summer of 1814, with a campaign
pamphlet, in which he accused the General of every known
offense against Divine and human laws. His charges were
thirty-two in number. He accused the General of having
promised offices ; of having electioneered fur himself ; of
abandoning the interests of the Soutli by voting for the new
tarifi'bill ; of cringing, in the city of Washington, to all his
former enemies ; of being a cock-fighter and racer ; of being
a fomenter of quairels and a promoter of duels ; of having
assailed Governor Suvier when the latter was unarmed ; of
having been in league with AaR)n Burr ; of having threat-
ened to cut off the ears of Senator Eppes ; of having unlaw-
fully put to death John Woods, and the six militiamen;
and of various other crimes and misdemeanors, to the number
of thirty-two.

This pamphlet, though received in Tennessee with general
ridicule, was published in many of the Crawford papers in
tlie Northern and Eastern States, and was calculated to draw
votes from General Jackson. Lieutenant Andrew Jackson
Donelson and Major Lewis wrote elaborate and able replies,
which they sent flying in the wake of tlic Bentonian missive.

♦ Catalogue of General Jackson's Juvenile Indiscretions, p. 8.

1824] THE RESULT OF THE CAMPAIGN. 49

General Jackson was at home again in June. The Her-
mitage was more like a hotel than a home during the sum-
mer, so numerous were the guests whom curiosity, friendship,
or political business brought to it.

CHAPTER V.

THE RESULT OF THE CAMPAIQN.

The result of the strife which was known before the end
of the year, it is necessary for us to understand precisely.
Else we shall not be able to judge correctly the subsequent
events.

John C. Calhoun was elected Vice-President by a great
majority. He received 182 electoral votes out of 261. All
New England voted for him except Connecticut and one elec-
toral district of New Hampshire. Connecticut gave her eight
(vice-presidential) votes for Andrew Jackson ; New Hamp-
shire, one vote ; Maryland, one vote ; Missouri, her three
votes. So that General Jackson received thirteen electoral
votes for the vice-presidency, and was the choice of two entire
States for that office — Connecticut and Missouri. Virginia
gave her twenty-four votes for Nathaniel Macon ; Ohio gave
her whole sixteen for Nathan Sandford of New York ; Ken-
tucky her whole seven, and New York seven. Georgia voted
entire for Martin Van Buren, giving him nine electoral votes.
Little Delaware preferred Henry Clay for the second office,
giving him two electoral votes out of three. So much for the
vice-presidency. The result was a triumph for Mr. Calhoun,
placed him in a commanding position before the country, and
seemed to open the way to the easy and speedy attainment
of the highest office. He held such cards, it was thought,
that the game of 1832, or at latest 1836, was his own,

VOL. Ill — 4

50 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1824

Now, for the presidency. For William H. Crawford,
only two States cast their individual vote, Georgia and Vir-
ginia. New York gave him five votes out of thirty-six ;
Maryland, one vote out of eleven ; Delaware two out of three.
His vote stood thus : Virginia, 24 ; Georgia, 9 ; New York,
5 ; Deleware, 2 ; Maryland, 1 ; total, 41. Forty-one out of
two-hundred and sixty-one ! New York had bolted then.
Dr. Hammond expresses the opinion, that if the electoral law,
conceding the choice of electors to the people, had been passed
by the friends of Crawford, the State could have been made
to give a majority to that candidate. "I sincerely believe,"
he says, " that the discipline of party, the charm of names,
and the high character and real merit of Mr. Crawford, to-
gether with the horror which at that time was felt, whenever
Clintonianism or federalism was mentioned, would have en-
sured a triumph to the Crawford party." Another proof,
adds the worthy historian, that " in public as well as in pri-
vate transactions, ultimate success is most effectually secured
by frankness and candor ; and tliat, in politics, as well as in
private dealings between man and man, ' honesty is the best
policy." '«

Mr. Clay received the entire elcctoml vote of three States,
Kentucky, Missouri, and Ohio. The following was his vote :
Kentucky, 14 ; Ohio, 16 ; Missouri, 3 ; New York, 4 ; to-
tal, 37.

For Mr. Adams, New England cast her undivided vote,
and New York gave him twenty-six out of thirty-six. He
stood thus : Maine, 9 ; New Hampshire, 8 ; Vermont, 7 ;
Massachusetts, 15 ; Connecticut, 8 ; Rhode Island, 4 ; New
York, 26 ; Delaware, 1 ; Maryland, 3 ; Louisiana, 2 ; Illinois,
1 ; total, 84.

The following was the vote for Andrew Jackson : New-
York, 1 ; New Jersey, 8 ; Pennsylvania, 28 ; Maryland, 7 ;
North Carolina, 15 ; South Carolina, 11 ; Tennessee, 11 ;
Louisiana, 3 ; Mississippi, 3 ; Alabama, 5 ; Indiana, 5 ; Ili-

♦ Hammond's Political Hiatory of Now York, iL, 1T9.

1824] THB BKSULT OP THE CAMPAIGN. 51

inois, 2 ; total, 99. A plurality, not a majority. The peo-
ple had not elected a President.

Mr. Adams was the choice of seven States ; General Jack-
son, of eleven States ; Mr. Clay of three States ; Mr. Craw-
ford of three States. Still no majority.

The population of the United States in 1820 was about
nine and a half millions. The population of the three States
which gave a majority for Mr Clay was 1,212,337. The pop-
ulation of the three States which preferred Mr. Crawford was
1,497,029. The population of the seven States which gave a
majority for Mr. Adams was 3,032,766. The population
of the eleven States which voted for General Jackson was
3,757,756.

It thus appears that General Jackson received, first, more
electoral votes ; secondly, the vote of more States ; thirdly,
the votes of more people than any other candidate. Add to
these facts, the fact not less indisputable, that General Jack-
son was the second choice of Kentucky, Missouri, and Geor-
gia; and it must be admitted that he came nearer being
elected by the people than any other candidate. He was,
moreover, a gaining candidate. Every month added to his
strength. A delay of a few weeks longer would probably
have given him a majority. No man who surveyed the scene
with an unprejudiced eye could doubt, that he, more than
any one else, was the nation's choice. The opinions of a host
of able politicians, beginning with that of Mr. Jefferson, could
be cited in support of this position, but it needs no support.
Simple addition and the census of 1820 are sufficient to es-
tablish it.

The result was not known in all its details when the time
came for Senator Jackson to begin his journey to Washing-
ton in the fall of 1824, That he was pretty confident, how-
ever, of being the successful candidate, was indicated by Mrs.
Jackson's accompanying him to the seat of government. They
traveled in their own coach-and-four, I believe, on this occa-
sion. The opposition papers, at least, said so, and descanted
upon the fact as an evidence of aristocratic pretensions ; con-

52 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1824.

sideling it anti-democratic to employ four horses to draw a
load that four horses sometimes could not tug a mile an hour,
and were a month in getting to Washington.

The family party reached the city on the 7th of Decem-
ber. The next day General Jackson, from his seat in the
Senate chamber, wrote a hasty note to Major Lewis : " I
reached this city yesterday morning at 11 o'clock, all in good
health, after a continued travel of twenty-eight days without
resting one day. I enclose you the President's Message. You
will see from the papers the electoral vote. If Louisiana has
not voted for Mr. Clay, he is not in the House. When I
have obtained the actual vote and become a little acquainted
with the views of the political knowing-ones here, I will give
you the speculations on the presidential question. I am anx-
ious to hear from you — how Jesse has come out, etc. Write
me. Give me the intelligence how our little sons are."

December 23d. Mrs. Jackson wrote to her friend, Mrs.
Kingsley, at Nashville, an interesting and characteristic let-
ter— the last of hers that I possess. This was Mrs. Jackson's
first visit to the east :

*' The present moment," she says, " is the first I can call my own aince
my arrival in this great city. Our journey, indeed, was fatiguing. We
were twenty-seven days on the road, but no accident happened to us.
My dear husband is in better health than when we came. We are board-
ing in the same house with the nation's guest^ Lafayette. I am delighted
with him. All the attentions, all the parties he goes to, never appear to
have any effect on him. In fact^ he is an extraordinary man. He has a
happy talent of knowing those he has once seen. For instance, when we
first came to this house, the General said he would go and pay the Marquis
the first visit Both having the same desire, and at the same time, they
met on the entry of the stairs. It was truly interesting. The emotion
of revolutionary feeling was aroused in them both. At Charleston, G-en-
eral Jackson saw him on the field of battle ; the one a boy of twelve, the
Marquis, twenty-three. He wears a wig, and is a little inclined to corpu-
lency. He is very healthy, eats hearty, goes to every party, and that is
every night.

" To tell you of this city, I would not do justice to the subject The
extravagance is in dressing and running to parties ; but I must say they
regard the Sabbath, and attend preaching, for there are churches of every

1824.] THE RESULT OF THE CAMPAIGN. 53

(leDominadon and able ministers of the gospel We have been here two
Sabbaths. The Gkneral and myself were both days at church. Mr.
Baker is the pastor of the church we go to. He is a fine man, a plain,
good preacher. We were waited on by two of Mr. Balche's elders, invit-
ing us to take a pew in his church in Georgetown, but previous to that I
had an invitation to the other. General Cole, Mary, Emily, and Andrew,
went to the Episcopal church.

" Oh, my dear friend, how shall I get through this bustle. There are
not less than from fifty to one hundred persons calling in a day. My dear
husband was unwell nearly the whole of our journey, but, thanks to our
Heavenly Father, his health is improving. Still his appetite is delicate,
and company and business are oppressive ; but I look unto the Lord, from
whence comes all my comforts. I have the precious promise, and I know
that my Redeemer liveth.

" Don't be afraid of my giving way to those vain things. The apostle
says, I can do all things in Christ, who strengtheneth me. The play actors
sent me a letter, requesting my countenance to them. No. A ticket to
balls and parties. No, not one. Two dinings ; several times to drink tea.
Indeed, Mr. Jackson encourages me in my course. He recommends it to
me to be steadfast. I am going to-day to hear Mr. Summerfield. He
preaches in the Methodist church; a very highly spoken of minister.
Qlory to GkKl for the privilege. Not a day or night but there is the church
opened for prayer."

On the day on which this letter was written, General
Jackson had the pleasure of seeing the Senate concur with
the bill which provided so munificently for pajdng to Lafay-
ette the debt which the nation owed him. General Jackson
supported the bill in all its stages, both by his votes and his
influence. Seven Senators at one time opposed it. Before
the question of ordering the bill to be read a third time but
" one dissenting voice was audible/' and on its final passage
the vote was unanimous.

Before General Jackson had been many days in Washing-
ton, he received a confidential message from De Witt Clinton,
which, besides being in itself important, is another proof
that an expectation of Jackson's election to the presidency
pervaded the country. " In the latter part of December,"
says Dr. Hammond, " I went to Washington, as the agent
of the State, to settle its account with the general govern-

54 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1824

ment. Before I left Albany, I had, by special appointment,
an interview with Governor Clinton, at which he stated to me
that he had not the least doubt but that Jackson would be
elected, and he instructed me to say to him that he wished
him to form his cabinet without any personal reference to
him (Mr. C); that he could not accept of any appointment
which would render it necessary for him to leave the State of
New York ; and that the only solicitude he felt was, that
General Jackson should so form his cabinet as would secure
prosperity and success to his administration."**

CHAPTER VI.

HENRY CLAY ELECTS A PRESIDENT.

The people having failed to elect a President, it devolved
upon the House of Representatives, voting by States, each
State having one vote, to elect one from the three candidates
who had received the highest number of electoral votes. A
majority of States being necessary to an election, some one
candidate had to secure the vote of thirteen States. The
great question was to be decided on the 9th of February,
1825.

Henry Clay, though excluded from the coming competi-
tion by the smallncss of his electoral vote, became, as soon
as that fact was known, the most important personage in
Washington ; the man upon whom all eyes were fixed, upon
whom all hopes depended. The influence which he wielded
in the House of Representatives, derived from his long con-
nection with it, from his winning cast of character, from
his strenuous will, from his eloquence, placed it in his power
to give the election to whichever of the candidates he prefer-

* Hammond'8'PoUtical Histoiy of Now York, il, 189.

1825.] HENRY CLAY ELECTS APRESIDENT. 55

red. He was Warwick the king-maker. He was Banquo
who should get kings, but be none. From being the great
defeated, he was amused to find himself the universally
sought.

" In the same hour," he wrote, January 8th, 1825, to his
friend and neighbor, Mr. Francis P. Blair, " I am sometimes
touched gently on the shoulder by a friend, for example, of
General Jackson, who will thus address me, ' My dear sir,
all my dependence is upon you ; don't disappoint us ; you
know our partiality was for you next to the hero ; and how
much we want a Western President.' Immediately after a
friend of Mr. Crawford will accost me, ^ The hopes of the
Republican party are concentrated on you ; for God's sake
preserve it. If you had been returned, instead of Mr Craw-
ford, every man of us would have supported you to the last
hour. We consider him and you as the only genuine Repub-
lican candidates.' Next a friend of Mr. Adams comes with
tears in his eyes, ^ Sir, Mr. Adams has always had the great-*
est respect for you, and admiration of your talents. There is
no station to which you are not equal. Most undoubtedly
you are the second choice of New England, and I pray you
to consider seriously whether the public good and your own
future interests do not point most distinctly to the choice
which vou ou(]jht to make/ How can one withstand all this
disinterested homage and kindness .?"

Mr. Clay was not on cordial terms with either of the two
highest candidates. His relations with General Jackson have
been described by himself in a passage which we have already
given. He was far from being a lover or an admirer of Mr.
Adams. He had opposed, with all his eloquence and all his
influence, many of the most important measures of Mr. Mon-
roe's administration ; of which administration Mr. Adams
had been the animating soul and the exculpatory pen. That
very Spanish Treaty which gained Florida and yielded Texas,
upon which Mr. Adams particularly plumed himself, had
been denounced by Mr. Clay in the House of Representatives,
There had been, moreover, a personal difference between the

56 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

Secretary and the Speaker, growing out of the negotiations
at Ghent in 1814. And, in no circumstances conceivable,
could there have been cordiality between the warm, popular,
generously ambitious Clay, and the patient, plodding, au-
stere, ambitious Adams.

Nor, in deciding the question before him, was Mr. Clay
to make or mar his own fortunes. He was destined to create
enemies and to encounter obloquy, however he decided it.
We may, also, hazard the assertion that to whomsoever he
should give the presidency, he would himself be invited to
make his own selection of the offices in the gift of the Presi-
dent. No one, I think, can survey the whole scene of conten-
tion, as it appeared in the spring of 1825, without assenting
to that conclusion. So far as his own interests were con-
cerned, there was but one consideration calculated to bias his
determination. If he gave the presidency to Jackson, it
would injure his own prospects for the neoct succession, as the
republican party would hesitate to select a candidate from
the west to succeed a western president. Turn about is fair
play. In 1828 or 1832, the slighted North— New England,
New York, Pennsylvania — would urge a powerful claim to
the succession — powerful but not irresistible.

No man can say that General Jackson would have ap-
pointed Mr. Clay to high office, if Mr. Clay had given him
the appointing power ; but it is extremely probable that he
would. Mr. Clay received at least one most significant hint
to that effect, from a gentleman who stood high in General
Jackson's regard. The following statement was written by
Mr. Clay himself, for the use of his biographer, Rev. C. Col-
ton, and still exists in Mr. Clay's hand- writing : " Some
time in January, 1825, and not long before the election of
President of the United States by the House of Representa-
tives, the Hon. James Buchanan, then a member of the
House, and afterward many years a Senator of the United
States from Pennsylvania, who had been a zealous and influ-
ential supporter of General Jackson in the preceding can-
yass, and was supposed to enjoy his unbounded confidence,

^:^=-^/y.ii^

1825.] IfR. CLAY ELECTS A PRESIDENT. 57

called at the lodgings of Mr. Clay in the city of Washington.
Mr. Clay was at that time in the room of his only messmate
in the house, his intimate and confidential friend, the Hon.
R. P. Letcher, since Governor of Kentucky, then also a
member of the House. Shortly after Mr. Buchanan's entry
into the room, he introduced the subject of the approaching
presidential election, and spoke of the certainty of the elec-
tion of his favorite, adding that ' he would form the most
splendid cabinet that the country had ever had.' Mr. Letcher
asked ' How could he have one more distinguished than that
of Mr. JeflTerson, in which were both Madison and Gallatin ?
Where would ho be able to find equally eminent men ?' Mr.
Buchanan replied that he ' would not go out of this room for a
secretary of state,' looking at Mr. Clay. This gentleman [Mr.
Clay] playfully remarked that * he thought there was no timber
there fit for a cabinet officer, unless it were Mr. Buchanan
himself.' Mr. Clay, while he was so hotly assailed with the
charge of bargain, intrigue, and corruption, during the admin-
istration of Mr. Adams, notified Mr. Buchanan of his intention
to publish the above occurrence ; but, by the earnest entreaties
of that gentleman, he was induced to forbear doing so."

Another scene occurred at Washington during the winter
that favors our conjecture. The Hon. J. Sloane, of Ohio,
member of the House at that time, relates it. Mr. Sloane
chanced to be in company, one evening in December, with
Grencral Sam Houston, of Tennessee, a warm partisan and
friend of General Jackson. The conversation turned, of
course, to the great topic. " General Houston commenced
by suggesting that he supposed the Ohio delegation were all
going to vote for General Jackson. To this I answered that
I could not undertake to speak for them, for, so far as I
knew no meeting or consultation had taken place among
them. The manner of General Houston was anxious, and
evinced much solicitude ; and at this point of the conversa-
tion he exclaimed, ' What a splendid administration it would
make, with Old Hickory as President and Mr. Clay as Secre-
tary of State.' Having often before expressed to General

58 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

Houston my opinion of the several candidates, I did not, at
that time, think proper to repeat it, contenting myself with
an implied acquiescence in the correctness of his declaration.
The conversation was continued for a considerable time, and
for the most part had relation to Westxjrn interests as con-
nected with the presidc?ncy, and was concluded by General
Houston observing, ' Well, I hope you from Ohio will aid us
in electing General Jackson, and then your man (meaning
Mr. Clay) can have anything he pleases.' "*

Mr. Crawford, we must mention here, was considered out
of the arena. His health was, as yet, very far from being
reestablished. He was a tottering, imbecile old man — old
prematurely. His friends, with Mr. Van Buren at their
head, were passive, and had resolved, in caucus assembled, to
remain so.f Their hopes of success were founded on the ap-
parent probability that neither General Jackson nor Mr.
Adams could command a majority of States, in which case
the choice might fall upon Crawford.

Poor Crawford himself clung to this hope to the very last.
He was induced by it to figure in a truly pitiable scene.
" It had now been a long time," says his biographer, " since
he had mingled with the public. He had not been present
at any of the numerous festive and social meetings for which
this season is famous. To drawing-rooms and soirees he was
an utter stranger. Only a select and intimate few were in
the habit of visiting him, even at his home. A few days
previous to the time of election, however, and to the surprise
of nearly all Washington, his friends conveyed him to the
Capitol, and kept him there in company for several hours.
The old man looked much better than was generally expected,
and deported himself with accustomed amenity and dignity.
Many who saw him only from a distance were most agreeably
disappointed. Those with whom he shook hands and spoke,
however, were observed to leave him with grave faces, and
with all the signs and tokens of a melancholy interview.

* Private Correspondenco of Tlonry Clay, p. 489.

^ HaiDinood's Political HiatoTj of Now York, vol. u. p. 640, Note C.

1825.] MR. CLAY ELECTS A PRESIDENT. 59

•

Among these last was Clay himself ; and it was afterward
remarked by one of Crawford's friends, who was present, that
his manner on that occasion told plainly enough that their
hopes of his cooperation and support were at an end. ^ De-
fects were but too evident,' as Cobb had written to his friendsy
and these sounded the funeral knell to his chances for the
presidency."*

The choice being thus narrowed to two candidates, what
considerations ought to have influenced Mr. Clay's decision ?
A federalist might have doubted, but a republican ought not
to have done so. The candidate that had come nearest to an
election by the people was obviously the one for whom a tnily
democratic member of Congress would have given his vote.
All questions respecting the comparative fitness of the candi-
dates were impertinent, one would think. Mr. Clay, how-
ever, did not think so. Though he persuaded himself that
Mr. Adams was the man whom the nation most desired,
yet it is very evident from his letters that this was not the
controlling consideration with him. Before leaving home in
November, before the result of the popular election was
known, he declared to confidential friends that in no circum-
stances whatever would he vote for General Jackson. He
told Col. Thomas H. Benton so about the middle of De-
cember, three weeks before he wrote the letter to Mr. Blair,
which is quoted above. " I left Washington," says Col.
Benton, " on the 15th of December, on a visit to my father-
in-law, Colonel James McDowell, of Virginia, where Mrs.
Benton then was ; and it was before I left Washington that
I learned from Mr. Clay himself that his intention was to
support Mr. Adams. I told this at that time to Colonel
McDowell, and any friends that chanced to be present, and
gave it to the public in a letter which was copied into many
newspapers, aud is preserved in Niles' Register. I told it as
my belief to Mr. Jefferson on Christmas evening of the same
year, when returning to Washington and making a cull on
that illustrious man at his seat, Monticello ; and believing

♦ Cobb's Leisure Labors, p. 218.

60 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

then that Mr. Adams would be elected, and, from the neces-
sity of the case, would have to make up a mixed cabinet, I
expressed that belief to Mr. JeflFerson, using the term, famil*
iar in English history, of ' broad bottomed,' and asked him
how it would do ? He answered : * Not at all — would never
succeed — would ruin all engaged in it.' Mr. Clay told his
intentions to others of his friends from an early period."*^

The reasons that induced Mr. Clay thus to disregard the
known wishes of the west appear plainly enough in his famil-
iar correspondence. To Mr. Blair he again wrote late in
January : " Mr. Adams, you know well, I should never
have selected, if at liberty to draw from the whole mass of
our citizens for a President. But there is no danger in his
elevation now, or in time to come. Not so of his competitor,
of whom I can not believe that killing two thousand five
hundred Englishmen at New Orleans qualifies for the various
difficult and complicated duties of the chief magistracy."
To Mr. Francis Brooke, of Maryland : " As a friend of
liberty, and to the permanence of our institutions, I can not
consent, in this early stage of their existence, by contributing
to the election of a military chieftain, to give the strongest
guaranty that the republic will march in the fatal road which
has conducted every other republic to ruin."

The adhesion of Mr. Clay to the Adams party, which he
took no great pains to conceal, rendered its success nearly,
but not absolutely certain. The old federalists, who could
never quite forgive Mr. Adams for deserting them, still hesi-
tated. Long excluded from office, they were anxious to know
whether Mr. Adams, if elected, would continue to proscribe
them. It was the infiuence of Daniel Webster, more than
that of any other man, that finally removed the hesitation of
the few members of the federal party that still lingered on
the public stage. A curious, cautious letter of Mr. Webster
on this subject exists, which throws light on the interior state
of things at the time. It was addressed to a member of the
house who had applied to Mr. Webster for advice. Mr.

* Benton's Thirty Years, i, 48.

1S25.] HR. CLAY ELEOTS A PRESIDENT. 61

Webster replied that, though not intimate with Mr. Adams,
lie had great confidence in his patriotism and ability, and
Ibelieved that he would pursue a liberal and conciliatory
course toward the federal party. He should vote for him, and
felt willing to advise his friends to do so.

To this letter Mr. Webster appended the following note :
*' I read this, precisely as it now stands here, to Mr. Adams,
on the evening of February 4. He said, when I had got
through, that the letter expressed his general sentiments, and
such as he was willing to have understood as his sentiments.
There was one particular, however, on which he wished to
make a remark. The letter seemed to require him, or expect
him, to place one federalist in the administration. Here I
interrupted him, and told him he had misinterpreted the
writer's meaning. That the letter did not speak of those ap-
pointments called cabinet appointments particularly, but of
appointments generally. With that understanding he said
the letter contained his opinions, and he should feel it his
duty, by some such appointment, to mark his desire of disre-
garding party distinctions. He thought either of them, if
elected, must necessarily act liberally in this respect. In
consequence of this conversation, I interlined in this letter
the words ' in proper time and manner.' I made no other
alteration in it."

Col. Benton, though the political disciple of Mr. Clay, as
well as his admiring friend and relative, proved restive on
this occasion. Nay, more than restive ; flatly rebellious.
He refused, point-blank, to aid his chief in bringing in Mr.
Adams to the presidency, averring that General Jackson was
the preference and darling of the west, and that he (Thomas
Benton) was not the man to assist in frustrating the wish of
the section which had trusted and honored him. At that
time Missouri had but a single representative in the house,
Mr. John Scott, who was thus invested with the importance
of carrying the vote of an entire State in his pocket. Mr.
Scott being equivalent to New York's thirty-six members, or
Pennsylvania's twenty-eight, there was a terrible struggle on

'62 LIFE OFANDRBW JACKSON. [1825.

the part of Mr. Clay's friends and Col. Benton to enlighten
Mr. Scott's understanding.

Long did he waver between these two powerful influences.
The following correspondence shows the result of the con-
test:

MR. SCOTT TO COL. T. H. BENTON.

" WAfiiiiNcjTOX Crrv, Feb. 8, 18».

" Hon. T. H. Benton — Dear Sir : Notwithstanding the conversation
we had on Thursday evening and on Friday, from which you might justly
conclude that I would not vote for Mr. Adams, I am now inclined to think
differently, and unless some other change in my mind takes place, I shall
vote for him ; I take the earliest opportunity to apprise you of this fact,
that you may not commit yourself witli friends on the subject.

" John Scott."
col. t. h. benton to mr. scott.

''Sen ATX GnAMBKR, Feb. 8tb, 1825.

" Sir : I received on the morning of the 6th instant your note of the
5th, in which you make known to me your intention to give the vote of
Missouri to Mr. Adams.

" Sinister rumors, and some misgivings of my own, had been prepar-
ing my mind for an extraordinary development; but it was not until I had
three times talked with you, face to face, that I could believe in the reality
of an intention so inconsistent with your previous conversations, so repug-
nant to your printed pledges, so amazing to your constituents, so fatal to
yourself.

" The vote which you intend thus to give is not your own — it belongs
to the people of the State of Missouri. They are against Mr. Adams. I,
in their name, do solemnly protest against your intention, and deny your
moral power thus to bestow your vote.

" You have been pleased to make a reference, in one of your conversa-
tions, to my personal wishes in this election. I now reiterate that I dis-
dain and repel tlie appeal ; and again remit you to the exalted tribunal of
honor and duty.

" For nine years we have been clovsely connected in our political course ;
at length, the connection is dissolved, and dissolved under circumstances
which denounce our everlasting separation.

" For some expressions which you felt as unkind, in our conversation
on Sunday, I ask your pardon and obHvion. I have a right to give you
my opinion on a point of public duty, but none to inflict a wound on your

1825.] ' HR.CLAT ELECTS A PRESIDENT. 63

feeliDgSy and, in this unexpected breaking of many ties, there is enough of
unavoidable pain, without the gratituous infliction of unkind words.

"To-morrow is the day for your self-immolation. If you have an en-
emy, he may go and feed his eyes upon the scene ; your former friend
win share the afflicting spectacle.

" With sincere wishes for your personal welfare, I remain, &c.,

"Thomas H. Benton."

Col. Benton, I may add, after ascertaining that Mr. Clay
was not one of the highest three candidates, had canvassed
vigorously for Mr. Crawford. Finding Mr. Crawford's elec-
tion impossible, he transferred his influence to the Jackson
party, and remained its stalwart, loud, and potent champion
from that time to the end of his mortal career.

It was during this exciting season, that General Jackson
was painfully reminded of that terrible day when Charles
Dickinson fell before his unrelenting aim, twenty years be-
fore. He was closeted late one night with a member of Con-
gres, in deep converse upon the coming event. The mem-
ber's object, it is said (I know not with what truth), was to
induce General Jackson to unite his political fortunes with
those of Mr. Clay — adopting Mr. Clay as his premier and
successor. Long he pleaded (it is said) with the old man,
and pleaded in vain. At 12 o'clock he took his leave. The
hall lamp of the hotel having been extinguished, the General
went stumbling up stairs to his apartment in the dark.
Upon reaching the top, he supposed that he had yet to as-
cend one stair, and, made an awkward step forward, and
nearly fell. The viscera which had been displaced by Dick-
inson's ball and had falsely healed, were again severed from
the breast-bone, and the internal wound was thus reopened.
The General staggered to his room, and lay for more than a
week quite disabled. He had several attacks of bleeding at
the lungs, and remained subject to such attacks during the
rest of his life. Many times, he was brought by them to the
verge of the grave, and the affection was probably aggravated
by his mode of treating it. When threatened with an attack,
he would lay bare his arm, bandage it, take his penknife from

64 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. ' [1825.

his pocket, call his servant to hold the bowl, and bleed him-
self freely. Often, indeed, during his presidency, he performed
this operation in the night without any assistance.

Up to the time of the election. General Jackson and Mr.
Clay continued to be on terms of civility with one another.
" I reached Washington several days before him," wrote Mr.
Clay in the address previously quoted. " Shortly after his
arrival, he called to see me, but I was out. I returned the
visit, considering it in both instances one of mere ceremony.
I met with him but rarely during that session, and always
when I did see him, in company. I sought no opportunities
to meet him, for having my mind unalterably fixed in its re-
solution not to vote for him, I wished to inspire him with no
hopes from me. The presidential election never was a topic
to which the most distant allusion was made by me, in any
conversation with him, but once, and that happened at a din-
ner given by the Russian Minister, the late Baron of TuyU,
on the 24th December, 1824. I recollect the day, because it
was the birth day of the late Emperor Alexander. About
thirty gentlemen composed that party, and among them, Mr.
Adams, Mr. Calhoun, General Jackson, and, I think, Mr.
Macon. Just before we passed from the drawing into the
dining room, a group of some eight or ten gentlemen were
standing together, of whom General Jackson and I were a
part, and Internal Improvements (I do not recollect how)
became the subject of conversation. I observed to him in the
course of it, that if he should be elected President, I hoped
the cause would prosper under his administration. He made
some general remarks which 1 will not undertake to state,
lest I should do him injustice."

The demeanor of General Jackson during these exciting
weeks won him many admirers. On the very morning of the
election, when Washington was breathless with expectation,
he conversed on the only topic with a composure that was
extremely becoming. Mr. Hezekiah Niles, of the Register
reported an interview which he had with the General on that
morning: '^Though I had frequently seen and conversed

1825.] HR. CLAY ELECTS A PRESIDENT. 65

with him during the session of Congress, and always with
much freedom on his part and real respect on mine, and not-
withstanding we had spent many hours together, he never
before had referred to the presidential question. He seemed
resolved to avoid it, and it was not proper in me to press
it upon him. But now ho spoke of the elections made by
the people, and of that about to be made by the House of
Bepresentatives, with a great deal of frankness and feeling.
With the former he expressed himself gratified. The poll
that had been made by him was honorable, and he was
thankful for the confidence the people reposed. He could
never forget it. But there was no assumption of merit in
himself that he deserved it ; it was the people's own business,
and they had done as they pleased. He then expressed him-
self after the following manner : He had no doubt but that
a great portion of the citizens would be satisfied with the
choice about to be made, and he seemed to think it most
probable that it would devolve upon Mr. Adams. He fur-
ther observed that many, in his opinion, were unpleasantly
situated, seeing that they were compelled to act either against
Mr. Adams or himself. But this was a matter of smsdl im-
portance compared with an adherence to the provisions of
the Constitution, and the prompt and harmonious election of
a President, which now belonged to the representatives of
the States. It was well, he said, that persons should differ
in opinion, that truth may be the more easily ascertained ;
but, he added, with that earnestness and force which is pecu-
liar to him, we should always recollect that, in maintaining
our oian opinions, we naturally grant the right to others of
supporting theirSy or lose every pretension to republicanism.
And he further remarked it was a matter of small moment
to the people who was their President, provided he adminis-
tered the government rightfully."

At noon, on the 9th of February, the members of the
Senate, with their president at their head, preceded by the
sergeant-at-arms, entered the Representatives' hall. The
president of the Senate was invited to a seat at the right

VOL. III. — 6

66 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

hand of the Speaker, and the Senators took their seats to-
gether in front of the Speaker's chair. Every member of the
House was in his place except one, who was known to be sick
at his lodgings. The galleries were packed with spectators,
and the areas were thronged with judges, ambassadors, gov-
ernors of States, and other privileged persons. The first
business in order was the formal opening of the electoral
packets, and the formal announcement that Mr. Calhoun
had been elected Vice-President ; that no one had received a
majority of electoral votes for the presidency, and that the
House of Representatives had then to elect a President from
the three highest candidates — Jackson, Adams, and Craw-
ford.

The Senators retired. The roll of the House was called
by States, and the members of each delegation took their
seats together. The vote of each State was deposited in a
box by itself, and placed upon tables. The tellers previously
appointed, Daniel Webster and John Randolph, proceeded
to open the boxes and count the ballots.

A long contest had been expected. The friends of Craw-
ford were present in great force, fondly hoping that the House,
after wearying itself by repeated ballotings, would turn to
their candidate and end the affair by giving him the election.

The result, when announced by the tellers, surprised al-
most every one ; surprised many of the best informed poli-
ticians who heard it. Upon this first ballot, Mr. Adams
received the vote of thirteen States, which was a majority.
Maryland and Illinois, which had given popular majorities
for Jackson, voted for Adsuns. Kentucky, Ohio, and Mis-
souri, which had given popular majorities for Clay, voted for
Adams. Crawford received the vote of four States, Dela-
ware, North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia. General Jack-
son, for whom eleven States had given an electoral majority,
received the vote of but seven States in the House.

When the election of Mr. Adams was announced by Mr.
Webster, there was a momentary burst of applause from the
galleries, followed by some hissing. The House paused in its

1825.] MB. CLAT BLECTS A PRESIDENT. 67

proceedings, and ordered the galleries to be cleared, and they
were cleared accordingly. The House adjourned a few min-
utes afterward, and the friends of the (Afferent candidates
hastened away to congratulate or console.

Three of the warmest of the partisans of Crawford re-
paired to his residence to announce to him the sudden failure
of all his hopes. Mr. Cobb was one of the three, but he
dared not witness the first shock of his chiefs disappointment
The other two, Messrs. Macon and Lowry, went into the
room of the ambitious invalid. "Crawford was calmly reclin-
ing in his easy chair, while one of his family read to him from
a newspaper. Macon saluted him, and made known the result
with delicacy, though with ill-concealed feeling. The invalid
statesman gave a look of profound surprise, and remained silent
and pensive for many minutes, evidently schooling his mind to
a becoming tolerance of the event which had for ever thwarted
his political elevation. He then entered freely into conver-
sation, and commented on the circumstances of the election
as though he had never been known as a candidate. He even
jested and rallied his friend Cobb, whose excess of feeling
had forbidden him to see Crawford until the shock had passed
— ^for he knew that the enfeebled veteran would be shocked.
The conversation, on the part of these friends, was not un-
tinged with bitterness and spite, vented against the promi-
nent actors in both the adverse political factions, but more
especially against those of the successful party, as being more
immediately responsible for the crushing overthrow of their
own beloved candidate. Crawford himself refrained from
giving utterance to the least exceptionable sentiment, and be-
haved, during the remainder of his stay in Washington, with
a mildness and an urbanity befitting one of his exalted sta-
tion, who had just staked and lost his political fortune."*^

A few days after, Mr. Cobb wrote thus despondingly :
" The presidential election is over, and you will have heard
the result. The clouds were black, and portentous of storms

* Cobb's Leisure Labco^ p. 227.

68 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

of no ordinary character. They broke in one horrid bursty
and straight dispelled. Every thing here is silent. The vic-
tors have no cause to rejoice. There was not a single window
lighted on the occasion. A few free n^oes shouted, ^ Huzza
for Mr. Adams !' But they were not joined even by the cring-
ing populace of this place. The disappointed submit in
sullen silence. The friends of Jackson grumbled at first
like the rumbling of distant thunder, but the old man him-
self submitted without a change of countenance. Mr. Craw-
ford's friends changed not their looks. They command uni-
versal respect. Adams has caused it to be announced that
they shall have no cause to be dissatisfied. Two days ago
the Treasury Department was tendered to Crawford, and re-
fused. On the same day General Jackson paid him a friendly
and civil visit, but nothing passed but an interchange of civil-
ities Crawford will return home, and we must

do the best we can with him. Should he and our friends
wish that he should again go into the Senate, the way shall
be open for him. I am sick and tired of every thing here,
and wish for nothing so much as private Ufe. My ambition
is dead."

There was a great crowd, however, besides "free negroes,"
to salute the Rising Sun. There was a presidential levee
that evening, to which all Washington rushed ; and there
was a pleasant gentleman among the throng who has been so
obliging as to tell the world, in his most agreeable manner,
what he saw in the rooms of the White House on that occa-
sion. We quote from the " Recollections" of Mr. S. G. Good-
rich :

" I shall pass over other individuals present, only noting
an incident which respects the two persons in the assembly
who, most of all others, engrossed the thoughts of the visit-
ors— Mr. Adams the elect. General Jackson the defeated. It
chanced in the course of the evening that these two persons,
involved in the throng, approached each other from opposite
directions, yet without knowing it. Suddenly, as they were
almost together^ the persons around, seeing what was to hap-

1825.] MB. CLAY ELECTS A PRESIDENT. 69

pen, by a sort of instinct stepped aside and left them face to
face. Mr. Adams was by himself ; General Jackson had a
large, handsome lady on his arm. They looked at each other
for a moment, and then General Jackson moved forward,
and reaching out his long arm, said : ' How do you do, Mr.
Adams ? I give you my left hand, for the right, as you see,
is devoted to the fair : I hope you are very well, sir.' All
this was gallantly and heartily said and done. Mr. Adams
took the General's hand, and said, with chilling coldness :
' Very well, sir ^ I hope General Jackson is well !' It was
curious to see the western planter, the Indian fighter, the
stem soldier, who had written his country's glory in the blood
of the enemy at New Orleans, genial and gracious in the
midst of a court, while the old courtier and diplomat was
stiff, rigid, cold as a statue ! It was all the more remarkable
from the fact that, four hours before, the former had been
defeated, and the latter was the victor, in a struggle for one
of the highest objects of human ambition. The personal
character of these two individuals was in fact well expressed
in that chance meeting : the gallantry, the frankness, and
the heartiness of the one, which captivated all ; the coldness,
the distance, the self-concentration of the other, which repel-
led all."

The repulsive manner of Mr. Adams in official stations
was not exhibited, it appears, in circles more private. Judge
Brackenridge writes of him : " The first time I had the
pleasure of seeing Mr. Adams, was in the summer of 1817,
when he arrived at New York with his family, after a long
and tedious passage across the Atlantic. Lodging in the
same house, I soon formed an acquaintance with him. I
found him in his domestic intercourse remarkably free and
affable, and in his family particularly amiable. He was then
in the prime of life ; in his manner open and communicative,
and even playful and facetious in a small circle of friends.
I afterward saw him often in public, when he appeared cold
and distant, and even awkward, which I attributed partly to
natural reserve in the midst of promiscuous company, and

70 LIFE OF ANDBBW JACKSON. [1825.

partly to the diplomatic habit of dismissing all expression
from his countenance, derived from his position abroad.
Knowing his natural warmth of disposition, I was surprised
when I afterward saw him, as the chief magistrate of the
nation, receive a splendidly dressed personage, glittering in
gold and feathers, with a formal coldness that froze like the
approach to an iceberg.''*

Five days after the election, Mr. Clay wrote a hasty note
to his friend, Francis Brooke : " Southard remains in the
Navy department. I am offered that of the State, but have
not yet decided. The others not yet determined on. Craw-
ford retires. What shall I do T'

We all know what he did. He deliberated a week, con-
sulted with friends, and accepted the office. Warnings he
had, but he disregarded them. He evidently knew not what
he did, and anticipated nothing of what followed. " From
the first," he wrote to Mr. Crittenden, "I determined to
throw myself into the hands of my friends, and if they ad-
vised me to decline the office, not to accept it ; but if they
thought it was my duty, and for the public interest, to go
into it, to do so. I have an unaffected repugnance to any
executive employment, and my rejection of the offer, if it
were in conformity to their deliberate judgment, would have
been more compatible with my feelings than its acceptance.
But as their advice to me is to accept, I have resolved accord-
ingly, and I have just communicated my final determination
to Mr. Adams. An opposition is talked of here ; but I re-
gard that as the ebullition of the moment, the natural off-
spring of chagrin and disappointment."

* Eulogy upon John Quinoy Adams. By Hoa II. M. Braokonridge. Pitfci^
burgh, 1848.

1825.] OBNBBAL JACKSON 8 OPINION. 71

CHAPTER VII.

JACKSON'S PBIYATE OPINION OF THESE TRANSACTIONS.

Well, reader, and was General Jackson so loftily acqui-
escent in his defeat as he seemed ?

Sunning for the presidency is not unlike the pursuit of a
coy, bewitching damsel, whom one has long been accustomed
to see at a distance, and to admire without a thought of
possessing her. But the swain gets more intimately ac-
quainted with her at length. She smiles upon him when he
approaches. She seems not to disdain, nor to disUke the as-
sociation of his name with hers, nor to prefer the society of
other men to his. He has been wont to think of himself as
an awkward, ungainly fellow, fit to ^' command an army in a
rough way/' but not to win so fair a prize as that fair hand.
Yet the intoxicating thought will steal, at last, into his
mind, that the enchanting creature may be his. From that
moment he is in love.

Bivals appear upon the carpet. They were there before,
but he regarded them not ; tall, handsome rascals, more used
to the carpet than himself. But, after all, what are they ?
Talkers merely. While he was on the frontiers, fighting his
country's battles, and gaining victories over her enemies, and
ending a disastrous war in a blaze of glory, that shines still
in every American countenance, they were speaking pretty
speeches and writing paper arguments. And some of them
(by the Eternal !) presume to sneer at his pretensions, because
he served his country in her hour of need, because he aban-
doned home and family, and went forth into the howling wil-
derness to fight and starve 1 Military chieftain, forsooth !
They took good care to keep their skins whole ! No one
can accuse them of risking any thing for their country — the
speech-makers !

The lover thinks he has fairly won the girL She gives a

72 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

bashful, hesitating, half consent — ^hesitating, because some
of her relatives do not quite fancy him. But just as every
thing is about to be settled to the satisfaction of everybody
— just as papa is about to say yes, and brother Tom is coming
round, a sly Kentuckian, by secret arts, lures the damsel from
her real inclination, and he reads the marriage in next morn-
ing's paper !

He puts a good face on the matter, of course. No one
shall see him tear his hair. No one shall hear his impreca-
tions. No one shall have it to say that he caught him cry-
ing. But he is flesh and blood notwithstanding. He had
loved the maiden more ardently than he supposed, and the
long chase has enhanced her charms a thousandfold 1

General Jackson, then, we must plainly avow, was most
indignant at his defeat, if not keenly disappointed by it.
The confidential letters written by him between the day of
the election and that of the inauguration of Mr. Adams,
show this plainly enough.

To his friend, Major Lewis, five days after the election,
he dashed off the following note : " I am informed this day,
by Colonel R. M. Johnson, of the Senate, that Mr. Clay has
been offered the office of Secretary of State, and that he
will accept it. So, you see, the Juda^ of the West has
closed the contract and will receive the thirty pieces of silver.
His end will be the same. Was there ever witnessed such a
barefaced corruption in any country before ? The Senate (if
this nomination is sent to it) will do its duty. No imputa-
tion will be left at its door. We will soon be with you.
Farewell. Mr. Clay told Colonel J. the above."

On the 20th of February, eleven days after the election,
he wrote to Col. George Wilson, editor at Nashville : " The
public journals will have given you the result of the presiden-
tial election, and how it was brought about by the union of
Clay and his fnends with Mr. Adams. The predictions in
part have been fulfilled. Mr. Clay, it is said, has been offered
the office of Secretary of State, and it is also said he has
agreed to accept it. This, to my mind, is the most open,

1825.] GENERAL JACESON'S OPINION. 73

daring cormption that has ever Bhown itself under onr gov-
ernment, and if not checked by the people will lead to open
direct bribery in less than twenty years. For what is this
barter of office for votes but bribery.

" Mr. Clay is prostrate here in the minds of all honest and
honorable men. What will be his fate in Kentucky I can
not say ; but Mr. Bibb, who is here, says this act will pros-
trate him in Kentucky.

" Mrs. J. has been unwell for about three weeks. She is
recovering, and I hope will be able to travel so soon as the
Senate can rise. I can not leave it until it rises, for the vir-
tue of the Senate, I have great hopes, will prevent the con-
summation of those corrupt bargains for office."

On the same day he wrote again to Major Lewis, and at
greater length, on the same subject. The larger part of this
letter was evidently written with a view to its being shown.
It repeats the sentiments of the hasty note just given, but
expresses them with more moderation.

GENERAL JAOKSON TO MAJOR WM. B. LEWIS.

"Cmr OF Wabhinotow, FebroArj 20th, 1826.

" Dear Major : You have seen from the public journals that the ru-
mors of unioD, and barter for office, between Mr. Clay's friends and Mr.
Adams have been verified by the result of the presidential election. The
information now is, that the contract, so far as Mr. Clay is concerned, is
fulfilled, by the offer by Mf. Adams to Mr. Clay of the appointment of Sec-
retary of State, which, it is said, Mr. Clay has agreed to accept I have,
as you know, always thought Mr. Adams to be an honest, virtuous man,
and had he spumed fi-om him those men who have abandoned those prin-
ciples they have always advocated, that the people have a right to govern,
and that their will should be always obeyed by tlieir constituents, I should
still have viewed him as an honest man ; and that the rumors of bargain
and sale was unknown to him. But when we see the predictions verified
in the result of the presidential election — when we behold two men, polit-
ical enemies, and as different in political sentiments as any men can be, so
suddenly unite, there must be some unseen cause to produce this political
phenomenon. This cause is developed by applying the rumors before the
election, to the result of that election, and to the tender of, and acceptance
of the office of Secretary of State by Mr. Clay.

74 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

'* These are facta that will confirm every unbiased mind, that there must
have been a secret understanding between Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay, of
and concerning these schemes of corruption, that has occasioned Mr. Clay
to abandon the will and wishes of the people of the West, and to form the
coalition so extraordinary as the one he has done.

" You know my inmost feelings upon the subject of the presidential
election. I can reiterate with truth, that if it had not been for the means
used, I would be happy at the result, as it gives me the liberty, when I
choose, to retire once more to my peaceful dwelling. But when I reflect
that the result has been brought about by the offer to Mr. Gay of the
Secretary of State's office, and his influence with other members, I look
forward and shudder for the liberty of my country. If at tiiis early period
of the experiment of our republic, men are found base and corrupt enough
to barter the rights of the people for proffered office, what may we not
expect from the spread of this corruption hereafter ? May we not expect
to see not only proffer of office, but direct bribery, by an ambitious dema-
gogue, who is guided by no principle but that of self-aggrandizement.

" From Mr. Clay's late conduct, my opinion of him, long ago expressed,
is but realized. From his conduct on the Seminole question, I then pro-
nounced him a political gambler, and from his late conduct in the abandon-
ment of all tliose republican principles which he always professed, and by
which he had obtained the support of the people, and forming such an al-
liance, so unexpectedly, with a man he had denounced before the nation,
and all this for the office of the Secretary of State, reveals the fact of his
gambling. Would it be too much to infer that his ambition might induce
him to reach the executive chair by open and direct bribery, as well as the
barter of office ? These are my reflections, and I can not, from the scenes
lately and now acting here, refrain from shuddering for the liberty of my
country.

'' There is no other correction of these abuses but the suflrages of the
people. If they apply calmly and judiciously this corrective, they may
preserve and perpetuate the liberty of our happy country. If they do
not, in less than twenty-five years we wiU become the slaves, not of a
'military chieftain,' but of such ambitious demagogues as Henry Clay.
It is, then, necessary that the people should look to it now, as corruption is
in the bud, before it extends itself further among the representatives in
Congress.

" Mrs. J. has been unwell for some weeks, but is now mending, and I
hope will be able to travel as soon as the Senate rises, which I can not
leave until it does, as I have a hope there is a redeeming spirit in the vir-
tue of the Senate, which may prevent the oonsmnmation of this corrup-
tion of barter for office.

^ We will be with you, I hope, shortly. In the meantime, present us

1825.] GBNBRAL JACKSON'S OPINION 75

affectionately to your family, and receive for yourself our best wishes.
Adieu. "Andrew Jackson."

(Private.) " P. S. On the result of the election, a number of my
fiiends requested that I should not answer that I would or would not suf-
fer my name again to be run as President ; nor to say whether I would
resign or not my seat in the Senate. It is said that Mr. Adams has agreed
with Clay to give him all the support he can to keep up his name in the
West I have now no doubt but that I have had opposed to me all the
influence of the Cabinet except Calhoun. Would it not be well that the
papers of Nashville and the whole State should speak out with moderate
but firm disapprobation of this corruption, to give a proper tone to the
people, and to draw their attention to the subject ? When I see you I
have much to say. There is more corruption here than I anticipated, and
as you know, I thought there was enough of it"

Lastly, we have the once celebrated " Swartwout letter/'
written February 22, whereby hangs a tale. Mr. Samuel
Swartwout had been in Washington since the election ; had
been one of those who invited General Jackson to a public
dinner a day or two after the election ; had been in daily
familiar intercourse with the Greneral. Keeping these facts
in view, does the following epistle read like the unprompted
effusion of private friendship, or like the contrived utterance
of the politician for effect upon the public ?

GENERAL JACKSON TO SAMUEL SWARTWOUT.

" WA8II1NGT0H City, February 22, 1826.

" My Dear Sir : Yesterday I received your communication adverting
to the reasons and defense presented by Mr. Clay to Judge Francis Brooke
why duty and reflection imposed upon him the necessity of standing in op-
position to rac, because of my being, as he styles me, a ' military chieftain.'
I had seen the letter before, and when it first appeared I did entertain the
opmion that some notice of it might perhaps be necessary, for the reason
that the expression seemed to convey with it the appearance of personal-
ity more than anything else ; and could the opinion be at all entertained
that it could meet tlie object, which was doubtless intended, to prejudice
me in the estimation of my countrymen, I might yet consider some notice
of it necessary. Such a belief, however, I can not entertain, without in-
sulting the generous testimonial with which I have been honored by
ninety-nine electors of the people.

" I am well aware that this term, * military chieftain/ has, for some

76 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

time past, been a cant phrase with Mr. Clay and certain of his friends, but
the vote with which I have been honored by the people is enough to sat-
isfy me that the prejudice which was thereby sought to be produced has
availed but little. This is sufficient for me. I entertain a deep and heart-
felt gratitude to my country for the confidence which she has manifested
toward me, leaving to prejudiced minds whatever they can make of the
epithet ' military chieftain.'

" It is for ingenuity greater than mine to conceive what idea was in-
tended to be conveyed by the term. It is very true that, early in life,
even in the days of my boyhood, I contributed my mite to shake off the
yoke of tyranny, and to build up the fabric of free government And when
lately our country was involved in war, bearing then the commission of
Major-Q«neral of militia forces in Tennessee, I made an appeal to the patri-
otic citizens of the West, when three thousand went with me into the field
to support her eagles. If this constitutes me a ' military chieftain,' I am
one. Aided by the patriotism of the western people, and an indulgent
Providence, it was my good fortune to protect our frontier border fix)m the
savages, and successfully to defend an important and vulnerable point of
our Um'on. Our hves were risked, privations endured, and sacrifices made
— and, if Mr. Clay pleases, martial law declared — ^not with any view of per-
sonal aggrandizement, but for the preservation of all and everything that
was dear and valuable — the honor, the safety and glory of our country !
Does this constitute the character of a 'military chieftain?' And are
all our brave men in war, who go forth to defend their rights, and the
rights of the country, to be termed ' military chieftains,' and denounced
therefor? If so, the tendency of such a doctrine may be to arrest the
ardor of useful and brave men in future times of need and peril With me,
it will make no difference ; for my country at war, I would aid, assist, and
defend her, let the consequences to myself be what they might.

" I have, as you very well know, been charged, "by some of the design-
ing politicians of this country with taking bold and high-handed measures ;
but as they were not designed for any benefit to myself I should not, under
similar circumstances, refrain from a course equally bold. That man who,
in times of difficulty and danger, shall halt at any course necessary to re-
tain the rights, privileges, and independence of his country, is imsuited to
authority. And if these opinions and sentiments shall entitle me to the
name and character of a ' military chieftain,' I am content so to be con-
sidered ; satisfied too, that Mr. Clay, if he pleases, shall give that as a rea-
son to the citizens of the West, why, in his opinion, I merited neither his
own nor their confidence.

" Mr. Clay has never yet risked himself for his country. He has never
sacrificed his repose, nor made an efibrt to repel an invading foe. Of
course, " his conscience" assured him it was altogether wrong in any other

1825.] GENERAL JACKSON'S OPINION. 77

man to lead his countrymen to battle and yictorj. He who fights, and
fights successfully, must, according to his standard, be held up as a ^ mil-
itary chieftaia' Even Washington, could he again appear among us, might
be so considered, because he dared to be a virtuous and successfiil soldier,
a correct man, and an honest statesman. It is only when overtaken by
disaster and defeat, that any man is to be considered a safe politician and a
correct statesman.

*' Defeat might, to be sure, have brought with it one benefit. It might
have enabled me to escape the notice and animadversions of Mr. Clay ; but
considering that, by an opposite result, my country has been somewhat
benefited, I rather prefer it, even with the opprobrium and censure which
he seems disposed to extend toward me. To him, thank God, I am in no
wise responsible There is a purer tHbunal to which I would in preference
refer myself— to the judgment of an enhghtened, patriotic, and uncorrupted
people. To that tribunal I would rather appeal, whence is derived what-
ever of reputation either he or I may possess. By a reference there, it
will be ascertained that I did not solicit the office of President ; it was the
frank and flattering call of the freemen of this country, not mine, which
placed my name before the nation. When they failed in their colleges to
make a choice, no one beheld me seeking, through art or management, to
entice any representative in Congress from a conscientious responsibility
to his own, or the wishes of his constituents. No midnight taper burnt by
me ; no secret conclaves were held ; nor cabals entered into to persuade
any one to a violation of pledges given or of instructions received. By me
no plans were concerted to impair the pure principles of our republican in-
stitutions, nor to prostrate that fundamental maxim, which maintains the
supremacy of the people's will On the contrary, having never in any
manner, either before the people or Congress, interfered in the slightest de-
gree with the question, my conscience stands void of offense, and will go
quietly with me, regardless of the insinuations of tliosc who, through man-
agement, may seek an influence not sanctioned by integrity and merit.

" Demagogues, I am persuaded, have done more injury to the cause of
fi^edom and the rights of man than ever did a military chieftain, and in
our country, at least in times of peace, should be much more feared. I
have seen something of tliis in my march through life ; and have seen some
men, too, making the boldest professions, who were more influenced by
selfish views and considerations, than ever they were by the workings of
an honest conscience.

" I became a soldier for the good of my country. Difficulties met me
at every step, but I thank God it was my good fortune to surmount them.

" The war over, and peace restored, I retired to my farm to privato
life, where, but for the call I received to the Senate of the Union, I should
have contentedly remained. I have never sought office or power, nor have

78 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKBON. [1825.

I ever been willing to hold any post longer than I could be useful to my
country, not myself; and I trust I never shall. If these things make me
one, I am a ^military chieftain.' I am, very respectfully, your obedient
servant, Andrew Jaokson."

If the letter to Mr. Swartwout was not written for the
public, the public was soon afforded an opportunity of in-
specting it. Mr. Swartwout, early in March, a very few days
after General Jackson wrote the letter, sent a copy of it for
publication to the New York National Advocate, accompanied
by a note of introduction. "It was not intended for the
public eye," said Mr. Swartwout, " yet it contains so just an
exposition of the enlightened views and noble conduct of the
distinguished author, that I can not forbear soliciting its pub-
lication in your valuable paper."

Mr. Clay made some cutting comments upon the Swart-
wout letter in an address to his constituents, soon after. " It
is true," said he, " that it has been my misfortune never to
have repelled an invading foe, nor to have led my countrymen
to victory. If I had, I should have left it to others to pro-
claim and appreciate the deed." Mr. Clay ridiculed the pre-
tense that the letter was intended only for the eye of the
person to whom it was addressed. " Of all the citizens of the
United States," he remarked, " that gentleman is one of the
last to whom it was necessary to address any vindication of
General Jackson. He had given abundant evidence of his
entire devotion to the cause of the General. He was here
after the election, and was one of a committee who invited
the general to a public dinner, proposed to be given to him
in this place. My letter to Judge Brooke was published in
the papers of this city on the 12th of February. The Gen-
eral's note, declining the invitation of Messrs. Swartwout and
others, was published on the 14th, in the National Journal.
The probability, therefore, is, that he did not leave this city
until after he had a full opportunity to receive, in a personfid
interview with the General, any verbal observations upon it
whic^ he might have thought proper to make. The letter

1825.] GENERAL JACKSON'S OPINION. 79

to Mr. Swartwout bears date the 23d of February. If re-
ceived by him in New York, it must have reached him, in
the ordinary course of mail, on the 25th or 26th. Whether
intended or not as a ^ private communication,' and not for
the * public eye,' as alleged by him, there is much probability
in believing that its publication in New York, on the 4th of
March, was then made with the view to its arrival in this
city in time to affect my nomination to the Senate. In point
of fact, it reached here the day before the Senate acted on
that nomination."*

The end of the session arrived. Mr. Clay, upon resign-
ing the Speaker's chair, delivered the usual address to the
house, in the course of which he stated that during his
speakership of nearly fourteen years, not one of his decisions
had been reversed. The inauguration occurred on the well-
known day, and the multitude rushed, as usual, to the White
House, to congratulate the new President. General Jackson
was prominent among the congratulating throng, on this oc-
casion also. " General Jackson, we were pleased to observe,"
wrote an editor present, " was among the earliest of those
who took the hand of the President, and their looks and de-
portment toward each other were a rebuke to that bitterness
of party spirit which can see no merit in a rival, and feel do
joy in the honor of a competitor."

In the course of the evening, General Jackson met in one
of the apartments of the presidential mansion his old Phila-
delphia friend, Colonel Duane, of the Aurora, whom he had
known and admired when first he represented Tennessee in
Congress. " Colonel," said the General with emotion, " you
know how I must feel."t

In the Senate chamber that morning General Jackson,
being the oldest Senator present, had administered to Mr.
Calhoun the oath of office ; after which the Vice-President
took his seat as President of the Senate.

* MaUory's Life and Speeches of Henry Clay, voL L, p. 504

f The grandson of Colonel Daane fayorod me with this little anecdote.

80 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKBON. [1825.

The nomination of Mr. Clay to the office of Secretary of
State was sent to the Senate on the seventh of March. It
was not confirmed unanimously. A majority of nearly two
to one, however, voted for the confirmation, and the affiiir
was settled without debate. Among those who voted for
confirming were Colonel Benton, General Harrison, and
Mr. Van Buren. Among those who voted against it were
Messrs. Berrien and Cobb of Georgia, Mr. Branch of North
Carolina, General Jackson, Major Eaton, Mr. Hayne of South
Carolina, and John Randolph. The vote stood : for the con-
firmation, 27 ; against it, 15 ; absentees, 7.*

A few days after, General Jackson and his family b^an
their long journey homeward. It was like a triumphal pro-
gress. At Baltimore a ball was given in his honor ; a review
of the troops was held ; Mrs. Jackson received a crowd of
ladies in her parlor ; the General a thronging multitude of
gentlemen in his ; and the party were escorted several miles
beyond the city by a cavalcade. Every town through which
they passed seemed to turn out en masse to welcome the il-
lustrious defeated.

Nashville, as usual, gave him a prodigious reception.
After the usual interchange of addresses, the General was
conducted to the dining-room of the old Nashville inn, which
was decorated for the occasion, and a large company sat
down to the customary banquet The General's old friend,
the Hon. George W. Campbell, presided. Among the toasts
given on this occasion were these two :

By General Jackson — ^^The late achievements of the

* " I requested," said Mr. Clay, in his Lexington speech, of 1827, " a Sen-
ator of the United States, when mj nomination should be taken up, to ask of the
Senate the appointment of a committee of inquiry, unless it should appear to him
altogether unnecessary. One of our Senators was compelled, by the urgcnc}*
'of his private business, to leave Washington before my nomination was disposed
of; and as I had but little confidence in the fidelity and professed friendship of
the other, I was constrained to present my application to a Senator from another
State. I was afterward' informed that when it was acted upon, General Jack-
son, and every other Senator present, was silent as to the imputation now made :
no one presuming to question my honor or integrity."

1825.] AN OLD OONTBOYEBST. 81

South Americans on the fields of Ayachuco — ^may they be in
the history of liberty another Yorktown/'

By Andrew Hynes — " The friends of internal improve-
ment— ^they are the benefactors of their country."

" And so home."

The reader is left to make his own reflections upon these
events. When the story is told, the duty of the biographer
is done, and that of the reader begins. There may be those
who would have had this contrast between General Jackson's
private utterances and General Jackson's public behavior
suppressed or softened. There may be those who think that
more is due to the memory of a favorite hero than to truth ;
or, in other words, that more is due to Andrew Jackson than
to the people of the United States. If any such there be —
and I have been told there are such — their applause is dis-
honor, their censure glory. For those who wish to know the
truth, and only for those, these pages have been toilfully pre-
pared.

It was stated at the beginning that Andrew Jackson was
not a model to copy ; no man is ; but a specimen to study, as
every man is. As his circumstances become more difficult, his
duties more complex and important, he makes larger demands
both upon the insight and the charity of the student.

CHAPTER VIII.

PRESIDENT ADAMS REVIVES AN OLD CONTROVERSY.

Since Jeflerson's day, there have been in the world two
parties of political theorists.

One of these, for lack of a better name, we may take the
liberty of styling the Paternal-Government party, because
they think that the relation between government and people

VOL. III. — 6

82 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

shoold be similar to that which exists between parent and
children. Government, they say, should do as much for the
people as it can, leaving the people free to attend to their
private business. Government should undertake great na-
tional works, such as bridges, canals, and roads; should found
great national institutions, such as colleges, banks, libraries,
museums, observatories, laboratories ; should monopolize
certain branches of industry, such as carrying letters and
other very small parcels, teaching children in common schools,
and their parents in state-supported churches ; and, in all
ways possible, should think for the people, contrive for the
people, take the lead of the people, and work out by govern-
mental machinery the people's welfare.*

Government, say these philosophers, among whom are
some of the noblest of the race, should be both powerful
and splendid — the source of honor, the nation's voice, orna-
ment, and strength. It should be powerful, that it may
eflFectually do its great duty ; splendid, because man is a
creature of imagination, who loves to lose a sense of personal
insignificance in contemplating greatness in his governors and
representatives, and can not stand unabashed before a being
like himself who has been decorated with a word. Duke,
baron, lord, marquis, why not ? How economical to reward
illustrious services to the State by permitting a man to prefix
four letters, quite meaningless, to his name. If a few letters
of the alphabet are at once so valued and so costless, why

* " A good administration is composed of a regular system of taxes, of a
prompt and impartial mode of collecting them ; of a system of finances which
assures public credit ; of an honorable magistracy, which will cause the laws to
be respected ; finally, of a system of administrative machinery which will cause
the life to circulate fh)m the center to the extremities, and from the extremities
to the center. But that which especially distinguishes a good administration
is, that it calls forth all kinds of merit, and all rare faculties to illuminate its
career and put in operation all improvements; that it represses with vigor all
abuses; that it meliorates the lot of the poorer classes ; that it rouses to activity
all branches of industry ; that it holds a just balance between rich and poor,
between those who labor and those who employ, between the agents of power
and those who are controlled by them." — yapoUsonic Idecu, by Louis NapoleoiL

1825.] ANOLDCONTROYERST. 83

not bestow them ? K it is so sweet to human nature to
adorn itself with a name, what good reason is there for refus-
ing to gratify it so far ?

The American lovers of the paternal government theory
do not carry it to these lengths. They stop short of the
State Churchy and the titles. But in the essence of the mat-
ter, there is no difference that I can see between the opin-
ions of the emperor of Russia, Louis Napoleon, Thomas
Carlyle, the old federalists, and the New York Tribune.

Mr. Carlyle speaks of a "teaching service," and looks
for the r^neration of England to a "Reformed Downing
Street." Mr. Greeley a bom conservative, is strenuous for the
State support of common schools, and asks Congress to help
build a Pacific railroad.

The other theory of government is the Jeffersonian — ^the
world-is-govemed-too-much theory.

The party who hold to the Jeffersonian creed are of opin-
ion that the office of government is solely to maintain justice
between man and man, and between the nation and other
nations. It should have nothing to do with carrying letters,
supporting schools, digging canals, constructing railroads, or
establishing scientific institutions. Its business is simply to
suppress villains, foreign and domestic. The people are to
be left absolutely free to work out their welfare in their own
way ; free, especially in all departments of industry, from the
paralyzing touch of governmental patronage.

This party think that government can not do any thing
in the way of internal improvements so well, so cheaply, so
exactly at the right time, as the people themselves ; and that
if the people have not within themselves the energy, the in-
telligence, the virtue requisite for the development of their
resources, and the improvement of their minds, and the in-
struction of their children, no machinery of government, no
power from above or from without, can do it for them.
Let government confine itself to its one duty of compelling
the faithful performance of contracts, the protection of every

84 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

man in his rights, and leave the rest to the people, is the
substance of this theory.

For example. Paternal government offers munificent re-
wards to inventors, authors, and artists. A government con-
ducted on the Jeffersonian principle simply enacts a patent
law and a copyright law, securing to ingenuity and talent the
profit of their productions. (Result — sixty inventions a
week.) A paternal government would attempt to decolonize
American literature, by forbidding the re-publication of for-
eign works, and offering premiums to those of home produc-
tion. A government of the opposite description will, it is
hoped, accomplish the end desired by international copyright
treaties. Paternal government establishes and supports
schools ; Jeffersonian government ordains (or should) that
no ignoramus shall vote, and sees to it (or should) that no
parent, guardian, or master defrauds a child, ward, or ap-
prentice of the means of acquiring knowledge. Paternal
government founds a national bank ; free government enacts
a New York banking law. Paternal government builds rail-
roads, or, if it does not build them, regulates them, inspects
them, lays down numberless rules designed to protect passen-
gers. Free government simply holds a railroad company re-
sponsible for damages, makes it pay for every limb broken,
for every hour lost ; in a word, compels it to do what it was
paid to do, and what it contracted to do. Paternal govern-
ment pours the people's money in a ceaseless stream into the
Erie canal. Jeffersonian government would sell the canal to
the highest bidder, and thus turn a nuisance into a blessing
— a source of corruption into a means of civilization. Pa-
ternal government will, perhaps, undertake a Pacific railroad ;
who does not know with what result ? One day after it
should be known that government will keep its palsying and
corruptive hands off that enterprise— worthy only of a great
PEOPLE — measures would be begim for doing the work by
private enterprise : and private enterprise would do it pre-
cisely at the right moment, on precisely the best route, in
precisely the best mode the circumstances permit.

1825.] AN OLD CONTBOYEBSY. ' 85

This theory of government, incompletely set forth in the
writings of Mr. JeflFerson, has been recently elaborated with
singular lucidness and power by an English author, Mr. Her-
bert Spencer, whose work on " Social Statics" Mr. JeflFer-
son ought to have lived long enough to have read, such keen
delight would he have had in seeing his cherished opinions
stated with the clearness of light, and demonstrated as Eu-
clid demonstrates propositions in geometry. This work, not
yet re-published in the United States, will be a school book
among us some day. And how Mr. JeflFerson would have
reveled in that wonderful work, conceived wholly in the
anti-patemal spirit. " The History of Civilization in Eng-
laod," by Henby Thomas Buckle, the greatest man that
ever wrote history.

The JeflFersonian system, besides its general claims, has a
peculiar adaptedness to the federal government of the United
States, because that government can undertake no work of
internal improvement, can found no national institution, which
will not seem to do more for one section of the Union than
for others.

The extreme JeflFersonians were accustomed to support
their opinions chiefly on the ground of an adherence to the
letter and spirit of the Constitution, instead of broadly as-
serting that their theory was founded in justice and wisdom,
and was, therefore, of universal application. Hence they
were called " strict constructionists" and " States' rights
men." Thus De Witt Clinton, though reckoned among the
very strictest of the strict constructionists, was the great
supporter of the canal policy of the State of New York. It
was only the solitary thinkers of the liberal party who dreamt
of carrying out their theory to its legitimate results. So far,
however, as the federal government was concerned, the de-
cided republicans clung to the JeflFersonian doctrine during
the twenty-four years' administration of the government by
Mr. JeflFerson and his disciples.

But disciples are not always faithful to the doctrines of

86 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

the master. Nor are masters always true to the systems
that bear their name.

In his first message, Mr. JeflFerson said, that " Agricul-
tmre, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pil-
lars of our prosi)erity, are most thriving, when left most free
to individual enterprise." In his fifth message, he hesitat-
ingly proposed an amendment to the Constitution which
would admit of the endowment of a national university.
" Education," said he, " is here placed among the articles of
public care ; not that it would be proposed to take its ordin-
ary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which
manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal ;
but a public institution can alone supply those sciences which,
though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the
circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement
of the country, and some of them to its preservation." Again,
in his last message, when puzzled with surplus revenue, he
asked : " Shall it lie unproductive in the public vaults ? shall
the revenue be reduced ? or shall it not rather be appropri-
ated to the improvements of roads, canals, rivers, education,
and other great foundations of prosperity and union, under
the powers which Congress may already possess, or such
amendment of the Constitution as may be approved by the
States ? While uncertain of the course of things, the time
may be advantageously employed in obtaining the powers
necessary for a system of improvement, should that be thought
best."

Mr. Jefferson, however, was always consistent in this —
that internal improvements, however desirable, were not au-
thorized by the Constitution of the Union.

Mr. Madison renewed the recommendation of a national
university (first proposed by President Washington), and was
brought, at last, to assent to the establishment of a national
bank. Mr. Monroe, though supposed to be a stricter con-
structionist than his predecessor, also recommended the found-
ing of a national university, and proposed measures for amend-
ing the Constitution, so as to legalize a grand system of

1825.] AN OLD CONTROVERSY. 87

internal improvement by the general government. He also
recommended the voting of money by Congress to repair the
Cumberland road. " Surely," said he, in his message in 1822,
" if Congress had a right to appropriate money to make the
road, they have a right to appropriate it to preserve the road
from ruin." Unquestionably. The gradual change in the
tone of Mr. Monroe's messages on this dividing question, was
attributed at the time to the influence of Mr. John Quincy
Adams, Secretary of State.

And perhaps justly. Mr. Adams was a federalist by birth,
by disposition, by early association, by confirmed habit. He
abandoned the federalists for reasons which had nothing to
do with the fundamental issues between the two parties, and
his inaugural address as President revealed the fact to all the
world. "The magnificence and splendor of their public
works," said he, " are among the imperishable glories of the
ancient republics. The roads and aqueducts of Rome have
been the admiration of all after ages, and have survived thou-
sands of years after all her conquests have been swallowed up
in despotism, or become the spoil of barbarians. Some diver-
sity of opinion has prevailed with regard to the powers of
Congress for legislation upon objects of this nature. The
most respectful deference is due to doubts, originating in pure
patriotism, and sustained by venerated authority. But nearly
twenty years have passod since the construction of the first
national road was commenced. The authority for its con-
struction was then unquestioned. To how many thousands
of our countrymen has it proved a benefit ? To what single
individual has it ever proved an injury ?"

In his first annual message, Mr. Adams went unexampled
lengths in this direction. The phrases " our country " and
" the government " seem to have been synonymous in his mind.
In glowing paragraphs, he recommended a national univer-
sity, exploring expeditions, an astronomical observatory, and
the construction of roads and canals. " The spirit of im-
provement," he concluded, " is abroad upon the earth. It
stimulates the heart, and sharpens the faculties, not of our fel-

88 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

low-citizens alone, but of the nations of Europe, and of their
rulers. . , . While foreign nations, less blessed with that
freedom which is power than ourselves, are advancing with
gigantic strides in the career of public improvement, were we
to slumber in indolence, or fold up our arras and proclaim to
the world that we are palsied by the will of our constituents,
would it not be to cast away the bounties of Providence, and
doom ourselves to perpetual inferiority ? In the course of
the year now drawing to its close, we have beheld under the
auspices, and at the expense of one State of this Union, a
new University unfolding its portals to the sons of science,
and holding up the torch of human improvement to the eyes
that seek the light. We have seen, under the persevering
and enlightened enterprise of another State, the waters of our
western lakes mingled with those of the ocean. If under-
takings like these have been accomplished in the compass of
a few years, by the authority of single members of our Con-
federation, can we, the representative authorities of the
whole Union, fall behind our fellow-servants in the exercise
of the trust committed to us for the benefit of our common
Sovereign, by the accomplishment of works important to the
whole, and to which neither the authority nor the resources
of any one State can be adequate ?*'

This is pretty decided. But Mr. Rush, the Secretary of
the Treasury, in one of his annual reports, as far surpassed
Mr. Adams as Mr. Adams surpassed his predecessor. Mr.
Rush said it was the duty of government " to augment the
number and variety of occuj)ations for its inhabitants ; to
hold out to every degree of labor, and to every modification
of skill, its appropriate object and inducement ; to organize
the whole labor of a country ; to entice into the widest
ranges its mechanical and intellectual capacities, instead of
suflering them to slumber ; to call forth, wherever hidden,
latent ingenuity, giving to eflbrt activity, and to emulation
ardor ; to create employment for the greatest amount of
numbers by adapting it to the diversified faculties, propensi-

1825.] AN0LDC0NTR0VBR8Y. 89

ties, and situations of men, so that every particle of ability,
every shade of genius, may come into requisition."

In the palmiest days of the federal party, was there ever
uttered such arrant, such innocently arrogant nonsense ?

Thus the old controversy was re-opened. Thus there was
a real and fidr ground of opposition to the new administra-
tion. Federalism, supposed to be dead, was living, rampant,
and sitting in the seat of power,**

The long, bony finger, the piercing screech of John Ran-
dolph, of Virginia, were promptly raised in execration of
these pernicious delusions. John Randolph despoiled of his
natural hopefulness, cheerfulness, kindliness, by disease alone !

* Tbe following is an extract ttom the third annilal message of Mr. John
Quincy Adams : " The expediency of providing for additional numbers of offi-
cers in the two corps of engineers will, in some degree, depend upon the num-
ber and extent of the objects of national importance upon which Congress may
think it proper that surveys should be made, conformably to the act of the 30th
of April, 1824. Of the surveys which, before the last sessioq of Congress, had
been made under the authority of the act, reports were made : 1. Of the board
of internal improvement on the Chesapeake and Ohio canal ; 2. On the continu-
mnce of the national road from Cumberland to the tide waters within the District
of Cohimbia; 3. On the continuation of the national road from Canton to Znnes-
ville ; 4. On the location of the national road from Zanesville to Columbus ; 6.
On the continuation of the same road to the seat of government in Missouri ; 6.
On a post road from Baltimore to Philadelphia ; 7. Of a survey of Kennebec
River (in part); 8. On a national road from Washington to Buffalo ; 9. Ou the
j»ur\ey of Saugatuck Harbor and River; 10. On a canal from Lake Pontchartrain
to the Mississippi River; 11. On surveys at Edgarton, Newburyport, and Hy-
annls iLirbor; 12. On survey of La Plaisanoe Bay, in the Territory of Michi-
'^n ; and reports are now prepared, and will be submitted to Congress, on
;?urveys of the peninsula of Florida, to ascertain the practicability of a canal to
connect the waters of the Atlantic with the Gulf of Mexico, across that penin-
sula; and also of the country between the Bays of Mobile and of Pensacola,
with (he view of connecting them together by a canal ; on surveys of a route
for a canal to connect the waters of James and Great Kenhawa Rivers ; on the
survey of the Swash in Pamlico Sound, and that of Cape Pear, below the town
of Wilmington, in North Carolina ; on the 8ur\'oy of the Muscle Shoals, in the
Tennessee River, and for a route for a contemplated communication between the
Hiwasseo and Coosa Rivers, in the State of Alabama. Other reports of surveys
upon objects pointed out by the several acts of Congress of the last and preced-
ing sessions, are in the progress of preparation, and most of them may be com*
pleted before the close of this session."

90 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

The least Buncoinbized, most guileless of public men 1 One
of the last individuals produced among us ! In these days,
we are nearly all foolish alike, wise alike, weak alike, strong
alike. In other days, there were varieties of human nature,
which made men interesting ta one another. No one can read
Mr. Garland's well executed biography of John Randolph with-
out feeling that if he was a wreck, he was the wreck of a man.

John Randolph had an old grudge against the name and
race of Adams — even against John Adams, who was also an
individual. "John II.," Randolph humorously styled the
new President. " It is no secret," said Mr. Randolph, in one
of his earliest fulminations against the revived doctrines,
" that I was in New York when John Adams first took his
seat as Vice-President. I recollect — ^for I was a schoolboy
at the time — attending the lobby of Congress when I ought
to have been at school. I remember the manner in which
my brother was spurned by the coachman of the Vice-Pres-
ident for coming too near the arms emblazoned on the escutch-
eon of the vice-regal carriage. Perhaps I may have some of
this old animosity rankling in my heart ; and, coming from
a race" (Pocahontas) " who are known never to forsake a
friend or forgive a foe, I am taught to forgive my enemies ;
and I do, from the bottom of my heart, most sincerely, as I
hope to be forgiven. But it is 7n]/ enemies, not the enemies
of my country." And he proceeds to satirize the doctrines
of the " speech and message," and, especially, " the doctrine
that goes to take the whole human family under the Presi-
dent's special protection." In another of these fierce anti-
federal harangues, Mr. Randolph spoke of the union of Mr.
Adams and Mr. Clay as the " coalition of BlifiJ and Black
George — the combination, unheard of till then, of the puri-
tan aud the black-leg ;" a remark which caused the famous
duel between Randolph and Clay, in 1826.

Mr. Clay's showy scheme of uniting all the republics of
North and South America in a kind of league, or Holy Al-
liance, called forth intense opposition. It came to naught,
and we need not dwell upon it.

r-«

1825.] AK OLD C0NTB0VEB8T. 91

Then, Mr. Adams, in accordance with his half pledge to
Mr. Webster, appointed a few federalists to office. The mis-
sion to England, offered first to De Witt Clinton, and de-
clined by him, was given to Mr. Bofus King, the most
oonspicaons of the surviving members of the old party.
This appointment, creditable as it was to the President and
to the country, was little relished by the republican party,
though Mr. King had for a short time acted with that
party.

The administration of Mr. Adams was, in one respect, so
superior to any which the country has since known, that it
will long be looked back upon by intelligent citizens with
mingled pride and sorrow. It was a decent administration.
A laige proportion of those who served it were gentlemen :
i, t.y educated men of principle ; men who had had mothers
that taught them to be kind, and &thers who compelled
them to do ri^t. The transcendent meanness, the unspeak-
able stupidity of removing honest men from subordinate offices
on account of their political opinions, was unknown to the
administration of John Quincy Adams. He removed but
two place-holders, and both for cause. In the third month
of his presidency he wrote these wise, these prophetic words :
^'The custom-house officers throughout the Union, in all
probability, were opposed to my election. They are all now
in my power ; and I have been urged very earnestly, and
from various quarters, to sweep away my opponents and pro-
vide for my friends with their places. I can justify the
refusal to adopt this policy only by the steadiness and consist-
ency of my adhesion to my own. If I depart from this in
any one instance, I shall be called upon by my friends to db
the same in many. An invidious and inquisitorial scrutiny
into the personal disposition of public officers will creep
through the whole Union, and the most sordid and selfish
passions wiU be kindled into activity, to distort the conduct
and misrepresent the feelings of men, whose places may be-
come the prize of slander upon them."*

• Quincy'B Life of J. Q. Adams, p. 147.

92 LIFE OF ANDREW JACK80N. [1825.

John Binus, too, tells us : " On the arrival in Philadel-
phia of President Adams, he did me the honor of an invita-
tion. I waited on him at the Mansion House Hotel, and
took an opportunity to introduce the subject of his appoint-
ments. I was promptly told that Mr. President Adams did
not intend to make any removals. I bowed respectfully, as-
suring the President that I had no doubt the consequence
would be that he would himself be removed so soon as the
term for which he had be<?n elected had expired. This inti-
mation gave the President no concern, and assuredly did in
nowise affect his previous determination."*

The honorable conduct of Mr. Adams in this particular,
accorded with that of his predecessors. It may, perhaps, be
said that no man had been dismissed from a subordinate
post under the general government for partisan reasons
merely. A place under government was generally r^arded
as a provision for life, and office-holders enjoyed the dignity,
and exhibited the fidelity which permanent appointments
alone have ever secured or can secure. In a word, the public
business was conducted on principles upon which private
business is conducted, and the public clerk had the same mo-
tives for good conduct as the private clerk has. The retention
of his place, and his advancement to a better, were the nat-
ural and just reward of efficiency and fidelity.

Against the new administration, therefore, was soon ar-
rayed a powerful party of *' strict constructionists" in Con-
gress, headed by John Randolph, a host of office-seekers, and
the great mass of those who had supported General Jackson,
and who were soon to believe that he had been kept out of
Ae presidency by a corrupt bargain.

But was not General Jackson, the reader may ask, as de-
cidedly committed to the internal improvement and protec-
tive tariff policy as Mr. Adams ? Almost. But the fact
was not so generally known. And did he not, in his letters
to Mr. Monroe, recommend the appointment of federalists to
office ? He did. Well, then, how could the opposition to

* BeooUectioDa of John BiniiB, p. 260.

1825.] AN OLD CONTROVERSY. 93

Mr. Adams on these grounds be made available for the
advancement of General Jackson ? The question is more
easily asked than answered. Bead on.

As this chapter was about to be consigned to the printer,
I received from Mr. Nicholas P. Trist a copy of a political
letter written by General Jackson in 1801, which claims in-
sertion here :

OENERAL JACKSON TO DR. WILLIAM DIOKSOK.

** Kkoxyills, Sept 1, 1801.

" Dear Sir: Through life I have held it a sacred duty I owed to my
country and myself never to give my suffrage to a candidate for a seat in
the Congress of the United States, unless I was convinced that his politi-
cal sentiments were congenial with those he represented, and ■ that he
would speak and do the will of his constituents ; and being now informed
that you are a candidate for the honor of representing the citizens of the
State of Tennessee, in the representative branch of the federal legislature,
believing, as I do, that any citizen who does obtain the suffrage of the
freemen of Tennessee, must be a character, the composition of which is
virtue, talents, and the true whig principles of seventy-six ; in short, sir,
that he must be a republican, and in politics like Caesar's wife, not only
chaste, but unsuspected.

"The first two component parts of this character I know you to
possess ; the latter, as to myself, I have ever thought you did. But^ sir,
the public mind has been lately led to believe that your political senti-
ments are doubtful, and some nave held you up as an aristocrat. These
reasons have operated upon me to call upon you to answer the following
interrogatories :

" First Are you, and have you always been an admirer of the true whig
principles of 76 ?

" Have you always been an admirer of State authority ?

" Are you now, and have you always been an admirer of the constitu-
tion of the United States, friendly to its administration, agreeable to the
true literal meaning of the instrument, and banishing the dangerous doc-
trine of implication ?

" Have you always been, and are you now opposed to standing armies
in time of peace ?

"Are you now, and have you always been inimical to a standing
naval armament?

" Are you now, and have you always been opposed to foreign politi-
cal connections ?

94 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

" Are you now, and have you always been opposed to the extension
of the executive patronage ?

** Have you always been, and are you now an advocate for freedom
of religion, and the freedom of the press ?

" Are you now, and have you always been friendly to economy in the
public disbursements, and an enemy to the system of loans ?

" And, lastly, are you a real republican in principle, and will you be a
republican in practice ?

" The above questions are put to you by a sincere friend in private
life, and one who is very much disposed to extend to you his httle politi-
cal support. He expects, however, that these questions will be answered
with your usual candor on other subjects. Tliis letter is not confidential,
nor will your answer bo viewed as such. It is as well for the gratification
of inquiring friends as myself.

" Accept, sir, of my respects, and believe ino to be your obedient
servant, " Andrew Jaokson.

** Doctor William Diokson.**

This is Jcffersonian, as far as it goes, and it touches in a
rude way most of the points then in controversy between the
Adams men and the JefFersonians.

CHAPTER IX.

GENERAL JACKSON RENOMINATED.

According to the time-honored usages of the Kepublican
party, the presidency was disposed of for twenty-four years.
Mr. Adams expected to hold his place for eight years. Mr.
Clay expected to succeed him, as previous Secretaries of State
had succeeded their chiefs. Mr. Clay would, of course, serve
eight years, and appoint a Secretary of State to be his suc-
cessor in 1841. And, doubtless, there were worthy young
gentlemen, not a few, who had an eye fixed hopefully upon the
year 1849.

1825.] GENERAL JACKSON RENOMINATED. 95

But the dethronement of King Caucus had changed all
that. The " secretary dynasty/' as it was called, was pos-
sible only so long as the sphere of contention was confined to
the narrow compass of the Capital. Neither Mr. Adams
nor Mr. Clay seem to have been aware of the fact, but it was
a fact, and the managers of the Jackson party knew it. The
resolution to make General Jackson a candidate for 1829
dated from the moment when the result of the election in the
House of Representatives was known. It was, at once, re-
solved to appeal to "another tribunal."

Tennessee, as we have seen, welcomed her defeated Gen-
eml home in the summer of 1825, as conquerors are welcomed.
In October of the same year, me seventh month of the new
administration, the legislature of Tennessee, with three dis-
sentient voices, passed a resolution to the effect that " Gen-
eral Andrew Jackson, of this State, be recommended to the
freemen of the United States, as a fellow-citizen, who, by his
numerous and faithful public services, in the cabinet and in
the field, his energy and decision, his political qualifications,
and strict adherence to the principles of republicanism, merits
to be elected to the office of chief magistrate of this Union,
at the next presidential election."

A few days after, it was whispered in the legislature that
General Jackson was on his way to the capital of the State.
It was forthwith resolved that " as an evidence of the respect
and attachment entertained by this legislature, in common
with our fellow-citizens, towards General Andrew Jackson
for his high personal qualifications, and numerous and impor-
tant services rendered to his country, that the two branches
of this general assembly will receive him on the day next
after his arrival at the seat of government, at 12 o'clock, in
the representative hall ;" and that " one or both of the speak-
ers, on behalf of the two houses, shall deliver, at such time,
to General Jackson an address, expressive .of the high per-
sonal satisfaction they feel in relation to the course he pur-
sued, during the pendency of the late presidential election."

The General was received and addressed, accordingly, and

96 LIFE OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [1825.

deliver jd a suitable reply. He banded to one of tbe speak-
ers, on tbe same occasion, a written paper, wbicb proved to
be tbe resignation of bis seat in tbe Senate of the United
States. General Jackson was notbing if not belligerent.
Tbis document, like bis farewell address to tbe army, was as
mucb designed to wound enemies as to gratify friends. It
was mainly a bit at Mr. Clay for accepting office under Mr.
Adams ; but not so bold and direct a blow as tbat wbicb the
same band dealt at " Jacob Brown " in 1821. General Jack-
son began by saying tbat, when bis name was first proposed
for tbe senatorsbip, be bad been given to understi^nd that a
longer period of service than two years would not be expected
of him. Two years bad elapsed. He was still in some doubt
whether or not be should resign his seat, when certain late
proceedings of tbe legislature had resolved his doubts, and in-
duced him to resign forthwith. He then proceeded to remark
approvingly upon a proposed amendment to tbe constitution
of the United States, limiting the service of tbe President to
a single term of four or six years. He was in favor of such
an amendment.

Having disposed of this subject, he came to tbe real ob-
ject of his discourse.

" And, indeed," he continued, " I would go further, with
a view to sustain more effectually in practice, the axiom
wbicb divides the three great classes of power into independ-
ent constitutional checks; I would impose a provision ren-
dering any member of Congress ineligible to office under the
general government during tbe term for which he was elected
and for two years thereafter, except in cases of judicial office ;
and these I would except for the reason tbat vacancies in this
department are not frequent occurrences, and because no bar-
rier should be interposed in selecting for the bench men of the
first talents and integrity. Their trusts and duties being of
the most responsible kind, the widest possible range should
be permitted tbat judicious and safe selections might be
made. Tho politician may err, yet bis error may be presently
relieved, and no considerable injury result ; but with judges,

1825.] GENERAL JACKSON RENOMINATED. 97

particularly in the last resort, error is fatal, because without
a remedy.

" The eflfect of such a constitutional provision is obvious.
By it Congress, in a considerable degree, would be free from
that connection with the executive department which at pres-
ent gives strong ground of apprehension and jealousy on the
part of the people. Members, instead of being liable to be
withdrawn from legislating on the great interests of the na-
tion through prospects of the executive patronage, would be
more liberally confided in by their constituents, while their
vigilance would be less interrupted by party feelings and
party excitements. Calculations from intrigue or manage-
ment would fail ; nor would their deliberations or investiga-
tion of subjects consume so much time. The morals of the
country would be improved, and virtue, uniting with the la-
bors of the representatives, and with the official ministers of
the law, would tend to perpetuate the honor and glory of the
government. But if this change in the Constitution should
not be obtained, and important appointments continue to de-
volve upon the representatives in Congress, it requires no
depth of thought to be convinced tliat corruption will become
the order of the day, and that under the garb of conscientious
sacrifices to establish precedents for the public good, evils of
serious importance to the freedom and prosperity of the re-
public may arise. It is through this channel that the people
may expect to be attacked in their constitutional sovereignty,
and where tyranny may well be apprehended to spring up in
some favorable emergency. Against such inroads every guard
ought to be interposed, and none better occurs than that of
closing the suspected avenue with some necessary constitu-
tional restriction. We know human nature to be i)rone to
evil ; we are early taught to pray that we may not be led
into temptation, and hence the opinion that by constitutional
provisions all avenues to temptation on the part of our po-
litical servants should be closed."

If General Jackson, then, is ever elected President, he
will not appoint to office members of Congress 1 I wonder

VOL. ui — 7

98 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

if Messrs. Eaton, Ingham. Branch, Berrien, Livingston, For-
syth, Stephenson, Buchanan, and other gentlemen supposed
to have an interest in the matter, believed this in 1825. If
they did, some of them gave extraordinary proofs of disin-
terestedness.

General Jackson's resignation liaving been accepted by
the legislature, Judge Hugh L. White, of East Tennessee,
was elected to serve during the remaining four years of Jack-
son's term. Judge White, an old friend and fellow-soldier
of General Jackson, had contributed all his influence, in the
presidential campaign of 1824, to the election of the General.
The Jackson party, therefore, in sending Judge White to the
Senate, gained a Senator who was devoted to the elevation of
their candidate. The new Senator, moreover, was from prin-
ciple and clear conviction a "strict constructionist" — more
than a Jeffersonian ; a man peculiarly hostile to the revived
federalism of the new administration. The magnificent
dreams of Messrs. Adams, Clay, and Bush, awakened all his
old repugnance to the party of the past. He had, therefore,
a twofold motive for exertion in his new sphere : warm af-
fection for General Jackson, and intense antipathy to the
opinions of Mr. Adams. Judge White was, also, an honest
man, nicely conscientious, strict and punctual in the discharge
of every duty known to him, whether public or private. Not
exempt from human foibles, not splendid in natural endow-
ments, he was one of the most respectable and honorable of
public men.

The renomination of General Jackson by the State of
Tennessee, premature as it seemed, was not suffered to fall
to the ground. In May, 1826, the nomination was indorsed
by an immense public meeting in Philadelphia, and in No-
vember of the same year a powerful movement in his behalf
was begun in Georgia. Long before the usual time of begin-
ning the quadrennial agitation, he was placed before the
people in most of the States as the candidate for the presi-
dency in opposition to the reelection of Mr. Adams.

During the next three yeai*s, General Jackson, though he

1825.] GENEBAL JACKSON RENOMINATED. 99

passed most of the time at home, was the central figure in an
extraordinary number of receptions and public dinners. To
judge from the newspapers of the day, he could not stir
abroad without finding a committee in his path, who took
possession of him bodily, conveyed him to some public ban-
queting hall, and got him on his legs to speak. A large
number of his replies to invitations and other letters found
their way into the newspapers, most of which are but repeti-
tions of those which the reader has already seen. The follow-
ing, however, is a pleasant and honorable exception :

OKMSRAL JACK^N TO OElfERAL PLANCHJ&, AND OTHER CITIZENS OF NEW

OBLEANS.

'^Nashyillb, Tsn., May 24, 18M.

"Gsntlemen: I take the liberty to address you upon a subject in
which I feel great interest, as it is one with which I know the welfare
and happiness of our country to be intimately connected. It relates to
the blessings of education, which, without doubt, constitutes the chief
support of the liberties which our forefathers bequeathed to us.

"There is now in operation at Nashville a college, which, with a
little more pecuniary encouragement, is Ukely to become one of the most
flourishing institutions in the United States. It is situated in a part of the
great valley of the West, where the feelings, habits, and manners of the
people are purely republican. The climate is healthy, and the means of
support are cheap and abundant The institution will, therefore, extend
it3 advantages to the poor, as well as the rich, and prepare for the serv-
ice of their country the sons of the farmers and mechanics, as well as
those who by fortune are exempt from the necessity of labor.

" The president is an accomplished gentleman of the first acquirements,
and the subordinate professors are gentlemen highly esteemed for literary
and scientific attainments. But to place upon a lasting foundation the
property of this college, it is requested to obtain funds for two more pro-
fessorships, which were created last year, and which the Board of Trus-
tees have thought proper (in honor of the good Lafayette and the humble
services I had rendered the country) to call by the names of Lafayette and
Jackson.

" It is well known that the good Lafayette is destitute of the means
to make a permanent endowment of this nature, as is the case also with
myself, otherwise these professorships would have been filled ere this.
Our resort is to appeal to the liberality of those who have the means to
make donations, and the disposition to yield them, for the lasting benefit

100 LIFE OF ANDBEW JA0K80N. [1825.

of an institution so well calcolated to prepare the American youth for the
councils of our common country.

" Without doubt, the trustees had two motives in view in honoring
Lafayette and myself (if I may be pardoned for speaking of myself in con-
junction with that illustrious benefactor) with the names of those profes-
sorships— the one to compliment our names with the perpetuity which it is
hoped the institution will experience, the other to cooperate upon the
feelings of such as may derive an additional inducement from the circum-
stance, to contribute an endowment which, with tlie smiles of Providence,
will, I trust, redound to the credit of its patrons and the general cause of
knowledge.

" The object of this letter, then, gentlemen, is to ask you to present, or
cause to bo presented to the good citizens of New Orleans, the enclosed
paper, or one of its purport, and to receive and remit such aid as each
citizen may bo disposed to give. It La not expected of any to give but a
small sum. Small donations will enable the more persons to aid in the
establishment of those professorships, and to testify their respect for the
cause of literature and science.

** I am. very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

"Andrew Jackson.

** Messrs. General Planch^, Col. Preston, Bi^Jor A. Davexac, J. J. Mercler, Jan., Eiq., OoL

Mannael White.'*

From the mass of Geneml Jackson's political utterances
at this period I select only one paragraph, written in July,
1826. He had been invited to accompany Mrs. Jackson to
Harrodsburgh Springs, in Kentucky. He declined, partly on
the ground of a slight improvement in his wife's health, but
chiefly because the journey would be thought a political one.
" When I reflect," he wrote, " upon the management and in-
trigue which are operating abroad, the magnitude of the
principles which they are endeavoring to supplant, and the
many means which they can draw to their assistance from
the patronage of the government, I feel that it is not less
due to myself and principle than to the American people,
particularly so far as they have sanctioned my political creed,
to steer clear of every conduct out of which the idea might
arise that I was maneuvering for my own aggrandizement.
If it be true that the administration have gone into power
contrary to the voice of the nation, and are now expecting.

1825.] OENBBAL JACKSON RENOMINATED. 101

by means of this power thus acquired, to mold the public
will into an acquiescence with their authority, then is the
issue fairly made out, shall the government or the people
rule. And it becomes the man whom the people shall indi-
cate as their rightful representative in the solemn issue, so to
have acquitted himself, that while he displaces these enemies
of liberty, there will be nothing in his own example to
operate against the strength and durability of the govern-
ment."

It is painful to copy such sentences. But it is es-
sential to the integrity of this work to do so. It is neces-
sary to show that it was the habit of General Jackson's
mind to attribute the conduct of his opponents to the
lowest motives from which that conduct could be imagined
to proceed.

The health of Mra Jackson continued to be precarious
during the whole of this period. Her disease was an affec-
tion of the heart, which was liable to be aggravated by ex-
citement. She never approved of the General's running for
office ; and, if now she wished him to succeed, it was only
because she knew he wished it. Unceasingly she strove to
turn his thoughts to those subjects in which alone she found
comfort, which alone she thought important. She warned
him not to be dazzled nor deluded by his popularity ; of
which her good sense as a woman, no less than her opinions
as a Presbyterian, taught her the emptiness. One Sunday
morning, a communion Sunday, in 1826 or 1827, as they
were walking toward the little Hermitage church, she be-
sought him to dally no longer with his sense of duty, but,
then and there, that very hour, in their own little church, to
renounce the world and all its pomps and vanities, and
partake of the communion with her. He answered, " My
dear, if I were to do that now, it would be said, all over the
country, that I had done it for the sake of political effect.
My enemies would all say so. I can not do it now^ but I
promise you that when once more I am clear of politics I
will join the church."

102 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

This incident he related, with tears in his eyes, many
years after to his beloved friend Blair, of the GlobCy as they
stood under the tall trees of the grove in which the church
stands.

CHAPTER X.

THE BARGAIN AND CORRUPTION OBY.

Too much, by a hundred thousand pages, having been
already written upon this sorry business, I have been sorely
tempted to pass it over without mention. The disgraceful
story must be told, however. It belongs to our subject. It can
not be suflfered to pass into that oblivion which has ruthlessly
swallowed so much that was better worth preservation.

" Give us a good cry to go down to the country with,"
say the London clubs to a shaky ministry anticipating a dis-
solution of Parliament. The Jackson party had a most teU-
ing cry in the campaign of 1828, and we are now to learn
how they got it.

General Jackson, as we know, left Washington after the
election in theHouseof Representatives, convinced that there
had been a corrupt understanding between Mr. Clay and
Mr. Adams, to the eflfect that Clay should make Adams
President, on condition that Adams should appoint Clay
Secretary of State. General Jackson, as we have just ob-
served, was always prone to think evil of those who opposed
him, as well as to be too indulgent to those who support-
ed him. On this occasion, as on many others, his propensity
was stimulated by those who hoped to thrive by his assist-
ance.

I. On the 28th of January, 1825, twelve days before the
election in the House of Representatives, the following letter

1825.] BAB6AIN AND CORRUPTION CRY. 103

was published anonymously in a Philadelphia newspaper,
called the Columbian Observer :

** Wasbinotok, Jan. 25, 1825.

" Dear Sir : I take up my pen to inform you of one of the most dis-
graceful transactions that ever covered with infamy the republican ranks.
Would you believe that men, professing democracy, could be found base
enough to lay the ax at the very root of the tree of liberty 1 Yet, strange
as it is, it is not less true. To give you a full history of this transaction
would far exceed the limits Of a letter. I shall, therefore, at once proceed
to give you a brief account of such a bargain as can only be equaled by
the famous Burr conspiracy of 1801. For some time past, the friends of
Clay have hinted that they, like the Swiss, would fight for those who pay
best Overtures were said to have been made by the friends of Adams
to the friends of Clay, oflfering him the appointment of Secretary of State,
for his aid to elect Adams. And the friends of Clay gave the information
to the friends of Jackson, and hinted that if the friends of Jackson would
offer the same price, they would close with them. But none of the friends
of Jackson would descend to such mean barter and sale. It was not be-
lieved by any of the friends of Jackson that this contract would be ratified
by the members from the States which had voted for Clay. I was of opin-
ion, when I first heard of this transaction, that men, professing any honor-
able principles, could not^ or would not be transferred, like the planter
does his negroes, or the &rmer does his team of horses. No alarm was
excited. We believed the republic was safe. The nation having delivered
Jackson into the hands of Congress, backed by a large majority of their
votes, there was on my mind no doubt that Congress would respond to
the will of the nation by electing the individual they had declared to be
their choice. Contrary to this expectation, it is now ascertained to a cer-
tainty that Henry Clay has transferred his interest to John Quincy Adams.
As a consideration for this abandonment of duty to his constituents, it is
said and believed, should this unholy coalition prevail. Clay is to be ap-
pointed Secretary of State. I have no fear on my mind. I am clearly of
opinion we shall defeat every combination. The force of pubUc opinion
must prevail, or there is an end of liberty."

II. The editor of the Columbian Observer forwarded to
Mr. Clay a copy of the paper containing this precious eflfu-
sion. On the first of February, Mr. Clay replied to it in the
National Intelligencer, by a card :

" I have seen," said he, " without any other emotion than tliat of in-

104 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

efifable contempt, the abuse which has been poured upon me by a scurril-
ous paper issued in this city, and by other kindred prints and persons, in
regard to Uie presidential election. The editor of one of those prints,
udiered forth in Philadelphia, called the Columbian Observer, for which I
do not subscribe, and which I have never ordered, has had the impudence
to transmit to me his vile pai)er of the 28th instant. In this number is
inserted a letter, purporting to have been written from this city, on the
25th instant, by a member of the House of Representatives, belonging to
the Pennsylvania delegation. I believe it to be a forgery ; but if it be
genuine, I pronounce the member, whoever he may be, a base and infam-
ous calumniator, a dastard, and liar ; and if he dare unvail himself, and
avow his name, I will hold him responsible, as I here admit myself to be,
to all the laws which govern and regulate men of honor."

III. Two days afterward, appeared in the Intelligencer a
communication, entitled "Another Card," which read as
follows :

" George Kremer, of the House of Representatives, tenders his respects
to the Honorable H. Clay, and informs him that^ by reference to the editor
of the Columbian Observer , he may ascertain the name of the writer of a
letter of tlie 25th ult., which, it seems, has afforded so much concern to
H. Clay. In the mean time, George Kremer holds himself ready to prove,
to the satisfaction of unprejudiced minds, enough to satisfy them of the
accuracy of tlie statements which are contained in that letter, to the ex-
tent that tliey concern the course and conduct of H. Clay. Being a repre-
sentative of the people, he will not fear to * cry aloud and spare not,' when
their rights and privileges are at stake."

This George Kremer was an honest, illiterate rustic, ec-
centric in costume and manners, a man absurdly out of
place in an assembly of educated persons. " Mr. Kremer,"
wrote Daniel Webster to his brotlier Ezekiel, " is a man with
whom one would* think of having a shot, about as soon as
with your neighbor, Mr. Simeon Atkinson, whom he some-
what resembles." He was a little, bustling, credulous man
of fifty, much stared at in Washington from his wearing a
leopard-skin over-coat of curious cut.

IV. Mr. Clay read Kremer's card before going to the
House on the morning of February 3d. From his place in the

1825.] BARGAIN AND CORRUPTION CRY. 105

Speaker's chair he addressed the House on the subject, and
demanded an immediate investigation of the charge. ' Stand-
ing/ said the Speaker, ' in the relation to the House, which
both the member from Pennsylvania and himself did, it ap-
peared to him, that here was the proper place to institute the
inquiry, in order that, if guilty, here the proper punishment
might be applied ; and if innocent, here his character and
conduct might be vindicated. He anxiously hoped, therefore,
that the House would be pleased to order an investigation to
be made into the truth of the charges. Emanating from
such a source as they did, this was the only notice which he
could take of them.'

Mr. Forsyth moved the appointment of a select committee
for the investigation. Whereupon, Mr. Kremer rose arid said,
that " If, upon investigation being instituted, it should ap-
pear that he had not suflScient reason to justify the state-
ments he had made, he trusted he should receive the marked
reprobation which had been suggested by the Speaker. Let
it fall where it might, he was willing to meet the inquiry,
and abide the result."

After a debate of a day and a half, the committee was
ordered and appointed. It consisted of seven members,
Messrs. Barbour, Webster, M'Laine, Taylor, Forsyth, Saun-
ders, and Rankin.

V. The committee met, and summoned Mr. Kremer to
appear before them with the proofs of the charges he had
made. Mr. Kremer, in a long, rambling communication, re-
fused to coine before the committee ! The House, he said,
had no jurisdiction over the conduct of members out of the
House. ^' I protest, therefore, most solemnly against the as-
sumption of any jurisdiction, either by the committee or the
House of Representatives, that shall jeopardize my right to
communicate freely to my constituents whatever I may believe
necessary for the public good. Whatever assent I may have
given, was done hastily, relying on the conscious rectitude of
my conduct, and regarding my own case, without having re-
flected duly on the dangerous principles involved in the pro-

106 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

ceedings, and can not therefore be considered as a waiver of
my rights. The Speaker's appeal was sudden and unexpected,
and if iny admission was made, without due regard to all the
circumstances and principles of the case, it could be no mat-
ter of surprise. In deciding the jurisdiction of the Committee
and the House, I feel the authority of another tribuncUj be-
fore which I shall cheerfully appear, and bring forward, forth-
with, those facts and circumstances, which, in my opinion,
fully authorize the statements contained in my letter. These
I shall spread before my constituents, to whom I am amen-
able for all my conduct."

The explanation of Kremer's conduct is simple and obvi-
ous. He was the merest tool of adroit managers. He con-
fessed, in conversation with members, that he did not write
the letter which appeared in the Columbian Observer. Kremer
did not even comprehend the language of the letter. He told
Mr. Brent of Louisiana, in the hearing of two other members
of Congress, that he never intended to charge Mr. Clay with
corrupt conduct. To other gentlemen he said he was willing
to apologize to Mr. Clay. It is equally certain that he did
not write the communication to the Select Committee. Mr.
Clay's bold and manly conduct in bringing the matter before
the House, surprised poor Kremer into a promise to substan-
tiate his charge. His managers, however, knew well that
such a course would be fatal to their project, which was to
confine the discussion of the matter to that " other tribunal/'
namely, the ignorant and credulous portion of the voters at
the next presidential election.

Mr. Clay was of the opinion that the author of the letter
in the Columbian Observer was Senator John H. Eaton of
Tennessee, and that the writer of Kremer's communication
to the Select Committee was Samuel D. Ingham, a member of
the House from Pennsylvania. There were reasons for this
opinion ; but as they were not good enough to convert the
opinion into certainty, we need not dilate upon them. If
Eaton and Ingham were guilty in the dastardly affair, they
had their reward — they had their punishment. Mr. Ingham,

1825.] BABaAIN AND COBBUPTION CBY. 107

it may be well to add, was one of those Pennsylvanians who
had originally preferred Mr. Calhoun for the presidency, and
suspended their efforts in his behalf, in deference to the evi-.
dent wish of the people.

VI. The Select Committee reported (February 9th, the
day of the election) that, as Mr. Kremer had refused to come
before them, they could take no further steps. The subject
then dropped. The election occurred, and Mr. Clay accepted
the office of Secretary of State. General Jackson started
homeward, disappointed, indignant, believing himself to have
been cheated out of the presidency.

VII. On his journey home. General Jackson was, as before
narrated, the object of universal attention. He had to figure
in many public receptions, which were the more enthusiastic be-
cause of the growing belief among the Jackson men, that he had
been unjustly, if not corruptly, deprived of the office to which
the people wished to elevate him. The General, it seems, con-
versed with his partisans upon the late events, with the utmost
possible freedom. Some of his remarks were said to have
been of a character so extraordinary, that I will not venture
to give them in any other language than that of the original
reporters. In judging these statements, allowance must be
made for the imperfections of the human memory, and for
the perverting tendency of political strife ; these statements
having been made during the fury and madness of 1828.

Daniel Large, of Philadelphia, testified : "On my way
down the Ohio, from Wheeling to Cincinnati, in the month
of March, 1825, on board the steamer General Neville, among
many other passengers were General Jackson and a number
of gentlemen from Pennsylvania, some of whom remarked to
the General that they regretted that he had not been elected
President instead of Mr. Adams. General Jackson replied,
that if he would have made the same promises and offers to
Mr. Clay that Mr. Adams had done, he (General Jackson)
would then, in that case, have been in the presidential chair.
But he would make no promises to any ; that if he went to
the presidential chair, he would go with clean hands, and un-

108 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

controlled by any one. These remarks of General Jackson
were made in the hearing of Mr. James Parker, of Chester
county, Mr. William Crowsdill, of this city, and myself, and
a number of other gentlemen unknown to me."

William Crowsdill, of Philadelphia, testified that " the
statement made by Mr. Daniel Large is a faithful account of
General Jackson's conversation on the occasion alluded to."

William Sample testified that, meeting General Jackson
on the same journey, he had said to him, " Well, G^neral^
we did all we could for you here, but the rascals cheated you
out of it ;" to which the General replied, " Indeed, my old
friend, there was cheating, and corruption, and bribery, too.
The editors of the National Intelligencer were bribed to
suppress honest George Kremer's letter." These words,
added Mr. Sample, were uttered in a " room full of gen-
tlemen."

Two persons testified that they heard a Mr. Sloan narrate
a conversation he had had with General Jackson about the
same time, in the course of which the General said that, early
one morning, Mr. Clay called on him at his lodgings, which
was quite an unusual circumstance, and after a few compli-
ments had passed, Mr. Clay observed : " General, I have no
doubt of your election now." The General stated : " I read
his heart in a moment," but replied to Mr. Clay that "if
elected, he would exercise his best judgment in executing the
duties of his office ;" that Mr. Clay, meeting with no encour-
agement, politely bid him good morning, and left the room ;
and in a few days he understood that Mr. Clay had declared
himself in favor of John Q. Adams. " This," said the Gen-
eral, "Mr. Clay will not have the hardihood to stand before
me and deny." The General further stated, by way of com-
ment, that there was no doubt, had he observed to Mr. Clay,
" If I am elected, I will do something for you," that he
(Jackson) would have been the President.

The most circumstantial statement, however, was that of
the Rev. A. Wylie, a noted clergyman of that day :

1825.] BABaAIN AND COBBUPTION CRY. 109

** WAsniNOTON', Pebmary 15th, 1828.

" When General Jackson arrived at Bunland's, on his return from Con-
gress^ in the spring of 1825, the agitation of the public mind was extreme,
from the belief then prevalent that his elevation to the presidency had
been prevented by intrigue and management on the part of Messrs. Adams
and Clay. My own mind, I confess, was not altogether imdisturbed on
this subject, feeling, as the head of a family — who, in the common course
of nature, must share after me in the destinies of our beloved country — a
deep interest in the preservation of our liberties, which I believed, from what
I knew of the history of republics, were not likely to perish in any popu-
lar convulsions, until the people themselves should first find Iheir rights in-
vaded by those in power. Feeling, fi*om the force of such considerations,
a ayropathy for Q-eneral Jackson, I was induced, though I had no previoua
personal acquaintance with him, to pay him my respects. The following
dialogue took place :

" A. * You return, General, from a boisterous campaign.'

" B. * Yes, sir.'

" A. * One in which you were not quite so successful as in some former
ones.'

" B. * My success in those to which you allude was owing to the firm-
ness of the brave men whom I had the honor to command.'

"A * It is more honorable, however, to lose than to win in such a con-
test as that lately concluded at the federal city, i^ indeed, things were
managed as has been reported.'

" B. * And who can doubt it ?'

" A, * Why, General, one would hardly suppose that such men as J.
Q. Adams and H. Clay would, in the face of the nation, engage in such a
transaction.'

" B, ' But lot any man in his senses take a view of tlie circumstances —
let him compare for instance, tlie prediction of honest George Krenier with
its accomplishment'

" A. ' But were not the talents and local situation of Mr. Clay sufficient
to justify the confident expectation of his appointment. There is, how-
ever, another circumstance, which, if true, will settle the point'

" B. ' What is that ?'

*' A. * The proposition that is said to have been made to you — is that a

fact r

" ^. * Yes, sir, such a proposition was made. I said to the bearer —
* Qro tell Mr. Clay, tell Mr. Adams, tliat if I go into that chair, I go with
clean hands and a pure heart, and tliat I had rather see them, together
with myself, engulfed to the earth's center, than to compass it by such
means.' The very next day or shortly after (which of the expressions it

110 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825,

was is not now recollected), Mr. Clay and his friends declared for Mr.
Adams.'

" Such was the conversation, as nearly as can bo recollected. It wa?
rapid, and carried on in such a tone of voice as not to be heard by many
in the room. The Messrs. Murdocka, who, I believe, were present, must
have heard a part of it. Most of the sentences were not announced in
full, but taken up and answered by the parties as soon as their drift and
bearing were understood, except the last, which was pronounced emphatic-
ally. Of this I am the more certain, as it made an impression which wasi,
on my mind, deep and vivid."

Mr. J. H. Waring furnished the following : "I was pres-
ent at one of these conversations, when the General observed,
in speaking of the late election, that ' the people had been
cheated; thai the corruptions and intrigues of Washington
had defeated the will of the people in the election of their
Presidents I waited till this branch of the conversation was
closed, and finding no palliative, left the company, which waa
large, and composed of ladies and gentlemen of the first re-
spectability, and at a public tavern. Several followed, and
his remarks became the subject of street conversation, in
which I remarked, that, highly as I was disposed to think of
the General, particularly for his military success, I could not
approve such a course ; that if corruption existed, and that
known to him, he surely should not have been the first to
greet Mr. Adams upon his elevation."

VIII. None of these remarkable utterances found their
way into print at that time ; but the poison worked in the
mind of the unsuspecting voter. Kremer kept his promise to
refer the matter to " another tribunal." " Are the charges
true ?'' he asked on the stump. " Can any one doubt it, who
considers that Mr. Clay has performed the act, which the
letter charges him with intending to do, and now holds the
office, which was proclaimed as the consideration for the ser-
vice rendered ?" Imagine nonsense of this kind repeated in
a thousand newspapers, roared from a thousand stumps, in-
sinuated in a thousand congressional appeals to rural Bim-
combe ; Mr. Adams silent meanwhile, from a sense of official

1825.] BARGAIN AND CORRUPTION CRY. Ill

decorum ; Mr. Clay silent for lack of a responsible accuser,
for lack of a tangible accusation.

IX. At length, however. General Jackson was brought
before the public as the accuser of Mr. Clay.

In the spring of 1827, a large party was dining one day
at the Hermitage, when General Jackson used language with
regard to Mr. Clay similar to that which he employed on his
way home from Washington, in 1825. Among the company
present were several gentlemen from Virginia, one of whom
was the afterward famous Carter Beverly, a member of one
the " First Families." Another gentleman present on the
the occasion was a young New Yorker, Silas M. Stilwell, af-
terward a leading New York politician, and still living
among us. Mr. Stilwell was so alarmed at the General's
" imprudence," that he ventured, after dinner, to remonstrate
with him, saying that among so large a company there was
sure to be some one who would imprudently repeat what had
been so imprudently uttered.

" Oh, you Yankees 1" exclaimed the General, laughing ;
".how suspicious you all are ! Why these are Virginia gen-
tlemen. Not one of them would repeat any thing he has
heard at my table."

Mr. Stilwell was right, however. Shortly afterward
(March 8th, 1827), the following letter, from Carter Beverly
to a friend, found its way, as such letters will, into the col-
umns of a newspaper of North Carolina :

*• I have just returaed from General Jackson's. I found a crowd of
company wiUi him. Seven Virginians were of the number. He gave mo
a most friendly reception, and urged me to stay some days longer with
him. He told me this morning, be/ore all his company, in re[)ly to a ques-
tion tliat I put to him concerning the election of J. Q. Adams to tlie pres-
idency, that ilr. Clay's friends made a proposition to his friends, that, if
they would promise, /or him [General Jackson] fwt to put Mr. Adams into
the scat of Secretary of State, Mr. Clay and his friends would, in one hour,
make him [Jackson] the President. He [General Jackson] most indig-
nantly rejected the proposition, and declared he would not compromit
himself; and unless most openly and fairly made the President by Con-
greflSj he would never receive it. He declared, that he said to them, he

112 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825

would sec the whole earth sink under tliem, before he would bargain or
intrigue for it"

This letter immediately went the round of the press,
eliciting comment exultant or indignant, according to the
political character of the editor printing it. The veracity of
the author having been called in question, he wrote to Gen-
eral Jackson to confirm his statements. General Jackson
replied at length ; and this letter also was surreptitiously
copied and printed.

General Jackson's letter to Mr. Beverly contained the
following narrative :

" Early in January, 1825, a member of Congress, of high respectability,
visited me one morning, and observed that he had a communicution he
was desirous to make to me ; that he was informed there was a great in-
trigue going on, and that it was right I should be informed of it; that he
came as a friend, and let me receive the communication as I mighty the
friendly motives through wliich it was made he hoped wouM prevent any
change of friendsliip or feeling in regard to him. To which I replied, from
his high standing as a geutleinan and member of Congress, and from his
uniform friendly and gentlemanly conduct toward myself, I could not
suppose he would make any communication to me which ho supposed was
improper. Therefore, his motives being pure, let me think as I might of
the communication, my feelings toward him would remain unaltered. The
gentleman proceeded : He said he had been informed by the friends of
Mr. Clay, tliat the friends of Mr. Adams had made overtures to them, say-
ing, if Mr. Clay and his friends would unite in aid of Mr. Adams' election,
Mr. Clay should be Secretary of State ; that the friends of Mr. Adams
were urging, as a reason to induce the friends of Mr. Clay to accede to
their proposition, that if I were elected President, Mr. Adams would be
contitmed Secretary of State (innuendo, there would be no room for Ken-
tucky) ; that the friends of Mr. Clay stated, the West did not wish to sep-
arate from the West, and if I would say, or permit any of my confidential
friends to say, that in ca5c I were elected President, Mr. Adams sliould
not be continued Secretary of State, by a complete union of Mr. Clay and
his friends, they would put an end to the presidential contest in one hour.
And he was of opinion it was right to fight such intriguers with their own
weapons. To which, in substance, I replied — that in politics, as in every
tiling else, my guide was principle; and contrary to the expressed and un-
biased will of the people, I never would step into the presidential chair ;

1825.] BARGAIN AND CORRUPTION CRY. 113

and requested him to say to Mr. Clay and his friends (for I did suppose he
had come from Mr. Clay, although he used the term of ' Mr. Clay's friends')
that before I would reach the presidential chair by such means of bargain
and corruption, I would see the earth open and swallow both Mr. Clay
and his friends, and myself with them. If they had not confidence in me
to believe, if I were elected, that I would call to my aid in the cabinet
men of the first virtue, talent^ and integrity, not to vote for me. The sec-
ond day ufler this communication and reply, it was announced in the news-
papers that Mr. Clay had come out openly and avowedly in favor of Mr.
Adams. It may be proper to observe, that, on the supposition that Mr.
Clay was not privy to the proposition stated, I may have done injustice to
him. If so, the gentleman informing me can explain.''

X. Upon obtaining a copy of this letter, Mr. Clay pub-
lished ^'a direct, unqualified and indignant denial/' and called
upon General Jackson for proof. " Such being the accusation,
and the prosecutor, and the issue between us," concluded Mr.
Clay, " I have now a right to expect that he will substan-
tiate his charges, by the exhibition of satisfactory evidence.
In that event, there is no punishment that would exceed the
measure of my offense. In the opposite event, what ought
to be the judgment of the American public, is cheerfully sub-
mitted to their wisdom and justice."

XI. General Jackson replied at great length. But the
only passage that touched the issue was tliis : " This disclo-
sure was made to me by Mr. James Buchanan."

General Jackson concluded his long address with a re-
mark which shows that he had forgotten some of the incidents
of his homeward journey, in the spring of 1825. " The ori-
gin," says he, " the beginning of this matter, was at my own
house and fireside — where, surely, a freeman may be permit-
ted to speak on public topics, without having ascribed to him
improper designs. I have not gone into the highways and
market- J )laces to proclaim my oi)inions, and in this, feel that
I have differed from some, who, even at public dinner-tables,
have not scrupled to consider me a legitimate subject for
speech and the entertainment of the company. And yet,
for this, who has heard me complain ? No one. Trusting
to the justice of an intelligent people, I have been content to

VOL. III. — 8

114 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

rely for security on their decision, against the countless as-
saults and slanders, which are sought so repeatedly to be
palmed upon them, without seeking to present myself in my
own defense ; and still less to become the ' responsible accus-
er' of Mr. Clay, or any other person."

XII. Mr. Buchanan, thus unexpectedly appealed to in
the hearing of the whole nation, found himself in an awkward
position. Locked in the memories of Mr. Clay and his friend
Letcher, was a little story, given on a preceding page, which,
though innocent enough, would have had an undesirable
effect, if told just then, upon the class of voters who were
represented by such men as the Honorable George Kremer.
On the other hand, how could Mr. Buchanan contradict bis
chief .^ In these perplexing circumstances, Mr. Buchanan
promptly took the witness stand, and completely exonerated
Mr. Clay. In a long communication to the editor of the 2/aift-
caster Jotirnaly he gave the following statement :

" The duty which I owe to the public, and to myself, now compels me
to publish to the world the only conversation which I ever held with Gen-
eral Jackson, upon the subject of the last presidential election, prior to its
tennination." . . . "On the 30th of December, 1824, (I am able to fix
the time, not only from my own recollection, but from letters which I wrote
on that day, on the day following, and on the 2d of January, 1825,) I called
upon General Jackson. Aflcr the company liad lefl him, by which I found
him surrounded, he asked me to take a walk with him ; and, while we
were walking together upon the street, I introduced tlie subject I told
him I wished to ask him a question in relation to the presidential election ;
that I knew he was unwilling to c(.>iivtjrsc upon the subject ; that, there-
fore, if he deemed the cpiestion improper, he might refuse to give it an an-
swer : that my only motive in asking it, was friendship for him, and I
trusted he would excuse me for thus introducing a subject about which I
knew he wished to be silent His reply was complimentary to myself and
accompanied with a request that I would proceed. I then stated to him
tljere was a report in circulation, that he had determined he would appoint
Mr. Adams Scicretjiry of State, in case he were elected President^ and that
I wished to ascertiin from him whether he had ever intimated such an
intention ; that he must at once perceive how injurious to his election sudi
a report might be ; that no doubt tliere were several able and ambitious
men in the country, among whom I thought Mr. Clay might be include<^

1825.] BARGAIN AND CORRUPTION CRY. 115

who were aspiring to that office ; and, if it were believed he had aU^ady
determined to appoint his chief competitor, it might have a most unhappy
effect upon their exertions, and those of their friends ; that, unless he had
so determined, I thought this report should be promptly contradicted under
his own authority. I mentioned it had already probably done him some
injury. . . . After I had finished, the General declared he had not
the least objection to answer my question; that he thought well of Mr.
Adams, but he never said or intimated that ho would, or would not^ ap-
point him Secretary of State ; that these were secrets he would keep to
himself — ^he would conceal them from the very hairs of his head ; that if
he believed his right hand then knew what his left would do on the subject
of appointments to office, he would cut it ofi* and cast it into the fire ; that
if he ever should be elected President, it would be without solicitation,
and without intrigue, on his part ; that he would then go into office per-
fectly free and untrammeled, and would be left at perfect liberty to fill the
offices of the government with the men whom, at the time, he believed to
be the ablest and the best in the country. I told him that this answer to
my question was such a one as I had expected to receive, if he answered
it at all ; and that I had not sought to obtain it for my own satisfaction.
I then asked him if I were at liberty to repeat his answer? He said that
I was at perfect liberty to do so, to any person I thought proper. I need
scarcely remark that I aflerward availed myself of the privilege. The
conversation on this topic here ended, and in all our intercourse since,
whether personally, or in the course of our correspondence. General Jack-
son never once adverted to the subject, prior to the date of his letter to
Mr. Beverly. I called upon General Jackson, upon the occasion which I
have mentioned, solely as his friend, upon my individual responsibility, and
not as the agent of Mr. Clay or any other person."

Mr. Clay and his friends exulted exceedingly, and thought
the day their own. " I could not desire," wrote Clay to a
friend, "a stronger statement from Mr. Buchanan. The
tables are completely turned upon the General. Instead of
any intrigues on my part and that of my friends, they were
altogether on the side of General Jackson and his friends."
Daniel Webster wrote to Mr. Clay : ^' I do not think that
General Jackson can ever recover from the blow which he
has received. Many persons think Buchanan's letter can-
did, I deem it otherwise. It seems to me to be labored
very hard to protect the General, as far as he could, with-
out injury to himself. Although the General's friends.

116 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

this way, however, a£fect to consider Buchanan's letter as
supporting the charge, it is possible the Gleneral himself, and
the Nashville Commentators may think otherwise, and com-
plain of Buchanan. I should expect this with some confi-
dence if they received the letter a little earlier than they
may have seen the turn which the Atlantic editors have at-
tempted to give it. As these last have pretty generally agreed
to say that the letter does support the General, the NashviUe
CommeritatorSy if they see the example in season, may be dis-
posed to follow it."

The General himself did think otherwise, though he did
not tell the public so. Long afterward he wrote to his friend
Major Lewis : " Your observations with regard to Mr. Bu-
chanan are correct. He showed a want of moral courage in
the affair of the intrigue of Adams and Clay — did not do
me justice in the expose he then made, and I am sure about
that time did believe there was a i)erfect understanding be-
tween Adams and Clay about the presidency and the Secre-
tary of State. This I am sure of But whether he viewed
that. there was any corruption in the case or not, I know not}
but one thing I do know, that he wished mc to combat them
with their own weapons — that was, let my friends say if I
was elected I would make Mr. Clay Secretary of State.
This, to me, appeared deep corruption, and I repelled it with
that honest indignation as I thought it deserved."

General Jackson made no further publication on the sub-
ject at the time. He retired from the discussion.

XIII. Mr. Clay, however, deemed it proper to vindicate
himself still more completely. He caused a circular letter to
be addressed to every member of the House of Representa-
tives who voted for Mr. Adams, restating General Jackson's
chcirgc of bargain and corruption, and asking whether he
(the member addressed) knew or believed that such a bargain
had been made.

To these questions every member but two sent prompt
replies, exonerating Mr. Clay and his friends in the most un-
equivocal and emphatic language.

1825.] BARQAINAND CORRUPTION CRY. 117

The eloquent words of Mr. Adams on the subject, uttered
when there was no longer a personal motive for uttering
them, are well known : " Prejudice and passion have charged
Mr. Clay with obtaining office by bargain and corruption.
Before you, my fellow-citizens, in the presence of our country
and Heaven, I pronounce that charge totally unfounded.
This tribute of justice is due from me to him, and I seize
with pleasure the opportunity afforded me of discharging the
obligation. As to my motives for tendering to him the de-
partment of State when I did, let that man who questions
them come forward ; let him look around among statesmen
and l^slators of this nation, and of that day ; let him then
select and name the man whom, by his preeminent talents,
by his splendid services, by his ardent patriotism, by his all-
embracing public spirit, by his fervid eloquence in behalf of
the rights and liberties of mankind, and by his long experi-
ence in the affairs of the Union, foreign and domestic, a
President of the United States, intent only upon the welfare
and honor of his country, ought to have preferred to Henry
Clay. Let him name the man, and then judge you, my fel-
low-citizens, of my motives."

XIV. General Jackson never retracted the charge of bar-
gain, nor ceased to believe in the guilt of Mr. Adams and Mr.
Clay. During the last year but one of his life, Mr. Clay
being a candidate for the presidency, he wrote the follow-
ing card for publication in the Nashville Union, and it was
published in that newspaper in May, 1844 :

" My attention has been called to various newspaper articles, referring
to a letter said to have been written by me to General Hamilton, recanting
the charge of bargain made against Mr. Clay, when he voted for Mr.
Adams in 1825.

" To put an end to all such rumors, I feel it to be due to myself to state,
that I have no recollection of ever having written such a letter, and do not
believe there is a letter from me to General Hamilton, or any one else,
that will bear such a construction. Of the charges brought against both
Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay, at that time I formed my opinion as the country
at large did — from facts and circumstances that were indisputable and con-
clusive ; and I may add, that this opinion has undergone no change.

118 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

" If Gkneral Hamilton, or any one else, has a letter from me on this
subject) all that thej have to do is to apply to him for it. As for myself I
have no secrets, and do not fear the publication of all that I have ever
written on this or any other subject*'

These are all the facts relating to the charge of bargain and
corruption which are essential to the proper understanding
of it. No charge was ever more plausible or more ground-
less, unless it be that which ruined Aaron Burr's political pros-
pects in 1801 ; and, with that exception, none was ever more
completely refuted. The refutation was as public as the ac-
cusation. Why, then, did seven-tenths of the voters of the
United States believe it ? Why did it overthrow an admin-
istration, and frustrate for ever the cherished hopes of Mr,
Clay^s friends ?

First, Mr. Clay's conduct, in giving Mr. Adams the presi-
dency, was undemocratic. This republic was set up on a
certain principle, and the spirit of that principle required
that Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, should have been elected
President by the House of Representatives, on the 9th of
February, 1825. The principle may be wrong. Time may
prove it to be wrong. Federalists then thought it wrong.
But the republican party obtained power, and for twenty-
four years retained the supremacy, because it professed a
contrary belief, because it thought the fundamental principle
of the government right, feasible, and safe. When Mr. Clay,
before the result of the popular election was known, an-
nounced to his friends in Kentucky that he could conceive of
no circumstances whatever which would induce him to sup-
port General Jackson for the presidency, he seemed to show
a defective faith in the cardinal principle of his party and of
the Constitution. His party naturally resented the defection.
As a private citizen he was not bound to support Greneral
Jackson ; but as a representative in Congress, his task was
to ascertain and to indulge the obvious desires of the people
whose representative he was.

Secondly, The voters of the United States might then be

1825.] BARGAIN AND CORRUPTION CRY. 119

divided into three classes. First, there were the voters who
were patriotic enough to take a hearty interest in the politics
of their country, and intelligent enough to be swayed by ar-
guments addressed to the understanding. Such voters are
the salt of the nation, who have preserved it — who now sus-
tain it — who will deliver it. But they were not a majority.
Then, there was a class of voters who were intelligent
enough to be swayed by arguments addressed to the under-
standing, but not patriotic enough to take an interest in poli-
tics— ^rich people, who drew large revenues from the country
they aflfected to despise — over-refined scholars, who dawdled in
Paris, when they should have been instructing their country-
men at home — dainty philosophers, who surveyed the arena
from a safe distance, and discoursed knowingly about it,
when they should have stripped and entered, and done brave
battle, showing blackguards how gentlemen can fight, and
driving them in ignominy from the ring.

But these two classes combined were not a majority in
1825. In the present happy year of our Lord, we are all of
us free and enlightened citizens, of course. But the events
with which we are now occupied occurred thirty-five years
ago, when there was an immense number of people in the
country who were not intelligent enough to be moved by
ailments addressed to the understanding. There were
voters who could feel, but not think ; listen to stump ora-
tions, but not read ; comprehend the logic of a Kremer, but
not that of Henry Clay ; who could be wheedled, and flat-
tered, and drilled by any man who was quite devoid of public
spirit, principle, and shame, but could be influenced by no
man of honor, unless he was also a man of genius. This was
the fatal class of voters. Here was the field of the managing
politician. These were the voters who were the hope of the
schemer, the despair of the patriot. They were numerous in
1825.

And so the Jacksonians had their cry for 1828. You
may be sure they kept it ringing.

Yet no cry, however telling, no enthusiasm, however wild

120 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

and general, ever carried a presidential election, nor ever
will. The union of a powerful southern interest with a re-
spectable northern one, or the union of a powerful northern
with a respectable southern interest, has been always deemed
essential to success by knowing politicians, and has always
been essential hitherto. General Jackson, as a candidate for
the presidency, was nothing in 1824, till Pennsylvania took
him up, and would have been elected in 1824, if New York
had joined Pennsylvania. New York must be brought into
line in 1828. Who will do it for him ?

CHAPTER XI.

MARTIN VAN BUREN.

Yes, Martin Van Buren, late the opponent of Jackson^
the ally of Crawford. Not De Witt Clinton, who had been
for many years General Jackson's friend and eulogist, and
who, it was supposed, cherished an expectation of succeeding
him in the presidency. Mr. Van Buren must do the work,
or it will not be done. Mr. Clinton was no politician. Mr.
Van Buren was the politician of the State.

But how are we to know any thing about a man who was
supposed to excel all men in concealing his motives and his
movements ? If one could get a peep at the pages of that
autobiography which Mr. Van Buren is preparing for publi-
cation after his death ! But as that can not be, we must
resort to other sources of information. It is something, how-
ever, to know that Mr. Van Buren feels that the story of his
life is one which will bear telling.

From long poring over all the materials accessible, I have
come to know tliat the serious charges against this gentleman
are either untrue, or less than half true. Conceding that
politics is a game, I find that he has never gnibbed nor slily
filched the stakes, but played fairly, according to the ^^ usages

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1825.] MARTIN VAN BURBN. 121

of the party/' Few men have been more hated. It is comforting
to honest blunderers to know that no man is so hated as he
who makes it a point to have no enemies, and in no man are
so many faults discovered as in him who never commits one.

Martin Van Buren, like the party of which he was a
leader, learned his principles from Thomas Jefferson, and his
tactics from Aaron Burr. This remark explains both his
career and his party's.

Columbia County in the State of New York was noted, in
the olden time, as the residence of certain opulent families.
There the Livingstons had their seat ; there the Van Rensse-
laers had large possessions ; and around the great proprietors
gathered a considerable number of connections and friends,
forming a circle who held a position in the county similar to
that of the great families in a county of England. Here, in
1782, when as yet the distinction was marked between patri-
cian and plebian, Martin Van Buren was bom. He was bom
in a log-house. His father was a worthy, illiterate man, who
cultivated a small farm, and kept a small tavem. He was a
man of such imperturbable good temper, that he never had a
quarrel in his life. His wife, we are told, was the motive-
power of the &mily — an active, polite person, fond of politics,
and uncommonly sagacious in the management of her affairs.

Martin was a bright, lively, handsome boy. He went to
the village school, and had no other educational advantages.
His familiar letters, down to a late period of his life, contain
grammatical slips. Apprenticed in his fourteenth year to
the village attorney, he was compelled, by a statute then in
force, to serve seven years before getting his license to prac-
tice. The law then made a distinction in ftivor of students
who had received a classical education — admitting them to
practice after three years, study of the law.

Before he had completx^d his term of study, we find the
youth in New York, a student in the office of William P.
Van Ness, who is still famous as the friend and second of
Colonel Bun-, in his lamentable duel with General Hamilton.
Burr was then at the height of his career, Vice-President of

122 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKBON. [1825.

the United States, and, as it was supposed, the candidate
for the successiou to the presidency. He lived in great style ;
had his country house and town house ; and dispensed in
both a lavish hospitality which he could ill afford. He never
appeared so imposing or so strong as then, when he stood on
the flowery verge of ruin. The young student, it appears^
was thrown into frequent contact with this shining figure,
who inherited from his father a passion for protdges. Burr
was struck with the beauty and talents, the diligence and en-
ergy of the country youth, and, we are told, made an impres-
sion upon his forming character, and communicated to him
the results of his experience in politics and law.

The life-maxims of the Vice-President the student cer-
tainly did not imbibe. Mr. Van Buren's private conduct
has always been correct, and though of a generous and help-
ful disposition, he early and always practiced the art of living
within his income.

Aaron Burr's politics were learned in the camp. Enam-
ored of military life, he conducted his business, after the re-
turn of peace, ui)on military principles. He liked to regard
himself as a kind of general-in-law, his clerks as aids-de-court,
and to have his orders obeyed with the silent promptness of
military discipline. When he, unhappily, turned politician,
and became the manager of a party, he adhered to the same
system. A party, he would maintain, in order to carry elec-
tions, must submit to discipline ; must execute faithfully,
and even blindly, the decrees of its leaders. Whatever is de-
cided upon in the conclaves of the legitimate and recognized
chiefs is law to the rank and file, which they must execute
to the letter, on pain of proscription.

If the Burrian Code were wTitten out, as time developed
it, it would contain, I imagine, the following propositions :

THE CODE OF THE NKW YORK POLITICIAN.

I. Politics is a Grame, tlie prizes of which are offices and contracts.

II. The Game, so far as Our Side is concerned, must be played with
strict fairness. With respect to the Other Side, all is fair in politics, as in. war.

III. In elective governments, all politics necessarily resolve themselyes

1825.] HABTIK YAK BUBEK. 123

into a contest for the high^t place. That gained, all is gained. To that
end, therefore, everything else is to be subordinate.

rV. The people are sovereign — as Queen Victoria is sovereign. Treated
always with the profoundest deference, the sovereign in nothing. In
£ngland the ministers, in America the politicians, are everything. But the
sovereign is to be humored to the top of his bent, and so led.

V. Fidelity to party is the sole virtue of the politician. He only is a
politician who would vote unhesitatingly for the Devil, if the Devil were
regularly nominated. One sin only is unpardonable — ^bolting.

VL No man must be allowed to sufifer on account of his fidelity to his
party. No matter how odious to the people he may have made himself by
his fidelity, he must be provided for the moment it can be safely done.

VII. The party door must always stand wide open for the reception of
converts from the other side, but shut rigorously against repentant rene-
gades.

Vin. Personal enmities are to be most scrupulously avoided. In deal-
ing with an opponent, he must be treated with a view to his one day be-
coming " one of us."

IX. Nothing is more fatal in politics than a premature publication of
the programme. Nothing is to be done to-day which can as well be done
to-morrow. A surprise is often half a victory.

X. Every partisan must contribute to a contest both according to his
means and his disposition ; rich, liberal men, money ; rich, mean men, in-
fluence and name ; active men, labor ; idle men, the show of their presence ;
eloquent men, eloquence ; cool, shrewd men, management and direction ;
all men, without one exception, votes.

XL Local organization is the main reliance for victory. Every ward,
town, village, hamlet, neighborliood, must have its party organiziition — its
every voter recorded and his disposition ascertained and noted down.

XIL A great State influence is the preliminary and price of national
distinction. No man can be great ia Washington who is not master of his
own State ; who is not the Clay of Kentucky, the Crawford of Georgia,
the Calhoun of South Carolina, the Webster of Mjissachusetts. On the
same principle, a man must be preeminent in his County, before he can be
powerful at Albany. Political distinction, like charity, must begin at home.
It must have an impregnable basis of locality, and expand from a fixed
center. A man who carries a County in his pocket can have what he
wants at Albany ; a man who is master of a State can have his choice of
the pickings at Washington.

XIII. When there is a conflict between the party in the whole Union
and the party iu the State, or between the party in the State and the party
in the county, a man must adhere to the behests of a majority of his own
local organization. That is to say, a private must obey the orders of his

124 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

own immediate captain, though that captain may be in mutiny against
his colonel That is the captain's afi&ir, not the private's. Thus, if Tomp-
kins is the regular nominee of the party in New York, and Crawford is
the regular nominee of the party in the Union, the New York democnt
must support Tompkins, until the party leaders in New York decide to
drop Tompkins.

XIV. It is a great art to enlist young men in the cause. Young men
work more and demand less than old men. Besides, they have fidth ; a
commodity unknown to the old politician.

XV. In a political manager many qualities are desirable, but only one
is indispensable, namely, discretion.

XVI. Many men can speak ; few can hold their tongue. Many men
can act; few know how to wait One half the politician's art consists in
silence and waiting. As that helmsman is most skillful who keeps the
ship to her course with the fewest movements of the helm, as that is the
great chess-player who wins by the fewest moves, so that poUtician will
best succeed who speaks seldom, does little, and writes never. But when
he does move, the result must be an era.

XVII. A politician once well on the course, and fit to be upon it, can
only be destroyed by liis own hands.

XVIII. Newspapers are indispensable auxiliaries. Editors are to be
unscrupulously used, but never implicitly trusted. An editor who is, in
fortune, one degree above the starvation point, is in the condition most
favorable to complete eflSciency. When an editor has become personally
powerful, or even pecuniarily independent, his utility as a party tool is
gone. If he shows the slightest symptom of restiveness or aspiration, the
very highest talent the party can command must be brouglit to bear in
effecting hw suppression.

XIX. The end and aim of the professional pohtician is to keep great
men down, and to push little men up. Little men, owing all to the wire-
puller, will be governed by him. Great men, having ideas and convictions,
are perilous, even as tools ; must be used cautiously, and never advanced
to posts of influence and honor. Indeed, it were better to abolish them
altogether.

How much of this precious system our young student
learned from its founder, and how much he gathered from
the attached disciples who surrounded him, I know not. It
is evident that some of these ideas found lodgment in his
mind, and were exemplified in his conduct. The fatal flaw
in the system is the smallness of its object. The calamity of
poor Burr was, that he had not understanding enough to

1825.] MARTIN VAN BUBBN. 126

take the idea of the new republic. He attached the puerile
European value to place, ignorant of the truth that he
who serves his country in a public oflSce is no more honorable
than he who serves it in his private shop. The superior dig-
nity of simple citizenship to any post in the gift of citizens
was never apparent to hira. He thought the servant was
greater than the master.

Mr. Van Buren returned to his native village in 1803,
twenty-one years of age, and hung out his sign-board, noti-
fying the public that Van Buren and Miller were attorneys-
at-law. Politics were the absorbing topic in Columbia county.
Mr. Van Buren was known there as a rather extreme Jeffer-
sonian, a strict constructionist, a stickler for State rights.
He acted in accordance with the Burrian code in 1804, by
voting i^ainst Colonel Burr when he ran for the governorship
of New York, in opposition to the regular republican candi-
date. He sided with the Clintons, and other devotees of
New York, against Mr. Jefferson's embargo. Mr. Van Buren,
however, during the next six years after settling in Kinder-
hook, was chiefly a zealous and laborious village lawyer,
winning his way to a wider sphere by doing the best for his
clients there.

Then he removed to Hudson, the capital of his county,
where for seven years more he toiled at the bar, dividing the
business of the countv with a federalist rival. Keen were
the encounters, it is said, between these able men. Mr. Van
Buren ever cool, vigilant, adroit, courteous, persuasive ; gain-
ing something even from defeat. His support of Mr. Daniel
D. Tompkins for the governorship, in 1808, procured him
the office of surrogate of Columbia, which he held four years,
and was then removed to make way for the restoration of the
gentleman whose removal liad created a vacancy for himself.

Thus early in New York was the execrable system in
vogue of distributing offices among victorious partisans, as
soldiers divide the spoils of conquest. Mr. Van Buren has
often been accused of introducing this odious feature of par-
tisan strife. The truth is, however, that twice he was its

126 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825

victim before ever he had held a position which placed it in
his power either to remove or to appoint. It was a fault in
him that he did not exert all his influence to put an end to a
system which tends to take government out of the hands of
honest men, and hand it over to the custody of blackguards.
He ought to have done this ; and the more, as his instincts
nwolt at such a perversion of a public trust. When himself
holding power, he has reduced the removals to the minimum
of the supposed party necessities. " I prefer an office," he
once said, " which has no patronage. When I give a man an
office, I oflfend his disappointed competitors and their friends,
and make enemies of the man I remove and his friends. Nor
am I certain of gaining a friend in the man I appoint, for, in
all probability, he exi)ected something better."

Governor Tompkins, by his election to the vice-presidency,
and still more by indulging in a habit induced by his pe-
cuniary misfortunes, was removed from the sphere of com-
petition. Then the politics of New York were resolved into
a struggle for sui)remacy between the proud, patriotic, mal-
adroit Clinton, and the imperturbable, skillful, courteous, ret-
icent Van Buren. The Republican party was divided into
two well-balanced factions, Clintonians and Bucktails ; the
Bucktails, so named from a branch of the Tammany Society
wearing the tail of a deer in their hats. The Bucktails were
reckoned the extreme democrats, the radicals. Indeed, they
were frequently styled Radicals by their opponents, and in
1824, Mr. Crawford was often called the Radical Candidate,
and the caucus that nominated him the Radical Caucus.

Dr. Hammond hits off the public chanicter of De Witt
Clinton in a sentence : " His objects were always magnificent,
his ends were always such as evinced an elevated and lofty
mind, but he did not seem to be aware of the necessity of
providing ways and means to accomplish those ends." Of his
rival, Martin Van Buren, we may observe that, whether his
objects were magnificent or the contrary, whether his ends
evinced a lofty or a common mind, he was always thoroughly

1825.] MARTIN VAN BUREN. 127

aware of the necessity of providing ways and means to ac-
complish them.

The politics of the State of New York are supposed to be
beyond the comprehension of a finite being. From the early
days of its adhesion to the Union, its politics have been in-
volved, embittered, and, I may add, ignoble, to an unexam-
pled degree. Great families, rival factions, ambitious men,
have striven and schemed, with amazing pertinacity, not so
much for the welfare and honor of the State, as for the
possession of the lucrative offices which its early wealth cre-
ated, and its early folly left open to ceaseless competition.
Besides the great prizes which the State itself held out to
successful management, there was an impression in the public
mind that the State of New York, with its largo population
and important commerce, was entitled te give a President to
the Union ; and that it only remained for some one of her
citizens to acquire a State preeminence and a respectable
national reputation, to secure the prize. The secret aim,
then, of the leading politicians seems to have been te keep
down their rivals ; while politicians in other States, particu-
larly, those who were identified with the "Virginian dy-
nasty," were supposed to have an interest in preventing any
New Yorker from over-topping his competitors.

In 1812, when Mr. Van Bureu first appeared in Albany
as a member of the legislature, that extraordinary man, Do
Witt Clinton, had just been put in nomination for the pres-
idency against Mr. Madison. He expected support from two
classes of citizens ; first, those who were opposed to the war ;
secondly, those who thought Mr. Madison ill-fitted to conduct
the war with success. Mr. Van Buren, in accordance with
the principles of the New York democracy, supported Mr.
Clinton, and contributed, j)erhap8, more than any other man
to the respectable vote which Clinton received. In 1816, Gov-
ernor Tompkins was the choice of New York for the presi-
dency, and Mr. Van Buren adhered to the decree of his party
He went to Washington to electioneer for Mr. Tompkins,
but ascertaining that the ex-governor could not obtiiin the

128 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

nomination of the Congressional Caucus, he supported his
claims coldly, and offered no serious opposition to those of
Mr. Crawford.

Mr. Van Buren inherited from his father a temper that
nothing could ruffle, and he possessed an unrivaled talent for
holding his tongue. His principles and his disposition equally
impelled him to be courteous to all men. Compelled by his
position in the republican ranks to be generally in opposition
to Governor Clinton, he conducted the warfare, according to
Dr. Hammond, on such principles and in such a manner, that
Clinton himself, a few days before his death, confessed that
he had no just ciiuse of complaint against him. The hasty
private letters of Mr. Van Buren which were surreptitiously
published, some years ago, by Mr. William L. Mackenzie, do
not reveal to us the dishonest politician, nor the self-seeker
regardless of right and jwojiriety, and bent on gaining ad-
vancement by all means, fair and foul. They show us, on the
contrar}-, a quiet, jovial, gentlemanlike, vigilant lawyer con-
ducting the affairs of a party in accordance with the usages
which he found established ; and conducting them with a
nice regard to the claims of partisans and a real concern for
the pul)lic interest. The great statesman, intent only on the
public good, identified only with great principles and great
measures, they do not exhil)it to us.

Mr. Van Buren has been strikingly faithful to his friends.
It is honorable to him that when Col. Burr returned home in
1812, ruined past hope, and so odious that a man incurred
odium who was known to be his friend, Mr. Van Buren,
then just entering public life, not only called upon him, but
received him into his own house as a guest. It is possible
that the subsequent zeal of Mr. Van Buren for the abolition
of imprisonment for debt, and his later efforts to secure pen-
sions for revolutionary officers, were, in some degree, stimu-
lated by his knowledge that Buit had a personal interest in
both those measures. In the same spirit he came powerfully
to the rescue of his friend, Governor Tompkins, when the
Governor, owing to his careless or unskillful book-keepiug|

1825.] HABTIK VAN BUBEN. 129

was in danger of being both ruined and disgraced as a public
defiEtulter. Mr. Van Buren's speech on the Governor's behalf
occapied nearly two days. Dr. Hammond says : " It was
one of the most ingenious, able, and eloquent speeches I ever
heard. It has been the custom of the opponents of this
gentleman, both in the State and nation, to give him credit
for great tact and management as a mere politician, and to
deny that he possesses those high and exalted powers of mind
which always distinguish the great statesman and the com-
manding parliamentary orator. But any fair-minded man,
who has heard Mr. Van Buren on great and important ques-
tions in our legislative assemblies, whether state or national,
will not hesitate to award him the meed of high merit."

One of Mr. Van Buren's public acts claims our attention
for a moment, before proceeding to his agency in the presi-
dential campaign of 1828. In the New York Constitutional
Convention of 1821, he had the courage and wisdom to insist
that true democracy does not require the manifest absurdity
of what is falsely called " universal suffrage." He contended
that while the path leading to the dignity of voter should
be open equally to all men, yet every man aspiring to that
rank in the commonwealth should give some evidence of fit-
ness to discharge its obligations understandingly. He ad-
hered to the old world qualification, it is true, which is to be
regretted ; but no other had then been thought of. A voter,
he maintained, should at least be a householder. He depre-
cated the •* abandoning of all qualifications, and throwing
open the ballot-boxes to every body — demolishing, at one
blow, the distinctive character of an elector, the proudest and
most invaluable attribute of freemen."

Some of the reasons given by Mr. Van Buren for his
course on this question have a particular interest for the
inhabitants of the city of New York :

" Among the many evils," said he, " which would flow from a wholly
unrestricted suflfrage, the following would be the most injurious, viz. :

" Ihrst, It would give to the city of New York about twenty-five thou-
BUid votes, while under the liberal extension of the right on the choice

vou itt, — 9

130 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

of delegates to this convention, she has but about thirteen or fourteen
thousand. The character of tlio increased number of votes would be such
as would render their elections rather a curse than a blessing, which would
drive from the polls all sober-minded people ; and such, he was happy to
find, was the united opinion, or nearly so, of the delegation from that
city.

" Secondly. It would not only be injurious to them, but that injury
would work an equally great one to the western and northern parts of the
State. It was the present consolation of our hardy sons of the West that
for their toils and their suQTerings in reducing the wilderness to cultiva-
tion, they were cheered by the conviction, not only tliat they would be
secure in the enjoyment of their dearly bought improvements, in conse-
quence of their representation in the legislature, but that any increase of
that representation gave them a still greater influence tliere. As far as it
respected this State, their march and the march of empire kept pace.
This arose from the circumstance of the representation in the State being
founded on the number of electors, and because almost every man in a
new county was an elector, under the existing and contemplated qualifi-
cations ; while in the old counties, and especially in cities, there were great
numbers who would not be embraced by them. So great was this effect
that the city of New York alone would, under tlie vote of the other day,
have become entitled to additional voters, over those who voted at the
election of delegates, equal, or nearly so, to the whole number of votes of
Ontario or Genesee. The direct consi^quence of which would be, that the
additional representation of fourteen members, which are next year to be
distributed among the counties, would, instead of going principally to the
West, be surrendered to the worst population of the old counties and
cities.

^^And Tliirdly. The door will be entirely closed against retreat, what-
ever might be our after-conviction, founded on oxporience, as to the evil
tendency of this extended suffrage. The just equilibrium between the
rights of those who have, and tliose who have no interest in the govern-
ment, could, when once thus surrendered, never be regained, except by
the sword.

Fancy the effect of this passage read aloud in that classic
retreat of the Unterrificd, known to the long-suffering sons
of Manhattan by the name of the Pewter Mug I

Whether the course of events since these words were
uttered has or has not demonstrated their wisdom, the same
sons of Manhattan are competent to decide. The particuloi
qualification proposed by Mr. Van Buren is one which the

1825.] MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 131

world has outlived. The important question, which will be-
come more pressing every year, is, whether there should be
any .qualification ; whether the sufirage system, which ex-
cludes all women, however wise, however taxed, and admits
all men, however ignorant and irresponsible, is, or is not, one
upon which this republic can achieve the bright career which
lies, in possibility, before it.

In 1825, and the three years following, Mr. Van Buren
reaped the reward of many labors and of much patient wait-
ing. His hand was full of ccu'ds, and all his cards were
trumps. He had achieved such a singularly advantageous
position, that whatever happened, he was nearly sure to gain.
One after another, the men who might have stood between
him and the objects of ambition had been removed either by
death or by age, or by the gratification, through his instru-
mentality, of their political desires. All but Clinton. Clin-
ton was Governor again, and would be nothing but Governor
or President. Mr. Van Buren was a Senator of the United
States, and was elected to a second term in 1827, by a great
majority. The sudden death of Governor Clinton, in 1828,
removing from the scene the only man in New York that
could be considered Mr. Van Buren's competitor, left him
undisputed master of the situation. Indeed, the two men
had ceased, for the time, to be rivals or opponents, for both
had resolved upon supporting General Jackson for the presi-
dency.

Along with Mr. Randolph, and the other strict construc-
tionists in Congress, Mr. Van Buren had early taken sides
against the administration of Mr. Adams, and maintaincjd the
attitude of opposition to the end. In his letter accepting
the senatorship in 1827, he said : " It shall be my constant.
and zealous endeavor to protect the remaining rights reserved
to the States by the federal constitution ; to restore those of
which they have been divested by construction ; and to j)ro-
mote the interests and honor of our common country." Or,
to use the language of Dr. Hammond, " Mr. Van Buren and
his friends had put all their political capital at stake against

132 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

the Adams administration/' And this involved the support
of Greneral Jackson in 1828 ; for there was no other man in
the nation who had the remotest chance of carrying the day
against the administration. True, General Jackson had gone
all lengths for a protective tariff. True, General Jackson
had voted for some of the odious internal improvements.
Still, he was a Southern man ; and, perhaps, his opinions on
the vexed questions were not as unchangeable as his will. In
any case, there was no choice of men. Jackson, and Jackson
only, could turn out Adams, and introduce a new dynasty,
a new order of succession.*

* There was one difficulty in the waj of Mr. Van Boren's support of General
Jackson which wo must briefly notice. The support of the General aeomed to
invoWc the necessity of electing Mr. Calhoun a second time to the Tice-preai-
dency, which would greatly enhance the prestige of his name. Mr. Calboaa ma,
moreover, the man abhorred of Crawford, Mr. Van Buren'a some time politioel
chie£ A letter, published some years later, by Duff Green, in his United SUUet
Telegraphy and vouched for by him, explains with apparent truth, bow th\a ob-
jection was removed :

" A party," says this writer, "of certain individuals in Now Toric wished to
run De Witt Clinton for Vice-President Clinton opposed it on the ground that
Calhoun and himself were of the same party, and nothing could be gained bj it
The same individuals or party still pressed him to become a candidate on the
Jackson ticket Clinton still urged that the project w&s not advisable^ and
would bo prejudicial to the party and his own &mo. After much peraoaaioii, he
agreed that if Tennessee would nominate him, it would show that Jackaon wai
in favor of it, and that New York might follow. Mr. Balch was made the in-
strument to sound General Jackson. Crawford was written to ; Balch gets the
answer ; enclo.<K)d it to General Jackson, with a suggestion that Calhoun ooght
or might be dropped, and Clinton taken up. In a few days General Jadcson
called on Mr. Balch, and mtumed the letter of Crawford, stating to Mr. Baloh
that ho at first felt like investigating the matter, but upon reflection concluded to
leave it to time ; that he was sorry ho had scon the letter; that Calhoun had
been his friend, to all appearances, for the last ten years, and he felt disposed to
rely on him as such. He wished all political differences put to an end, and not
to be revived, as no good could grow out of them. He was willing the oonntij
might settle these matters, and all such, as it had done. That he never deeertod
his friends, and could in no way connive at the proposal of taking up Clinton and
putting do>^'n Calhoun ? That he thought highly of Clinton, and had no doubt
but the country, at a proper time, would also do justice to Mr. Clintoo. Thus
spoke Jackson. Mr. Balch says, 'I immediately wrote to Mr. Van Buren an ao*
count of the interview. I was fully persuaded of the strong attachment of Qeo-

•^

1825.] MARTIN VAN BUREN. 133

The resolution of Mr. Van Buren to support General
Jackson was formed as early, probably, as the year 1825, but
he kept that resolution to himself, and enjoined the same ret-
icence upon his confidants. Dr. Hammond discourses amus-
ingly upon this feature of the campaign. " Never," he says,
" was a political party in a better state of discipline than
was the Van Buren or democratic party in New York during
the years 1826, '27 and '28. A sense of common danger,
which was entertained by the leaders of that party, probably
had a great effect in inducing them to act in concert. A
large majority of the party were opposed both to Mr. Adams
and Mr. Clinton. They had no confidence either in the
State or national executive. They wished to change both ;
but in order to effect that change, it was necessary so to con-
duct their political operations as to draw into their support
a considerable portion of the friends of the governor, and es-
pecially of the democratic friends of Mr. Adams. I hazard
little, with those who were at that day in active life, and
knew the state of public 'feeling, in asserting that had the
question been taken between Mr. Adams and General Jack-
son at any time during the first two years of the presidency
of the former, a very large majority of the people would have
declared for Mr. Adams. Hence, Mr. Van Buren and his
friends enjoined most rigidly on all their adherents not to
commit themselves on the presidential question. They averred
that their sole object was to preserve the entire union of the
democratic party, and that when that party at the proper
time should announce its preference for either of the presi-
dential candidates, they would in good faith endeavor to carry
into effect its determination. The democratic newspapers
(and especially the Albany Argus) were conducted with
great skill and address in accordance with this scheme. So

eral Jackson to Calhoun. I therefore advised Van Buren to give up the idea of
Clinton, and support Calhoun ; for if they eucceodod in electing Clinton Vice-
President, that be felt assured that Jackson would make Calhoun Secretary of
State, and Van Burcn's prospects would be blasted forever.' "

134 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825.

rigidly were these injunctions of what has been called the
Albany regency enforced, that several individuals, fascinated
with the personal character of General Jackson, who openly
declared their preference for him, were at least silently re-
buked and partially put in political Coventry by the same
class of men who had themselves at that time fully deter-
mined that General Jackson was to be their candidate. These
sagacious politicians foresaw that if at that early day the
General was proclaimed as the democratic candidate, so for-
midable would the opposition then be that all expectations
of success (and the expectation of success many times se-
cures it) would be annihilated. Therefore it was that the
regency preached and practiced the doctrine of non-commit-
talism.

" After the reelection of Mr. Van Buren to the United
States Senate, more freedom was tolerated in the expression
of opinions favorable to Jackson and adverse to Adams.

" Another circumstance which contributed to strengthen
the Jackson party in New York was, that at the commeace-
ment of the administration of Mr. Monroe, General Jackson
had written to him a letter in which he expressed an opin-
ion, that inasmuch as the points of difference between the
federal and i-epublican parties had ceased to exist, the period
had anived when the national appointing power might select
its officers from that class of citizens personally the most de-
serving, and who were best calculated to discharge their
official duties for the public benefit. This sentiment was
extremely agreeable to the federalists of this State, and highly
lauded by them. From the year 1801 down to the present
time, with the exception of some insignificant appointments
made by Mr. Monroe and Mr. Adams, the federalists, as a
party, had been, by the national executive, excluded from par-
ticipation in the national patronage. Many federalists, judg-
ing from the sentiments contained in General Jackson's letter
to Mr. Monroe, entertained an opinion that if the former
could be placed at the head of the general government, this

1825.] MARTIN VAN BUREN. 135

system which they denominated proscription, would be abol-
ished/'

It was not until late in 1827 that the democratic party
was permitted to come out plainly for General Jackson.
Then, all the Van Buren papers spoke in concert. "The
effect," says Dr. Hammond, " was prodigious. All the ma-
chinery, the construction of which had for two years put in
requisition the skill and ingenuity of Mr. Van Buren and his
friends at Albany, was suddenly put in motion, and it per-
formed to admiration."

When Congress met, Mr. Van Buren exerted his influence,
and successfully exerted it, to secure the election to the
Speakership of Mr. Andrew Stephenson of Virginia, a con-
nection by marriage of his own family, and an opponent of
the Adams administration. Ere long, Mr. Van Buren was
announced as the Jackson candidate for the Governorship of
New York. Observe his " cards." He was already a Senator
of the United States. If defeated in the contest for the gov-
ernorship, he was still a senator. And whether defeated or
not, it was well " understood," that he was to be the Secre-
tary of State in the administration of General Jackson.

That Mr. Van Buren was to hold this position in the cab-
inet of General Jackson was as well known to the chosen few
at Albany in the summer of 1828, as it was to the public in*
the spring of 1829. So avers Dr. Hammond. I may add,
that it was as well known to General Jackson in the summer
of 1828, as it was in the spring of 1829. Precisely how, or
where, or through whose agency, this "understanding" was
effected, I can only guess. Senator Eaton of Tennessee, I
think, could have given us tlie most exact information on
this subject. He w^as the traveling member of the Jackson-
ian party in those years.

John Binns, in his blunt, straightforward way, relates a
little incident, which is worth noting in this connection.
" Soon after General Jackson's nomination (for the campaign
of 1828), General Eaton, then the special confidant and polit-
ical friend of General Jackson, and one with whom I had had

136 LIFE OF. ANDREW JACKBON. [1825.

some previous personal intercourse, called on me, with the
declaration that he was authorized by General Jackson to
assure me that, ' if I would advocate the election of the Gen-
eral, when he was elected President, I should, if I thought
well of it, remove to Washington City, become the editor and
proprietor of the government newspaper, and do as much as
I chose of the public printing ; or, if I did not wish to leave
Philadelphia, as much of the public printing as I desired
should bo forwarded to Philadelphia for me to do, at the gov-
ernment prices/ I assured General Eaton that 'I was as
grateful as any man could be for the distinguished services
which General Jackson had rendered the United States, bat
that, after what I had written and j)ubli8hed in relation to
the General, I could not, from self-respect, give myself the
lie direct, as I must do, if I were now to advocate his elec-
tion.' "<*

Perhaps, in the course of this journey. General Eaton gave
Mr. Van Burcn a call. Indeed, the two senators sat very
near one another in the Senate Chamber, the lobbies of which
afforded convenient nooks for confidential intercourse.

I do not believe that General Jackson "authorized" Eaton
to make that corrupt offer to Mr. Biuus. The truth is, that
General Jackson gave up the conduct of the campaign to a
few friends, of whom Senator Eaton was the traveling, and
Major Lewis the home confederate. Precisely what was done
by his friends in his name and for his cause, General Jackson
knew and did not know. He must have winked occasionally.
He develoi)ed a fine winking talent. He could also look away
and not see what was going on.

The General, it api>ears, became conversant, during these
years, with New York politics, and liked the strict military
way in which the party was governed in that State. " I am
no politician," he said one day to a young New Yorker, " but
if I were a politician, I would be a New York politician."

* BocoUoctioiia of tho Lifb of John Binna, p. 253.

-?vr jA.^';ss.C'n.

1828.] THB OAMPAIGN OF 1828. 137

CHAPTER XII.

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1828.

The friends of the administration were not alarmed. Mr.
Clay himself was not. Mr. Adams, if less confident than his
sanguine Secretary of State, expected a reflection. Mr.
Webster, then on the most cordial terms with Henry Clay,
and a pillar of the administration, felt sure of success as late
as the spring of 1827. Mr. Webster, like most of the edu-
cated inhabitants of Boston, knew nothing of the people of
the United States, and was generally wrong in his political
prophecies.

To his friend, Jeremiah Mason, who was battling in New
Hampshire with editor Isaac Hill, Mr. Webster, in April,
1827, expressed a deliberate confidence that the people would
sustain the administration. " A survey of the whole ground,"
he wrote, " leads me to believe confidently in Mr. Adams' re-
election. I set down New England, New Jersey, the greater
part of Maryland, and, perhaps, all Delaware, Ohio, Ken-
tucky, Indiana, Missouri, and Louisiana for him. We must
then get votes enough in New York to choose him, and I
think can not fail of this. It is possible we may lose four
votes in Kentucky, but I do not expect it. At the same
time it is not impossible that Pennsylvania may go for Mr.
Adams."

So much for prophecy. But the acutest politicians are
at fault when they predict the result of a popular election
two years, two weeks, two days distant. Mr. Van Buren
himself, we are assured by Dr. Hammond, was confident of a
reelection in 1840.

The campaign of 1828 opened with a stunning flourish of
trumpets. Louisiana, like New York, was a doubtful and
troublesome State. Its scattering vote of 1824 it was highly
desirable to concentrate in 1828 ; and it was resolved that

138 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1828.

enthusiasm should effect in the southwest what management
was accomplishing in New York. In 1827 the legislature of
Louisiana, which had refused to recognize General Jackson's
services in 1815, invited him to revisit New Orleans, and
unite with them in the celebration of the eighth of January,
1828, on the scene of his great victory. General Jackson,
who in 1804 would not call upon his friend Jeffereon, lest he
should seem to be a suitor for the governorship of Louisiana ;
General Jackson, who in 1824 declined to visit Boston, though
assured that the visit would secure his election to the presi-
dency ; General Jackson, who in 1826 would not go to the
Harrodsburg Springs, for fear the object of the journey
should be misinterpreted, accepted the invitation of the legis-
lature of Louisiana. His blood was up. He was resolute to
win. Congress had been calling up the forgotten affair of
the Six Militia men, and the case of John Woods, and the
arrests at New Orleans. The Eighth of January should
reply.
/ The reception of General Jackson at New Orleans on this

occasion was, I presume, the most stupendous thing of the
kind that had ever occurred in the United States, and has
been surpassed since that day only by the reception of the
orator Kossuth in the city of New York. Delegations from
States as distant as New York were sent to New Orleans to
swell the eclat of the demonstration. " The steamer Court-
land,'* says an eye-witness, "with the committee appointed
to meet the guest of Louisiana, left New Orleans on the
twenty-eighth of December. It was pleasing to observe, as
we proceeded on our way, that the enthusiasm kindled in the
city was felt intensely in distiint parts of the State. In Con-
cordia, as well as in the city of New Orleans, the people knew
their deliverer ; every heart palpitated at the sound of his
name, and the anticipation of his arrival. We reached
Natchez on the first of January, an auspicious day, and preg-
nant with glorious remembrances. That city was filled with
a vast multitude, impatiently waiting for our guest. On
the morning of the fourth, the day he had fixed for reaching

1828.] THE CAMPAIGN OF 1838. 139

Natchez, the heights on the river were filled with spectators ;
all eyes were turned upon the stream in breathless expecta-
tion. At last a white smoke, curling like a mist over the
tops of the cypress trees, proclaimed the approach of the
Pocahontas. The surrounding hills rang with loud huzzas,
greeting their arrival. A procession along the picturesque
margin of the river ; a dinner, at which ardent devotion was
guided and tempered by decorum and politeness, and a ball,
at which the beauty of Mississippi was exhibited with all
that taste could add to natural charms and native grace ; the
enthusiasm of the whole population, the shouts of the multi-
tude, proclaimed that Louisiana and Mississippi were united
by ennobling sympathies.

*^ At twelve o'clock at night, General Jackson reembarked
in the Pocahontas; some hours afterward, the committee of
Louisiana followed in the Courtland; and then both boats,
united together, descended the stream, checking occasionally
their velocity, as it was intended to reach New Orleans on
the eighth.

" At last the morning of the auspicious day dawned upon
New Orleans. A thick mist covered the water and the land,
and at ten o'clock began to rise into clouds ; and when the
sun at last appeared, it served only to show the darkness of
the horizon, threatening a storm in the nortli. It was at
that moment the city became visible, with its steeples and
the forest of masts rising from the waters. At that instant,
too, a fleet of steamboats was seen advancing toward the
Pocahontas, which had now got under way, with twenty-four
flags waving over her lofty decks. Two stupendous boats,
lashed together, led the van. The whole fleet kept up a con-
stant fire of artillery, which was answered from several sliips
in the harbor and from the shore. General Jackson stood
on the back gallery of the Pocahontas, his head uncovered,
conspicuous to the wliole multitude, which literally covered
the steamboats, the shipping, and the surrounding shores.
The van which bore the revolutionary soldiers and the rem-
nant of the old Orleans battalion passed the Pocahontas,

140 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1828.

and, rounding to, fell down the stream, while acclamations
of thousands of spectators rang from the river to the woods,
and back to the river.

'^ In this order the fleet, consisting of eighteen steamboats
of the first class, passed close to the city, directing their
course toward the field of battle. When it was first descriedi
some horsemen only, the marshals of the day, had reached
the ground. But in a few minutes it seemed alive with a
vast multitude, brought thither on horseback and in carriageSi
and poured forth from the steamboats. A line was formed by
Generals Planch{3 and Labaltat, and the committee repaired
on board the Pocahontas^ in order to invite the General to
land and meet his brother-soldiers and fellow-citizens. I
have no words to describe the scene which ensued."

The rest can be imagined — the landing at the levee of the
city, the procession, the banquet, the scenes at the theater.
"Mrs. Jackson," adds the chronicler, "who, with several
ladies from Tennessee, accompanied her husband, was met
and waited upon, the moment she landed from the Pocahon-
tas, by Mrs. Marigny, and other respectable ladies, who, after
having congratulated her on her safe arrival, conducted her
to Mr. Marigny's house, where refreshments had been pre-
pared, and where she received the salutations of a large and
brilliant circle." The festivities continued four days, at the
expiration of which the General and his friends reembarked
on board the PocaJiontas, and returned homeward.

The campaign now set in with its usual severity. During
the rest of the year, the country rang Avith the names of Jack-
son AND Calhoun, Adams and Rush. The contest, during
this final year, became one of personalities chiefly. Against
Mr. Adams, every possible change was rung upon Bargain and
Corruption. He was accused of federalism, of haughtiness,
of selfishness, of extravagant expenditures, and, 0, crime of
crimes ! of polluting the White House, that sacred abode of
purity and wisdom, with a billiard table t Mr. Adams' son
and secretary had actually bought, out of his allowancOi &
billiard table, and set it up in an apartment of the presiden-

1828.] THB CAMPAIGN OF 1828. 141

tial mansion. Mr. Adams was further accused of being a
Unitarian ; upon which a statement appeared in the papers,
declaring that the President attended and was a trustee of a
Presbyterian Church, to which he had contributed eighteen
hundred dollars. It was charged against him, that the East
Boom, in which his excellent mother had hung clothes to dry,
was now furnished with such appalling extravagance, that
country members were quite overcome at the spectacle ; and
could only relieve their minds by quoting Cicero against Cat-
aline — 0 tempora, 0 mores !

General Jackson was accused of every crime, offense, and
impropriety that man was ever known to be guilty of. His
whole life was subject to the severest scrutiny. Every one of
his duels, fights, and quarrels was narrated at length. His
connection with Aaron Burr was, of course, a favorite theme.
The eleven military executions which he had ordered, begin-
ning with John Woods and ending with Arbuthnot and Am-
brister, were all recounted. John Binns, of Philadelphia,
issued a series of hand bills, each bearing the outline of a
coffin-lid,upon which was printed an inscription recording the
death of one of these victims. Campaign papers were first
started this year. One entitled, We the People^ and another,
called the Anti-Jackson Expositor^ were particularly prom-
inent. The conduct of General Jackson in Florida during
his governorship of that Territory was detailed. The pecu-
liar circumstances of his marriage, long forgotten, were par-
aded with the grossest exaggerations, to the sore grief of good
Mrs. Jackson, and to the General's unspeakable wrath. The
mother, too, of General Jackson was not permitted to rest
quietly in her grave. Mrs. Jackson once found her husband
in tears. Pointing to a paragraph reflecting on his mother,
he said, " Myself I can defend ; you I can defend ; but now
they have assailed even the memory of my mother."

To refute the charges against the General, the famous
Tennessee " White-washing Committee" was called into ex-
istence. Major William B. Lewis suggested the measure, and
was one of the most laborious members of the committee.

142 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1828.

He has also favored the readers of these pages with a brief
account of its origin and transactions. " The flood-gates of
abuse," writes Major Lewis, " were not only opened upon
him, but the most infamous slanders were published in the
administration papers against his wife, one of the most be-
nevolent and pious of women. With a view of defending
the chai-acters of both against the attacks of his enemies, his
friends at Nashville siiw the necessity of taking immediate
steps; and a public meeting of the citizens wjis, therefore,
called (at my instance) for the purpose of taking into con-
sideration the best method of accomplishing this object. At
this meeting the following preamble and resolutions were
adopted :

" * This meeting believes the present to be a conjuncture, when every
honest and jii?t exertion should be employed to promote the election of
that great and honest man, Andrew Jackson, to the presidency of the
United Stat(^s, and that to make those exertions moat eflicient, a commit-
tee should be organized, whose duty it will be to frame and publish an
address to the j)coplo of the United States, such as may be best adapted
to cflfoctuato the great object in view, and wliose further duty it will be, as
occasion may require, and so far as within their power, ' to detect and
arrest fal<*ehood and calumny, by tlie publication of truth, and by furnish-
ing either to the public or to individuals, whether alone or associated, full
and correct information upon any matter or subject within tlieir knowl-
edge or power,' properly connected with the fitness or qualification of
Andrew Jackson to fill the oflicc of President of the United States.

** * Resolved^ therefore^ Tiiat John Overton, Robert C. Foster, George
W. Campbell, William L. Brown, John Catron, Robert Whyte, Thomas
Clail)orno, Joseph Philips, Daniel GnUiam, William B. Lewis, Jcs<e Whar-
ton, Edward Ward, Alfred Balch, Felix Robertson, John Shelby, Josiah
Nichol, William White, and John McNairy, be selected to compose the
committee/

"This committee was composed of some of the ablest
and most distinguished citizens of the State, whose duty it
was, as stated above, to vindicate the reputation of General
Jackson against the malignant attacks and foul calumnies
of his enemies. With the character and standing of most of
these gentlemen you are well acquainted. I will remark,

1828.] THE CAMPAIQN OF 1828. 143

however, that John Overton, the chairman, George W.
Campbell, W. L. Brown, Kobert White, and John Catron,
had all occupied seats upon the bench of the Court of Ap-
peals, the highest court in the State, and the last named is
now one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United
States. So well (ind so eflSciently did this committee dis-
charge its duty to the General and the country, that it soon
received from the enemies of General Jackson the cognomen
of the * White-washing Committee.' It successfully and
triumphantly defended his character against the charges of
inhumanity and a blood-thirsty disposition, in having had six
militia men shot, during the last war with England, for de-
sertion, and of being concerned with Col. Burr in his designs
against the United States. Nor was it less successful in de-
fending the reputation of Mrs. Jackson against the attacks
upon her by those demons in human shape.

" One of the newspapers which took the lead in these in-
famous attacks upon the reputation of Mrs. Jackson was the
National Journal^ published in Washington, which was said
to be the especial organ of President Adams himself. So
well satisfied of this was General Jackson, at least, that he
refused to call on Mr. Adams (as it was thought in courtesy
he should have done) when he reached Washington in Feb-
ruary, 1829. He thought that a man who would permit a
public journal, which was under his control, to assail the
reputation of any respectable female, much less the wife of
his rival and competitor for the first oflice in the world, was
not entitled to the respect of any honorable man, and he
would not, therefore, go near him. This was the reason why
he did not call upon him, and not from a want of magnanim-
ity or sense of what was due to the chief magistrate of the
nation, as it was alleged by his enemies at the time/'

It was natural, I may add, for General Jackson to hold
Mr. Adams responsible for the publications of the National
Journal. He supposed, of course, that Mr. Adams exerted
the control over the newspapers that were especially devoted

144 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1828.

to him, that he himself did over the Jackson papers of Ten-

Major Lewis docs not allude to his own labors as a mem-
ber of the committee. To him was assigned the congenial task
of defending liis friend, Mrs. Jackson. He traveled to the
lower country in search of evidence, and devoted half the year
to this one object ; collecting an amount of testimony in sup-
port of Judge Overton's statement (previously given in these
page^) that gave it general belief. Mrs. J^kson testified,
in the strongest terms, her gratitude to Major Lewis for this
great service.

With regard to the other labors of the Wliite-washing
Committee, they doubtless had their effect. But there was a
paragraph of two or three lines, which was set afloat in the
Jackson newspapers in the course of the summer, that prob-
ably did as much as all their publications, to remove the im-
pression made upon tlie average voter by the case of the six
militia men and the executions in Florida. This was the
paragraph :

" Cool and Deliberate Murder. — Jackson coolly and deliberately pot
to death upward of fifieon hundred British troops on the 8th of January,
1815, on the plains below New Orleans, for no other offense than tliat they
wished to sup in the city that night."

This was a crushing and blinding argument. For those
who could not read it, there was another, which was legible
to the most benighted intellect. In every village, as well aa
upon the corners of many city streets, was erected a Hickory
Pole. Many of these poles were standing as late as 1845, rot-
ten mementoes of the delirium of 1828.

One feature of this campaign may remind some readers of
recent presidential elections. Threats of a certain character
were used to intimidate northern voters ; or, rather, such
threats were said to have been uttered. The following par-
agraph from the New York American reads more like 1860
than 1828 ; but it appeiired in July of the latter year :

" Jacksonism. — ^It is distinctly charged upon Mr. Senator Rowan of
Kentucky, that he has declared, if Mr, Adams he retleded President^ ih%

1828.] THE CAMPAIGN OF 1828. 145

Congress wHl he the last that will ever sit in the United States. The last
lUchmond Whig imputes to Mr. Speaker Stevenson^ a sentiment nearly
similar, expressed publicly, in these words — * that if General Jackson was
not elected, the Union would be dissolved,^ The same Virginia journal
quotes as the opinion * of a Judge of the General Court of Virginia, at Nor-
folk,' that ' if Mr. Adams was not put out by the voice of the people^ they
wmdd he willing to put him out by forced When to these sentiments of
graye senators and judges, are added the inflammatory resolutions and pro-
ceedings of certain districts in South Carolina, the open invitations to a
separation of the Union contained in some Jackson journals of that State —
and when it is found that in every instance these sentiments are indulged,
this most flagitious tone is held by partisans of General Jackson, and by
tllem only, can it be unfair, unreasonable, or unjust, to impute the doctrines
thus broached, as the doctrines of the party ?"

The same paper published the only editorial article that
I have found which condemned General Jackson on the ground
that he was a slave-holder. It was common then to speak of
Q^neral Jackson as the " Farmer of Tennessee," but the edi-
tor of the American objected to the phrase. " Let us see/' he
remarked, " what is the Farmer of Tennessee ? Possessing a
fine and extensive domain with a vast mansion, not a farm-
house, but The Hermitage, surrounded by a host of slaves —
this farmer of Tennessee eats the bread of idleness and lux-
ury. The whip of the overseer quickens the servile labors
whereby he — one of those privileged boings, born to consume
the fruits of the earth, is sustained — and men, immortal as
himself, are daily ' driven a field,' like oxen ; and their
strength taxed to the uttermost, perhaps, that he, their mas-
ter, may add another race-horse to his stud, or stake an ad-
ditional bet upon a favorite game-cock. Of personal labor,
the hands of this ^ farmer,' are innocent ; for, where slavery
exists, labor is held to degrade the white man."

This article, however, was excej^tional. The dread sub-
ject entered not directly into the contest. The dividing
questions between north and south were questions relating to
the tariff.

This was a busy summer with the politicians, minor and
major. Isaac Hill, editor of the Nexo Hampshire Patrioty

VOL. m. — 10

146 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1828.

was doing zealous battle for Jackson and Calhoun in a State
that had not yet become democratic. He was a sore thorn in
the side of Ezekiel Webster and Jeremiah Mason during this
year of fury. If one Nicholas Biddle could have looked a
year or two into the future, he would have thought a million
dollars a moderate price for the head of Isaac Hill ; for it was
Isaac who dropped the spark, that lighted the match, that
fired the train, that exploded the magazine, that blew up a
Bank in which Mr. Biddle had a considerable interest.

Two other gentlemen, then unknown to fame, were ex-
tremely active this summer. They were citizens of Kentucky,
and one of them was the editor of a newspai>er. Both had
been near friends and warm partisans of Henry Clay. One
was a relative of Mr. Clay, and the other had been a tutor in
his family. But both were now striving, with all their might
and all their ingenuity, in behalf of General Jackson — organ-
izing the very militia companies into electioneering clubs. One
of these gentlemen was named Amos Kendall ; the other,
Francis P. Blair.

At Washington, General Duff Green was publishing his
United States Telcgra-ph, the central organ of the Jackson-
ians. At New York, Colonel James Watson Webb, the edi-
tor of the Courier, was doing great service on the same sida
The New York Courier and Inquirer was, for twenty years,
the first newspaper on the western continent. It was the
jiaper that gave the im])ulse to the press of New York which
has led to its present development. Associated with Colonel
Webb, at that time, was an individual who has since become
better known to the i)eople of Manhattan — James Gordon
Bennett.*

* The followiiii^ is a specimen of Mr. Bennett's electioneering paragraphs of
this period : — " The iinpoteiicy of the attacks which liave been made upon Gen-
eral Jacktaoii during tlio last three years, by tlio Adams party, reminds us of an
anecdote: ' Mother,' bawled cut a great two-listed girl one day, *my too itchos!'

* Wcl , scratch it then.' * I have, but it wont stay scnitchod I'

" * ifr. Clay, Mr. Clay," cries out two-listed Undo Toby, 'Jackson's a coming —
Jackson's a-coming I' * Well, then,' says Clay, * anti-tariff him in the JoumaV

* I have, bat he wont stay anti-tariffcd.' ' Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay,' bawls oat Aider-

1828.] THB OAMPAIGN OF 1828. 147

Mr. Ingham, too, made himself conspicuous as the pam-
phleteer and manager-general of the Jackson party in Penn-
sylvania. Major Eaton continued to be the same party's
circulating medium.

And there was yet another personage who was zealous for
General Jackson's election : namely, Aaron Burr. In what
way Colonel Burr contributed to the cause, I can not say.
But persons who lived with him at the time, represent him
to have been secretly but actively engaged in electioneering
for General Jackson. Mysterious messengers came and went.
Noted Jackson men, and some of the most noted, were clos-
eted long and often with the little silent old man, in his back
office ; " from nine in the morning till dark," says one gentle-
man, who was then an apprentice of Burr. Then, there was
a gentleman who made journeys to Virginia, whose expenses
were paid by Burr, and whose business was supposed to be to
nnite certain factions in Virginia in the support of Jackson.
But all this is too vague and unimportant for more than
mention. It rests on the gossip of law-clerks and office-boys.
But when we consider that several of the conspicuous sup-
porters of General Jackson in this vicinity were members of
the Burrite faction of 1800, and that others remained Burr's
friends to the day of his death, and assisted to bear his body
to the grave, it is reasonable to conclude that Burr contri-
buted advice and suggestion, at least, to the General's cause
in 1828.

Congress adjourned May 26. Members who had spent

man Blnna, *tho old farmer's a-ooming, a-coming.' *Woll, tlion,' says Harry,
* coflSn-band-bill Uim/ *I have,' says Binus, *but bo wont stay coffin-band-
billcd.' • Mr. Adams, Mr Adams,' says Joba IT. Pleasants * the hero's coming,
actoolly coming. * Well, then,' says Mr. Adanaa, * Burr him, and traitor him.'
•I have, but ho wont stny Burred or traitorod.' ' Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay,' says Charles
Ilammond, 'Jackson is coming.' 'Well,' says Clay, ' provo him an adulterer
and a negro-trader.' * I have,' says Charles, * but ho wont stay an adulterer or
a negfro-trader.' ' Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay,' b-iwls out the full Adams slandering
cbonifi^ * we have called Jackson a murderer, an adultoror, a trailor, an ignor
amus, a fool, a crook-back, a pretender, and so forth ; but he wont stay any of
these names.' *Ho wont,' says Mr. Clay; 'why, then, I shan't stay at Wash-
ington, that's all r**

14S LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1828.

the winter and spring in electioneering at Washington were
anxious to continue their labors among the people, on the
stump. One incident of congressional electioneering is too
curious, too well authenticated, too instructive, too shame-
ful, to be passed by in silence here. Colonel Thomas H.
Benton, then a member of the Senate, relates it in a note to
one of the volumes of his Abridgment of the Debates, con-
fessing that he took part in the proceeding. The State of
Ohio desired an appropriation of half a million acres of pub-
lic land in aid of the Scioto Canal. Ohio, with regard to the
coming election, was set down by both parties as a doubtful
State — a State yet to be won or lost. Let Colonel Benton
tell the rest :

" The presidential election depending, and the friends of
the two candidates both anxious to gain the vote of Ohio
for their favorite, conceived the same idea about the same
time, namely, that a liberal grant of land to the State would
be a help to the candidate whose supporters obtained it. So,
both parties (members from Ohio, of course,) moved in the
business, e^ch bringing in a separate bill, and each for the
full amount of land expected. But the friends of Jacksou
were a little the quickest, and got in their bill first, and
secured it the first consideration in the committee of the
whole, where it was agreed to ; and then, being ahead and
sanctioned in the committee, its passage was considered to be
a matter of course when reported in the house. But here
'that most extraordinary accident' (as it was facetiously
termed in debate) happened. The bill which had been before
got behind. The one below it on the calendar got above it in
the file ; and, being taken up first, was passed before the
' accident' was discovered. This was fatal to the other bill —
'death and destruction to it,' as one of its friends declare ;
it being impossible to expect two bills, for two grants of land
to one State, to pass at the same time.

" And so was the event. The bill of the Jackson party,
coming on after the other had passed, was rejected, and re-
mained so — a reconsideration having been refused. Then the

1828.] THE OAMPAiaN OF 1828. 149

friends of the lost bill ran up to the Senate, told what had
happened, and appealed to their friends there to checkmate
the move, by getting the lost bill added to the other as an
amendment when it came up for concurrence. This was
done ; and the same bill being agreed to in the house as an
amendment which had been rejected as a bill, the State of
Ohio received the two grants, when neither party hoped for
more than one in the beginning.

'* Such was, and such may be, national legislation in high
party times ; great public measures ostensibly decided as
meritorious, and sinistrously passed or rejected upon a party
calculation !"*

The most real issue in the presidential contest of 1828
was one which was not stated at the time, nor generally per-
ceived. The question was, whether " universal suffrage/' so
called, was to have any practical effect in the United States.
Down to this period in the history of the republic, the edu-
cated few had kept themselves uppermost. Cabinets, con-
gresses, legislatures, governors, mayors, had usually been
chosen from the same class of society as that from which the
governing men of Europe are chosen. Public life was sup-
posed to require an apprenticeship, as much as any private
profession. In short, the ruling class in the United States,
as in all other countries, was chiefly composed of men who
had graduated at colleges, and had passed the greater part of
their lives on carpets.

The educated class were not equal to the duty assigned
them — that of instructing and guiding their less fortunate
countr}'men. They were not then equal to it, and they are
not now. Jefferson accepted his share of this great trust, and
worthily strove to perform his share of this great duty. His
life is but a catalogue of benefactions to the people. But
among American citizens of his social eminence, how many
were there, how many are there, with understanding enough
to comprehend, with magnanimity enough to live up to the

* Abridgment^ vol. x., p. 197.

150 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1828.

height of the great sentiment which breathed all the life into
this republic that it has ever possessed ? How have this
class hugged their gentilities, genealogies, conservatisms, and
all the other antiquated and effeminating nonsense, of which
Europe itself is beginning to be ashamed, and is preparing
to cast off as a tawdry and ragged old cloak !

The truly helpful men and women of this republic have
oftenest sprung from the cabin, and learned to read by the
light of pine-knots, and worked their way up to their right-
ful places as leaders of the people, by the strength of their
own arm, brain, and resolution.

The scepter was about to be wrested from the hands
of those who had not shown themselves worthy to hold it
When they felt it going, however, they made a vigorous
clutch, and lost it only after a desperate struggle. In these
Jacksonian contests, therefore, we find nearly all the talent,
nearly all the learning, nearly all the ancient wealth, nearly
all the business activity, nearly all the book-nourished intel-
ligence, nearly all the silver-forked civilization of the country,
united in opposition to General Jackson, who represented the
country's untutored instincts.

CHAPTER XIII.

RESULT OF THE ELECTION.

The number of electoral votes in 1828 was two hundred
and sixty-one. One hundred and thirty-one was a majority.
General Jackson received one hundred and seventy-eight ;
Mr. Adams, eighty-three.

With the exception of one electoral district in Maine,
Messrs. Adams and Kush received the entire vote of New
England ; New Hampshire itself, despite the exertions of
Isaac Hill, voting for them.

Of the thirty-six electoral votes cast by the State of New

1828.] RESULT OF THE ELECTION. IM

York, Adams and Bush obtained sixteen ; Jackson and Oal*
houn, twenty.

New Jersey voted entire for Adams and Rush ; so did
Delaware. In Maryland, the same candidates obtained a
bare majority — six votes to Jackson's five. In Georgia, Mr.
Crawford had still influence enough to withdraw seven votes
out of nine from Mr. Calhoun, and throw them away upon
William Smith, of South Carolina. The entire vote of
Greoigia, however, was given to General Jackson, Mr. Craw-
ford more than consenting thereto.

Every other State in the Union — ^Pennsylvania, Virginia,
both Carolinas, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana, Louis-
iana, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois — ^gave an un-
divided vote for Jackson and Calhoun. For the vice-presi-
dency Mr. Calhoun received one hundred and seventy-one
votes, out of two hundred and sixty-one. There were no
scattering or wasted votes except the seven cast for William
Smith in Georgia.

In all Tennessee, Adams and Bush obtained less than
three thousand votes. In many towns, every vote was cast
for Jackson and Calhoun. A distinguished member of the
North Carolina legislature told me that he happened to enter |
a Tennessee village in the evening of the last day of the presi-
dential election of 1828. He found the whole male popula-
tion out hunting ; the objects of the chase being two of their
fellow-citizens. He inquired by what crime these men had
rendered themselves so obnoxious to their neighbors, and was
informed that they had voted against General Jackson. The
village, it appeared, had set its heart upon sending up a unan-
imous vote for the General, and these two voters had frus-
trated its desire. As the day wore on, the whisky flowed
more and more freely, and the result was a universal chase
after the two voters, with a view to tarring and feathering
them. They fled to the woods, however, and were not
taken.*

♦ There was a respectable opposition to General Jackson in some parts of
Tennesfloe-— respectable in every particular except numbers.

152 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1828.

On the day (Nov. 10th) on which the result of the elec-
tion began to be considered certain in New York, the evening
papers announced that General William Henry Harrison, of
Ohio, appointed Minister to Colombia, was going on board
the United States ship Erie^ under the usual salute. He
went to sea that afternoon. He might as well have brought
his trunk ashore, and quietly gone back to Ohio.

It was not in Tennessee only that the opponents of the
victorious party were threatened with violence. Alderman
Binns, of Philadelphia, the author of the " Coffin Hand Bills,"
tells a story in point. " As soon," he says, '' as the result of
the election was known, a rumor ran through the multitude
that it would be well if they were to mob the office of the
Democratic Press. This proposition was soon improved
upon by another, to wit : that to punish the editor appropri-
ately for his coffin hand-bills, an empty coffin should bo forth-
with procureil, and taken with them, in order to put the
eilitor of the Press into it and carry him round the town.
The first thinjx I did on receivinjc the above verv unwelcome
information was to lock and put the wooden bar across the
publishing office door, on Chestnut Street, and bolt it. I
then made fast the front door, the outside window-shutters
on the second floor, and the back door, and a door which
opened into the alley. All this had not been long accom-
plished before ' the stormy wave of the multitude' was heard
approaching. My faithful wife accompanied me, caiTying the
light, and giving what aid she could. We went quietly up
stairs into the front garret, taking our children and the girls
with us. The mob, the night being dark, had many lights
of various kinds and colors, and shouted vociferously. Wo
were as still as mice. My wife and I then went on the roof
of the house, and peeping over the edge of the copping-stone,
I saw at the front door the coffin, without a lid, in which it
was proposed to carry me round the city, and land me, or
water me, I knew not where. Having ascertained that they
could not force the doors, the more violent among the mob
threw stones at them and at the window-shutters, many of

1828.] BK817LT OF THB ELECTION. 153

which they split. Some idea of the yelling of this moh may
be imagined when I inform the reader that Chestnut Street,
firom Second to Third Streets, with all its alleys, was crowded
with angry, noisy people. After two or three hoars' scream-
ing and screeching, the rioters slunk away in squads, taking
with them the coffin and whatsoever else they had brought.
There was a meeting of some of my personal friends the
next morning, and it was determined that myself and family
should for a night or two leAve the house, and sleep in the
houses of some friends. The next night, some thirty or more
fiiends took possession of my house, which was supplied with
food and all things necessary for their comfort, and for the
defense of the house and office. The street at night was
again filled with a noisy mob for several hours, after which
they dunk away. The family returned, after three nights'
absence, and we heard no more of the baffled besiegers.''

The news of General Jackson's election to the presidency,
I am informed by Major Lewis, created no great sensation at
the Hermitage, so certain beforehand were its inmates of a
mult in accordance with their desires. Mrs. Jackson quietly
said:

** Well, for Mr. Jackson's sake, I am glad ; for my own
port, I never wished it."

The people of Nashville, greatly elated by the success of
their General, resolved to celebrate it in the way in which
they had long been accustomed to celebrate every important
event in his career. A banquet unparalleled should be con-
sumed in honor of his last triumph. The day appointed for
this affiiir was the twenty-third of December, the anniversary
of the Night Battle below New Orleans. Geneml Jackson
accepted the invitation to be present.

Certain ladies of Nashville, meanwhile, were secretly pre-
paring for Mrs. Jackson a magnificent wardrobe, suitable, as
they thought, for the adornment of her person when, as mis-
tress of the White House, she would be deemed the first lady
in the nation.

154 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1828.

CHAPTER XIV.

DEATH AT THE HERMITAGE.

For four or five yeai-s the health of Mrs. Jackson had
been precarious. She had complained, occasionally, of an
uneasy feeling about the region of the heart ; and, during the
late excitements, she had been Subject to sharper pains and
palpitation. The aspersions upon her character had wounded
deeply her feelings and her pride. She was frequently found
in tears. Long esteemed as the kindest and most motherly
of women, she had of late years been revered by a circle of
religious ladies as their chief, their guide, their ornament
That her name should be ruthlessly dragged into the public
prints ; that she, a faithful wife of thirty-seven years, should
be held up to the contempt of the whole country as an adul-
teress, was more than she could endure. It aggi*avated her
disease ; it shortened her life. Perhaps, if the truth were
known, it would be found that she is not the only female vic-
tim of our indecent party contentious.

I learned the story of her death from good " Old Hannah,''
the faithful servant in whose arms she breathed her last.

It was a Wednesday morning, December 17. All was
going on as usual at the Hermitage. The General was in the
fields, at some distance from the house, and Miu Jackson, ap-
parently in tolerable health, was occupied in her household
duties. Old Hannah asked her to come into the kitchen to
give her opinion upon some article of food that was in course
of preparation. She performed the duty required of her, and
returned to her usual sitting-room, followed by Hannah. Sud-
denly, she uttered a horrible shriek, placed her hands upon
her heart, sunk into a chair, struggling for breath, and fell
forward into Hannah's arms. There were only servants in
the house ; many of whom ran frantically in, uttering the
loud lamentations with which Africans are wont to give vent
to their feelings. The stricken lady was placed upon her bed,

1828.] DEATH AT THE HERMITAGE. 155

and while messengers hurried away for assistance, Hannah
employed the only remedy she knew to relieve the anguish of
her mistress, " I rubbed her side," said the plain-spoken Han-
nah, " till it was black and blue."

No relief She writhed in agony. She fought for breath.
The (General came in alarmed beyond description. Tlie doc-
tor arrived. Mrs. A. J. Donelson hurried in from her house
near by. The Hermitage was soon filled with near relatives,
friends, and servants. With short intervals of partial relief,
Mrs. Jackson continued to suffer all that a woman could suf-
fer, for the space of sixty hours ; during which her husband
never left her bed-side for ten minutes. On Friday evening
she was much better ; was almost free from pain ; and
breathed with far less difficulty. The first use, and, indeed,
the only use she made of her recovered speech was, to protest
to the General that she was quite well, and to implore him
to go to another room and sleep, and by no means to allow
her indisposition to prevent his attending the banquet on the
23d. She told him that the day of the banquet would be a
very fatiguing one, and he must not permit his strength to be
reduced by want of sleep.

Still, the General would not leave her. He distrusted
this sudden relief. He feared it was the relief of torpor or
exhaustion ; and the more, as the remedies prescribed by
Dr. Hogg, the attending physician, had not produced their
designed effect. Saturday and Sunday passed, and still she
lay free from serious pain, but weak and listless ; the General
still her watchful, constant, almost sleepless attendant.

On Monday evening, the evening before the 23d, her dis-
ease appeared to take a decided turn for the better ; and she
then so earnestly entreated the General to prepare for the
fatigues of the morrow by having a night of undisturbed
sleep, that he consented, at last, to go into an adjoining room
and lie down upon a sofa. The doctor was still in the house.
Hannah and George were to sit uj) with their mistress.

At 9 o'clock, the General bade her good night, went into
the next room, and took off his coat, preparatory to lying

156 LIFE OF AKDBEW JACKSON. [1828.

down. He had been gone about five minutes ; Mrs. Jackson
was then, for the first time, removed from her bed, that it
might be rearranged for the night While sitting in a chair
supported in the arms of Hannah, she uttered a long, loud,
inarticulate cry ; which was immediately followed by a rat-
tling noise in the throat Her head fell forward upon Han-
nah's shoulder. She never spoke nor breathed again.

There was a wild rush into the room of husband, doctor,
relatives, friends, and servants. The General assisted to lay
her upon the bed. " Bleed her," he cried. No blood flowed
jfrom her arm. " Try the temple. Doctor." Two drops
stained her cap, but no more followed.

It was long before he would believe her dead. He looked
eagerly into her face, as if still expecting to see signs of re-
turning life. Her hands and feet grew cold. There could be
no doubt then, and they prepared a table for laying her out.
With a choking voice, the General said :

" Spread four blankets upon it If she does come to, she
will lie so hard upon the table."

He sat all night long in the room by her side, with his
face in his hands, " grieving," said Hannah, and occasionally
looking into the face, and feeling the heart and pulse of the
form so dear to him. Major Lewis, who had been immedi-
ately sent for, arrived just before daylight, and found him
still there, nearly speechless and wholly inconsolable. He
sat in the room nearly all the next day, the picture of despair.
It was only with great difficulty that he was persuaded to
take a little coffee.

" And this was the way," concludM Hannah, " that old
mistus died ; and we always say, that when we lost her, we
lost a mistus and a mother, too : and more a mother than
a mistus. And we say the same of old master ; for he was
more a father to us than a master, and raany's the time
we 've wished him back again, to help us out of our troubles."

The sad news reached Nashville early on the morning of
the 23d, when already the committee of arrangements were
busied with the preparations for the General's reception.

IffiS.] DEATH AT THE HEEMITAGS. 157

'' The table was well nigh spread/' said one of the papers,
'' at which all was expected to be hilarity and joy, and our
dtisens had sallied forth on the morning with spirits light
and buoyant, and countenances glowing with animation and
hopCi when suddenly the scene is changed : congratulations
are turned into expressions of condolence, tears are substi-
tuted for smiles, and sincere and general mourning pervades
the community/' In the course of the morning the follow-
ing announcement was published :

" The committee appointed by the citizens of Nashville to superintend
the reception of Gknend Jackson on this day, with feelings of deep regret
ttmoance to the public that Mrs. Jackson departed this life last night, be-
tween the hours of 10 and 11 o'clock.

" Bespect for the memory of the deceased, and a sincere condolence
with him on whom this providential affliction has fallen, forbid the mani-
ftstition of public regard intended for the day.

" In the further consideration of the painful and unexpected occasion
wfaidi has brought them together, the committee feel that it is due to the
exemplary virtues and exalted character of the deceased, that some public
tfoketk should be given of the high regard entertained toward her while
fiTing: They have therefore resolved —

** That it be respectfully recommended to their fellow-dtisens of Nash-
ville^ in evidence of this feislingy to refrain on to-morrow from the ordinary
panoitB of life."

To which the mayor, Dr. Felix Robertson, added a reso-
lution of the board of aldermen :

" The committee on behalf of the citizens having determined that it is
proper to abstain from business on to-morrow, therefore,

** Eeiolved, That the inhabitants of Nashville are respectfully invited to
abstain from their ordinary business on to-morrow, as a mark of respect for
the memory of Mrs. Jackson, and that the church bells be tolled from 1
until 2 o'clock — ^being the hour of her funeral."

On the day of the funeral, every vehicle in Nashville was
employed in conveying its inhabitants to the Hermitage.
The grounds about the mansion were crowded with people.
" Such a scene," wrote an eye-witness, ^' I never wish to witness
jBgain. The poor old gentleman was supported to the grave

158 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1828.

by General Coffee and Major Butledge. I never pitied any
person more in my life. The road to the Hermitage wag
almost impassable, and an immense number of persons at-
tended the funeral. The remains were interred in the lower
part of the garden. I never before saw so much affliction
among 8er\'ants on the death of a mistress. Some seemed
completely stupified by the event ; others wrung their hands
and shrieked aloud. The woman who had waited on Mrs.
Jackson had to be carried off the ground. After the funeral
the old gentleman came up to me, took my hand, and shook
it. Some of the gentlemen mentioned my name. He again
caught my hand, and squeezed it three times, but all he
could utter was, * Philadelphia.' I never shall forget his
look of grief."

The papers of Tennessee, without distinction of party,
joined in commemorating the virtues of the deceased. " Her
pure and gentle heart," said the RepMican^ " in which a sel-
fish, guileful, or malicious thought never found entrance, was
the throne of benevolence ; and under its noble influence her
faculties and time were constantly devoted to the exercise of
hospitality, and to acts of kindness. To feed the hungr}*^,
to clothe the naked, to sui)ply the indigent, to raise the hum-
ble, to notice the friendless, and to comfort the unfortunate,
were her favorite occupations ; nor could the kindness of her
soul be repressed by distress or prosperity ; but like those
fountains which, rising in deep and secluded valleys, flow on
in the frost of winter and through summer's heat, it main-
tained a uniform and refreshing current. Thus she lived;
and when death approached, her patience and resignation
were equal to her goodness ; not an impatient gesture, not a
vexatious look, not a fretful accent escaped her ; but her last
breath was charged with an expression of tenderness for the
man whom she loved more than her life, and honored next to
her God."

The remains of Mrs. Jackson still lie in the comer of the
Hermitage garden, next those of her husband, in a tomb pre-
pared by him in these years for their reception. It resem-

1828.] DEATH AT THE HERMITAGE. 159

bles, in appearance, an open summer-house — a small, white
dome supported by pillars of white marble. The tablet that
covers the remains of Mrs. Jackson reads as follows :

" Here lie the remains of Mrs. Rachel Jackson, wife of President Jack-
son, who died the 22d of December, 1828, aged Gl. Iler face was fair ;
her person pleasing, her temper amiable, her heart kind ; she delighted in
relieving the wants of her fellow-creatures, and cultivated that divine
pleasure by the most liberal and unpretending methods ; to the poor she
was a benefactor ; to the rich an example ; to the wretched a comforter ;
to the prosperous an ornament : her piety went hand in hand with her be-
nevolence, and she thanked her Creator for being permitted to do good.
A being so gentle and so virtuous, slander might wound but could not dis-
honor. Even death, when he tore her from the arms of her husband, could
but transport her to the bosom of her God.'*

General Jackson never recovered from the shock of his
wife's death. He was never quite the same man afterward.
It subdued his spirit and corrected his speech. Except on
occasions of extreme excitement, few and far between, he
never again used what is commonly called "profane lan-
guage;" not even the familiar phrase, "By the Eternal."
There were times, of course, when his fiery passions asserted
themselves ; when he uttered wrathful words ; when he
wished even to throw off the robes of office, as he once said,
that he might call his enemies to a dear account. But these
were rare occurrences. He mourned deeply and ceaselessly
the loss of his truest friend, and was often guided, in his do-
mestic affairs, by what he supposed would have been her will
if she had been there to make it known.

Before resuming the course of events which this bereave-
ment interrupted, I will extract a few passages from a letter
written for the readers of these pages by a lady who, when a
little girl less than nine yejirs of ago, witnessed in Nashville
many of the scenes attending the death of Mrs. Jackson and
the departure of the President-elect for the seat of govern-
ment. She was the daughter of an officer of General Jack-
son's division, and became the wife of another officer whose
commission, as she remarks, bears " Old Hickory's signature."

160 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1828.

" My personal knowledge," writes this obliging and gifted
Lidy, " of the General and Mre. Jackson dates back to the
time when I was not yet nine years old, the summer preced-
ing his fii^st election ; and my impressions are, of course, those
of a child ; but, perhaps, none the less correct on tliat ac-
count. Being honest and unprejudiced, they may avail as
much, as far as they go, as if I had been much older. What
I write, you may dei)end upon as truthful, although there
may not be much of it.

" At the time to which I refer, my father, then a captain in
the United States Army, was stationed at Nashville, on the
recruiting service. His family was with him, and we boarded
at the Nashville Inn, kept by a Mr. Edmonson, the home of
all the military officers whom business or pleasure called to
Nashville. It had also been for a long time the stopping
place of Old Hickory and his wife, whenever they left their
beloved Hermitage for a temporary sojourn in the city. At
this house we were domiciled with them weeks at a time.
Eating at the same table with persons who attracted so much
attention, and meeting them familiarly in the public and pri-
vate sitting rooms of the establishment, I of course felt well
acquainted with them, and my recollections of them are very
vivid even now. The General's appearance has been so often
and correctly described, that it would seem almost unneces-
sary to touch upon it here ; but it will do no harm to give my
impressions of him. Picture to yourself a military-looking
man, above the ordinary height, dressed plainly, but with
great neatness ; dignified and grave — I had almost said stern
— but always courteous and affable, with keen, searching
eyes, iron-gray hair, standing stiffly up from an expansive
forehead, a face somewhat furrowed by care and time, and
expressive of deej) thought and active intellect, and you have
beibre you the General Jackson who has lived in my memory
for thirty years.

" Side by side with him stands a coarse-looking, stout, little
old woman, whom vou mif^ht e^silv mistake for his washerwo-
man, were it not for the marked attention he pays her, and the

1828.] DEATH AT THE HERMITAGE. 161

love and admiration she manifests for him. Her eyes are
bright, and express great kindness of heart ; her face is
rather broad, her features plain ; her complexion so dark as
aknost to suggest a mingling of races in that climate where
such things sometimes occur. But, withal, her face is so
good-natured and motherly, that you immediately feel at ease
with her, however shy you may be of the stately person by
her side. Her figure is rather full, but loosely and carelessly
dressed, so that when she is seated she seems to settle into
herself in a manner that is neither graceful nor elegant. I
have seen such forms since then, and have thought I should
like to experiment upon them with French corsets, to see
what they would look like if they were gathered together into
some permanent shape. This is Mrs. Jackson. I have heard
my mother say that she could imagine that in her early youth,
at the time the General yielded to her fascinations, she may
have been a bright, sparkling brunette ; perhaps, may have
even passed for a beauty. But being without any culture,
and out of the way of refining influences, she was, at the
time we knew her, such as I have described.

" Their affection for each other was of the tenderest kind.
The General always treated her as if she were his pride and
glory, and words can faintly describe her devotion to him.
The Nashville Inn was at this time filled with celebrities,
nearly all warm supporters of the General. The Stokes
family, of North Carolina, were there, particular friends of
his, and many other families whose names have escaped my
memory. I well recollect to what disadvantage Mrs. Jackson
appeared, with her dowdyfied figure, her inelegant conversa-
tion, and her total want of refinement, in the midst of this
highly cultivated group, and I recall very distinctly how the
ladies of the Jackson party hovered near her at all times, ap-
parently to save her from saying or doing any thing which
might do discredit to their idol. With all her disadvantages
in externals, I know she was really beloved. She was a
truly good woman, the very soul of benevolence and kind-
ness, and one almost overlooked her deficiencies in the knowl-
voL. in — 11

162 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1828.

edge of her intrinsic worth, and her real goodness of heart
With a diflFerent husband, and under different circumstances,
she might have appeared to greater advantage ; but there
could not be a more striking contrast than in their case.
And the strangest of it all was, that the General did not
seem aware of it.

"My father visited tliem at the Hermitage more than
once. It was customary for the army oflScers to do this as a
mark of respect to the General, and they frequently remained
in their hospitable mansion several days at a time. The
latch-string was always out, and all who visited them were
made welcome, and felt themselves at home. I remember
my father's telling an anecdote characteristic of Mrs. Jack-
son, which impressed my young mind forcibly. After the
evening meal at the Hermitage, he and some other oflScers
were seated with the worthy couple by their ample fire-place.
Mrs. Jackson, as was her favorite custom, lighted her pipe,
and having taken a whiff or two, handed it to my father,
saying : ^ Honey, wont you take a smoke ?*

" The enthusiasm of the people of Nashville for their
favorite has been descanted upon years ago. I remember
well the extravagant demonstrations of it, especially after the
result of the election was known. 1 walked the streets with
my father the night of the illumination, to see the brilliant
display. I think but two houses were dark, and these were
both mobbed. One was the mansion of Judge McNairy,
who, you know, was once a friend of Jackson, but for some
reason became opposed to him, and at that time was one of
the very few whigs in Nashville. On that triumphant night
the band played the hymn familiar to all, beginning ^ Blow
ye the trumpet, blow,' and ending ' The year of Jubilee is
come, return ye ransomed people home.' This certainly
seemed like deifying the man whom they delighted to honor,
and I remember it seemed very wicked to me.

" When the old man finally started for Washington, a
crowd of ladies were assembled on the piazza of the hotel,
overlooking the Cumberland Kiver, to 'see the conquering

»^

1828.] DEATH AT THE HERHITAGli. 163

hero go,' I mingled with them, and distinctly remember
hearing one lady say she had had a good-bye kiss from the
General, and she should not wash it off for a month. Oh !
what a noise there was ! A parrot, which had been brought
up a democrat, was hurraing for Jackson, and the clapping,
shouting, and waving of handkerchiefs have seldom been
equaled. When the steamboat passed out of sight, and they
realized that he was really gone, the city seemed to subside
and settle down, as if the object of its being was accom-
plished.

" But the sad part of my remembrances is the death of Mrs.
Jackson. Early one bright, pleasant morning, my father
was putting on his uniform, to go with the other officers then
in the city, to the Hermitage, to escort the President-elect to
Nashville. Before he had completed his toilet, a black man
left at the door a hand-bill, announcing Mrs. Jackson's
death, and requesting the officers to come to the Hermitage,
with the usual badges of mourning, to attend her funeral.
She had died very suddenly at night, without any apparent
disease, it being very generally supposed that her death was
occasioned by excess of joy at her husband's election. When
it was discovered that she was dead, the General could not
be prevailed upon to part with her body, but held it tightly
in his arms until almost forced from his embrace.

" This news caused great commotion. Many ladies went
out to superintend the funeral, and displayed more zeal than
judgment by arraying the body in white satin, with kid
gloves and slippers. Pearl ear-rings and necklace were like-
wise placed upon it ; but, at the suggestion of some whose
good sense had not entirely forsaken them, I believe these
ornaments were removed. The day of the funeral proving
damp and drizzly, the walk from the house to the grave was
laid with cotton for the procession to pass over.

''Notwithstanding the grief displayed by the friends of
this really good woman, on account of her sudden death, it
was supposed by many that they felt it, after all, a relief ;
for it was a matter of great anxiety how she would appear as

1G4 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

mistress of the White House, especially as some of her warm
but injudicious friends had selected and prepared an outfit
for the occasion more suitable for a young and beautiful
bride, than for a homely, withered-looking, old woman."^
Who can record impressions like a woman ?

CHAPTER XV<.

INAUGURATION.

There was no time for mourning. Haggard with grief
and watching, " twenty years older in a night," as one of his
friends remarked, the President-elect was compelled to enter
without delay upon the labor of preparing for his journey to
Washington. His inaugural address, the joint production of
himself. Major Lewis, and Henry Lee, was written at the
house of Major Lewis, near Nashville. But one slight alter-
ation was made in this document after the General reached
the seat of government. General Jackson furnished the
leading ideas ; Major Lewis made some suggestions ; Henry
Lee gave it fonn and style.

Before leaving home, the General drew up a series of rules
for the guidance of his administration, one of which was, that
no member of his cabinet should be his successor. General
Jackson left home resolved to do right in his high office. I
know this to be true. Whether he ruled wisely or the con-
trary, it is certain that he left the grave of his wife deter-
mined, in his inmost soul, to stand by the people of the
United States, and administer the government with a single
eye to their gooi But woe to those who had slandered and
killed that wife I These two feelings had no struggle for

* Tho New York American suggested for the epitaph of Mrs. Jackson the Ibl-
lowing words :

" lUtA. TXBO RUX, KOK TAM GLABITATB YTT^ QUAM OPPOBTUNITATI

MORTIS."

1829.] IKAUGUBATION . 165

mastery in his peculiarly constituted nature. In him they
were one and the same.

He was accompanied to Washington by his nephew,
Andrew Jackson Donelson, who was to be his private secre-
tary; by Mrs. Andrew Jackson Donelson, who was to preside
over the official mansion ; by a beautiful and accomplished
neice of Mrs. Jackson, who was to reside with him, and assist
Mrs. Donelson to do the honors of his house ; by Henry Lee,
his able scribe, who went with him to be appointed to an
office ; and, lastly, by Major Lewis, whose intention was
merely to witness the inauguration and then return to his
plantation. The artist. Earl, followed the General soon, and
resided at the White House during the whole period of Gen-
eral Jackson's occupation of it, engaged always in painting
the President's portrait. It was well understood by the
seekers of presidential favor that it did no harm to order a
portrait of General Jackson from this artist, who was face-
tiously named the king's painter. Mr. Earl never stood still
for lack of orders.

The party left Nashville on a Sunday afternoon about the
middle of January. The journey to Washington — every one
knows what it must have been. The complete, the instan-
taneous acquiescence of the people of the United States in the
decision of a constitutional majority — a redeeming feature of
our politics — was well illustrated on this occasion. The steam-
boat that conveyed the Gtjneral and his party down the Cum-
berland to the Ohio and up the Ohio to Pittsburg, a voyage
of several days, was saluted or cheered as often as it passed a
human habitation. At Cincinnati, it seemed as if all Ohio,
and, at Pittsburg, as if all Pennsylvania, had rushed forth to
shout a welcome to the President-elect. Indeed, the whole
country appeared to more than acquiesce in the result of the
election.

Very many of the supporters of Mr. Adams felt, doubt-
less, as Ezekiel Webster felt, when he wrote to his brother
Daniel, in February, 1829 : " The people always supported
Mr. Adams' cause from a cold sense of duty, and not from

166 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

any liking of the man. We soon satisfy ourselves that we
have discharged our duty to the cause of any man, when we
do not entertain for him one personal kind feeling, and can
not, imless we disemhowel ourselves, like a trussed turkey, of
all that is human nature within us. If there had been at
the head of affairs a man of popular character, like Mr. Clay,
or any man whom we are not compelled by our natures, in-
stincts, and fixed fate to dislike, the result would have been
different/'

So, the whole country joined, at last, in the cry. Hurra
for Jackson ! Some few daring spirits at Hartford, we are
told, burned the President-elect in effigy in the evening of the
sacred 8th of January ; but the public indignation was such,
that the authorities of the city offered a reward of one hun-
dred dollars for the " conviction of the persons engaged in it."
So says the sedate Mr. Niles ; who also records, in his brief
manner, without comment, that General Jackson did not call
upon President Adams on his arrival in Washington. The
reader knows why he did not. The precious register of Mr.
Niles rescues likewise from oblivion the fact, that " General
Merkle of Franklin Market, New York," sent to General
Jackson "a piece of the celebrated ox, Grand Canal, as a
suitable tribute of General Merkle's high respect for the pa-
triotism General Jackson has uniformly displayed in the pub-
lic service of his country, and hopes at the same time it may
arrive to grace his table on the 4th of March."

General Merkle had the pleasure of receiving an autograph
acknowledgment from General Jackson : " Permit me, sir, to
assure you of the gratification which I felt in being enabled
to place on my table so fine a specimen of your market, and
to offer you my sincere thanks for so acceptable a token of
your regard for my character."*

♦ " Butcher Politen-esb. — ^An English butcher lately sent a haunch of pure
Southdown mutton to tho Emperor. lie baa since received, through the medium
of the French ambassador in London, an autograph letter from the Tuileries, ao>
knowledging the thanks of tho Emperor, and accompanying it with a gold medal
iutriosicaUj worth twenty guineas." — Newspaper^ 1860.

Qj^,:A ^,*^.S=;>,

1829.] INAUGURATION. 167

•

Hurra for Jackson! It was the universal cry. Mr.
Adams would not have written to General Merkle, of Frank-
lin Market, New York, perhaps. Was there a butcher in the
Union who did not take the Gteneral's autograph as a per-
sonal compliment !

While General Jackson was receiving hundreds of visitors
daily at his rooms in the Indian Queen Tavern, commonly
styled the Wigwam, the White House, we are informed, was
nearly deserted. Judge Story mentions, in one of his letters
to his wife, that the "birth-night ball" (February 22d), was
thinly attended this year. " Mr. Adams has no more favors
to bestow, and he is now passed by with indifference by all
the fair-weather friends. They are all ready to hail the ris-
ing sun. Never have I felt so forcibly the emptiness of pub-
lic honors and public favor." Eight years later, there was a
setting sun who was not "passed by with indifference" by
friend or foe.

From the seemingly rash and careless remarks of General
Jackson upon the alleged bargain between Messrs. Adams
and Clay, some readers may have inferred that the General
was not, at all times, master of his tongue. Such an infer-
toce is incorrect. When it was his cue to be silent, no man
could keep his own counsel better. All Washington was
busied, during these weeks; with conjectures as to the course
of the President-elect, and above all, as to his intentions with
regard to appointments and removals. But all conjecturing
was vain. Nothing was ascertained until he chose to reveal
it. Daniel Webster wrote home just before the General's ar-
rival : " General Jackson will be here about the 15th Febru-
ary. Nobody knows what he will do when he does come.
Many letters are sent to him ; he answers none of them. His
friends here pretend to be very knomng ; but be assured, not
one of them has any confidential communication from him.
Great efforts are making to put him up to a general sweep,
as to all offices ; springing from great doubt whether he is
disposed to go it."

A few days after General Jackson's arrival, Mr. Webster

168 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

resumed his observations upon the scene around him. " Of
course," said he, " the city is full of speculation and specula-
tors. ^A great multitude/ too many to be fed without a
miracle, are already in the city, hungry for office. Especially,
I learn, that the typographical corps is assembled in great
force. From New Hampshire, our friend Hill ; from Boston,
Mr. Greene ; from Connecticut, Mr. Norton ; from New
York, Mr. Noah ; from Kentucky, Mr. Kendall ; and from
everywhere else, somebody else. So many friends ready to
advise, and whose advice is so disinterested, make somewhat
of a numerous council about the President-elect ; and, if re-
port be true, it is a council which only ' makes that darker,
which was dark enough before.' For these reasons, or these
with others, nothing is settled yet about the new cabinet.
I suppose Mr. Van Buren will be Secretary of State ; but
beyond that, I do not think any thing is yet determined."
This was written on the 19th of February.

Coming events, however, were already casting shadows
before. A Washington letter of the time, published in the
New York American^ contains this note-worthy passage :
" There are strong symptoms of a speedy dissolution of the
' Combination.' The ends of both sections of the party are
answered. The game has been run down, and, like hounds,
they are about fighting for the prey they have made their
own. Van Buren's friends wish to have him in the Cabinet.
To this Calhoun's object, and these rival chieftains scatter
through the crowd, by means of their partisans, ambiguous
phrases, pregnant with future contests and political divi-
sions."

General Jackson, meanwhile, so closely concealed his in-
tentions that, as late as the second of March, Mr. Webster
still wrote home that nobody in Washington knew whether
many or any changes in the subordinate offices of the govern-
ment would be made. " Probably," he wrote, " General
Jackson will make some removals, but I think not a great
many immediately. But we shall soon see." Yes, we shall
Boon see.

1829.] INAUaURATlON. 169

The day of the inauguration was one of the brightest and
balmiest of the spring. An eye-witness shall describe to us
the memorable scene :

" No one who was at Washington at the time of General
Jackson's inauguration is likely to forget that period to the
day of his death. To us, who had witnessed the quiet and
orderly period of the Adams' administration, it seemed as if
half the nation had rushed at once into the Capital. It was
like the inundation of the northern barbarians into Home,
save that the tumultuous tide came in from a different point
of the compass. The West and the South seemed to have
precipitated themselves upon the North and overwhelmed it.
On that memorable occasion you might tell a ^ Jackson man'
almost as far as you could see him. Their every motion
seemed to cry out ^ victory !' Strange faces filled every pub-
lic place, and every face seemed to bear defiance on its brow.
It appeared to me that every Jackson editor in the country
was on the spot. They swarmed, especially in the lobbies of
the House, an expectant host, a sort of Praetorian band,
which, having borne in upon their shields their idolized
leader, claimed the reward of the hard-fought contest. His
quarters were assailed, surrounded, hemmed in, so that it
was an achievement to get into his presence. On the morn-
ing of the inauguration, the vicinity of the Capitol was like
a great agitated sea ; every avenue to the fateful spot was
blocked up with people, in so much that the legitimate pro-
cession which accompanied the President-elect could scarce
make its way to the eastern portico, where the ceremony was
to be iKirformed. To repress the crowd in front, a ship's
cable was stretched across about two-thirds of the way up the
long flight of steps by which the Capitol is approached on
that side, but it seemed, at times, as if even this would scarce
prove sufficient to restrain the eagerness of the multitude,
every man of whom seemed bent on the glory of shaking the
President's hand. Never cjin I forget the specfcicle which
presented itself on every side, nor the electrifying moment
when the eager, expectant eyes of that vast and motley mul-

170 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

titude caught sight of the tall and imposing form of their
adored leader, as he came forth between the colunms of the
portico, the color of the whole mass changed, as if by mir-
acle ; all hats were oflf at once, and the dark tint which usu-
ally pervades a mixed map of men was turned, as by a magic
wand, into the bright hue of ten thousand upturned and ex-
ultant human faces, radiant with sudden joy. The peal of
shouting that arose rent the air, and seemed to shake the
very ground. But when the Chief Justice took his place and
commenced the brief ceremony of administering the oath of
office, it quickly sank into comparative silence ; and as the
new President proceeded to read his inaugural address,
the stillness gi*adually increased ; but all efforts to hear
him, beyond a brief space immediately around, were utterly
vain.'^*

Mr. Webster, in his serio-comic manner, remarks : " I
never saw such a crowd here before. Persons have come five
hundred miles to see General Jackson, and they really seem
to think that the country is rescued from some dreaxlfid
danger!*'

The ceremony over, the President drove from the Capitol
to the White House, followed soon by a great part of the
crowd who had witnessed the inauguration. Judge Story, a
strenuous Adams man, did not enjoy the scene which the
apartments of the " palace," as he styles it, presented on this
occasion. " After the ceremony was over," he wrote, " the
President went to the palace to receive company, and there
he was visited by immense crowds of all sorts of people, from
the highest and most polished, down to the most vulgar and
gross in the nation. I never saw such a mixture. The reign
of King Mob seemed triumphant. I was glad to escape from
the scene as soon as possible." A letter writer said : " A
profusion of refreshments had been provided. Orange punch
by barrels full was made, but as the waiters opened the door
to bring it out, a rush would be made, the glasses broken, the
pails of liquor upset, and the most painful confusion pre-

* Arthur J. Stansbury, in Arthur's Home Gazette, May, 1851.

1829.] INAUGURATION. 171

vailed. To such a painful degree was this carried, that wine
and ice-creams could not be brought out to the ladies, and
tubs of punch were taken from the lower story into the gar-
den, to lead off the crowd from the rooms. On such an oc-
casion it was certainly difficult to keep any thing like order,
but it was mortifying to see men, with boots heavy with mud,
standing on the damask satin covered chairs^ from their eager-
ness to get a sight of the President."

The inaugural address of the new President, which has
been characterized as vague and meaningless, seems to me to
be as plain and straightforward as his peculiar and difficult
position admitted. On the one hand. General Jackson, by
his writings and his votes, was committed to a protective
tariff and internal improvement policy. On the other, he
had been elected to the presidency by the strict construction-
ist party. HisL inaugural was a clear enough acceptance of
the leadership of the party which had elected him. The en-
tire subject of internal improvements was disposed of in one
short sentence, which is, considering the circumstances, almost
comic. " Internal improvements," said the President, " and
the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they can be promoted by
the constitutional acts of the federal government, are of high
importance." Not another word. Henry Lee, I imagine, was
not the author of that sentence.

The tariff men were favored with the following : " With
regard to a proper selection of the subjects of impost, with a
view to revenue, it would seem to me that the spirit of equity,
caution, and compromise in wliich the constitution was
formed, requires that the great interests of agriculture, com-
merce, and manufactures, should be equally favored; and
that, perhaps, the only exception to this rule should consist
in the peculiar encouragement of any products of either of
them that may be found essential to our national independ-
ence.

For those who might chance to remember General Jack-
son's farewell address to the army, a long paragraph was in-
serted, which declared standing armies " dangerous to freo

172 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

governments in time of peace," and entitled a patriotic militia
" the bulwark of our defense/' and " the impenetrable aegis"
of our liberties.

For the illumination of any who might have been recently
looking over the Monroe correspondence, a few sentences were
added, which made half the office-holders in the country
quake in their 8li})pers : " The recent demonstration of pub-
lic sentiment inscribes on the list of executive duties, in char-
acters too legible to be overlooked, the task of reform, which
will require, particularly, the correction of those abuses that
have brought the patronage of the federal government into
conflict with the freedom of elections, and the counteraction
of those causes which have disturbed the rightful course of
appointment, and have placed or continued power in unfaith-
ful or incompetent hands."

It was in this passage that the slight alteration, before
alluded to, was made after the General reached Washington.
Mr. McLean, who was expected to continue in the office of
Postmaster-General, objected to the policy dimly shadowed
forth in these remarks, and they were, in consequence, so
changed as to make the President himself responsible for the
acts contemplated. The phrase " executive duties" was sub-
stituted for one which was supposed to throw the responsi-
bility more upon the members of the Cabinet. As Mr.
McLean was still intractable, he was comfortably shelved on
the bench of the Supreme Court, which he has since adorned.

Mr. Clay left Washington a few days after the inaugura-
tion. A public dinner was given before his departure, at
which he spoke of the new President in language and tem-
per highly honorable to himself :

" That citizen," said he, "has done me much injustice — wanton, un-
provoked, and unatoned injustice. It was inflicted as I must ever believe,
for the double purpose of gnitifying private resentment, and promoting per-
sonal ambition.

"When, during tlie late canvass, ho came forward in Uie public prints,
under his proper name, with his charge agmnst me, and summoned before
the public tribunal his friend and his only witness to estabUsh it, the aox.

•^

/■^r^ ^^j-iU.

1829.] THE CABINBT. 173

10118 attention of the whole American people was directed to the testimony
which that witness might render. He promptly obeyed the call, and tes-
tified to what he knew. He could say nothing, and he said nothing which
cast the slightest shade upon my honor or integrity. What he did say,
was the reverse of any implication of me. Then, all just and impartial
men, and all who had faith in the magnanimity of my accuser, believed
that he would voluntarily make a public acknowledgment of his error.
How far this reasonable expectation has been fulfilled let his persevering
and stubborn silence attest

" But my relations to that citizen by a recent event are now changed.
He is the Chief Magistrate of my country, invested with large and exten-
sive powers, the administration of which may conduce to its prosperity, or
occasion its adversity. Patriotism enjoins as a duty, that while he is in
that exalted station, he should be treated with decorum, and his official acts
be judged of in a spirit of candor. Suppressing, as far as I can, a sense of
my personal wrong, willing even to forgive him, if his own conscience and
our common Qod can acquit him ; and entertaining for the majority which
has elected him, and for the office which he fills, all the deference which is
due from a private citizen, I most anxiously hope, that under his guidance,
the great interests of our country, foreign and domestic, may be upheld,
our free institutions be unimpaired, and the happiness of the nation, be con-
tinued and mcreased."

CHAPTER XVI.

THE CABINET AND THE KITCHEN CABINET.

It is not so well known to the public, as it is to society
in Washington, that there is an imaginary difiference of rank
between the members of the cabinet. The Secretary of State,
every one knows, is at the head of the cabinet, and sits at the
President's right hand in cabinet councils, and takes prece-
dence of every one except the President and the Vice-Presi-
dent. Next to him is the Secretary of the Treasury, who
also has more valuable offices in his gift than any other cab-
inet minister ; the entire custom-house system of the country
being under his control. The Secretary of War ranks third,,
and the Secretary of the Navy fourth. The Attorney-Gen-

174 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

eral formerly closed the list, as the Post-Master General waa
not, technically speaking, a member of the cabinet. Early
in the administration of the new President, however, that
officer was formally created a cabinet minister.

So little was known of General Jackson's intentions with
regard to cabinet appointments that some of the members of
the cabinet of Mr. Adams were actually in doubt whether
they ought to resign or not. Mr. Wirt, the Attorney-Gen-
eral, wrote to Mr. Monroe, asking his opinion on the point.
Mr. Monroe advised him to resign, but added, that, in all
probability, the new President would desire to retain the ser-
vices of an officer who, for twelve years, had discharge<l the
duties of his place to universal acceptance. So well did Gen-
eral Jackson keep his secret, that no man in or out of Wash-
ington, except the chosen few, know who would compose the
new administration, until the General, with his own hands,
gave to the editor of the Telcgrajyh the list for publication.
It appeared in the official newspaper on the 2Gth of Febru-
ary. It would not even then have seen the light but for the
secret opposition made to one of the appointments.

Soon after General Jackson arrived at the seat of govern-
ment, he informed Edward Livingston of Louisiana, that Mr.
Van Buren was the foreordained Secret^iry of State of the
incoming administration, and offered him the choice of the
seats remaining. Mr. Livingston, just then elected to the
Senate, i)referred his Senatorship to any office in the govern-
ment except the one already appropriated.

In distributing the six great oifices. General Jackson as-
signed two to the north, two to the west, and two to the
south.

Mr. Van Buren accepted the first place without hesita-
tion, resigned the governorshij) of New York after holding it
seventy days, and entered upon his duties at Washington
three weeks after the inauguration.

Samuel D. Ingham, of Pennsylvania, was appointed to
the second j)lace in the cabinet, that of Secretary of the
Treasury. Mr. Ingham came of a sturdy Bucks county

1829.] THE CABINET. 175

Quaker family, a thriving, industrious race, settled there for
four generations. His father, a physician, farmer, and cloth-
ier, was also a devotee of classical learning;, and a dissenter
from the tenets of the broad-brimmed sect. His son, Samuel,
showing no gieat inclination for classical knowledge, was ap-
prenticed to a paper-maker, and, in due time, set up a paper-
mill on the paternal farm, which proved a successful venture.
From the peaceful pursuits of business he was drawn away
gradually into the whirl of politics, presiding at town and
county meetings of the democratic party ; serving in such
offices as justice of the peace, member of the Assembly, and
Secretary of the commonwealth, until, in 1813, he took his
seat in the House of Representatives ; a position which, with
one short interval, he held until his transfer to the cabinet
of General Jackson. He was not a speaking member, nor
did he ever acquire any general celebrity ; but, as a business
man, his services upon important committees were valued.
His 8uca«sful management of his private business, in circum-
stances of more than usual difficulty, constructing his mill in
a region where not a mechanic whom he employed had ever
seen one, and starting it with far more credit than capital,
proves him to have been a man of executive ability. His
conduct with regard to the bargain and corruption cry stamps
him a false or a iiaiTow soul. In Pennsylvania, during the
late canvass, he had aided poor Krenior with all his talents
and all his influence in deluding the voters of his native State
into the belief that Mr. Adams had obtained the presidency
through a corrupt understanding with Mr. Clay. He wrote
an electioneering pamphlet against Mr. Adams,, which that
gentleman characterized as a gross misrepresentation of his
conduct and opinions. Mr. Ingham, as wo have before stilted,
was one of the original Calhoun men of Pennsylvania. He
was still a friend and ally of Mr. Calhoun, and it was thought
at the time that he owed his place in the cabinet to Mr.
Calhoun's influence. This was probably not the case. Ing-
ham had done enough during the late campaign to give him
a first place in the regard of the new President ; and the

176 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

Jackson members of Congress from Pennsylvania, on being
consulted by General Jackson, united in naming Ingham as
Pennsylvania's elect and precious.

John H. Eaton, Senator from Tennessee, was appointed
Secretary of War. General Jackson was, from the first, de-
termined to have in his cabinet one of his own Tennessee
circle of friends. The choice lay between the two Senators^
Eaton and White. Feb. 23d, Major Eaton wrote the follow-
ing note to Judge White : " A letter, received some time ago
from General Jackson, stated he desired you or me to be near
him. In a recent conversation with him, he remarked that
he had had a full and free conversation with you ; and at the
close remarked that he desired to have me with him. I pre-
sumed, without inquiring, that he had probably talked with
you on the subject, and that you had declined accepting any
situation, as you before had told me would be your feelings.
Nothing definite has taken place on this matter between
General Jackson and myself, and I hope you know me well
enough, and my regard and friendship for you, to know this,
that I should never permit myself to stand in competition
with any desire you may entertain. If you have any desire,
say so to me in confidence, and it shall so be received. If
you have none, then in reference to every and all considenw
tions I should consent to any such appointment. Think of
this, and give me your opinion frankly."*

Every one acquainted with Judge White knew well what
reply he would make to such a communication. Major
Eaton was appointed.

Major Lewis favors the reader with a brief account of
Eaton's career. " He lived," writes Major Lewis, "at Frank-
lin, a small town eighteen miles south of Nashville. It is
the county scat of Williamson county, one of the finest
counties in the State, and is situated on the road leading
from Nashville to Columbia, the town in which President
Polk lived. Major Eaton, however, during the whole time
he was in the Senate (a period of eleven years) spent the

• Meraoira of Hugh L. White, p. 2G6.

^'■^C

1829.] THE CABINET. 177

greater part of his time in Washington. He was a native of
North Carolina, and came to Tennessee in 1808, or 1809, then
being about twenty-two years of age. Having lost his father,
the duty of taking care of his mother and his younger
brother and sister devolved upon him, he being the eldest
son. He purchased a comfortable residence in town for the
fiunily, and a tract of land in the neighborhood to place their
negroes upon ; and, after having made these arrangements,
he returned to North Carolina, and, in due time, moved the
whole family to Tennessee, and located them in Franklin,
where his mother resided as long as she lived.

^* Mr. Eaton was a man of education, having graduated,
I think, at Chapel Hill, and was a lawyer by profession.
Although a young man, and comparatively a stranger, and
without family connections, he soon acquired a very respect-
able standing at the bar. He practiced not only in Franklin,
where he lived, but in the adjacent counties, and, in the
course of a few years, he became, by his pleasant and agree-
able manners, and fine conversational talent, quite a favorite
both of the bar and the bench. He was also a pleasant and
interesting speaker, and, by his finely modulated voice, never
failed to command the attention of the auditory. In 1818,
he was appointed a Senator in Congress, by Governor
McMinn, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of
the Hon. George W. Campbell, who had been sent to Russia
as Minister, by President Monroe. Among those most active
in getting up a recommendation to the Governor for his ap-
pointment to the Senate, was our distinguished fellow-citizen,
John Bell. He was afterward elected three times to the Sen-
ate by the legislature of his State, but he had served only
two years, I think, of his last term when General Jackson
offered him a seat in his cabinet, which was accepted. After
this, having lost his mother, brother, and sister, he never re-
turned to Tennessee to live."

For the moment this narrative must content us. We

shall have to return to this gentleman ere long, and complete

Major Lewis' story.
VOL. in — 12

178 LIFE OP ANDREW JACKSOy. [Iffi9.

Tho Navy Department was assigned to John Branch, for
many years a Senator from North Carolina. Mr. Branch
was not one of those who achieve greatness, nor one of those
who have greatness thrust upon them. He was bom to it.
Inheriting an ample estate, he lived for many years upon his
plantations and employed himself in superintending their
culture. A man of res]X3ctable talents, good presence, and
high social position, he was naturally enough chosen to rep-
resent his State in the Senate, afterward to be its Grovemor, and
again to the Senate. In his public career I find one act re*
corded which was peculiarly calculated to secure him the favor-
able consideration of General Jackson. He voted against the
confirmation of Henry Clay, as Secretary of State, in 1825. For
the rest. Governor Branch was a gentleman of the strict con-
stnictionist })ersua8ion, a friend of Mr. Calhoun, an entirely re-
spectable, but not a brilliant nor even a well-known character.

John McPherson Berrien, of Georgia, was appointed At-
torney-General. Mr. Berrien was born and educated in New
Jersey, graduating at Nassau Hall, but was admitted to the
bar in Georgia, where he rose to great and merited eminence
as a lawyer, Judge, and legislator. Appearing as a Senator
in 1824, he exhibited talents more than respectable, and was
noted for somewhat extreme opinions on those questions
which were destined to create painful differences between
North and South. A warm, even passionate lover of the
Union, he yet opposed most vigorously the tariff bill, for
which General Jackson had voted, and was among the fore-
most in his opposition to the revived heterodoxy of Mr. Adams'
messages. He, too, like Governor Branch, voted against
Mr. Clay's confirmation in 1825 ; and, like Governor Branch,
looked up to Mr. Calhoun as the South's peculiar chamjnon.

William T. Barry, of Kentucky, was appointed Post-
master General. Elected to Congress at' the age of twenty-
seven, Mr. Barry had been in public life for twenty years ;
chiefly, however, in State offices. He fought in the war of
1812 with great credit, under General Harrison, and was af-
ter^val'd the conspicuous friend of Henry Clay^ supporting

1829.] THE CABINET. 179

him for the presidency in 1824. But Mr. Clay's conduct in
giving the presidency to and accepting office under Mr.
Adams, Major Barry could not stomach ; and there was first
a coolness and then a bitterness between the old friends. To
aid in defeating the administration and to bring in General
Jackson, he had consented to run for the governorship of
Kentucky against the Clay candidate, an office which he had
more than once declined, and did not then desire. He just
lost his election, but the canvass powerfully aided the Jack-
son party, and gave them confident hopes of carrying the
State at the presidential election, which hopes, we know,
were realized. How could General Jackson feel otherwise
than grateful to the man who had put upon Henry Clay the
exquisite mortification of losing the support of his own Ken-
tucky? Major Barry was an agreeable and amiable man,
but not a man of business — ^not the man for the most per-
plexing post in the administration. Nor was he generally
known, even by name, beyond the borders of his own State.

The Cabinet, taken as a whole, and compared with those
which had preceded it, could not bo called splendid. There
was some show of justice in a common remark of the time :
" This is the millennium of the minnows." Leaving Mr. Van
Buren out of view, the only cohesive element in it, common
to all, was an aversion to Mr. Clay. Eaton was a Jackson man;
Ingham, Branch, and Berrien, were Calhoun men ; but all
were anti-Clay men. The reader will not have to read many
pages more before imbibing an impression that the anti-Clay-
ism of these gentlemen was that which particularly endeared
them to the new President. The appointment to the Bussian
Mission of John Randolph, who had fought a duel with Henry
Clay three years before, strengthens this conjecture.

I should mention, perhaps, in justice to General Jackson,
that Henry Clay had himself taken the stump during the
late campaign in Kentucky, and denounced the General in
terms of unmeasured, and, sometimes, indecent severity.
Gentlemen who heard Mr. Clay on these occasions, inform
me that his printed speeches are moderate and tame com-

ISO LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

pared with those which he delivered in the open air, to the
"hunters of Kentucky," during the campaign. He could
not speak of the bargain and corruption calumny without
boiling over with fury, and pouring forth a torrent of fierc5e
Kentuckian invective. No doubt there were obliging indi-
viduals among the crowd, who took care that Mr. Clay's
wrathful phrases should be reported to General Jackson. It
was, moreover, a fixed idea in the Grenerars mind, that the
secret originator of the calumnies against Mrs. Jackson was
no other than Mr. Clay. Mr. Clay solemnly denied and com-
pletely disproved the charge, but he could never remove that
fixed idea from the soul of General Jackson.

Such, then, was the first Cabinet of the new President
With the exception of Mr. Van Buren, its members had no
great influence over the measures of their chief, and play no
great part in the general history of the times. There were
other individuals who stood nearer to the President than they
did, and exerted over him a far more potent influence.

A few days after the inauguration, Major Lewis, who had
his quarters in the White House, informed the President that
he was about to return to Tennessee, as it was the planting
season and his plantation required his attention. "Why,
Major," said the President, "you are not going to leave me
here alone j after doing more than any other man to bring me
here ?'' The General clung to his Tennessee friends, ever
lonely, always mourning for his dead wife. Major Lewis re-
lented. It was agreed that he should accept an auditorship
of the treasury, and remain a member of the President's
family. Major Lewis, I must remind the reader, was a
brother-in-law of Major Eaton. It seems a trifling fact to
mention twice. The reader will discover soon that it was one
of those little facts which influence great aflairs.

General Duff Green, editor of the United States Tdt^
graph, was much about the person of the President during
the first month of his administration, and was supposed to
have more influence over him than perha])s, he really pos-
sesssed. He had been the editor of a newspaper at St. LouiSy

1^9.] THE CABINET. 181

and had come to Washington, some months before, a poor
man, to effect an exchange of his paper for one published in
Washington. He succeeded in his object ; supported Gen-
eral Jackson with all the ardor and ability of which he was
master ; obtained in the spring of 1829, before the inaugur-
ation, a share of the public printing ; was then a prosperous
gentleman ; and his paper became the confidential organ of
the new administration. He was fierce for the removal from
office of those who were not devotees of the new administra-
tion. General Green was and is a jovial soul, a capital story-
teller, a pleasant host, liberal in expenditure, formed to go
gaily with the tide, not to bufiet the billows of opposition.

Editor Isaac Hill from New Hampshire, was in high fa-
vor at the White House from the very beginning of the new
administration. The early life of this man was so curiously
like that of Horace Greeley, that the narration of it would
answer as well for the one as the other. A poor, little, lame
New Hampshire boy. Consumed with a passion for reading.
Scoaring the country for books. Beading every thing, from
"Law's Call to the Unconverted" to a penny almanac.
Tramping miles for a newspaper. Learning the printer's
trade because he so loved to read. Serving his time in the
office of that very Farmer's Cabinet^ at Amherst, New Hamp-
shire, which the youthful Greeley lay in wait for by the road-
side and devoured in secret. Setting up a newspaper with
immense difficulty, and struggling for years for a circulation
in a State that was a stronghold of federalism, until he made
it democratic. A prosperous man, at length. He published
books, and kept a thriving book-store, and had other irons in
the fire, which he contrived to keep hot. A keen party man,
and made the more so by many years of active but unsuccess-
ful warfare with a party that despised more than they hated
the name of democrat. During the strife of 1828, he had
written, and spoken, and schemed, and traveled for Jackson,
incurring rancorous hostility and sufilTing personal violence.
Unable to carry the State for his candidate, he had fought
such a fight for him as excited General Jackson's admiration

182 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

and gratitude. The indomitable Isaac went to Washington
to console hhnself with the triumph of the inauguration, and
the new President gave him more than a friendly welcome.
Before the month of March closed, Isaac Hill found himself
appointed to the second ComptroUership of the Treasury, at
a salary of three thousand dollars a year, and ten clerkships
in his gift. Like Duff Green, he was urgent for the removal
of those who had opposed the election of General Jackson.

"Every State in New England," said he in the New
Hampshire Patriot, in November, 1828, "is now governed
by the same aristocracy that ruled in 1798 — that ruled during
the late war. The republicans here are in a minority ; but
the late election show them to be a glorious majority of the
whole Union. A band of New England democrats have en-
countered the dominant party at vast odds — they have suf-
fered every species of persecution and contumely. Shall these
men not be protected by the administration of the people un-
der General Jackson ? If that administration fail to ex-
tend this protection, then indeed it will fail of one of the
principal objects for which the people placed them in power
by at least two to one of the votes of the Union."

Was there ever a pair of ears so prepared to listen favor-
ably to such sentiments as those of General Jackson in 1829 ?
Will he be able to carry out the doctrines avowed in certain
letters to Mr. Monroe in 1816 and 1817 ?

Amos Kendall, late the editor of a Jackson paper in Ken-
tucky, a native of Massachusetts, was present at the inaugur-
ation, was taken into the President's confidence, was ap-
pointed fourth Auditor of the Treasury. He began his long
official career with the most virtuous resolutions. " The in-
terest of the country," he wrote to a friend, March 24th,
1829, "demands that the Fourth Auditor's office shall be
filled with men of business, and not with babbling politicians.
Partisiin feelings shall not enter here, if I can keep them out.
To others belong the whole business of electioneering. To
me and my clerks other duties are assigned. Them I shall
endeavor to discharge in the spirit of reform, which has made

1829.] THE OABIKET. 183

Cteneral Jackson President. Vain I may be, proud I am,
that the President has given me an opportunity to aid him
in proving that reform is not an empty sound, and is not to
apply merely to a change of men. Henceforth, assiduously
devoted to my official duties, I shall leave my enemies and
his, to their freedom of speech and the press, resting my
claims to public confidence on my acts."

Man proposes ; the System disposes. Never was there a
busier electioneering office-holder than Mr. Kendall. He was^
however, a man of indefatigable industry, and performed both
his in-door and out-door duties with zeal.

These were the gentlemen — ^Lewis, Green, Hill and Ken-
dall— who, at the beginning of the new administration, were
supposed to have most of the President's ear and confidence,
and were stigmatized by the opposition as the Kitchen Cab-
inet. Major Donelson, as the private secretary of the Presi-
dent, was also a personage of importance in the White House
and in the society of Washington. General Call, formerly
the General's aid, now the delegate from the Territory of
Florida, was much the President's friend and often his com-
panion.

Colonel James Watson Webb, it is evident from the col-
umns of the Courier and Enquirer^ was kept better advised
of the secrets of the White House than any other editor out
of Washington. Colonel Webb, as it chanced, had particu-
lar relations both with Mr. Van Buren and with Mr. Cal-
houn. He was a native of the same county as Mr. Van
Buren, and had long been his friend and supporter. Mr.
Calhoun, on the other hand, had given Colonel Webb his
commission in the army, and given it to him in such circum-
stances, and in such a manner, as secured him the friendship
and gratitude of the young soldier for life.

In after times, when the course of political events placed
the Courier in opposition to Mr. Calhoun, no word disrespect-
ful to him j)ersonally was admitted into its editorial columns ;
nor did Colonel Webb ever visit Washington, even at that
mad period, without calling upon his early benefactor.

184 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

CHAPTER XVII.

MRS. EATON.

William O'Neal kept at Washington for many years a
large old-fashioned tavern, where members of Congress, in
considerable numbers, boarded during the sessions of the na-
tional legislature. William O'Neal had a daughter, sprightly
and beautiful, who aided him and his wife in entertaining his
boarders. It is not good for a girl to grow up in a large
tavern. Peg O'Neal as she was called, was so lively in her
deportment, so free in her conversation, that, had she been
bom twenty years later, she would have been called one of
the "fast" girls of Washington. A w^itty, pretty, saucy, ac-
tive tavern-keeper's daughter, who makes free with the in-
mates of her father's house, and is made free with by them,
may escape contamination, but not calumny.

When Major Eaton first came to Washington as a Sen-
ator of the United States in the year 1818, he took board at
Mr. O'Neal's tiiveni, and continued to reside there every win-
ter for ten years. He became acquainted, of coui*se, with the
family, including the vivacious and attractive Peg. When
Greneral Jackson came to the city as Senator in 1823, he also
went to live with the O'Neals, whom he had known in Wash-
ington before it had become the seat of government. For
Mrs. O'Neal, who was a remarkably efficient woman, he had
a particular respect. Even during his presidency, when he
was supposed to visit no one, it was one of his favorite relax-
ations, when worn out with business, to stroll with Major
Lewis across the "old fields" near Washington to the cot-
tage where Mrs. O'Neal lived in retirement, and enjoy an
hour's chat with the old lady. Mrs. Jackson, also, during her
residence in Washington in 182.5, became attached to the
good Mrs. O'Neal and to her daughter.

In the course of time Miss O'Neal became the wife of
purser Timberlake of the United States Navy, and the niother

1829.] MRS. EATON, 185

of two children. In 1828 came news that Mr. Timberlake,
then on duty in the Mediterranean, had cut his throat in a fit
of melancholy, induced, it was said, by previous intoxication.
On hearing this intelligence, Major Eaton, then a widower,
felt an inclination to marry Mrs. Timberlake, for whom he had
entertained an attachment quite as tender as a man could
lawfully indulge for the wife of a friend and brother-mason.
He took the precaution to consult General Jackson on the
subject. " Why, yes. Major," said the General, " if you love
the woman, and she will have you, many her by all means."
Major Eaton mentioned, what the General well knew, that
Mrs. Timberlake's reputation in Washington had not escaped
reproach, and that Major Eaton himself was supposed to have
been too intimate with her. " Well," said the General,
" your marrying her will disprove these charges, and restore
Peg's good name." And so, perhaps, it might, if Major
Eaton had not been taken into the Cabinet.

Eaton and Mrs. Timberlake were married in January,
1829, a few weeks before General Jackson arrived at the seat
of government. As soon as it was whispered about Wash-
ington that Major Eaton was to be a member of the new
Cabinet, it occurred with great force to the minds of certain
ladies, who supposed themselves to be at the head of society
at the Capital, that, in that case, Peg O'Neal would be the
wife of a cabinet minister, ^nd, as such, entitled to admission
into their own sacred circle. Horrible to contemplate ! For-
bid it, morality ! Forbid it, decency ! Forbid it, General
Jackson !

Among those who were scandalized at the appointment of
Major Eaton was the Kev. J. N. Campbell, pastor of the
Presbyterian church in Washington, which the General and
Mrs. Jackson had both attended, and which, it was supposed.
President Jackson would attend. Not caring to spe^ik with
the General himself on the subject, Mr. Campbell communi-
cated the ill things he had heard of Mrs. Eaton to the Rev.
E. S. Ely, of Philadelphia, who had known General Jackson
in his mercantile days, and had come to Washington to wit-

186 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

ness the inauguration of his old friend. Dr. Ely desired to
converse with General Jackson on the subject, but finding no
opportunity to do so in Washington, wrote to the General,
after his return to Philadelphia, a very long letter, in which
he detailed all the charges he had heard against Mrs. Eaton.
He informed the President that she had borne a bad reputa-
tion in Washington from her girlhood ; that the ladies of
Washington would not speak to her ; that a gentleman, at
the table of Gadsby's Hotel, was said to have declared that he
personally knew her to be a dissolute woman ; that Mrs.
Eaton had told her servants to call her children Eaton, not
Timberlake, for Eaton was their rightful name ; that a cler-
gyman of Washington had told Dr. Ely, that a deceased
physician had told him, that Mrs. Timberlake had had a mis-
carriage when her husband had been absent a year ; that the
friends of Major Eaton had persuaded him to board else-
where, for the sake of getting him away from Mrs. Timber-
lake ; that Mrs. Jackson henself had entertained the worst
opinion of Mrs. Timberlake ; that Major Eaton and Mrs.
Timberlake had traveled together, and recorded their names
on hotel registers as man and wife, in New York and else-
where.

For your own sake, said the reverend doctor, for your dead
wife's sake, for the sake of your administration, for the credit
of the government and the country, you should not counte-
nance a woman like this.

Tliis letter was dated March 18th, 1829. General Jack-
son replied to it immediately, and in a manner peculiarly
characteristic. Indeed, all his most peculiar traits were ex-
hibited in the course of this affair.

GENERAL JACKSON TO REV. DR. ELY.

" Washikotox, March 23, 1839.

*' Dear Sir : Your confidential letter of the 18th instant has been re-
ceived in the same spirit of kindness and friendship with which it was
written.

" I must here be permitted to remark that I sincerely regret you did
not personally name this subject to me before you left Wasliington, as I

•^

1829.] MBS. EATON. 187

could, in that event, have apprised you of the great exertions made by Clay
and his partisans, here and elsewhere, to destroy the character of Mrs.
Eaton by the foulest and basest means, so that a deep and lasting wrong
might be inflicted on her husband. I could have given you information
that would at least have put you on your guard with respect to anonjrmous
letters, containing slanderous insinuations against female character. If
8udi evidence as this is to be received, I ask where is the guarantee for
female character, however moral — however virtuous f

" To show you how much you have been imposed upon, and how much
Mrs. E. has been slandered, I am warranted in the positive contradiction
of the very first charge made against her — ' that she was in ill- fame before
Mr. Eaton ever saw her* — from the united testimony of the Hon. John
Bhea, Dr^ Hogg, and others who boarded with Mr. O'Neal, long before
ICr. Eaton was a member of Congress. If you feel yourself at liberty to
give the names of those secret traducers of female reputation, I entertain
no doubt but they will be exposed and consigned to public odium, which
should ever be the lot of those whose morbid appetite delights in defama-
tion and slander.

" As to the information of Mr. ^ of Baltimore, I will barely re-

maiic that he may be a respectable man ; but surely yon will agree with
me, that a charge so malignant in its character, unless accompanied with
indubitable evidence of the criminality of the act, should not have been
made, and shows him at once to be destitute of those just, manly, and
diaritable feelings, which should be characteristic of every good and vir-

toons man. In .contradiction of Mr. *s information to you, I have

many letters from Baltimore, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other States, con-
gratulating me and the nation on the selection of Mr. Eaton as one of my
Cabinet. Besides these, many members of Congress, and among them the
leading members of the New York delegation, expressed personally their
high gratification at his appointment You were assuredly justified in
stating to my friends that I have no information, nor ever had, on which
any reliance ought to be placed, of any infamous conduct of Mrs. Eaton.

" One observation on the bank conversation. The place whore the
remark was made is sufficient evidence, to my mind, that it emanated from
Clay or his satellites, with a view of completing what he had Tiere begun.
I am fully warranted in charging Mr. Clay with circulating these slander-
ous reports, from information derived from a very intelligent lady, who met
Mr. Clay and his wife on her way to this city. This lady says Mr. and
Mrs. Clay spoke in tlie strongest and most unmeasured terms of Mrs.
Eaton. She inquired of them to know upon what grounds these charges
reste<]. * Rumor^ mere rumor^' was the answer. So far from this attempt
to injure Mrs. Eaton on the part of these personages having the eflect
intended, the lady, as soon as she arrived, sought to become acquainteOk

188 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

with her aud Mr. Eaton. Now, my dear sir. justice to female diaracter,
justice to me, and justice to Mr. Eaton, require that these secret agents in
propagating slander should be made known lo Mr. Eaton, that he may be en-
abled to defend the character of his wife against such vile and unprincipled
attacks. Would yon, my worthy friend, desire me to add the weight and
influence of my name, whatever it may be, to assist in crusliing MrsL
Eaton, who, I do believe, and have a riglit to believe, is a much injured
woman, and more virtuous than some of her enemies 7

*' It is due to me to be made acquainted witli the names of those bank
directors who have dared to throw an imputation on the memory of my
departed wife. Men who can be base enough to speak thus of the dead,
are not too good secreiiy to slander the living ; and they deserve, and no
doubt will receive, the scorn of all good men. Mr. Eaton has been known
to me for twenty years. His character heretofore, for honesty and moral-
ity, has been unblemished ; and am I now, for the first time, to change my
opinion of him, because of the slanders of this city ? Wo know, here, that
that none are spared. Even Mrs. Madison was assailed by these fiends in
human shape. Mrs?. Commodore has also been singled out as a vic-
tim to be sacrificed on Uie altar of defamation, because she left this city

and traveled precisely in the way agreed on by Commodore , but did

not promulgate to the gossips here. I speak advisedly in relation to this

matter, for I have seen a letter from Commodore , giving an cxpos^

of tliis whole transaction, justifying his wife's conduct and vindicating her
innocence. He expresses a determination, when he retiuns to tliis coun-
try, to investigate the afiair, and punish the defumers of his wife's charac-
ter ; and I sincerely hope he may live to do it, for I am disgusted even to
loatliing at the licentious and depraved state of society. It needs puri-
fying.

'* You were badly advised, my dear sir, when informed * that Mrs.
Jackson, while in Washington, did not fear to put the seal of reprobation
on such a character as Mi's. Eaton.' Mrs. Jackson, to the last moment of
her ]il'i\ brlieved Mrs. Eaton to be an innocent and much injured womain,
so far as relates to the tales about her and Mr. Eaton, and none other ever
reached her or ine. As Mrs. J. has been introduced into this afiair, and as
she loved truth while living, and she and myself have taken Uie (illegible)
Psalm for our guide, to which I refer you, I will give you a concise history
of the information which I and Mrs. Jackson possessed upon this subject
First, let me remark that Major O'Neal is a mason, Mr. Timberlakc was a
mason, and ^Ir. Eaton is a mason ; therefore, every person who is ac-
quainted with the obligations of masons, must know that Mr. Eaton, as a
mason, could not have criminal intercourse with another mason's wife, with-
out being one of the most abandoned of men. The high standing of Mr.
Eaton, as a man of moral wortii and a mason, gives the lie direct^ in my

1829.] KB 8. EATON. 189

otimatian, to such a charge^ and ought to do it^ unless the fiu^ts of his al-
leged goOt shall be dearly and unequivocally established, when, should that
be the oase^ he ought and would be spumed with indignation.

^ I became acquainted with Major O'Neal in thb dty before Gongrese
•f«r ait in it I nerer saw him again until 1819, when I Tisited his house
to pvy my reqpects to Mr. Eaton, who in December preceding took lus
asBl in the Senate for the first time. In 1823 I again visited the city in
the character of Senator from Tennessee, and took lodging with Mr. Eaton
at Major CNeal'Sy when and where I became acquainted with Mr. and
Mim Timbeiiake. I was there when Mr. Timberlake left this country for
ikm Mediterraoean, and was present when he took leave of his wife, chil-
dnn, and fiunily. He parted with them in the most afiectionate manner,
M he did also with myself and Mr. Eaton. Between him and the latter
gantleman there appeared to be nothing but friendship and confidence fix>m
itm first time I saw them at Major O'Neal's, until the day of his departure.
Wrom the situatioD and proximity of the rooms we occupied, there could
not have been any illicit intercourse between Mr. Eaton and Mrs. Tim-
beriake without my having some knowledge of it; and I assure you, sir,
IImiI I saw nothing, heard nothing which was calculated to excite even the
4gfateat suspicion. Shortly after Mr. Timberiake left Washington for the
Maditmanean, I was told in great confidence that it was rumored in the
a$j that Mr. Eaton and Mrs. Timberlake were too intimate. I met it, as
I meet aU slandeiB, with a prompt denial, and inquired from what source
Hm rumor came^'aad found it originated with a female, against whom
tlMn was as rnndi said as is now said against Mrs. Eaton. This report
CHBe to the ear of Mrs. Jackson through the same channel ; but to the
dsj of her death she believed it to be a base slander, as I do at this day.
Aa to what servants may have said about her telling them not to call her
sfaBdran Timberiake, but Baton, it is matter of regret to me that you have
named it My dear sir, if the tales of servants, who become offended by
being dismissed, are to be believed, what security has your dear wife for
bar Tirtuoiia character, or that of any other lady ?

'^ It is reported that* Mr. Timberlake declared Lo would never again
xetom to this country, in consequence of Mr. Eaton having seduced his
wife. How can such a tale as this be reconciled with the following facts ?
While now writing, I turn my eyes to the mantel-piece, where I behold
• present sent me by Mr. Timberiake of a Turkish pipe, about three weeks
before his death, and presented through Mr. Eaton, whom in his letter he
caDs ' his fiiend.' Now, sir, could this be so, if he did really believe Mr.
Eaton had injured him, or wronged him ? No, I am sure you will say
it 18 impossible.

*^ I have not the least doubt but that every secret rumor is circulated
fagr the minions of Mr. Clay, for the purpose of injuring Mrs. Eaton, and

190 LIFE OF ANDBSW JACKSON. [1829.

through her, Mr. Eaton ; but I assure you that such conduct shall never
have my aid.

" When Mrs. E. visits me (she has not done so since the 4th), I shaU
treat her with as much politeness as I have ever done, believing her vir-
tuous, at least as much so as the female who first gave rise to the foal tale,
and as are many of those who traduce her. As to the determination of
tlic ladies in Washington, I have nothing, nor will I ever have any thing
to do with it I will not persuade or dissuade any of them from visiting
Mrs. Eaton, leaving Mrs. Eaton and them to settle the matter in their own
way ; but I am told that many of the ladies here have waited on her.

" The villain who could have used such an expression at a public table,

as has been related to you by Mr. , of New York, ought to have

been instantly kicked from the table, and that Mr. did not thus treat

him, instead of telling you of it, does not elevate him much in my esti-
mation. A man who could be so base and wanton in his conduct would
not hesitate to slander the most virtuous female in the country, nay, even
the Saviour, were He on earth. With regard to the tale of the clergyman,
it seems to me to be so inconsistent witli the charities of the Christian
religion, and so opposed to the character of an embassador of Christy that
it gives me pain to read it. Now, my dear friend, why did not this clergy-
mcin come liimself and tell me this tale, instead of asking you to do it ?
His not ha\'ing done so, convinces me that he did not beheve it, but was
willing, through other sources, to spread the vile slander. If he had been
told this by tlie attending physician himself, ho had nothing to fear from
giving his name, provided he was a person of responsibility; if he derived
it from any other source than Uie doctor, he himself became a slanderer.
Tiie New Testament contains no such uncharitable examples as given by
our Saviour while a sojourner on earth. I pray you write this clergyman,
and remind him of the precepts contained in the good old book. If he
reads it, he will know where to find them.

'^ I am authorized to say it is untrue that Mr. Eaton ever changed
his lodgings, from tlie first time he went to Major O'Neal's to the present
day, except for a few weeks, which was in consequence of his being (m
several committees much pressed with business, and making it necessary
for him, a short time, to be near the CapitoL I should like to know the
names of the members of Congress who saw the names of Mr. Eaton and
Mrs. Timberlake entered on the tavern register as man and wife, and the
date of those entries. If my memory serves me correctly, Mr. Eaton
never traveled in company with Mrs. Timberlake but once, and then her
husband went along, nor do I believe they went as far as New York ; but
in this I may be mistaken. But, suppose it to be true, are we to infer
guilt from tliat circumstance ? If the owner of the house, or his bar-
keeper, were to place upon their register the names of Mr. and Mrs. Eaton, *

1829.] MB8. EATON. 191

what would that prove ? Why, only that they supposed the lady with
him, on his arrival at the inn, was his wife — a mistake, I will venture to
say, that often occurs. There is, I expect^ about as much truth in this
story as the one that informed you, on your arrival at Philadelphia, that
Mrs. Eaton was to preside at the President's house, or the one that repre-
sented her as intending to visit your city, in company with Major Lewis,
to assist in purchasing furniture for the presidential mansion. Now, my
dear sir, when such a bare-faced and unfounded misrepresentation as this
can meet you in the teeth, I set down all that has been told you as un-
worthy entirely of credit

" Major Lewis will go on shortly to see his daughter, at school in Phil-
adelphia, and Mrs. Eaton, for aught I know, may go with him, to purchase
furniture for her own house, as I am told she and Mr. Eaton intend keep-
ing house. I suppose she has a right to travel, as well as any other person^
if she chooses to do so; and if she desires to go under the protection of
Miyor Lewis, if he nor her husband object, I do not think any other person
has a right ; but I do not know that she designs going at all — I am inclined
to think she does not Mrs. Eaton has not been in my house since I moved
into it, but should she do so, the same attention and respect will be shown
to her that are shown to others. On my nieces I lay no restriction. I
only enjoin it on them to treat aU well who may call to see them ; tliey
are required to visit none but those they may think proper.

" Permit me now, my dear and highly esteemed fHend, to conclude this
hasty, and I fear unintelligible scrawl Whilst on the one hand we should
shun base women as a pestilence of the worst and most dangerous kind
to society, we ought^ on the other, to guard virtuous female character with
vestal vigilance. Female virtue is like a tender and delicate flower ; let
but the breath of suspicion rest upon it, and it withers and perhaps perishes
forever. When it shall be assailed by envy and malice, the good and the
pious will maintain its purity and innocence, until guilt is made manifest —
not by rumors and suapicians, but by facts and proofs brought forth and
sustained by respectable and fearless witnesses in the face of day. Truth
shuns not the light ; but falsehood deals in sly and dark insinuations, and
prefers darkness^ because its deeds are evil. The Psalmist says, * The liar's
^>ngue we ever hate, and banish from our sight'

" Your friend, Andrew Jaokson."

Dr. Ely promptly replied to this formidable letter. He
was glad to learn, he said, that the President was so sure of
Mrs. Eaton's innocence, and expressed a hope, that if she had
done wrong in past times, she would now be restored by re-
pentance to the esteem of the virtuous. Dr. Ely was, evi-

192 LIFE OF ANDREW JACE80K. [1829.

dently, not quite convinced of Mrs. Eaton's immaculate pu-
rity. The President hastened to renew his eflForts in her
defense. He wrote again to his reverend friend.

GENERAL JACKSON TO REV. DR. ELY.

** Wabbinotov Cirr, April 10. ISA

" Mt Dkar Sir : I have just received your friendly and frank letter of
the 4th instant ; and finding tliat you have been badly advised as to some
matters on the subject under consideration, I am induced once more to
write you. And first I must remark, that I have always thought repentance
presupposes the existence of crime, and should have been gratified had you
pointed to tlie proof of Mrs. Eaton's criminality before you recommended
repentance.

" In your letter you say you had been assured by a gallant man that
the rumors of which you speak, had been communicated to Mrs. Eaton and
myself. This is not true, unless in confidence, or the information having
be(Mi given by a lady, as stated to you in my last letter. If 1 am right in
my conjectures as to the gallant man alluded to, he never did see any thing
criminal in Mrs. Eaton, as he has always positively assured mo ; and the
rebuff this gallant gentleman would have met with, if he had related it^
would have convinced you that Mrs. Timberlake was not of such easy
virtue. From that time to the present period they have been unfriendly.
I think I well know the gentleman alluded to, and if I am not mistaken,
although I entertain a high opinion of him, yet I do know there is no man
whose prejudices run higher.

" I will rel.ite a circumstance which has lately occurred, and then you
can judge wliether attempts have not been made to destroy Mrs. Eaton's
character upon mere rumor, unfounded and under secrecy. Soon after
General Call returned from Philadelphia he communicated to me that he
had received, confidentiatty, from a high-minded, honorable man, * informa-
tion of a correspondence in writing between Mr. Eaton and Mr. Timber-
lake, which fixed on Mr. and Mrs. Eaton positive criminality — and that he
ha<l seen it.' I replied, as I always had done to the General, that this was
a positive and unfounded slander, and that he ought to give up the name
of such a xnUain ; for, said I, pointing to the tobacco-pouch, * thai, with the
note which accompanied it, is my evidence that Mr. Timberlake had the
utmost confidence in Mr. Eaton to the day of his death.' I insisted that
it was due to Mr. Eaton to give him the name of this man, as he was de-
termined to have justice done himself and lady. But, as lias always been
the case, the name of this man could not be had, it was in confidence. It
is thiLS, my dear sir, this and all other slanders are circulated and promoted.

*' I have since obtained a power of attorney (from Timberlake to Eaton)^

1829.] MRS. EATON. 193

a copy of which I enclose you. Besides this, there are letters of a more
recent date, expressive of the highest confidence in Mrs. Eaton and of the
most friendly feeling. Yet it has been stated, and confidently circulatedy
that the conduct of Mr. Eaton was the cause of Mr. Timberlake's cutting
his throat! Can any man, disposed to do justice and support truth, believe
such tales, after reading the enclosed power of attorney and the letters re-
ferred to ? They afford to my mind the most satisfactory evidence of the
entire confidence reposed in Mr. Eaton by Mr. Timberlake up to the pe-
riod of his death. Instead of communicating these slanderous tales to Mr.
Eaton, they are concealed under the pledges of confidence by those who
pro/ess friendship for him. I do not wish to be understood as saying that
these reports have never reached his ear , but I do say, that no one, so far
as I am advised, has ever said to him, that such a gentleman of high stand'
mg has taken upon himself the responsibility of charging either Mr. or Mrs.
Eaton with any act of crimincUitg or even impropriety, I am sure our
friend General Call has not, but to me he has said such rumors were in cir-
culation, and when investigated were traced to the female alluded to in my
last letter. In all Gk^neral Call's conversations with me, and they have
been frequent and confidential^ he never did intimate any knowledge of
Mrs. Eaton which was calculated, in my opinion, to cast even a shade of
sn^icion on her virtue. The very act which gave rise to his suspicions
was one which, in my judgment, should have given him a more exalted
opinion of her chastity.

"Mr. Eaton has very recently understood that the virives of two gentle-
men in this city, have been speaking disrespectfully of himself and Mrs.
Eaton, and he has, as it has been intimated to me, with promptness at-
tended to the matter, and I doubt not tliat their lips will bo hermetically
sealed for the future. I have often reflected upon myself with some sever-
ity for ever having received, confidentially, any communication prejudicial
to tlie character and standing of Mr. Eaton. I have known him for twenty
vears, without a speck upon his moral character, and my friend General
Call has always united with me, in expressions of his great moral worth.
I would then ask you, if such confidence existed between Mr. Eaton and
Mr. Timberlake, to the day of the death of the latter, as is conclusively
i^hown by the enclosed power of attorney, and the other evidence referred
to, would not Mr. Eaton have been the basest man on earth, to have vio-
late<i his confidence, and severed the ties that exist between masons? His
general character forbids the idea, and his having taken her as his wife, is
x>nclusive to my mind that he knew her to be virtuous. If he had been
oase enough to violate the confidence reposed in him by her husband, and
to burst the bonds of masonry, he would have left her in disgrace and mis-
ery, instead of taking an object so vile and so loathsome to his bosom.
Permit me now to say to you, in the language of sincerity, that I do not
VOL, III. — 13

194 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

believe there is a beings worthy of belief, that can or will dare to state a
single facij going to show criminality or a want of virtue in her. Why,
then, will not these secret slanderers, if they believe what they propagate,
and have the proof — why not come out boldly, and like men armed with
truth, be responsible for what they are daily in the habit of seeretiy and
e(Wi^</cw/Mi% circulating? Truth fears not the open day, but falsehood
and vile slander delight in darkness, and under the garb of friendship and
in tlie name of confidence, circulate their poison.

" I question very much if any one ever told Mr. Eaton more than that
rumors were afloat injurious to his character, until lately. No individuals
were ever pointed out as speaking disrespectfully of Mr. Eaton and his
wife, except the two ladies mentioned above; and from my knowledge of
the man, I feel confident) tliat so soon as he can trace tliese slanders to any
responsible source, he will make the individual responsible to him, be be
who he may. I know he has been most cruelly treated by two men, who^
to his face, liave been always most friendly ; and yet by innuendoes behind
his back, have added to these slanders.

" The opinion I had of Mrs. Commodore when I last wrote you,

I still entertain. Afler reading Commodore 's letter to Mr. Skinner

of Baltimore, I could not give credence to the reports which had been cir-
culated about her, and my beUef of her innocence has since been strength-
ened by corroborating statements made to me here. If her father is really
wealthy, as is stated to be the case by you, he is unworthy of confidence ;
for in nn apphcation which he has made to me for office, he assures me it
is made in consequence of his poverty 1 Again you say, * if the Conuno-
dore would furnish tlic authors of the rumors against his wife he must be-
gin with her own fatlier,' etc. Now, permit me to say tliat unless you have

it from Mr. 's own lips, you ought not to beUeve he has been instro-

mental in circulating these rumors about his daughter. I have received a
letter from him, in his own hand writing, in which he speaks in the most
indignant manner of the authors of the slanders against his child, and sol-
emnly declares his firm conviction of her innocence.

" I liave been thus explicit, my dear sir, knowing tliat you love the
trutli, but believing that you have opened your ear to tales which, if I
judge rightly of the high character you allude to, should never have been
repeated to you ; for he has either acted treacherously to me, or tdd
you of things which have no existence. In short, he has told me himself
that he ii(.*ver did see any act of Mrs. Eaton which was improper, thongh
he believed her a thoughtless, volatile woman. I have written to the
gentleman, informing him of the power of attorney, the letters, etc, etc.,
referred to above. From this evidence of confidence on the part of Mr.
Timberlake in Mr. Eaton, I ask, can you believe such tales, without some
direct and positive proof of criminahty, and that^ too, from the lips of in-

1829.] MRS. EATOK. 195

diTiduals whose standing in society entitled them to credit? Where is
the witness who has thus come forth in substantiation of these slanderous
charges? None has yet done so, nor do I believe any will; for I believe
the reports are entirely destitute of foundation.

" It puts me in mind (if I may be permitted to refer to the circum-
stance by way of illustration) of a tale circulated here the other day, to
wit^ ' that I was seized with spasms in the stomach, which would have
occasioned my insiarU death, but for the immediate assistance of Dr. Hen-
derson, who was at hand and saved me.* This was asserted to be an in-
dubitable fact, and from the lips of Dr. Henderson himself Now, my
worthy friend, the truth is, I had no spasms, nor had I ever seen or heard
of Dr. Henderson before, to the best of my recollection. But still the
tale was told, and confidently believed to be true. It was repeated in
the presence and hearing of my friend, Mrs. Love, who promptly contra-
dicted it ; but she was met with the reply, * I have it from the mouth of
Dr. Henderson himself; it must be true.' Thus it is with most of the
tales, rumors, and surmises, which are put in circulation by the gossips of
the world. Unless I am greatly mistaken, when all the facts and circum-
stances connected with this attempt to destroy Mr. Eaton, and blast the
reputation of his wife, are brought to light, it will be found, in point of
malignity and wickedness, to have few parallel cases.

" Please present me most kindly to your amiable wife, and believe
roe to be sincerely your friend, Andrew Jackson."

These letters convey but a faint idea of the interest felt
by General Jackson in the vindication of the lady. He sent
a gentleman to New York to investigate the hotel-register
story. He wrote so many letters and statements in relation
to this business that Major Lewis was worn out with the
nightly toil of copying. The entire mass of the secret and
confidential writings relating to Mrs. Eaton, all dated in the
summer and autumn of 1829, and most of them originally in
General Jackson's hand, would fill about eighty-five of these
pages. And besides these, there was a large number of papers
and documents not deemed important enough for preserva-
tion. To show the zeal and energy of General Jackson in
the defense of a friend, I will append a catalogue of the
papers preserved :

1. Letter of Dr. Ely to the President, stating the rumors.
2. The President's reply, given above. 3. Dr. Ely to the

196 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1^.

President. 4. The President's second letter to Dr. Ely, given
above. 5. Copy of purser Timberlake's power of attorney to
Major Eaton. 6. A large batch of certificates by Timber-
lake's shipmates, showing that the purser had always spoken
most affectionately of his wife and children, and had cut his
throat in a fit of gloom, caused by dissipation on shore. 7.
Dr. Ely to the President ; says he is going to New York to
inquire into the conduct of the lady there. 8. Dr. Ely to the
President ; says he has been to New York, and there is no
truth in the stories. 9. Rev. J. N. Campbell to the Presi-
dent ; begs him not to throw the weight of his great influ-
ence against him in his difference with Major Eaton. 10.
The President to Rev. J. N. Campbell ; says he will not,
11. Rev. J. N. Campbell to the President ; he is glad to hear
it. 12. A narrative by the President, duly signed and at-
tested, of an interview between himself and the Rev. J. N.
Campbell, which narrative the reader shall have the pleasure
of perusing. 13. A finishing letter from the President to the
Rev. J. N. Campbell. 16. Fifteen certificates of Mrs. Eaton's
good character, addressed to the President, in reply to in-
quiries by him. 17. A correspondence between Major Eaton
and the Rev. J. N. Campbell.

All this, and much more, in the first months of a new
administration ! General Jackson, indeed, made the cause
his o^vn, and brought to the defense of Mrs. Eaton all the
fire and resolution with which, forty years before, he had si-
lenced every whisper against Mrs. Jackson. He considered
the cases of the two ladies parallel. His zeal in behalf of
Mrs. Eaton was a manifestation or consequence of his wrath
against the calumniators of his wife.

The General was so urgent in demanding of Dr. Ely the
names of the i)ersons who had spoken ill of Mrs. Eaton, that
the doctor wrote, at length, to Mr. Campbell, advising him
to call upon the President, and tell him all he knew. Mr.
Campbell, in consequence, sought an interview with General
Jackson. What transpired on this occasion the General
deemed so important, that he wrote out for preservation a

1829.] MBS. SATOK. 197

statement of it, with an account of the proceedings to which
the interview led.

VARRATIVE BT GENERAL JACKSON.

'<BE IT REMEMBERED, that on Tuesday evening, the 1st of Sep-
tember, 1829, 1 was in mj parlor, when the door-keeper came to, and in-
formed me, that the Reverend Mr. Campbell wanted an interview with me
in my office. I went immediately up to my office, where I found Mr.
Campbell and Major Donelson. Major Donelson having retired, Mr.
Campbell observed, he supposed I knew his business, or the object of his
business with me. I assured him that I did not He then said that he had
received a letter from Dr. Ely, which made it proper for him to inform me
that he was the Presbyterian preacher or clergyman alluded to in Dr. Ely's
letter to me, as having given the information relative to the iale of the de-
ceased doctor, upon the subject of the miscarriage of Mrs. Timberlake, now
Mrs. Eaton, in the absence of her husband, under circumstances which
made it manifest that the child could not be his, as related to me in a let-
ter from Dr. Ely. I was much astonished at this avowal, and replied that
it was the first intimation I ever had that he was the Presbyterian clergy-
man who gave currency, through Dr. Ely, to this viU icUe^ and assured him
that I never had the least suspicion of his being the author, and that in
paasiug the subject through my mind, I had done injustice to another, for
which I was sorry, although I had never named him to any one.

" Mr. Campbell then read to me part of Dr. Ely*s letter, and entered into
an explanation of his motives for not having made his communication di-
rectly to me. Ho said he knew Dr. Ely was my friend, and he wished
me to be informed of those charges against Mrs. Eaton before I appointed
Major Eaton a member of my Cabinet ; that he had enjoined on Mr. Ely
secrecy ; that he considered it confidential, and charged him, tliat if he did
not give it to my own ear, not to lisp it to any one. It was upon this
condition alone that Mr. Ely was authorized to give up his name to me.
He complained that Dr. Ely had not treated him well in communicating
the information to otlicrs, and particularly to Mrs. Eaton.

To which I replied, I regretted that either he or Dr. Ely had not come
directly to me with the tale, before Dr. Ely left Washington. If they had
done so, I told him, I could easily have shown them the falsehood of
some of the charges contained in Dr. Ely's letter to me, and would have
pointed out to them some of the unhappy consequences tliat must now
inevitably take place. I told him that I never had beard of this tale, cir-
culated as coming from a dead doctor, before I read it in Dr. Ely's letter ;
that I was surprised Dr. Ely had not told him he had advised me in a
confidential note, the Saturday before he lefl Washington, not to be drawn

198 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

from my delerminatiQD of appointing Mr. Euton a member of my Cabinet,
as his talents and my confidence in liim made it uecessary for me Vj liave
him near me. Tliis I had determined on, and when next I saw bim, told
him that I could not be shaken in my purpose ; that Major Eaton came
into my Cabinet by my persuasion, and not fr<»n his own choice ; that I
knew liim intimately for twenty years and upward, and beUered his
moral character to be without a blot

" Mr. Campbell then detailed tlie information derived from this dead
doctor, whom he called by the name of Craven.

*' The manner of his relating the circnmstances drew my particular at-
tention, and I observed to him, as soon as he had gotten through, that this
dead doctor tale was to me, in itself, incredible. As related by Mr. Camp-
bell it is substantially as follows : — ' The doctor told him that he had been
called to Mrs. Timberlake as a physician, in consequence of her having
been thrown from her carriage and much hurt ; that when he entered the
room where Mrs. Timberlake and an old woman were, they broke out into
a loud laugh, and told him he was too late — that Mrs. Timberlake had
miscarried, and he had lost his job ; that Mr. Timberlake had been so long
absent from home, that it was well known that the infant could not have
been his/

" I drew Mr. Campbell's attention to the absurdity of this story as re-
lated, and asked him if he had ever thought of the dilemma in which the
dead doctor would be placed for kUiiig such a iaUj and he for believing
and reporting it. 1 asked him if he did not know that doctors were pro-
hibited by law from revealing the secrets of a sick bed, and if he did not
suppose this doctor would be considered a base man and unworthy of
credit^ the moment this story was presented to the public. I told him the
honorable, moral, and religious part of the community would have no con-
fidence in the representations of such a man, and that he would be held
responsible for it, inasmuch as he had avowed himself the author of its cir-
culation.

" Mr. Campbell then observed, he believed that he (the doctor) had
stated tliat he accidentally happened in, and had not be^n sent for as a
physician.

" I told Mr. Campbell it was still more absurd to suppose that a mar-
ried woman, so long absent from her husband tliat every one must know
the child could not be his, would so wantonly publish her own disgrace
and infamy to the world, when she had no need of a physician in her
private chamber. This version of the story, I observed to him, was too
absurd and ridiculous, as well as inconsistent with every principle and
feeling of human nature, to be believed even by the most orgulous ; and
tliat I was astonished a man of his good sense could, for one moment,
give credence to it, and particularly as it involved the character of a lady.

1829.] MRS. EATON. 199

I then inquired of Mr. Campbell what date the dead doctor had given to
this transaction — the date being important

« He replied, in 1821.

" I asked him if he was aware of the situation he would be placed in
i^ on inquiry, it should appear that Mr. Timberlake was in this country,
and never out of it in 1821. 1 told him I was under the impression
that it would so appear, whenever examined into ; that I was induced to
believe he had not been absent from the United States from the close
of the war until 1824; that I had understood he was detained here
prosecuting a claim against the government for property thrown overboard
by Commodore Decatur previous to the capture of the frigate President
Having lost his vouchers, he was unable to settle his accounts, and, therefore,
being considered a defaulter, could not get public employment

" Mr. Campbell replied that Mr. Timberlake, from the information of
the Doctor, must have been absent in that year.

" I answered it was my opinion he would find himself mistaken, and
it would be well for him to make inquiry, and as a Christian and preacher
of the Gospel, it would be his duty, if he found he had been mistaken in
this information, to repair the injury he had done female character by say-
ing to Mrs. Eaton, and to the world, that on inquiry he found there was
no truth in the tale of his dead Doctor. Justice and Christianity, I told
him, demanded this of him.

'' Afler some further conversation on the subject of Mrs. Timberlake
visiting his family, and the visit being returned, and that a friendly inter-
course was kept up between the two families, until Dr. Craven gave him
the information relative to the abortion, when all intercourse ceased, I
asked Mr. Campbell why he did not, when he received this information,
and before he terminated the friendly relation which had subsisted between
his family and Mrs. Timberlake, go to her and inform her of this vile iaU^
and the name of the person from whom he had received it, and say to her
that she must remove this stain upon her character, or all intercourse be-
tween them must cease. This, I told him, was what I thought he, as a
Christian, ought to have done, pursuing the golden rule of doing to othei-s
as we would they should do unto us. This would have given her an op-
portunity of showing her innocence , or, if she failed, then, with a clear
conscience, he and his family could have withdrawn from her society.

^* The date having been given by Mr. Campbell, as stated by the dead
doctor, it being an important fact by which to judge of the truth or false-
hood of tliis dory, I at once determined to liave inquiry made .'is to where
Mr. Timberlake was in all the year 1821 ; and while ruminating on this
subject, Major VV. B. Lewis came into my office and inquired relative to
Mr. Campbell's business with me (he having been in the parlor below
when the doorkeeper told me the Rev. Mr. Campbell wished to have a

200 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

private interview with me). I told him Mr. Campbell came to avow him-
self to be the clergyman alluded to in Dr. Ely's lotter to me, who had in-
formed him (Ely) of the reported miscarriage of Mrs. Timbcrlake, when it
was well known the child could not be her husband's, in consequence of liis
long absence from the country ; and that Mr. Campbell had affixed to tliis
transaction a date — 1821. This. I observed, was tangible, and by it the
truth or falsehood of tlie tale might be tested. I requested Major Lewis
to ascertain, if it Avas practicable to do so, where ilr. Timberlake was in
all tliat year, assuring him that I was convinced, in my own mind, and had
so said to Mr. Campbell, that Mr. Timbcrlake was here during the whole
year 1821 ; that I had never heard of his leaving the United States until
the spring of 1824; that I had seen him at Mr. O'Neal's in the winter of
1823 and 1824, and was there when he took leave of his family, prepara-
tory to a cruise up the Mediterranean.

" On the evening of the 2nd of September, instant. Major Lewis in-
formed me that he had made the inquiry, as requested by me, and had
learned that Mr. Timberlake was a merchant in tliis city about that time,
and that his books were now in tlio possession of Mrs. Eaton, wliich, if
looked into, would in all probability show where he was during the year
1821. I resolved to go and examine the books myself, and on the same
evening — 2nd September — I accordingly went up to Major Eaton's.

" On entering the parlor, I found no one there but John Henderson,
Major Eaton's nephew, who informed me that his uncle was up stairs with
his aunt, who was very sick. I desired him to go up and request his uncle
to come below, as I Avanted to see him. Major Eaton came down and in-
vited me to walk up and see Mrs. Eaton. I did so, and found her very HI
and in bed. After a short conversation with her, and being informed of
an inU^rview ha<:l with Mr. Campbell on that day, I asked Mrd. Eaton if
she had the mercantile books of Mr. Timberlake in her possession. She
said she had. 1 desired to know if she would permit me to see them.
She said not only me, but any one. I then went down stairs to the par-
lor, wore the books were brought to me, and I examined (hem. I soon
found from entries — said to be in the handwriting of Mr. Timberlake —
that he was in tliis country and in this city tliroughout the year 1821.
Before leaving Major Eaton's, I took extracts from the books of Dr.
Sim's and Major O'Neal's accounts, to show Mr. Campbell, and to prove to
him that Mr. Timberlake must liave been here in that year, and as late as
February, 1822, as the entries were made in his own handwriting.

"I was convinced in my own mind that on exhibiting this proof to
Mr. Campbell, he wolud at once see the cruelty of this charge, as made by
his dead doctor, and the injustice done Mrs. Eaton, and would so declare
to Mrs. Eaton and all others. I, tliercfore, on my return home, requested
Major Donelson to wait upon Mr. Campbell, and having heard that CoL,

1829.] MRS. EATOK. 201

Towson, by request of Mr. Campbell, was present at the interview between
the hitter gentleman and Major Eaton and his lady, on the 2d instant, I
desired Major Donelson to request the Colonel to accompany Mr. Camp-
bell and be present at the interview I wished to have with him.

" Agreeably to my request, the Rev. Mr. Campbell called at my office
on the morning of the 3d inst, when an interview was had in the pres-
ence of Col Towson and Major Donelson. Ailer stating to Mr. Campbell
and Col. Towson the reason which had induced me to request tliis meet-
ingy it being in consequence of a conversation had with Mr. Campbell, at
his own request^ on the 1st inst, I stated the result of my inquiry as to
the fact where Mr. Timbcrlake was in the year 1821, and having the
proof in my hand, observed that it' evidenced, beyond all contradiction,
that the tale of the dead doctor could not be true. I further observed that
if any doubts existed as to the entries being in the handwriting of Mr.
l^berlake, the books could be seen, and that fact clearly ascertained.

" Mr. Campbell then said, I must have misunderstood him as to the
date.

" I replied, I could not ; he must recollect, at the time he made the
statement^ how earnestly I brought to his view the dilemma in which he
would be placed if, at the date given to this transaction, Mr. Timberlake
should be proved to be in this country. Notvirithstanding tliis, he (then)
BtiU persisted in the declaration of Mr. Timberlake*s absence in that year.

** He, however, now maintained that I had mistaken him as to the
date.

" I again told him as positively I had not. I then asked him to give
a date to the transaction, if it was not in 1821. He refused. I replied,
that the date being all important, for on this depended the innocence or
guilt of the lady, I requested that he would give to it a date. He did not
and would not After taking out some papers, and looking over them, ho
said Mr. Timberlake was absent, from his memoranda, in the autumn of
1822.

" I observed to him that there was neither justice nor Christianity in
making a charge which goes to the destruction of female character, with-
out affixing to it a date, by which truth or falsehood could be tested. Still,
however, Mr. Campbell, in his last interview, {)ositively refuso(l to give a
date, although in his first he had given 1821, and insisted that Mr. Tim-
berlake must have been absent Col. Towson and Major Donelson being
present, their written statement is referre<l to as cxj)lauatory of what was
further said at this interview — being on the 3d instant.

" I will barely add, in conclusion, that Mr. Campbell stated he had
employed Mr. Key as counsel, who had told him his proof was sufficient
He further said his statement would be corroborated by the evidence of
the mother and wife of Dr. Craven. I cautioned him not to be too san-

202 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1829.

guine with regard to his proofs. He said that he and Col. Towson had
seen the mother and wife of Dr. Craven that morning, etc., etc.

" This statement is made from memoranda in writing, taken immedia-
tely after the conversation took place, firom day to day ; and although the
very words may not be given, I am certain the whole, as far as I have
attempted to state the conversation, is substantially correct

" Andrew Jackson."

•'8«ptember8d,1829.''

*' P. 8. — I requested Mr. Campbell to explain his motives in coming
to me to avow himself as the author of this secret slander against Mrs.
Eaton ; but this he failed satisfactorily to do. It was well known that I
had been long and intimately acquainted with Major Eaton, knew his
worth, and was satisfied that a blemish did not rest upon his moral charac-
ter. Why he did not go to Mr. Eaton with it, who was here, I can not
teU. He was the person who should have been informed of this slander,
and especially as both Mr. Campbell and Dr. Ely acknowledged to me in
the presence of my cabinet, Mr. Van Buren, Mr. Ingham, Mr. Branch, Mr.
Barry, and Mr. Berrian, and also Major Lewis and Major Donelson, that
they entirely acquitted Major Eaton of the charge of improper or criminal
conduct

" Why this persecution of Mrs. Eaton — the motives which induced to
such conduct — I leave to the decision of the moral and Christian world.
Mrs. Eaton is the wife of Major Eaton, which is the strongest evidence
he can give in her virtue. Does Mr. Campbell wish to separate man and
wife by his false tales? Surely this is not the doctrine taught by our
Saviour, and which, if he reads his Bible, he may find in every page of
that sacred book.

" Andrew Jackson."

The postscript to General Jackson's statement was evi-
dently added some days after the date affixed to the body of
the narrative, because the postscript alludes to a cabinet
council held on the 10th of September. This council the
President invited Mr. Campbell to attend in the following
letter : .

GENERAL JACKSON TO REV. J. N. CAMPBELL.

**WASBnfOTOH, September 10th, 1829.

" Dear Sir : After our interview in the presence of Colonel Towson
and Major Donelson, Mr. Key sought one with me, in which he submitted
certain propositions as the basis of an accommodation of the existing diffi-
culty between yourself and Major Eaton, the result of which was nothing

1839.] HB8. BATOK. 203

inor^ thaa an agreement to saepend any further action npon the eubjeot
ontil the aniTal of Mr. My, who was to be requested to yisit this plaoe im-
mediately.

** Ht. Ely has since arrived, but I do not peroeire, notwithstanding
your fiulure as far as I am informed, to sustain the ohaige against Mrs.
Eaton's character, that you are disposed to make those acknovidedgments
whidi, it occnrs to me, an ambassador of Christ ought) on such an occasion,
lo make. Ttus being the fiust^ and judging from your letter oi the 5th, and
from insinuations made to me by Mr. Ely in regard to the supposed reluo-
tanoe of certain clerks to testify in the case, that my relation to it has been
cr may be misconceived, I have determined to call my Cabinet together
tfus evening at 7 o'ckxsk, when I have asked Mr. Ely to attend, and will
be happy also if you wiU, for the purpose of disclosing to them what has
happened ; so that whatever may be the course oi the affiur hereafter, no
misonderstanding of my motives and agency in it, therefore, may exist

^ Having ever entertained the highest regard for the moral diaracter
of Mr. Eaton, I brought him into my Cabinet, with the fullest persuasion
that the catne of virtue and religion, which it has been my pride through
fifb to support^ would be benefited by iL I wanted no information to satitrfy
me of the purity of his character. As my friend, years of intimacy and ex-
perience with him, supplied the most abundant evidence of it ; but a differ-
ent sentiment, entertained by others, has been obtruded upon me, in a
manner which, I must say, invariably excited my distrust of its sincerity.
In this I may be wrong, but the golden rule which requires us to do to
others what we vrould have others do to us^ seems to me so plainly to
have required that the cause of such a sentiment should have first been
communicated to Mr. Eaton, that I cau not yet give up this distrust

*' It can only be removed by the complete establishment of the fact
npon which they have been supposed to rest their belief of his criminal in-
tercourse with Mrs. Timberlake, and until this is done, justice to her, to
myself^ and Uie country, requires that afler the proposed council with my
Cabinet, I should bold no future conversation with yourself or any one else,
in reUtion to this subject Your obedient servant,

** Andrew Jackson."*

What occurred at the meeting of the Cabinet in the even-
ing, Oeneral Jackson did not think proper to have recorded.
From other 8omx>es I learn some particulars.

The members of the Cabinet, Dr. Ely, and Mr. Campbell
assembled, the President opened the proceedings with

* All these documents are from the MSS. of Miyor Wm. B. Lewia

204 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

an address upon the meanness of calumny, and concluded by
giving an account of the late investigations. The dispute
between himself and Mr. Campbell upon the date of the al-
leged miscarriage was renewed with much acrimony. Mr.
Campbell declared that he had not intended to give the year
1821 as the precise date of Dr. Craven's story. He had seen,
that very morning, the Avidow and the daughter of Dr. Craven,
who both confirmed his previous statement, and agreed that
1826 was the year when the damning event occurred. The
President still insisted that Mr. Campbell had irrevocably
committed himself to the year 1821. He further declared
that Dr. Craven's wife and daughter had given two versions
of the "dead-doctor tale," which were irreconcilable. The
President would not hear Mr. Campbell further on that point.
He had originally said 1821, and by 1821 he must abide.

The President, then turned to the other charges. " As to
the allegation," said he, " that Mrs. Jackson had an unfavor-
able opinion of Mrs. Timberlake, I declare of my own knowl-
edge that it is false." The charge that Major Eaton and
Mrs. Timberlake passed the night together in a New York
hotel dwindled first, said the President, into a story that they
Lad been seen on a bed together, and, afterward, that they
had been seen sitting on a bed together. He called upon Dr.
Ely to state the result of his inquiries in New York.

The reverend gentleman told his story, and concluded by
saying that there was no evidence to convict Major Eaton of
improper conduct.

" Nor Mrs. Eaton either," broke in the President.

" On that point," said the Doctor, " I would rather not
give an opinion."

" She is as chaste as a virgin !" exclaimed the President.

When Dr. Ely had finished his narrative, Mr. Campbell
asked to be allowed to say a few words in his own justifica-
tion. He declared that, in all that he had done, his object
htid been to save the administration of General Jackson from
reproach, and the morals of the country from conttimination.
He hiid communicated nothing to the opponents of the ad-

1829.] MB8. BATON. 205

ministration. He conceived that the evidence which had
been elicited justified him in the course he had deemed it
light to pursue.

As he was proceeding to remark upon the evidence. Gen-
eral Jackson interrupted him with marked asperity of man-
ner, saying that he had been summoned thither to give
evidence, not discuss it.

Mr. Campbell then said : " I perceive that I have mis-
taken the object of the invitation to come here ; that it was
not to give me an opportunity of saying any thing in my
justification. I have therefore only to say, that I stand
leady to prove, in a court of justice, all I have said, and more
than I have said, or would have dared to say three days
ago.

He then bowed to the council and retired. The council
broke up soon after, and the President deemed Mrs. Eaton a
vindicated woman. It is needless to say, that the church
over which the Bev. Mr. Campbell presided was no longer
favored with the attendance of the President of the United
States.

Whether the efforts of the President had or had not the
eSset of convincing the ladies of Washington that Mrs. Eaton
was worthy of admission into their circle, shall in due time
be related. Upon a point of that nature ladies are not con-
vinced easily. Meanwhile, the suitors for presidential favor
are advised to make themselves visible at the lady's receptions.
A card in Mrs. Eaton's card basket, is not unlikely to be a
winning card.

206 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSOK. [1829.

CHAPTER XVIII-

TERROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS.

Constitution makers do all they can to support the
weakness of human virtue when subjected to the temptations
of power and place. But virtue can not be dispensed with
in this world. No system of " checks and Mances" can be
made so jx^rfect but that much must be left, after all, to the
honor of governing persons.

Among the powers entrusted to the honor of presidents
of the United States was the dread power of removing from
office, without trial or notice, the civil employees of the gov-
ernment. In the army and navy, no officer can 1k3 cashiered,
no ])rivate dismissed, without trial — without being heard in
his defense. In the civil service of the country, every man
holds his i)lace at the will of the head of government.

This fearful power over the fortunes of individuals and
the happiness of families, is held, necessarily, in our present
imperfect civilization, by a large number of persons in private
life ; and it is one of the ten thousand proofs of the inherent
loving-kindness of human nature, that this power is generally
exercised with a considerable regard for the feelings, the ne-
cessities, and the rights of the employed. The claim of old
servants to indulgence and protection is almost universally
recognized. The right of a person about to be dismissed
from an employment to as long a notice of dismission before-
hand as can be conveniently given, few persons are unfeeling
enough to deny. The good policy of h(;lding out to the
faithful employee the prospect of a permanent retention of
his place, and his promotion, by and by, to a better, no one
but a politician has been foolish enough to question.'

It does not appear to have occurred to the gentlemen who
formed the Constitution under which we live, that there could
ever be a President of the United States who would abuse the
1)0 wer of removal. His own responsibility for the conduct

1829.] TERROR AMONG OFFICE-HOLDERS. 207

of those whom he appointed was supposed to be sufficient to
make him careful to appoint the right men to the right
places ; and his feelings, as a man and a gentleman, were
deemed an adequate protection to those right men in their
right places.

It is delightful to observe with what a scrupulous consci-
entiousness the early Presidents of this republic disposed of
the places in their gift. Washington set a noble example.
He demanded to bo satisfied on three points with regard to an
applicant for office : Is he honest ? Is he capable ? Has he
the confidence of his fellow-citizens ? Not till these ques-
tions were satisfactorily answered did he deign to inquire re-
specting the political opinions of a candidate. Private friend-
ship between the President and an applicant was absolutely
an obstacle to his appointment, so fearful was the President
of being swayed by private motives. " My friend/' he says,
in one of his letters, " I receive with cordial welcome. He
is welcome to my house, and welcome to my heart ; but with
all his good qualities he is not a man of business. His oppo-
nent, with all his politics so hostile to jne, is a man of busi-
ness. My private feelings have nothing to do in the case. I
am not George Washington, but President of the United
States. As George Washington, I would do this man any
kindness in my power — as President of the United States, I
can do nothing."

There spoke the man wlio was a gentleman to the core
of his heart.

If General Washington would not appoint a friend be-
cause he was a friend, nor a partisan because he was a parti-
san, still loss was he capable of removing an enemy because
he was an enemy, or an opponent because he was an oppo-
nent. During his administration of eight years, he removed
nine persons from office ; namely, six unimportant collectors,
one district surveyor, one vice-consul, and one foreign minis-
ter. We all know that he recalled Mr. Pinckney from Paris
because that conservative gentleman was offensive to the

208 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

French Directory. The other dismissals were all " for cause."
Politics had nothing to do with one of them.

The example of General Washington was followed by his
successors. John Adams doubted, even, whether it was
strictly proper for him to retain his son in a foreign employ-
ment to which President Washington had appointed him.
He removed nine subordinate officers during his presidency ;
but none for political opinion's sake. JeflFerson, owing to
peculiar circumstances well known to readers of history, re-
moved thirty-nine persons ; but he himself repeatedly and
solemnly declared, that not one of them was removed because
he belonged to the party opposed to his own. The contrary
imputiition he regarded in the light of a calumny, and re-
futed it as such. In one respect Mr. JeflFerson was even over
scrupulous. He would not appoint any man to office, how-
ever meritorious, who was a relative of his own. Mr. Madi-
son made five removals ; Mr. Monroe, nine ; Mr. John
Quincy Adams, two. Mr. Calhoun tells us,* that during the
seven years that he held the f)ffice of Secretory of War only
two of his civil subonUnates were removed, both for improper
conduct. In both cases, he adds, the charges were investi-
gated in the presence of the accused, and " the officers were
not dismissed imtil after full investigation, and the reason
of dismission reduced to writing and communicated to them."t
Colonel McKenney mentions, in his " Memoirs," that when a
vacancy occuiTed in one of the departments, the chief of that
department would inquire among his friends for " a qualified"
person to fill it.

Nor was this scrupulousness due to any lack of aspirants
for governmental employment. Mr. John Quincy Adams
says, in one of his letters, that he was tormented with cease-
less, with daily applications for office. In the last year of

♦ Works of John C. Calhoun, ii., 439.

f " Napoleon was a despot, it is said ; yet he never dismissed any one finom
public office without an inc^uiry and report of fuct^ and rarely ever withoat
hearing the accused functionary : never when the questions iuYolvod were cinl
c;> ud mini strati ve." — yapoleonic Ideas, By Ijouis Napoleon,

1829.] TEBBOR AMONG OFFICE-HOLDEBS. 209

Mr. Monroe's presidency, when the fourth auditorship of the
treasury fell vacant, there were, among the army of appli-
cants for the place, five United States Senators and thirty
members of the House of Representatives !*

Up to the hour of the delivery of General Jackson's in-
angural address, it was supposed that the new President would
act upon the principles of his predecessors. In his Monroe
letters he had taken strong ground against partisan appoint-
ments, and when he resigned his scat in the Senate he had
advocated two amendments to the constitution designed to
limit and purify the exercise of the appointing power. One
of these proposed amendments forbade the reelection of a
President, and the other the appointment of members of
Congress to any office not judicial.

The sun had not gone down upon the day of his inaugu-
ration before it was known in all official circles in Washing-
ton that the ^' reform" alluded to in the inaugural address
meant a removal from office of all who had conspicuously op-
posed, and an appointment to office of those who had con-
spicuously aided the election of the new President. The
work was promptly begun. Figures arc not important here,
and the figures relating to this matter have been disputed.
Some have declared that during the first yeiir of the presi-
dency of General Jackson two thousand persons in the civil
employment of the government were removed from office, and
two thousand partisans of the President appointed in their
stead. This statement has been denied. It can not be de-
nied that in the first month of this administration more re-
movals were made than had occurred from the foundation
i»f the government to that time. It can not be denied that
the principle was now acted upon that partisan services
should be rewarded by public office, though it involved the
removal from office of competent and faithful incumbents.
CoL Benton will not be suspected of overstating the facts
respecting the removals, but he admits that their number.

o N. T. American, April 3, 1824.
VOL. III. — 14

210 LIFE OF ANDRBW JACKSON. [1829.

during this year, 1829, was six hundred and ninety. He ex-
presses himself on this subject with less than his usual
directness. His estimate of six hundred and ninety does not
include the little array of clerks and others who were at the
disposal of some of the six hundred and ninety. The esti-
mate of two thousand includes all who lost their places in
consequence of General Jackson's accession to power ; and,
though the exact number can not be ascertained, I presume
it was not less than two thousand. Col. Benton says that
of the eight thousand postmasters, only four hundred and
ninety-one were removed ; but he does not add, as he might
have added, that the four hundred and ninety-one vacated
places comprised nearly all in the department that were
worth having. Nor does he mention that the removal of the
postmasters of half a dozen great cities was equivalent to
the removal of many hundreds of clerks, book-keepers, and
carriers.

General Hanison, who had courteously censured (General
Jackson's course in the Seminole war, who had warmly de-
fended his friend, Henry Clay, against the charge of bargain
and corruption, was recalled from Colombia just four days
after General Jackson had acquired the power to recall him.
General Harrison had only resided in Colombia a few weeks
when he received the news of his recall. A Kentuckian, who
was particularly inimical to Mr. Clay, was sent out to take
his place.

The appointment of a soldier so distinguished as Greneral
Harrison to represent the United States in the infant repub-
lic of Colombia was I'cgarded by the Colombians as a great
honor done them, and an emphatic recognition of their dis-
puted claim to a place among the nations. A purer patriot,
a worthier gentleman, than General William Henry Harrison,
has not adorned the public service of his country. His sin-
gular merits as a scholar, as a man of honor, as a soldier, and
i\a a statesman, were only obscured by the calumny and eolo-
gium incident to a presidential campaign. My studies of

1829.] TSBBOB AMONG O FF IC E-HOLD EB 8 . 211

the Indian affiiirs of the country have given me the highest
idea of his valor, skill, and humanity.

Samuel Swartwout was among the expectants at Wash-
ington— an easy, good-natured man ; most inexact and even
reckless in the management of business ; the last man in the
whole world to be intrusted with millions. He had hopes of
the coUectorship of New York. On the fourteenth of March
he wrote from Washington to his friend, Jesse Hoyt, to let
him know how he was getting on, and to give Hoy t the bene-
fit of his observations — ^Hoyt himself being a seeker. " I
hold to your doctrine fully," wrote Swartwout, " that no
d d rascal who made use of his office or its profits for the
purpose of keeping Mr. Adams in, and General Jackson out
of power, is entitled to the least lenity or mercy, save that of
hanging. So we think both alike on that head. Whethei
or not I shall get any thing in the general scramble for plun-
der, remains to be proven ; but I rather guess I shall. What
it will be is not yet so certain ; perhaps keeper of the Ber-
gen lighthouse. I rather think Massa Pomp stands a smart
chance of going somewhere, perhaps to the place you have
named, or to the denl. Tour man, if you want a place, is
Col. Hamilton''^ — ^he being now the second officer in the
government of the Union, and in all probability our next
President. Make your suit to him, then, and you will get
what you want. I know Mr. Ingham slightly, and would
recommend you to push like a devil if you expect any thing
from that quarter. I can do you no good in any quarter of
the world, having mighty little influence beyond Hoboken.
The great goers are the new men ; the old troopers being all
spavined and ring-boned from previous hard travel. I've
got the hots, the fet-lock, hip-joint, gravel, halt, and found-
ers ; and I assure you if I can only keep my own legs, I
shall do well ; but I'm darned if I can carry any weight with
me. When I left home, I thought my nag sound and strong,
bot the beast is rather broken down here. I'll tell you more

* Acting Secretarj of Stato until the arrival of Mr. Van Buron.

212 LIFB OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

about it when I see you in Xew York. In seriousness, my
dear sir, your support must come from Mr. Van Buren and
Mr. Col. Hamilton ; I could not help you any more than
your clerk."*

The President, distracted with the number of applica-
tions for the New York collectorship, and extremely fond of
the man who had * pushed like a devil,' a quarter of a century
before at Richmond, gave Swartwout the place. Upon his
return to New York, his proverbial good nature was put to
a severe test ; for the applicants for posts in the custom-
house met him at every turn, crowded his office, invaded his
house, and stuffed his letter-box. There was a general dis-
mission of Adams men from the New York Custom House,
and the new appointments were made solely on the ground
that the applicants had aided the election of General Jack-
son.

Henry Lee was appointed to a remote foreign consulship,
a place which he deemed beneath his talents and an inade-
quate reward for his services. He would have probably ob-
tained a better place but for the fear that the Senate would
reject the nomination. The Senate did reject his nomination
even to the consulship, and by such a decided majority that
nothing could be done for him. Even Colonel Benton voted
against him. Lee, I may add, died soon after in Paris, where
he wrote part of a history of the emperor Napoleon.

Terror, meanwhile, reigned in Washington. No man
knew what the rule was upon which removals were made.
No man knew what offenses were reckoned causes of removaly
nor whether he had or had not committed the unpardonable
sin. The great body of officials awaited their fate in silent
horror, glad when the office hours expired at having escaped
another day. " The gloom of suspicion," says Mr. Stansbury,
himself an office-holder, " pervaded the face of society. No
man deemed it safe and prudent to trust his neighbor, and
the interior of the department presented a fearful scene of
guarded silence, secret intrigue, espionage, and tale-bearing.

* Mackenxie^B Van Buron, p 19t.

1829.] TEBBOB AMONQ OFFI 0 E-H0LDSB8. 213

A casual remark, dropped in the street, would within an
hour, be repeated at head quarters ; and many a man received
unceremonious dismission who could not, for his life, conceive
or conjecture wherein he had oflFended/'

At that period, it must be remembered, to be removed
from office in the city of Washington was like being driven
from the solitary spring in a wide expanse of desert. The
public treasury was almost the sole source of emolument
Salaries were small, the expenses of living high, and few of
the officials had made provision for engaging in private busi-
ness or even for removing their families to another city. No
one had anticipated a necessity of removal. Clerks, appointed
by the early presidents, had grown gray in the service of the
government, and were so habituated to the routine of their
places, that, if removed, they were beggared and helpless.

An old friend of General Jackson's was in Washington
this summer. He wrote on the 4th of July to a friend : " I
have seen the President, and have dined with him, but have
had no free communication, or conversation with him. The
reign of this administration, I wish an other word could be
used, is in very strong contrast with the mild and lenient
sway of Madison, Monroe, and Adams. To me it feels harsh
— ^it seems to have had an unhappy eflfect on the free thoughts,
and unrestrained speech, which has heretofore prevailed. I
question whether the ferreting out treasury rats, and the cor-
rection of abuses, are sufficient to compensate for the reign
of terror which appears to have commenced. It would be
well enough if it were confined to evil-doers, but it spreads
abroad like a contagion : spies, informers, denunciations — the
fecula of despotism. Where there are listeners there will be
tale-bearers. A stranger is warned by his friend on his first
arrival to be careful how he expresses himself in relation to
any one, or any thing which touches the administration. I
had hoped that this would be a national administration — but
it is not even an administration of a party. Our republic
henceforth, will be governed by factions, and the struggle will
be who shall get the offices and their emoluments — a struggle

214 LIFE OF ANDBEW JAOKSON. [1829.

embittered by the most base and sordid passions of the hu-
man heart."

So numerous were the removals in the city of Washing-
ton that the business of the place seem paralyzed. In July,
a Washington paper said :

" Thirty-three houses which were to have been built this year have, we
learn, been stopped, in consequence of the unsettled and uncertain state of
things now existing here ; and the merchant can not sell his goods or col-
lect his debts from the same cause. We have never known the city to be
in a state like this before, though we have known it for many years. The
individual distress, too, produced, in many cases, by the removal of the
destitute officers, is harrowing and painful to all who possess the ordinaiy
sympathies of our nature, without regard to party feeling. No man, not
absoluteljT brutal, can be pleased to see his personal friend or neighbor sud-
denly stripped of the means of support, and cast upon the cold charity of
the world without a shelter or a home. Frigid and insensible mast be the
heart of that man who could witness some of the scenes that have lately
been exhibited here, without a tear of compassion or a throb of sympathy.
But what is still more to be regretted is, that this system, having been onoe
introduced, must necessarily be kept up at the commencement of every pree-
idential term ; and he who goes into office knowing its limited and uncer-
tain tenure, feels no disposition to make permanent improvements or to
form for himself a pennanent residence. He, therefore, takes care to lay
up what he can, during his brief official existence, to carry off to some more
congenial spot, where he means to spend his life, or reenter into business.
All, tlierefore, that he might have expended in city improvements is with-
drawn, and the revenue of the corporation, as well as the trade of the city,
is so far lessened and decreased. It is obviously a most injurious policy as
it respects the interests of our city. Many of the oldest and most respect-
able citizens of Washington, those who have adhered to its fortunes through
all their vicissitudes, who have ^ grown with its growth and strengthened
with its strength,' have been cast off to make room for strangers who fed
no interest in the prosperity of our infant metropolis, and who care not
whether it advances or retrogrades."

As an illustration of the state of things in Washington at
this time, I will here transcribe the story of Colonel T. L.
McKenney, for many years the honest and capable superin-
tendent of Indian affairs, appointed to that office by. Mr.
Monroe :

1829.] TERROR AMONG OFFICE-HOLDERS. 215

" Some time afler General Jackson had been inaugurated, the Secretary
of War, Major Eaton, inquired of me if I had been io see the President f
I said I had not *Had you not better go over?' * Why, sir?* I asked— I
have had no official business to call me there, nor have I now ; why should
I go?" *You know, in these times,* replied the Secretary, *it is well to culti-
Tate those personal relations, which will go far toward securing the good
will of one in power —and he wound up by more tlian intimating that the
President had heard some things in disparagement of me ; when I deter-
mined forthwith to go and see him, and ascertain what they were. On
arriving at the door of the President's house, I was answered by the door-
keeper that the President was in, and having gone to i-eport me, returned,
saying the President would see me. On arriving at the door, it having
been thrown open by the door-keeper, I saw the President very busily en-
gaged writing, and with great earnestness; so much so, indeed, that I
stood for some time before he took his eyes oiT the paper, fearing to inter-
Tvpt him, and not wishing to seem intrusive. Presently he raised his eyes
from the paper, and at the same time his spectacles from his nose, and
looking at me, said, ' Come in sir, come in.' ' You are engaged, sir ?'
' No more so than I always am, and always expect to be,' drawing a long
breath, and giving signs of great uneasiness.

" I had just said, ' I am here, sir, at the instance of the Secretary of
War,' when the door was tlirown open, and three members of Congress
entered. They were received with great courtesy. I rose, saying, * You
are engaged, sir : I will call when you are more at leisure;' and bowed
myself out On returning to my office, I addressed a note to the President
of the following import : ' Colonel McKenncy 's respects to the President
of the United States, and requests to be informed when it will suit his
convenience to see him ?' to whicli Major Donelson replied, * The Presi<ient
will see Colonel McKenney to-day, at twelve o'clock.' I was punctual,
and found the President alone. I commenced by repeating what I had
said at my first visit, that I was there at the instance of the Secretary of
War, who had more than intimated to me that impressions of an unfavor-
able sort liad been made upon him with regard to me ; and that I was de-
sirous of knowing what the circumstances were that had produced them.
* It is true, sir,' said the President, * I have been told things that are highly
discreditable to you, and which have come to me from such sources as to
satisfy me of their truth.' * Very well, sir, will you do me the justice to
let me know what these things arc that you have heard from such respec-
table sources ?' * You know. Colonel McKenney, I am a candid man —
*I beg pardon, sir,* I remarked, interrupting him, * but I am not here to
question that^ but to hear charges, which it appears have been made to
you, affecting my character, either as an officer of the government or a
man.' ' Well, sir,' he resumed, * I vrill frankly tell you what these charges

216 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

are, and, sir, they are of a character which I caa never respect* 'No
doubt of timt, sir ; but what arc they ?' ' Wiij, sir, [ am told, and on the
best authority, that you were one of the principal promoters of that vile
paper, We the People^ as a contributor toward establishing it^ and as a
writer afterward, in which my wife Rachel was so shamefully abused. I
am tokl, further, on authority no less respectable, that you took an active
part in distributing, under tiic frank of your ofBcc, the ^^cojffin hand-bilk^*
and that in your recent travels, you largely and widely circulated the
militia pamphlet.' Here he paused, crossed his legs, shook his foot, and
clasped his hands around the upper knee, and looked at me as tliough he
had actually convicted and prostrated me ; when, aft^r a moment's pause,
I asked, * Well, sir. what else ?' * Why, sir,' he answered, * I think such
conduct highly unbecoming in one who fills a place in the government such
as you fill, and very dtjrogatory to you, as it would be in any one who
should be guilty of such practices.* * All this,' I replied, * may bo well
enough ; but I request to know if this is all you have heard, and whether
there are any more charges ?' * Why, yes, sir, there is one more ; I am
told your office is not in the condition in which it should be.* * Well, sir,
what more ?' * Nothing, sir ; but these are all serious charges, sir.* * Then,
sir, these comprise all ?' ' They do, sir.* * Well, General,' I answered, * I
am not going to reply to all this, or to any part of it, with any view to re-
taining my office, nor do I intend to reply to it at all, except under the aol-
emnity of an oath,' when I threw up my hand toward heaven, saying,
' the answers I am about to give to these allegations, I solemnly swear, shaU
be the truth, the whole truOi, and nothing hut the trtUh. My oath, sir, is
taken, and is no doubt recorded — ' Ho interrupted me, by saying, * You
are making quite a serious affair of iU' *It is, sir, what I mean to do,* I
answered.

" Now, sir, in regard to the paper called " We the People,^* I never did,
directly or indirectly, either by my money, or by my pen, contribute to-
ward its establishment, or its continuance. I never circulated one copy
of it, more or less, nor did I subscribe for a copy of it, more or less ; nor
have I ever, to the best of my knowledge and belief, handled a copy of it,
nor have I ever seen but two copies, and these were on the table of a
friend, among other newspapers. So much for that charge. In regard
to the *' coffin Jiand-hiUs,*^ I never circulated any, either under the frank of
my office or otherwise, and never saw but two ; and am not certain that
I ever saw but one, and that some fool sent me, under cover, from Rich-
mond, in Virginia, and which I found on my desk among other papers, oo
going to my office ; and which, on seeing what it was, I tore up and threw
aside among the waste paper, to be swept out by my messenger. The
other, which I took to be one of these bills, but which might have been an
account of the hanging of some convict^ I saw some time ago, p>endent

1^9.] TSRROB AMONG OFFICE-HOLD EBS. 217

from a man's finger and tliumb, he having a roll under his arm, as he
crossed Broadway, in New York. So much for the coffin hand-bills. As
to the " militia pamphlet," I have seen reference made to it in the news-
papers, it is true, but I have never handled it — have never read it, or cir-
colated a copy or copies of it, directly or indirectly. And now, sir, as to
mj office. That » my monument ; its records are its inscriptions. Let
it be examined, and I invite a commission for that purpose ; nor will I
retam to it to put a paper in its place, should it be out of place, or in any
other way prepare it for the ordeal ; and, if there is a single flaw in it, or
any just grounds for complaint, either on the part of the white or the red
man, implicating my capacity — my diligence, or want of due regard to the
interests of all having business with it, including the government, then, sir,
you shall have my free consent to put any mark upon me you may think
proper, or subject me to as much opprobrium as shall gratify those who
have thus abused your confidence by their secret attempts to injure mo.*

" ' Colonel McKenney,' said the General, who had kept his eyes upon
me during the whole of my reply, * I believe every word you have said,
and am satisfied that those who communicated to me those allegations were
mistiken,* * I thank you, sir,' I replied, ' for your confidence, but I am not
satisfied. I request to have my accusers brought up, and that I may be
allowed to confront them in your presence.* * No — no, sir,' he answered,
' I am satisfied ; why then push the matter farther ?' when, rising from his
diair, he took my arm, and said, ' Gome, sir, come down, and allow me to
introduce you to my family.' I accompanied him, and was introduced to
Mrs. Donaldson, Major Donaldson, and some others who were present,
partook of the offering of a gloss of wine, and retired.

" The next morning I believe it was— or if not the next, some morning
not far off* — a Mr. R-b-s-n, a very worthy, gentlemanly fellow, and well
known to me, came into my office. * You are busy, Colonel ?* he said, as he
entered. * No, sir, not very,* I replied ; * come in — I have learned to write
and talk too, at the same time. Come in ; sit down ; I am glad to see
you.' Looking round tlie office, the entire walls of which I had covered
with portraits of Indians, he asked, pointing to the one that hung over my
desk, * Who is that ?' * lied- Jacket,' I answered. ' And that?' ' Shtn-yuah-
O Wa^sin^ I replied ; and so he continued. He then asked, * Who wrote
the treaties with the Indians, and gave instnictions to commissions, and,
in general, carried on the correspondence of the office ?' * Those are within
the circle of my duties, the whole being under a general supervision of the
Secretary of War,' I answered. ' Well, then,* after a pause, he said, * the
office will not suit me.' ' What office,' I asked. * Tliis,' he replied ; * Gen-
eral Jackson told me, this morning, it was at my service ; but before see-
ing the Secretary of War, I thought I would come and have a httle chat
"with you first.'

218 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

" I rose from my cliair, saying — * Take it, my dear sir, take it The
sword of Damocles has been hanging over my liead long enough.* *No/
said he, ' it is not the sort of place for me. I prefer an auditor's office,
where forms are established.' This worthy citizen had, in the fullness of
his heart, doubtless, and out of pure affection for General Jackson, made
that distinguished personage a present of tlie pair of pistols wliich Gen-
eral Washington had carried during the war of the Revolution."*

Colonel McKcnney retained his office some time longer,
because the Sexjretary of War assured the President that
its duties were complex and numerous, and could not be
discharged by a person inexperienced in Indian affairs. He
tells us, however, that he was kept in constant suspense,
and had, occasionally, an ominous warning : "My chief
clerk, Mr. Hambleton, came into my room one morning,
soon after I had taken my seat at my table, and putting his
hands upon it, leaned over. I looked up, and saw his eyes
were full of teare ! To my question — * Is any thing the mat-
ter, Mr. Hambleton ?' ' Yes, sir — I am pained to inform
you, that you are to be displaced to-day ! Wo all feel it
Our connection has been one of unbroken harmony ; and we
are grieved at the thought of a separation. The President
has appointed General Thompson, a member of Congress, of
Georgia — hjB boards at my mother's, and I have it from him-
self. He says I shall remain, but the rest of the clerks he
shall dismiss, to make room for some of the President's
friends.' * Well, Mr. H.,' I replied, * it is what I have been
constantly looking for. Your annunciation doe« not at all
surprise me ; indeed, it puts an end to my suspense ; and,
apart from the pain of leaving you all, and the thought that
others are to be cut adrift, as well as myself, I feel relieved.'
He walked a few times across my room, and then retired to
his, which joined mine. Two hours after, I heard walking
and earnest talking in the passage. They continued for half
an hour. When they ceased, Mr. Hambleton came into my
room, his face all dressed in smiles, saying, * It is not to be /'
* What is not to be ?' * You are not to go out. When

* McKenney's Momoirs, p. 200.

1829.] TEBBOB AMONG OFFICE-HOLDERS. 219

General Thompsoii came to the secretary this morniDg, with
the President's reference to him, to assign him to your place,
he wag told, before he could act, he (the secretary) must see
the President. The result of the secretary's interview with
the President was, you were to be retained, and General
Thompson is referred back to the President for explanation.
Thompson is in a rage about it.' "

Another illustrative anecdote, which, though it may not
be wholly true, is so like others that arc known to be so, that
I venture to think it is, at least, founded in fact. A member
of Congress, appointed to a foreign mission, consulted the
President as to the choice of a secretary of legation. " The
President declined all interference, and remarked to the min-
ister that the United States government would hold him re-
sponsible for the manner in wliich he discharged his duties,
and that he would consequently be at liberty to choose his
own secretary. The minister returned his acknowledgment ;
but before taking leave, sought his advice in regard to a
young gentleman then in the State Department, and who was
highly recommended by the secretary. General Jackson
promptly said, ^ I advise you, sir, not to take the man. He
18 not a good judge of preaching.' The minister observed
that the objection needed explanation. ' I am able to give
it,' said the General, and he thus continued : ' On last Sab-
bath morning I attended divine service in the Methodist Epis-
copal church in this city. There I listened to a soul-inspir-
ing sermon by Professor Durbin of Carlisle, one of the ablest
pulpit orators in America. Seated in a pew near me I ob-
served this identical young man, apparently an attentive lis-
tener. On the day following he came into this chamber on
business, when I had the curiosity to ask his opinion of the
sermon and the preacher. And what think you, sir ? The
young upstart, with consummate assurance, pronounced that
sermon all froth, and Professor Durbin a humbug ! I took
the liberty of saying to him : My young man, you are ahum-
bug yourself, and don't know it ! And now,' continued the
old man, ' rest assured, my dear sir, that a man who is not a

220 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

better judge of preaching than thai, is unfit to be your com-
panion. And besides/ he added, * if he were the prodigy the
Secretary of State represents him to be, he would be less anx-
ious to confer his services upon you — he would rather be
anxious to retain them himself/ "

As a general rule, the dismission of officers was sudden
and unexplained. Occasionally, however, some reason was
assigned. Major Eaton, for exam])le, dismissed the chief
clerk of the War Department in the terms following : " Major
: The chief clerk of the Department should to his prin-
cipal stand in the relation of a confidential friend. Under
this belief, I have appointed Doctor Randolph, of Virginia.
I take leave to say, that since I have been in this Depart-
ment, nothing in relation to you has transpired to which
I would take the slightest objection, nor have I any to
suggest."

These facts will suffice to show that the old system of
appointments and removals was changed, upon the accession
of General Jackson, to the one in vogue ever since, which
Governor Marcy completely and aptly described when ho said
that to the victors belong the spoils. Some of the conse-
quences of this change are the following :

I. The government, formerly served by the elite of the
nation, is now served, to a very considerable extent, by its
refuse. That, at least, is the tendency of the new system,
because men of intelligence, ability, and virtue, universally
desire to fix their affairs on a basis of permanence. It is the
nature of such men to make each year do something for all
the years to come. It is their nature to abhor the arts by
which office is now obtained and retained. In the year of our
Lord 1859, the fact of a man's holding office under the
government is presumptive evidence that he is one of three
characters, namely, an adventurer, an incompetent person, or
a scoundrel. From this remark must be excepted those who
hold offices that have never been subjected to the spoils sys-
tem, or offices which have been " taken out of politics."

II. The new system places at the disposal of any govern-

1829.] TEBBOB AMONG OFFICE-HOLDERS. 221

ment, however corrupt, a horde of creatures in everj' town
and county, bound, body and soul, to its defense and con-
tinuance.

III. It places at the disposal of any candidate for the
presidency, who has a slight prospect of success, another
horde of creatures in every town and county, bound to sup-
port his pretensions. I once knew an apple-woman in Wall
Street who had a personal interest in the election of a Presi-
dent. If her candidate gained the day, her " old man" would
get the place of porter in a public warehouse. The circle
of corruption embraces hundreds of thousands.

IV. The spoils system takes from the government em-
ployde those motives to fidelity which, in private life, are
found universally necessary to secure it. As no degree of
merit whatever can secure him in his place, he must be a
man of heroic virtue who does not act upon the principle of
getting the most out of it while he holds it. Whatever
fidelity may be found in oflSce-holdei-s must be set down to
the credit of unassisted human virtue.

In a word, the spoils system renders pure, decent, orderly,
and democratic government impossible. Nor has any govern-
ment of modern times given such a wonderful proof of
inherent strength as is afforded by the fact that this govern-
ment, after thirty years of rotation, still exists.

At whose door is to be laid the blame of thus debauch-
ing the government of the United States ? It may, per-
haps, be justly divided into three parts. Fii*st, Andrew
Jackson, impelled by his ruling passions, resentment, and
gratitude, did the deed. No other man of his day had auda-
city enough. Secondly, The example and the politicians of
New York furnished him with an excuse for doing it.
Thirdly, The original imperfection of the governmental ma-
chinery seemed to necessitate it. As soon as King Caucus
was overthrown, the spoils system became almost inevitiible,
and, perhaps. General Jackson only precipitated a change,
which, sooner or later, must have come.

While the congressional caucus system lasted, confining

222 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

the sphere of intrigue to the city of Washington, politicians
did not much want the aid of the remote subordinate em-
ployees of the government. But when the area of president
making was extended so as to embrace the whole nation,
every tide-waiter, constable, porter, and postmaster could
lend a hand. Well, then, do not burst with virtuous rage,
until you have duly reflected upon the fact, too well known,
that tlie average disinterested voter can only with difficulty
be induced even to take the trouble to go to the polls and de-
posit his vote. Without the stimulus of interested expecta-
tion, how is the work of a presidential campaign to be got
done ? Who will paint the flags, and pay for the Roman
candles, and print the documents, and supply the stump!
The patriotic citizen, do you answer ? Why does he not do
it then ?

The spoils system, we may hope, however, has nearly run
its course. It is already well understood, that every service
in which efficiency is indispensable must be taken out of pot-
itics ; and this process, happily begun in some departments
of municipal government, will assuredly continue. The first
centur}' of the existence of a nation, which is to last thirty
centuries or more, should be regarded merely in the light of
the " Great Republic's " experimental trip. A leak has de-
veloped itself It will be stopped.

The course of the administration with regard to removals
excited a clamor so loud and general as to inspire the oppo-
sition with new hopes. The old federalists who had aided to
elect General Jackson were especially shocked. Occasionally,
too, the officers removed did not submit to decapitation in
silence. The most remarkable protest published at the time
was from the wife of one of the removed, Mrs. Barney, a
daughter pf the celebrated Judge Chase. Her husband's case
was one of peculiar hardship, and she narrated it with the
eloquence of sorrow and indignation :

" My husband, sir, never was your enemy. In the overflowing patriot-
ism of his heart, he gave you tlie full measure of his love for your military
services. He preferred Mr. Adams for the presidency, because he thought

1829.] TEBBOR AMONG OFFICE-HOLDERS. 223

him qualified, and you unqualified, for the station. He would have been a
traitor to his country, he would have had even my scorn, and have deserved
yoora, had he supported you under such circumstances. He used no means
to oppose you. He did a patriot's duty in a patriot's way. For this he is
proflcribcd — punished! Oh I how punished I My heart bleeds as I write.
Crael sir ! Did he commit any offense worthy of punishment against God,
or against his country, or even against you ? Blush while you read this
question ; speak not, but let the crimson negative mantle on your cheek I
No^ sir — on the contrary, it was one of the best acts of his life. When he
bared his bosom to the hostile bayonets of his enemies, he was not more in
the Une of his duty, than when he voted against you ; and had he fallen a
martyr on the field of fight, he would not more have deserved a monument,
than he now deserves for having been worse than martyred in support of
the dearest privilege and chartered right of American freemen. Careless
•8 you are about the effects of your conduct, it would be idle to inform you
of the depth and quality of that misery which you have worked in Uie
bosom of my family. Else would I tell a tale that would provoke sympa-
thy in any tiling that had a heart, or gentle drops of pity from every eye
not accustomed to look upon scenes of human cruelty * with composure.'
Besides, you were apprised of our poverty ; you knew the dependence of
eight little children for food and raiment upon my husband's salary. You
knew that, advanced in years as he was, without the means to prosecute
any regular business, and without friends able to assist him, the world
would be to him a barren heath, an inhospitable wild. You were able,
therefore, to anticipate the heart-rending scene which you may now re-
alize as the sole work of your hand. The sickness and debility of my hus-
band now calls upon me to vindicate his and his children's wrongs. The
natural timidity of my sex vanishes before the necessity of my situation ;
and a spirit, sir, as proud as yours, although in a female bosom, demands
justice. At your hands I ask it Return to him what you have rudely
torn from his possession ; give back to his children their former means of
securing their food and raiment ; show that you can relent, and that your
rule has had at least one exception. The severity i)racticed by you in this
instance is heightened, because accompanied by a breach of your faith,
solemnly pledged to my husband. lie called upon you, told you frankly
that he had not voted for you. Wliat was your reply ? It was, in sub-
stance, this, * that every citizen of tlie United States liail a right to express
his pohtical sentiments by his vote ; that no charges had been made against
Major Barney ; if any should be made, he should have justice done ; he
should not be condemned unheard.' Then, Iiolding him by the hand with
apparent wartutli, you concluded — 'Be. assured, sir, I shall be particularly
cautious how I listen to assertions of applicants for olHce.' With these as-
surances from you, air, the President of the United States, my husband re-

224 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

turned to the bosom of his family. With these rehearsed, he wined away
the tears of apprehension. The Presirlent was not the monster he had been
represented. They would not be reduced to beggary — ^haggard want
would not be permitted to enter the nian'^ion where he had always been
a stranger. The husband and the father had done nothing in violation of
his duty as an ofTicer. If any malicious slanderer should arise to pour liis
poisonous breath into the cars of the President, the accused would not be
condemned unheard, and his innocence would be triumphant — tliey would
still be h.'ippy. It was presumable also, tliat, possessing the confidence
of three successive administrations (whose testimony in his favor I pre-
sented to you), he was not unworthy the office he held ; besides^ the signip
tures of a hundred of our first mercantile houses establislied the fact of his
having given perfect satisfaction in Uie manner he transacted the business
of his office. In this state of cahn security, without a moment's warning-^
like a clap of thunder in a clear sky — ^your dismissal came, and, in a moment,
the house of joy was converted into one of mourning. Sir, was not this
the refinement of cruelty ? But this was not all. The wife whom yott
thus agonized, drew her being from tlie illustrious Chase, whose voice of
tlmndor early broke the spell of British allegiance, when in the American
Senate, he swore by Heaven that he owed no allegiance to the British
Crown — one, too, whose signature was broadly before your oyes, affixed
to the Charter of our Independence. The husband and the father whom
you have thus wronged, was the first-born son of a hero, whose naval and
militiiry renown brightens the pages of your country's history, from *76 to
I8I5, with whose achievements posterity will not condescend to compare
yours; fur lie fought amidst greater dangers, and he fought for Independ-
ence. By the side of that father, in the second British war, fought the son ;
and the glorious 12th of September bears testimony to his unshaken intrep-
idity. A wife, a husband, tiius derived ; a family of children drawing their
existence from this double revolutionary fountain, you have recklessly,
causelessly, perfidiously, and therefore inhumanly, cast helpless and desti-
tute upon the icy bosom of the world ; and the children and tlie grand-
children of Judge Ciiase and Commodore Barney are poverty stricken upon
ths soil which owes its freedom and fertility, in part, to their heroic patri-
otism."

The reader ought to be informed, I think, that his friend
and benefactor. Major Lewis, opposed this fatal removal policy
from the beginning to the end. " In relation to the principle
C'f rotation," he once wrote to General Jackson, " I embrace
this occasion to enter my solemn protect against it ; not on
account of my office^ but because I hold it to be fraught' with

• 1

^lyVyxc

1829.] TERROR AMONG OFFICE-HOLDERS. 225

the greatest mischief to the country If ever it should be
carried out in extenaOy the days of this republic will, in my
opinion, have been numbered ; for whenever the impression
shall become general that the government is only valuable on
account of its offices^ the great and paramount interest of the
country will be lost sight of, and the government itself ulti-
mately destroyed. This, at least, is the honest conviction
of my mind with regard to these novel doctrines of rotation
in office."

Gen. Jackson's private letters this summer, to friends in
Tennessee, show that he was a sick, unhappy, perplexed old
man. On the 7th of June, he wrote thus to an old friend :

QENSRAL JACKSON TO CAPTAIN JOHN DONELSON, BEN.

•* WAflBDfOTOic, June 7, 1829.

"My Dear Sir : Your letter of the 19th ultimo is just received. What
satisfaction to me to be informed that you and Mr. Hume had visited the
Hermitage and tomb of my dear departed wife. How distressing it has
been to me to have been drawn by public duty from that interesting spot
where my thoughts delight to dwell, so soon after this heavy bereavement
to mingle with all the bustle, labor, and care of public life, when my age,
my enfeebled health and constitution, forewarned me that my time can
not be long upon earth, and admonished me that it was time I should place
my earthly house in order, and prepare for another, and, I hope, a better
world.

" My dear wife had your ftiture state much at heart She often apoke
to me on this interesting subject in the dead hours of the night, and has
shed many tears on the occasion. Your reflections upon the sincere inter-
est your dear sister took in your future happiness are such as sound reason
dictates. Yes, my friend, it is time that you should withdraw from the
turmoils of this world, and prepare for another and better. You have well
provided for your houseiiold. You have educated your children, and fur-
nished them with an outfit into life suflBcient, with good management and
economy, to build an independence upon. You have sufficient around you
to make you and your old lady independent and comfortable during life ;
and, when gone hence, perhaps as much as will be prudently managed ;
and if it should be imprudently managed, then it will be a curse rather
than a blessing to your children. I therefore join in the sentiments of my
deceased and beloved wife, in admonishing you to withdraw from the busy
scenes of this world, and put your house in order for the next, by laying
bold of ' the one thing needful' Go, read the Scriptures. The joyful prom-
VOL. III. — 15

226 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1829.

ises it contains will be a balsam to all your troables, and create for 70a
a kind of heaven here on earth, a consolation to your troubled mind that
is not to be found in the hurry and bustle of this worid.

" Could I but withdraw from the scenes that surround me to the private
walks of the Hermitage, how soon would I be foimd in the solitary shades
of my garden, at the tomb of my dear wife, there to ^>end my days in
silent sorrow, and in peace from the toils and strife of this life, with which
I have been long since satisfied. But this is denied me. I can not retire
with propriety. When my friends dragged me before the public, contrary
to my wishes, and that of my dear wife, I foresaw all this evil, but I
obliged to bend to the wishes of my friends, as it was believed it was
oessary to perpetuate the blessings of liberty to our country and to put down
misrule. My political creed compelled me to yield to the call, and I coii-
soled myself with the idea of having the counsel and society of my dear
wife ; and one term would soon run round, when we would retire to the
Hermitage, and spend our days in the service of our God.

'* But oh 1 how fluctuating are all earthly things I At the time I least
expected it^ and could least spare her, she was snatched from me, and I
lell hero a solitary monument of grief, without the least hope of any hi4>-
piiiotu hero below, surrounded with all the turmoils of public life, and no
time for rt^onmUon or for friendship. From this busy scene I would to
dud I uoiild rutiro and live in solitude.

"How muoh the conduct of corrodes my feelings! I

have JiiHt rocHMvoii a letter from him to , in which he says there is

a VftOttiuiy at Uu> Franklin Academy, and promises to write me. If he
UoiiM nut f{u U) Hchool, I will withdraw from him all supplies that may in-
lUilgtt oxtraviij^aniH^ and confine him to such means as, with economy, will

kciwp him lit^iHUiU Wo are all in tolerable healtL is in the

fkmily way. Little Jackson growing finely, and all join in our best wishes
to you and your amiable lady, and all our connections and good neigh-
bom. Your IVioud, Andrew Jackson.

" UArTAIN JOBN DONBL8OIC, 8«H."

« l\ S. — Mr. Steel (overseer) has written me but one letter. Say to
him to write mo how much crop he has in, how many colts, lambs^ and
oalvoB, and how my last year's colts are, and of the health of my

negroes.

" I loam old Ned and Jack are both dead. Jack was a fine boy, bat
if he was well attended to, I lament not He has gone the way of all the
earth. A. J."

In a similar strain the President, later in the year, wrote
to Judge Hugh L. White : " Both of us, I do supix)8e, would

1829.] 8U0CB88FUL POLITICIAN'S 8T0RT. 227

be more contented and happy in private life ; but the Lord
hath willed it, and we must submit. How grateful I feel to
you for your kind and friendly visit to the Hermitage, where
lies all that made life desirable to me, and whose loss I can
never cease to mourn, and over whose tomb I would like to
spend the remnant of my days in solitude, preparing to meet
her in a happier and a better world."

Before proceeding to the important affairs of General
Jackson's administration, I will give a still nearer view of
the President's office. The perusal of the following narra-
tive will greatly aid the reader to comprehend that peculiar
and intense personality which was able to accomplish so much,
once, the weakest and the strongest then incarnate.

CHAPTER XIX.

SUCCESSFUL politician's STORY.
(TAKEK down AITBB INTEJiViBWSb)

No matter for my name. Call me X. Clark. X may
signify that I am an unknown quantity. Clark will indicate
my early vocation. " My whole " will convey a hint that I
am not what I was.

Our family is one of the oldest of the old New York fam-
ilies. Our portraits show it. We appear in brocade and
diamonds, in ruffles and pig-tail, on canvas that was woven
long before the revolution. We were torics then, high tones,
staunch for church and king. In later days we went over
to the popular side. We were republicans in Jeflferson's
time ; buck- tails in Van Buren's ; democrats in Jackson's.
Our family stood high in the party. My great uncle was
supposed to know as much of the proceedings of the Albany
B^ncy as the Albany Regency itself ; and Mr. Van Buren,
our political chief, the great buck of the buck-tails. New

228 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1829.

York's favorite son, was my great uncle's friend. We deemed
the fact stupendous, for Mr. Van Buren filled a great space
in the public mind in the days when I was young. To my
boyish fancy he was the very chief of men, foremost among
the foremost, orator, statesman, magician, victor I

I was bred to the mercantile business. At fourteen, I
swept the store and carried the keys. At twenty, I was a
clerk in full communion. At twenty-two, a book-keeper.
At twenty-six, I rejoiced in the title of secretary to a com-
pany. A more unsophisticated young man than I was at
that age did not exist. Brought up to mind my own business,
accustomed to deal with merchants of the old school, who
said little, and meant all they said, acquainted only with the
politics of a quiet mercantile ward, in which none but men
of substance and respectability took a leading part, I had in
me as little of the politician as can be imagined. So un-
acquainted was I with the world, that when a man said to
me, " Mr. Clark, I am glad to see you," or, " I shall be glad
to serve you," I believed him. Indeed, the member of our
old firm, whose ways I cliiefiy relished, was a man of such a
nice sense of truth, that if he had said he was glad to see a
person whom he was not glad to see, he would have felt that
he had told a lie. I supposed, in my innocence, that it was
so with all great men.

In the spring of 1829, two events occurred of the first im-
portance in my history. General Jackson became President
of the United States, and the company of which I was the
secretary ceased to exist. I said to myself, " I have lived in
New York long enough ; it is time I saw something of the
world. Our party is in power, and our party is a party that
rewards its friends. I'll go to Washington, and get a clerk-
ship in one of the departments." My uncle approved my de-
termination, and gave me a letter of introduction to Mr. Van
Buren. My honored friend of the old firm, who was also a
member of Congress, gave me a handsome recommendation
as a correct and skillful accountant, and this also was in the
form of a letter of introduction to Mr Van Buren. " Ctov-

18Si9.] snooiSBfUL politician's stobt. 229

emor Yan Boren" we called, him in those days, for we had
elected him Qovemor in the preidoas autunm. When I ob-
tained my letters of introduction, his appointment as Secre-
taiy of State and his resignation of the governorship had just
been annonnoed, and the great man was daily expected to
paas throngh New York on his way to Washington.

He cama I had read in the morning papers that he was
to arrive by the day boat firom Albany, akd I went down to
die dock to get a sight of him. Having never seen him, I
ftlt extremely carious to behold the man of whom I had
heard so much, and who, I hoped, was about to do something
gnat for me. Two gentlemen were walking up and down
the hurricane deck, arm in arm, while the boat was getting
into her berth. One was a short gentleman, of middle age ;
the other a very young man. The crowd on the wharf were
cheering.

** The Governor must have come,"" I said to a bystander,
^'but why don't he show himself? He ought to be up there
on the hurricane deck.''

^'There he is" said the person I had addressed ; ''that
litde fellow in the surtout, and thafs his son walking with
him."

What a surprise I What a disenchantment I It had
been a fixed idea with me that Governor Yan Buren was a
man of the same magnificent physical proportions as Gover-
nor Clinton. I expected him to be even more imposing and
superb than Clinton. I had also a general notion that all
governors were vast, which was owing, I suppose, to the cir-
cumstance that the only Governor I had ever seen seemed so
to my wondering young eyes. It is impossible for this gener-
ation to conceive what a great man a Governor was thirty or
forty years ago.

I saw the fiither and son drive away in a carriage. They
were going, as I knew, to the City Hotel, the great hotel of
that day, situated in the lower part of Broadway, a region
long siDce ^ven up to business. I followed them leisurely on
foo^ and on reaching the hotel, found the bar-room crowded

230 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

with politicianSj anxious to " pay their respects" to the new
premier. In a few minutes the doors of the great dining-
room were thrown open, and the clerk of the house, mounted
on a chair, cried out :

" Gentlemen who desire to see Mr. Van Buren ¥rill please
walk into the dining-room."

We thundered in — fifty or sixty of us ; politicians in and
out of place ; these wanting to get in, those to stay in. We
were all hail fellows well met, and there was a roar of joYial
talk and banter. Politicians, you know, are friendly to every
body ; for no man knows who can or who can not forward
his views, nor how soon a man now powerless may be in a
position to help. After waiting a while, all expecting the
great man to present himself, a waiter appeared, and said :

" Gentlemen, Mr. Van Buren requests your cards."

The old stagers laughed. There was a general fumbling
in pockets.

" Cards ?" said I. " What does he want our cards for ?
I have no card with me. I shall write a note to the Gt)v-

ernor."

Amid the merriment of the group nearest me, I wrote
my notes in something like these words :

" Sir — I am the bearer of two letters of introduction to

you : one from my uncle, Mr. , and the other fix)m

my friend, the Hon. . I have called for the pur-
pose of delivering them to you, and shall be glad if you will
name an hour when it will be convenient for you to receive
them. I am, etc. " X. Clark."

I folded my note, and placed it on the tray with the cards.
The waiter vanished, reappeared, and delivered himself as
follows :

" Gentlemen, Mr. Van Buren sends his compliments, and
says he is fatigued with his journey, and requests the honor
of your company this evening, at eight o'clock, one and alL
Mr. Clark will please to wait 1"

I became instantly the lion of the room. I was severely
bantered.

1829.] SUCCESSFUL politician's story. 231

" Clark," said one, " you are a made man. You '11 get
the best office in the gift of the goveniment. Not a doubt
of it."

The crowd oozed away into the congenial bar-room again,
the great doors were shut, and I was left alone seated by the
fire. I sat some minutes, waiting and wondering, and think-
ing what I should say to the Coming Man. Without having
heard any one enter, I looked up at length, and lo ! there, on
the opposite side of the fire-place, sat the Magician ! We
rose and exchanged the usual salutations. I presented my
letters, which Mr. Van Buren courteously took and read de-
liberately. He re-folded them, and said, as he did so :

" I highly esteem your uncle, and also your friend Mr.

. No men in the State stand higher in my regard than

they. If I can do any thing to oblige them or forward yom*
yiews, it will give me great pleasure."

Here the interview, as I afterward knew, would have
properly ended. But such was my utter inexperience of the
great world, that I took these words of simple civility in
their literal acceptation. I felt that I was a " made man."
There was no doubt that the Secretary of State could forward
my views if he wished to do so, and he had just informed me
that he did wish it. What more could a young man desire ?
How often, in later times, have I wondered at this incredible
simplicity in a boy of twenty-six.

The Governor sat silent, expecting and desiring me to
take my leave. Not perceiving his intent, I asked, with the
assurance of perfect verdancy :

" When do you go to Washington, Mr. Van Buren ?"

" When do I go to Washington ?" he said, with a bland
stare, which mildly intimated, " What is that to you, young
man ?''

" Yes, sir," I continued ; " I wish to know when you are
going to Washington. It is important to me that I should
know."

" Well," said he, " I can't say exactly. In a few days, I
presume."

232 LIFE or ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

" A few days, sir !" said I ; " not sooner ?"

" Why," said he, " won't that suit you ?"

" Well, no, Mr. Van Buren," I replied, " I can't say it
does, exactly."

" Indeed !" he continued, " I am sorry you are not suited.
When do you propose to go yourself ?"

" I thought of going to-morrow morning."

'' So soon ?"

" Why, yes, sir. That is, if you have no objection. Have
you any ?"

" I ? Oh, by no means. I think you can't do better than
go to-morrow morning."

" I thought not, sir," said I, all unconscious of the ab-
surdity of my proceedings, cand of his astonishment.

Again there was an awkward pause. Again the great man
waited for me to take my hat and leave. I did nothing of
the kind.

" Mr. Van Buren," I resumed, " I don't know a soul in
Washington. I should be obliged to you if you would give
me a letter or two of introduction to your friends there."

This request, as I afterward understood, was almost too
much even for his invincible politeness. He stared outright

" A letter of introductiofi ?" said he, musingly. " Let
me see. Who is there in Washington just now ? The At-
torney-General is absent, I think, and so is the Secretary of
the Treasury. Governor Branch is there, I believe, and Mr.
Eaton."

I fancied, afterward, that he tried to overawe me by an
array of distinguished names. I was deaf and blind to all
hints, however, and said,

" Oh, Mr. Van Buren, it 's no matter about those other
gentlemen. A letter to Mr. Eaton or to Governor Branch
will answer."

" Oh, they wiU do, will they ?"

" Perfectly," said I.

As he made no movement toward writing, I ventured to
place the writing materials that I had just used nearer to

1829.] SUCCESSFUL politician's story. 233

where he was sitting, and waited for him to indite the letters.

" Oh/' said he, " you wish me to write noWj do you ?"

" Well, sir," I replied, " I should like it ; but if it 's in-
convenient, I '11 call again in the course of the day."

'^ No," said he ; and he turned to the table and b^n to
write.

He produced the following epistle : — " Messrs. Eaton and
Branch : This will be handed to you by my young friend,
Mr. Clark, who precedes me to Washington. Any attentions
you may show him will be highly estimated by yours, etc.

" M. Van Buren."

With this passport to fortune in my pocket, I left the
{HPesence ; and very glad, I think, must Mr. Van Buren have
been to get rid of his innocent " young friend."

On the third morning after this interview, I awoke in the
City of Washington. After a stroll about its wide and
dreary expanses, I proceeded, with my precious letter in my
pocket, to the office of the Secretary of the Navy. The ante-
chamber into which I was shown was crowded with people
waiting their turn to be admitted to the new dispenser of
places. Verdant as I was, my three day's experience as an
office-seeker seemed to have made me free of the craft, and I
knew at a glance that every man in that room had come to
ask an appointment. I waited, and waited, and waited.
Two hours must have passed before it came my turn to see
the Secretary. I was shown in, at length, and, advancing
awkwardly and slowly to Mr. Branch, who sat at a table,
wearing the air of a man who had been bored to within an
inch of his life, and had almost lost the power of paying at-
tention, I said :

" I have a letter here, sir, from Mr. Van Buren."

He took the letter, without seeming to comprehend what
I had said, and was proceeding languidly to open it. He
looked up at me. I suppose I was abashed at the coldness
of his reception, and probably did not cut a very promising
figure. In a loud, off-hand, and, as I thought, most imper-
tinent and insulting manner, he said,

234 LIFE OF ANDTIEW JACKSON. [1829.

" Well, young man, and what do you want ?"

I was no longi^r abashed. A sudden fury seized me, and
I cried,

" What do I want^ sir ? I want nothing, sir. Nothing
whatever. Yes, sir, I do want something. I want that let-
ter ! It is from Mr. Van Buren, but I '11 not trouble you
with it, sir. I request that you will hand it back to me."

He did so. I seized the letter from his hand, turned upon
my heel, and stalked away, boiling. " By heaven," said I to
myself, as I went fuming down the steps, " if this is the way
of doiug business in Washington, the quicker I get back to
Wall-street the better."

The cool air of Pennsylvania Avenue restored me to some
degree of composure. I had half concluded to start home-
ward the next morning, when it occurred to me that my let-
ter of introduction was addressed to Mr. Eaton as well as
to Mr. Branch, and that it would be an absurd proceeding to
give up the game with a card in my hands. To the War De-
partment building I accordingly directed my steps, and was
admitted at once to the presence of the chief. As it was late
in the afternoon, the business of the day was nearly concluded,
and the Secretary was at leisure and in excellent humor.
Major Eaton was a stout, good-humored, agreeable man, ex-
tremely easy and cordial in his manners. He rose at my en-
trance, read my letter with attention, shook hands with me
heartily, and invited me to be seated, and make known my
desires.

Like Mr. Van Buren, he said he would be glad to pro-
mote my wishes in any way that might be in his power. We
chatted a quarter of an hour in a friendly manner upon the
affairs of our party in New York, when Mr. Eaton observed,

" This letter, I perceive, is addressed to Governor Branch
as well as to myself You will see the Governor, I presume."

" No, sir," said I, with tremendous emphasis, " I am not
going to see Governor Branch. I have called upon Governor
Branch, and shall not repeat the visit, I can assure you.'

" No ! Why, has anything unpleasant occurred ?^

99
U

\99

18S9.] BUOOXSSFUL politician's 8T0BT. 235

I then told him my story as I have told it to you^ b^in-
niiig with my interview wit^ Mr. Van Buren in New York,
and ending with my abmpt departure from the office of the
Secretary of the Navy. Seldom have I seen any one so con-
vulsed with langhter as Major Eaton was during the recital
of my adventures. He lay back in his chair and shouted with
laughter. He stood up and laughed. He walked up and
down and laughed. He lay on the lounge and laughed. I
laughed, too, and saw, for the first time, how ludicrous some
of my performances had been. When I had finished the jolly
secrotaiy said,

** Now, Mr. Claik, will you have the goodness to tell me
that story all over again ?"

I repeated it, verbatim^ and with the same result as be-
fore. Then said Eaton,

" One more favor I have to ask of you. I want you to
oome to my house, this evening, and tell that story to Mrs.
Baton, exactly as you have told it to me."

I went to his house in the evening, and found assembled
there a large company of gentlemen, who paid assiduous court
to the lady. Mrs. Eaton was not then the celebrated charac-
ter she was destined, ere long, to be made, and I knew noth-
ing of the peculiar position she held in the society of the
capital. To me she seemed a strikingly beautiful and fascin-
ating woman, all graciousness and vivacity ; the life of the
company. Her rooms, as I soon found, were the resort of the
extreme Jackson men, and her favor was supposed to be the
indispensable preliminary to preferment. Ignorant of all this,
I told my story, to the lady's great amusement, and that of
all her guests. I thought that I had made rather a brilliant
dSnU into the society of Washington ; and went to my hotel
well pleased with my prospects and myself.

Mr. Van Buren arrived shortly after, and I waited upon
him, of course. What influences, besides those already men-
tioned, were brought to bear in my favor, I know not ; but,
in a few days, I had the gratification of learning that I was
appointed to a clerkship in the Department of State, and that

236 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

my attendance was required on tLe following morning at 10
o'clock. The place to which I was appointed was not con-
spicuous, but confidential ; and, as I then thought, munifi-
cently remunerated. I had in charge the finances of the de-
partment, and was the usual confidential messenger from the
Secretary of State to the President. It was the very place
of all others, that I would have chosen, and the very place I
felt myself fitted to fill with credit. My gratitude to the Sec-
retary was boundless, and so was my desire to stand high in
his regard.

At ten in the morning, I presented myself at the office of
the Secretary of State. My predecessor, as I learnt afterward,
had received no intimation that he was to be removed up to
that moment. He was a protege of the late President, Mr.
Adams, and supposed that, according to previous usage, he
would be retained, whoever might be displaced. He had a
young family dependent solely upon his salary, and was him-
self an exceedingly amiable and worthy gentleman. Mr. Van
Buren, upon seeing me enter his apartment rang for a mes-
senger, to whom he said,

" Inform Mr. Jones* that I wish to speak with him for a
moment."

Mr. Jones appeared. Mr. Van Buren addressed him in
these words,

"Mr. Jones, I beg to make you acquainted with Mr.
Clark of New York. The government, Mr. Jones, has no
further occasion for your services in this department. Mr.
Clark is appointed your successor. Have the goodness to take
him to your room, and give him what information he requires
respecting his duties."

The blow was so sudden and so unexpected, that poor
Jones could scarcely conceal his feelings. He stood, for a
moment, paralyzed and speechless, and then left the room
without a word. I followed him to his office, upon reaching
which, he said, in a tremulous voice, and a wild, absent man-

ner.

* Fictitious name.

IS!9.] SU00X8SFUL POLITIOIAK'S BTOnY. 237

*' Ezcnae me a moment, Mr. Olark, this is rather Budden.
I will rejoin yon in a moment/'

He staggered out of the room, and remained absent about
ten minutes. When he returned, all traces of emotion had
vanished, both fit>m his countenance and his manner, and he
proceeded, with perfect courtesy and much patience, to ex-
plain to me the nature and routine of my future duties. I
pitied him from my soul. I would not dismiss a scullion from
my kitchen so. Nor would Mr. Van Buren. It was the Sys-
tem that beggared poor Jones, and made me a ^^ made mao.''
A System, like a Corporation, has no souL (But it ought to
be damned, nevertheless.^ — ^Bepobteb.)

On r^oining Mr. Van Buren, he said to me,

'^ I know nothing about this place of yours. Find out
the law and govern yourself by it.''

He said to me, afterward, that he hated patronage. He
preferred an office that had none.

<< No matter how you dispense it, you make enemies. The
man you remove is your enemy. His friends are o£fended.
The man you appoint is not likely to be satisfied, and aU the
UDBUOoessfril applicants feel themselves injured."

'^ I am an exception to your remark, Mr. Van Buren,"
sttd I, " for I am perfectly satisfied with my place. I would
not change it for any in the department. I could wish
nothing better."

As I had charge of some of the Secret Service funds, the
disbursements from which required the President's special
authorization, the course of my duties led me often to the
White House. My first interview with the President dis-
played my faculty of honest blundering to fine advantage.
Charged as I was, on that interesting occasion, with a packet
of papers from my chief, I marched up to the door of the
piesidential mansion, big with a sense of the grandeur of my
mission. I had also an extreme desire to see General Jack-
son, whom I had been accustomed from childhood to revere.
An Irish porter answered my ring.

238 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

" I wish to se« the President," said I, perhaps not with
the condescension which becomes a great man.

The man replied, in a tone of the most irritating non-
chalance,

" The President is engaged, and can't be seen."

" But I must see the President," said I, in a very decided
manner. " I have business with the President."

He said he would take up a card. So I hastily wrote on
one the name of Mr. Van Buren, meaning that I was there
by that gentleman's orders, and was his representative. I
added some indistinct words to that effect, which, as I soon
learned, were either illegible or not observed. The porter be-
came obsequious enough when he had caught the name I had
written, and invited me to take a seat in the vestibule. He
took up my card, and instantly returned with a request for
me to ** walk up."

I walked up. I entered the President's office, where half
a dozen gentlemen were seated in conversation. On my pre-
senting myself at the door, the whole group, including the
President, rose, and, after eyeing me a moment, burst into
laughter. I stood astonished and abashed. The President,
however, immediately explained the cause of this sudden
merriment.

** Mr. Clark, I presume," said he, very politely.

" The same, sir," said I.

" Excuse our laughing, Mr. Clark," he continued. " I
just glanced at your card, and seeing the name of Mr. Van
Buren, concluded that we were about to see that gentleman."

I explained how the error arose, and, in doing so, hap-
pened to use a phrase, the selection of which would have done
honor to the most adroit of politicians.

" I brought no card of my own, Mr. President," said I,
" as it did not occur to me that a messenger from Mr. Van
Buren could be refused admittance. And when your porter,
sir, said that you were engaged and could not be seen, I
thought / would take the responsibility of sending up the
name of Mr. Van Buren."

1829.] SUCCESSFUL politician's story. 239

Upon this, the General gave a most energetic pull at the
bell-rope. The offending porter appeared.

" This gentleman/' said the President, " is to be admitted
at all times. Mark my words — ^at all times. Mr. Clark, be
seated. In a few moments I shall be at your service."

He spoke in a peculiarly frank and cordial, yet authori-
tative manner. There was the master in his every tone, but
a master whom it would be a delight to serve. I loved him
from that hour. In his presence I always felt entirely at
home, but in Mr. Van Buren's, though I wiw him every day, I
never felt so. My business with the President, at that time,
was merely formal. He examined the statement I had brought
with me, signed it, and I took my leave. I noticed that the
pen with which he wTote was a steel one of remarkable size.
Some one asked him, one day, when he complained of his
pen, if he should take it to the blacksmith's for repair. It
was a great pen, and he wrote with a furious rapidity, some-
times, that I have never seen equaled.

A few days after this interview, Mr. Van Buren, who had
been for a day or two employed upon an important foreign
dispatch, requested me to make a fair copy of the same, and
take it to the President, and ask him if it correctly expressed
his views. The Secretary of State, I may add, devoted him-
self most laboriously to the duties of his department, and
took great pains with liis official letters. He used to write
on paper ruled very wide, so that he could add to or alter
them the more conveniently. This particular dispatcli came
to my hands, I remember, black with erasures and interline-
ations. I copied it and took it up to the President, who
read it over with great deliberation, and sat brooding over it
for some minutes after he had finished it. He broke silence
at length :

" Well, Mr. Clark, I don't see the use of beating round
the bush in this way, when you can say what you mean in a
straightforward manner. What do you think of it ?"

" I, Mr. President ? I am incapable of judging of such
an affair. My opinion is worth nothing."

240 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

" That 's for me to say/' rejoined the Gkneral ; " I want
your opinion."

" Well, sir," said I, " since you ask me, I must say that
the straightforward way of saying a thing has always seemed
to me the best. In fact, I know no other. But really, Gen-
eral, I am very inexperienced, and perhaps — "

" I think just so," broke in the General, energetically.
" Leave the paper with me, Mr. Clark, and I '11 see Mr. Van
Buren myself about it. Ask him to step up and see me."

I obeyed. The next morning I fancied that the manner
of my chief was somewhat more reserved toward me than
usual. He dropped a remark in the course of the day, which
led me to infer that he did not approve of my observation to
the President, non-committal though it had been. I then
narrated to him the interview just as it occurred. I told him
I had shrunk from expressing an opinion, but the President
had demanded it peremptorily, and I was compelled to give
it, such as it was. He seemed satisfied with my explanation,
and never alluded to the circumstance again. He may have
remembered it, however. I know I thought so ten years af-
terward.

Before many days elapsed, I was again in the President's
private office, on an errand of the same nature, when he again
asked my opinion of the paper I had brought him to read. I
was not going to be caught a second time. Indeed, I had
made up uiy mind beforehand that I would venture no more
opinions on any subject in that apartment. So I said, in my
blunt way :

" Mr. President, I really wish you would n't ask me what
I think. The truth is, sir, Mr. Van Buren didn't seem
pleased that I gave you my opinion the other day about the
dispatch."

I then told him what Mr. Van Buren had said, and how
I had explained the matter. The General laughed heartily.

" Why, he wasn't offended, was he ?" he asked. "He
couldn't be."

"No," said I, "he wasn't offended. Still he didn't

1829.] 8U00E88FUL POLITICIAN'S STORT. 241

like it, and I would decidedly prefer not to give any more
opinions."

The General was exceedingly merr)' at this reply. At
length he said :

"Come, my young friend, tell me honestly what you
think of this passage, and I'll promise not to tell Van Buren
any thing about it."

I then gave him my opinion. Always after that he asked
me what I thought of the papers which I submitted to his
perusal, and often prefaced his question by assuring me, in a
jocular manner, that he would not tell Van Buren.

I soon became quite familiar with the General. Never
was there a man so beset with importunate applicants for
favors as he. One day, when I had had to wait long for an
opportunity to transact business with him, I chanced to make
a remark which, I think, had an important effect upon my
whole subsequent career. He had got rid of his visitors one
after another, and at last we two sat alone in the office. He
had signed my accounts with his great pen, and we were con-
versing on some topic of the day. He seemed tired and mel-
ancholy, and I was moved to say something kind to him. I
saw not before me the conquering general nor the illustrious
President, but a tired, sad old man, far from his home and
friends, fartliest of all from his wife, and approached chiefly
by flatterers, beggars, and sycophants. What to say to him
I knew not, but I contrived, at last, to blunder out this :

" General, I should think you'd feel lonely here."

" Lonely ?" he exclaimed. " How can you think so ?
Most people would think I liad plenty of company. What
makes you think I am lonely ?''

" Well, General," I replied, '* I don't mean lonely exactly.
But it is not here as it was at the Hermitage, where your
friends could come in and chat with you in a social way."

" No," said the President, " it is not here as it was at the
Hermitage. There you're right, my young friend."

" I'll tell you, General," I continued, ** exactly what I
mean. Every one that comes here has an ax to grind. At

VOL. III. — 16

242 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

least it seems so to mc, and, in fact, they say so them-
selves."

" Yes," said the General, " I suppose that's so. Now,
let me ask you, what ax have you to grind ?"

" My ax is ground," said I.

" It is, is it ?" said the General, laughing.

" Yes, sir, my ax is ground. I have the pleasant-
est place in the department, and I am perfectly satisfied
with it."

" You are perfectly satisfied, are you ?'*

" Perfectly."

" You have reached the summit of your ambitioo,
then ?"

" Certainly, General. I ask nothing better. I wish no-
thing better."

" You have no ax to grind at all ?"

" None, General, none whatever."

" Neither for yourself nor for any body else ?"

*^ Neither for myself nor for any body else."

Upon this the old man rose, took my hand, and said
with much tenderness :

" My young friend, come often to see me, and we'll have
many a good chat together, just as if we were at the Her-

mitage.

From that time forward I can not be mistaken in sup-
posing I was a favorite with General Jackson. He treated
me w^ith the most marked cordiality, and appeared to give
me all his confidence. The time came when I put his favor
to the lest, and it stood the test, as I will relate by and by.

Mr. Van Burcn well knew my intimacy with the Presi-
dent, but it made no difl*erence in his own demeanor toward
me. Mr. Van Buren never employed the arts of personal con-
ciliation of which he has been accused. To me he was alwavs
perfectly polite, but cold and reserved. I tried hard to win
his regard, but never felt that I had made the slightest pro-
giess toward it. Even when I had rendered him a personal
service, out of the line of my official duty, I could not lessen

1829.] SUCCESSFUL politician's stobt. 243

the distance between us by a hair's breadth. He had a sin-
gular aversion to accounts, and an inaptitude for keeping
them that was strange in a man who was so careful to dis-
charge his pecuniary obligations. Soon after he arrived in
Washington he came to me, with a puzzled expression of
countenance, and said that his bank account was all in con-
fusion, and that he would be very much obliged to me if I
would look it over, and tell him positively whether he had
aoy money in the bank or not. I told him I would do it
with much pleasure, and asked him for his check-book.

" Check-book ! check-book !" said he, " what is that ?"

He actually did not know what a check-book was ; and,
indeed, they were not commonly used, thirty years ago, ex-
cept by business men. When I had straightened out his
account, I procured him a check-book, and explained to him
the mode of using it. He manifested the same delight as a
child does in a new toy, and I saw him show it as a great
curiosity to one of his Southern friends.

I remember a curious incident of my intercourse with the
Secretary of State. I had occasion to call upon him at his
own house one morning, when I found him writing.

" Bead that letter, Mr. Clark," said he, when he had
finished, " and tell mo what you think of it."

I read the letter, and said :

" I will tell you what I think of it with a great deal of
pleasure, Mr. Van Buren, if you will tell me what it's
about."

" That will do," he replied ; "I think it will answer."

He then folded the letter, and immediately turned to the
business upon which I had come. The letter was so worded
that no one unacquainted with its subject could have attached
the slightest meaning to any part of it.

This extraordiuarv man, cold and cautious as he seemed
to ine and to the woi Id, was exceedingly amiable, and even
jovial, in his own liome. I caught him once lying on a sofa,
engaged in a downright romp with his boys, which he finished
by throwing a sofa-cushion at one of them. He was also, at

244 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1^.

times, very frauk iu avowiug bjth his opinions and his expe-
dients. One day, after ho had astonished a company of Vir-
ginians with a display of what seemed to them almost a
miraculous familiarity with the local politics of Virginia^ I
asked him how lie had acquired his information, adding that
the Virginians, upon going out, had expressed boundless won-
der at the extent of his knowledge. He answered that he had
gathered most of it from those very Virginians with whom
he had conversed. He had allowed them to talk ad libitum^
and by adding what they let fall to what he knew before, he
was able to appear to know more than they did.

The terror of Mr. Van Buren's public life was this : to be
thought an intriguer. The very pains which he took to avoid
the appearance of intrigue wtis often the means of fastening
the chai*ge upon him.

But to return to General Jackson. The General was a
striking illustration of the doctrine of comi>ensation. His
will, if directly resisted, was not to be shaken by mortal
power ; but, if artfully managed, he was more easily swayed
and itii posed upon than any man of his day. There was a
certain member of Congress who had set his heart upon a
foreign mission, and had long tried to compass his aim, with-
out cflFect. He obtained a clue, iu some way, to one of the
General's weaknesses, and clianged his tactics in consequence.
He cultivated my acquaintance assiduously, and accompanied
me sometimes to the White House, where he gradually
established himself upon a footing of office familiarity. I
saw Iiim one afternoon perform the following scene in the
Generars private office, myself being the only spectator
thi*reof. The President was smoking his pipe.

** General Jjickson," began the member, "I am about to
ask you a favor — a favor, sir, that will cost you nothing, and
the government nothing, but will gratify me exceciUngly."

'' It's granted, sir," said the President. " What is it ?"

^^ Well, General, I have an old father at home who has
as great an esteem for your character as one man can have
for another. Before I left home^ he charged me to get for

1829.] SUCCKBBFUL POLITICIAN'S 8T0BY. 245

him, if possible, one of General Jackson's pipes, and that is
the favor I now ask of you/'

'^ Oh, certainly," said the General, lai^hing and ringing
the bell.

When the servant came, he told him to bring two or three
dean pipes.

" Excuse mo, Gtineral," said the member, " but may I
ask you for that very pipe you have just been smoking ?"

" This one ?" asked the General " By all means, if you
prefer it."

The President was proceeding to empty it of the ashes,
when the member once more interrupted him.

"No, General, don't empty out the tobacco. I want
that pipe just as it is, just as it left your lips."

The member took the pipe to the table, folded it care-
fully and reverently in a piece of paper, thanked the General
for the precious gift with the utmost warmth, and left the
room with the air of a man whose highest flight of ambition
had just been more than gratified.

In a little less than three weeks after, that man departed
on a mission to one of the South American States, and it was
that pipe that did the business for him. At least I thought
so ; and if there is any meaning in a wink, he thought so
too. It was also a fact, as he in confidence assured me, that
his old father did revere General Jackson, and wotdd be much
gratified to possess one of his pipes. I once heard a pill-
vender say to one who had laughed at his extravagant ad-
vertisements :

" Well, these pills of mine, to my certain knowledge,
have cured some iKjople."

Speaking of ofHce-sceking, I will relate to you the singu-
lar process by which a clerk in the War Department was
transformed into a Senator of the United States. If I had
not been an eye-witness of this man's extraordinary proceed-
ings, I could not believe the story. He was a loud, bluster-
ing, fluent, idle politician from the north, a protege or friend
of one of the Burrites. He was sitting on the piazza of a

}

246 LIFE OF ANDUEW JACKSON. [1829.

hotel, uiic aftei'iioou (an employ luent he was much addicted
to), when a young man from the south began to declaim
against the administration, and to denounce with particular
warmth the Burrite just referred to.

" Sir," said the war-clerk, *' if you feel it necessary tu
8pe4ik in that way, I will thank you to Bi>eak in a lower tone.
The gentleman whom you are abusins; is a friend of mine."

" I don't care a who's your friend. I shall say what

I please of the scoundrel, and as loud as I please."

The clerk flew at the young southerner ; but the by-
standers interfered before much damage was done. In a few
minutes, an officer of the army presented to the clerk a chal-
lenge from the young gentleman, which the clerk accepted.
He asked me to be his second. I knew just as nmch of the
dueling science as he did, which was nothing at all ; nor did
I think it proper for an employee of the government to
bring discredit upon it by engaging in an affair of that kind.
I declined peremptorily ; and advised him to procure the as-
sistance of a military man who understood such things. He
started in pursuit of the only officer with whom he had ex-
changed a syllable in Washington, a captain to whom he had
been casually introduced the evening before in a bar-room.
He found his man and induced him to serve.

"What are your weapons.^" asked the second. "You
have the choice, you know."

"Have I .^" exclaimed the clerk. "By Heaven, then, I
have him on the hip. I choose small swords. Time, to morrow
morning at sunrise."

The second remonstrated. The principal insisted. The
second of the Southerner protested. The clerk was inflexible.
A postponement wiis asked, that weapons might be procured,
and the young gentlemen instructed in tlieir use. But, no ;
tlie next morning at the rising of the sun was the only time
the clerk would hear of Late in the evening, after many
hours of negotiation and the interchange of notes innumer-
able, the second of the Southerner formally declined the meet-
ing. The next morning the clerk posted the young man as a

829.] SUCCESSFUL politician's story. 247

oward on all the walls of WashiDgton. In the course of the
lay I met the victorious clerk and asked him where he had
earned the use of the small sword.

" Small sword ?" said he. " I never had one in my hand,
don't know what it is. And I knew he didn't."

He gained great eclat by this proceeding. He was re-
;arded as a champion of the administration ; and the Presi-
lent, who could no more help sympathizing with a fight than
. duck can help liking water, was intensely gratified. The
ame day news came that an important vacancy had occurred
Q a remote Territory, and my fighting friend saw that his
lOur had come. He immediately wrote a resignation of his
lerkship, dating it on the day of the challenge, and presented
t to the chief of his department with these words,

" Of course, sir, before accepting the challenge yesterday,
'. resigned my place in the department. I am not the man
o connect the administration with a duel. Here it is, sir,
lated as you will perceive, yesterday."

The Secretary was delighted. The President was com-
)letoly won. Bather than not reward a partisan who had
ought for him, or who had shown a willingness to fight, he
rould almost have resigned his own office in favor of the
champion. He gave the ex-clerk the vacant place. He gave
lim nine letters of introduction to personal friends in the Ter-
itory. Shortly after, that Territory was admitted into the
Jnion as a sovereign 8tate, and my fighting friend came back
o Washington as one of its Senators. He served out his
vhole term ^vithout once revisiting the State he represented,
md then retired to private life.

This incident reminds me of a conversation I once had with
he President upon the subject of party appointments. I said,

" I want to ask you, General, about your advice to Mr.
llonroe, that politics should not influence appointments.
3ow do you reconcile that doctrine with the conduct of your
idministration ?"

His countenance assumed a knowing, slightly waggish ex-
iression, as he replied,

248 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

" Young man, we are never too old to learn."

On another occasion ho said,

'^ I am no politician. But if I were a politician, I would
be a New York politician."

I had not held my clerkship long before I discovered that
the accounts of all the departments were kept in the most an-
tiquated and awkward manner. Custom and tradition ruled
supreme. Some accounts in the treasury department were
kept just as tliey were in the days of Alexander Hamilton,
and according to modes devised and established by him. I
did all I could for years to get the system of book-keeping by
double entry introduced, but I met with insuperable diffi-
culty. Not a man in high ])lace knew what double entry
was, or could be made to know. After a long struggle, I
succeeded so far as to induce a certain Secretary of the Treas-
ury to promise to examine a trcjitisc on the art of book-keep-
ing by double entrj'. I sent him one instantly, and ho)>ed
much from his well-known zeal and supposed intelligence.
Some days after I rc^ceived a message from the Secretary, ask-
ing me to call at his oilice, as he had made up his mind upon
the subject of double entry, and wished me to learn his con-
clusions. I waited upon him.

" Ah, Mr. Clark, walk in. I am now prepared to show
you, sir, that double entry is no better than single."

He took down a volume of English parliamentary reports,
turned to the evidence given by the inventor of a new sjrstem
of book-keej)ing before a committee, and pointed to these
words : ^' Double entiy itself is no safeguard against omis-
sions and false entries."

" There !" said the Secretarj', triumphantly. " You see?
High authority, sir. A professor of book-keeping ! No safe-
guard against omissions and false entries !"

'^ Why, Mr. S<?cretiiry," siiid I, utterly confounded at the
man's simplicity, " no system can prevent omissions and false
entries. If your clerk sells five hundred barrels of flour, and
enters four hundred, or omits to enter them at all, how can
any system of book-keeping prevent it ? The same dishon-

1829.] SUCCESSFUL politician's story. 249

estj can make the book balance, no matter how false the en-
tries may be. All book-keeping presupposes a desire on the
part of the book-keeper to make an honest record, and all we
claim for double entry is, that it enables him to do so with
greater convenience, certainty, and expedition. Double entry
is a self-corrector. Your book-keeper knows, to a certainty,
whether he has or has not made an exact record."

The Secretary scratched his wise noddle witli the end of
his pen for a minute or two, and then delivereil himself thus:
f " Mr. Clark, I will frankly admit that you have explaiiieil
away that difficulty with a great deal of ingenuity. I grant
the force of your reasoning. But, sir, there is a difficulty in
the way that is jxjrfectly insunnountable. You can not argue
it down. It excludes argument."

" Indeed, sir !" said I. " What is that ?"
" Well, sir," he rejoined, " this is an economical govern-
ment, and no Congress toill ever cojisent to double the num-
ber of clerks in this department !'*

I am well aware that in telling this story I dniw largely
upon the credulity of the listener. Nevertheless, it is true.
And this very Secretary held his office longer, I believe,
than it has ever been held by any other incumbent since
the foundation of the government. I gave up double entry
after that, and I presume they are keeping accounts in Wash-
ington in the good old way to this hour.

It is not an entirely pleasant thin^ to be a member of the
Cabinet. All feel the pressure from above. All feel that a
breath ummikes them, as a breath hath made. Men feel alike
whose j)lace and preferment doi)end upon the will of another
man. Whether they be Cabinet ministers or Cabinet por-
ters, the moral effect of the position is the same.

I will relate one more of my interviews with General
Jackson, which left an indelil)le impression upon my mind,
and, I think, had an eftect upon my fortunes. It was a tri-
fling affair, but it is trifles that sliow character.

In the Northeast boundary dispute, the king of the Neth-
erlands offered his arbitration. The offer was accepted, and

250 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

we of tlie State Department were much occupied iu preparing
the necessary documents for transmission to EiirojKJ. One
day, in the course of these preparations, a gentleman con-
nected witli the commission, a ratlier pompous individual, a
son of a foreign consul, born and educated abroad, came into
my office and requested me to have one set of the documents
printed on the finest tinted drawing-paper, and bound in the
most gorgeous and costly manner possible. Tliis set, he said,
was for the king's own use. The documents, he further re-
marked, ought to be bound in Paris, for the work could not
be done in America as it ought to be. Nevertheless, I must
have them done as well as the state of the arts in the United
States admitted, regardless of expense.

Ni^ttled both by the maimer and the matter of this gen-
tleman's discourse, and not perceiving any necessity for such
a lavish expenditure of the public money, I told him that,
the Secretary of State being absent from the city, I did not
feel authorized to comply with his wishes. Nothing of the
kind had ever been done before in the department, and any
tiling so unusual could only be warranted by the Secretary's
s|)ecial order. The documents were numerous, and would
form several large voIuuk.'s.

*' But, sir," said he, with much hauteur, " you forget that
these volumes are designed, not for ambassadors and secreta-
ries, but for the kin^i: of a countrv."

'' Well," said I, " without the express orders of the Sec-
retary of State or of the President, I must decline doing any
thing in the matter."

" I will assume the entire responsibility," he replied, "and
hold you blameless. If the Secretary of State disapproves, I
will take the consequences."

" Very well," said I, " if you shoulder the responsibility
I will proceed."

After he had taken his departure, however, I looked into
the law and the precedents, and became satisfied tlnit there
was neither law nor precedent for the work proposed. I also
calculated the expense of the printing and binding, and found

IS29.] SUCCESSFUL politician's story. 251

it would <imount to several huiidred dollars. The more I
thought over the matter the greater was my repuguanco to
ordering the work, and the result of my cogitations was, that
I went to the White House to consult the President on the
subject. I found the President alone, and soon told my
story.

As I proceeded, the General left his seat and began to
walk up and down the room, quickening his pace as I went
on. At length he broke into a loud and vehement harangue,
still pacing the floor.

" Go on, Mr. Clark," ho exclaimed ; " you are perfectly
correct, sir. Tell this gentleman from me, that Benjamin
Franklin, in his woolen stockings, was no disgrace to his
country. This government will never sanction what these
gentlemen wish. The same habits brought reflections upon
the last administration — those beautiful portfolios, those
treaty boxes, and other things of that kind. It shall not be
done, sir. I say again, sir, and I wish those gentlemen to
know it, that no man ever did such honor to his country
abroad as old Ben. Franklin, who wore liis homespun blue
woolen stockings, and all Paris loved him for it. Go on, sir,
as you have begun. Have these things done — not meanly —
bat plain and simple, conformable to our republican ])riiici-

pies. This Mr. , I believe, is a Frenchman. He has

foreign notions. He has got his appointment ; but if he had
not got it, I do not say he would. A king, indeed ! What 'a
a king, that he should receive things in this splendid style ?
We ought to have things done in the best, plain, unpretend-
ing manner, and no other ; and so, sir, have them done.
Now, sir, you know my views, and the Secretaiy of State's
also, for his views are mine in those things. Therefore go on
as you deem right, religiously, and fear not. Say to the com-
missioner that I do not approve these extravagances. When
he arrives in Europe he may have them fixed according to his
notions, at his own expense, not the government's. Heaven
and earth may come together, but Andrew Jackson will never
8wer>'e from principle."

252 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSOK. [1829.

" I am proud, Greneral," said I, " to have your approba-
tion of my course. There is just one other remark that I
would like to make, with your permission."

" Proceed, sir," said the President, with the air of a man
ordering a charge of cavalry.

"This commissioner," said I, "is a man of power and
reputation. I am, as you are aware, in a position very differ-
ent from his. It seems to me that, like a cockboat encomi-
tering a seventy-four, 1 shall be swamped. He is, besides, a
friend of the Secretary of State. I never knew an instance
of a subordinate getting on in any other way than by defer-
ring to the wislies of his chief."

" No exception to that rule ?" ho asked, with one of hiB
knowing looks.

" 1 liave never known one," I replied.

" I think there are exceptions, Mr. Clark. I think there
arc. I believe you will not be swamped on this occasion, Mr.
Cockboat. Any commimication you may receive from the
Secretary of State, during his absence, bring to me."

I took leave, returned to my office, and immediately
wrote to the commissioner the following letter :

" Sir — The President^ in a conversation with mc this morniDg, directed
me to inform you that he (iid not authorize, but expressly forbade, that the
port-fuho books relating to the Northeast Boundary for the arbitrator, the
King of the Netherlands, should be done in any other manner thaa that
of plain, republican simplicity ; remarking, at the same time, that no dif-
ference should exist between those destined for the King and any others
that emanate from the government. He happily illustrated hia ideas on
this sulyect, by tlie expression that, in his opinion, Benjamin Franklin, in
his blue stoc^kings, was no disgrace to his country. During the conversa-
tion I had with him, he directtid mo to say to you, that he wished eveiy
thing of tlie kind done in the best plain and substantial manner, and not
according to foreign ideas of such things, and expressly directed me in this
case to have them done in that manner. Understanding from you that
these documents must be completed with dispatch, they will be done in the
manner described in the shortest time possible. I am, etc.,

« X. Clark."

I luckily kept a copy of this epistle. I say luckily, for a

18S9i] 8n€0B8'8ruL pqliticiav'b stobt. 253

iaj or two after, upon going to tlie President upon other
boflineflB, I found him oool and reserved toward me. I asked
him the reason.

^^ Tou have written an abusive letter to the conunift-
Amet" said he.

^'Noy General, I have not I wrote him just such a let-
ter as you directed, and here is a copy of if

He read the letter and said it expressed his ideas exactly,
and he was perfectly satisfied with it. His good humor was
restored, and he again told me to bring to him any letter I
might receive from the Secretary of State. It happened that
I neeived from the Secretary a note the very next day, which
read as follows : ^^ Dear sir — ^Please tell my housekeeper that
I shall be at home on Tuesday/' Having occasion to visit
the President that afternoon, I informed him that I had re-
ceived from the Secretary of State a communication. He
read it.

^ Why/' said he, '^ this bas nothing to do with the matter
in band.''

*-* No, General ; but your words were, ^ Bring me any let-
ter yon may receive from the Secoietary ;' you made no ex-
ception."

" Right, right, sir," said the President ; " I see you are a
military man/'

The time came, at length, when I, too, was a suitor for
presidential favor, and I venture to say that no one has ever
obtained a lucrative office more easily and unexpectedly than
I did. By accident I heard of the vacancy one mail before
any one else in Washington. It was an office that secured
to a prudent incumbent not income merely, but competence;
one of those city places the fees of which had been fixed
when the city was a small town. The mere growth of the
city had rendered this office one of the best things in tlie ^ift
ci the federal government. In twenty-four hours there would
have been fifty applicants for it — in a week, two hundred.

I went straightway to the President's office, and addressed
him in words like. these :

254 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

" General, the no-mattcr-what-ship of New York is va-
cant. You will be notified of the fact to-morrow morning.
It was long ago undci'stood between you and myself, that the
straightforward way of doing business was the best, and I
will proceed in that way upun the present occasion. I will
ask you two questions. Do you consider me competent to
discharge the duties of that office ?"

" I do," said the President.

** Will you give me the appointment ?"

" I will," was his instantaneous reply.

And he did. My name was sent to the Senate immedi-
ately. The nomination was confirmed, and I wjis soon at my
new post, to the great astonishment of several worthy gentle-
men who were striving, with might and main, by night and
day, to secure the place for themselves. At the expiration
of my term of four yeai*s, I went to Washington and asked a
reappointment in precisely the same manner, and received for
answer the same emphatic and instantaneous " I will," as bi'-
fore. On this occiision, the private secretary being busy, he
requested me to write my own nomination. I did so, but as
it was deemed best that the document should go to the Sen-
ate in tlie usual hand-writing. Major Donelson copied it, and
sent it to the capitol.

The General invited me to dinner. I had sent him some
montlis before, a barrel of hickory nuts, and after dinner he
said to a servant,

** Bring some of Mr. Clark's hickory nuts."

"I am flattered, General," said I, "that you should re-
member it."

" Oh," said he, " I never forget my friends."

At the table, I observed, every guest was provided with
two forks, one of steel, the other of silver. The President
adhered to the primitive metal.

Mr. Forsyth was then Secretary of State. I called upon
him, and informed him of my reap})ointment, and that my
name was then before the Senate.

" Have you called upon your Senatoi*s ?" he asked.

1829.] FIUST BLOW AT THE BANK. 255

" I have not/' was my innocent reply ; " I did not sup-
pose it necessary/'

" Oh, no," said he, " it is not necessary. If General Jack-
son says so, that 's enough. There 's no Secretary of State, no
Senate, no any body — if Geueml Jackson has made up his
mind."

Mr. Van Buren, who was sitting near^ laughed. Mr. For-
syth laughed, I laughed, we performed a laughing trio ; in the
midst of which I took my leave, well assured in my own mind,
that I had the best of the joke.

Four years later, however, Mr. Van Buren being Presi-
dent, I took a slightly different view of the matter. As the
expiration of my second term drew near, I employed all the
usual arts, and some of the unusual ones, to secure a reap-
pointment, and entertained confident hopes of success. In-
deed, I felt assured of it, and had reason to do so, though
from the President himself I had heard nothing. My second
term expired, and still I had learnt nothing of the fate of my
application. The next morning, at 10 o'clock precisely, a gen-
tleman entered my office, and, presenting his commission, in-
formed me, with the utmost politeness, tliat I was no longer
in the service of the government, and that I saw before me that
dread being — terror of all office-holders — a successor I

I have seen many heads taken off in my time, but never
one quite so neatly as my own.

CHAPTEll XX.

FIRST BLOW A 1' THE BANK.

The people of the United States eanie naturally enough
by their old distrust of paper-money and banks. As early as
1690, we reiul in the old NeioS'Lcttcrs^ it required, in the vil-
hige of New York, two paper dullars to buy one silver one.
The colonists had been disastrously fighting the French in

256 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [X829.

Canada, and paying expenses in paper. In 1745, the great
and famous expedition against Louisburgh, in Cape Breton,
was paid for partly in the same unsubstantial coin, which had
so depreciated in 1748 that to get one hundred pounds in
gold it was necessary to give —

In Massachusetts* paper, 1,100 pounds.

" New York " . , . . . 190 "

" East Jersey " 190 "

" West Jersey " 180 "

" Pennsylvania ** 180 "

" Maryland " 200 "

" Virginia " 125 "

" North Carolina " 1,000 "

" South CaroUna " 700 "

The torrents of paper-money issued during the revolu-
tionary war, which sunk in value to nothing, converted the
old prejudice against paper promises-to-pay into an aversion
that had the force of an instinct. To this instinctive aver-
sion, as much as to the constitutional objections urged by
Mr. Jefferson and his disciples, was owing the difficulty ex-
perienced by Alexander Hamilton in getting his first United
States bank chartered. Hence, also, the refusal of Congress
to recharter that bank in 1811. Hence the unwillingness of
Mr. Madison to sanction the charter of the second bank of the
Upited States in 1816. But the bank was chartered in 1816,
and went into existence with the approval of all the great
republican leaders, opposed only by the extreme Jeffersonians
and by the few federalists who were in public life. Yes, the
federalists, among whom was Daniel Webster. They op-
posed it ostensibly because of some of the provisions of the
charter which they deemed unwise ; the real ground of oppo-
sition being that it was a republican measure, designed to
Hilieve the country from some of the financial evils aggra-
vated by the late war.

But, long before General Jackson came into power, the
bank appeared to have lived down all opposition. In the
presidential campaign of 1824 it was not so much as men-
tioned, nor was it mentioned in that of 1828. In all the

1829.] FIRST BLOW AT THE BANK. 257

political pamphlets, volumes, newspapers, campaign papers,
barlesques, and caricatures of those years, there is not the
most distant allusion to the bank as a political issue. The
bonk had become a universiilly accepted fact. General Jack-
son himself, though naturally averse to paper money — an op-
ponent of Hamilton's bank in 1797, and not an advocate for
that of 1816 — had yet advised the establishment of a branch
at Pensacola, and had signed a certificate in 1828, recom-
mending certain persons for president and cashier of the
branch at Nashville.^

At the beginning of the administration of General Jack-
son, the bank of the United States was a truly imposing in-
stitution. Its capital was thirty-five millions. The public
money deposited in its vaults averaged six or seven millions ;
its private deposits, six millions more ; its circulation, twelve
millioos ; its discounts, more than forty millions a year ; its
aoDiial profits, more than three millions. Besides the parent
bank at Philadelphia, with its marble palace and hundred
clerks, there were twenty-five branches in the towns and
cities of the Union, each of which had its president, cashier,
ind board of directors. The employees of the bank were more
than five hundred in number, all men of standing and infiu-
snce, all liberally salaried. In every county of the Union, in
5very nation on the globe, were stockholders of the bank of
the United StiUes. One-fifth of its stock was owned by
foreigners. One-fourth of its stock was held by women,
Drphans, and the trustees of charity funds — so high, so un-
ijuestioned was its credit. Its bank-notes were as good as
gold in every part of the country. From Maine to Georgia,
from Georgia to Astoria, a man could travel and pass these
notes at every point without discount. Nay, in London,
Paris, Rome, Cairo, Calcutta, St. Petersburgh, the notes of
the bank of the United States were worth a fraction more or
a fraction less than their value at home, according to the
current rate of exchange. They could usually be sold at a

* Memoirs of Hugh L. Whitei
TOL. III. — 17

258 LIFE OP ANDREW JACKSON. [1829. *

premium at the remotest commercial centers. It was not
uncommon for the stock of the bank to be sold at a premium
of forty per cent. The directors of this bank were twenty-
five in number, of whom five were appointed by the Presi-
dent of the United States. The bank and its branches
received and disbursed the entire revenue of the nation.

At the head of this great establishment was the once re-
nowned Nicholas Biddle. To his pen Mr. Biddle owed his
conspicuous position. A graduate of Princeton — a student
of law in Philadelphia — secretary of legation at Paris, first
under General Armstrong, then under Mr. Monroe — afterward
Philadelphia lawyer and editor of a literary magazine — author
of the " Commercial Digest," prepared at the request of
President Monroe — unsuccessful candidate for Congress. In
1819 Mr. Monroe appointed him Government Director of the
Bank of the United States, in which office he exhibited so
much vivacity and intelligence, that, in 1823, he was elected
president of the institution by a unanimous vote. It was a
pity. Mr. Biddle was a man of the pen — quick, graceful,
fluent, honorable, generous, but not practically able ; not a
man for a stormy sea and a lee shore. The practically able
man is not fluent of tongue or pen. The man who can not,
to save his soul, sell a cargo of cotton at a profit, is your man
to write brilliant articles on the cotton trade. In ordinary
times, Mr. Biddle would have doubtless been able to retain
his title of the Emperor Nicholas, of which he was a little
vain, and to conduct his bank along the easy path with gen-
eral applause. But he fell upon evil days, and the pen that
made him ruined him.

He was one of those charioteers with whose magnificent
driving no fault can be found, except that, at last, it upsets
the coach. How many such charioteers there are in this
world !

There is a tradition in Washington to this day, that Gen-
eral Jackson came up from Tennessee to Washington, in
1829, resolved on the destruction of the Bank of the United
States, and that he was only dissuaded from aiming a para-

■r.«

^lOMe

1829.] FIRST BLOW AT THE BANK. 259

graph at it in his inaugural address by the pnidence of Mr.
Van Buren. No less distinguished a person than Mr. Ban-
croft has fallen into this error.*

General Jackson had no thought of the bank until he had
been President two months. He came to Washington ex-
pecting to serve but a single term, during which the question
of re-chartoring the bank was not expected to come up. The
bank was chartered in 1816 for twenty years, which would
not expire until 1836, three years after General Jackson
hoped to be at the Hermitage once more, never to leave it
The first intercourse, too, between the bank and the new ad-
ministration was in the highest degree courteous and agre^
able. A large payment was to be made of the public debt
early in the summer, and the manner in which the bank
managed that affair, at some loss and much inconvenience to
itself, but greatly to the advantage of the public and to the
credit of the government, won from the Secretary of the
Treasury a warm eulogium. " I am fully sensible," wrote
Mr. Ingham to Mr. Biddle, on the 6th of June, " of the dis-
position of the bank to afford all practicable facility to the
fiscal operations of the government, and the offers contained
in your letters with that view are duly appreciated. As you
have expressed the willingness of the bank to make the funds
of the Treasury immediately available at the various points
where they may be required for the approaching payment of
the debt, the drafts for effecting the transfers for that object
will be made to suit the convenience of the bank as far as the
demands of other branches of the service will permit." And,
on the 19th of June, when the business had been nearly done,
he added : " I can not close this communication without ex-

• In his eulogy of Goncral Jackson, pronounced at Washington, in Juno,
1845, Mr. Bancroa said: " Ho came to tho presidency of the United Stiitcs re-
■olTed to deliver the government from tho Bank of tho United States, and to
restore the rogulaiiou of excliangos U) the rijjlitful depository of that power — the
oomuierco of t!ie country. He h:id designed to declare his views on this subject
in his inaugural address, but was pcrsualed to relinquish that purpose, on the
groiuid thttt it belougcd ratlier to a legislative message."

260 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1829.

pressing the satisfaction of the department at the arrange-
ments which the bank has made for effecting these payments
in a manner so accommodating to the Treasury, and so little
embarrassing to the community." And when all was over,
the Secretary again expressed his gratitude and admiration.

But while this affair was going on so pleasantly, trouble
was brewing in another quarter. Isaac Hill, from New Hamp-
shire, then second Comptroller of the Ti'easury, was a great
man at the White House. He had a grievance. Jeremiah
Mason, one of the three great lawyers of New England, a
Federalist, a friend of Daniel Welwter and of Mr. Adams,
had been appointed to the presidency of the branch of the
United States Bank at Portsmouth, New Hampshire — much
to the disgust of Isaac Hill and other Jackson men of that
little State. Isaac Hill desired the removal of Mr. Mason
and the appointment in his place of a gentleman who was a
friend of the new administration.

That the reader may see the movements of this gentleman
as they appeared to General Jackson, and that he may fully
understand the process by which the administration were
brought into collision with the parent bank, I will present
here a brief condensation of the papers and letters relating to
the " Portsmouth affair," in the order in which they wer^-
produced. The correspondence began in June and ended in.
October. I believe myself warranted in the positive asser^
tion, that this corre8j)ondence relating to the desired removal
of Jeremiah Mason was the direct and real cause of the de-
struction of the bank. If the bank had been complaisant
enough to remove a faithful servant. General Jackson, I am
convinced, would never have opposed the rechartering of the
institution.

June 27. A ])ctition, signed by fifty-eight citizens of
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was addressed to the Directors
of the Bank of the United States. It states that the Ports-
mouth branch has been conducted in a manner " partial,
harsh, novel, and injurious to the interest of the bank ;" and
that the president of the branch is the guilty person. Asks

L829.] FIK8T BLOW AT THE BANK. 261

lis removal, and the appointment of a president and board
>f directors acquainted with the business necessities of Ports-
nouth, and disposed to dispense the favors of the bank im-
Mtrtially.

June 29. A similar petition from Portsmouth, signed by
ifty-six members of the New Hampshire legislature. It states
hat small, safe loans have been refused to business men in
Portsmouth, while, at the same time, large sums were loaned
ut of the State at greater risk ; and that the course pursued
y the President was " destructive to the business of Ports-
louth and offensive to the whole community." Asks the
emoval of the president and dii^ctors, and the appointment
f others named in the petition,

June 27. Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire, United
Itates Senator, to Mr. Ingham, Secretary of the Treasury.
ilarked " Confidential." Repeats the comj^laints of the pe-
itions. Adds that Jeremiah Mason is a particular friend
f Mr, Webster J who was supposed to have had much to
lo with procuring his appointment ; that the appointment,
inpopular at first, has now become odious through Mr. Ma-
K>n's ungracious manners and partial, vacillating conduct
Advises the prompt removal of the president and directors,
f it can be effected. P. S. " I understand the board is se-
ected for this branch early in July" — next month,

July 11. S. D. Inj::ham to Nicholas Biddle. Encloses
Hr. Woodburjr's letter, and says that similiar complaints
lave been received from Kentucky and Louisiana. Adds,
;hat the administration would learn with extreme regret that
political relationship bad any influence upon the granting or
A'ithholding of bank facilities. Compliments the parent bank
lighly upon the manner in which it has discharged its trust
* in all its immediate relations to the government."

July 17. Isaac Hill to J. N. Barker and John Pember-
ton of Philadelphia. Encloses the two New Hampshire peti-
;ions and asks Messrs. Barker and Peraberton to hand them
to the president of the bank. Admits that the movement
)riginated in a suggestion of his own. Endorses all the

262 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

Statements of the petitions. Concludes by saying, that the
"friends of General Jackson have had but too much reason
to complain of the branch bunk at Portsmouth ;" that all
they now want is, that it " may not continue to be an engine
of political oppression ;" and that, of the ten persons pro-
posed in the legislative petition for directors, six are Jackson
men and four Adams men. Mr. Hill quotes a private letter
from Portsmouth, which accuses Mr. Mason of being " unac-
commodating to pensioners," of making large loans to his
brother-in-law at Boston, while " refusing to accommodate
our merchants with two or three thousand dollars, and this,
too, on the very best paper."

July 18. Nicholas Biddle to S. D. Ingham. " Confiden-
tial." Acknowledges the receipt of the secretary's letter en-
closing that of Senator Woodbury. States that the letter
has been submitted to the directors of the parent bank, who
will investigate Mr. Woodbury's allegations, and, if they are
substantiated, apply "an appropriate corrective." Mean-
while, injustice to Mr. Mason, he will say^ of his own knowl-
edge, that neither politics nor Mr. Webster suggested the
selection of Mr. Mason. Mr. Webster did not even know of
the nomination of Mr. Mason, until after it was made.
Quotes a recent letter of Mr. Woodbury to himself, in which
Mr. Woodbury says: "It is notorious that the charge*
against Mr. Mason in his i)resent office originated exclusively
with his political fi'ieiids, and it was not till they creatinl a
personal rancor and inflamed condition of the public mind,
seldom if ever before witnessed in this region, that others in-
terposed from a supposed danger to the interests of both the
town and the biuik." Mr. Biddle gave a short history of Mr.
Mason's appointment :

" The office at Portsmouth had originally the misfortune to have at its
head a Mr. Cults, who ended by defrauding the United States of upward
of $20,000 of the pension fund, which the hank wiis obliged to replace, and
lust year the office was nearly prostrated in the general ruin which spread
over that country. Out of $400,000 of loans, $148,000 was thrown under
protest ; still further protests were expected, and the actual loss sustained

829.] FIBBT BLOW AT THE BANK. 263

"^bere will not be less than $112,000. At this period, the late president^ a
^^orthy man, but not calculated for such a state of things, resigned his place,
amd it became necessary at once to adopt the most energetic measures to
save the property of tlie bank. A confidential officer was dispatched to
Portsmouth, who found the affairs of the office in great jeopardy, covered
with the wrecks which lad management and the most extensive fi-ands
hud occasioned. To retrieve it, it became necessary to select a man of first
rmte character and abilities ; such a man was Mr. Mason. Of his entire
competency, especially in detecting the complicated frauds, and managing
the numerous law suits which seemed inevitable, there could be no doubt
Of bis political opinions, we neither knew nor inquired any thing. In
order to induce him to give up so much of his valuable time to the service
of the bank, an estimate was made of the probable amount which we
would have to pay for the professional services of a lawyer, and, by engag-
ing Mr. Mason in that character, we were enabled to obtain his consent to
accept the appointment. Since he has been in office, he has been exceed-^
ingly useful — ^lias saved the bank from great losses — has secured the bad
debts — nor, until Mr. Woodbury's letter, was I informed of any complaini
against him. What is, mort^over, to be much considered, is, that while he
has been gradually reducing the old accommodation loans, he has actually
increased the amount of the general loans of the office."

Mr. Biddle added, that he was inclined to attribute the
clamor against Mr. Mason to his vigor in enforcing the pay-
ment of the old protested notes. He appended a long state-
ment, showing that the bank had never been influenced in the
bestowal of its favors by political considerations, and declar-
ing that it never should be.

July 23d. S. D. Ingham to Nicholas Biddle. A well-
written and ingenious letter in reply to Mr. Biddle's last.
The secretary remarked that he was not prepared for such a
sweeping assertion as that of Mr. Biddle, when he said that
since the founding of the bank, no loan was ever granted or
withheld through political partiality or hostility. Human
nature being what it is, it was not credible that live hundred
men, not selected by Omniscience, had been wholly exempt
in all cases from the bias of party feelings. Mr. Biddle's as-
sertion he therefore received ' ' rather as evidence of Mr. Bid-
die's own feelings than as conclusive proof of the fact so con-
fidently vouched for." The secretary would not assume the

264 LIFE OP ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

truth of the Portsmouth charges, but he did object " to a
course of action which either resists inquiry, or, what is of the
same tendency, enters upon it with a full persuasion that it
is not called/or."

July 31. Jeremiah Mason to Nicholas Biddle. Informs
Mr. Biddle that Isaac Hill is endeavoring to remove the pen-
sion agency from the branch bank at Portsmouth to Concord,
Hill's object being to "benefit a small bank at Concord, of
which, till his removal to Washington, he was the president."
Says that though Concord is more central, Portsmouth is
more convenient to a majority of the pensioners ; and that,
as the disbursements to pensioners amount to eighty thousand
dollars a year, the removal of the agency will be a great loss
to the branch bank. Thinks it can not be done legally.
Mr. Mason concluded by saying he had heard that complaints
of his official conduct had been forwarded to the parent bank,
and that he desired to be informed what they were. "If,"
said he, " the memorial and letters contain all the absurd un-
truths that were made use of to obtain signers to them, they
must be extraordinary productions."

August 3. John H. Eaton, Secretary of War, to Jere-
miah Mason. States that "it has been found necessary" to
remove the pension agency from Portsmouth to Concord, and
that a pension agent has been appointed to reside at Con-
cord. Bequests Mr. Mason to deliver into the custody of
that agent all the books, papers, and money belonging to the
pension agency.

August 10. Jeremiah Mason to Nicholas Biddle. En-
closes the order of the Secretary of War for the transfer of
the pension agency books, and says that, considering the order
illegal, he thinks he shall not obey it until authorized to do
so by the parent bank. " The Secretary of War," he re-
marks, " has no control over the navy and privateer funds,
and yet it seems by his letter that the order to transfer them,
with the invalid and revolutionary funds, is to come from
him. No intimation is given of any direction of the Presi-
dent of the United States for doing this."

1829.] FIRST BLOW AT THE BANK. 265

August 13. Jeremiah Mason to Nicholas Biddle. Says
that the newly appointiid Concord jK3nsion agent has pre-
sented himself at the branch bank at Portsmouth, and for-
mally demanded the books. Mr. Mtison had refused to give
them up, and informed the agent that he must wait for in-
structions from the parent bank. In consequence of this
movement, the pensions, then just due, would not be paid.

August 17. T. Cadwallader, acting president of the bank
of the United States, to Jeremiah Mason. (Mr. Biddle being
absent froiii Philadelphia, and on his way to Portsmouth,
where he intended to invejstigate personally the charges
against Mr. Mason, the instructions of the parent board
were communicated to Mr. Mason by the acting president.)
" You are instructed," said Mr. Cadwallader, " respectfully
to inform the Secretary of War that no such authority as he
claims is perceived in the acts of Congress ; and that, as the
bank must act under legal responsibility, you must request
him to have the goodness to point out whence his authority
is derived, stating that, to i)revent inconvenience to the
government, as well as to individuals, the jmyments to the
pensioners will be continued as heretofore, until a further
communication shall have been received from him, and sub-
mitted to the ])arent board."

August 25. James L. Edwards, pension clerk in the
War Department, to Jeremiah Mason. Stiitcs that the Sec-
retary of War was absent from Washington, not anticipat-
ing any difficulty in the transfer of the pension agency.
Bequests Mr. Mason to go on paying the pensions as usual,
and when Major Eaton returns the affair will be disposed of
by him.

September 15. Nicholas Biddle to S. D. Ingham. This
was the letter which finally and fatally embroiled the bank
of the United States with General Jackson's administration.
It was an honest, able, right, imprudent letter. Mr. Biddle
had spent six days at Portsmouth, and had satisfied himself
and satisfied the directors that tlie charges ag?xiust Mr. Mjison
were " entirely groundless." ** The most zealous of Mr.

266 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

Mason's enemies did not venture to assert that he had ever,
on any occiision, been influenced by political feelings, and
this public opinion, so imposing in the mist of distance, de-
generated into the personal hostility of a very limited, and,
for the most part, very i)rejudiced circle. Mr. Mason was,
there/ore, immediately re-elected.''

Having stated this result of the investigation, the presi-
dent of the bank proceeded to declare the judgment of the
bank upon the principles involved in the pending dispute.
The bank, in effect, defied the administration.

" Presuming," said Mr. Biddle, " that we have rightly ap-
prehended your views, and fearful that the silence of the
bank might be hereafter misconstrued into an acquiescence in
them, I deem it my duty to stixte to you in a manner per-
fectly respectful to your official and personal character, yet so
clear as to leave no possibility of misconception, that the
board of directors of the Bank of the United States, and the
boards of directors of the branches of the Bank of the United
States, acknowledge not the slightest responsibility of any
description whatsoever to the Secretiiry of the Treasury
touching the political opinions and conduct of their officers,
that being a subject on which they never consult, and never
desire to know, the views of anv administration. It is with
much reluctance the board of directors feel themselves con-
strained to make this declaration. But charged as they are
by Congress with duties of great importance to the country,
which they can hope to execute only while they are exempted
from all influences not authorized by the laws, they deem it
most becoming to themselves, as well as to the Executive, to
state witli pert'oct frankness their opinion of any interferenc«
in the concerns of the institution confided to their care." . .

October 8. S. D. Ingham to Nicholas Biddle. Mr. Ing-
ham's reply is as long as a president's message. He expends
pages in endeavoring to show that Mr. Biddle had misstated
some of his previous positions, and other pages in siiying how
good and pleasant a thing it is to see a Secretary of the
Treasury and a president of the United States Bank dwelling

1829.] riBBT BLOW AT THE BANK. 267

togetlier in unity. The substantial meaning of his letter is
tlus : ** Mr. Biddle, you are altogether too touchy ; instead
of resenting suggestions from the Secretary of the Treasury,
you ought to welcome them."

One paragraph of Mr. Ingham's letter contains a threat,
to which subsequent evento gave significance, though at the
time it made but a slight impression : '^ The administration
18 empowered to ctct upon the bank in various ways : in the
appointment or removal of five of the directors ; in the with'-
drawing of the public deposits; in the exaction of weekly
statements, and the inspection of its general accounts ; and
in all the modes incident to the management of the pecuniary
ooUections and disbursements of the government. That these
opportunities of action might be perverted and abused is con-
ceivable, but, subjected to the principle on which we early
and cordially agreed, they become causes of security and
benefit ; and before I dismiss this branch of the subject, I
take the occasion to say, if it should ever appear to the sat-
iifiiction of the Secretary of the Treasury that the bank used
its pecuniary power for purposes of injustice and oppression,
he would be faithless to his trust if he hesitated to lessen its
capacity for such injury, by withdrawing from its vaults the
public deposits.''

The conclusion of Mr. Ingham's long letter was as fol-
lows : " No one can more fervently desire than I do, that
the bank shall, in all its ramifications, be absolutely inde-
pendent of [)arty ; that it shall so conduct its afiiiirs as to
accomplish every purpose for which it was intended, and
stand above the reach of the least plausible suspicion. No
one can see with more unalloyed satisfaction its fiourishing
condition, or has borne more cheerful testimony to the char-
acter of its present management. Having labored ardently
to create it, I may not be supposed the first to contaminate
or decry it ; but, however imposing its attitude, if once St'itis-
fied that the powers of its charter and the resources of its
wealtii are debased and perverted to practices at war with the
liberties of the country, and the rights and interests of my

268 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

fellow-citizens, no consideration of a personal nature will
curb me in exercising the legal power with which I may be
invented, to check its tendencies and reform its abiises ; and
it will be my care not less than my duty, never to surrender
any of the rights vested in the government for this pur-
pose."

October 9. Nicholas Biddle to 8. D. Ingham. In this
letter, which concluded the correspondence, Mr. Biddle ex-
plained some passages of his former letters, and heartily re-
sponded to the Secretary's desire that the bank should be
totally independent of party.

So the Bank of the United States triumphed over Isaac
Hill, Mr. Woodbury, and the administration. It was a dear
victory.

The reader has perused the previous pages of this work to
little purpose if he does not know what effect upon the mind
of the President the bank's calm defiance was certain to pro-
duce. Before the next month closed, the editors of the New
York Courier and Enquirer received a confidential hint from
Washington, that the forthcoming Presidential Message would
take ground against the Bank of the United States. So says
Mr. James Gordon Bennett, who was then the active, work-
ing man of that great newspaper.

" For a considerable time," says Mr. Bennett, " after I
joined the Courier and Enquirer in 1829, and the greater
portion of which journal I then wrote with my own hand —
and up to the year 1830, it presented no particular hostility
to the United States Bank. I think it was in the month of
November, 1829, when M. M. Noah was Surveyor of the
Port, that in going to his office one day, I found him reading
a letter which he had just received from Amos Kendall, and
which informed him that ground would be taken against the
Bank by General Jackson in the message to be delivered the
next month on the opening of Congress. On the same day, a
portion of Amos Kendall's letter, with a head and tail put to
it, was sent over to the Courier office, and published as an

1829.] 0ONOBK8B MBKT8. 269

editorial next moniiiig. This was the first savage attack on
the United States Bank in the colnmns of the Cowrier and
Enqwirtr"

CHAPTER XXI.

CONaBESS MEETS.

Obkebal Jacksoh prepared his Messages very much as
the editor of a metropolitan journal ^^ gets up " his thundering
leaders ; only not quite so expeditiously. He used to begin
to think about his Message three or four months before the
meeting of Congress. Whenever he had ^^ an idea/' he would
make a brief memorandum of it on any stray piece of paper
that presented itself, and put it into his capacious white hat
for safe keeping. By the time it became necessary to put the
document into shape, he would have a large accumulation of
these memoranda, some of them consisting of a few words on
Ae margin of a newspaper, and some of a page or two of
foolscap. These were all confided to the hands of Major Don-
elson, the President's fsiithful and diligent private secretary,
whose duty it was to writo them out into orderly and correct
English. Thus was formed the basis of the Message, to
which the members of the Cabinet added each his proportion.
4t is not difficult, in reading over the volume of General
Jackson's Messages, to detect the traces of the General's own
large steel pen.

Congress met on the seventh of December. Such was the
strength of the administration in the House of Representa-
tives, that Andrew Stephenson was re-elected to the Speak-
ership by one hundred and fifty-two votes out of one hundred
and ninety-one. This Congress, however, came in. with the
administration, and had been elected when General Jackson

elected.

The Message, eagerly looked for, as a first Message always

270 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829.

is, was delivered on the day following that of the organization
of the House. A calm deliberateness of tone marked this
important paper. If any where the hand of the chief was
particularly apparent, it was where, on opening the subject
of the foreign relations, in the midst of friendly declarations
and confident hopes of a peaceful settlement of all points in
dispute, the President observed that, the country being blessed
with every thing which constitutes national strength, he
should ask nothing of foreign governments that was not right,
and submit to nothing that was wrong ; flattering himself, he
said, that, aided by the intelligence and patriotism of the
people, we shall be able to cause all our just rights to be re-
spected. After this Jacksonian ripple, the Message flowed on
with Van Buren placidity to its close.

But who would have thought to find, in a first Message
of Andrew Jackson, Great Britain singled out for compli-
ment ? " With Great Britain," said the Message, " alike
distinguished in peace and war, we may look forward to years
of peaceful, honorable, and elevated competition. Every
thing in the condition and history of the two nations is cal-
culated to inspire sentiments of mutual respect, and to carry
conviction to the minds of both, that it is their policy to pre-
serve the most cordial relations. Such are my own views ;
and it is not to be doubted that such are also the prevailing
sentiments of our constituents." What does this mean ? We
shall see ere long.

The Message recommended that all " intermediate agency"
in the election of the President and Vice-President shall be
abolished, and the service of the President limited to a single
term of four or six years. One passage in this part of the
Message was, doubtless, designed to be particularly interesting
to Mr. Clay and his friends. In case the election, through the
number of candidates, devolves upon the House of Repre-
sentatives, remarked the President, the will of the people may
not be always ascertained, or, if ascertained, may not be re-
garded. Circumstances may give the power of deciding the
election to a single individual '' May he not be tempted to

11829.] OOKQRESS MEETS. 271

^lame his reward V In any case, thought the President, it
is worthy of consideration, whether representatives should not
be disqualified from holding oflSce under a President of their
own electing.

In two brief, pregnant paragraphs, every sentence a dis-
tinct proposition, and every proposition an error, the mes-
sage defended the course of the government in its removals
and appointments. The leading ideas of this passage were,
that a long tenure of office is almost necessarily corrupting ;
that an office-holder has no more right to his office than the
office-seeker ; and that if any one had a right to complain of
a removal from office it was not the luckless individual who
had been suddenly deprived of the means of subsistence with-
out cause.

The tariff was referred to with the vagueness unavoidable
by a w^riter who was a protectionist in principle and a free-
trader from necessity. The late tariff, said the message, had
neither injured agriculture and commerce, nor benefited man-
ufacturers, as much as had been anticipated ; but '^ some
S3iodifications " were desirable, which should be considered
nd discussed not as party or sectional questions. The time
near at hand when the public debt would be all dis-
csharged. The gradual reduction and speedy abolition of the
duties on tea and coffee were, therefore, recommended.

The finances of the country were in a satisfactory condi-
-Cion. Nearly six millions in the treasury ; receipts for the
year 1830 estimated at twenty-four millions six hundred
"thousand dollars ; expenditures to be little more than twenty-
six millions. Nearly twelve and a half millions of the public
<icbt had been paid during the year, leaving only forty-eight
and a half millions. When this debt shall have been dis-
charged, the President continued, then will arise the great
question, whether the surplus revenue should not be appor-
tioned among the several States for works of public utility,
and thus put to rcBt for ever the long-vexed question of in-
ternal improvements. In connection with this subject there
was an emphatic declaration : ^^ Nothing is clearer, in my

272 LIFE OF ANDREW JAOKBON. [1829.

view, than that we arc chiefly indebted for the success of the
constitution under which we are now acting to the watchful
and auxiliary operation of the State authorities. This is not
the reflection of a day, but belongs to the most deeply rooted
convictions of my mind. I can not, therefore, too strongly
or too earnestly for my own sense of its importance, warn you
against all encroachments upon the legitimate sphere of State
sovereignty."

The message suggested the formation of a Home Depart-
ment to relieve the pressure on the Department of State.

The policy of the government on the Cherokee question
was clearly foreshadowed. The Cherokees were given to un-
derstand that an independent sovereignty within the bounds
of a sovereign State could not, in any circumstances whatever,
be tolerated, and Congress was advised to set apart an ample
district west of the Mississippi for the permanent occupancy
of such tribes as could be induced to emigrate thither.
"But," added the President, "this emigration should be
voluntary ; for it would be as cruel as unjust to compel the
aborigines to abandon the graves of their fathers, and seek a
home in a distant land."

Near the close of the message were the famous little par-
agraphs which sounded the first note of war against the
United States Bank :

" The charter of Uie Bank of the United States expires in 1836, and its
stockholders will most probably apply for a renewal of their privileges. In
order to avoid the evib resulting fix>m precipitancy in a measure involving
such important principles, and such deep pecuniary interests, I feel that 1
can not, injustice to the parties interested, too soon present it to the delib-
erate consideration of the legislature and the people. Both the constitu-
tionality and the expediency of the law creating this bank are well ques-
tioned by a large portion of our fellow-citizens ; and it must be admitted
by all, that it lias failed in the great end of establishing a uniform an J sound
currency. Under these circumstances, if such an institution is deemed es-
sential to the fiscal operations of the govercment, I submit to the wisdom
of the legislature whether a national one, founded, upon the credit of the
government and its revenues, might not be devised, which would avoid all
constitutional difficulties ; jmd, at the same time, secure all the advantages

1830.] INOIDBNTS OF THE SESSION. 273

to the goTernment and country that were expected to result from the pres-
ent bank.'*

The President did not enumerate among the advantages
of the bank which he suggested, that it would add to the pa-
tronage of a democratic administration. Such a bank as he
proposed would be merely an appendage to the Treasury De-
partment, and all its employees would be as much at the mercy
of the government as a treasury-clerk.

Such was the message ; in which the/or^i7er in re was so
biappily veiled by the suaviter in modo. It was^ upon the
^hole, a candid and straightforward document. It gave no
ancertain sound. The glove was fairly thrown down, though
Lhrown with a certain grace, and the glove of finer kid than
asuaL What was thus plainly announced as the policy of
:;he administration was carried out with a consistency and
resolution rarely paralleled.

The debates began. No president ever watched the pro-
iseedings of Congress with more attention than President
Jackson. Nothing escaped him. No matter to how late an
bour of the night the debates were protracted, he never went
to sleep till Major Lewis or Major Donelson came from the
3apitol and told him what had been said and done there. We
roust note such events of the session as were of particular
Interest to him.

CHAPTER XXII.

INCIDENTS OF THE SESSION.

The proceedings of the Senate were the first to kindle
the President's ire. The Senate was not so disposed to con-
firm as the President had been to appoint. The executive
sessions, that had previously been so short and so harmonious,
were now protracted and exciting. Sometimes the Senate

VOL. III. — 18

274 LIFS OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

was engaged for several days (once five days) in succession in
the single business of confirming the nominations that were
sent in from the presidential mansion. Some of the nomina-
tions were in the Senate for several months vrithout being
reached.

Although the proceedings in executive session are secret,
many of the Senate's executive acts during this session were
such as could not be concealed. A large number of the nom-
inations were opposed, and several, upon which the Presi-
dent had set his heart, were rejected. No less than twenty-
one Senators voted against the confirmation of Henry Lee,
among whom were six of General Jackson's most intimate
friends and most decided partisans. Edward Livingston,
Thomas H. Benton, Felix Grundy, R. Y. Hayne, Levi Wood-
bury, and Hugh L. White, voted against him. Seven others
of the President's nominations were rejected by majorities less
decided ; and several more escaped rejection only by a vote
or two.

The most remarkable case of rejection was that of Isaac
Hill. It was also the one that gave the President the deepest
offense, and which he avenged most promptly and most strik-
ingly. The pretext for Mr. Hill's rejection was, that in the
course of the late campaign he had libeled Mrs. Adams.
He denied the charge, averring that, in his capacity of pub-
lisher, he had merely published a book of European travel
that contained the aspersions complained of.

It was not unreasonable for General Jackson to conclude,
and it is not unfair for us to conjecture, that it was Isaac
Hill's conduct in the Portsmouth affair against the bank of
the United States that caused a majority of the Senate to
vote against his confirmation to the second comptrollership
of the treasury. Mr. Hill, moreover, was a man of inferior
presence, small and slight, lame and awkward. He was not
the " style" of person whom Senators had been accustomed
to see in high and responsible positions under the gov-
ernment.

The President set about righting the wrong which he

1830.J INCIDENTS OF THE SESSION. 275

felt his friend had received with a tact and vigor all his own.
A long communication was prepared at Washington for pub-
lication in the New Hampshire Patriot^ calculated to make
every Jackson man in the State regard the rejection of Isaac
Hill as a personal affront. If Mr. Amos Kendall was not the
author of this artful and forcible production, then I am sure
Mr. Amos Kendall can tell us who was. " I assure you sir,"
said this anonymous writer, " on my oton personal knowledge,
that the President has entire confidence in Mr. Hill, and
looks upon his rejection as a blow aimed at himself. He
can not protect those whom he honors with appointments
from combinations of designing men operating on the approv-
ing power ; but the people can. Enjoying the confidence and
esteem of the President and his whole cabinet, Mr. Hill re-
turns to you with pure hands and an honest heart. Those
who have been defeated in their ambitious designs by his per-
severance ; those who find the abuses by which they profited
corrected by his vigilance ; those who wish to destroy Gen-
eral Jackson, defeat all reform, and plunge our government
into the sea of corruptions from which it has been redeemed,
exidt in Mr. Hill's rejection. But the real friends of the
President and his principles look to the people and legislature
of New Hampshire to wipe away the stigma cast upon this
just and true man, by the unjust and cruel vote of the Sen-
ate. Let them say, by an act so signal that it can not be
misunderstood, whether the President did wrong in the ap-
pointment of Mr. Hill, and whether a man so distinguished
for his virtues, his talents, and his services, is unworthy of
public station."*

Precisely so. The term of Mr. Senator Woodbury was
about to expire. Waiving a reelection for reasons better
known to himself than to the public, Mr. Woodbury lent his
great influence in New Hampshire to the support of Isaac
Hill for the seat in the Senate about to be vacated. Hill
was taken up by the Jackson men in the State with prompt
enthusiasm, and a large number of the other party joined in

* Biography of Isaac Hill, p. 100.

276 LIFK OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

the support of a man who was supposed to have been the
victim of aristocratic pride and bank influence. He was
elected by an unusual majority, and came back to Washing-
ton a member of the body that had deemed him unworthy of
a far less elevated post. " Were we in the place of Isaac
Hill/' said the Courier and Enquirer, " we would reject the
presidency of the United States, if attainable, to enjoy the
supreme triumph, the pure, the unalloyed, the legitimate
victory of stalking into that very Senate and taking our seat
— of looking our enemies in the very eye — of saying to the
men who violated their oaths by attempting to disfranchise
citizens, " Give me room — stand back — do you know me ? I
am that Isaac Hill, of New Hampshire, who, in this very
spot, you slandered, vilified, and stripped of his rights ; the
people, your maaterSj have sent me here to take my seat in
this very chamber, as your equal and your peer/'

By this election of Isaac Hill to the Senate several things
were effected, some of which were peculiarly pleasing to Gen-
eral Jackson. Isaac Hill was more than reinstated. A restive
Senate, a haughty bank, a hated Henry Clay, were rebuked
and warned. New Hampshire was gratified, and won, Levi
Woodbury was put in reserve for that place in the Cabinet
which he had the rare fortune to retain for so many years.
And all this was as purely the effect of Andrew Jackson's
volition as though he had been autocrat instead of President.

The confirmation of Amos Kendall and Major Noah, two
strong anti-bank men, was powerfully opposed in the Senate.
The session was nearly at an end before their cases were de-
cided. Daniel Webster, on the 9th of May, wrote to his
friend Dutton : " On Monday we propose to take up Ken-
dall and Noah. My expectation is that they will both be con-
firmed by the casting vote of the Vice-President, if the Senate
should be full, as I think it will be. A week ago I was con-
fident of their rejection, but one man who was relied on, will
yield, I am fearful, to the importunities of friends and the
dragooning of party. We have had a good deal of debate in
closed session on these subjects^ and sometimes pretty warm.

1830.] INOIDJBNTS OF THE SESSION. 277

Some of the speeches, I suppose, will be hereafter published ;
none of mine, however. Were it not for the fear of the out-
door popularity of General Jackson, the Senate would have
n^atived more than half his nominations. There is a burn-
ing fire of discontent, that must, I think, some day break
out When men go so far as to speak warmly against things
which they yet feel bound to vote for, we may hope they will
soon go a little further. No more of politics.'*

Mr. Noah was rejected by a vote of 25 to 23. Mr. Ken-
dall was confirmed by the casting vote of the Vice-President.

The disgust and anger of the President at the conduct of
the Senate in rejecting so many of his friends were extreme.
General Duff Green afterward reported a conversation which
he had with the President on the subject in the early part of
this session :

President — '' I have sent for you that we may converse on the subject
of my nominations before the Senate. It is time that you should let the
people know that, instead of supporting me and my measures, Congress is
engaged in President making.'*

Editor, — ^* I trust that you know that I would not hesitate to say so if
I believed the pubUc interest required it ; but excuse me for saying that,
before I can censure Congress for not supporting your measures, I should
be possessed of the views of the admitiLstration, that I may be enabled to
reply to those who ask to be informed what those measures are."

President (much excited). — " Look at my message, sir ; you will find
them there — in the message, sir."

Editor. — '* Some of your bust friends complain that your message is so
general in its terms, that no special measure is recommended ; and I believe
that the want of concert among your friends is attributed to the fact that
there is no concert in your Cabinet Tliere being no Cabinet councils,
tiiere is no one who feels authorized to recommend any measure upon the
authority of tlie administration, because it is understood that no measures
are considered and adopted jis such. Your friends in Congress complain
that you do not hold Cabinet councils."

The President (more excited). — " Let Congress go home, and the people
will teach them the cons<?quence of neglecting my measures and opposing
my nominations. How did you obtain your popularity, sir, as an editor ?
Was it not by opposing Congress ? Sp(jak out to tlie people, sir, and tell
them that Congress are engaged in intrigues for the presidency, instead of

278 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

supporting my measures, and tlie people will support you as they have
done."

Editor. — " You complain that the Senate have not approved of your
nominations. Will it not be miwise to anticipate the objections of that
body ? Your nominations may yet be approved ; and if any should be
rejected there may be reasons which would justify the Senate. If I were
to assail the Senate, it would be attributed to your influence, and thus
array against you the body itself and those who deem it essential to pre-
serve its independence. I cau not know what impediments he in the way
of your nominations, and can not condemn imtil my judgment disap-
proves."

President — " The people, sir, the people will put these things to rights,
and teach them what it is to oppose my nominations I"*

The removal-and-appointment question was ably discussed
Id both houses during the session^ and many plans were sug-
gested for limiting the dread power of removal. But against
so powerful an administrative majority in the house, nothing
could be done on a question which was made a strictly party
one, and by the proper adjustment of which the party in
power could not but be a loser. Mr. Webster, it appears
from his correspondence, had doubts whether the constitution
gave the President the power to remove without the consent
of the Senate. He consulted Chancellor Kent on the point,
and the Chancellor's reply strengthened his doubt.

The bank of the United States enjoyed two triiunphs
during this session of Congress. The Committee of Ways
and Means, to which was referred that part of the President's
message that related to the bank, a committee headed by the
distinguished Mr. McDuflBie, of South Carolina, report^
strongly in favor of the existing bank, and as strongly against
the bank proposed by the President.

Later in the session, Mr. Potter, of North Carolina, in-
troduced into the house four resolutions adverse to the bank.
First, that the constitution conferred no power to create a
bank ; secondly, that if it had, the establishment of the bank
was inexpedient ; third, that paper-money and banks are in-

* United States Telegraph.

1830.] IVCIDEKTB OF THE SESSION. 279

jnriouB to the interests of labor, and dangerous to liberty ;
fonrihy that the house will not consent to the re-charter of
the bank. These resolutions were immediately laid upon the
table by the decisive and significant vote of eighty-nine to
sixty-six. The President must proceed cautiously, there-
fore. He did proceed cautiously, but not the less resolutely.
The bank exulted, and exulted openly ; but the bank was a
doomed bank, notwithstanding.

The removal of all the southern Indians to a territory
west of the Mississippi was a measure which G-eneral Jack-
son entirely approved, and upon which, indeed, he was
resolved. It was much debated this winter, and most strenu-
ously opposed. The philanthropic feelings of the country
were aroused. The letter of many treaties was shown to be
against the measure. The peaceful Society of Friends op-
posed it. A volume of the leading speeches in opposition to
the removal was widely circulated. The opinions of great
lawyers were adverse to it. It was, indeed, one of those wise
and humane measures by which great good is done and great
evil prevented, but which cause much immediate individual
misery, and much grievous individual wrong. It was painful
to contemplate the sad remnant of tribes that had been the
original proprietors of the soil, leaving the narrow residue of
their heritage, and taking up a long and weary march for
strange and distant hunting-grounds. More painful it would
have been to see those unfortunate tribes hemmed in on every
side by hostile settlers, preyed upon by the white man's cu-
pidity, the white man's vices, and the white man's diseases,
until they perished from the face of the earth. Doomed to
perish they are. But no one, I presume, has now any doubt
that General Jackson's policy of removal, which he carried
out cautiously, but unrelentingly, and not always without
stratagem and management, has caused the inevitable process
of extinction to go on with less anguish and less demoraliza-
tion to the whites than if the Indians had been suffered to
remain in the States of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.
To this part of the policy of General Jackson, praise little

280 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

qualified can be justly awarded. The " irrevocable logic of
events " first decreed and then justified the removal of the
Indians. Nor need we, at this late day, revive the sad de-
tails of a measure which, hard and cruel as it was then
thought, is now universally felt to have been as kind as it
was necessary.

I have had the advantage of conversing upon the Indian
policy of General Jackson with the first authority in the land
upon all subjects relating to the red man's mournful history
— Mr. Henry R. Schoolcraft, of Washington. Mr. School-
craft did much service, under the General, as Indian Com-
missioner, in negotiating treaties. It was he who bought
from the Indians, after a long winter of most tedious n^otia-
tion, a gre^it part of what is now the State of Michigan. Said
Mr. Schoolcraft :

" General Jackson was direct and explicit in giving in-
structions. He knew the white man, and he knew the red
man, and he knew how each was accustomed to treat the
other. When the United States bought the Michigan lands,
crowds of white men came on to Washington with claims
against the Indians for the United States to pay.

" ' Don't pay them one dollar,' said the General. * Pay
the Indians honorably for their lands, their full value, in sil-
ver— not blankets, not rifles, not powder, but hard cash ; and
let their creditors collect their own debts. Don't you jiay one
of them, neither now nor at any future time. When white
men deal with Indians, the Indians are sure to get into debt
to the white men ; at least, the white men are sure to say so.
I won't hear of i)aying any of their " claims." The rascals
are here now, I suppose. The town will be full of them, but
I won't j)ay a dollar, and you may tell them so.'

" In fact," added Mr. Schoolcraft, " every boarding-house
in Washington contained some of these claimants ; a state of
things which General Jackson only inferred from his own ex-
perience in Indian treaty-making. It was one of his canny
guesses."

This was the session of Congress signalized by the great

-"t^f^t^

1830.] INCIDENTS OF THE SESSION. 281

debate between Mr. Hayne and Mr. Webster, the first of many
debates upon nullification. The future readers of this dis-
cussion will be at a loss to discover, either in Mr. Foot's reso-
lution that gave rise to it, or in Mr. Hayne's first speech upon
that resolution, an adequate cause for Mr. Webster's magnifi-
cent explosions of eloquence. The source of his inspiration
is to be sought in the unrecorded feeling of the hour. That
tarifi* bill for which General Jackson had voted, followed as
it was by a depression in the market for Southern produce
had created in the Southern States an extreme and general
discontent. Georgia, in the spring of 1829, had sent to
Washington a solemn protest against the existing tariff,
which Mr. Berrien presented to the Senate in an impressive
speech. Both the protest and the speech, however, expressed
the warmest devotion to the Union. But in South Carolina
other language had been used. A distinguished citizen of
that State had publicly said, that it was time for the South
to begin to calculate the value of the Union ; and the remark
had been hailed with what seemed, at a distance, to be gen-
eral applause. In the chair of the Senate sat Mr. Calhoun,
who was already regarded by Southern extremists as their
predestined chief. There was a small, loud party in Wash-
ington who were already in the habit of giving utterance to
sentiments with regard to the Union which, familiar as they
are to us in 1859, thrilled with horror the patriotic spirits of
thirty years ago.

In these circumstances, Mr. Samuel A. Foot, of Connect-
icut, introduced his harmless resolution to inquire into the
expediency of suspending for a time the siile of the public
lands. The debate upon this resolution, which has made it
so memorable, was a brilliant accident, which surprised no
one more than it surprised the eminent men who took the
leading part in it. " The whole debate," wrote Mr. Webster
to one of his friends, " was a matter of accident. I had left
the court pretty late in the day, and went into the Senate
with my court papers under my arm, just to see what was
passing. It so happened that Mr. Hayne very soon rose in

282 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

his first speech. I did not like it, and my friends liked it
less."

The entire ofiense of Mr. Hayne's speech is contained in
one of its sentences, if not in a single phrase. " I am one of
those," said Mr. Hayne, " who believe that the very life of
our system is the independence of the States, and that there
is no evil more to be deprecated than the consolidation of this
government.'* Tliis was the little matter that kindled so
great a fire.

General Jackson, not yet believing that the doctrine of
nullification was destined to become formidable, and being
very friendly to Mr. Hayne, the brother of his old aid-de-
camp and Inspector-General, was disposed, at the moment,
to sympathize with the champion of South Carolina. Major
Lewis, upon returning from the capitol after hearing the first
day's portion of Mr. Webster's principal speech, found the
General up, as usual, and waiting for intelligence.

" Been to the capitol. Major ?" asked the President.

" Yes, General."

" Well, and how is Webster getting on ?"

" He is delivering a most powerful speech," was the reply.
" I am afraid he 's demolishing our friend Hayne."

" I expected it," said the General.

The President was not long in discovering that there was
possible danger in the new doctrine. His own position with
regard to it was peculiar, inasmuch as he had been elected to
the presidency by the aid of the extreme southern or states-
rights party. It is evident that the nullifiers at this stage of
their operations, expected from the President some show of
acquiescence and support. They were quickly undeceived.

It had been a custom in Washington, for twenty years,
to celebrate the birth-day (April 13th) of Thomas Jefferson,
the apostle of democracy. As General Jackson was regarded
by his party as the great restorer and exemplifier of Jeffer-
sonian principles, it was natural that they should desire to
celebrate the festival, this year, with more than usual eclat.
It was so resolved. A banquet was the mode selected ; to

1830.] INCIDENTS OF THE SESSION. 283

which the President, the Vice-President, the Cabinet, many
leading members of Congress, and other distinguished persons
were invited. Colonel Benton, who attended the banquet,
narrates the part played in it by the President and Mr. Cal-
houn:

" There was a full assemblage when I arrived, and I observed gentle-
men standing about in clusters in the ante-rooms, and talking with anima-
tioo on something apparently serious, and which seemed to engross their
thoughts. I soon discovered what it was — that it came from the promul-
gation of the twenty-four regular toasts, which savored of the new doctrine
of nullification ; and which, acting on some previous misgivings, began to
spread the feeling, that the dinner was got up to inaugurate that doctrine,
and to make Mr. Jefferson its father. Many persons broke off, and refused
to attend further ; but the company was still numerous, and ardent, as was
proved by the number of volunteer toasts given — above eighty — in addition
to the twenty-four regulars ; and the numerous and animated speeches de-
liyered — the report of the whole proceedings filling eleven newspaper col-
umns. When the regular toasts were over, the President was called upon
for a volunteer, and gave it — the one which electrified the country, and has
become historical :

"'Ottb Fedebal Union: It inrsr be preserted.'

" This brief and simple sentiment, receiving emphasis and interpretation
from all the attendant circumstances, and from the feeling which had been
spreading from the time of Mr. Webster's speech, was received by the pub-
lic as a proclamation from the President, to announce a plot against the
Union, and to summon the people to its defense. Mr. Calhoun gave the
next toast ; and it did not at all allay the suspicions which were crowding
every bosom. It wjis this :

*' * Tlie Union : Next to our Liberty the most dear : may we all remem-
ber that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the States, and
distributing equally the benefit and burden of the Union.'

'* This toast touched all the tender parts of the new question — ^liberty
before union — only to be preserved — State-j'ighia — inequality of burdens
and benefits. Those phrases, connecting themselves with Mr. Hayne's
speech, and with proceedings and publications in South Carolina, un vailed
NULLIFICATION, as a now and distinct doctrine in the United States, with
Mr. Calhoun for its apostle, and a new party in the field of which he was
the leader. The proceedings of the day put an end to all doubt about the
justice of Mr. Webster's grand peroration, and revealed to the public mind
the fact of an actual design tending to dissolve the Union."*

♦ Thirty Years' View, L 148.

284 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

It was supposed, at the time, that the toast offered by the
President was an impromptu. On the contrary, the toast
was prepared with singular deliberation, and was designed to
produce the precise effect it did produce. Major Lewis favors
the reader with the following interesting reminiscence : " This
celebrated toast * The Federal Union — It must be preserved/
was a cool, deliberate act. The United States Telegraphy
General Duff Green's paper, published a programme of the
proceedings for the celebration the day before, to which the
General's attention had been drawn by a friend, with the sug-
gestion that he had better read it. This he did in the course
of the evening, and came to the conclusion that the celebra-
tion was to be a nullijication affair altogether. With this
impression on his mind he prepared early the next morning
(the day of the celebration) three toasts which he brought
with him when he came into his office, where he found Major
Donolson and myself reading the morning pa])ers. After
taking his seat he handed them to me and asked me to read
them, and tell him which I preferred — I ran my eye over them
and then handed him the one I liked best. He handed them
to Major Dunelson also with the same request, who, on read-
ing them, agreed with me. He said he preferred that one
himself for the reason that it was shorter and more expressive.
He then put that one into his pocket and threw the others
into the fire. That is the true history of the toast the Gi3n-
eral gave on the Jefferson birth-day celebration in 1830, which
fell among the nullifiers like an exploded bomb !

" 1 believe I related to you, when at my house, the anec-
dote that occuiTcd in the General's office between him and a
South Carolina member of Congress, who called to take leave
of him. The General received him with great kindness,
offering his hand, and begging him to be seated. After a few
minutes of conversation, the member rose, and remarked to
the General that he was about to return to South Carolina,
and desired to know if he had any commands for his friends
in that quarter. The General said, ' No, I believe not,' but
immediately recalling what he had said, remarked, * Yes, I

1830.] INCIDENTS OF THR SESSION. 285

have ; please give ray compliments to my friends in your
State, and say to them, that if a single drop of blood shall be
shed there in opposition to the laws of the United States, I
will hang the first man I can lay my hand on engaged in such
treasonable conduct, upon the first tree I can reach/ "

If the nullifying faction of the States Eights party were
offended by the President's toast, the patriotic majority of
that party were gratified, a month later, by his veto of the
Maysville and Lexington road bill. No more internal im-
provements, said the President in his veto message, until
two things are done, namely, the national debt paid, and the
constitution revised so as to distinctly authorize appropria-
tions for the construction of public works.

Though this celebrated veto message was not marked by
the clearness of statement which characterized the President's
first message to Congress, yet his real objections to the meas-
ure were sufficiently conspicuous. With the instinct of solv-
ency strong within him, General Jackson had so set his heart
upon the early extinction of the national debt, that any pro-
position involving an expenditure of the public money tliat
could be safely avoided or deferred would have been unwel-
come to him. In four years, he remarked, if no unusual di-
version of the public funds be permitted, the debt will be
extinguished ; and " how gratifying the effect of presenting
to the world the sublime spectacle of a republic, of more than
twelve millions of happy people, in the fifty-fourth year of
her existence — after having passed through two protracted
wars, the one for the acquisition and the other for the main-
tenance of Uberty — free from debt, and with all her immense
resources unfettered !"

Congress, he added, was, on the one hand, diminishing
the public revenue, by reducing the duties on tea, coffee, and
cocoa, and, on the other, favoring appropriations for public
works, which, in this very year, threiitened to make the ex-
penditures exceed the revenue by ten millions of dollars. Ho
conld not consent to such an untimely liberality, and the
less as he had emphatically declared his sentiments upon the

286 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

subject in his annual message. Appropriations for internal
improvements had always been the occasion of bitter conten-
tions in Congress. The power of the federal government to
appropriate money for such purposes was, at least, ill de-
fined, and before any general system of using even the future
surplus revenue for national works should be inaugurated,
it would be best so to amend the constitution as to define
its powers with the utmost exactness. The Cumberland road
was an instructive admonition on this point. " Year after
year contests are witnessed, growing out of eflforts to obtain
the necessary appropriations for completing and repairing this
useful work. While one Congress may claim and exercise
the power, a succeeding one may deny it ; and this fluctua-
tion of opinion must be unavoidably fatal to any scheme,
which, from its extent, would promote the interests and ele-
vate the character of the country."

This veto, the first of a long series, excited a prodigious
clamor among the opposition. The opposition, however,
could not command a two- thirds vote in either house. So
the bill was lost. It is questionable if, from the volume of
presidential messages, an argument more unanswerable can
be selected than this Maysville veto message. Would that
the 2)rinciples it unfolds had been permanently adopted ! It
did vast good, however, in checking the torrent of unwise ap-
propriation, and in throwing upon the people themselves the
task of making the country more habitable and accessible.

I am sure it did not diminish the zest of General Jack-
son's opposition to the Kentucky turnpike to know, as he did
well know, that Mr. Clay, in 1826, at the close of an after-
dinner speech to some of his constituents, a speech severely
denunciatory and sharply satirical of General Jackson, had
giv(»n this toast : " The continuation of the turnpike road
which passes tlirough Lewisburg, and success to the cause of
internal improvement, under every auspice." Nor was it
it unknown to General Jackson that the managers of the
road, to testify their gratitude for past services, had erected,

1830.] VAN BUBEN CALLS ON MBS. EATON. 287

at a conspicuous point in the road, a monument in honor of '^f
Henry Clay ; which, I believe, still stands.

Three other internal improvement bills were passed dur-
ing the last days of the session. Two of these the President
retained until after the adjournment of Congress, which was
equivalent to vetoing them. The other he disposed of in the
following brief message : — " To the Senate of the United
States : Gentlemen, I have considered the bill proposing to
authorize a subscription of stock in the * Washington Turn-
pike Boad Company,' and now return the same to the Senate
in which it originated. I am unable to approve this bill ; and
would respectfully refer the Senate to my Message to the
House of Kepresentatives on returning to that House the bill
to authorize a subscription of stock in the Maysville, Wash-
ington, Paris, and Lexington Turnpike Road Company, for
a statement of my objections to the bill herewith returned.
The Message bears date on the 27th insUmt, and a printed
copy of the same is herewith transmitted."

A quiet but effective defiance. The Senate voted again
upon the bill, and came within five of carrying it by the
requisite two-thirds. Colonel Benton and Edward Livingston
voted for it. This was the last act of the session. Congress
adjourned on the thirty-first of May.

CHAPTER XXIII.

MB. VAN BUREN CALLS ON MRS. EATON.

These may seem trivial words with which to heada chaj)-
ter that treats of dynasties, successions to the presidency, and
other high matters. Believing, however, that the political
history of the United States, for the last thirty years, dates
from the moment when the soft hand of Mr. Van Buren
touched Mrs. Eaton's knocker, I think the heading appro-
priate.

288 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

General Jackson succeeded in showing that the charges
against Mrs. Eaton were not supported by testimony, but he
did not succeed in convincing the ladies who led the society
of Washington that Mrs. Eaton was a proper person to be
admitted into their circle. They would not receive her. Mrs.
Calhoun would not, although she had called upon the lady
soon after her marriage, in company with the Vice-President,
her husband. Mrs. Berrien would not, although Mr. Berrien,
ignorant, as he afterward said, of the lady's standing at the
capital, had been one of the guests at her wedding. Mrs.
Branch would not, although Mr. Branch had been taken into
the Cabinet upon IJjEajor Eaton's suggestion. Mrs. Ingham
would not, although the false gossip of the hour had not
wholly spared her own fair fame. The wives of the foreign
ministers would not. Mrs. Donelson, the mistress of the
White House, though compelled to receive her, would not
visit her. " Any thing else, uncle," said she, " I will do for
you, but I can not call upon Mrs. Eaton." The General's
reply, in eflfect, was this : " Then, go back to Tennessee, my
dear." And she went to Tennessee. Her husband, who was
also of the anti-Eaton party, threw up his post of private
secretary, and went with her ; and Mr. Nicholas P. Trist, of
the State Department, was appointed private secretary in his
stead. Six months after, however, by the interposition of
friends. Major Donelson and his wife were induced to return
and assume their former positions in the mansion of the
President.

The two strongest things in the world were in collision —
the will of Andrew Jackson and the will of lovely woman ;
of which latter the poet saith or singeth :

" If she will, she will, you may depend on 't,
If she won't, she won't, and there 's an end on 't"

Three weeks after the inauguration, when the President
was in the midst of his correspondence with Dr. Ely, and
when his feelings upon the subject of that correspondence

1830.] VAN BUBEN CALLS ON MBS. EATON. 289

Brere keenest, Mr. Van Buren arrived in Washington to enter
ipon his duties as Secretary of State.

Mr. Van Buren was a widower. He had no daughters.
ft-pprised of the state of things in Washington, he did what
WBB proper, natural, and right. He called upon Mrs. Eaton
—received Mrs. Eaton — made parties for Mrs. Eaton ; and,
>n all occasions, treated Mrs. Eaton with the marked respect
irith which a gentleman always treats a lady whom he believes
bo have been the victim of unjust aspersion. A man does
lot get much credit for an act of virtue which is, also, of all
the acts possible in his circumstances, the most politic.
ifany men have the weakness to refrain from doing right,
)ecau8e their doing so will be seen to signally promote their
cherished objects. We have nothing to do with Mr. Van
Baren's motives. I believe them to have been honest. I be-
ieve that he faithfully endeavored to perform the ofEce of
)il upon the troubled waters. The course he adopted was
he right course, whatever may have been its motive.

The letter-writers of that day were in the habit of amus-
,ng their readers with the gossip of the capital, as letter-
irriters are now. But not a whisper of these scandals es-
»ped into print until society had been rent by them into
lostile " sets " for more than two years. After the explosion,
me of the Washington correspondents gave an exaggerated
md prejudiced, but not wholly incorrect account of certain
(cenes in which " Bellona" (the nickname of Mrs. Eaton)
ind the Secretary of State had figured. It was among the
liplomatic corps, with whom Mr. Van Buren had an official
\B well as personal intimacy, that he strove to make converts
X) the Eatonian cause. It chanced that Mr. Vaughan, the
British minister, and Baron Krudener, the Russian minister,
vere both bachelors, and both entered good-naturedly into
;he plans of the Secretary of State.

" A ball and supper," says the writer just referred to,
^ were got up by his excellency, the British minister, Mr.
Vaughan, a particular friend of Mr. Van Buren. After various
stratagems to keep Bellona afloat during the evening, in which

VOL. III. — 19

290 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

almost every cotillon in which she made her appearance was
instantly dissolved into its original elements, she was at length
conducted by the British minister to the head of his table,
where, in pursuance of that instinctive power of inattention
to whatever it seems improper to notice, the ladies seemed
not to know that she was at the table. This ball and supper
were followed by another given by the Russian minister (an-
other old bachelor). To guard against the repetition of the
mortification in the spontaneous dissolution of the cotillons,
and the neglect of the ladies at supper (where, you must ob-
serve, none but ladies sat down), Mr. Van Buren made a.
direct and earnest appeal to the lady of the minister of Hol-
land, Mrs. Huygens, whom he entreated in her own language
to consent to be introduced to the * accomplished and lovely
Mrs. Eaton.'

*^ The ball scene arrived, and Mrs. Huygens, with un-
common dignity, maintained her ground, avoiding the ad-
vances of Bellona and her associates, until supper was
announced, when Mrs. Huygens was informed by Baron
KrudentT that Mr. Eaton would conduct her to the table.
She declined and remonstrated, but in the meantime Mr.
Eaton advanced to offer his arm. She at first objected, but
to relieve him from his emban-assinent, walked with him to
the table, where she found Mrs. Eaton seated at the head,
beside an empty chair for herself Mrs. Huygens had no al-
ternative but to become an instninient of the intrigue, or
decline taking supper ; she chose the latter, and taking hold
of her husband's aim, withdrew from the room. This was
the offense for which General Jackson afterward threatened
to send her husband home.

" The next scene in the drama was a grand dinner, given
in the east room of the palace, where it was arranged that
Mr. Vaughan was to conduct Mrs. Eaton to the table, and
place her at the side of the President, who took care, by his
marked attentions, to admonish all present (about eighty,
including the principal officers of the government and their
ladies) that Mrs. Eaton was one of his favorites, and that

1830.] VAN BUBEN CALLS ON MRS. BATON. 291

he expected her to be treated as such in all places. Dinner
being over, the company retired to the coffee-room, to indulge
in the exhilarating conversation which wine and good com-
pany usually excite. But all would not do — ^nothing could
move the inflexible ladies."

How exquisitely gratifying to General Jackson Mr. Van
Buren's emphatic public recognition of Mrs. Eaton must
have been, every reader will perceive. General Jackson had
thrown his whole soul into her cause, as has been abundantly
shown in previous pages of this volume. But it was not Gen-
eral Jackson alone whom Mr. Van Buren's conduct penetra-
ted with delight and gratitude. It completely won the four
persons who enjoyed more of General Jackson's confidence
and esteem than any others in Washington. First, Major
Eaton, the President's old friend and most confidential cab-
inet-adviser. Secondly, Mrs. Eaton. Thirdly, Mrs. O'Neal,
the mother of Mrs. Eaton, the friend of the President and of
his lamented wife. Lastly, but not least in importance. Ma-
jor William B. Lewis, an inmate of the White House, the
President's most intimate and most constant companion, and
formerly the brother-in-law of Major Eaton. The preference
and friendship of these four persons included the preference
and support of Amos Kendall, Isaac Hill, Dr. Randolph, and
all the peculiar adherents of General Jackson.

Mr. Van Buren was, moreover, just the man to "get along
with " General Jackson. No one could ever quarrel with a
gentleman who never gave and never took offense. Even
¥nth Mr. Clay he remained always on terms of jocularity.
Mr. Clay writes in 1834 : " Mr. Van Buren yesterday offered
to bet me a suit of clothes upon each of the elections in the
city of New York and in your State. ... I told him
yesterday, that if the people entertained the administration
in its late measures, I should begin to fear that our experi-
ment of free government had failed ; that he would probably
be elected the successor of Jackson ; that he would introduce
a system of intrigue and corruption that would enable him
to designate his successor ; and that, after a few years of

292 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

lingeriDg and fretful existence, we should end in dissolution
of the Union, or in despotism. He laughed^ and remarked
that I enteHained morbid feelings, I replied with good na-
ture, that what I had said, I deliberately and sincerely be-
lieved."

And Jesse Hoyt^ in recommending a valet to the Secre-
tary of State, mentioned that the man's only fault was bod
temper, which, he added, was of no consequence in the ser-
vant of a man who could never provoke it. It has, also, been
frequently remarked, that a constitutionally irascible man
finds his delightful counterpart in one who is constitutionally
cool and good tempered. Accordingly, we find Mr. Van
Burcn writing home to his friend Hoyt, when he had been
only a month in Washington : " The story you tell about
the President's great confidence in Mr. Berrien, and little in
me, is the veriest stuflf that could be conceived. The repeti-
tion of such idle gossip constrains me to say, what I am
almost ashamed to do, that I have found the President affec-
tionate, confidential, and kind to the last degree ; and that I
am entirely satisfied that there is no degree of good feeling
or confidence which he does not entertain for me. He has,
however, his own wishes and favorite views upon i>oint8 which
it is not my province to attempt to control. Upon every mat-
ter he wishes to have the truth and respects it ; and will in
the end satisfy all of the purity of his views and intentions."

The public events of the summer of 1829, and those of
the succeeding session of Congress, being known to the reader,
I now invite attention to certain occurrences that took place
this year in the private apartments of the President's house,
of the highest importance, though never before made known.

The year 1829 had not closed before General Jackson was
resolved to do all that in him lay to secure the election of
Mr. Van Buren as his successor to the presidency. Nor did
that year come to an end before he began to act in further-
ance of the project. Before me is a letter from Andrew
Jackson to his old friend Judge Overton of Tennessee, dated
December 31st, 1829, which contains proof of this assertion.

1830.] VAN BUBEN CALLS ON MBS. EATON. 293

To this letter is appended a Note by Major Lewis, explana-
tory of its secret purpose. For the convenience of the reader^
the Note shall be submitted to his perusal first

VOTE BT MAJOR LEWIS UPON A LETTER OF PRESIDENT JACKSON.

"The following letter was written under circumstances and for the
purposes stated in the following remarks. All through the summer and
&n of 1829, General Jackson was in very feeble health, and in December
of the same year his friends became seriously alarmed for his safety. In-
deed, his physical system seemed to be totally changed. His feet and legs
particuUriy had been much swollen for several months, and continued to
get worse every day, until his extreme debility appeared to be rapidly as-
■mniDg the character of a confirmed dropsy. The Greneral himself was
fiiHy aware of his critical and alarming situation, and frequently conversed
with me upon the subject The conversations occasionally led to another
mbject) in which I took a deep interest^ to wit^ the election of Mr. Van
Buren as his successor. This I thought highly important, for the purpose
of carrying out the principles upon which the General intended toadmii>-
isfer tlie government But if he were to die so soon afler his advent to
power, I greatly feared this object would be defeated. However, oven in
that event, I did not entirely despair of success. It occurred to me that
Qeneral Jackson*s name, tliough he might be dead, would prove a power-
fill lever, if judiciously used, in raising ^ir. Van Buren to the presidency.
I therefore determined to get the General, if possible, to write a letter to
some friend, to be used at the next succeeding presidential election (in
case of his death), exi)ressivo of tlic confidence he reposed in Mr. Van
Buren's abilities, patriotism, and qualifications for any station, even the
biglicst within the gifl of the people. Having come to this resolution, I
embraced the first favorable opportunity of broaching the subject to him,
md was happy to find that ho was not disposed to interpose the slight-
est objection to the proposition. He accordingly wrote a letter to his old
fiiend, Judge Overton, of which the preceding is a duplicate, and handed
it to me to copy, witli authority to make such alterations as I might think
proper. After copying it (having made only a few verbal alterations), I
requested him to read it, and if satisfied with it, to sign it He read it,
and said it would do, and then put his name to it^ remarking, as he re-
turned it to me :

'^ * If I die, you have my permission to make such use of it as you may
think most desirable.'

'' I will barely add, tliat the General wrote this letter to his old and
confidential friend, Jud^^; Overton, at my particular request, and with a
full knowledge of the object for which I wished it written. He has, for-

294 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

tunately for the country, however, recovered his health, and tliere will now,
I hope, be no necessity for using it. In conclusion, I will further remaik,
that both the signature and indorsement, as will be perceived, are in
General Jackson's own proper hand-writing.""

(the letter.)

general jackson to judge overton.

** Wasuikotom , I>ec; Slst, 1S80.

" My Dear Sir : I have been anxiously awaiting the acknowledgment
of my message to Congress forwarded to you, with such remarks as its
subject-matter might suggest. But, as yet, I have not heard from you.
As far as I hare seen it commented on in the public journals, it has been
well received, except in the Abbeville district, Soirth Carolina, where it
has been severely attacked. It is an old adage that * stniws show which
way the wind blows.* I assure you this has somewhat astonished, though
I can not say it has suprised mc^ because I had hints that some of my oW
friends had changed, and tlie case of Major Eaton was thought to present
a fair opportunity of destroying him and injuring me, by circulating se-
cretly foul and insidimrs slanders against him and his family. Be it so ; I
shall pursue the even tenor of my way, consulting only the public good—
not the popularily of any individual.

" Coiigress Ls progressing with its labors, and I think I see in the com-
mencement a little new leaven trying to mix itself with the old lump ; but
I beheve the old will be hard to mix with the new. I regret also to say
there is some little feeling still existing in a part of my cabinet. I am
in hopes, however, that harmony will be restored, and that union of feel-
ing and action which so happily prevailed when this administration waa
first organized, will be again revived. I do not think 1 have been weD
treated by those members who have been instrumental in introducing dis-
cord into my cabinet. They knew as well before as they did after their
appointments who were to compose my cabinet If they had any objec-
tion to associating upon terms of equality with any of the other members,
they should have had candor enough to say so, before they accepted the
offer of a seat in the cabinet I still hope, however, that I shall not be
driven to extremities ; but should action become necessary on my part>
you may rest assured I shall not hesitate when the public interest re-
quires it

" It gives me pleasure to inform you that the most cordial good feeling
exists between Mr. Van Buren, Major Barry, and Major Eaton. These
gentlemen I have always found true, harmonious, and faithful. They not
only most cheerfully cooperate with me in promoting the public weal, but
do every thing in their power to render my situation personally as pleas-

1830.] VAN BUBEN CALLS ON MRS. EATON. 295

ant and comfortable as the nature of my public duties will admit. Permit
me here to say of Mr. Van Buren that I have found him every thing that
I could desire him to be, and believe him not only deserving my confi-
dence, but the confidence of the nation. Instead of his being selfish and
intriguing, as has been represented by some of his opponents, I have ever
found him frank, open, candid, and manly. As a councilor, he is able
and prudent — republican in his principles, and one of the most pleasant
men to do business with I ever saw. He, my dear friend, is well quali-
fied to fill the highest office in the gifl of the people, who in him will find
a true friend and safe depository of their rights and liberty.

" I wish I could say as much for Mr. Calhoun and some of his friends.
Ton know the confidence I once had in that gentleman. I, however, of
him desire not to speak ; but I have a right to believe that most of the
troubles, vexations, and difficulties I have had to encounter, since my ar-
rival in this city, have been occasioned by his friends. But for the present
let this suffice. I find Mr. Calhoun objects to the apportionment of tlie
surplus revenues among the several States, after the public debt is paid.
He is, also, silent on the bank question, and is believed to huve encouraged
the introduction and adoption of the resolutions in the South Carolina Leg-
islature ' relative to the tarifil I wish you to have a few numbers written
on the subject of the apportionment of the surplus revenue, after the na-
tional debt is paid. It is the only thing that can allay the jealousies arising
between the different sections of the Union, and prevent that flagitious
hg-roUiiig-legislaiion^ which must, in the end, destroy every thing like har-
mony, if not the Union itself. The moment the people see that the surplus
revenue is to be divided among the States (when there shall be a surplus),
and applied to internal improvement and education, they instruct their
members to husband the revenue for the payment of the national debt, so
that the surplus, afterward, may be distributed in an equal ratio among the
several States. If this meets your view, by giving it an impulse before the
people, in a few written numbers, you will confer on your country a bless-
ing that will be hailed as no ordinary boon by posterity, who must feel its
benefits. I feel the more anxious about this, because I have reason to be-
lieve a decided stand will be taken by the friends of Mr. Calhoun, in Con-
gress, against the policy, if not the constitutionality, of such a measure.
Let me hear from you on the receipt of this. Present me affectionately to
your amiable family, and believe me to be,

" Your friend, Andrew Jackson."

Judge Overton, I believe, never knew the purpose for
which this letter was written. The copy retained was signed
by General Jackson and placed among the secret papers of

296 LIFE OF ANDREW JACESOK. [1830.

Major Lewis, where it reposed until copied for the readers of
these pages in 1858.

General Jackson and Major Lewis knew how to keep a
secret ; and this secret was confided, at first, to no one. Yet
I find, from the correspondence of Mr. Webster and others,
that some inkling of the truth with regard to General Jack-
son's preference of Mr. Van Buren for the succession, escaped
the inner offices of the White House almost immediately.
Sixteen days after the letter to Judge Overton had been writ-
ten, Mr. Webster wrote to liis friend, Dutton : " Mr. Van
Buren has evidently, at this moment, quite the lead in influ-
ence and importance. He controls all the pages on tho back
stairs, and flatters what seems to bo at present the Aaron's
serpent among the President's desires, a settled purpose of
making out the lady, of whom so much has been said, a per-
son of reputation. It is odd enough, but too evident to be
doubted, that the consequence of this dispute in the social
and fashionable world, is producing great political effects, and
maij very probably determiiie who shall be successor to the
present chief magistrate. Such great events," etc., etc., eta

A month later (February 27th, 1830) Mr. Webster wrote
to Jeremiah Mason : " Calhoun is forming a party against
Van Buren, and as the President is supi^sed to be Van Bu-
ren's man, the Vice-President has great difficulty to separate
his opposition to Van Buren from opposition to the President.
Our idea is to let them pretty much alone ; by no means to
act a secondary part to either. We never can and never must
support either. While they are thus arranging themselves
for battle, that is, Ciilhoun and Van Buren, there are two
considerations which are likely to be overlooked or disregarded
by them, and which are material to be considered. 1. The
probability that General Jackson will run again ; that that
is his present purpose I am quite sure. 2. The extraordinary
power of this anti-Masonic party, especially in Pennsyl-
vania."

Mr. Webster was correct in his opinion that General
Jackson was likely to '^ run again," but he was exceedingly

1830.] VAN BUREN CALLS ON MRS. EATON. 297

mistaken in supposing that the fact was " overlooked" by Mr.
Van Buren. Mr. Van Buren was far too acute a politician
not to be aware that there was only one man in the country,
and he Andrew Jackson, who, in 1832, could defeat the com-
bined opposition of Calhoun and the South, Clay and the
West, Webster and the North. Mr. Van Buren, from the
first, insisted upon General Jackson's running a second time.
It was an essential part of the programme. It was that which
alone could make the rest of the programme possible.

Then there loas a programme ? Most assuredly. The
" Jackson party" came into power against the " Secretary dy-
nasty ;" but that party had not been in power a year before it
had arranged a programme of succession so long, that it would
have required twenty-four years to play it out. It was di-
vided into three parts of eight years each : Andrew Jackson,
eight years ; Martin Van Buren, eight years ; Thomas H.
Benton, eight years. It will be safe for any one to deny this,
because such programmes are never put into writing, and can
seldom be proved. But I am assured it is a fact. The intel-
ligent reader will find evidence of it in the political history
of the time.

Among the invaluable papers of Major Lewis we must
look to discover the mode by which General Jackson was
brought before the people for reelection. The first steps were
taken when the President had served just one year. Bead
attentively the following letter, which was written in the
presidential mansion :

MAJOR LEWIS TO COL. L. C. STANBAUOH OF PENNSYLVANIA.

" WA8ini«aTOK, March lltb, 1S80.

" Dear Sir : Yours of the 15th has been received, and, as stated, the
nomiDation of Mfljor Lee has been rejected by the Senate. Though very
much to be regretted, yet it is no evidence of tlie President's want of
popularity in that body. Major Lee's own connections were the cause of
his rejection.

" You have, no doubt, lieard of the unfortunate affair relative to his
domestic relations ; which, however, on account of deep and sincere re-
[tentance, all the good and liberal minded were disposed to forgive.

298 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

Not 80 with his connections. They pressed the subject upon the Senate
in such a maimer as to compel Lee's own friends to vote ap^ainst him. It
does not in any manner affect the administration, as the responsibility of
the nomination must rest upon those who recommended him; but it must
deeply wound his feelings, and prove, I fear, greatly injurious to his future
prospects in life.

" With regard to General Jackson's serving another term, it would be
improper for mo, perhaps, situated as I am, to say any thing ; but, my dear
sir, almost every friend he has, I mean real fiHends^ thinks with you, that
there is no other way by which the great Republican party, who brought
him into power, can be preserved. Clay's friends are beginning to hold up
their heads again ; their countenances are brightening, not on account of
Chilton's letter, for he is of too little consequence, but because of the anti-
cipated pplitvS between the friends of those who aspire to succeed the pres-
ent chief magistrate. It is certainly necessary, as you suggest, that some
steps should be taken to quiet the public mind ; but perhaps I may differ
witli you as to what should be done, and how it should be done. I do not
tnink it would be proper for Grcneral Jackson to avow at this time, his de-
termination to serve another term ; nor do I think it would be prudent
for his friends here, to take the lead in placing his name before the na-
tion for reelection. According to the General's oum principles (always
practiced on by him), he can not decline serving again if called on by the
people.

" I am not authorized to say that he would permit his name to be used
again, but knowing him as I do, I feel confident that if he believed the in-
terest of the country required it, and that it was the wish of the people he
should serve another term, he would not hesitate one moment If, then, it
is the desire of your State that he should serve another term let the mem-
hers of her legislature express the sentiments of the people upon that suhfeeL
But let it be done in such a way as not to make it necessary for him to
speak in relation to the matter. Such an expression of pubHc sentiment)
would come with better grace from Pennsylvania than from any other
quarter, and would have a more powerful effect — because of her well-known
democratic princii)les, and because she has always been tlie General's
stronges-t friend. If any thin{/ he done in the business the sooner the better,

" You will have seen in the papers that Commodore Porter has been
nominated to succeed Major Lee. Every one here rejoices at it.

*^ Yours sincerely, W. B. Lewis."

In this letter was inclosed another — for Major Lewis never
did these things by halves — the nature and object of which
he himself explains in one of his precious Notes.

1830.] VAN BUBEN CALLS ON MRS. EATON. 299

ANOTHER NOTE BT MAJOR LEWIS.

" The indosed letter was prepared and seat by me to Harrisburg, for
the members of the legislature to sign and forward to tlie President of the
United States, provided a uiajority of them concurred in the views therein
taken. Col. Stanbaugh, to whom it was inclosed, consulted with them
upon the subject, and afler making a few verbal alterations, a mnjority of
the members signed and transmitted it to the President This was the
first movement made toward bringing out General Jackson for a second
term. It was afterward followed up by the legislatures of Now York and
Ohio, principally upon my suggestions and advice to the friends of the ad- t/
ministration in those two States. Indeed, I wrote several letters to my
friends ui Ohio also (of which I kept no copies), and procured others to
be written, urging the absolute necessity of such a step at tlie next meet-
ing of their legislature, as the most cifectual, if not the only means of de-
feating the machinations of Mr. Calhoun and his friends, who were resolved .
on forcing General Jackson from the presidential chair after one term.
The peculiar situation of the Vice-President, it was believed, made this
necessary. He was tlien serving out his second term, and as none of his
predecessors had ever served more than eight years, his friends thought it
might be objected to, aud perhaps would be injurious to him, to be pre-
sented to tlie nation for a third term. Under this view of tlie subject,
they did not seem disposed to hazard the experiment But what was to
be done ? It would not do for him to retire to the shades of private life
fix* four long years. He could not run for a third term, and they dare
not run liim in opposition to General Jackson. Seeing no other way by
which these perplexing ditficulties could be surmounted, and believing
there would be danger in further postponing his pretensions, his friends
boldly resolved to get rid of the General, upon the ground that it was un-
derstood, during the canvass, that he was to serve lour years only in case
of his election. It was to defeat this project of the Vice-President and
his friends that I opened a correspondence with Col. Stanbaugh, aud sug-
gested to him the necessity of bringing out General Jackson again, and
the manner of doing iU The scheme succeeded admirably, and in a few
months the hopes of Mr. Calhoun and his partisans were completely
withered, and the idea of driving General Jackson from the field aban-
doned altogether."

THE INOI.OSED LETTER.

"Ha&risbuso, March 20, 1880.

7b Jlis Excellency Andrew Jackson, President of the United Slates.

"Dear Sir: The undersigned, members of the legislature of Pennsyl-
vania, beibre closing the duties assigned them by their constituents, beg

300 LIFEOF AKDBEW JACKSON. [1830.

leave to tender to you their beat wishes for your health and happiness, and
to express to you the confidence reposed by them in the sound republican
principles which mark the course of your administration. The second
political revolution effected in the year 1829 is progressing in a way to at-
tain those g^at results which were fondly anticipated, and which, in the
end, we ardently hope will tend to cement in stronger bonds the repub-
lican feelings of the country. In a free government like ours, parties must
and will exist ; it should be so, inasmuch as it serves to make those who
are dominant vigilant and active in the discharge of the important duties
which give life, health, and activity to the great principles by which, as
a free people, we should be governed. If the voice of Pennsylvania, which
has recently been prominently and effectively exerted in the election of
our present distinguished chief magistrate, can have influence, it will, as
heretofore, be exerted in inducing you to permit your name and distin-
guished services again to be presented to the American people. We
deem it of importance to the maintenance of correct republican principles
that the country should not thus early be again drawn into a warm and
virulent contest as to who shall be your successor.

" If the people can indulge a hope that, in acceding to their wishes as
heretofore, the warmth of former contests may be spared, they will be
able to repose in peace and quiet, and before the end of your second term,
will expect with confidence that the great principle of governmental reform
will be so harmonized and arranged that the affairs of the nation for the
future will move on certainly, peacefully, and happily. Expressing what
we feel and believe to be the language of our constituent^*, we claim to in-
dulge the expectation that your avowed principle ' neither to seek nor to
decline to serve your country in public office,' will still be adhered to, that
thereby the people may obtain repose, and toward the termination of your
second term be better prepared to look around and ascertain into whose
hands can be best confided the care and guardianship of our dearest rights,
our happiness, and independence.

" This communication is not made with the intention of obtaining from
you any declaration at this time upon this subject We are aware that
persons would be found to call such a declaration premature, before some
general expression of satisfaction in relation to the course you have pursued
had been exhibited, and time afforded for it to be evinced. Pennsylvania,
heretofore first to express her attachment upon this subject, seeks only to
maintain the position she has assumed, and to express through her repre-
sentatives her continued confidence in your stern political integrity, and
the wise, judicious, republican measures of your administration, and to
cherish the hope that the country may again be afforded the opportunity
of having those services, the benefit of which she is now so happily enjoy-
ing. On this subject^ sir, we speak not only our own sentiments and opin-

1830.] VAN BUBEN CALLS ON MBS. EATON. 301

ion^ but feel that the people will accord to the suggestion, and every where
respond to what we have declared.

** Wifiliing you long life, health, and happiness, we remain your friends
and fellow citizens."

To this address sixty-eight names were finally appended.
Colonel Stanbaugh, in a letter to Major Lewis, narrates how
those names were obtained :

"I can not tell you," he wrote, March 31, "how much I feel rejoiced
that you see the necessity of placing General Jackson's name before the
American ]>eople without delay as a candidate for reelection. Two modes
presented themselves to me as well calculated to afford our friends at Wash-
ington a pretext for announcing the General's name as a candidate. One
was a letter, to be addressed to him, approving the measures of his ad-
ministration, etc., by the General Committee of Correspondence of this
State, of which I am a member ; and the other way that suggested itself
was a call from tlie different presses in the State which supported him at
the last election. I had prepared letters to carry both these plans into exe-
cution, and although some of our presses, you arc aware, are under the
control of a certain influencCy I believe I could get them all to come out
on the subject. No matter what the private views and feelings of jM)liti-
cians may be who claim to belong to the democratic party, they will hesi-
tate before they give their own opinions and wishes^ when the question is
put to them, either to support or reject the old hero.

"Pennsylvania is stiQ sound, depend upon it, no matter what time-
serving politicians, high in power^ may say to tlic contrary ; but just as
certain it is, that tlie salvation of the democratic party, as well hero as in
Other States, depends upon General Jackson's being again a candidate.

" Your letter convinced me at once that this subject can no where
* originate witli better grace than in tlie Pennsylvania Legislature,' and
there it shall originate if God spares my life till to-morrow. The views
you sent me could not, in my opinion, be altered for the better, and I drew
up a letter from them, with but a trifling variation, or rather addition.
There were fifteen members at my house yesterday afternoon, every one
of whom signed tlie letter, and at once came into the spirit of the subject.
Two more — Senators — were here this morning and signed it. On Tuesday
I hope we will be enabled to send it to the Patriot Chief. Would it not,
my dear sir, be good policy for other States friendly to General Jackson to
follow Pennsylvania immediately with similar dec^larations ? It might all
be done before Congress adjourns. Wiite to me, if you please, by return
mail, and give mo your opinion as to the ])lace the letter had better make
ite first appearance. I think tlic Pennsylvania Reporter would be the

302 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

proper place. It would have the appearance of being the act of the mem-
ber£!j and state that they were in good earnest on the subject. The sooner
it is published, I think, the better. If you write by return mail I will get
your letter on Wednesday, and I can have the other published in Friday's
paper. Remember me to tlie President, to Major Eaton, and Mrs. Eaton.*'

Major Lewis promptly replied. The address was published
in the paper named by Colonel Stanbaugh, preceded by these
words : " We are pleased to lay before our readers the fol-
lowing letter, signed by sixty-eight members of the Legisla-
ture, expressing their approbation of the wise, judicious,
republican measures of General Jackson's administration,
and respectfully urging him again to become a candidate for
the presidency."

CHAPTER XXIV.

AN UN HARMONIOUS CABINET.

Could the Cabinet be other than an unharmonious one?
It was divided into two parties upon the all-absorbing ques-
tion of Mrs. Eaton's character. For Mrs. Eaton were Mr.
Van Buren, Major Eaton, Mr. Barry, and the President.
Against Mrs. Eaton were Mr. Ingham, Mr. Branch, Mr. Ber-
rien, and the Vice-President The situation of poor Eaton
was most embarrassing and painful ; for the opposition to his
wife being feminine, it could neither be resisted nor avenged.
He was the most miserable of men, and the more the fiery
President strove to right the wrongs under which he groaned,
the worse his position became. The show of civility kept up
between himself and the three married men in the Cabinet
was, at last, only maintained on occasions that were strictly
official. Months passed during which he did not exchange a
word with Mr. Branch except in the presence of the
dent

■%

1830.] AN UNHARliONIOUS CABINET. 303

To add to his disgust, charges were trumped up against
himself of having, in settling the accounts of the late purser,
Timberlake, connived at a fraud upon the government. An
anonymous letter was sent him of a truly fiendish character.
" Revenge is sweet/' said this nameless devil, " and I have
you in my power, and I will roast you, and boil you, and bake
you ; and I hope you may long live to prolong my ])leasure.
Lay not the flattering unction to your soul, that you can es-
cape me. I would not that death, or any evil thing, should
take you from my grasp for half the world." Never was a
Cabinet minister so tormented before his time.

After enduring this unhappy state of things for nearly a
year, the President's patience was completely exhausted, and
he was determined that his Cabinet should either be harmon-
ized or dissolved. Mr. Ingham afterward placed on record the
manner in which the difficulty was, for a time, disposed of.
His statement, which accords with the narratives of Mr.
Branch and Mr. Berrien, is correct in its material particulars.

" On Wednesday, the 27th of January, 1830," wrote Mr. Ingham, "Col-
onel R M. Johnson, of Kentucky, waited on me in the Treasury Depart-
ment, and after some prcHminary conversation, in which he expressed his
reijret that my family and tliat of Mr. Branch and Mr. Berrien did not visit
Mrs. Eaton, he said that it had been a subject of great excitement with the
President, who had come to the determination of having hannony in his
Cabinet by some accommodation of this matter, lie. Colonel JoJmson,
was the friend of us all, and had now come at the request of the President
to sec whether any thing could be done : who thought that, when our
hwiies gave parties, tliey ought to invite Mi-s. E.itoii ; and as they had
never returned her call, if they would leave the first card and open a
formal intercourse in that way, the President would be sati>'fied ; but un-
l««a something was done of this nature, he had no doubt, indeed he knew
that the President was resolved to have harmony, and woukl probably re-
move Mr. Branch, Mr. Berrien, and myself. I replied to Colonel John-
son, that in all matters of oflicial business, or having any connection there-
with, I considered myself bound to maintain an open, frank, and liarmoniou?
intercourse with the gentlemen I was ;u^ociated with. That the President
had a right to expect the exertion of my best faculties, and the employ-
ment of my time, in the puV)lic service. As to the family of Mr. Eaton,
1 felt an obligation on me not to siiy any tiling to aggravate the difficulties

*-v

304 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

which he labored under, but to observe a total silence and neutrality in
relation to the reports about his wife, and to inculcate the same courae as
to my family, and if any other representations had been made to the
President^ they were false. Having prescribed to myself this rule, and
always acted upon it, I liad done all that the President had a right to
expect. That the society of Washington was liberally organized ; tliere
was but one circle, into which every person of respectable charactefi dis-
posed to be social, was readily admitted, without reference to the circum-
stance of birth, fortune, or station, which operated in many other placeii
That we had no right to exert official power to regulate its social inter-
course. That Mrs. Eaton had never been received by the society her«,
and it did not become us to force her upon it ; that my family had, there-
fore, not associated with her, and had done so with my approbation ; and
that the President ought not, for the sake of his own character, to inter-
fere in such matters. But if he chose to exert his power to ibrco my
family to visit any body they did not choose to visit^ he was intorferiug
with what belonged to me, and no human power should regulate the so-
cial intercourse of my family, by means of official or any other power
which I could resist. If I could submit to such control, I should be un-
worthy of my station, and would despise myself. That it was eminently
due to the character of the President to have it known that he did not
intcifcre in such matters ; and that the course we liad pursucil was pre-
servative of his honor and political standing. I had taken my ground on
mature reflection as to what was due to my family, my friends, and the
administration, witiiout any prejudice to Major Eaton or his wife, and had
fully detennined not to change it^ whatever might be the consequence.

*'Col. Johnson said that he had been requested by the President to
have a conversation with the Secretary of the Navy and the Attorney-
General also ; but, from what I had »iid, he supposed it would be of no
avail. The President expressed a hope that our families would liavo been
willing to invite Mrs. Eaton to their large parties, to give tlie appearance
of an ostensible intercourse, adding that he was so much excited that he
was like a roarinij Uon. He had heard that tlie lady of a foreign minister
ha(i joined in the conspiracy against Mrs. Eaton, and he had sworn that he
would send her and her husband home if he could not put an end to such
doings. I replied, that it could hardly be i)ossiblc that the President con-
templated such a step. Col Johnson replie<l tliat he certainly did ; and
asrain remarked that it seemed to be useless for him to see Mr. Branch
and Mr. Beriien. I told him that each of us had taken our course upon
our own views of the propriety without concert ; and that he ought not to
consider me as answering for any but mysel£ He tiien proposed tliat I
should meet him at Mr. Branch's, and invite Mr. Berrien, that cvoning at
seven o'clock, which was agreed to. Col. Johnson came to my house

1830.] AK UNHARMONIOUS CABINET. 305

about six, and we went up to Mr. Berrien's, having first sent for Mr.
Branch. On our way to Mr. Berrien's, Gol. Johnson remarked tiiat the
President had informed liim tliat he would invite Mr. Branch, Mr. Berrien,
and myself, to meet him on tlie next Friday, when he would inform us,
in the presence of Dr. Ely, of his determination ; and if we did not agree
to comply witli his wishes, he would expect us to send in our resig-
nations.

" Upon our arrival at Mr. Berrien's, Col. Johnson renewed the subject
in presence of him and (Governor Branch, and repeated substantially, though
I thought ratlier more qualifiedly, what he had said to me. Ue did not go
8o much into detail, nor do I recollect whether he mentioned the Prcsi
dent's remarks as to the lady above mentioned and Dr. Ely; those
gentlemen will better recollect Mr. Branch and Mr. Berrien replied, as
unequivocally as I had done, that they would never consent to have the
social relations of their families controlled by any power whatever but
their own. Mr. Branch, Mr. Berrien, and myself went the same evening
to a party at Col. Towson's, where a report was current tliat we were to
be removed forthwith, of which I had no doubt at the time.

" The next morning. Col. J. came to my house and said that he ought,
perhaps, to have been more frank last evening, and told us positively that
the President had finally determined on our removal from office, unless
we agreed at once tliat our families should visit Mrs. Eaton, and innte
her to tlieir large parties ; and that he had made up his mind to designate
Mr. Dickins to take charge of the Treasury Department, and Mr. Kendall
to take charge of the Navy Department, and would find an Attomcy-
Gkneral somewhere. I observed that my course was fixed, and could not
be changed for all the offices in the President's gift ; and it made no more
difference to me than to any other person whom the President designated
to take my place. In the evening of the same day. Col. J. called again,
and informed me that he had just been with the President, who had
drawn up a paper explanatory of what he had intended and expected of
us; that some of his Tennessee friends had been with him for several
lioura; tliat his passions luid subsided, and he liad entirely changed his
ground. He would not insist on our families visiting Mrs. Eaton ; ho only
wishc*] us to assist in putting down the slan<lers against her ; that he be-
lieved her innocent, and he thought our families ought to do what they
could to sustain her, if they could not visit her j and that he wished to see
me the next day. Col. Johnson added that the President had been ex-
ceedingly excited for several days, but was now perfectly calm .ind mild.
The next day I waited on the President, and opened the subject by stat-
ing that Col. Johnson had informed me that he wished to see me, to wliich
he assented, and went into a long argument to show how innocent a
woman Mrs. Eaton was, and how much slie had been persecuted, and
VOL. III. — 20

! 306 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

mentionc<l the names of a number of ladies who hmi been active in this

persecution, and that the lady of a foreign minister was also one of the

conspirnU)rs ; adding that he would send her and her husband home, and

] teach him and his master that a wife of a member of his cabinet was nut

I to be thus treated ; that Mrs. Eaton was as pure and chaste as Mrs. Don-

elson's infant daughter, but there was a combination here among a number

of ladie:*, not those of the heads of departm^aits, to drive her out of so-

cietv, and to drive her husband out of oflic*? ; but he would be cut into

I inch pieces on the rack before he wouUl sufler him or his wife to be in-

' jure«l l»y their vile calumnies; that he was resolved to have harmony in

his caliiuet., and he wished us to join in putting down the slanflers against
Mrs. Katon. 1 observed to the Prcsiil(?nt that I had never considered il
incumbent on me to investigate the chanicter of Mrs. Katon ; such a scrr-
ice did not, in my judgment, come within the scojxj of my duties to the
government ; it belonged to society alone to determine such matters. The
powtT of tlie administration could not change the opinion of the com-
munity, ev(Mi if it could be properly ustni to contn:»l the ndations of ilouies-
tic life in any case. The society of Washington must be the be.-'t judges
of whom it ouglit to receive. 1 regretted the diiricultius which Major
Eaton labored under, and had felt it to be my duty not to aggravate them.
I had intt'iided at an early day to have had a conversation witli him on
tlic snbjeetj with a view to have our s«x'ial relations delined ; but no uppor^
tunity had oflered without volunttiering one, and it had not been done in
that way. The course I had taken was, however, adopted with great can»,
to save his feelings as much as j)os.sible, consistent with what was due to
my family, and the oomnmnity with which we were associated. I con-
sider the charge of my family to be a sa»:red trust, belonging exclusively
t^) mvself as a mend.>cr of scKiietv. The administration had nothing to do
with it, more than with that of any otlier individual, and political power
eouhl not l)e properly exerted over tlu'ir social inti-rcourse, and it wa« im-
portimt to his n^putation to have it un lersi«.K.i.i that he did not inteifero in
such matters. Tljat I was not aware of any want of harmr>ny in tJie cabi-
net; I had not seen the sHght est symptom of such a feeling in its delibera-
tions, and I was pj'ifeetly certain that my official conduct had never been
influenced in t\w. slightt?st degree by a fi'eling of that nature. I saw no
ground, thiTcfon*, for tlie least change on my part in this respect.

"To which the Presi<lent replie<l in a changed tone, Uiat he ha>l
the most entire confi<lence in n)y integrity and capacity in ex«»cuting the
duties of the di'partnu'nt, and expresse<i his |H.Tlect satisfiiction. in that
R'spect, with my whole (Minduct; ho hail never supposed for a moment
that my oflicial acts had been inllucncod in the lea^t degree by any unkind
feeling toward Major Eaton ; and he did not mean to insist on our families
visiting Mrs. Eaton. He had been nmch excited for some time past

1830.] AN UNHABMONIOUS CABINET. 307

by tlie combination against her, and he wished us to aid him in putting
down their slanders, adding that she was excluded from most of the invi-
tations to parties; and when invited, she was insulted ; that the lady of a
foreign minister, before referred to, had insulted her at Baron Krudcncr*8
party.

" I remarked, that some injustice might be done to that lady on that
occasion ; although she might not choose to associate with Mrs. Eaton, I
did not think she intended to insult her ; she might have supposed that
there was some design, not altogether respectful to herself in the offer of
the attendance to supper of the Secretary of War, whose wife she did not
visit; instead of that of the Secretary of State, w^hich, according to the
QBiud practice, she probably considered herself entitled to. I was present,
and saw most of what had happened. She evidently thought herself ag-
griered at something, but acted with much dignity on the occasion. I saw
no appearance of insult offered to Mrs. Eaton. He replied that he had
been fiiUy infbnned, and knew all about it ; and but for certain reasons
which he mentioned, he would have sent the foreign minister before re-
ferred to and his wife home immediately.

" After some further conversation on this and other matters, in which
I consider the President as having entirely waived the demand made
throngh Col. Johnson, that my family must visit Mrs. Eaton, as the condi-
tion of my remaining in office, and in which he expressed himself in terms
of personal kindness toward me, I took my leave. He did not show me,
or read any paper on the subject"

Col. Johnson explained, on reading this statement, that,
in his extreme desire to restore peace, he had gone further in
his communications with the Secretaries, than the President
authorized him to go. The suggestion with regard to their
inviting Mrs, Eaton to their " large parties/' he said, was his
own, not the President's. **Tlie complaint made by Gen-
eral Jackaon against Messrs. Ingham, Branch and Berrien
was that they were using their influence to have Major Eaton
and his family excluded from all respectable circles, for the
purpose of degrading him, and thus drive him from oflSce ;
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 wiis the fact, he would dismiss
them from office. He then read to me a {Miper containing the
principles upon which he intended to act, which disclaimed

308 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

the right to interfere with the social relations of his cabinet
. . . When the President mentioned this charge of con-
spiracy, I vindicated you against it. I gave it as my opinion
that he was misinformed. To prevent a rupture, I requested
the President to postpone calling upon those members of his
cabinet till Saturday, that I might have the opportunity of
two days to converse with them. When I made my report
to the President, I informed him that I was confirmed in my
opinion previously expressed, that he had been misinformed
as to the combination and conspiracy. I informed him of
your unequivocal and positive denial of the fact, and commu-
nicated every thing which transpired between us calculated
to satisfy his mind on the subject. It was this report of
mine that gave him satisfaction, and changed his feelings and
determination — ^not his ground as you have supposed ; with
me lie had no ground to change. He had assumed none ex-
cept that which I have stated ; nor did I ever make use of
such an expression to you that he had changed his ground.
It is true that I informed you that the President was very
much excited, but I do not now recollect the precise language
used to convey my idea of that excitement. I presume you
had the advantage of your i)rivate memoranda, when you say
I compared him to a roaring lion."

A day or two after, the President offered his personal me-
diation for the purpose of restoring harmony between Major
Eaton and Mr. Branch. Mr. Branch accepted the President's
offer. " I have received," he wrote to the President, January
29th, "your note of yesterday's date, and do most cheerfully
accept your friendly mediation ; more, however, from a desire
to give you an additional evidence of the friendly feelings
which have actuated my bosom toward yourself, than from a
consciousness of having given to Major Eaton just cause for
the withdrawal of his friendship. As a further manifestation
of the frankness which I trust will ever characterize my con-
duct, I agree to meet him this day at two o'clock, in the pres-
ence of Major Barry, at Mr. Van Buren's, and in his presence
also."

1830.] BREAKS WITH THE VICE-PRESIDENT. 309

The hostile secretaries met at the house of the Attorney-
General, in the presence of that functionary and of Mr. Barry.
" Here," says Eaton, " Mr. Branch expressed friendship for
me, and in the strongest terms declared, that he did not en-
tertain an unkind feeling toward me, and wished he had a
glass in his bosom, through which his every thought could be
read. He spoke of the non-intercourse between our families,
and said, he had not the slightest objection to a free associa-
tion ; but that he could not control his. I promptly answered,
that I did not desire his or any other family to visit mine,
except with their own free consent ; and that it was my de-
sire our families should, in that respect, pursue such a course
as they thought fit and proper. We shook hands and parted
as friends. Mr. Berrien affected much satisfaction at this re-
conciliation, and pretended to hail it as the harbinger of fu-
ture harmony and good will."

And so this affair was temporarily adjusted. For the
next fifteen months there was the semblance of harmony
among the members of this ill-assorted Cabinet. The Presi-
dent, however, did not often consult the three gentlemen who
had families. The time-honored Cabinet councils were sel-
dom held, and were at length discontinued. Mr. Van Buren
maintained and strengthened his position as the President's
chief counselor and friend. The President spoke of the Sec-
retary of State, among his familiars, by the name of " Van,"
and called him " Matty" to his face.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE PRESIDENT BREAKS WITH THE VICE-PRESIDENT.

Scarcely had the Cabinet been pacificated, when the
suppressed feud between General Jackson and Mr. Calhoun
was changed, so far as the President was concerned, into
avowed and irreconcilable hostility.

310 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

Mr. Van Buren has long rested under the imputation of
having precipitated this quarrel for purposes of his own. The
reader, however, is aware that General Jackson's antipathy
to Mr. Calhoun was strong as early as December, 1829, and
that Mr. Van Buren liad no need, for purposes of his own,
to inflame tlie President's ire against his Southern competitor
for the succession. The incident which filled up the measure
of the President's wrath against the Vice-President, it can
now be shown, was one with which Mr. Van Buren had
nothing to do. He was as innocent of this quarrel as the
humblest clerk in his department, as Mr. Calhoun himself
came at last to know.

Major Lewis, the innocent cause of the explosion, and a
participant in all the events that led to it, has had the good-
ness to write out, for the reader's edification and entertnin-
ment, a complete history of the affair. His narrative, which
is circumstantial and exact, puts to rest forever all the dis-
puted questions respecting a feud which has produced, and is
producing, effects upon the course of political events.

NARRATIVE BT MAJOR WILLIAM B. LEWIS.

" Dear Sir : I have taken up the pen, in accordance with your reqaest,
with tlie view of relating to you the circumstances which led to tlie quarrel
between General Jackson and Mr. Callioun. In doing this, I will be as
brief as the nature of the affair will admit; but, at the same time, I feel
disposed to communicate every thing in connection with it tliat may be
deemed necessary to a full and perfect understxmding of the subject I
have for a long time intended to perform this task, but have neglected it,
and, perhaps, should never have undertaken it, il' you had not made the
request. It is many years since the circumstances that I now intend to
relate transpired, but all the leading and most essential portions of them
are still fresh upon my mind.

" The Seminole campaign, which was commenced by Grcneral Jackson
in December, 1817, and was brought to a close by him the following
spring, was undoubtedly the main cause of the quarrel, but there were
otlier circumstances that had also something to do with it, which I will re-
late before I get through with my narrative.

" That his proceediugs in conducting that campaign should have been
the cause or occasion of a nipture between tliem, was a thing, I am Borei
the General could not possibly have anticipated, as he had been led to be-

1830.] BREAKS WITH THE VICE-PRESIDENT. 311

liere that Mr. Calhoun approved all that he had done. Perhaps there was
no one connected with the government with the exception of Mr. Monroe,
in whom he had greater confidence than Mr. Calhoun, or for whom he had
a stronger attachment This was owing, in part, to the zeal, the ability,
and the efficiency with which he supported, as a member of the House of
Representatives, the war of 1812, but perhaps more particularly on account
of one of tlie first acts he performed after receiving the appointment of
Secretary of War. At the time of his appointment a serious niisimder-
standing existed between the General and the acting Secretary of War,
Mr. George Graham. It seems that General Jackson, apprehending diffi-
culty with the Indians in the Nortliwest, bordering upon Canada, stationed
an officer in whom he had great confidence, with a suitable command, in
tliat quarter, for the purpose of watching the Indians and British traders,
but more especially, I suspect, the Earl of Selkirk, who was moving
through that section of country about that time, with no good intentions,
as the General believed, toward the United States.* Well, witliout giving
the General any notice of his intention, the acting Secretary ordered this
officer upon other duty, taking him away entirely from the past where the
General had stationed him. Against this he protested most energetically,
denying that he had any right to interfere with tlie arrangement of his
troops without consulting him, and forthwith Issued a general order to the
officers under his command, and within his military district, that in future
they wei-e to obey no order emanating from the War Department unless
it passed through the general in command I It was on account of tliis
general order tliat he and General Scott became involved in an angry and
bitter personal correspondence.

" Mr. Calhoun, very soon after he entered upon the duties of his office
as Secretary of War, in order to put a stop to such personal controversies,
and to 6atL«(fy General Jackson, as it was alleged, wrote him an official let-
ter, assuring him tliat, in future, all orders for his military district should
pass through him.f This was granting all that the General contended for,
and was exceedingly gnitifying to him, and no doubt added greatly to his
personal regard for the Secnjtary.

" It was not long after this that he was ordered on the celebrated Sem-
inole campaign, and doubtless it was comnienced with the best an<l kindest
feelings for Mr. Calhoun, on whom he counted fully as a friend that he

• If the Ooneral hnd got hold of the F!arl. and been able to prove that he had
been exciting the Indians against our frontier settlements, ho would in all pro-
bability have made his upreonfeitt for the eases of Arbuthuot and Ambrislcr.

f See a copy of Mr. Calhoun's letter of December 29, 1819, horowith in-
doted.— Vol ii., p. 375.

312 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830

could at all times and under all circumstances rely to do him justice, aS
least ; and more tlian tliis he neither expected nor desired, of course.

" After the campaign had been brought to a close, the General returned
10 Tennessee in exceedingly bad liealth, and worn almost to a skeleton ;
but he bad scarcely got home when a portion of the newspaper press, aided
by politiciaas and demagogues, commenced assailing him with great vio-
lence and bitterness, which was kept up until Congress met, in November,

1818. Tliis body had scarcely taken their seats, when strong indications
were given by its members that the attacks were soon to be transferred
from the columns of the newspapers and the stump to the halls of Con-
gress. The General was kept well advised of what was going on both in
and out of Congress by his Washington friends. About the latter part of
December or the first of January, it was reported tliat the military com-
mittee of the House was investigating the General's conduct in relation to
the Seminole campaign, and it was believed they would report to the
House a resolution in favor of censuring him. He received this informa-
tion in Nashville, on the morning of the 7th of January, and deteruiined
at once to leave for Washington without a moment's delay. Afier Iiaving
dispatched some business he came down to attend to, he returned to the
Hermitage in the evening, and the next morning early he set out for Wash-
ington on horseback, accompanied by two of his staff. TravcHng rapidly
on to Kingston, a distance of 100 miles, he fell in with the Washington
mail stage, and concluding to leave their horses at Kingston, ho and his
companions took passage in the stage and proceedetl on to Washington in
that. On his route he passed through Knoxville, Abingdon, and Winches-
ter, Virginia, but having reached the last named place too late to make a
connection with the Washington stage, he and his companions were ne-
cessarily detained for a short time.

" When the citizens of the village heard of his arrival and detention,
they flocked in great numbers to see and pay their respects to him ; but
some of the most ardent of hLs admirers, not satisfied with this manifesta-
tion of respect, proceeded to get up, on the spur of the occasion, a small
supper party, and invited him and his traveUng companions to join them.
The invitation was accept<jd, and in the course of the evening, being called
on for a sentiment, the General gave the following toast — * John C. Oal-
lioun ; an honest man is the noblest work of Gknl' — showing in the strong*
est and most emphatic language he couM U5ie, the great confidence he re-
posed in his honor and integrity I But this is not the only occasion in
which his confidence had been manifested, as I shall presently show. An
arrangement having been effected for the continuance of the General's
iourney to Washington, distant seventy-five or eighty miles, he and his
friends left, and reached that city on the morning of the 23d of Januaryi

1819, a little before sunrise. The second letter he wTote me after his ar-

1830.] BREAKS WITH THE VICE-PRESIDENT. 313

rival is dated 30th January, and is in relation to certain injurious imputa-
tions which had been published in the Philadelphia Aurora newspaper,
agftinst Mr. Calhoun, by a Nashville correspondent, which, if in my power,
he wished me to have corrected. The General, in his letter, says — ' I find
Mr. Calhoun is sore from the remarks made by B. B. in the Philadelphia
Aurora. He has profe^ed to be my friend, approves my conduct and that
of the President Mr. Monroe has told the members, if an opportunity
offers, to declare on the floor of Congress, in addition to what Mr. Adams
has said, that he fully and warmly approves every act of mine, from first
to last, of the Seminole campaign.' In a P. S. to his letter, the General
adds, * If you know B. B., tell him to exonerate Mr. Calhoun from a coali-
tion with Mr. Crawford.'

" Those communications, addressed to the Aurora^ were written by me,
and the passage complained of by Mr. Calhoun is in the following words —
* I regret that I am under the necessity of adrpitting that your suspicions,
as regards the Secretary of War, are not altogether groundless. Late in-
formation from Washington City assures us here that he is playing a
double game. This may be so, but for the honor of human nature, I hope
it is not I can not abandon altogether the good opinion I once enter-
tained of him, at least not until I have other evidence of his duplicity than
that which rests upon mere suspicion. I still flatter myself that my cor-
respondent there, as well as you, may be mistaken.'

" Aflcr the receipt of the Gkineral's letter referred to above, in my next
communication to the Aurora^ dated the 20th February, 1819, 1 state that,
' In my letter to you of the 9th, and published in the Aurora of the 28th
ultimo, I remarked that it was with regret that I was under the necessity
of admitting that your suspicions, as it regarded the Secretary of State,
were not altogether groundless — that late intelligence from Washington
City assured us here he was playing a double game, etc. I had been in-
formed, previous to writing that letter, that Mr. Calhoun had, at the same
time he was professing the warmest friendship for General Jackson, joined
the standard of his enemies, who had combined for the Laudable purpose>
not only of undermining his military reputation, but also to drive him
from the array. It affords me great pleasure to find that my correspond-
ent hail been led into an error, in attributing to Mr. Calhoun a course of
conduct so dishonorable. In justice to him, therefore, I feel it my duty
to state that I am entirely satisfied now his conduct has been honorable
and correct, anfl that he is, as he has always professed to bo, the sincere
friend of General Jackson,* etc.

" This, then, was a full and complete withdrawal of the alleged unjust
imputation made against Mr. Calhoun, in the letter to the Aurora of the
9th January, 1819. and of course left no cause of complaint, whether just
or unjust, against General Jackson or his friends. The Gen(Tal acted, on

314 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

this occasion, as a true and sincere friend, by promptly doing aU that was
in his power to have the alleged unjust imputations withdrawn. But this
is not all. I have additional evidence to show that the GTcneral's friend-
ship for Mr. Calhoun continued for years after the date of the letter re-
ferred to above. On the 11th January, 1825, in a letter addressed to me,
he says — * It was stated to me yesterday, that if I was elected, it would
loe against the whole Cabinet influence, combined with that of the Speaker.
If this he true, and success should be mine, it will be the greater triumph
of principle over intrigue and management Whether there is any tnith
in this rumor I know not^ and if there is, I would suppose that Mr. Cal-
houn is not in the combination. Let things terminate as they may, nothing
will induce me to depart from the course I have adopted. If I go into
the office, it shall be by the unsolicited will of the people, and I shall not
envy the man who gets there in any other way.' Even this is not all. I
received another letter from him after the election of Mr. Adams, in which
he says, * I am satisfied that Mr. Calhoun was the only friend I had in the
Cabinet*

This letter has, unfortunately, been mislaid, and not being able to lay
my hands on it just now, I am not able to give the exact date of it I have
a distinct recollection, however, of the expression quoted above.

" I have adverted to the foregoing facts and circumstances as evidences
going to show conclusively that General Jackson looked upon Mr. Calhoun
as one of his best friends, so late as the winter and spring of 1825. Indeed
I might say to the day of his inauguration on the 4th of March, 1829, as
there is not a particle of evidence in existence, as I believe, to prove the
slightest change in their personal relations to that time. In February,
1825, at a time of great poUtical excitement, when every bosom was filled
with suspicion and distrust, we find the General declaring that he consid-
ered Mr. Calhoun the only friend he had in Mr. Monroe's Cabinet on that
important and eventful occasion. Strong proof this, I should say, of his
confidence in him, as well as his own sincerity and fidelity. But was this
confidence and devotion on the part of the General reciprocated by Mr.
Calhoun? I doubt it, and I think I have good reason for doubting it If
any one will attentively read a certain part of Mr. Webster's great speech
in reply to Colonel Hayne of Soutli CaroUna, in February, 1830, I think
he will be induced to doubt whether Mr. Calhoun was the only friend that
the General had in Mr. Monroe's Cabinet^ pending the contest in the
House for tlie presidency ; or, indeed, whether he was his friend at all. I
allude to that portion of Mr. Webster's speech which is in reply to Colonel
Hayne's Shakesperian quotations in which he made allusion to Banquo's
Ghost I did not see the point and force of the remarks at the lime tlie
speech was delivered, because I had never heard it intimated, or suggested
by any one that Mr. Calhoun was really in favor of Mr. Adams being chosen

1830.] BREAKS WITH THE V 1 C £ - PR K SID E X T. 315

by the House, in preference to Gk^neral Jackson ; nor did I understand it
until I was told by a gentleman, whom I met at a dining purty at the
hooae of the illustrious Charles Carroll of Carrollton, on the 20th Septem-
ber, 1831 (Mr. Carroirs birth-day), that Mr. Calhoun had adually pledged
hkmtdfto support Mr. Adams, I do not recollect his name, but he was said
to be a gentleman of high character, and lived in the neighborhood of Car-
roUton. He did not speak of it as a rumor, but as a * fixed fact,' as General
Gushing would say. This was perfectly new to me, but when I connected
with it Webster's splendid reply to Hayne, and his pointing and shaking
his finger, at the same time, at Calhoun (who was in the chaii), and ex-
daiming with great significancy, ' Is it not so, sir ?' I must confess that I
do not feel myself at hberty to doubt it. If I have not misconstrued the
meaning of Mr. Webster's remarks, there can be no doubt that Mr. Cal-
houn secretly favored tlie election of Mr. Adams, and promised him his sup-
port; but finding, afterward, that Mr. Clay was to be brought within the
line of * safe precedents,' and looked to for the succession, he deserted Mr.
Adams and sought slieUcr beneath the folds of the broad and patriotic ban-
ner of Old Hickory. It did not, however, afibrd him protection long.
Ton know how the General dealt with deserters, whether regulars or
militia I

"I will now proceed to relate the circumstances which led to the
breach and final separation of those distinguished men. At the session of
1827 the legislature of Louisiana adopted a resolution inviting General Jack-
ion to unite with his friends of that State, on the 8th of Pebruary, 1828, in
celebrating the anniversary of the great victory achieved over tlie British
fiBTcea on the 8tli January, 1815. The invitation was accepted by the Gen-
eral and, during tlie Christmas holidays, the 27th December, 1827, I think
it was, he left Nai<hvillc for N»iw Orleans on board the steamboat Pocahon-
ioMj commanded by Captain Barnes, which had been tendered to him by
the owners, free of all charges, for the conveyance of himself and friends
to New Orleans, and back again to Nashville. Among the friends of the
General, who took passage on board the Pocahontas was Colonel James
A. Hamilton, son of the distinguished General Alexander Hamilton of the
Revolution. The Colonel was a member of a committee that had been ap-
pointed by the General's friends of the city of New York, to meet him at
New Orleans and unite with his other friends there, in celebrating the 8th
January, and proposed, with the consent of tl^o otlier members of the com-
mittee (Thaddeus Phelps and Preserved Fish, I bcUeve) to come by the way
of Nashville and pass down the river with tlie General and his Tennessee
friends. The party consisted of the General, Mr^^. Jackson and Major
Donelson of liis family ; General Houston and staff. Judge Overton, Dr.
and Mrs. Shelly, myself and a few others whose names are not now recol-
lected. Having time to spare, the Pocahontas leisurely descended the

316 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

river, stopping at a few places only until she reached Natchez, where, by
previous engagement, the General was to partake of a public dinner given
to him by his friends and old comrades-in-arms. Here we were detained
until late in the evening, when the Pocahontas was again got under way,
and dropped slowly down the river, on her way to the great emporium of
the Southwestern States. About this time, and on this portion of our
journey it was, I had an interesting conversation with Colonel Hamilton
which led, ultimately, to very important results. On several previous occa-
sions we had conversed about the pendincr presidential election, and of tlic
General's prospects generally ; but on this occasion he inquired of me par-
ticularly with regard to the vote of Georgia. I told him the Qt^neral's
friends at N.'u<«hville were of the opinion that the probabilities were in favor
of his gutting it, unless Mr. Crawford's friends should unite in opposition
to him, and possibly in that event he might lose it.

" ' But we count much, Colonel,' I said, ' upon the general Southern
feeling which is undoubtedly in favor of the General.'

*' He inquired of mo if I did not think Mr. Crawford and his friends
might be conciliated.

" ' If that can be done,' he added, * Georgia would undoubtedly give
her vote to the General.'

" He thought it was an object deserving the attention of his friends,
and expressed a willingness to assist, if desired, in removing all doubts and
difficulties in rohition to the vote of that important Southern State. Col-
onel Hamilton then inquired if I was acquainted with the original cause
of quarrel between the General and Mr. Crawford.

" * Yes,' I told him, * I knew all about it from the beginning to that
time.'

" ' I should like very much,' he said, * to be made acquainted with all
the circumstances in relation to it'

" ' The original cause,' I remarked, ' grew out of a treaty Mr. Crawford
made, in the spring of 1816, with the Clierokee Indians, when he was Sec-
retary of War, against the advice and remonstrance of tlie General In
this treaty Mr. Crawford allowed them a large body of land to which they
hail no claim whatever, and which had been previously ceded to the United
States by the Creek Indians. In the summer of 1814 the General made
a treaty at Fort Jackson with the Creeks, after tlieir surrender and sab-
missiou to the authorities of the United States, and in that treaty the
whole of the country from the settlements on the Bay of Mobile to the
Tennessee line, a distmce of some two hundred or two hundred and fifty
miles, including nearly all the State of Alabama, and which he considered
of great importance to the whole country, and vitally so as regarded the
growth anfl prosperity of the southwestern portion of it^ was ceded to the
United States.

1830.] BREAKS WITH THE VICE-PU E8IDENT. 317

" * The Cherokee chiefe were present at th«it treaty, ninl cI.uiik* 1 n Lirjro
portion of tlie land, the best and ino-tt important portion, but from n full
investigation of the matter it was clearly shown tliat they had no ri<;ht to
it wliatevcr. They endeavoreti to get the Creoks to say it belongtMl to
them, alleging, as a reason, they would have to give it up at any rate.
Weatherford, the principal chief of the Creek nation, refused. He sniJ it
did not belong to them, and he would make no such admission. Yet, in
opposition to the advice of the Gen<*ral, Mr. Crawford recogniwjd thti claim
of the Cliorokrres to it, at the risk of sacrificing the great advantages which
were secured to us by the Treaty of Fort Jackson.*

" * The General had two im{K>rtant objects in view, in requiring the
Creeks to cede to the United States the whole of that vast tract of land
as an indemnity for the expenses of the war. First, to separate the Creeks
and Cherokees, on the east, from the Choctaws and Cliickasaws, on the
west, by planting a dense and strong population of whiter* b(»tween them,
who, in future, would hold tliem in check. Secondly, l»y opening and
settling that region of country, to strengthen and give protection to Mobile
and the settlements upon the bay. Every body now must see the wisdom
and foresight of his views, who has any knowle<lge of the immense popu-
lation and wealth embraced within tlie limits of the country ceded by tlie
Fort Jackson Treaty. Under all the circumstances, it is not at all surprising,
it seems to me, that the General should have felt indignant at the unac-
countable conduct of Uie Secretary of War.

" * But,' I remarked to Colonel Ilamilton, ^ this is not tho only thing the
General complains of, and concerning which he was exceedingly sensitive.
He was induced to believe that Mr. Crawford had a principal agency in
getting up the movement in Congress against him in Janujiry, 1810, upon
the subject of the Seminole canjpaign. This he inlerred from the active
part his i>ersonal friends were taking against him in Congrcs.-', and more
especially Mr. Cobb, who represonti.'d Mr. Crawford's district in Con;.^'.^s,
and was a confidential and devoted friend of his, and all of whom zealously
supported the resolution of cen:*ure, reported to tiie House of Representa-
tives by tlie Military Committee However, I have not heard the General
say much about Mr. Crawford of late,* I observed ; ' indeed, I may say,
ootliing, since Mr. Adams was ehosi-n President over both of them, by the
House, in 1825 ! Nor do I know what are his feelings now in relation to
those old di.sputes. His mind, of late, has be»'n too much occupieil, I pre-
sume, with matters of higher import than to dwell upon things that have
become obsolete.'

• This is catted the "Treaty of Fort Jackson;" but, more properly spoak-
iug, it was a capitulation ; an act of surrendering to an enemy, upon stipulated
terms or ounditioDS. A sufficient quantity of tlieir land was demanded hy the
goremincDt of tho United States to iudonmify them for tbo oxpon.ies of the war.
— W. B. L,

318 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

" Colonel Hamilton said that he was Tery desirous that a reconciliation
should be eflfccted, if possible, between them, and asked mo if I would be
willinj^ to speak to the Gk?neral upon the subject. He intended, he said, in
returnini( to New York, to pas3 through the Southern States^ and expected
to see Mr. Crawford, and nothing would give him more pleasure than to
be the medium of a reconciliation between them. I told him if he desLretl
it I would, with great pleasure, speak to the General upon the subject, and
let him know what he thought of iL I accordingly sought an opportunity
of having a conversation with the Gheneral in relation to the matter. After
informing him what Colonel Hamilton had said, and the strong desire he
felt that a reconciliation should take place between him and Mr. Craw-
ford, he remarked to me that formerly his feelings toward Mr. Crawford
had bf^cn pretty bittor, and he thought he had sufficient grounds for them,
but the causes which gave birth to them had all passed away, and tliat he
had no longer any such feelings.

*' ' Mr. Crawford,' he added, ^ is truly an unfortunate man, and is more
des<»rving sympathy than the enmity of any one, and especially on account
of his physical prostration.'

" ^ Am I at liberty, then,' I asked, * to say to Colonel Hamilton that
you are willing that every thing heretofore of an unpleasiint nature shall
be buried in oblivion ?'

" ' Perfect Iv so,' was his answer.

" I relate<l this to the Colonel, who was exceedingly gratified at it
and said he had no doubt it would be cordially responded to by Mr.
Crawford

'* We were now rapidly approaching the great center of attraction.
Many steamboats had passe<l us crowded with passengers. It looked as
if all the boats that belong(»d to the great father of rivers, and its numerous
tributaries, had .so mana<?ed and re^nilated their affairs as to be at Orleans
on the 8tli of January, and taking with them immense crowds from the
great W<*st and Southwest

" It was now the 7th, and we were but a few miles above Orleans, and
our n«.)b]e boat Pocahontas was rounded to, and we lan<led about an hour
before sunset, where we remained until about eleven o'clock tlie next day.
The weather was clear, warm, and bright, promising a beautiful day for
the celebration of the ever memorable and glorious eighth. But promises
are not always to be relied on, and in this case they were completely
fal:«ified. The following morning was dark and gloomy. In the south was
to be seen a heavy cloud, giving unmistakable indications of an approach-
ing thunder storm, wliich wore realized about nine or ten o'clock, when
the rain commenced falling in torrents, accompanied by thunder and light-
ning. It ditl not last long, however, and was followed by a most mag-
nificent rainbow, which seemed to span the entire city, and was considered

1830.] BREAKS WITH THE VI C E- P R E 8 I D E N' T . 319

by the people a most auspicious omen. I am not ^oing to bore you with
an aoooant of the celebration. If so disposed, I am not competent to do
it justice. It was undoubtedly the most magnificent pageant I ever saw
of the kind J and I Iiave seen many. Besides, it would be out of place
here. Suflice it to say that the General was feasted and caressed by his
friends some five or six days, and he then left for Nashville on board the
Pocahontas, under the command of his true and trusty friend, Capt Barnes.
Before she was permitted to leave the landing, however, sho was literally
crmmmed with all sorts of g(X)d thing.-^ such as winos, brandy, fruits, sweet'
meats, etc, by liis kind and grateful frien<Is, whose city he had saved from
murder, pillage, rapine, and other crimes of a still more revolting charac-
ter, if what was averreil at the time can be relied on as true.

" CoL Hamilton left about tlie same tune, but he, as he said he should
do on our trip down, returned through Georgia, Virginia, etc. The Gen-
eral and his party reached Nashville without the occurrence of a single
accident from tlie time we left home. I heard nothing of CoL Hamilton
from the time we parted in New Orleans.

" Soon after I returned to Nashville I received a letter from Mr. Eaton,
one of our Senators in Congress, informing mo that my daughter, who was
at school in Philadelphia, was quite ill, and had been so for some time.
and added he thouglit I had better come on to see her witliout delay.

« The day after I got his letter, the 3d April, 1828, I left for Phila-
delphia, taking Washington in my route, and on reaching that city, I
learned from Mr. Eaton that he had just got a letter from the lady who
had charge of my daughter, informing him that she was much better.

" This was very gratifying news, and made it unnecessary for mo to
hasten my departure from Washington. Wiiile there I was made ac-
quainted with Mr. Van Buren, it beiug the first time I had ever met with
him. I found the General's friends were all in high spirits, an<l counting
with great certainty upon his being elected. Indetul, I found the same
confidence existing among his friends everywhere, from the time I left
home unt'd I reached the city. After remaining a few (lays, I left for Phila-
delphia, and was happy to liiul, on my arrival, that my daughter's health.
under the skillful treatment of that eminent phy.siciau, Dr. Physic, had been
entirely restored. I did not remain long, however, in that city ; and, as I
was anxious to get back homo, I hurried on to New York, which, never
having visited, I desired to see. The morning atler my arrival there I
called upon Col. Hamilton, and had a long conversation with him in rela-
tion to his trip through the Southern States. Every thing in that ({uarter,
he assured me, looked bright and promising. Our friends, he added, were
confident of carrying every State for the General. I im^uirod of hiui if he
saw Mr. Crawford as he passed through Millivlgoville. He said he ilid
not, unfortunately, in consequeuji* of his beiug out on his circuit holding

320 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

couit, and was not expected to return for a week or two. He regretted
it, but it was impossible for him to wait, and had, therefore, concluded to
mention the subject he desireil to speak to Mr. Crawford about to Gover-
nor Forsyth. He relat^'d to the Governor fully the conversation we had
on board of tlic boat us we passed down the river, and also wliat passed
between the General and myself uynyn the subject of an amicable settle-
ment of the differences which had so long existed between him and Mr.
Crawford, find desired the Governor to communicate it to Mr. Crawford
when he returned to Milledgeville. This he promised to do, and adviK
nie of tlie reply that Mr. Crawford might make to it I inquired of him
if he had heard from the Governor in relation to the matter since. He
said that he hud, and he was greatly surprised at what Mr. Crawford hid
authorized him to say. He (^Ir. Crawford) remarked that he had been
ciiargcd with having proposed, in cabinet council, to liave the General ar-
rested, etc., whicli he siiid was false. No such proposition was ever made
by him ; but tliat ^Ir. Calhoun did propose his arrest and punisliment in
some way, showing on various occasions a hostility to Iiis proceedings in
Ills Seminole oampuigu. Col. Hamilton handed me Governor Forsyth's
letter to read, and I confess I was not less surprisiMl tlian the Colonel
seemed to be, knowing, as I did, the pains Mr. Calhoun had taken to im-
press upon the General's mind that he had stood firmly by him, and sus-
tained him in relation to his proceedings in that celebrated campaign. In
January, 1819, I received information from Washington which induced
me to doubt the sincerity of Air. Calhoun's friendship for the General, and
80 iftated in a communication I sent to the Philadtiphia Aurora : but on
receiving u letter from General Jackson, assuring me he had no doubt of
the sincerity of his friendship, and requesting me to liave the statement
alluded to above contradicted, I had, from that time until I saw Governor
Forsyth's letter, looked upon him as a sincere friend of the General I do
not recollect the exact words of Mr. Crawlbrd, as reported by Governor
Forsyth, but what is stated above is substantially correct.

" I did not remain long in New York, and on returning home, I pro-
posed to avail myself of the opportunity of running up the Hudson to
Albany, and thence along the entire line of New York's great and magnifi-
cent canal, which had not then been long finished. I found tlie route
rather tedious and uncomfortable, but the opportunity it aflbnled me of
seeing such a work and the fine country through which it ran, was a suf-
ficient coiiii)ensntion for the want of comfort I got back to Nashville
about tlie 1st of June, fully convinced that the coalition of Adams and Clay
was doomed to experience a most humiliating defeat at the approaching
election, and I sought an early opportunity of so stating to tlie Geneiml.
But I did not think it advisable to say any thing to him about Governor
Foi-sy til's letter to Colonel Hamilton, from an apprehension that it might

1830.] BREAKS WITH THR VICE-PRESIDENT. 321

produce an explosion, as he had been kept under a constant excitement for
the last twelve or eighteen months by the attacks of his CDcmies on him-
self and Mrs. Jackson ; and to be made acquainted with ' this unkindcst
cut of all ' by the hand of one whom he had considered a true friend, I was
aiVaid would be more tlian he could bear ; and as I was not particularly
desirous of witnessing such an exhibition just at that time, I thought it best
not to mention it to him.

" Well, the election took place in November, and, as every intelligent
man in the country, not blinded by passion, or partisan feelings, supposed
would be the case months before it occurred, the General was elected by
an overwhelming majority. That was the verdict which the people ren-
dered upon the charges of bargain, intrigue, and corruption, made against
Adams and Clay, and which has never been revised, though three efforts
have been made without efiect, one in the person of Mr. Adams, and two
in the person of Mr. Clay.

"The General left home in the latter part of January, 1829, for Wash-
ington, and reached that city on the 9th or 10th, I tbink, of February.

" We found the town crowded with strangers even at that early day,
and the number rapidly increased from that time until the inauguration.
Gkeat anxiety was felt by the politicians in relation to the organization of
the new Cabinet Jealousy, distrust, and dissatisfaction soon became man-
ifest to the most casual observer. All wanted a friend in the Cabinet, but
as the number was limited to six, all could not, of course, be gratified. The
fiiends of ^Ir. Calhoun were the most dissatisfied, when it was understood
who were to compose the Cabinet. Although one half the members were
expected to be his friends, still they were not satisfied, because they were
not exactly the friends they wanted in the Cabinet. There was no one
from South Carolina. The General proposed to appoint Mr. Eaton, a per-
gonal friend of hi-? from Tennessee, but the friends of Mr. Callioun made
great efforts to prevent it, and to have either Colonel Haync or General
Hamilton of South Carolina substituted for him. Having failed in this,
nothing daunted, they still kept up their efforts with the hope of being able
to drive him (Eaton) the personal friend of the General out of the Cabi-
net This the President considered very unkind, to say the least of it.
He did not know that Mr. Calhoun encouraged this proceeding on the part
of his friends, still he thought he could have put a stop to it, if so disposed.
The truth is, that many of General Jackson's friends believed that the sup-
port of him by the friends of Mr. Calhoun was, from the fii-st, a secondary
consideration with them. That they were using his popularity and strengtli
with which to break down Adams and Clay ; and then at the close of the
GeneraFs first term, to set him aside (Adams and Clay having been pre-
viously put out of the way), and elevate Mr. Calhoun to the presidency.

VOL. III. — 21

322 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1890.

And reallj, it seems to me, that their conduct after the election would
justify such a conclusion.

"This state of things continued without much change or variation, uih
til the following November. Mr. Monroe, ez-president, had been in Rich-
mond attending a State convention, as one of its delegates^ and alter it
adjourned, on his way home he passed through Washington, and remained
a day or two with the view of seeing his old friends and acquaintances.
While there, as a matter of course, he called to see General Jackson. The
General invited him to dine with him, and, on this occasion he also invited
the members of the cabinet, and Mr. Finch Ringold, Marshal of the District
of Columbia, and a warm, personal, and confidential friend of Mr. Monroe'ei
The dinner party consisted of the President, ex-President Monroe, mem-
bers of the Cabinet, Mr. Ringold, Major Donelson, and myself. Mr. Mon-
roe sat on the right hand of the President, Mr. Eaton on tlie leil^ Mr.
Ringold next to Mr. Eaton, and I sat at the end of the table, having Mr.
Ringold between me and Mr. Eaton. The other members of the Cabinet
sat on the opposite side of the table, the Secretary of State fronting the Pres-
ident, and Major Donelson at the other end of the table fronting me. This
was the exact arrangement with regard to the position of each member of
the party.

" Some short time afler the company was seated, Mr. Ringold remarked
to me that he was glad to see the General and Mr. Monroe together, and
enjoying themselves so well. Mr. Monroe, he said, was a great friend of
his upon the subject of his Seminole campaign, and stood by him witb.
great firmness in opposition to every member of his Cabinet I remarkedl
I always understood Mr. Monroe approved the G^nerars proceedings in
that campaign, and was decidedly his friend ; but I was not aware that be
was the only one of his Cabinet.

" ' Yes, sir,' he said, * lie was the only one.*

" * Well, tlien, if that be so, the General has been laboring under «
very great mistake,' I replied, ' for ho has always been under the impres-
sion that Mr. Calhoun was also decidedly his friend.'

^' Mr. Ringold insisted that he was not Believing that Mr. Ringold
possessed as fully the confidonce of Mr. Monroe as any man in Washing-
ton during his administration, I was desirous of drawing him out fully
upon tliis, at one time, very exciting subject, and therefore continued tbe
tx)nversation.

" ' Well, tlien,' I asked, * what will you do witli Mr. Adams? Do you
not recollect that he wrote a long and very able letter to our minister, jus-
tifying the course of tlie General in that campaign, and vindicating the
government in its approval of all his acts ?'

" * Yes,' he said, ^ I remember it very well It is true, he did write a

1830.J BBBAK8 WITH THE Y I C B-PBB8I DE NT. 323

▼ety able letter to our minister in Madrid ; but^* said he, ' the (General is
under no obligations to him for it, for Mr. Monroe made him do it'

" ' Well, reallj Mr. Ringold, you surprise mo more than ever. With
most of the Gheneral's Tennessee friends, Mr. Adams would have been their
choice for the presidency, had the Gkneral not been a candidate.'

" * Well, sir,' said he, ^ they were under no obligations to Mr. Adams
for writing that letter.'

" And he repeated that Mr. Monroe was the ordy member of his Cabi-
net that was in favor of sustaining the General in every thing he did.
AHer this I spoke to Mr. Eaton, and asked him if he had heard the con-
irenation between Mr. Ringold and myself? He said he had not ; that he
hftd been conversing with the gentleman on the opposite side of the table.
He inquired what we had been talking about I told him that Mr. Ringold
had assured me there was not a single member of Mr. Monroe's Cabinet
"who approved of (General Jackson's course in Florida, when prosecuting
hill Seminole campaign, but Mr. Monroe himself. Mr. Eaton said he must
be mistaken, as both Mr. Adams and Mr. Calhoun were considered very
decided friends of the General in rebtion to his proceedings on that occa-
mo. Mr. Ringold repeated they were not, acfd that Mr. Monroe stood
alone upon that subject in his Cabinet Here the conversation ended.

^ Ailer dinner was over the company retired to the parlor, but did not
remain long before they all left, with the exception of Mr. Eaton. The
General rang for a servant, and ordered his pipe to be brought to him, as
was bis usual habit, after the company had withdrawn.

*^His pipe was brought, and he seemed to be in deep meditation
while smoking, and, as I supposed, was paying no attention to the con-
versation between Mr. Eaton and mysel£ He heard me, however, in-
quire of Mr. Eaton if the remarks of Mr. Ringold about the Seminole war
and Mr. Monroe's cabinet did not surprise him ; and, starting up from his
apparent reverie, demanded to know what wo were talking about Mr.
Eaton repeated to him what Mr. Ringold had said at the dinner-table, in
relation to the Seminole campaign, and the opposition of Mr. Monroe's
entire cabinet to the General's course. He seemed, however, to be in-
credulous, and remarked that Mr. Ringold must be mistaken.
'* I replied, ' I am not sure of that'
" * Why are you not ?' inquired the General.

" ' Because I have seen a letter, writt<;n eighteen months ago, in which
Mr. Crawford is represented as saying tliat you charged him with having
taken strong ground against you in Mr. Monroe's cabinet, but in that you
bad done him injustice, for it was not he, but Mr. Calhoun, who was in
favor of your being arrested, or punished in some other way.'
" ' You saw such a letter as Viat V he inquired.
*^ Yes, I told him I had, and read it too.

324 LIFE OF ANDREW JA0K80N. [1830.

" * Where is that letter ?'

" ' In New York/ I replied.

" * In whose bands, and by whom written ?*

" * It is in the hands of Col. Hamilton, and written by Gk>veraor Foi^
syth, of Georgia/ I answered.

** ' Then,' said he, * I want to sec it, and you must go to New York to-
morrow.'

" * Very well ; if you desire it, I have not the least objection.'

"In the mommg, the General still insisting on my going to New
York, I lefl in the early stage, and reached that city in the eTening of
the second day.

" Allcr supper, I called upon Col. Hamilton, and informed him of the
object of my visit to him. He said, as regarded himself, he would have
no objection to send Goveraor Forsyth's letter to the General, but he
thought it would be more respectful to the Governor to see him first and
ask his consent He remarked that Congress would meet in a few day%
and as the Governor had just been elected to the United States Senate, he
would soon be in Washington, and ^I will meet him there and speak to
him on tlie subject'

" * If that arrangement will be satisfactory to the General,* he said, * I
would prefer it ; but if he should not be willing to wait until then, write
me, and I will come to Washington, and bring the letter with me.'

" I told him, as the proposition was a reasonable one, I thought the
General would be perfectly willing to wait until the GK>vemor got to
Washington. On my return, I saw the General, and related to him the
arrangements the Colonel and myself had made, and he expressed himself
entirely satisfied with it The meeting of Congress, which took place a
few days after, brought Governor Forsyth and CoL Hamilton together, as
was expected; and, on talking over the matter, the Governor said be
would prefer that Mr. Crawford should bo written to upon tlie subject
that he might speak for himself over his own signature, which, no doubt,
he would do without the least hesitation. He preferred that course, he
added, because his remarks to him, as stated in his letter to CoL Hamil-
ton, possibly might not be altogether correct With Uiis understanding
they came to my olTice, and informed me of the course it was thought
most advisable to take.

" I agreed with them entirely, and told Col. Hamilton I had no doubt
the General himself would prefer tliat Mr. Crawford sliould be written to,
and his statement obtained over his own signature. Ho then proposed
tliat we should go and see the President, and inform him of the proposed
arrangement We started immediately for the President's house, but tlie
Grovernor, according to my recollection, did not accompany us, alleging
that it was necessary for him to return to the Capitol.

1830.] BBBAK8 WITH THE YI 0 B- P BESIDE NT. 325

" CoL Hamilton, however, informed the Gkneral what it was proposed
to do, and if it met his approbation, Gk>vemor Forsjth would immediately
write to Mr. Crawford upon the subject The General said all he wanted
was Mr. Crawford's statement, and if it was proposed to have it in his
own hand-writing, so much the better. Gk>vemor Forsyth accordingly
wrote to Mr. Crawford, and in due time a letter was received from him
confirming what had been stated in the letter to Col Hamilton, with a few
explanations and modifications. The General was then furnished with a
copy of it, which he inclosed in a letter to Mr. Calhoun, dated May 13,
1830, which was the commencement of the celebrated correspondence
between those distinguished men that led to an open rupture and final
oeparation.

" Mr. Calhoun, in his correspondence with the General, says, ' I should
be blind not to see that this whole affair is a political maneuver, in which
the design is that you should be the instrument and myself the victim, but
ia which the real actors are carefully concealed by an artful movement'
Again he says, ^ Your character is of too high and generous a cast to re-
port to Buch means, eitlier for your own advantage or that of others. This
the eontrivera of the plot well knew,* etc. Who the contrivers, plotters,
«nd actors in these political designs against him were, can only be con-
jectured, as he does not name them. If he intended to include me as one
of them, I know he labored imder a great mistake ; and I think he is
equally mistaken with regard to others who, probably, are alluded to.
Indeed, I think he was mistaken in supposing that there was any plot at
•0, of any kind, got up for the purpose of making apolitical victim of him.
The Crawford developments which led to the correspondence between the
General and himself originated, undoubtedly, in the conversation between
CoL Hamilton and myself^ on board the steamboat, on our way to New
Orleans, in relation to a reconciliation between the General and Mr. Craw-
ford. In that conversation not one word was said about Mr. Calhoun or
Mr. Van Buren, who, no doubt, was one of the persons to whom Mr.
Calhoun aUudes in the extracts I have quoted above. In proposing a re-
conciliation, Col. Hamilton seemed to be actuated alone by a desire to
place the vote of Qtjorgia for the Qtjneral beyond the possibility of a doubt
If he had any other motive or desire, he did not disclose it to me. How-
ever, knowing the warmtli of the Colonel's friendship for Mr. Crawford,
I thought it possible he might have another object in view, but of a very
different character from wliat Mr. Calhoun supposed. Mr. Crawford was
Mid to be a man of very slender means, and I thought it possible Colonel
Hamilton desired that he and the General sliould be on good terms, with
the hope, in case the General should be elected, of having him provided
for under the federal government with a situation that would be more
acceptable than the small ofi&ce he at that time held under the State of

326 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

Georgia. But this is mere conjecture on my part, for Colonel Hamilton
did not make the slightest intimation of the kind in his conversation
with me.

** With regard to Governor Forsyth's letter to Colonel Hamilton, I have
no recollection of having ever spoken of it to any one, and probably should
not have done so, if it had not been for the remarks of Mr. Ringold at the
President's dinner-table. The whole affair was, as I verily believe, the
result of accident.

'^ It has been said, I know, that Mr. Van Buren was instrumental,
indeed the principal agent, in getting up this quarrel ; but^ so far as
my knowledge extends, I am bound, in justice to him, to say, that I
think there is not the slightest grounds for such an imputation. When
the General received Mr. Calhoi^n's long letter of the 29th May, 1830, in
answer to his of the 13th of that month, inclosing a copy of Mr. Craw-
ford's, it was on a Sunday morning, and just as he was about to step into
his carriage to go to church. On ascertaining it was from Mr. Calhoun,
he came up to my room and requested me to look over it in his absence,
and note such portions of it as would require his particular attention. On
his return he inquired if I had read it

" * I have,* I repUed.

" ^ Have you made any notes ?*

^' ^ I have made no notes, G^enera1, for the reason that I think it is ne-
cessary you should read the whole letter before you make any reply to
it'

" I then handed it to lum, and he retired to his own room to read it ;
but he had time to read a small portion of it only before dinner was an-
nounced. When he came down he appeared to be excited, but said no-
thing, and as soon as dinner was over he returned to his own room and
finished reading it After having got through with the letter he sent for me,
and, I must say, I never saw him more excited under any circumstances
in my life than he was on this occasion. He said he had never been so
much deceived in any man as he had been in Mr. Calhoun — a man for
whom he had the warmest friendship, and in whom he had reposed the
most unbounded confidence.

" ' In this letter (holding Mr. Calhoun's letter in his hand) he has ac-
knowledged every thing with which he is charged by Mr. Crawford, and
which is in direct contradiction of all his previous assurances made to me
in relation to the Seminole campaign.'

" Pausing for a moment, and seeming to suppress his feelings, he handed
me the letter, and requested me to take it to Mr. Yan Buren and ask him
to read it, and let him know what he (Mr. Van Buren) thought of it I
stepped over with it to Mr. Yan Buren's, and directed the servant at the
door to say to him I wished to see him in his office for a few moments.

1830.] BBEAK8 WITH THB VICE-PRESIDENT. 327

When he came down I remarked that the Gkneral had received a letter
thai morping from Mr. Calhoun, in reply to his of the. 13th, and had di-
rooted me to hand it to him, with the request that ' you will read it and
let him know what you think of it' He took the letter out of my hand,
opened it, and commenced reading ; but when he got to the bottom of the
fixBt page, he stopped and very deliberately folded it up again, and said :
'' ' Major, I prefer not to read Mr. Calhoun's letter, for I see it is to end
in open rupture between him and the General, and I have no doubt but
attempt will be made to hold me responsible for it Under these dr-
imstances it may become necessary for me to make a public statement,
as I have have had nothing whatever to do with it^ in fact know no-
rthing about it^ I want to have it in my power to say so with a clear con-

" He then handed the letter back to me, and begged that I would ex-
'plain to the General his reason for not reading it When I returned to
the President, he inquired if I had seen Mr. Yan Buren. I told him I
bad.

" ' What does he think of Mr. Calhoun's letter ?'

'^ ' Mr. Yan Buren thinks it is best for him that he should not read it,'
'^Xkd I gave him his reasons for declining to do so. He smiled, and re-
marked,

" * I reckon Yan is right I dare say they will attempt to throw the
whole blame upon him.'

" He requested me to band him the letter, and said * its receipt must
be acknowledged this evening, as Mr. Calhoun will leave in the Richmond
boat to-nigbt, or very early in the morning, and I want him to receive my
reply before he gets off.' He then stepped into his office, acknowledged,
in a short note, his letter of the day before, asked me to copy it^ which
beiiig done, he dispatched his messenger with it immediately.

** It has been frequently stated that this quarrel had its origin in the
Eaton affair. This is a mistake. That the latter was the occasion of much
excitement, as well as great bitterness of feeling, there is no doubt, but of
Utdf it would not have caused a separation between tlie General and Mr.
CalhouD. It is also true that nearly all those who exerted themselves, yirs^
to prevent Mr. Eaton^s appointment as a member of the Cabinet, and af-
terward, having failed in that, to drive him out of it, were the friends of
Mr. Calhoun. The General, however, did not seem disposed to hold him
accountable for the acts of his friends, though he did think he could have
controlled them if he had been so disposed ; yet, according to Mr. Calhoun's
own k>gic, the General would have been justified in doing so. In his long
letter to him (May 29, 1830), speaking of the course of Mr. Crawford's
friends in both houses of Congress, upon the subject of the Seminole cam-
paign, he says, * IFAy, ihen^ did he (Mr. Crawford) not interpote with hi$

323 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [lO^v.

friends on the Committee to do you justieeT If it were the dutj of Mr.
Crawford, the sworn enemy, at that time, of the General, to interfere with
his friends to do him justicei how much more so was it the duty of Mr.
Calhoun, liis avowed friend, to interfere witli his friends, who were trjiDg
to break up his Cabinet at tlie very commencement of his administration 1

" You must have a pretty correct idea of the extent of tliose efforts,
as I showed you, when here, a manuscript book containing the correspond-
ence between the General and the Rev. Dr. Ely, and others, having reference
to tlie same subject. In order to put a stop to such impertinent interference
with liis public duties, he wrote down on a blank piece of paper, several
days before his inauguration, the names of thosif he intended to bring into
his Cabinet, and handed it to n)c, with the request that I would take it
down to the Telegraph office, the Jackson organ, and hand it to General
Green, the editor and proprietor, and say to him, ' I want it published in
the Telegraph of to-morrow morning^ General Green, in looking over
the list, was evidently disconcerted. He remarked to me that he regretted
to see Mr. Eaton's name on it.

" ' Why so,' I asked.

" ' Because,' he said, ' if Mr. Eaton is taken into the Cabinet^ I tliink it
will cause both him and the Gt^neral a great deal of trouble, which I should
exceedin<,My regret.'

** As Gtjneral Green was a devoted friend of Mr. Calhoun, and perfectly
conversant witli the feelings and views of his friends generally, I tliought
the remark presaged no good to the incoming administration. I will do
Gkneral Green, however, the justice to say, that I do not believe he had
the least hostility to Mr. Eaton. On the contrary, I believe he had kind
and friendly ft^elings for hiui at that time at least. I simply remarked, in
reply to his objection to Mr. Eaton's being brought into the Cabinet, Uiat
the General had made up his mind on that subject, and I did not tliink it
could be now changed. The names of the gentlemen who were to com-
pose the new Cabinet were published in the Tdegraph the next morning.

**But did this put an end to annoyance to the President upon that sub-
ject ? Not at all 1 On tlie following evening he received a call from Colo-
nel Towhon, a gallant and distinguished military officer, and at that time
the Paymaster-General of the United States army. The parlor, as usual,
was crowded, and the Colonel finding there was no chance of speaking to
the General privately, asked if there was any room in which he could have
a private inteiTiow witli him for a few minutes ?

" * Certainly,' the General said, and invited him to his bed chamber.

" He opened the door and begged the Colonel to walk in, but when
he got to the door, and saw me seated at a table writing, he druw back.

" ' Come in,' tlie General repeated, ' there is no one here but Major
Lewis, and between him and me there are no secrets.'

......

1830.] BBEAK8 WITH THE VIOE-PBESIDENT. 329

" The Colonel then came in, and he and the General seated themselves
near the fire-place. I had no wish to listen to their conversation, but as
the room was small, and they spoke in their usual tone of voice, I could
not help hearing every word they said ; and as the Qeneral did not pro-
pose I should leave the room I continued to write on, as I knew he was
ftDxioiis that the writing upon which I was engaged should be fmished in
time for that night's mail. Afler being seated, the Colonel remarked tliat
he saw published in the Telegraph of that morning ^ a list of the names of
the persons that you propose, General, it is said, to bring into your Cabi-
net'

" * Yes, sir,* he replied, * those gentlemen will compose my Cabinet'

'* ' There is no objection, I believe, personally, to any of them,' said the
Colonel, ' but there is one of them your friends think it would be advisable
to substitute with the name of some other person.'

" * Which of the names do you refer to. Colonel T he inquired.

" * I mean that of Mr. Eaton,' he said.

" ' Mr. Eaton is an old personal friend of mine,' the General remarked.
' He is a man of talents and experience, and one in whom his State, as
well as myself, have every confidence. I con not see, therefore,' he added,
' why there should be any objection to him.'

'''There is none, I believe, personally to him^ the Colonel said, 'but
there are great objections made to his wife.'

" * Anil pray. Colonel, what will his wife have to do witli the duties of
the War Department?' asked the General

" * Not much, perhaps,' said the Colonel, *but she is a person with whom
the ladies of this city do not associate. She is not, and, probably, never
will be received into society here, and if Mr. Eaton shall be made a mem-
ber of the Cabinet, it may become a source of annoyance to both you and
him.'

** * That may possibly be so,' he said, ' but Colonel, do you suppose that
I have been sent here by the people to consult the ladies of Washington
as to the proper persons to compose my Cabinet ? In the si'lection of its
members I shall consult my own judgment, looking to the great and para-
mount interests of the whole country, and not to the accommodation of
the society and drawing-rooms of tliis or any other city. Mr. Eaton will
certainly be one of my constitutional advisers, unless he declines to become
a member of my Cabinet'

" TIm; Colonel, discovering it would be useless to say any thing more
upon the subject, rase, made his bow, and left But he did not ground
his arms at this rebuff of the General. As he could not prevent Mr.
Eaton from getting m, he seemed resolved, at all hazards, to drive him out
of the Cabinet^ and he therefore continued his op]>osition to him until it
assumed the cliaracter of disrespect both to the Secretary of War and the

330 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1830.

President Taking this view of his conduct, the General had made up his
mind to have his name struck from the Army Register, and would un-
doubtedly have done so, if Mr. Eaton had not interposed to prevent it.

" Note. — In relating the conversation which took place in the General's
bed chamber, between him and Colonel Towson, I do not wish to be un-
derstood as intending any disrespect, either to the gallant colonel or the
society of Washington, among whom I had many warm and esteemed
friends when I lived in that city, as well as at tliis time, who would be
ornaments to any society. In the foregoing narrative, I have been desir-
ous of representing every occurrence correctly, and, I believe, in most in-
stances, I have used the very words spoken, and particularly as relates to
General Jackson. " Wm. B. Lewis.

**NASHViLLit, Octob«r 28), 1859.**

To complete our knowledge of this affair, it is necessary
to glance for a moment at the correspondence between the
President and Vice-President.

As soon as General Jackson had obtained the letter from
Mr. Crawford to Governor Forsyth, which declares that it
was Calhoun, not Crawford, who had proposed the arrest or
punishment of General Jackson in 1818, General Jackson
sent that letter to Mr. Calhoun with a brief epistle of his
own.

OSKERAL JAOKBON TO MR. CALHOUN.

" May 18, 183a

"Sir: The frankness, which, I trust, has always characterized me
through life, toward those with whom I have been in the habits of friend-
ship, induces me to lay before you the inclosed copy of a letter from Wil-
liam H. Crawford, Esq., which was placed in my hands on yesterday.
The submission, you will perceive, is authorized by the writer. The state-
ments and facts it presents being so different from what I had heretofore
understood to be correct, requires that it should be brought to your con-
sideration. They are different from your letter to Governor Bibb, of Ala-
bama, 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 letters to me at that time, which breathe through-
out a spirit of approbation and friendship, and 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 Presi-
dent of all the measures you have adopted to terminate the rupture with

1830.] BREAKS WITH THE VICE- T RESIDENT. 331

the Indians.' My object in making this communication is to announce to
joa the great surprise which is felt^ and to learn of jou whether it be pos-
sible that the information given is correct ; whether it can be, under all
the circumstances of which jou and I are both informed, that any attempt
seriouslj to affect me was moved and sustained by you in the cabinet coun-
caly 'vrhen, as is known to you, I was but executing the wishes of the gov-
eminent^ and dothcd with the authority to ^conduct the war in the man-
ner I might judge best.'

" You can, if you please, take a copy: the one inclosed you will please
return to me. I am, sir, very respectfully, your humble servant,

'^Andrew Jackson."

Mr. Calhoun was betrayed by his extreme desire to stand
^well with the President, and to defeat the supposed machin-
ations of his rival, into the weakness of replying to this let-
ter at prodigious length. Instead of taking the proper and
dignified ground of declining to reveal the proceedings of a
cabinet council, he avowed that, in the belief that General
Jackson had transcended his orders in 1818, he did express
that opinion in the cabinet council, and proposed the investi-
gation of General Jackson's conduct by a court of inquiry.
He justified his course, and inveighed against Mr. Crawford
for betraying the secret. He reminded General Jackson that
the approbatory sentence quoted by him in his letter was
written before the news of the seizure of the Spanish ports
and of the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister had
Teached Washington. He adduced many proofs of Craw-
fiyrd's hostility to General Jackson and to himself, and de-
nounced this whole proceeding as a plot to effect his own po-
litical extinction and the exaltation of his enemies. He
declared that his conduct toward General Jackson, from the
beginning of their acquaintance, had been that of a true
friend and faithful public servant. General Jackson's reply
was the following :

GENERAL JACKSOK TO MR. CALHOUK.

» May SOtb, 1830.

"Sib: Yonr communication of the 29th instant was handed me this
norning just as I was going to church, and of course was not read until I
nturned.

332 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

" I regret to find that you have entirely mistaken my note of the 13 th
instant There is no part of it which calls in question either your conduct
or your motives in the case alluded to. Motives are to be inferred from
actions, and judged by our Gk>d. It had been intimated to me many years
ago, that it was you, and not Mr. Crawford, who had been secretly endeav-
oring to destroy my reputation. These insinuations I indignantly repelled,
upon the ground that you, in all your letters to me, professed to be my per-
sonal friend, and approved entirely my conduct in relation to the Seminole
campaign. I had too exalted an opinion of your honor and frankness, to
believe for one moment that you could be capable of such deception.
Under the influence of these friendly feelings (which I always entertained
for you), when I was presented with a copy of Mr. Crawford's letter, with
that frankness which ever has, and I hope ever will, characterize my con-
duct^ I considered it due to you, and the friendly relations which had
always existed between us, to lay it forthwith before you, and ask if the
statements contained in that letter could be true. I repeat, I had a right
to believe that you were my sincere friend, and, until now, never expected
to have occasion to say of you, in tlie language of Caesar, Bi tu Brute f
The evidence which has brought me to this conclusion is abundantly con-
tained in your letter now before me. In your and Mr. Crawford's dispute
I have no interest whatever ; but it may become necessary for me here-
after, 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 of this sub-
ject.

" Itis due to myself, however, to state that the knowledge of the ex-
ecutive documents and orders in my possession will show conclusively
that I had authority for all I did, and that your explanation of my powers,
as declared to (Governor Bibb, shows your own understanding of theuL
Your letter to me of the 29th, handed to-day, and now before me, is the
first intimation to me that you ever entertained any opinion or view of
them. Your conduct, words, actions, and letters, I have ever thought,
show this. Understanding you now, no further communication with you
on this subject is necessary. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your
obedient servant, Andrew Jackson."

Mr. Calhoun persisted in continuing the correspondence.
He added, however, nothing of importance to what he had
stated in his first communication, and General Jackson again
declared that he desired to hear no more upon the subject.
He gave Mr. Calhoun plainly to understand that friendly re-
lations between them were for ever out of the question.

1830.] THE ^^globe" established. 333

In reviewing this affair, at once so trivial and so impor-
tant, I find no evidence whatever that Mr. Calhoun was
guilty of duplicity toward General Jackson. Not only was
he not bound to communicate to General Jackson the trans-
actions of the Cabinet council, but he was bound not to re-
veal them. Nor does it appear that he ever professed, pul)-
licly or privately, to General Jackson or to any one else, that
he approved all of the General's proceedings in Florida. Nor
'was it any just cause of reproach that he did not approve
those proc^ings. He admitted and l)elieved that General
Jackson's motives had been patriotic, and if he disapproved
some of his acts, the General had no right to make that dis-
approval a ground of offense. Mr. Calhoun's only fault in
this business was in his deigning to make any reply to the
Gheneral's first letter, except civilly to decline giving the in-
formation sought. He should have taken high ground at first,
and kept it. He should have disdained to fight Mr. Crawford
with his own weapons, and not followed his bad example of
revealing Cabinet secrets. If he had done so. General Jack-
son might have hated him, but could never have despised
him. A manly defiance General Jackson liked next to com-
plete submission.

The truth is, that before this affair began, the President
was, in his heart, totally estranged from Mr. Calhoun, and
wonld have been glad of any pretext for breaking with him.

CHAPTEll XXVI.

THE **GL0BE" established.

The feud between the President and the Vice-President,
which was not known to the public for nearly a year after
their correspondence closed, began to produce serious effects
almost immediately. Among those who most lamented the
estrangement, and had most reason to lament it, was General

334 LIFE OF ANDBBW JACKSON. [1830.

Duff Green, editor of the United States Telegraphy and
printer to Congress. " We endeavored," he said afterward,
in his paper, ^' to postpone the crisis by direct appeals to the
President and to Mr. Calhoun, We refused to read the cor-
respondence between them, because we had hoped, although
almost against hope, even up to the last moment, that the
eyes of the President would be opened, and that a reconcilia-
tion would take place. When the question came in this shape
there was less difficulty. It was not a desertion of our friends
or of our principles. We were compelled to choose, and we
took the weaker side ; not because we preferred Mr. Calhoun,
but because his was the side of truth and honor."

There is reason to believe that the inner circle of Jack-
sonians were, in some degree, dissatisfied with the organ
of the administration before the quarrel between General
Jackson and Mr. Calhoun occurred. The destruction of the
Bank of the United States being one of their fixed and most
cherished purposes, they must have desired an organ that
could be relied upon to aid them in the long contest which
they saw impending. Mr. Kendall, in fact, in one of his let-
ters to Duff Green, in 1830, held this language : " Had I
been rejected by the Senate, I should at once have started a
newspaper in Washington. It appeared to be the readiest
way by which I could provide the means of comfort for a des-
titute family, and vindicate the principles of equal rights,
violated in the proscription of printers as a class. Besides, I
had some ambition to promote, at this point, the great cause
of reform."

Mr. Kendall, however, was not rejected by the Senate,
and the Telegraph remained the sole organ of the party at
the seat of government.

Soon after the difference between the first officers of the
government was known by their friends to be irreconcilable,
the Telegraph began, gradually and cautiously, to change its
tone. For a considerable time General Jackson would not
perceive the change, for be was attached to the paper and to
its editor, and had many agreeable recollections connected

1830.] THE "globe" established. 335

with both. The Telegraph had supported him, both before
and after his election, with that daring unscrupulousness
vrhich was congenial with the feelings of this man of war.
Mr. Kendall, however, and Major Lewis saw the coming de-
fection of General Green very plainly, and advised the Presi-
dent to provide in time for the establishment of another
oi^gan.

" No," said the General, " you are mistaken. Give Duff
time. He will come out right after a little reflection."

Major Lewis felt so confident of the correctness of his sur-
mises that he wrote confidentially, and without consulting
the President, to Mr. Gooch, of the Richmond Inquirer^
asking him if he would come to Washington and establish an
organ, in case the President should, at any future time, de-
sire it. Mr. Gooch declined. Mr. Kendall had his eye upon
another gentleman, his old friend and voluntary contributor,
Francis P. Blair, of Kentucky.

Col. Benton, in his " Thirty Years' View," gives a strik-
ing, but not quite correct account of the manner in which the
President procured the services of Mr. Blair. " In the sum-
mer of 1830," says Col. Benton, " a gentleman in one of the
public offices showed the President a paper, the Frankfort
(Kentucky) Argua^ containing a powerful and spirited review
of a certain nullification speech in Congress. He inquired
for the author, ascertained him to be Mr. Francis P. Blair —
not the editor, but an occasional contributor to the Argus —
and had him written to on the subject of taking charge of a
paper in Washington. The application took Mr. Blair by
surprise. He was not thinking of changing his residence and
pursuits. He was well occupied where he was— clerk of the
lucrative office of the State Circuit Court at the capital of
the State, salaried president of the Commonwealth Bank
(by the election of the legislature), and proprietor of a farm
and slaves in that rich State."

It is true that General Jackson was struck with the
article referred to by Col. Benton ; but it was only after
much subsequent persuasion and repeated proofs of Duff

336 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

Green's defection that the President gave a reluctant consent
that Mr. Blair should be suminoned to the rescue. Nor was
Mr. Blair in the pleasant pecuniary circumstances detailed
by Col. Benton. He was a man of broken fortune, forty
thousand dollars in debt, living upon the slender emolu-
ments of his two offices. It is surprising that the author of
the "Thirty Years' View" should have been unacquainted
with facts which Mr. Blair often amuses his friends by
relating.

If the country had been searched for the express purpose
of selecting the man best fitted for the editorship of the pro-
posed organ, no one could have been found whose history,
opinions, antipathies, and cast of character so adapted him for
the post as Francis P. Blair, of Kentucky. Descended from the
Scotch family of whom the famous Hugh Blair was a mem-
ber, bom in Virginia, reared and educated in Kentucky, he
had been from his youth up an ardent but disinterested poli-
tician. For ten years he had taken part in the discussion of
the question whether the branches of the bank of the United
States were, or were not, subject to State taxation, a question
that was nowhere argued with such heat and pertinacity as
in Kentucky. Mr. Blair was f^inst the bank. The ten
years' agitation had made him acquainted with all the vul-
nerable points of the institution, and familiar with the weap-
ons of attack. He was among the most decided opponents
of the bank in the Union. Another of his special antipathies
was nullification ; and yet another was John Quincy Adams
and the high federalism of his message. Master of an easy
and vigorous style, which could become slashing and fierce
upon occasion, his whole training as a writer and a politician
had been belligerent. He was only a warrior upon paper,
however. In person slender and unimposing, in demeanor
retiring and quiet, in character amiable, affectionate, and
grateful, the man and the editor were two beings as dissimilar
as can be imagined. Jackson men who called at the office
of the Globe, expecting to find the thunderer of their party
a man of Kentuckian proportions, with pistols peeping from

1830.] THE ^' globe" established. 337

his breast-pocket, and a bowie-knife stiffening his back, were
amazed upon being told that the little man sitting in a cor-
ner, writing on his knee, was the great editor they had come
to get a sight of.

The summons to Washington, though unexpected, Mr.
Blair obeyed without hesitation and without delay. He
reached the capital in sorry plight ; almost penniless, with a
single presentable coat, and that a frock-coat ; with n great
gash in the side of his head from an overset near Washing-
ton. When he entered the President's office. Major Lewis
could hardly conceal his disappointment. For weeks, Mr.
Blair had been the coming man to all the habitues of that
apartment. Whenever General Duff had ventured to come
out a little bolder than usual against the administration or
ita friends, they had said to one another, in effect, ^^ Never
mind. Wait till Blair comes. He will talk to him." And
ihia was he — this little man attired in frock-coat and court-
plaster I Said Major Lewis, with a sly glance at the black
patch, ^^ Mr. Blair, we want stout hearts and sound heads
here."

The General took to him at once, and he to the General.
At the very first interview, the President revealed to him the
situation of affiurg without any reserve whatever. The diffi-
calties he had had in his own household, the alleged machin-
ations of the nullifiers, the supposed atrocities of the bank,
the imaginary devices of that arch-devil, Henry Clay, the
cabinet combination against poor Major Eaton — ^all were un-
folded. " There 's my nephew, Donelson," said the General ;
" he seems to be leaning toward the nullifiers. But he 's my
nephew. I raised him. I love him. Let him do what he
will, I love him. I can't help it. Treat him kindly, but if
he wants to write for your paper, you must look out for
him." The President invited Mr. Blair to dinner. When
the hour came, the editor was horrified to find a great com-
pany of ambassadors and other high personages assembled in
the East Boom, all in costume superb. The tails of his un-
comfortable frock coat hung heavily upon the soul of the

VOL. IIL — 22

338 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

strangeF, who shrunk into a comer abashed and miseraUe.
The President, as soon as he entered the room, sought him
out, placed him at the table in the seat of honor at his own
right hand, and completed the conquest of his heart. In
Francis P. Blair, General Jackson gained a lover as well as
a champion.

Like Jonah's gourd, the Globe appeared to spring into ex-
istence in a night — without capital, without a press, without
types, without subscribers, without advertisements. Amos
Kendall made a contract for the printing. Major Lewis, Mr.
Kendall, and all the confidants of the administration exerted
themselves to obtain subscribers. The office-holders were
given to understand that to subscribe for the Globe was the
thing they were expected to do, and the Jackson presses
throughout the country, announced that the Globe was, and
the Telegraph was not, the confidential organ of the admin-
istration. Subscribers came in by hundreds in a day, and the
{jrlobe became a paying enterprise in a few weeks. Partly by
subscription, and partly by papers paid for in advance, a press
and materials were soon purchased. A known friend of the
bank advanced two hundred dollars for this purpose. The
next morning, Mr. Blair, having in the meantime learned the
probable object of this donation, returned the money.

To swell the profits of the Globe office, the President de-
sired to obtain for it the printing of the departments, or, at
least, a share of that profitable business. As some of the
secretaries showed no alacrity to make the transfer desired,
the fertile brain of Major Lewis devised a very simple but
quite effectual expedient for compelling them to do so. He
induced the President to issue an order to each member of
the cabinet, requiring him to present to the President a
quarterly account of the sums paid, and to whom paid, in
his department for printing. Major Lewis drew up the order.
Major Donelson, as usual, copied it. The President signed it
Such an order, in the peculiar posture of affairs at the time,
was equivalent to a command to give the Globe office a shaie
of the department printing ; and the command was obeyed.

880L] 00NQBS8B IN SESSION. 439

n dne tame, came the election of Messrs. Blair and Bives as
ri&ten to Congress, which added fortune to the &me and
ower gLven them by the Globe. Mr. John C. Bives, the
reU4mown partner of Mr. Blair, was a gentleman who added
0 reapectable literary attainments an extraordinary efficiency
A the management of business.

The Telegraph waged an active warfsure against General
'ackson for several years, supporting Henry Clay for the
onendency in 1832, with hopes for Mr. Calhoun in 1836 or
840. The campaign of 1832 gave it a temporary inflation,
rhich the result of that campaign changed into partial ool-
ftpse. The editor still lives in Washington, a prosperous
jentlunan, delighting to tell over, to after-dinner circles, the
toty of his short and turbulent career as Jacksonian oigan.

CHAPTER XXVII^

CONGRESS IN SESSION.

The administration of General Jackson, however dis-
racted by internal broils, whatever motives of a partisan or
lersonal character influenced it, always came before the
fublic with an imposing air of calm dignity and single-eyed
latriotism. No one could ever suppose, from its public
lapera, that, from the beginning to the end of its existence,
t scarcely knew a month of internal peace and real coopera-
ivB harmony.

Congress met again on the 6th of December, and on the
ay following Major Donelson was at the Capitol with the
nessage, one of the most carefully elaborated documents ever
nnesented to Congress.

It opened with jubilation. Plenty and peace had crowned
he year. ^^ With a population unparalleled in its increase,
ind possessing a character which combines the hardihood of

340 LIFE OP ANDREW JACKSON. [1830.

enterprise with the considemteness of wisdom," every where
was seen a steady improvement. A glowing paragraph ex-
pressed the congratulations of the nation upon the success of
the late revolution in France, which had enabled Lafayette
to place upon the throne the prince Louis Philippe, a man
who, the President hoped, would deserve the proud appella-
tion of Patriot Kino. The recent diplomatic triumph of
Mr. McLane, which placed our trade with the West Indies
on its present footing, after six previous negotiations had re-
sulted in failure, was explained, and the negotiators on both
sides duly complimented, Mr. McLane being mentioned by
name. The Sultan had opened to us the Black Sea, and
placed our commerce, in all respects, on the footing of the
most favored nations. With Mexico, Russia, France, Spain,
Portugal, negotiations were pending with every prospect of
issues advantageous to the United States. Denmark had at
length appropriated the sum of six hundred and fifty thous-
and dollars, the whole amount claimed, to indemnify Ameri-
can merchants for the spoliations of 1808 to 1811, and it
now only remained for Congress to effect a just distribution
of the money among the claimants.

These administrative triumphs having been detailed, the
authors of the message grappled with the serious business of
the occasion, which was to defend the course of the President
in his veto of the Maysville road, and in his withholding his
assent from the light-house bill, and the bill authorizing a
subscription to the Louisville and Portland Canal Com-
pany, both of which had been passed at the close of the last
session of Congress. That the expense of constructing light-
houses properly devolved upon the general government, the
President did not doubt ; but there were some features of the
light-house bill in question of which he could not approve.
To the number of light-house keepers, already very large, the
bill proposed to add the extraordinary number of fifty-one.
The expenditures of the government for the protection of
commerce were immense, and, as he had been led to conclude,
unreasonable, and he looked rather to their diminution than

1830.] C0NUBB8S IN SESSION. 341

their increase. Moreover, the present bill contained the en-
tirely fatal objection of authorizing certain surveys which
were clearly of a local character, and designed for the promo-
tion of local interests.

With regard to the bill proposing a subscription of the
public money to the stock of a private company, he was
utterly and for ever opposed to that mode of assisting public
works. He thought it unconstitutional, impolitic, injurious,
and demoralizing. With his consent it should never be
done.

The message proceeded to vindicate the Maysville veto,
the use of the veto power generally, and the proposed appor-
tionment of the surplus revenue among the States. Amid
all the clamor and controversy to which his measures had
given rise, the President said he had been consoled by the
reflection that if he had really mistaken the interests and
wishes of the people, an opportunity would soon be aflforded
them of placing in the presidential chair one who would in-
terpret their desires more correctly. Meanwhile, the money
saved by the vetos would be rigidly applied to the extinguish-
ment of the public debt.

The President repeated his recommendations for the re-
moval of " all intermediate agency" in the election of the
chief magistrate, and for limiting his period of service to one
term.

He artfully defended the policy of removing the Indians,
denying that the removal was either unjust or inhuman.
" Doubtless," he remarked, " it will be painful to leave the
graves of their fathers ; but what do they more than our an-
cestors did, or than our children arc now doing? To better
their condition in an unknown land, our forefathers left all
that was dear in earthly objects. Our children, by thousands,
yearly leave the land of their birth, to seek new homes in
distant r^ions."

The tariff was a topic, of course, and it was touched with
an uncertain hand, of course. The people were implored
not to regard the tariff as a sectional matter, and to ap-

342 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1890.

proach it in a spirit of conciliation. The revenue of the year
had been $24,161,018 ; the expenditures, exclusive of the
public debt, $13,742,311 ; the payment on account of the
public debt had been $11,354,630 ; balance in the treasury,
$4,819,781.

The mess^e concluded with a second and louder warning
to the United States bank. " Nothing has occurred," said
the President, " to lessen, in any degree, the dangers which
many of our citizens apprehend from that institution, as at
present organized. In the spirit of improvement and com-
promise which distinguishes our country and its institutions,
it becomes us to inquire, whether it be not possible to secure
the advantages afforded by the present bank, through the
agency of a bank of the United States, so modified in its
principles and structure as to obviate constitutional and
other objections. It is thought practicable to organize such
a bank, with the necessary officers, as a branch of the Treas-
ury Department, based on the public and individual deposits,
without power to make loans or purchase property, which
shall remit the funds of the government, and the expense of
which may be paid, if thought advisable, by allowing its
officers to sell bills of exchange to private individuals at a
moderate premium. Not being a corporate body, having no
stockholders, debtors, or property, and but few officers, it
would not be obnoxious to the constitutional objections which
are urged against the present bank ; and having no means to
operate on the hopes, fears, or interests of large masses of the
community, it would be shorn of the influence which makes
that bank formidable.''

This message was one of the longest ever presented to
Congress. The care and elaboration of the argumentative
portions of it show how deeply its leading topics were agitat-
ing the public mind, and how resolutely the administra-
tion was marching toward the objects it had prescribed to
itself

One event only of this session of Congress need detain vb
— Colonel Benton's first formal attack upon the Bank of the

1831.] CONGRESS IN SESSION. 343

•

United States. "The current/' says the author of the
" Thirty Tears' View," " was all setting one way. I deter-
mined to raise a voice against it in the Senate, and made sev-
eral eflforts before I succeeded — the thick array of the Bank
friends throwing every obstacle in my way, and even friends
holding me back for the regular course, which was to wait
until the appb'cation for the renewed charter should be pre-
sented ; and then to oppose it. I foresaw that, if this course
was followed, the Bank would triumph without a contest —
that she would wait until a majority was installed in both
Houses of Congress— then present her appUcation— hear a few
barren speeches in opposition ; — and then gallop the renewed
charter through."

The speech of Mr. Benton, on this occasion, was one of
the ablest and most effective of his whole senatorial career of
thirty years. It emptied the Senate chamber, but it roused
the people. We shall have, in a future page, to give the sub-
stance of his arguments against the Bank, and, therefore, pass
over this truly Bentonian fulmination.

" This speech," continues Colonel Benton, " was not an-
swered. Confident in its strength, and insolent in its nature,
the great moneyed power had adopted a system in which she
persevered until hard knocks drove her out of it : it was to
have an anti-Bank speech treated with the contempt of si-
lence in the House, and caricatured and belittled in the news-
papers ; and according to this system my speech was treated.
The instant it was delivered, Mr. Webster called for the vote,
and to be taken by yeas and nays, which was done ; and re-
sulted differently from what was expected — a strong vote
against the Bank — twenty to twenty-three ; enough to excite
uneasiness, but not enough to pass the resolution and Inti-
mate a debate on the subject. The debate stopped with the
single speech ; but it was a speech to be read by the people —
the masses — the inillions ; and was conceived and delivered
for that purpose ; and was read by them ; and has been com-
plimented since as having crippled the Bank, and given it the
wound of which it afterward died ; but not within the year

344 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1831.

and a day which would make the slayer responsible for the
homicide. The list of yeas and nays was also favorable to the
effect of the speech. Though not a party vote, it was suffi-
ciently so to show how it stood — the mass of the democracy
against the Bank — the mass of the anti-democrats for it."

This being the " short session/' Congress adjourned on
the third of March, when the Twenty-first Congress ceased
to exist.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET.

Toward the close of this brief and uneventful session of
Congress, Mr. Calhoun published his " Book," as it was sneer-
ingly called at the time ; a pamphlet of fifty pages octavo,
containing his late coirespondence with the President, and
a mass of letters, statements, and certificates illustrative
thereof. In a prefatory atldress to the people of the United
States, Mr. Calhoun explained his reasons for making a pub-
lication so unusual and unexpected.

" Previous to my arrival at Washington" (in December,
1830), said he, " I had confined the knowledge of the exist-
ence of the correspondence to a few confidential friends, who
were politically attached both to General Jackson and my-
self ; not that I had any thing to apprehend from its disclo-
sure, but because I was unwilling to increase the existing ex-
citement in the present highly critical state of our pubUo
affairs. But when I arrived here, late in December, I found
my caution had been of no avail, and that the correspondence
was a subject of conversation in every circle, and soon became
a topic of free comment in most of the public journals. The
accounts of the affair, as is usually the case on such occa-
sions, were, for the most part, grossly distorted, and were, in
many instances, highly injurious to my character. Still I

.831.] DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET. 345

leemed it my duty to take no hasty step, being determined
0 afford time for justice to be done me without appeal to
'ou ; and, if it should be, to remain silent, as my only ob-
ject was the vindication of my conduct and character. Be-
ieving that further delay would be useless, I can sec no adc-
[uate motive to postpone, any longer, the submission of all
he facts of the case to your deliberate and final decision."

The i)amphlet was discussed in a strictly partisjin i^pirit ;
U the Jackson papers condemning it, all the op])osition pa-
lers applauding it. A few weeks after its appearance, the
few York Courier and Enquirer gave extracts from nearly
wo hundred democratic papers, vindicating the President
nd condemning the course of Mr. Calhoun. " Every repub-
ican paper in the Middle and Northern States," said the
7ottrtcr, " friendly to Andrew Jackson's reelection, has un-
quivocally condemned the publication made by Mr. Calhoun
f his attack on the President. In the South, out of South
/arolina, it is nearly the same ; and even in South Carolina,
strong party is forming against him, and in favor of Jack-

on.

" Mr. Calhoun's attack on the President !" " Condemns
inequivocally Mr. Calhoim and the nullifiers !" Artful con-
unction ! Were the politicians far astray when they said,
hat "General Jackson's popularity could stimd any thing?"

The President's retort was prompt, adroit, audacious, and
verwhelming. By a series of skillful movements, he shelved
he three members of his cabinet — Messrs. Ingham, Branch,
nd Berrien — who were Mr. Calhoun's friends and j)olitical
Hies. This was done about a month after the adjournment
f Congress, and the moment was admirably chosen. It was
)ng enough after the publication of Mr. Calhoun's pamphlet
)r it to have been well ridiculed in the administration pa-
ers, and to have ceased to be an exciting topic. It was in
he lull preceding the excitement of the coniing presidential
lection. It was nine months before there could be any
rouble with the Senate respecting confirmations. Indeed,
re may truly say of this disruption of the cabinet in 1831.

346 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1831.

that of all known political management it was the consum-
mate stroke. Jacksonian boldness united with Van Buren
tact could alone have achieved it.

A dissolution of the cabinet was the expedient hit upon.
Mr. Van Buren and Major Eaton were to resign and to bo
provided for. Mr. Barry, the Postmaster-General, should re-
tain his place awhile. The obnoxious Three were expected
to take a hint and leave ; if not, the President was prepared
to ask their resignations. Go they should.

Every thing was considered, and, as far as possible, pro-
vided for before the first step was taken. Mr. Edward
Livingston, Senator from Louisiana, was notified of coming
events, and offered the post of Secretary of State, which he
agreed to accept. He had recently paid off, principal and in-
terest, the sum due from him to the government, on account
of the misconduct of his clerks in 1803. Thus, a possible
objection to his appointment was removed. Mr. Louis Mc-
Lane, Minister to England, was recalled ; which provided a
place for Mr. Van Buren and a new Secretary of the Treasury
for General Jackson. Judge Hugh L. White, Senator from
Tennessee, was the gentleman designed to fill the place about
to be vacated by Major Eaton. If Judge White accepted,
of which there was then no doubt, there would be a vacant
seat in the Senate for Major Eaton, to which, it was thought,
he could be appointed. Mr. Levi Woodbury was ready to
take the place of Secretary of the Navy.

By the bold and artful measures contemplated a great
many desirable objects were expected to be gained. A united
cabinet, devoted to General Jackson and to the furtherance
of his schemes, was one object. The removal of Mr. Van
Buren from the scene of strife to a safe and commanding po-
sition abroad was thought to be a proceeding well calculated
to promote his interests. Moreover, the President had made
known to many persons, at the beginning of his administra-
tion, his resolve that no member of his cabinet should be his
successor. A minor object was, to retrieve the unhappy

1831.] DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET. 347

Eaton from his painfully embarrassing situation, and restore
him to the place he preferred, a seat in the Senate.

The following is the correspondence between the President
•od the members of the Cabinet relative to the resignations.
The reader will observe the dates : •

MB. lATOV TO Tin PBBSIDXIIT.

** WAUinGTOir Onr, April 7, 1881.

" DiAS Sm : Four days ago I communicated to you my desire to relin-
qiiiah the duties of the War Department, and I now take occasion to
npeat the request which was then made. I am not disposed, by any sud-
den withdrawal, to interrupt or retard the business of the office. A short
tune will be sufficient I hope, to enable you to direct your attention
towaid some person in whose capacity, industry, and friendly disposition
yoa may have confidence, to assist in Uie complicated and laborious duties
of your administration. Two or three weeks— perhaps less — may be suf-
fioitnit for the purpose.

" In coming to this conclusion, candor demands of me to say, that it
•lises from no dissatisfaction entertained toward yoo — ^firom no misunder^
standing between us, on any subject ; nor from any diminution, on my
part| of that fiiendship and confidence which has ever been reposed in
yon.

** I entered your Oabinet^ as is weU known to you, contrary to my own
wkiies ; and having nothing to desire, either as it regards myself or fiiends,
liBve ever since cherished a determination to avail myself of the first favor-
able moment^ after your administration should be in successful operation,
to retire. It occurs to me that the time is now at hand when I may do
so with propriety. Looking to the present state of things — to the course
of your administration, which, being fairly developed, is before the people
for approval or condemnation, I can not consider the step I am taking ob-
jectionable, or that it is one the tendency of which can be to affect or
injore a course of policy by you already advantageously commenced, and
which I hope will be carried out to the benefit and advancement of the

people.

" Tendering my sincere wishes for your prosperity and happiness, and
for your successfiil efforts in the cause of your country, I am, very truly,
yoor fiiend, " J. H. Eaton.

*Tto AxDBXW Jaoisoit, President of the United States.*'

THE PRESIDENT TO MR. EATON.

** WAamHOTOir Grrr, April 8, 1881.
" Dear Sir : Tour letter of yesterday was received, and I have care-
folly considered it When you conversed with me the other day on the

348 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [183L

subject of your withdrawing from the Cabinet, I expressed to you a sin-
cere desire that you would well consider of it ; for however reluctant I
am to be deprived of your services, I can not consent to retain you con-
trary to your wishes and inclination to remain, particularly as I well know
tliat in 1829, when I invited you to become a member of ray Cabinet, you
objected and expressed a desire to be excused, and only gave up your ob-
jections at my pressing solicitation.

" An acquaintance with you of twenty years' standing, assured me
that in your honesty, prudence, capacity, discretion, and judgment, I could
safely rely and confide. I have not been disappointed. With the per-
formance of your duties, since you have been with me, I have been fully
satisfied, and, go where you will, be your destiny what it may, my best
wislies will always attend you.

*' I will avail myself of the earliest opportunity to obtain some quali-
fied friend to succeed you ; and until then, I must solicit that the accept-
ance of your resignation be deferred. I am, very sincerely and respectfully,
your friend, " Andrew Jackson.

•*MaJor J. U. Eaton, Secretary of War."

MR. VAN BURKN TO THE PRESIDENT.

*♦ WASUiifOToy, April 11, 188L

" Dkar Sir : I feel it to be my duty to retire from the office to which
your confidence and partiality called me. The delicacy of this step, under
the circumstances in which it is taken, will, I trust, be deemed an ample
apology for stating more at large than might otherwise have been neces-
sary, the reasons by which I am influenced.

" From the moment of taking my seat in your Cabinet, it has been my
anxious wish and zealous endeavor to prevent a premature agitation of the
question of your successor, and, at all events to discountenance and, if
possible, repress the disposition, at an early day manifested, to connect my
name with that disturbing topic. Of the sincerity and constancy of thia
disposition, no one has had a better opportunity to judge than yourselC
It has, however, been unavailing. Circumstances not of my creation, and
altogether beyond my control, have given to this subject a turn which can
not now be remedied, except by a self-disfranchisement which, even if
dictated by my individual wishes, could hardly be reconcilable with pro-
priety or self-respect

"Concerning the injurious effects which the circumstance of a member
of the Cabinet's occupying the relation toward the country to which I have
adverted, is calculated to have upon the conduct of public affairs, there
can not, I think, at this time, be room for two opinions. Diversities of ul-
terior preference among the friends of an administration are unavoidable,
and even if the respective advocates of those thus placed in rivalship be

1831.] DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET. 349

patriotic cnoujfh to resist Uie temptation of creating obstacles to the ad-
Tunoemcnt of liim to whose elevation they are opposed, by embairassing
the branch of public service committed to his charge, they are, never! he-
lesB, by their position, exposed to the suspicion of entertaining and encour-
aging such views — a suspicion which can seldom fail, in the end, to
aggravate into present alienation and hostility the prospective diflbrences
which first gave rise to it. Thus, under the least unfavorable conse-
quences, individual injustice is suffered, and the administration embarrassed
and weakened.

" Whatever may have been the course of things under the peculiar cir-
camstances of the earlier stage of the republic, my experience has fully
satisfied mc that at this day, when the field of selection has become so ex-
tended, the circumstance referred to, by augmenting the motives and
sources of opposition to the measures of the Executive, must unavoidably
prove the cause of injury to the public service, for a counterpoise to which
we may in vain look to tlie peculiar qualifications of any individual ; and
even if I should in this be mistaken, still I can not so far deceive myself
as to believe for a moment that I am included in the exceptions.

" Tliese obstructions to the successful prosecution of public affairs, when
saperadded to that opposition which is inseparable from our free institu-
tions, and which every administration must expect, present a mass to
which the operations of the government should at no time be volunrarily
exposed. Tlie more especially should this be avoided at so eventful a
period in the affairs of the world, when our country may particularly need
the utmost harmony in her councils.

" Such being my impressions, the path of duty is plain, and I not only
sobmit with cheerfulness to whatever personal sacrifices may be involved
in the surrender of tlie station I occupy, but I make it my ambition to
set an example which, should it in the progress of the government be
deemed, notwithstanding the humility of its origin, worthy of respect and
observance, can not, I tliink, fail to prove essoncially and permanently bene-
ficial

" Allow me, sir, to present one more view of the subject. You have
consented to stand before your constituents for reelection. Of their de-
cision, resting as it does upon the unboiight suffrages of a free, numerous,
and widely-extended people, it becomes no man to speak with certainty.
Judging, however, from the past, and making a reasonable allowance for
tlie fair exercise of the intelligence and public spirit of your fellow-citizens,
I can not hesitate in adopting the belief that the confidence, as well in your
capacity for civil duties as in your civic virtues, already so sjwntaneously
and strikingly displayed, will be manifested with increased energy, now
that all candid observers must admit their utmost expectations to have
been more than realized.

350 LIFE OF. ANDREW JAOKSON. [1831.

'' If this promise, so auspicious to the best interests of oar common
country, be fulfilled, the concluding term of your administration will, in the
absence of any prominent cause of discord among its supporters, afford a
most favorable opportunity for the full accomplishment of those important
public objects, in the prosecution of which I have witnessed on your part
such steady vigilance and untiring devotion. To the unfavorable influence
which my continuance in your Cabinet, under existing circumstances, may
exercise upon this flattering^ prospect, I can not, sir, without a total disre-
gard of the lights of experience, and without shutting my eyes to the ob-
vious tendency of things for the future, be insensible. Having, moreover,
from a deep conviction of its importance to the country, been among the
most urgent of your advisers to yield yourself to the obvious wishes of the
people, and knowing the sacrifice of personal feeling which was involved
in your acquiescence, I can not reconcile it to myself to be in any degree
the cause of embarrassment to you during the period which, as it certainly
will be of deep interest to your country, is moreover destined to bring to
its close, your patriotic, toilsome, and eventful public life.

" From these considerations I feel it to be doubly my duty to resign
a post the retention of which is so calculated to attract assaults upon your
administration, to which there might otherwise be no inducement — assaolta
of which, whatever be their aim, the most important as well as moat in-
jurious effect is upon those public interests which deserve and should
command the support of all good citizens. This duty I should have dis-
charged at an earlier period, but for considerations, partly of a public,
partly of a personal nature, connected with circumstances which were
calculated to expose its performance then to misconstruction and misrepre-
sentation.

'^ Having explained the motives wliich govern me in thus severing, and
with seeming abruptness, the official ties by which we have been aaso-
ciated, there remains but one duty for me to perform. It is to make my
profound and sincere acknowledgments for that steady support and cheer-
ing confidence which, in the discharge of my duties, I have, under aU dr-
cumsiancos, received at your hands : as well as for the personal Idndnees
at all times extended to me.

" Rest assured, sir, that the success of your administration, and the
happiness of your private life, will ever constitute objects of the deepest
solicitude with your sincere friend and obedient servant,

" M. Van Burkv.

"The President"

TU£ PRESIDENT TO MR. VAN BUREN.

'* WASHOroTox, April 12, IttL
" Dear Sir : Your letter resigning tlie office of Secretary of State wis
received last evening. I could indeed wish that no circumstance liad anseu

1831.1 DISBOLUTIOH OF THE OABIKET. 391

to interropl the rdations which have, for two years, Bubsisted between ua,
•ad that they might have ccxitinued through the period during which it may
Iw my lot to remain charged with the duties which the partiality of my
ooimtiymen has imposed upon me. But the reasons you present are so
atvODg that| with a proper regard for them, I can not ask you, on my own
•oooont, to remain in the Cabinet

** I am aware of the difficulties you have had to contend with, and of
tlia benefits which have resulted to the affidrs of your country, from your
oontiniied seal in the arduous tasks to which you have been subjected. To
aay that I deeply regret to lose you, is but feebly to e:q)re68 my feelings
OQ the occasion.

" When called by my country to the station which I occupy, it was not
without a deep sense of its arduous responsibUities, and a strong distrust
of inya^ that I obeyed the call; but cheered by the consciousness that no
otfwr modve actuated me than a desire to guard her interests, and to pkco
Imt upon the firm ground of those great principles which, by the wisest
•ad purest of our patriots, have been deemed essential to her proq>erity, I
Tiantiired upon the trust assigned me. i did this in the confident hope of
Bn^ng the support of advisers able and true ; who, laying aside every thing
but a desire to give new vigor to the vital principles of our Union, would
look with a single eye to the best means of efibcting this paramount ob-
ject In you, this hope has been realized to the utmost In the meet
dUBcolt and trying moments of my administratioD, I have always found
yon sincere, able, and efficient — anxious at all times to afford me every
•id.

" I^ however, firom circumstances in your judgment sufficient to make
it necessary, the official ties subsisting between us must be severed, I can
only say that this necessity is deeply lamented by me. I part with you
only because you yourself have requested me to do so, and have sustained
that request by reasons strong enough to command my assent I can not,
however, allow the separation to take place, without expressing the hope,
that this retiremeut from public affairs is but temporary ; and that if in any
other station the government should have occasion for your services, the value
of which has been so sensibly felt by me, your consent will not be wanting.

" Of the state of things to which you advert, I can not but be fully
•ware. I look upon it with sorrow, and regret the more, because one of
its first effects is to disturb tlie harmony of my Cabinet It is, however,
bat an instance of one of the evils to which free governments must ever be
liable. The only remedy for these evils, as they arise, lies in the intelli-
gence and public spirit of our common constituents. They will correct
them — and in this there is abundant consolation. I can not quit this sub-
ject without adding that, with the best opportunities for observing and
judging, I have seen in you no other desire than to move quietly on in the

352 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1831.

path of your dtities, and to promote the harmonious conduct of public af-
fairs. If, on this point,, you have had to encounter detraction, it is but
another proof of the utter insufficiency of innocence and worth to sbidd
from such assaults.

" Be assured that the interest you express in my happiness is most
heartily reciprocated — that my most cordial feelings accompany you, and
that I am, very sincerely, your friend,

" AimBEw Jacksox.

'* P. S. It is understood that you are to continue in your office until

your successor is appointed.

** Martin Van Burbn, Secretary of State.'*

MR. INOQAM TO THE PRESIDENT.

** WAsmxaTOif, April IS, 18SL

'' Sir : In communicating to me, this morning, the information of the
resignations of the Secretary of State and Secretary of War, together with
tlie reasons which hud induced the former to take this step, you were
pleased to observe that this proceeding was made known to me as one of
those whom you had associated with you in the administration of the gov-
ernment, and you suggested that I would, after a few days* reflection, have
a further convcrsatiou with you on this subject But, in recurring to the
brief remarks made at the time, as well as to the letter of resignation of
the Secretary of State, which you were good enough to submit for my pe-
rusal, I have not been able to ascertain what particular matter was intended
to be proposf'd fur my reflection, as connect<;d with tliis event Under
these circumstances, and being desirous of avoiding tlic possibiUty of mi^
apprehension as to your views, I would respectfully inquire whether the
measure adopted by the Secretaries of State and of War, is deemed to in-
volve considerations on which you expect a particular communication from
me, and, if so, of wliat nature.

" I have the honor to be, respectfully, your obedient servant^

"aD. IvOHAlf.

•*To the President of the United States."

MR. INOnAH TO TnE PRESIDENT.

** WABuiNOTOir, April 19, ISH.
" Sir : I am gratified to find myself entirely relieved, by tlie distinct
explanations at the interview to which you invited me to-day, from the un-
certainty as to the object of your communication yesterday, which I bad
referred to in my note of last evening ; and have to make my acknowl-
edgments for the kindness with which you have expressed your satisfactkm
with the manner in which I have discharged the duties of the station to
which you had tliought proper to invite me, and your conviction of the pob-
lic confidence in my administration of the Treasury Department I b^

1831.] DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET. 353

leave, however, to add, in my own justification, for not following the ex-
ample of the Secretary of State and Secretary of War, in making a volun-
taiy tender of the resignation of my office, as soon as I was acquainted
with theirs, that I was wholly unconscious of the application, to myself, of
any of the reasons, so &r as I was apprised of them, which had induced
them to withdraw from the public service. It, therefore, seemed to be due
to my own character, which might otherwise have been exposed to unfa-
vorable imputations, that I should find a reason for resigning, in a distinct
expression of your wish to that effect ; this wish has now been frankly
announced, and has enabled me to place my retirement on its true ground.

" I have, therefore, the honor of tendering to you my resignation of the
office of Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, which you will be
pleased to accept, to take effect as soon as my services may be dispensed
with consistently with your views of the public interest.

" I seize the occasion to offer you my thanks for the many testimonials
I have received of your kindness and confidence during our official con-
nection, and especially for the renewed assurance, this day, of the same
aentiment ^' S. D. Ikgham.

** Hit Ezoelleney, Axdbxw Jaokson, President of the United States.^

THE PRESIDEyr TO MR. INGUAM.

" WABUiMOTOir, April 20, 1881.

" Sir : Late last evening I had the honor to receive your letter of that
date, tendering your resignation of the office of Secretary of the Treasury.
When the resignations of the Secretary of State and Secretary of War were
tendered, I considered fully the reiisons offered, and all the circumstances
oonnected with the subject Afler mature deliberation, I concluded to ac-
cept those resignations. But when this conclusion was come to, it was
•ooompanied with a conviction that I must entirely renew my Cabinet
Its members had been invited by me to the stations they occupied ; it had
come together in great harmony, and as a unit Under the circumstances
in which I found myself, I could not but perceive the propriety of selecting
a Cabinet composed of entirely new materials, as being calculated, in this
respect at least^ to command public confidence and satisfy public opinion*
Neither could I be insensible to the fact, that to permit two only to retire,
woold be to afford room for unjust misconceptions and malignant misrep-
resentations concerning the influence of their particular presence upon the
conduct of public affairs. Justice to the individuals whose public spirit had
impelled them to tender their resignations, also required, then, in my opin-
ion, the decision which I have stated. However painfiil to my own feelings,
it became necessary that I should frankly make known to you tlie whole
subject

" In accepting of your resignation, it is with great pleasure that I bear
VOL, III. — 23

354 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1831.

testimony to the integrity and zeal with which you have managed the fiscal '"

concerns of the nation. In your discharge of all the duties of your office. ^

over which I have any control, I have been fully satisfied ; and in your re- ""

tirement you carry with you my best wishes for your prosperity and hap- ""

piness.

" It is expected that you will continue to discharge the duties of your "3

office until a successor is appointed.

'' I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient serr-
ant, ^'Akdrkw Jackson.

**Samukl D. Ihqham, Bocretary of the Treasury."

MR. BRANCH TO THE PRESIDKNT.

** Washdcotoit, April 19th, 1881.
" Sir : In the interview which I had the honor to hold with you this «

morning, I understood it to be your fixed purpose to reorganize your cabi-
net, and that as to myself it was your wish that I should retire fit>m the «
administration of the Navy Department.

" Under these circumstances, I take pleasure in tendering to yon the <

commission, which, unsolicited on my part, you were pleased to confer -^

on me.

" I have the honor to be, with great respect, yours, etc,

" John Bbanoh.

•*To the President of the United SUtes.*'

THE PRESIDENT TO MB. BBANOH.

^ WABHnroTOif, April 19th, ISU.

" Sir : Your letter of this date, by your son, is just received — accom- —

panying it is your commission. The sending of the latter was not neoes- -

sary ; it is your own private property, and by no means to be considered J

part of the archives of tlie government Accordingly I return it

" There is one expression in your letter to which I take leave to ex- —
cept I did not, as to yourself ^ express a wish that you should retire. The ^
Secretaries of State and of War having tendered their resignations, I re- —
marked to you that I felt it to be indispensable to reorganize my cabinet
proper; that it had come in harmoniously, and as a unit; and as a part -^
was about to leave me, which on to-morrow would be announced, a re- "
organization was necessary to guard against misrepresentation. These
were my remarks, made to you in candor and sincerity. Your letter
gives a difierent import to my words.

" Your letter contains no remarks as to your performing the duties of
the office until a successor can be selected. On this subject I should b»
glad to know your views. I am, very respectfully, yours,

<< Andrew Jaoksqh.

**Th6 Hon. Jobs Bbaxob, Secretary of the Navy.**

■>

1831.] DISSOLUTION OF THR OABINBT. 355

MB. BRANCH TO THE PRESIDENT.

** Washxhotow, April Uth, 1881.

" Sib : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of jours of this
date^ in answer to mine of the same.

'^ In reptj to your remark that there is one expression in my letter to
which you must exoept^ I would respectfully answer that I gave what I
understood to be the sabstance of your conversation. I did not pretend
to quote your language.

" I regret that I misunderstood you in the slightest degree ; I, how-
ever, stand corrected, and cheerfully accept the interpretation which you
have given to your own expression.

" I shall freely continue my best exertions to discharge the duties of
the department, untQ you provide a successor.

" I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, your obedient serv-
antk " John Branch.

« To tiM PTMideiit of the Unitad Stotes."

THE PRESIDENT TO MB. BRANCH.

** Washxhotow , April SO, 18SL

" Sir : Late last evening, I had the honor to receive your letter of thai
date, tendering your resignation of the office of Secretary of the Navy.

" When the resignations of the Secretary of State and Secretary of
War were tendered, I considered fully the reasons offered, and all the cir-
cumstances connected with the subject After mature deliberation, I con-
duded to accept those resignations. But when this conclusion was come
to, it was accompanied with a conviction that I must entirely renew my
cabinet. Its members had been invited by me to the stations they occu-
pied ; it had come together in great harmony, and as a unit Under the
drcumstances in which I found myself, I could not but perceive the pro-
priety of selecting a cabinet composed of entirely new materials, as being
calculated, in this respect at least, to command public confidence and sat-
isfy public opinion. Neither could I be insensible to the fact, that to per-
mit two only to retire would be to afford room for unjust misconceptions
and malignant representations concerning the influence of their particular
presence upon the conduct of public affairs. Justice to the individuals
whose public spirit had impelled them to tender their resignations, also re-
quired then, in my opinion, the decision which I have stated However
painful to my own feebngs, it became necessary that I should firankly make
known to you my view of the whole subject

<< In accepting your resignation, it is with great pleasure that I bear
testimony to the integrity and zeal with which you have managed the
oonoems of the navy. In your discharge of all the duties of your office

356 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1831.

over which I have any control, I have been fully satisfied ; and in your re-
tirement you carry with you my best wishes for your prosperity and hap-
piness. It is expected that you will continue to discharge the duties of
your office until a successor is appointed.

"I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient
servant, ''Andrew Jacksov.

** John Bkavoh, Seeretftry of the Nayy.*^

MR. BERRIEN TO THE PRESIDENT.

** WASHnroTOK, 15th Jane, IfiSL

" Sir : I herewith tender to you my resignation of the office of Attor-
ney-Greneral of the United States. Two considerations restrained me
from taking this step at the moment when your communication to the
Secretary of the Treasury, announcing your determination to reorgaoiie
your cabinet, first met my eye. There was nothing in the retirement of
tlie Secretaries of State and of War, or in the distinct and personal consid-
erations which they had assigned for this measure, which made it obliga-
tory upon, or even proper for me to adopt a similar course. Such a step,
witli any reference to that occurrence, could only become so, on my part,
as an act of conformity to your wilL You had felt this, and had announced
your wishes to the Secretaries of the Treasury and of the Navy, respec-
tively. I had a right to expect a similar communication of them, and con-
formed to the wishes and opinions of my fellow-citizens of Greorg^a, when
I determined to await it An additional consideration was presented by
the fact that I had been charged, at the moment of my departure from this
place, with the performance of certain public duties which were yet un-
finished, and my report concerning which you did not expect to receive
until my return. I was gratified to learn from yourself tliat you had taken
the same view of this subject, having postponed the communication of your
wishes to me until my arrival at tliis place, without exixjcting in the mean
time any communication from me. It is due to myself further to i^tate,
that from the moment when I saw the communication referred to, I have
considered my official relation to you as terminated, or as subsisting only
until my return to tlie city should enable me to conform to your wishes
by the formal surrender of my office, which it is the purpose of this note
to make.

" I retire, then, sir, with cheerfulness from the station to which your
confidence had called me, because I have the consciousness of having en-
deavored to discharge its duties with fidelity to yourself and the countiy.
Uninfluenced by those considerations which have been avowed by tha^
portion of my colleagues who have voluntarily separated themselves froia
you — totally ignorant of any want of harmony in your cabinet^ whicb

•\

1831.] DISSOLUTION OP THE CABINET. 357

either has, or ought to have impeded the operations of your administra-
tion, I perform this act simply in obedience to your will. I have not the
lightest disposition to discuss the question of its propriety. It is true that
in a goyemment like ours, power is but a trust to be used for the benefit
of those who have delegated it ; and that circumstances might exist in
nrhich the necessity of self- vindication would justify such an inquiry. The
first consideration belongs to those to whom we are both and equally ac-
soontable. From the influence of the second you have relieved me by
jrour own explicit declaration that no complaint affecting either my official
3r individual conduct has at any time reached you. You have assured
tne that the confidence which induced you originally to confer the appoint-
oients upon me remains unshaken and undiminished, and have been pleased
to express the regret which you feel at tlie separation which circumstances
bave, in your view of the subject, rendered unavoidable. You have kindly
idded the assurance of your continued good wishes for my welfare. You
wm not, therefore, refiise to me the gratification of expressing my earnest
iiope thaf^ under the influence of better counsels, your own and the inter-
ests of our common country may receive all tlie benefits which you have
mticipated from the change of your confidential advisers. A very few
lays will suffice to enable me to put my office in a condition for the rccep-
ion of my successor, and I will advise you of the fact as soon as its ar-
vngement is complete.

" I am, respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,

"Jno. Macpherson Berbien.
**Tq th« Pteiident of the United SUtes.""

THE PRESIDENT TO MR. BERRIEN.

" Washimoton, Jane 15, 1S81.

" Sir : I have received your letter resigning tlie office of Attorney-
GkneraL

" In tlie conversation which I held with you, the day before yester-
Jay, upon this subject, it was my desire to present to you the considera-
tions upon which I acted in accepting the resignation of the other members
of the cabinet, and to assure you, in regard to yourself, as well as to them,
Lhat they imply no dissatisfaction with the manner in which the duties of
the respective departments have been performed. It affords me great
pleasure to find that you have not misconceived the character of those
considerations, and that you do justice to the personal feelings with which
they are unconnected.

" I will only add that the d(;termination to change my cabinet was dic-
tated by an imperious sense of public duty, and a thorough, though pain-
ful conviction, that tlie stewardship of power witli which I am clothed
called for it as a measure of justice to those who had been alike invited to

358 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1831.

maintain near me the relation of confidential advisers. Perceiving that
the harmony in feeling so necessary to an efficient administration had
failed, in a considerable degree, to mark the course of this, and having
assented, on this account^ to the voluntary retirement of the Secretaries of
State and War, no alternative was left me but to give this assent a lati-
tude coextensive with the embarrassments which it recognized, and the
duty which I owed to each member of the cabinet.

" In accepting your resignation as Attomey-Gkneral, I take pleasure
in expressing my approbation of the zeal and efficiency with which its
duties have been performed, and in assuring you that you carry with you
my best wishes for your prosperity and happiness.

" I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

'^ Akdrkw Jackson.

** John M. BsRBixzr, Esq."
"P. S. — ^You will please to continue to discharge the duties of the
office of Attorney-General until you make all those arrangements which
you may deem necessary, on which, when completed, and I am notified
thereof by you, a successor will be appointed. A. J."

IfB. BXRBIEN TO THE PRESIDENT.

** Washxnotoit, Jnne 28, 1881.

" Sm : In conformity to the suggestion contained in my note of the
15th instant, I have to inform you that the arrangements necessary to put
the office of Attomey-Qeneral in a condition for the reception of my suc-
cessor are now complete.

" The misrepresentations which are circulated in the newspapers on the
subject of my retirement from office, make it proper that this correspond-
ence should be submitted to the public, as an act of justice both to you
and to mysel£ I am, respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,

" Jno. Macphebson Berrien.
«• To the President of the United States.*'

THE PRESIDENT TO MR. BERRIEN.

*» WABimroToir, Jane 23, 1831.

" Sir : Your note of this day is received, advising me, in * conformity
to the suggestions contained in my (your) note of the 15th instant. I
(you) have to inform you (me) tihat the arrangements necessary to put the
office of the Attorney-General in a condition for the reception of my suc-
cessor are now complete.'

" For reasons assigned in your note, you further observe, ' make it
proper that this correspondence should be submitted to the public, as an
act of justice both to you and mysel£' I am sure I can have no objection

1831.] DISSOLUTION OF THE OABIKET. 359

to your sabmitting them as you propose, as yoa believe this to be neces-
my. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, Andrew Jaokson.
* JoBX H. BsBsmc, Esq.**

A dissolution of the cabinet except at the end of a presi-
dential term, had never before occurred in the United States,
and has occurred but once since. So unexpected was this
event (the general public having received no intimation of
the Eatonian scandals, and not immediately discerning the
connection between the ct^binet explosion and Mr. Calhoun's
pamphlet) that a slight rumor of some approaching change
was ridiculed in the Jackson papers within three days of the
announcement of Mr. Van Buren's resignation. It produced
a prodigious sensation. At that day, all official distinctions
were more valued than they now are, and a cabinet minister
was r^arded as an exceedingly great man. It seemed as if
the Republic itself was shaken when the great city of Wash-
ington was agitated, as all the hive is wild when the queen-bee
is missing. It added to the effect of the dissolution, that the
leading editors would not, and the editors-in-ordinary could
not give any sufficient explanation of the event. Some vague
allusions to ^ Madame Pompadour' found their way into print,
but the Jackson papers hurled fierce anathemas at those who
gave them currency.

The journals in the confidence of the administration had
evidently received their cue, however, and strove to make the
dissolution redound to the glory of Mr. Van Buren. The
comments of the Courier and Enquirer will amuse the reader,
I think. When the following remarks were written, the re-
signation of Mr. Berrien, owing to his absence from Washing-
ton, had not occurred :

" What has Mr. Calhoun gained by the firebrand he has thrown into
the democratic ranks ? Mr. Van Buren it is true has retired from office,
bat he returns to a State where his political knowledge and consistency are
invaluable — a State that cuu and will support him for the highest office
when Uie proper time arrives. Mr. Callioun has strengthened Mr. Van
Buren by his violent opposition — he has returned from the cabinet and is
thrown back on the people with a higher reputation for disinterested sseal

360 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1831.

and upright principles. In this movement, however, Mr. Calhoun has sac-
rificed Mr. Ingham and Mr. Branch, his two friends ; and the members of
the new cabinet are not assailable on any point How stands the case,
then ? General Jackson has lost two friends in his cabinet and gained
four. Mr. Van Buren becomes a private citizen, and mingles again with
his political friends in an energetic support of the President On all sides
General Jackson is strengthened and his enemies discomfited ; well indeed,
may Mr. Van Buren be called the * great Magician,' for he raises his wand
and the whole cabinet vanishes.

" What will Mr. Calhoun now say to this new order of things ? His
friends will not venture to declare that Mr.. Van Buren rules General Jack-
son— they can not say that Mr. Van Buren at Albany manages the afiairs
of the administration at Washington. All motives for assailing Mr. Van
Buren are at an end ; trouble and difficulty have been produced, but on
whom does it fall — who suffers, who almost staggers under the blow ?
Mr. Calhoun and his imprudent advisers."

This view of the case commended itself to the judgment
of a majority of the people, who are apt to relish a bold meas-
ure, whatever its moral quality. The comments of the oppo-
sition seemed rather to injure than to benefit their cause.
One paper in Cincinnati said : " Let John C. Calhoun shake
off all affectation of respect for the presumptuous and igno-
rant dotard, who enjoys the salary and subscribes his name as
President." Such language merely enraged and disgusted the
friends of the President, and offended some of his opponents.
The New York American published the following :

"^Tolhe Bero^Tbuching his ' Unit:
Your rats united might have been,

But, should we juage from actions.
We *d say, although a * Unit ' then,

They now are Vulgar fractiona"

Mr. Van Buren returned to New York, where his friends
received him triumphantly. Early in August, Mr. McLane
arrived from London, and Mr. Van Buren, soon after, went
abroad as American Minister to the Court of St. James. Mr.
Livingston reigned over the State Department in his stead.
Mr. Woodbury was duly appointed Secretary of the Navy.

On one point only did the scheme of the President fail of

t~s g, « I '

1831.] DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET. 361

suooess. Judge White refused, point blank, to accept the
place of Secretary of War, and thus create a vacancy in the
Senate for Major Eaton. He liad been, for some time, jealous
of Mr. Van Buren's ascendency in the councils of the Presi-
dent, an ascendency to which he had himself aspired, and
which, for a short period, he had been thought to enjoy.
Perhaps he had indulged hopes of being adopted as the suc-
cessor of General Jackson ; for General Jackson had shown
him his list of rules for the guidance of his administration,
one of which was that no member of the cabinet should suc-
ceed him. The General, too, had written to him, in October,
1828, as soon as his election to the presidency was felt to be
certain, in terms which ap])eared to justify such an expecta-
tion, "I thank you kindly," wrote the General, "for the
suggestions you have made, and will always thank you for
yonr friendly counsel. We have grown up together, have
passed to the top and over the hill of life together, and per-
mit me to assure you there is no one in whom I have greater
confidence, in their honor, integrity, and judgment than in
yours.'* Again, in December : " It will give me pleasure at
all times to receive your views upon all «nd every subject ;
you have my confidence and friendship, and to you and Ma-
jor Eaton I look as my confidential friends." Again, in the
autumn of 1829, the President had written to him in the
most affectionate terms, almost imploring him not to resign
Lis seat in the Senate, where his services had been so efficient,
and were still so much desired.

Gradually, however, the President seemed to be estranged
from his old friend. So, at least, thought some of the associ-
ates of Judge White. Mr. Tazewell, a friend of both, re-
corded his observations. **Jud<j:e White," he savs, ^^ was
one, and, I Iwlieve, the most confidontial of all the Presi-
dent's advisers, as w(^ll before as after his inauguration, while
the Senate continued in session. When the Senate adjourned
in 1829, Judge White went home and did not return until
the commencement of the next session. I was prevented
from taking my place in that body until February, 1830.

362 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1831.

Very soon after I took my scat, I saw veiy plainly that new
relations had sprung up between the President and some of
his former friends. Judge White did not seem to have ob-
served this ; and his feelings toward General Jackson re-
mained unchanged, although it was evident to all others, that
he no lunger occupied the same place in tlie estimation of the
President which he had done. I never knew the cause of
this apparent estrangement, but thought it might be easily
conjectured."

Was it in human nature, that Judge White should not
detest Mr. Van Buren ? Knowing well that one object of
this dissolution of the cabinet was Mr. Van Buren's elevation,
he would not be prevailed upon to lend a helping hand. It
is asserted by Colonel Benton, but denied by the biographer
of Judge White, that the asirirations of his wife were the
spur to his own ambition.

When it was known that Judge White had declined a
place in the cabinet, the most extraordinary exertions were
made by the President and his friends to induce him to
change his purpose. Mr. J. K. Polk, General Coffee, Mr.
Grundy, Mr. Catron, General Armstrong, and other Tennes-
see friends wrote to him, entreating him to accept General
Armstrong's letter was familiar and fervent. "I have just
parted from the President," he wrote on the 1st of May.
" He infonns me, confidentially, that you have declined the
office of Secretary of War. The old man said he wrote you
yesterday, urging you still to accept. I know your friend-
ship for the President, and I know, too. Judge, the sacrifices
you have over been willing to make forthe love of your coun-
try. I write this at the request of the old General, because
he says I have been present here, and can describe plainly to
you the situation of things as they are. The old man says,
that all his plans will he defeated unless you agree to come,
should it be but for a period short of the continuance of his
administration. The public have settled down on you, Judge,
as the man. The wishes and confidence of every one seem to
require your acceptance. Nothing that you can offer will

1831.] DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET. 363

satisfy your friends ; because, as the old man says — this is a
crisis in which he wishes his best friends to be with him —
md you well know that you are the nearest ; so he de-
blares. Judge. Now for my own views. The good of the
30untry — the honor of your best friend — the character of the
State — and, lastly, it must not bo said that aid is refused
the old chief from Tennessee, and that, too, by Judge White.
Judge, pardon me for attempting to influence you. I write
i)ecause I know you will do one thing, and that is, believe
•"hat I say. Could you but witness the anxiety of the Gen-
Tal, and the distress that follows, under the supposition that
'ou will not join him, I know you would yield."

But, no. He did not yield. The Courier and Enquirer
iformed the public that Judge White, of Tennessee, on ac-
ount of severe domestic afflictions, had declined the office of
«cretary of War, which the President had offered him.
'rom that time to the end of his life. Judge White was
tboo among the extreme Jacksonians. No more were his
ublic labors extolled in the Globe ; no more was his advice
sked upon important measures. He went into opposition,
t length ; was feebly run for President against Mr. Van
turen ; and was driven, finally, into retirement.

A new man was summoned to the councils of the Presi-
ent, Lewis Cass, Governor of the Territory of Michigan,
rho was installed as head of the Dejmrtment of War in July,
though little known, at that day, to the country at large,
Tovemor Cass had been for nearly a quarter of a century in
he service of the government. It was he who, as member
f the Ohio Legislature in 1806, originated the measures
gainst Aaron Burr which caused the explosion of that indi-
idual's Mexican projects. Bom in New Hampshire to a
evolutionary father, Lewis Cass trudged on foot across the
^Ileghanies, when he was but seventet^n, to seek his fortune
n the western wilderness. He studied law, and became a
eading man in Ohio ; won the notice and favor of President
Teflferson by his zeal against Burr, and received the appoint-
nent of marshal. He served with ability and distinction

364 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1831.

throu;'li the war of 1812, ficirlitinK at the battle of the Thames
by the side of General Harrison, as his volunteer aid-de-camp.
President Madison appointed him, in 1813, Governor of
Micliigan, a post which he held for the unusual period of
ninetei»n years, until he was invited by General Jackson to
the Cabinet in 1831.

The vacant Attorney-Generalship was conferred upon Mr-
Roger B. Taney, then Attorney-General of Maryland, now
the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Mr. Taney was a lawyer of the first distinction in his native
State. He was one of the Federalists who had given a zeal-
ous support to General Jackson in 1828.

Louis McLane, who came from England to take the office
of Secretary of the Treasury, was a native of Delaware, where
he studied law under James A. Bayard, known in political
history as the friend and correspondent of Alexander Hamil-
ton. Mr. McLane, also, was a gentleman of the Federalist
persuasion, and a friend to the Bank of the United States.
He had distinguished himself, in London, by the zeal and
ability with which he conducted important negotiations, and
was supposed to be one of the numerous gentlemen then liv-
ing who indulged hoj)es of attaining the presidency.

As the disruption of the Cabinet occurred in April, and
Mr. McLane did not return to the United States until Au-
gust, there was an interregnum in the Treasury Department
of more than three months, during which disgraceful event*
occurred. A few weeks after the dissolution, the scandalous
stories resi)ecting Mrs, Eaton began to circulate in the news-
papers, and, at length, the various narratives of Messrs. Ing-
ham, Branch, and Berrien appeared. Poor Eaton, stung to
madness by the exposure, was betrayed into writing one of the
absurdest notes to Mr. Ingham ever penned by an angry man.
A hostile correspondence was the first result.

MR. KATON TO MR. INGHAM.

•* Friday Nionr, Jane 17, 188L
" Sir : I have studied to disregard the abusive slanders which have
arisen through so d(>based a source as the columns of the U. S. Telegraph.

1831.] DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET. 365

I have been content to wait for the full deTelopment of what he had to say?
and ontQ persons of responsible character should be brought forth to en-
doFse his vile abuse of me and my family. In that paper of this evening
is contained the following remark of my wife : * It is proved tliat the Sec-
retaries of the Treasury, and of the Navy, and of the Attomey-Qeneral re-
fused to associate with her.' This publication appears in a paper which
professes to be friendly to you, and is brought forth under your immediate
eje. I desire to know of you, whether or not you sanction, or will dis-
avow it

" The relation we have sustained toward each other, authorizes me to
demand an immediate answer. Very respectfully,

" J. H. Eaton.

** 8. D. iMOUiJi, Esq.**

MR. INGHAM TO MR. EATON.

^ WABDiiroTozf, Jane 18, 1881.
" Sib : I have not been able to ascertain, from your note of last evening,
whether it is the pubhcation referred to by you, or the fact stated in the
nbgraphj which you desire to know whether I have sanctioned or will
dittTOw. If it be the first you demand, it is too absurd to merit an an-
iwer. If it be the hist, you may find authority for the same fact in a
Philadelphia paper, about the first of April last, which is deemed to be
quite as friendly to you as tlie Telegraph may be to me. When you have
settled such accounts with your particular friends, it will be time enough
to make demands of others. In the meantime, I take the occasion to say,
that you must be a htUe deranged, to imagine that any blustering of yours
could induce me to disavow what all the inliabitants of this city know, and
perhaps half the people of the United States believe to be true.

" I am, sir, respectfully yours, S. D. Ingham.

■• Joan H. Eatoh, Esq.''

MR. EATON TO MR. INGHAM.

*' June 18, 1881.
" SiB : I have received your letter of to-day, and regret to find that to a
frank and candid inquiry brought before you, an answer itnpudent and in-
solent is returned. To injury unprovoked, you are pleased to add insult.
What is the remedy 1 It is to indulge the expectation that, though a man
may be mean enough to slander, or base enough to encourage it, he yet
may have bravery sufficient to repair the wrong. In that spirit I demand
of you satisfacHon for the wrong and injury you have done me.

" Your answer must determine whether you are so far entitled to the
name and character of a gentleman as to be able to act like one.

" Very respectfully, J. H. Eaton.

* Bamuxi. D. lyoBAM, Esq.""

366 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1831.

SIR. INGHAM TO MR. EATON.

** Wasbtxotox, Jane SO. ISSl.
" Sir : Your note of Saturday, purporting to be a demantl of satisfius
tion for injury done to you, was received on that day; company prevented
nie from sending an inunediate answer. Yesterday morning your brother-
in-law, Dr. Randolph, intruded him?elf into my room with a threat of per-
s<.)nal nolence. I perfectly unrlerstand the part you are made to play in
the farce now acting before the American peojAe. I am not to be intim-
idated by threats, or provoked by abuse, to any act inconsistent with the
pity and contempt which your condition and conduct inspire.

'* Yours, sir, respectfully, S. D. Ingham.

** Jons n. Eatox, Esq."

MR. EATON TO MR. INGHAM.

^June80,18Sl.
" Sir : Your note of this morning is received. It proves to me ihit
you are quite brave enough to do a mean aetion, but too great a coward to
repair it. Your contempt I heed not ; your pity I despise. It is such con-
temptible fellows as yourself that have set forth rumors of their own crea-
tion, and taken them as a ground of imputation against me. If that be
guod cause, then should you have pity of yourself! for your wife has not
escaped tiiem, and you must know it. But no more ; here our correspond-
ence closes. Nothing more will be received short of an acceptance of my
deinand of Saturday, and noticing more be said to me until face to face we
meet. It is not in my nature to brook your insults, nor will tliey be sub-
mitted to. J. H. Eaton.

"S. D. iNonAM. Esq."

The next day Eaton attempted to carry his threat into
execution. In a letter to the President, Mr. Ingham gave a
version of the events of that day : " It is not necessary for
me now to detail the circumstances which have con\'inced me
of the existence of vindictive personal hostility to me among
some of the officers of the government near your iH?rson, and
supposed to be in your special confidence, which has been
particularly developed within the last two weeks, and has
finally displayed itself in an attempt to waylay me on my
way to my office yesterday, as I have reason to believe, for
the purpose of assassination. If you have not already been
ai)prised of these movements, you may perhaps be surprised
to learn that the persons concerned in them are the late Sec*

•%

1831.] DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET. 367

retary of War and the acting Secretary of War ; and that
the Second Auditor of the Treasury, Register of the Treas-
ury, and the Treasurer of the United States, were in their
company ; and that the Treasurer's and Register's rooms, in
the lower part of the building of the Treasury Department,
and also a grocery store between my lodgings and the office,
were alternately occupied as their rendezvous while lying in
wait — the former affording the best opportunity for observ-
ing my approach. Apprised of these movements, on my re-
turn from taking leave of some of my friends, I found myself
obliged to arm, and, accompanied by my son and some other
friends, I repaired to the office to finish the business of the
day, after which I returned to my lodgings in the same com-
pany. It is proper to state, that the principal persons who
had been thus employed for several hours, retired from the
Department soon after I entered my room, and that I received
no molestation frx)m them, either at my ingress or egress.
But having recruited an additional force in the evening, they
paraded until a late hour on the streets near my lodgings,
heavily armed, threatening an assault on the dwelling I re-
side in."

The President immediately addressed a letter to each of
the officials charged with waylaying Mr. Ingham, enclosed to
each a copy of Mr. Ingham's letter, and asked to be informed
whether " you, or either of you, have had any agency or par-
ticipation, and if any, to what extent, in the alleged miscon-
duct imputed in his letter herewith enclosed." Every man
of them denied in to to the accusations of Mr. Ingham.
They were also exculpated by Major Eaton, in a card pub-
lished in the Olohe. " From the moment" said Eaton, " that
I perceived Mr. Ingham was incapable of acting as became a
man, I resolved to pursue that course which was suited to
the character of one who had sought difficulties and shunned
all honorable accountability. I harbored no design upon the
heart of one who had shown himself so heartless. Having
ascertained that his sensibilities were to be found only upon
the surface, I meant to make the proper application. On the

368 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1831.

19th I notified him that unless the call I had made upon
him was promptly and properly answered, he might expect
such treatment as I thought his conduct deserved. My note
of the 20th also advised him of my intention. Accordingly
it apjKjared matter of duty for me to dissolve all connection
with the administration of the government. How, then, can
Mr. Ingham suppose that I would involve those gentlemen in
a disgraceful conspiracy against him ; one in which, as public
officers, they could not engage even if inclination had sanc-
tioned. Their own characters are a sufficient answer to the
accusation, unaided by their positive denial of its truth. I
did endeavor to meet Mr. Ingham, and to settle our differ-
ence. Unattended by any one, I sought after and awaited
his appearance during the accustomed hours for business,
openly and at places where he daily passed to his office. He
was not to be found ! I passed by, but at no time stopped
at or attempt<}d to enter his house, nor to beseige it by day
or by night."

The next day Mr. Ingham, finding the city of Washing-
ton neither a safe nor a comfortable dwelling-place, left it in
disgust, and, the Globe said, in terror. He took the " whole
of the four o'clock stage," said the Globe, and induced the
driver to make excellent time to Baltimore. The President,
soon after, gave Eaton the appointment of Governor of
Florida, where he had lands and lots supposed to be valuable.
At a later day, the President sent him to represent the United
States at the court of Spain. Upon his return home, Eaton
quarreled with his old chief, and remained unreconciled until
the day of his death. Mrs. Eaton, in 1859, is still living in
the citv of Washin»2:ton.

The dissolution, its causes, and its consequences, were the
newspaper tojnc of the whole summer. The entire corres-
pondence relating to it, beginning with the Calhoun pam-
phlet, and ending with Eaton's final statement, would form
a volume as large as that which the reader is now holding in
his hands. Among the documents is a labored, long, and
tedious address by Mr. Crawford, justifying himself for be-

■^

1831.] DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET. 369

traying the proceedings of Mr. Monroe's Cabinet. Eaton's
statement asserts many things, but proves nothing. He
labors hard, but labors in vain, to show that the alleged
irregularities of his wife were a mere pretext, and that the
secret of the opposition to himself was, that he was not the
friend of Mr. Calhoun.

The dissolution inspired the opposition with new, with
extravagant hopes. " Who could have imagined," wrote Mr.
Clay from his retirement, " such a cleansing of the Augean
stable at Washington ? a change, almost total, of the cab-
inet. Did you ever read such a letter as Mr. Van Buren's ?
It is perfectly characteristic of the man — a labored effort to
conceal the true motives, and to assign assumed ones, for his
resignation, under the evident hope of profiting by the latter.
The * delicate step,' I apprehend, has been taken, because,
foreseeing the gathering storm, he wished early to secure a
safe refuge. Whether that will be on his farm, or at London,
we shall see. Meantime, our cause can not fail to be bene-
fited by the measure. It is a broad confession of the incom-
petency of the President's chosen advisers, no matter from
what cause, to carry on the business of the government."

This was written when the news of the explosion first
reached Kentuckv. Six weeks later, he wrote : " I think we
are authorized, from all that is now before us, to anticipate
confidently General Jackson's defeat. The question of who
will be the successor, may be more doubtful. The prob-
abilities are strongly with us. It seems to me that nothing
can disappoint the hopes of our friends, but anti-Masonry."

Mr. Webster took a more serious view of the " prospect
before us." He wrote to Mr. Clay, in October, urging his re-
turn to the Senate : '^ We are to have an interesting and an
arduous session. Every thing is to be attacked. An array
is preparing, much more formidable than has ever yet assault-
ed what we think the leading and important public inter-
ests. Not only the Tariff, but the Constitution itself, in its
elementary and fundamental provisions, will be assailed with

VOL. ni. — 24

370 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1831.

talent, vigor, and union. Every thing is to be debated, as if
nothing had ever been settled."

True. Nullification hung like a dark cloud over tlie south-
ern horizon. South Carolina was in a ferment. Unless the
Tariff were rectified at the next session, South Carolina would
do such things as then she knew not of. Mr. Calhoun, in the
course of the summer, in an address that darkened all the
first page of the largest newspaper then existing, avowed him-
self a believer in the doctrine of nullification. Perhaps, this
address was a retort to the President's " Charleston letter,''
so famous in its day, which had delighted the country two
months before. That Charleston letter has an interest for us
still.

GENERAL JACKSON TO A COMMITTEE OF THE CITIZENS OF CHARLESTOH.

^Wasuikoton CiTT, Jane 14tb, 1881.

*' Gentlemen: It would afford mc much pleasure, could I at the same
time accept your invitation of the 5th instant, and tliat witli which I wis
before honored by the municipal authorities of Charleston. A neoeflsaiy
attention to the duties of my office, must deprive me of the gratification I
^ihould have had in paying, under such circumstances, a visit to the State
of which I feel a pride in calling myself a citizen by birth.

"Could I accqit your invitation, it would be with the hope that all par-
ties— all the men of talent, exalted patriotism, and private worth, who have
Ix.'cn divided in the manner you describe, might be found united before the
:iltar of their country on the day set apart for the solemn celebration d its
indcpt^ndoncc — independence which can not exist without Union, and with
it Is eternal.

*' Every enlightened citizen nmst know that a separation, could it be
cfFected, would begin with civil discord, and end in colonial dependence on
ji foreign power, and obliteration from the list of nations. But he should
also see that high and sacred duties which must and will, at all hazards, be
perf<jrnied, ])rcsent an insurmountable barrier to the success of any plan of
disorganization, by whatever j)atriotic name it may be decorated, or what-
ever high feelings may be arrayed for iu^ support The force of these evi-
dent truths, the eftect they must ultimately have upon tlie minds of those
who seem for a moment to have disregarded them, make me cherish the
belief I have expix'ssed, that could I have been present at your celebratioo,
I should have found all parties concurring to promote the object of your
association. You have distinctly expressed that object — ' to revive in its
full force the benign spirit of the Union, and to renew the mutual oonfi-

183L] DISSOLUTION OF TUE CADIKBT. 371

dence in each other's good will and patriotism/ Such endeavor?, calmly
and firmly persevered in, can not fail of success. Such sentiments are ap-
propriate to the celebration of that high festival, which commemorates the
simultaneous declaration of Union and Independence — and when on the
return of that day, we annually renew the pledge that our heroic fathers
made, of life, of fortune, and of sacred honor, let us never forget that it was
given to sustain us as a United not less than an Independent people.

*^ Knowing, as I do, the private worth and public virtues of distinguished
cilisens to whom. declarations inconsistent with an attachment to the Union
have been ascribed, I can not but liope, tliat if accurately reported, they
were the efifect of momentary excitement, not deliberate design ; and tiiut
fiuch men can never have formed the project of pursuing a course of redre>8
through any other than constitutional means ; but if I am mistaken in this
charitable hope, then, in the language of the Father of our country, I would
oonjnre them to estimate properly *■ the immense value of your national
Union to your collective and individual happiness;' to cherish 'a cordial,
habitoal, and immovable attachment to it ; accustoming yourselves to think
and q)eak of it as of the palladium of your pohtical safety and prosperity,
watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety : discountenancing what-
ever may suggest even a suspicion that it can, in any event, be abandoned ;
and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alien-
ate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties
which now link together the various parts.'

^ Your patriotic endeavors, gentlemen, to lessen the violence of party
diascnsion, can not bo forwarded more effectually than by inculcating a re-
fiance on the justice of our National Councils, and pointing to tlie fast ap-
proaching extinction of tlie public dcbt^ as an event which must necessarily
produce modification in the revenue system, by which all interests, under a
spirit of mutual accommodation and concession, will be probably protected.

** The grave subjects introduced in your letter of invitation, have drawn
from me the frank exposition of opinions, whicli I have neither interest
nor indination V> conceal

" Grateful for the kindness you have personally expressed, I renew my
expressions of regret that it is not in my power to accept your kind invi-
tation ; and have the honor to be, with great respect,

" Your obedient and humble servant, Andrew Jaokson."

That dread disease, the cholera, was first heard of in the
United States this year. It was ravaging some portions of
Europe, and making startling advances northward. Long
the hope was cherished that the Atlantic ocean would arrest
the prepress of the scourge. The country escaped it in 1831.

372 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1831.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE BANK-VETO SESSION.

This was the great session of Jackson's administratioD.
The session of Congress preceding a presidential campaign is
always exciting, and generally important ; but none since
the earliest years of the republic has been so exciting or so
important as this. Illustrious names, great debates, extra-
ordinary incidents, momentous measures, combine to render
it memorable.

Strengthened by Mr. Clay's return to the Senate, and sup-
posed to be strengthened by Mr. Calhoun's defection, magni-
ficently endowed with talent, and supplied with every motive
to exertion which can inflame ambition or stimulate patriot-
ism, the opposition did all its utmost to lessen the public
confidence in an administration which they believed to be,
not the most corrupt one ever known in the United States,
but the only one that had been corrupt. The " Old Man"
of the White House was the strength and inspiration of the
party in power. He watched the transactions at the capitol
with the eye of a lynx, and the patient resolution of a man
who only knows the two alternatives, to carry his point or
perish. On the great question of the session he was almost
alone. Not one man in his cabinet entirely sympathized with
him. It was only in Col. Benton and some members of the
kitchen cabinet that he found the complete acquiescence that
was so dear, but, at the same time, so unnecessary to him.
" Of all the men I have known," said Mr. Blair to me,
" Andrew Jackson was the one most entirely sufiicient for
himself." Not only had he no such word as/atV, but no be-
lief, not the slightest, that he could fail in any thing seriously
undertaken by him. And he never did.

In the Senate of this Congress were Daniel Webster,
Henry Clay, William Marcy, Theodore Frelinghuysen, Gteo.
M. Dallas, John M. Clayton, John Tyler, Robert Y. Hayne,

1831.] THE BANK-VETO SESSION. 373

John Forsyth, Felix Grundy, Hugh L. White, George Poin-
dexter, William B. King, Thomas H. Benton, Isaac Hill.
In the house — John Quincy Adams, Bufus Choate, Edward
Everett, C. C. Cambreleng, Erastus Boot, Gulian C. Ver-
planck, John Branch, George McDuffie, John Adair, Bichard
M. Johnson, John Bell, James K. Polk, Thomas Corwin, C.
C. Clay.

Curiously enough, the message was one of the quietest
and shortest ever presented to Congress by General Jackson.
The previous practice of defending the measures of the ad-
ministration by elaborate argument, and preventing attack
by anticipating it, was abandoned in the concoction of this
document. It showed everywhere the touch of another hand.
The diplomatic successes of the government, which had been
numerous during the year, though not of striking import-
ance, were set forth at length. The President concluded this
portion of the message with a passage which, besides doing
brave duty upon banners and in campaign papers, was quoted
with applause in foreign countries. "I have great satisfac-
tion in making this statement of our affairs, because the
course of our national policy enables me to do it without any
indiscreet exposure of what in other governments is usually
concealed from the people. Having none but a straightfor-
ward, open course to pursue — guided by a single principle
that will bear the strongest light — we have happily no politi-
cal combinations to form, no alliances to entangle us, no
complicated interests to consult ; and in subjecting all we
have done to the consideration of our citizens, and to the in-
spection of the world, we give no advantage to other nations,
and lay ourselves open to no injury." Edward Livingston had
occasion to remember the latter part of this passage a year or
two later.

Bailroads, then a leading topic, and beginning to assume
national importance, were mentioned with felicitations.
" We have a reasonable prospect," said the President, " that
the extreme parts of our country will be so much approxi-
mated, and those most isolated by the obstacles of natm-o

374 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1831.

rendered so accessible, as to remove an appreliension, some-
times entertained, that the great extent of the Union would
endanger its permanent existence."

The financial condition of the country was extremely sat-
isfactory. The revenue of the year had reached the unprece-
dented amount of $27,700,000. The expenditures, exclusive
of the public debt, would not exceed $14,700,000. Not leas
than sixteen and a half millions of the public debt had been
jmid off during the year. The President did not conceal his
exultation at tliis pleiisant state of things. " The amount,"
he added, " which will have been applied to the public debt
from the fourth of March, 1829, to the first of January next,
wliich is less than three years since the administration has
been placed in my hands, will exceed forty millions of
dollars."

In view of the speedy extinction of the debt, Congress
was notified that the chief business of the session must be to
adjust the tariff to the new state of affairs ; but the subject
was disposed of in a single paragraph, and nothing further
was said of dividing the surplus revenue among the States.

Again, the ixjcommendation respecting the election of
President and Vice-President by a diicct vote of the people
was repeated. Again the message closed with a warning to
the United States bank. " Entertaining," said the Presi-
dent, " the opinions heretofore expressed in relation to the
bank of the United States, as at present organized, I felt it
my duty in my former messages frankly to disclose them, in
order that the attention of the legislature and the people
should be seasonably directed to that importtint subject, and
that it might be considered and finally disposed of in a man-
ner best calculated to promote the ends of the constitution
and subserve the i)ublic interests. Having thus conscien-
tiously discharged a constitutional duty, I deem it proper, on
this occasion, without a more particular reference to the views
of the subject then expressed, to leave it for the present to
the investigation of an enlightened people and their repre*
sentatives."

1832.] THS BANK-TETO SS8SI0N. 375

Of the traaaactionB of thie session, we Deed concem our-
selves only with those that grew directly out the President's
own course, and those which directly influenced his suhsc-
quent conduct.

Without delay, and, I believe, without debate, the Sen-
ate confirmed the nominations of Edward Livingston, Louis
UcLane, Levi Woodbury, Lewis Cass, and Rugcr M. Taney
to their respective places in the cabinet. Not so the nomiua-
tioa of Mr. Van Bureu to the post of British ambaSBudor.
Mr. Calhoun, at that time, in common witb most of the op-
position, attributed to the machinations of Mr. Yaa Bureu
his rupture with the President, anil the dissolution of the
cabinet. Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster were of opinion that it
was Mr. Van Burcn who had induced the President to adopt
die New York system of party removals. Mr. Clay ought
to hare known the President and Mr. Van Buren better than
to cherish an opinion so erroneous. But it seems he did not.
And, certainly, Mr. Van Buren, by supporting the President
in that bad system, and supplying him with jilausiblc argu-
ments to justify it, must ever be held to share in the rcspon-
nbility of having debauched the public service. I believe,
however, that so far from urging the new policy upon the
President, his influence tended to lessen the number of re-
movals.

The leaders of the Senate had resolved upou the rejection
of Mr. Van Buren. They knew, before Congress came to-
gether, that this could be ilone, and they had discovered an
available pretext far doing it. That pretext was found in
the very trausacliuu ujwn which the late Secretary of State
plumed himself moat, and which General Jackson esteemed
the first and one of tlic most valuable triumphs of his admin-
istration.

We noticed, with surprise, that the lirst Messt^ of Gen-
eral Jackson containe<l a coiuplimont to Great Britain, a na-
tion which the General, in 1814 and 1815, had ctiaracterii^ed
by a variety of uncompliiucutary epithets, and concerning
whose red-coated sons he liad revolutionary recollections of a

376 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

disagreeable character. The complimentary paragraph was
inserted to aid Mr. McLane in a negotiation with the British
ministry for regaining the privilege of trading with the Brit-
ish West Indies in American vessels. The negotiation, as we
all know, was successful, and the great trade we now enjoy
with those islands is chiefly the result of the treaty then con-
cluded. Yet the pretext for rejecting Mr. Van Buren was
found in a passage of one of his despatches to Mr. McLane
in relation to the negotiation of that treaty — a passage which
the President claimed as his own, and authorized a Senator
to claim publicly for him. The following was the paragraph
complained of :

• " The opportunities which you have derived from a participatioD 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 respective part taken by tliOse to whom the administration of
this government is now committed, in relation to the course heretofore pur-
sued !ipon the subject of the colonial trade. Their views upon Ihat point
have been submitted to the people of the United States ; and the eottnseia by
which your conduct is now directed are the result of the judgment exprmstd
by the only earthly tribunal to which the late administration u^s amenahk
for its acts. It should be sufficient that the claims set up by tliem, and
which caused the interruption of the trade in question, have bei.*n ex-
plicitly 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 nothing in
the extension of it to others to induce her to apply the same rule to us, she
will, we hope, be sensible of the propriety of placing her refusal on those
grounds. To set up the acts of tlie late administration as the cause of for-
feiture of privileges which would otherwise be extended to the people of the
United States, woxdd, 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, (ioubtless^
be greatly aggravated by the consciousness tliat (ireat Britain luis, by order
iu 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 can not press this view of the subject too earnestly upon the con-
sideration of the British ministry. It has bearings and relations that reach
beyond the immediate question under discussion."

-x

tc,^^

Lix^^C<V

1832.] THB BANK-V£TO SE8SI0K. 377

** Now/' said Mr. Webster, " this is neither more nor less
ihaii saying to Mr. McLane : ^ You will be able to tell the
Biitiflh minister, whenever you think proper, that you, and
I, and the leading persons in this administration, have op-
posed the course heretofore pursued by the government and
the country, on the subject of the colonial trade. Be sure to
let him know that, on that subject, toe have held with En-
f^and, and not with our own government' " Mr. Webster
added : '' Sir, I submit to you, and to the candor of all
just men, if I am not right in saying that the pervading
topic throughout the whole is, not American rights, not
American interests, not American defense, but denunciation
of past preteMums of our own country, reflections on the
past administrations, and exultation, and a loud claim of
merit for the administration now in power. Sir, I would
fiirgive mistakes ; I would pardon the want of information ;
I would pardon almost any thing, where I saw true patriot-
km and sound American feeling ; but I can not forgive the
■usrifice of this feeling to mere Party. I can not concur in
sending abroad a public agent who has not conceptions so
laige and liberal, as to feel that in the presence of foreign
courts, amidst the monarchies of Europe, he is to stand up
for his country, and his whole country ; that no jot nor tit-
tle of her honor is to come to harm in his hands ; that he
is not to suffer others to reproach either his government or
his country, and far less is he himself to reproach either ;
that he is to have no objects in his eye but American objects,
and no heart in his bosom but an American heart ; and that
he is to forget self, to forget party, to forget every sinister and
narrow feeling, in his proud and lofty attachment to the Be-
public whose commission he bears.''

The debate was animated but brief. Fifty-one days. Col-
onel Benton informs us, were consumed in the preliminary
maneuvers, but the debates lasted but two. It was in the
course of this discussion that Governor Marcy let fall an ex-
pression which he acknowledged, when he was writing out his
speech, that he would have willingly recalled. He had the

378 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [18^2.

houesty to place it upon record, and it has since become fa-
mous. It occurreil at the end of the following passage : " I
know, sir, that it is the habit of some gentlemen to speak
with censure or reproach of the politics of New York. Like
other States, we have contests, and, as a necessary conse-
quence, triumphs and defeats. The State is large, with great
and diversified interests ; in some parts of it, commerce is the
object of general pursuit ; in others, manufacture and agri-
culture are the chief concerns of its citizens. We have men
of enterprise and talents, wlio aspire to public distinction. It
is natural to expect from these circumstances and others that
might be alluded to, that her politics should excite more in-
terest at home, and attract more attention abroad, than those
of many otlier States in the Confederacy. It may be, sir,
that the politicians of New York are not so fastidious as
some gentlemen are as to disclosing the principles on which
they act. They boldly preach what they practice. When
they are contending for victory, they avow their intention of
enjoying the fruits of it. If they are defeated, they expect
to retire from office ; if they are successful, they claim, as a
matter of right, the advant^iges of success. They see nothing
wrong in the rule, that to tlic victor belongs the s{>oils of the

oncuiv.'*

ft'

Mr. Van Buren found an able defender in Governor For-
syth of Georgia. ^^Long known to me," siiid Mr. Forsyth,
*^ as a politician and as a man, acting together in the hour of
I)olitical adversity, when we had lost all but our honor — a
witness of his movements wlien 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, jxalliatiou, or
coloring — never any thing to lessen his character as a patriot
and as a man — nothing which he might not desire to see ex-
posed to the scrutiny of every member of this boily, with the
calm confidence of unsullied integrity. He is called an artful
man — a giant of artifice — a wily magician. Those ignorant
of iiis unrivaled knowledge of human character, his power of

1832.] THE BANK-VETO SESSION. 379

penetratiDg into the designs, and defeating the purposes of
his adversaries, seeing his rapid advance to puhlic honors, and
popular confidence, impute to art what is the natural result
of those simple causes. Extraordinary talent, untiring indus-
try, incessant vigilance, the happiest temper, which success
can not corrupt nor disappointment sour ; these arc the
sources of his unexampled success — the magic arts — the arti-
fices of intrigue, to which only he has resorted in his eventful
life. Those who envy his success, may learn wisdom from
his example.''

The nomination of Mr. Van Buren was rejected. Colonel
Benton in his " Thirty Years, View," gives us some rare
glimpses into the Senate chamber while the deed was in pro-
gress : ^' It was Mr. Gabriel Moore, of Alabama, who sat near
me, and to whom I said, when the vote was declared, ' You
have broken a minister, and elected a vice-president.' He
iisked me how ? and I told him the people would see nothing
in it but a combination of rivals against a competitor, and
would pull them all down, and set him up. ^ Good God !'
said he, ^why didn't you tell me that before I voted, and I
would have voted the other way.' *'

• ••••.■.

" On the evening of the day, on the morning of which all
the London newspapers heralded the rejection of the Ameri-
can minister, there was a great party at Prince Talleyrand's
— then the representative at the British court, of the new
King of the French, Louis Philippe. Mr. Van Buren, always
master of himself, and of all the proprieties of his position,
was there, as if nothing had hapi)ened ; and received distin-
guished attention, and complimentary allusions. Lord Auk-
land, grandson to the Mr. Edeu who was one of the Commis-
sioners of Conciliation sent to us at the beginning of the
revolutionary troubles, said to him, * It is an advantage of a
public man to be the subject of an outrage '-7-a remark, wise
in itself, and prophetic in its application to the person to
whom it was addressed. lie came home — apparently gave
himself no trouble about what had happened — was taken up

380 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

by the i)eople — elected, successively, Vice-President and Pres-
ident— while none of those combined against him ever at-
tained either position.

" There was, at the time, some doubt among their friends
as to the policy of the rejection, but the three chiefs were
positive in their belief that a senatorial condemnation would
be political death. I heard Mr. Calhoun say to one of his
doubting friends, ^It will kill him, sir, kill him dead. He
will never kick, sir, never kick ;' and the alacrity with which
he gave the casting votes, on the two occasions, both vital,
on which they were put into his hands, attested the sincerity
of his belief, and his readiness for the work. How those tie-
votes, for there were two of them, came to happen twice,
* hand-running,' and in a case so important, was matter of
marvel and speculation to the public on the outside of the
locked-up senatorial door. It was no mai*vel to those on the
inside, who saw how it was done. The combination had a
superfluity of votes, and, as Mr. Van Buren's friends were
every one known, and would sit fast, it only required the
superfluous votes on one side to go out ; and thus an equi-
librium between the two lines was established. When all was
finished, the injunction of secrecy was taken off the proceed-
ings, and the dozen set speeches delivered in secret session
immediately published — which shows that they were deliv-
ered for effect, not upon the Senate, but upon the public
mind."

The rejection secured Mr. Van Buren's political fortune.
His elevation to the presidency, long before desired and in-
tended by General Jackson, became, from that hour, one of
his darling objects. The "party," also, took him up with a
unanimity and enthusiasm that left the wire-pullers of the
White House little to do. Letters of remonstrance and ap-
probation, signed by influential members of the party, were
sent over the sea to Mr. Van Buren, who soon found that his
rejection was one of the most fortunate events of his public
life. To one of these encouraging letters he forwarded a re-
ply which did him no harm either with the party or the Pre§-

1832.] THE BANK-VETO SESSION. 381

ident. " In testifying to my public conduct," he wrote, " the
Committee are pleased to speak with eulogium of me, as con-
tributing while in the cabinet to the success of the present
administration ; that signal success, I feel called upon to de-
clare, is preeminently due to the political sagacity, unweary-
iiog industry, and upright, straight forward course of our
present venerated chief. All the humble merit I can claim
is, that of having exerted myself to the utmost to execute his
patriotic and single hearted views, and of having sacrificed all
personal considerations to insure their success, when threat-
ened with extraneous embarrassments. That my exertions
were ardous, painful, and incessant, I may without vanity,
assert : whether my sacrifices have not been repaid with
unmerited detraction and reproach, I leave to my countrymen
to determine. Still I shall ever regard my situation in that
cabinet as one of the most fortunate events of my life, pla-
cing me as it did in close and familiar relation with one who
has well been described by Mr. Jefferson as, ^possessing more
of the Soman in his character than any man living,' and
whose administration will be looked to, in future times, as a
golden era in our history. To have served under such a chief,
at such a time, and to have won his confidence and esteem, is
a sufficient glory, and of that, thank God, my enemies can
not deprive me."

It is generally supposed that it was the rejection of Mr.
Van Buren by the Senate in 1832 that caused him to be
adopted by the democratic party as their candidate for the
vice- presidency in that year. Col. Benton appears to have
been of that opinion. An attentive perusal of the Olobe and
Courier and Enquirer for 1831 will convince any one, I think,
that before Mr. Van Buren sailed for England, he was the
predestined candidate of the party for the second office. I
have a curious letter on the subject, addressed in 1831 by
Ifajor Lewis to Amos Kendall, which contains an italicized
word of much significance. In this letter was suggested, for
the first time, the plan of nominating President and Vice-
President by national convention — an idea borrowed from

382 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

the politics of New York. The following gives an insight
into the ways of politicians that the reader ought to prize
highly :

MAJOR WM. B. LKWIS TO MR. AMOS K END ALU

** Washimotox, 25th ^Smj. 1881.

*' My Dear Sir : Yours of the 17th inst., written from Mr. Iflaac HillV,
lias been received. I am much gratified to learn that our friends in New
Hampshire, and particularly Mr. Hill, are plciised witli the appointment of
Gk)vern()r Woodbury. It is imj)ortaut that our friends everywhere should
harmonize' and act in concert, and particularly in the New EngLind States,
where it is by union alone they can expect to succeed.

" Your information with rejrard to our Boston friends accords with
that which I have received from others. I have lately receive<l several

letters from Boston, and among them one from my friend D ^ who

gives a circumstantial account of Duffs visit to that place. If you seo
Mr. Derby, please present my respects to him, and say to him I have re-
ceived his letter. I fear the offices in that place were injudiciously disposed
of, as, from all accounts, the gentlemen who hold tliem look more to them*
selves than the individual who bestowed them. I am not so sure but
it would have been better had they been given to the anti-Statesmin
party.

*' I feel confident, however, that every reliance may be placed in the
good feeling and fidelity of Parker, McXiel, and Derby. The postmaster,
N. Green, is with us, but I have not yet been favored with a visit from
him. I have no doubt his trip to Washington is for tlie purpose of ascer-
taining how the land lies. If that bo his object, I incline to the belief thit
he will not be much gratified at the information he will receive.

" I have had a conversation with several of our friends here upon the
subject of the vice-presidency, and the universal opinion is that it is prema-
ture to nominal a candidate. There will be great difficulty in selecting
an individual who will be sjitisfactory to the different local interests of tbe
Union. Mr. liarbour, it is feared, will not be acceptable to Pennsylvania
and New York ; nor is it believed Dickinson would be willingly supported
by the SouLhorn anti-tariff States.

*' Mr. MoLane, I am inclined to think, would be the strongest man
that (*ould be run by the republi(^n party ; but tliere are almost insur-
mountable objections to him. Surrounded by so many difficulties as the
case is, and taking every thing into consideration, many of our friends (and
the most judicious of them) Uiink it would be best for the republican
members of the respective legislatures to propose to the people to elect
delegates to a national convention, to be holden for that purpose, at Har-

►n

1832.] THE BANK-VETO SESSION. 383

riflbiirg, or some other place, about the middle of uext May. That point
is preferred to prevent an improper interference by members of Congress,
who about that time will leave this city for their respective homes. If the
friends of the administration, when brought together from every part of
the Union, in convention, can not harmonize, I know of no other plan by
whicli it can bo done. If the legislature of New Hampshire will propose
thifl^ I think it will be followed up by others, and have the eilect, no
doubt, of putting a stop to partial nominations. You had better reflect
upon this proposition, and, if you tljink with me, make the suggestion to
our friend Hill.

" In your letter you say, * Duflf said 3^Ir. Calhoun must be run for Vice*
President again.' That this is their intention I have no doubt.

** You will sec from the Globe that we had an unusually large meeting
here last evening, friendly to the administration. It is said by Uiose who
were present to have been twice as large as the Clay meeting that pre-
, ceded it At tins meeting it was proposed by one of Dufl's partisans to
add a preamble and resolutions approving CaDioun's conduct, and nom-
inating him for reelection as Vice-President The General (Green) had
bis myrmidons judiciously arrauged through tlie company for effect, and
when the question for their adoption was proposed, they vociferated in
their favor with prolonged voices. But it would not do ; the resolutions
were voted down by an overwhelming majority. Mr. Rives, your clerk,
who was present, told me that out of a company of about seven hundred, he
did not beheve there were more than twenty or thirty in favor of the reso-
lutions. Green, I am told, was very much mortified, and looked ^ excess-
ively cowed.' Dr. and Mrs. Sliarpe have been with us. They lell here
yesterday. The Doctor, you know, was a strong Calhoun man ; continued
so until he saw Green ; but lilair says he lefl cured of Calhounism. The
General is rather an unfortunate agent for the Vice-President

" Livingston and Woodbury have entered upon the duties of their re-
spective departnieuts. Judge White has agaiu declined. I do not know
who will be selected to fill the War Department, but am rather of the
opinion that Col. Dr.iyton will be tiic man. If so, it is not improbable but
the President may oiler the appointiiieut of Attorney -General to John
Bell, of Nashville. Those appointments, however, are not positively de-
termined on. Every thing here looks well. The President is in good
beslth, and looks well. Mr. Van Buren will leave, probably, the first
week in June, and Mr. Eaton about the first of July. Please present my
respects to Mrs. Kendall, and believe me to be sincerely yours,

" W. B. Lewis."

The suggestion with regard to holding a National Con-
vention found favor in the eyes of Mr. Amos Kendall and

384 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

Mr. Isaac Hill, though they thought Baltimore a better place
for the purpose than Harrisburg. Accordingly, we observe
in the Globe of July 6th, 1831, one of those mysterious
" Extracts from the Letter of a Gentleman" (in Concord,
New Hampshire), which are so useful in political manage-
ment. " The Republican members of the New Hampshire
Legislature," said the Extract from the Letter of a Gentle-
man in Concord, Amos Kendall by name, " to the number
of about 169 (whole number of members say 235) met last
evening. An address and resolutions approving of the prin-
ciples and measures of the present administration, the veto
of the President on the Maysville Koad bill, disavowing the
doctrine of nullification, di8appro\nng Clay's American sys-
tem, but recommending a judicious reduction of the duties,
disapproving of the United States Bank, passed the Conven-
tion unanimously. The Convention also recommended a
General Convention of Republicans friendly to the election
of General Jackson, to consist of delegates equal to the num-
ber of electors of President in each State, to be holden at
Baltimore on the third Monday of May, 1832, to nominate a
candidate for Vice-President, and take such other measures
in support of the reelection of Andrew Jackson as may be
deemed expc^dient. The Republican party was never more
harmonious and united in this State than at the present time.
It is completely identified in the support of General Jackson;
and it is entirely out of the power of the coalition to shake
his popularity in this State. There Ls no point in which we
are better agreed than in decided opposition to re-chartering
the United States Bank."

Tlie Globe seconded the motion of Major Lewis by ap-
pending a few " Remarks" to the Extract from the Letter of
a Gentleman in Concord. " It is gratifying to perceive," said
the editor of the Globe^ " that the Bank Extras sent to the
members of the New Hampshire Legislature, have only
aroused them to the danger of giving prolonged existence to
that institution. The recommendation of a Convention at
Baltimore to nominate a candidate for the Vice-Presidency

.ij

1832.] THE BANK-VETO SESSION. 385

deserves a serious consideration. It is probably the best plan
which can be adopted to produce entire unanimity in the Sc-
publican party, and secure its lasting ascendency."

Thus was prepared, beforehand, the machinery by which
Hr. Yan Buren was nominated, first for the vice-presidency,
and, secondly, for the presidency ; by which, too, he was af-
terward overthrown ; by which all presidents and vice-presi-
dents, since 1832, have been nominated. With the prepa-
ration of this machinery, which he has been accused of
originating, he had nothing to do. Nor was he the inventor
of it as employed in the politics of his native State.

Beturning to the proceedings of Congress, we are com-
pelled to notice a painful and disgraceful affair, in which
Gteneral Houston, of Texas, was the principal actor. When
we last parted with this distinguished man, he had just leaped
over the breastwork of the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa,
and had fallen wounded, all but mortally, in doing his duty
as ensign of the thirty-ninth infantry. Since that day of
terror and of glory, he had run a bright career, and had had
various fortune. He had been Governor of Tennessee. He
had represented Tennessee in the House of Sepresentatives.
But in 1830 he had come to Washington, broken in fortune,
unhappy in his domestic circumstances, a suitor for govern-
mental favor. He applied for a contract for supplying rations
to the Indians that were about to be removed, at the public
expense, beyond the Mississippi. The President was ex-
tremely desirous that he should have the contract — so desir-
ous, that he seemed inclined to give it to him, contrary to
the spirit of the law, which obliged it to be awarded to the
lowest bidder. Colonel McKenney, the Superintendent of
Indian Affaii*s, was of opinion that the rations could be sup-
plied, at a profit, for less than seven cents per day for each
Indian. Houston's bid was eighteen cents, which, McKenney
thought, would afford a profit of thousands of dollars a week,
and, indeed, was equivalent to the bestowal of a large fortune.
He also contended that time should be allowed, after adver-
tising for proposals, for bids to come in from the section of

VOL. lU. — 26

386 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

country where the rations were to be furnished. Time was
not allowed. The affair was hurried on toward consumma-
tion, and it looked, at one time, as though Houston would
get the contract at his own price.

At this stage of the proceedings, Duff Green, then the
friend, confidential editor, and adviser of the President, heard
of the scheme, and, foreseeing the clamor that would arise
in case the contract were so bestowed, went to the President
to remonstrate against it. " I apologized for calling," he tes-
tified afterward before a Committee of the House, " by r^
ferring immediately to the contract ; said that I was confident
that it could be furnished for much less than I understood the
department was about to give. The President said that they
had ascertained that the ration had cost twenty-two cents ;
General Houston had gone on to New York, and had brought
with him (or obtained) a wealthy partner (or security), and
that the contract would be given to him at eighteen cents.
I then referred to the price of beef, com, etc., in the west,
and said I was confident the rations could be furnished at six
cents. He replied, quickly, * Will you take it at ten V I
said, ' No, sir.' He then said, ' Will you take it at twelve
cents ? if you will, you shall have it at that.' I told him
that I was not a bidder for the contract ; that, although I
was satisfied I could realize an immense sum upon such a
contract, I was influenced to call upon him by a desire to
serve him and the administration, and not by a wish to specn-
late ; and left him."

Not satisfied with this interview. General Green addressed
a letter, on the same day, to the Secretary -of War on the sub-
ject. " After leaving you last evening," he wrote (March,
1830), " I examined, for the first time, your proposals for
rations. From my knowledge of the prices of beef and corn
in the Western States, I am confident that the proposed ra-
tion ought not to cost ten cents, yet I understand you to say
that you expect to give from eighteen to twenty cents, and
that the issue, at these prices, will amount to twelve thousand
dollars per day. That a contract of such amount should be

1832.] THE BANK-VBTO SESSION. 387

made without giving notice to the Western States, where the
provisions must be purchased, will be a cause of attack ; but
when I read the advertisement, and see that it is so worded as
not to convey an idea of the speculation it affords, and con-
nect it with the fact, which is within my own knowledge, that
it was prepared under the special advisement of Gteneral
Houston, who has gone on to New York, and has brought on
from there a wealthy partner to join him in the contract, I
should be unfaithful to the administration, to General Jack-
son, and to myself, if I did not bring the subject before you in
such a shape as to guard against the consequences which I
foresee will follow any such contract as the one he contem-
plates. Such a contract may enrich a few who are concerned
in it, but will destroy the confidence of the public, I fear, in
the administration, and impair the fair fame of the President,
which it is your duty and mine to guard. Will it not be well
to extend the time, so as to enable the people of Missouri and
Arkansas to bid ?"

Upon further reflection, the President was so far convinced
of his error as to give up the plan of furnishing the rations
by contract. General Houston was disappointed and thrown
upon Texas. And, perhaps, the United States owes the pos-
session of that State to the failure of General Houston to
obtain the contract for supplying the Indians.

Some of the facts here related having gained publicity.
General Houston and his contract became the subject of many
newspaper articles, satirical and vituperative. In the sum-
mer of 1831, Houston published a Proclamation of a comical
nature, intended to neutralize those attacks :

" A PROCLAMATION 1 ! !

" Whereas, I have recently seen a publication, originating in the Chero-
kee Nation, east of the Mississippi, dated ' 18th May, 1831,' and signed ' L
&,' which said publication, or letter, has been republished in several news-
papers, such as the Kentucky Reporter^ United States Telegraphy etc., and
as I presume it will find a general circulation, notwiUistanding the absurd
personalities which it contains ; and as it is not the first which has found
its way into the public prints, containing ridiculous and unfounded abuse

388 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

of me : — ^Now know all men by these presents, that I, Sam. Houston, ' late
Gk)vemor of the State of Tennessee,' do hereby declare to all scoundrels
whomsoever, that they are authorized to accuse, defame, calumniate, tra-
duce, slander, vilify, and libel me, to any extent, in personal or private
abuse. And I do further proclaim, to whomsoever it may concern, that
they are hereby permitted and authorized to write, indite, print^ publidi,
and circulate the same, and that I will in nowise hold them responsible
to me in law, nor honor, for cither the use of the ' raw material,' or the fiib-
rication of any, or all of the above named articles connected with the
' American System T nor will I have recourse to nullification, in any cue
whatsoever, where a conviction would secure to the culprit the dignity of
a penitentiary residence. And as some ingenuity has been already dis*
played in the exhibition of specimens, and others may be induced to in-
vest a small capital in the business, from feelings of emulation and an itch-
ing after experiment. Be it known, for the especial encouragement of aH
scoundrels hereafter, as well as those who have already been engaged, that
I do solemnly propose on the first day of April next, to give to the anthor
of the most elegant, refined, and ingenious lie or calumny, a handsome gih
copy (bound in sheep) of tlic Kentucky Reporter, or a snug, plain cc^y of
the United States Tdegraph (bound in dog), since its commencements
" Given under my hand and private seal (having no seal of office) at
Nashville, in the State of Tennessee, 13th July, 1831.

" Sam. Houston, [l. b.]"

In the spring of 1832 he was in Washington again, where
he forgot his Proclamation. Before leaving the capital to
enter upon his new and marvelous career in the Southwest,
he was betrayed by his passions into the commission of an
act which subjected him to the censure of the House of Rep-
resentatives, and which he himself must, long ago, have
learned to deplore. He committed a most atrocious and un-
provoked assault upon a member of the House of Repre-
sentatives, Mr. William Stanberry, of Ohio. The following
correspondence explains itself :

GENERAL HOUSTON TO MR. WILLIAM 8TANBIRRT.

**WASunroToir Cnr, April 8d, IML
" Sir : I have seen some remarks in the National InMigencer of the 2d
instant, in which you are represented to have said, ' Was the late Secrettfy
of War removed in consequence of his attempt fraudulently to give to Got-
emor Houston the contract for Indian Rations?*

1832.] THE BANK-VETO SESSION. 389

** The object of this note is to ascertain whether my name was used by

you in debate, and, if so, whether your remarks have been correctly quoted.

" As the renuu-ks were inserted in anticipation of their regular place, I

hope yon will find it convenient to reply without delay. I am, your most

obedient servant^ Sam. Houston."

WILLIAM 8TANBERBT TO CAVE JOHNSON.

" Horn or BsPEnxHTATiTW, April 4th, 188i.

"Bot: I received this momlDg by your hands a note, signed Sam.
Houston, quoting from the National InUUigencer of the 2d instant, a remark
made by me in the House. The object of the note is to ascertain whether
Mr. Houston's name was used by me in debate, and whether my remarks
were correctly quoted.

" I can not recognize the right of Mr. Houston to make this request
" Very respectfully yours, etc.,

"William Stanberrt,"

Exasperated by this reply, Houston made no secret of his
intention to assault Mr. Stanberry, who, from that time, went
aimed to and from the capitol. Ten days elapsed, however,
before the bad design of the irate Tennesseean was executed,
and it was executed then with peculiar circumstances of
atrocity. Senator Buckner, of Missouri, stood by and saw it
done, and afterward testified without a blush, that he made
no attempt to prevent the shameful deed. Houston, he said,
was standing near a fence in one of the avenues, when Mr.
Stanberry came along. " It occurred to me immediately,
that there would be a difficulty between them. * Are you
Mr. Stanberry ?' asked Houston. Stanberry replied very
politely, bowing at the same time, * Yes, sir.' * Then,' said
Houston, * you are the damned rascal ;' and with that, struck
him with a stick which he had held in his hand. Stanberry
threw up his hands over his head and staggered back. His
hat fell off, and he exclaimed, ' Oh, don't !' Houston con-
tinued to follow him up, and continued to strike him. After
receiving several severe blows, Stanberry turned, as I thought,
to run off. Houston, at that moment, sprang upon him in
the rear, Stanberry's arms hanging down, apparently defence-
less. He seized him and attempted to throw him, but was

390 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1832.

not able to do so. Stanberry carried him about on the pave-
ment some little time. Whether he extricated himself, or
Houston thrust him from him, I am not able to determine.
I thought he thrust him from him. As Houston passed him,
he struck him and gave him a trip — Stanberry fell. When
he fell, he continued to halloo ; indeed, he hallooed all the
time pretty much, except when they were scuffling. I saw
Stanberry, after receiving several blows, put out both hands,
he then lying on his back. I did not discover what was in
his hands, or if any thing was, but I heard a sound like the
snapping of a gun-lock, and I saw particles of fire. Houston
appeared to take hold of Stanberry's hands and took some-
thing from them which I could not see. After that, Hous-
ton stood up more erect, still beating Stanberry with a stick
over the head, arms, and sides, Stanberry still keeping his
arms spread out. After Houston had given him several more
blows, he lay on his back and put up his feet. Houston then
struck him elsewhere. Mr. Stanberry, after he had received
several blows, ceased to halloo, and lay, as I thought, per-
fectly still. All this time I had not spoken to either of the
parties, or interfered in any manner whatever. I now thought
Stanberry was badly hurt, or, perhaps, killed, from the man-
ner in which he lay. I stepped up to Houston to tell him to
desist, but, without being spoken to, he quit of his own ac-
cord. Mr. Stanberry then got up on his feet, and I saw the
pistol in the right hand of Gov. Houston for the first time."

On the day following, the Speaker of the House of Repre-
sentatives received a note from Mr. Stanberry ; " Sir, I was
waylaid in the street, near to my boarding-house, last night
about eight o'clock, and attacked, knocked down by a blud-
geon, and severely bruised and wounded by Samuel Houston,
late of Tennessee, for words spoken in my place in the House
of Representatives, by reason of which I am confined to my
bed, and unable to discharge my duties in the house, and at-
tend to the interests of my constituents. I communicate this
information to you, and request that you will lay it before
the house."

fll

1832.] THE BANK-VBTO SESSION. 391

The Speaker laid it before the house, and the house spent
exactly one calendar month in debating the subject, hearing
testimony, and the defense of the accused. James K. Polk,
of Tennessee, distinguished himself by his zeal in endeavoring
to prevent an investigation. The end of the matter in the
house was that Houston was condemned to be reprimanded
by the Speaker ; and reprimanded he was, but in such a
manner as to leave the house in no doubt that the Speaker
(Andrew Stephenson) sympathized with the assailant rather
than with the assailed — with General Houston rather than
with the insulted house over which he presided.

General Jackson, I regret to be obliged to record, sus-
tained his friend Houston in this bad deed. He said to a
friend, in substance, that " after a few more examples of the
same kind, members of Congress would learn to keep civil
tongues in their heads." Perhaps the people of the United
States will learn, after a few more examples of the same kind,
that the man who replies to a word by a blow confesses by
that blow the justice of that word. At a later day, when
Houston was tried for this assault in a court of the District
of Columbia, and was sentenced to pay a fine of five hundred
dollars, the President nullified the proceeding by the little
document annexed :

" I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of America, to
the Marshal of the District of Columbia, greeting :

" Whereas, at a session of the Circuit Court of the United States, held
in and for the county of Washington and District of Columbia, in the
year 1832, a certain Samuel Houston was convicted of an assault and bat-
teiy, and sentenced to pay a fine of five hundred dollars and costs of pro-
secution:

" Now be it known that I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United
States of America, in consideration of the premises, divers good and suf-
ficient reasons me tliereunto moving, have remitted, and do hereby remit
mito him, the said Samuel Houston, the fine aforesaid, in order that he be
discharged fix)m imprisonment.

" In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name, and
caused the seal of the United States to be afiixed to these presents.

392 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

Done at the city of Wasbington, this third day of July, A. D. 1834, and
of the Independence of the United States the fifty-eighth.

" Akdrew Jacksoh."

**B]r the President
** John Fobbtth, Secretary of State.**

While the Houston affair was still the talk of the coTm-
try, another member of Congress, Thomas D. Arnold, of
Tennessee, was most grossly assaulted, and that, too, upon
the very threshold of the house, and in the presence of a hun-
dred mepibers. A certain Major Heard thought proper to
take offense at the zeal with which Mr. Arnold had denounced
the conduct of Houston in the House of Bepresentatires.
Meeting Arnold in the streets, he attempted to assault him
there, but was deterred by the member's resolute defianoa
" I was accosted," said Mr. Arnold, in a card published in
the Telegraph, " by a man of ruffian appearance, who re-
quired me to stop. I did so. He approached pretty near.
I discovered he was very much agitated ; his lip quivered,
and he turned pale. He asked if my name was Arnold ; I
told him it was. He said, ^ Then you are the man who
abused my friend Houston so severely.' He was going to say
something else, but the instant I saw the subject he had
broached, I demanded to know his name. He replied his
name was Heard, and added, Major Heard. I told him I knew
nothing of him, and intended to have nothing to do with
him. I fortunately had a walking-cane in my hand, and kept
it iu such a position that he saw I could strike as soon as he
could. He wore a cap, and had a large stick in his hand ; I
think it was an orange limb, headed and feruled. I turned
my back upon him as soon as I could do it in safety. As I
walked off, he said he * intended to whip me, and that he
would do it yet, by God.' He did not pursue me, as I dis-
covered. I do not wish to be protected by my constitutional
privilege, but I think it due to the American people that
they should know the state of things at this place."

A few days after. Heard accomplished his purpose. Just
after the adjournment of the house, the ruffian fell upon Mr.

1832.] THB BANK VETO. 393

Arnold with a club, and failing to bring him to the ground
with that weapon, fired a pistol at him. The ball grazed
Arnold's arm and tore his coat, and passing over his shoul-
der, came within an ace of entering the body of Mr. Tazewell.
Arnold felled the assailant to the ground with his cane, and
was about to stab him with the sword thereof, when his
arm was caught by a bystander, and Heard was taken to
prison.

Having disposed of these personal matters, we may now
proceed to a£birs more important. The two great topics of
the session were the tariff and the bank. The tariff bill
passed at this session having been the direct cause of the nul-
lification explosion, it will be convenient to defer our account
of it until we come to speak of nullification. As the long
session wore on, all other subjects were swallowed up in the
discussion of the question. Shall the bank of the United
States be re-chartered, or shall it not ? Congress, the press,
the President, the people, politicians, business men, all men,
were drawn into the maelstrom of this great debate. We,
too^ for our sins, must skirt its borders, if not plunge head-
long in, never to emerge.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE BANK VETO,

There was division in the Bank councils. A large num-
ber of the Bank's wisest friends desired, above all things, to
keep the question of re-chartering out of the coming presi-
dential campaign. Others said : "It is now or never with
us. We have a majority in both Houses in favor of re-char-
tering. Let us seize the opportunity while we have it, for it
may never return." " No," said the opposite party, " the
President will most assuredly veto the bill ; and we can not
carry it over the veto. Then, if the President is reelected,

Li.

394 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

which, alas ! is only too possible, the Bank is lost irrecover-
ably. Precipitation gives us but one chance ; delay may af-
ford us manv."

Mr. Clay's powerful will decided this controversy. Said
he, in substance. •' We have the President in a dilemma, upon
one '"»f the h» -ms of which we can certainlv transfix him. The
le<:islature nf his tavoritc State, his own devoted PennsvlTa-
nia. Las unanininusly pronounced in favor of re-chartering
the Bank. The Bank is in Pennsyhnnia. Pennsylvania is
proud i'f it, and thinks her prosjKM'ity identified with it. If
the President vetoes the bill, he loses Pennsylvania, the bul-
wark of his power and popularity. If he does not veto the
bill, he I'jses fatallv in the South and West. Now is our
time." This reasoning may not have quite convinced the
leadiui: friends of the Bank ; but the commanding influence
of Henry Clay, then in the very zenith of his power and of
his fame, caused it to be adopted as the policy of the insti-
tution.

How little he knew Pennsylvania, the State that, for forty
years, has generally controlled politics ! " Go, my son, study
Pennsylvania,-' should be the advice of a parent launching
his otfspriug into the sea of American politics. Pennsylvania,
laiw. sulid, heavv, and central, is the ballast State of the
Vniun. Pennsylvania rej)resents the " general average" of
sense and feelinir. An event that thrills Ohio, drives New
England mad, and New York frantic, onlv ruffles, and that
but for a moment, Pennsylvania's ample and placid counte-
nance. Can vou move Pennsvlvania ? Then vou are mas-

• • •

ter of the situation.

Early in Uecember, when Congress had been less than
two weeks in session, a convention of National Republicans
(soon t<^ be styled Whigs) assembled at Baltimore to nomi-
nate opi)osition candidates for the presidency and the vice-
presidency. So soon did Major Lewis's suggestion bear fruit
Henrv Clav and John Serjwant were the cimdidates selected,
both devoted to the Bank, one a citizen of Pennsylvania. In
the Address issued by the Convention the Bank question wa«

1832.] THE BANK VETO. 395

made a leading issue of the contest. The Bank was eulogized
as a " great and beneficent institution," which, " by facilitat-
ing exchanges between different parts of the Union, and
maintaining a sound, ample, and healthy state of the cur-
rency, may be said to supply the body politic, economically
viewed, with a continual stream of life-blood, without which
it must inevitably languish and sink into exhaustion."

Three times, the address continued, the President had
gone out of his way to denounce this blessed fountain of na-
tional life, as '^ a sort of nuisance, and consign it, as far as his
influence extends, to immediate destruction." If, therefore,
the President be reelected, it is all over with the Bank of the
United States. " Are the people of the United States pre-
pared for this ? Are they ready to destroy one of their most
valuable establishments to gratify the caprice of a chief mag-
iBtrate who reasons and advises upon a subject, with the
details of which he is evidently unacquainted, in direct con-
tradiction to the opinion of his own official counselors ?"

If any such there be, they will vote for Andrew Jackson.
Bat no, fellow-citizens, we have a higher opinion of your
good sense and patriotism. Clay and Sergeant, the great de-
fenders of the sacred Bank, are, unquestionably, the men for
whom you will cast your votes.

So the issue between the opposition and the administra-
tion was joined. The administration, there is good reason to
believe, would have gladly avoided the issue at this session.
Mr. Clay wrote to a friend, a few days after the publication
of the address : " The Executive is playing a deep game to
avoid, at this session, the responsibility of any decision on the
bank question. It is not yet ascertained whether the bank,
by forbearing to apply for a renewal of their charter, will or
will not conform to the wishes of the President. I think they
will act very unwisely if they do not apply." I am likewise
assured, upon authority no less distinguished than Mr. Ed-
ward Livingston, that, at this stage of the contest, the Presi-
dent was really disposed to cease the war upon the bank. It
was Mr. Livingston's opinion that if, at the beginning of

396 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

this session, the bank had shown a little complaisance to the
President, had consulted him, had consented to certain mod-
ifications of its charter, the President could have been induced
to sign the re-chartering bill. Mr. Biddle and Mr. Clay de-
termined otherwise. They seized the earliest moment to
taunt and defy the President, who accepted the issue.

On the 9th of January, Mr. George M. Dallas, of Penn-
sylvania, presented to the Senate a memorial from the presi-
dent and directors of the bank, asking a renewal of their
charter. The memorial, which was chiefly an apology for
what might seem a premature agitation of the subject, was
couched in language most modest and respectful It was not
for them, said the directors, to speak of the value to the pub-
lic of an institution established with so much difficulty and
conducted with so much toil. But the bank was connected
in so many ways with the business of the country, that it was
hi<j;lily desirable the country should learn, as soon as possible,
w^hether the present financial system was to cease on the 4th
of March, 1836, or endure for many years to come. If Con-
gress, in its wisdom, should decree the extinction of tiie
bank, the directors would do all in their power to aid the
community to devise new financial facilities, and would en-
deavor to close the bank with as little detriment to the busi-
ness of the country as their experience in the management of
financial affairs would enable them.

In presenting this gentlemanlike memorial, Mr. Dallas, a
friend of the bank, admitted that he thought its presentation,
just then, unwise. He feared that the bank "might be
drawn into real or imagined conflict with some higher, some
more favorite, some more immediate wish or purpose of the
American people." Observe the senator's descending scale
of adjectives : " Some higher, some more favorite, some more
immediate." Hard lot, to be a statesman in a country where
all politics necessarily resolve themselves into a contest for
the first office — a contest renewed as soon as the wretched
incumbent has t^kcn his seat ! Not what is best, but what
will tell in the presidential campaign, is always the question.

1832.] THB BANK VETO. 397

The memorial, presented thus early in the session, was a
prominent subject of debate during all the winter and spring
of 1832. January, February, March, April, May, and June,
passed away before the final passage of the bank bill was
voted upon. And never was there exhibited so striking an
illtistration of the maxim, that will, not talent, governs the
world. The will of one man, Andrew Jackson, operating
apon the will of one other man, Thomas H. Benton, carried
the day against the assembled talent and the interested cap-
ital of the country. The bank, as we all now believe, ought
to have fallen ; but the mode in which the war against it was
conducted, was arrogant, ferocious, and mean. Instead of
opposing it on broad Jeffersonian principles, Benton kept as-
flailing it with charges of misconduct, most of which were
fiivolous, and all of any importance were proved to be false.
Never were the affairs of an institution so microscopically in-
vestigated. Never was one shown to be more free from inten-
tional or unintentional blame. I boldly affirm, that in the
huge volume containing the results of the official investiga-
tion, published in the spring of 1832, not one accusation in-
volving the integrity of the directors is sustained. The bank
was proved to have been conducted with honesty and skill.
Nor had the conduct or misconduct of the bank any thing
to do with the question whether or not the bank had a right
to exist. The mode adopted of assailing the institution could
not have much effect upon Congress, and was not expected
to have. The people, the voters at the next presidential
election, were the individuals sought to be influenced by it.

Col. Benton confesses as much in his " Thirty Years'
View." " Seeing," he says, '^ that there was a majority in
each house for the institution, and no intention to lose time
in arguing for it, our course of action became obvious, which
waa, to attack incessantly, assail at all points, display the
evil of the institution, rouse the people, and prepare thorn to
flOfltain the veto. It was seen to be the policy of the bank
leaders to carry the charter first, and quietly, through the
Senate ; and afterward, in the same way in the House. We

398 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [18^

determined to have a contest in both places, and to force the
bank into defenses which would engage it in a general com-
bat, and lay it open to side-blows, as well as direct attacks.
With this view a great many amendments and inquiries were
prepared to be offered in the Senate, all of them proper or
plausible, recommendable in themselves, and supported by
acceptable i-easons, which the friends of the bank must either
answer, or reject without answer ; and so incur odium. In
the House it was determined to make a move, which, whether
resisted or admitted by the bank majority, would be certain
to have an effect against the institution — namely, an investi-
gation by a committee of the house, as provided for in the
charter. If the investigation was denied, it would be guilt
shrinking from detection ; if admitted, it was well known
that misconduct would be found. I conceived this move-
ment, and had charge of its direction. I preferred the House
for the theater of investigation, as most appropriate, being
the grand inquest of the nation ; and, besides, wished a con-
test to be going on there while the Senate was engaged in
passing the charter ; and the right to raise the committee
was complete in either house. Besides the right reserved in
the charter, there was a natural right, when the corporation
was asked for a renewed lease, to inquire how it had acted
under the previous one. I got Mr. Clayton, a new member
from Georgia (who had written a pamphlet against the bank
in his own State), to take charge of the movement, and gave
him a memorandum of seven alleged breaches of the charter,
and fifteen instances of imputed misconduct to inquire into,
if he got his committee ; or to allege on the floor if he en-
countered resistance."

Mr. Clayton did encoimter resistance. " All these chai^ges,"
continues Col. Benton, " he read to the house, one by one,
from a narrow slip of paper, which he continued rolling round
his finger all the time. The memorandum was mine — in my
hand-writing — ^given to him to copy and amplify, as they
were brief memoranda. He had not copied them ; and hav-
ing to justify suddenly, he used the sUp I had given him^

1832.] THE BANK VETO. 399

rolling it on his finger, as on a cylinder, to prevent my hand-
writing from being seen : so ho afterward told me himself.
The reading of these twenty-two heads of accusation, like so
many counts in an indictment, sprung the friends of the
bank to their feet — and its foes also — each finding in it
something to rouse them— one to the defense, the other to
the attack/'

The committee of investigation was appointed, and ap-
pointed, of course, by an anti-bank speaker. It consisted of
seven members — Mr. Clayton, of Georgia, (chairman), Rich-
ard M. Johnson, Francis Thomas, C. C. Cambreleng, George
HcDuffie, John Quincy Adams, and Mr. Watmough. The
first four of these gentlemen were opposed to re-chartering
the bank ; the last three were in favor of it. On the 23d of
March, the committee had reached Philadelphia, and begun
their investigations. Fifty days elapsed before the committee
were ready to report, and then they were unable to agree.
Three separate reports were accordingly presented to the
House, one by the majority, one by the minority, and one by
Mr. Adams. The last two exonerated the bank from all the
important charges, and the report of Mr. Adams declared
that the bank had been conducted with as near an approach
to perfect wisdom as the imperfection of human nature per-
mitted. These three reports, with the documents appended,
form an octavo volume of five hundred and seventy-two
pages.

Believing that the mode in which the bank had been con-
ducted had nothing to do with the question of re-charter-
ing, which ought to have been debated, and was decided on
other grounds, I shall pass lightly over these formidable re-
ports. Two or three points, however, are interesting in
themselves, and may worthily detain us a moment.

One of the Bentonian accusations against the Bank was,
that it had issued notes not signed by the president and
cashier. The directors showed that this was owing to the
physical impossibility of those officers signing the number of
Qoies required by the parent Bank and its twenty-five

400 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

branches. Consequently, after taking the opinion of the
thrw great lawyers of the day, Horace Binney, Daniel Web-
ster, and William Wirt, the directors had authorized the
presidents and cashiers of the twenty-five branches to issue
checJcs, which closely resembled the notes of the Bank in
general appearance, and were not usually distinguished from
them.

Another of the charges urged by Colonel Benton was, that
the Bank was criminally profuse in its accommodation to
editors who favored the re-chartering. Two cases were inves-
tigated— a loan to Duff Green, of the Telegraphy and loans
to the proprietors of the New York Courier and Enquirer,
It was shown, first, that the loan to General Green was a safe
and legitimate business transaction ; secondly, that at the
time the loan was made, the Telegraph had led the opposi-
tion against the Bank ; thirdly, that when applying for the
loan. Green had expressly stated that " no accommodation
given by the Bank ynll induce me to alter, in any respect, the
course which my paper has pursued in relation to it;"
fourthly, that Mr. Biddle had rci)lied in the following terms :
" The Bank is glad to have friends from conviction ; but
seeks none from interest. For mvself, I love the freedom of
the press too much to complain of its occasional injustice to
me ; and if the loan be made, it shall be with a |)erfect un-
derstanding— to be i)ut into the note, if necessary — that the
bon-owor is to speak his mind about the Bank just as freely
as he dill before, which I take to be ' ample room and verge
enough.' "

Tho case of Colonel Webb and the Courier received an
extraordinary share of attention. The readers of a New York
newsi)aper were daily reminded, for about ten years, and are
not yet permitted to forget, that the amount of the accom-
modation afforded by the Bank to the Courier and Enquirer^
at different times, was $52,975. Tliere were three editors of
that important newspai)er in 1830, James Watson Webb, M.
M. Noah, and James Gordon Bennett ; the two latter opposed
to the re-charter in toto ; the first, opposed to certain fea^

1832.] THB BANK VETO. 401

tares of the Bank, but in favor of re-chartering it with modi-
fications. The anti-Bank articles, which were a specialty of
the paper in 1830, were written by Messrs. Noah and Ben-
nett ; most of them by Bennett, who had an aversion to all
banks, and who knew, and knows, how important it is to a
daily paper to have an imposing and powerful object to at-
tack. Colonel Webb was not the author of one of these ar-
ticles, though he permitted their insertion, and approved
them as a part of the party tactics of the hour. Nor was he
aware, at that time, that the President was prepared to carry
his hostility to the Bank to the point of its total extinction.

" The first article," said Colonel Webb, in a letter to Mr.
Cambreleng, " which ever appeared in our columns, was writ-
ten in Washington about a month previous to the Message
of 1829. It was inserted in our columns during my absence
from the city, or without my examination. I disapproved of
it, its arguments, and conclusions. I never, in my life, wrote
a line against the Bank, but I permitted and sanctioned ar-
ticles against it because we had become committed ; because
the President had assailed it, and because I was under the
erroneous impression that it was prostituted to the advance-
ment of Henry Clay to the presidency. I became convinced
that this was not the case, and I eagerly seized upon the ex-
pression of a Jackson legislature in Pennsylvania, upon the
danger of embroiling the two States (the folly of which Mr.
Van Buren now suffers under), and the going out of Tylee*
and coming in of Noah, to take the course which I was per-
suaded would best subserve the interests of the people, and,
at the same time, accord fully with my own opinions."

The first consequence to the paper of its espousal of the
caiue of the bank was a refusal on the part of the New York
banks to afford it pecuniary accommodation. ^^ I can prove/'
said Colonel Webb, in the same letter to Mr. Cambreleng,
"that at the time of our espousing the re-charter of the
United States' Bank, we had $13,500 of accommodation in

* A former proprietor.
VOL. lU^ — 26

402 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

the City Bank alone^ on the endorsement of Mr. A, L. Stew-
art ; that we had a large similar accommodation for nearly
two years from this one institution ; tliat in consequence of
our favorable opinions of the United States' Bank, they made
us pay up every penny of our accommodation, and threw out
our note with Mr. Stewart's endorsement ; that the Manhat-
tan and National Banks pursued the same course ; and tliat,
in consequence, we were cut oflf from our usual resources of
obtaining those accommodations to which the amount of our
capital employed, and the extent of our business entitled us,
and which we surely did not sacrifice by publishing a news-
paper. We were literally proscribed by our local institutions.
I went to Philadelphia, and gave to Mr. Biddle a full and
perfect history of our paper, and asked for a loan of $20,000.
It was granted."

The statement forwarded by Colonel Webb of the busi-
ness of his establishment, the first of the kind then existing
in the country, proved that the loans granted by the bank
were safe, proper, and usual. Some of the items will interest
gentlemen connected with the press : 3300 daily subscriben
at ten dollars ; 2300 weekly or semi-weekly subscribers, at aa
average of four dollars and fifty cents ; 275 advertising sub-
scribers, at thirty dollars ; daily income from advertising,
fifty-five dollars ; daily cash receipts for advertising, ten dol-
lars ; gross annual income, $60,750 ; expenses, $35,000 ; pro-
fit, $25,750 ; annual cost of paper, $22,000. Colonel Webb
considered the establishment worth $150,000.

The most signal triumph of the bank and its president,
during this investigation, occurred in connection with the tes-
timony of Reuben M. Whitney. Whitney had formerly been
a merchant of Philadelphia and a director of the Bank of the
United States. At this time, he was a bankrupt, and one
of the bank's most rancorous enemies, and the chief source of
Colonel Benton's catalogue of charges. When testifying be-
fore the committee he gave such evidence as must have blasted
for ever the good name of the president of the bank, if it had
not been demonstrated to be the foulest perjury. Observe

1832.] THE BANK VETO. 403

the circumstantial maimer in which this individual told his
scandalous tale :

Quettum hy Mr, Clayian. Did Mr. Thomas Wilson, the former cashier,
erer acquaint you with any circumstance relating to the accounts of Mr.
Thomas fiiddle in the bank ? if yea, state fully what it was.

Answer. Some time in 1823, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Andrews mentioned
to me that some transactions had taken place in the bank in which T. and
J. G. Biddle* were concerned, which they were not willing should exist
without some member of the board being informed of them. I asked what
they were. They replied that T. and J. Q-. Biddle had been in the habifr
of coming to the bank, and getting money, and leaving certificates of stock
which represented it, in the first teller's drawer, without paying interest
They also stated, that the Messrs. Biddle had had notes discounted for them
by the president, which were entered on the books of the preceding dis-
count day. I asked them what sums there were of the kind in existence
at that time. They went with me to the first teller's drawer, and we foimd
one sum of $45,000, dated 25th May, and one for $24,000, dated 26th
May. We then went to the discount clerk's desk, and found one note at
fifteen days, dated 13th May, for $20,000 of T. Biddle's, and one note of
Charies Biddle's, dated 21st May, at sixteen days, for $38,319. The two
fonner sums represented cash, and the two latter new notes, which they
stated to me had been discounted by order of the presidents Of all these I
made a memorandum (now produced) at the time, which corresponds with
the entries now in the books now shown to me.

Question by Mr. Thomas, Did you conmiunicate these matters to the
president? if yea, state when and where.

Answer, Immediately aflcr examining the books I came into the pres-
ident's room and communicated to him what had been communicated to
me, and what I had learned by examining the books. After stating this,
I desired that nothing of a similar nature should occur while I was a direc-
tor of the bank. He told me there should not.

Question hy Mr. Clayton. Did you not direct the officers to enter what
yon discovered on the books, and was it done ?

Answer. I directed the officers to enter on the books the money that
had been loaned from the teller's drawer, and which was represented by
stock certificates. It was done ; I did not see it done, but I know it was
done. Subsequently I saw this entry of "bills receivable," which I knew
was the entry made for that purpose. In the entry in the semi-weekly
statement, or state of the bank, under date of 27th May, under head of
bilb receivable, the sum of $69,000 is entered, which is the exact amount

* Kxtensive Brokers of Philadolphia, second cousins of Nicholaa Biddle.

404 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

of the two sums of $45,000, and 924,000, represented by stock certificites
in the teller's drawer.

Question by Mr, Adams, Did you in your communication, immediately
aflcr directing the entries to be made in the books, inform the president
that you had directed those entries to be made ?

Answer. I can not say that I did.

Question by Mr. McDuffie. The memorandum you have prodaoed is
the one before referred to by you; when was it made ?

Answer. I made it at the time the communication toas made to mebg
Mr. Wilson and Mr. Andrews^ and this memorandum now produced it tie
one.

Question by Mr. Adams, Have you ever had any communication,
written or Tcrbal, on this subject, with any member of the committee ?

Answer. I liave, verbally, with Mr. Clayton, and in the presence of Mi;
Cambreleng. I have also told different individuals of it immediately after
it occurred, as well as at various times since.

Question by Mr. Adams. Did you go to Mr. Clayton without any pre*
vious solicitation ?

Answer. I had received a letter from Colonel Benton, informing me he
had recommended Judge Clayton to me.

Question by Mr, BiddU^ the President of (he Bank. Where did the il-
loged conversation between you, Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Andrews^ tike
place?

Answer. In the area of the banking room, not far from the first teller's
desk. These gentlemen, one or both of them, went with me to the teOer's
desk. I made the memorandum of the cash there, and my memorandnm
of the notes I made at the discount clerk's desk ; one or both of them
went with me to the discount clerk's desk, and there I made mj memo-
randum of the notes. Mr. Burtis was, I think, the discount clerk. I cm
not say whether I directed the entries on the books of the loans before I
went to the discount clerk. I gave the direction to both Mr. Wilson and
Mr. Andrews, if both were present, or to but one, if only one was presoit
I stated to you the particulars I had learned, as stated in the memoriD-
(lum. You did not deny them. You colored up a good dmL I can sot
say whether there was any person who could have overheard this conver-
sation, but I presume not I can not say whether or not I have had aoy
conversation with them since ; I think it probable I have, as I do not
know how else I learned that the item of bills receivable related to theee
transactions.

At the moment^ Mr. Biddle^ astounded at this damning
testimony, could only deny that it contained one syllable of
truth. Shortly after, however, he proved to the conunittee,

1832.] THE BANK VETO. 405

by evidence the most incontestible, that (to use his own lan-
guage), " on the very day when B. M. Whitney swears that
he conversed with me in this room at Philadelphia, where we
are now sitting — ^for many days before that day, and for
many days after that day — I was actually in the city of
Washington. The first evidence is the original minutes of
the bank, by which it will be seen, that, from the 22d day of
May to ihe 1st of June, I was absent from the bank, and that
B. M. Whitney himself attended the meetings of the Board,
when the fact of my absence was recorded." He produced a
kage bundle of letters, written by him, and addressed to him,
at Washington, which established the fact of his presence
there beyond all possibility of doubt. He also showed, by
the testimony of many witnesses, that no transaction of the
kind described so minutely by the wretched Whitney had
ever occurred. "Thus," said the Minority Beport, "was
this artfully devised story, which was intended to blast the
reputation of a high-minded and honorable man, through
one of those extraordinary interpositions by which Provi-
dence sometimes confounds the contrivances of the wicked,
made to recoil upon the head of its inventor, who must for
ever stand forth as a blasted monument of the speedy and
retributive justice of Heaven."

So blinded, however, was General Jackson to all moral
distinctions by his intense hostility to the bank, that he con-
tinued to countenance this Whitney ; welcomed him to the
presidential mansion, and lent a greedy ear to his tales of
bank corruption, which were then the surest passport to
presidential favor.

Mr. Adams intimates, at the conclusion of his report,
that, so completely had the investigation vindicated the bank.
Colonel Bichard M. Johnson, one of General Jackson's spe-
cial adherents and associates, rose and declared that he " had
seen nothing in the conduct of the president and directors in-
consistent with the purest honor and integrity." Colonel
Johnson, however, was an easy, good-natured man, and was
persuaded to sign the report of the majority. He never

406 LIFE OF ANDREW JAOKSON. [1832.

would have been Vice-President if he had not. Mr. Adams
concluded his report with these words : " Had that same
candid and explicit declaration, due, as the subscriber believes,
to the most rigorous justice, been made by the other members
who sanctioned the majority report, many a painful remark
in the paper now submitted, perhaps the whole paper itself,
would have been suppressed. But to vindicate the honor of
injured worth is, in his opinion, among the first of moral ob-
ligations ; and, in concluding these observations, he would
say to every individual of the House, and to every fellow-
citizen of the nation, inquisitive of the cause of any over-
anxious sensibility to imputations upon the good name of
other men which they may here find —

" Wlien truth and virtue an affront endures,
The offense is mine, my fViend, and should be joursL*'

The bill re-chartering the Bank of the United States
passed the Senate on the eleventh of June, by a vote of
twenty-eight to twenty, and the house on the third of July,
by a vote of one hundred and nine to seventy-six. It was
presented to the President on the fourth of July, and by him
returned to Congress, vetoed, on the tenth of the same
month. The message accompanying the vetoed bill was one
of the longest and one of the most adroit ever sent to Con-
gress by a President. It shows that the President, when he
gave to Mr. Amos Kendall an appointment in the treasoiy,
knew well what he was doing.

The objections of the administration to the renewal of the
bank charter, as expressed in this famous message, may be
summed up in one ugly word, and that word is Monopoly.

Here, said the President (in effect), is a certain small
body of men and women, the stockholders of the bank of the
United States, upon whom the federal government has be-
stowed, and by the renewal bill proposes to continue, exclu-
sive privileges of immense pecimiary value ; and, by doing so,
restricts the lib<?rty of all other citizens. This is a monopoly.
The granting of it, in the first place, inasmuch as the efkd

1832.] THE BANK VETO. 407

of the measure could not have been foreseen^ may be excused ;
but for its continuance there is not the shadow of an excuse.
The following odious featiu^s of the monopoly were enumer-
ated in the message :

1. Eight millions of the stock of the bank was held by
foreigners. The renewal of the charter would raise the mar-
ket value of that stock at least twenty or thirty per cent.
Renew the charter, and the American republic will make a
jtfesent to foreign stockholders of some millions of dollars,
without deriving the slightest advantage from the munificent

gift.

2. Let it be granted that the government should bestow
this monopoly. Then a fair price should be paid for it.
The actual value of the privileges conferred by the bill is
computed to be seventeen millions of dollars, and the act pro-
poses to sell those privileges for the annual sum of two hun-
dred thousand dollars ; or, in other words, for three millions
of dollars, payable in fifteen annual installments of two hun-
dred thousand dollars each.

3. The act excludes competition. Persons of wealth and
respectability had offered to take a charter on terms more
fiivorable to the government than those proposed by the
biU.

4. The bill concedes to banks dealing with the bank of
the United States what it denies to individuals. If a State
bank in Philadelphia owes money to the bank of the United
States, and has notes issued by the St. Louis branch, it can
pay its debt with those notes ; but a merchant must either
sell his St. Louis notes at a discount, or send them to St.
Louis to be cashed. This boon to banks operates as a bond
of union among the banking institutions of the whole coun-
try, " erecting them into an interest separate from that of
the people."

5. The stock held by foreigners can not be taxed, a fact
which gives such stock a value ten or fifteen per cent.
greater than that held by citizens.

6. As each State can tax only the amount of stock held

408 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

by its citizens^ and not the amount employed in the State,
the tax will operate unequally and unjustly.

7. Though nearly a third of the stock of the Bank is
held by foreigners, foreigners have no voice or vote in the
election of the officers of the Bank. Of the twenty-five di-
rectors, five arc appointed by the government, and twenty by
the citizen stockholders. Stock is continually going abroad,
and the renewal of the charter will greatly accelerate its de-
parture. The consequence will inevitably be, to throw the
control of the Bank into the hands of a few resident stock-
holders, who will be able to re($lect themselves from year to
year, and who will wield a power dangerous to the institu-
tions of the country.

8. Should the stock ever pass principally into the hands
of the subjects of a foreign country, and we should become
involved in a war with that country, the interests and feel-
ings of the directors will be opposed to those of their coun-
trymen. " All the operations of the Bank within would be
in aid of the hostile fleets and armies without. ControUing
our currency, receiving our public moneys, and holding thou-
sands of our citizens in dependence, it would be more formid-
able and dangerous than the naval and military power of the
enemy." If we must have a Bank, every consideration of
sound policy, and every impulse of American feeling, admon-
ishes that it should be purely American. And this the more,
as domestic capital was so abundant, that competition in
subscribing to a local bank had recently almost led to a riot.

From this enumeration, the Message proceeded to discuss
the question of the constitutionality of the bill. A prelimi-
nary remark excited great clamor at the time. " Each pub-
lic officer," said the President, " who takes an oath to sup-
port the Constitution, swears that he will support it as he
umkrstanda it, and not as it is understood by others :" even
though those " others" be the Judges of the Supreme Court
of the United States. " The opinion of the Judges has no
more authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress
has over the Judges ; and, on that pointy the President is

1832.] THE BANK VETO. 409

independent of both." The Judges, it was true, had decided
the law incorporating the Bank to be constitutional, but only
on the general ground that Congress had power " to make all
laws which shall be necessary and proper" for carrying the
powers of the general government into execution. Necessary
and proper ! The question, then, resolved itself into an in-
quiry whether such an institution as this bill proposed was
necessary and proper. To that inquiry the author of the
Message addressed himself ; arriving, of course, at the con-
clusion that the act contained many provisions most unneces-
sary and most improper ; and, therefore, unconstitutional.

The Message, which displayed throughout the marks both
of ability and earnest conviction, concluded with the follow-
ing admirable words — ^words that Edward Livingston learned
to use in the old days when Thomas JeflFerson was the repub-
lican leader, and himself a young convert to his immortal
principles :

" Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government.
Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth, can not be produced by hu-
mmn iDstitutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifls of heaven and the
fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled
to protection by law. But when the laws undertake to add to these natural
and just advantages, artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and ex-
dusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful,
the humble members of society, the farmers, mechanics, and laborers, who
haTO neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to tliemselves,
haTO a right to complain of the hijustice of their government There are
no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it
would confine itself to equal protection, and, as heaven does its rains,
shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it
would be an unqualified blessing. In the act before mo, there seems to
be a wide and unnecessary departure from these just principles.

" Nor is our government to be maintained, or our Union preserved, by
inTasion of the rights and powers of tlie several States. In thus attempt-
ing to make our general government strong, we make it weak. Its true
strength consists in leaving individuals and States, as much as possible, to
themselves ; in making itself felt, not in its power, but in its beneficence,
not in its control, but in its protection, not in binding the States more
closely to the center, but leaving each to move unobstructed in its proper
oibit

410 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

" Experience should teach us wisdom. Most of the difficulties our
government now encounters, and most of the dangers which impend over
our Union, have sprung from an abandonment of the legitimate objects of
government by our national legislation, and the adoption of such principles
as are enbodied in this act Many of our rich men have not been con-
tent with equal protection and equal benefits, but have besought us to
make them richer by act of Congress. By attempting to gratify their de-
sires, we have, in the results of our legislation, an-ayed section against sec-
tion, interest against interest, and man against man, in a fearful commotion
which tlireatens to shake the foundations of our Union. It is time to
pause in our career, to review our principles, and, if possible, revive that
devoted patriotism and spirit of compromise which distinguished the sm^
of the revolution, and the fathers of our Union. K we can not at once,
in justice to tlie interests vested under improvident legislation, make our
government what it ought to be, we can, at least^ take a stand against all
new grants of monopoUes and exclusive privileges, against any prostitution
of our government to the advancement of tlio few at the expense of the
many, and in favor of compromise and gradual reform in our code of
laws and system of political economy.

" I have now done my duty to my country. If sustained by my fel-
low-citizens, I shall be grateful and happy ; if not^ I shall find, in tlie mo*
tives which impel me, ample grounds for contentment and peace. In the
difHculties which surround us, and the dangers which threaten our instita-
tions, there is cause for neither dismay nor alarm. For relief and deliv-
erance let us firmly rely on that kind Providence which, I am sure, watches
with peculiar care over the destinies of our Republic and on the intelli*
gence and wisdom of our countrymen. Through His abundant goodnesa,
and their patriotic devotion, our liberty and Union will be preserved,"

Concerning the financial and legal principles laid down in
this important document, financiers and lawyers differ in
opinion. The humbler oflBce of the present chronicler is to
state that the bank-veto message of President Jackson came
with convincing power upon a majority of the iwjoplc of the
United States. It settled the question. And it may be
safely predicted that while that message endures, and the
Union, as it is now constituted, endures, a bank of the
United States can never exist. If ever it should be seriously
proposed to establish one again, that message will rise fipom
its grave in the volume of presidential messages, where it
8leei)s forgotten, to crush the proposition.

1832.] THE BANK VETO. 411

It was the sin^alar fortune of the bank-veto message to
delight equally the friends and the foes of the bank. The
opposition circulated it as a campaign document ! Duff
Green published it in his extra Telegraphy calling upon all
the opponents of the administration to give it the widest
publicity, since it would damn the administration wherever it
was read. The New York American characterized it thus :
'^ It is indeed and verily beneath contempt. It is an appeal
of ignorance to ignorance, of prejudice to prejudice, of the
most unblushing partisan hostility to the obsequiousness of
partisan servility. No man in the cabinet proper will be
willing to share the ignominy of preparing or approving such
a paper."

Nicholas Biddle himself was enchanted with it, for he
thought it had saved the bank by destroying the bank's great
enemy. " Tou ask," he wrote to Henry Clay, " what is the
effect of the veto ? My impression is, that it is working as
well as the friends of the bank and of the country could de-
sire. I have always deplored making the bank a party ques-
tion, but since the President will have it so, he must pay
the penalty of his own rashness. As to the veto message, I
am delighted with it. It has all the fury of a chained pan-
ther, biting the bars of his cage. It is really a manifesto of
anarchy, such as Marat or Kobespierre might have issued to
the mob of the Faubourg St. Antoine ; and my hope is, that
it will contribute to relieve the country from the dominion
of these miserable people. You are destined to be the in-
strument of that deliverance, and at no period of your life
has the country ever had a deeper stake in you. I wish you
success most cordially, because I believe the institutions of
the Union are involved in it."

So little did Mr. Biddle, and such as he, know the coun-
try in which they lived ! As little do such now know it !

There was rare speaking in the Senate after the reception
of the veto. Mr. Webster opened the debate upon it in a
ponderous speech, which foretold the direst consequences to
the country unless the people, at the approaching election,

412 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

reversed the President's decision. Mr. Clay followed in one
of his most energetic harangues, which brought him into per-
sonal collision with Col. Benton. Benton, it must be owned,
made some telling hits in replying to Mr. Clay. The veto,
said the Kentuckian, has grown obsolete in England ; and
even in France, its frequent exercise by Louis XVI. caused
the gay Parisians to dub him with the derisive name of Mon-
sieur Veto. True, said Benton. But what was the nature
of the laws which that unfortunate king had annulled by hie
veto ? ^' One was the decree against the emigrants, dooming
to death and confiscation of estate every man, woman, and
child who should attempt to save their lives by flying firom
the pike, the guillotine, and the lamp-post. The other was
a decree exposing to death the ministers of religion who could
not take an oath which their consciences repulsed. To save
tottering age, trembling mothers, and aflfrighted children from
massacre — to save the temples and altars of God from being
stained by the blood of his ministers — were the sacred objects
of those vetoes ; and was there anything to justify a light or
reproachful allusion to them in the American Senate ? The
king put his constitutional vetoes to these decrees ; and the
canaille of Saint Antoine and Marceau — not the gay and
laughing Parisians, but the bloody canaille, instigated by
leaders more ferocious than themselves — ^began to salute the
king as Monsieur Veto, and demand his head for the guillo-
tine. And the queen, when seen at the windows of her
prison, her locks pale with premature white, the effect of ao
agonized mind at the ruin she witnessed, the poissardes sa-
luted her also as Madame Veto ; and the Dauphin came in
for the epithet of the Little Veto. And now, why this al-
lusion ? What application of its moral ? Surely it is not
pointless ; not devoid of meaning and practical application.
We have no bloody guillotines here, but we have political
ones : sharp axes falling from high, and cutting off political
heads ! Is the service of that ax invoked here upon * Gen-
eral Andrew Veto ?' If so, and the invocation should be

1832.] THE BANK VETO. 413

saccessful, then Andrew Jackson^ like Louis XYI., will cease
to be in any body's way in their march to power."

Mr. Clay said that the veto had placed the friends of
the President in an agonizing dilemma. ^' Their condition/'
Baid he, '' reminds me of the fable invented by Dr. Frank-
lin, of the eagle and the cat. The eagle pounced from
his lofty flight in the air, upon a cat, taking it to be a pig.
Having borne off his prize, he quickly felt most painfully the
daws of the cat thrust deeply into his sides and body.
While flying, he held a parley with the supposed pig, and
proposed to let go his hold if the other would let him alone.
No, says puss, you brought me from yonder earth below, and
I will hold fast to you until you carry me back ; a condition
to which the eagle readily assented."

" Well," said Benton, " and what is the application of the
fisible ?" ^' General Jackson is the eagle ; the bank is the cat ;
the parley is the proposition of the bank to the President to
sign its charter, and it will support him for the presidency —
if not, will keep its claws stuck in his sides. But, Jackson,
different from the eagle with his cat, will have no compro-
mise, or bargain with the bank. One or the other shall fall 1
and be dashed to atoms ! !"

CoL Benton complained of Mr. Clay's indecorous mode of
speaking of the President, which, he said, was the more im-
proper, as Mr. Clay was a rival candidate for the suffrages
of the people. This remark led to a most pointed and angry
colloquy between the two Senators.

Mr. Clay said: "There are some peculiar reasons why I
should not go to that Senator for my views of decorum, in re-
gard to my bearing toward the chief magistrate, and why he
is not a fit instructor. I never had any personal encounter
with the President of the United States. I never complained
of any outrages on my person committed by him. I nevci
published any bulletins respecting his private brawls. The
gentleman will understand my allusions. I never complained,
that while a brother of mine was down on the ground, sense-
leflB or dead, he received another blow. I have never made

414 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

any declarations like these relative to the individual who is
President. There is also a singular prophecy as to the con-
sequences of the election of this individual, which far sur-
passes, in evil foreboding, whatever I may have ever said in
regard to his election. I never made any ])rediction so sin-
ister, nor made any declaration so harsh, as that which is con-
tained in the prediction to which I allude. I never declared
my apprehension and belief, that if he were elected, we should
be obliged to legislate with pistols and dirks by our side."*

Col. Benton replied : " It is true, sir, that I had an affiay
with General Jackson, and that I did complain of his conduct
We fought, sir ; and we fought, I hope, like men. When
the explosion was over, there remained no ill will, on either
side. No vituperation or systom of iMjtty persecution was
kept up between us. Yes, sir, it is true, that I had the per-
sonal diflSculty which the Senator from Kentucky has had
the delicacv to brinff before the Senate. But let me tell the
Senator from Kentucky there is no ^ adjourned question of
veracity ' between me and Genei*al Jackson. All difficulty
between us ended with the conflict ; and a few months after
it, I believe that either party would cheerfully have relieved
the other from any peril ; and now we shake hands and are
friendly when we meet. I repeat, sir, that there is no * ad-
journed question of veracity' between me and General Jack-
son, standing over for settlement. If there had been, a gulf
would have separated us as deep as hell." Col. Benton de-
clared he had never made the dirk-and-pistol prophecy quo-
ted by Mr. Clay.

Mr. Clay denied that there was any adjourned question
of veracity between himself and General Jackson. "He
made," said Mr. Clay, "a certain charge (of bargain) against

* Mr. Clay alluded to the foUov^ring words attributed to Mr. Benton: '*If
General Jackson shall bo elected, he will surround himself with a pack of politi-
eal bull dogs, to bark at all who daro to oppose his measures. For mjselt
as I can not think of legislating with a brace of pistols in my belt, I aittll,
in the event of the election of General Jackson, resign my seat in the Senate^ M
every independent man will liavo to do, or risk his life and honor."

L832.] THE BANK VETO. 415

ne, and he referred to witnesses to prove it. I denied the
Tuth of the charge. He called upon his witness to prove it.
[ leave it to the country to say whether that witness sus-
ained the truth of the President's all^ation. The witness
[Mr. Buchanan) is now on his passage to St. Petersburg, with
i commission in his pocket." Mr. Clay reverted to the dirk-
ind-pistol remark attributed to Col. Benton. "Can you,
ir," he asked, turning toward Col. Benton, " can you look
ne in the face, and say that you never used that language
mi of the State of Missouri ?"

" I look, sir," replied Benton, " and repeat that it is an
btrocious calumny ; and I will pin it to him who repeats it

lera"

" Then," said Mr. Clay, " I declare before the Senate that
^on said to me the very words."

" False, false, false," roared Benton.

" I fling back," cried Clay, " the charge of atrocious cal-
imny upon the Senator from Missouri."

The infuriated Senators were here called to order on all
ides, and the chair compelled them to desist. Colonel Ben-
on then said : " I apologize to the Senate for the manner in
irhich I have spoken : but not to the Senator from Ken-
ucky."

Mr. Clay apologized : " To the Senate I also offer an
kpology. To the Senator from Missouri none."

It was quite a curious coincidence, that on one of these
ine mornings, when Colonel Benton was so fiercely battling
or the President in the Senate chamber, the President had
» submit to a surgical operation for the extraction of the
)ullet which he had carried in his left unn ever since the
ime of the Benton affray, in Nashville, twenty years before.
Che Greneral laid bare his arm, grasped his well known walk-
Qg stick, and told the doctor (Dr. Harris, of Philadelphia)
» " go ahead." The doctor made a bold incision into the
lesh, gave the arm a squeeze, and out jumped the ball upon
he floor. It was all over and the arm bandaged in one
ninute. My informant does not state whether ^e General

416 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

restored the ball to its rightful owner or his representative,
nor whether Colonel Benton was able to look the President
comfortably in the face that evening.

On the 16th of July, at six o'clock in the morning, Con-
gress adjourned. The opposition members went home to join
their allies of the press in the attempt to convince the people
of the United States that the veto was ruining the country,
and would completely ruin it, unless they elected Messrs.
Clay and Sergeant to the first offices of the government in
the following November.

The opposition press told the people that the veto had
caused the stock of the great bank to decline four per cent ;
that bricks had fallen from five dollars per thousand to three ;
that wild consternation pervaded the great cities ; that real
estate had lost a fourth of its value ; that western men were
contracting to deliver pork, next season, at two dollars and a
half if Clay was elected, and at one dollar and a half if Jack-
son was elected ; that mechanics were thrown out of employ-
ment by thousands, and were going supperless to bed ; that
no more steamboats were to be built on the western riven
until there was a change of rulers ; that the old friends of
General Jackson were falling away from him in every direo-
tion ; that mass-meetings were held in every State denounc-
ing the veto ; that the Irish voters were seceding from General
Jackson, thousands of them at one meeting ; and that the
defeat of the tyrant was as certain to occur as the sun was
certain to rise on the morning of election day.

1832.] BE-BLECTION OF GENERAL JACKSON. 417

CHAPTER XXXI.

RE-ELEOTION OF GENERAL JACKBON.

A STRANGE^ sad^ exciting^ eventful summer was that of
1832.

It opened gayly enough. The country had never been
tinder such headway before. In looking over the newspapers
for May of that year, the eye is anestcd by the incident of
Washington Irving's triumphal return home after an absence
from his native land of seventeen years. He had gone away
an unknown youth, or little known beyond his own circle,
and came back a renowned author who had won as much
honor for his country as for himself. The little speech which
he delivered at the banquet given him in the city of New
York, delightfully reveals the innocent astonishment which
the young Republic, once so fearful of its future, felt at the
mighty pace at which it seemed to be going toward gicatness.
The modest Irving, unused to speak in public, spoke with
fieiltering voice of his warm and unexpected welcome. But
when he came to describe the changes he observed in his na-
tive city, the marvelous prosperity that every where met his
eyes, his tongue was loosened, and he burst into momentar}-
eloquence.

" From the time/' said he, " that I approached the coast,
I saw indications of the growing greatness of my native city.
We had scarce descried the land, when a thousand sails of all
descriptions gleaming along the horizon, and all standing to
or from one point, showed that we were in the neighborhood
of a vast commercial emporium. As I sailed up our beauti-
ful bay, with a heart swelling with old recollections and de-
lightful associations, I was astonished to eee its once wild
features brightening with populous villages and noble jnles,
and a teeming city extending itself over heights which I had
left covered with groves and foR^sts. But how shall I describe
my emotion when our city itself rose to sight, seated in the
VOL. III. — 27

418 LIFE OF ANDRKW JACKSON. [1832.

midst of its watery domain, stretching away to a vast extent;
when I beheld a glorious sunshine brightening up the spires
and domes, some familiar to memory, others new and un-
known, and beaming on a forest of masts of every nation, ex-
tending as far as the eye could reach. I have gazed with ad-
miration upon many a fair city and stately harbor, but my
admiration was cold and ineflfectual, for I was a stranger, and
had no property in the soil. Here, however, my heart
throbbed >vith pride and joy as I admired. I had birthright
in the brilliant scene before me —

' This was my own, my native land.'

'* It has been asked, * Can I be content to live in this
countrj'^ ?' Whoever asks that question must have but an
inadequate idexi of its blessings and delights. What sacrifice
of enjoyments have I to reconcile myself to ? I come from
gloomier climates to one of brilliant sunshine and ins]>iring
pUrity. I come from countries lowering with doubt and dan-
ger, where the rich man trembles and the poor man frowns—
where all repine at the present and dread the future. I
come from these, to a country where all is life and animation;
where I hoar on everv side the sound of exultation : where
every one speaks of the past with triumph, the present with
delight, the future with growing and confident anticipation.
Is this not a community in which one may rejoice to live ?
Is this not a city by which one may be proud to bo received
iis a son ? Is this not a land in which every one may be
happy to fix his destiny and ambition, if possible to found a
name ? I am asked how long I mean to remain here. They
know but little of my heart or my feelings who cixn ask me
this question ! —As long as I live."

Just so the country felt as it read Mr Irving's glowing
sentences in the month of May, 1832.

Before the next month had run its course, a great terror
pervaded the continent. The cholera, that had ravaged Eu-
rope last year, and spread over America a vague alarm, broke

1832.] RE-ELECTION OF GENERAL JACKSON. 419

out in Quebec on the ninth of June. An emigrant ship lost
forty-two of her passengers from the disease while crossing the
ocean, and seemed to communicate it to the city as soon as she
anived. Swiftly the disease made its southward progress —
swiftly, but capriciously — leaping here a region, diverging
there, sparing some unhealthful localities, and desolating
others supposed to be peculiarly salubrious. It reached New
York fifteen days after its appearance in Quebec. There was
no parade on the fourth of July. Hospitals were hastily
prepared in every ward. The cases increiised in number for
just one month ; at the expiration of which three hundred
persons daily sickened, and nearly one hundred died, of chol-
era alone. Grass grew in some of the thoroughfares usually
thronged, and whole blocks of stores were closed. By the
middle of August, when 2,565 j^rsons had died of the disease,
it had so far subsided that the people who had fled b^an to
return, and the city to regain its wonted aspect.*

As the epidemic subsided in New York, it gained further
South. It raged in Philadelphia, terrified Baltimore, threat-
ened Washington, and darted malignant influences into the
&r West. Cincinnati was attacked, and the troops stationed
at unknown Chicago did not escape. New Orleans had it,
instead of the yellow fever.

As a vulture, brooding in the air, invisible, discerns its
prey afar off, and swooping dow^nward seizes it in its horrid
talons, unexpected, irresistible, and then, having torn the
blood out of its heart, ascends again to the upper air, and
surveying once more the outspread land, espies another help-

* Tho A3llowiDg paragraph is from tbo Nt:w York Journal of Commerce of
July 26th, 1832 : *' Thcro never was a more delightful exhibition of Chrisitian
benevolence than is now witnessed in this city. The generous donations which
have been recorded, and which still continue to flow in, form but an item in tho
general aggregate. Numbers of our most accomplished ladies are engaged, day
after day, in making garments for tho poor and distressed, while committees of
gentlemen, who at home sit on elegant sofas and walk on Brussels carpets, are
eearching out tho abode of poverty, filth, and disease, and administering person-
aOy lo the wants of the wretched inmates. There is no telling tho misery which
tb^ often meet with and relieve."

420 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832

less victim, and rushes down upon it, so did this wayward
and terrible cholera seem to select, from day to day, for no
reasons that science could penetrate, a fresh town to suddenly
affright and desolate.

About the middle of August, the President, accompanied
by Mr. Blair and other friends, left Wasliington for a visit to
the Hermitage, and did not return until tlie nineteenth of
October. On this journey it was remarked the President
paid his expenses in gold. ** No more paper-money, you see.
fellow-citizens, if I can only j)ut down this Nicholas BiJdle
and his monstor bank." A telling maneuver in a country of
doubtful banks and counterfeit-detectors, distressing to all
women, and puzzling to most men. '^ Ninety-five cnuuter-
feits of the bills of the bank of the United States alonu,"
Col. Bentcm had kept the coimtry in mind of during the late
debates. Gold, long since gone out of circulation, was held
up to the ])eople as the cuiTency which the administration of
General Jackson was struggling to restore. A golden ]»iece
of money, as most of us remember, was a curiosity at that
time. It was a distinction in country places to possess one.
Clay and eternal rag-money, Jackson and speedy gold, was
diligently represented to be the issue between the two aindi-
dates. Storekeepers responded by announcing themselves as
anti-bank hatters, and hard-money bakers. The administra-
tion had given the politicians a " good cry " to go before
the country with, and it was not allowed to fall to the
ground.

Amid the teiTors of the cholera, one would have expected
to liud the presidential campaign carried on with less than
the usual spirit. There was a lull in midsummer. But,
upon the whole, no contest of the kind was ever conductoil
with so much energy and so much labor. The imniphlets of
the campaign still astonish collectors by their number, their
ability, and their size. Against the administration seem to
have been arrayed the talent of the country, the great capital-
ists, the leading men of business, and even the smaller banks,
making common cause with the great bank, doomed to quick

1832.] RE-ELECTION OF GENERAL JACKSON. 421

extinction if General Jackson were reelected. Let us note
briefly a few instructive incidents of the contest.

At the last moment, it appears, there was some reason to f
fear that the machinery devised to secure the nomination of
Mr, Van Buren would fail to effect its purpose. Among
those who objected to place him upon the ticket with Gen-
eral Jackson was that very Major Eaton for whom he had
done and risked so much. Eaton was a delegate from Ten-
nessee to the nominating convention. Major Lewis writes to
me : " Mr. Eaton objected to the nomination of Mr. Van
Buren, alleging that it would endanger the election of General
Jackson. I had not seen Mr. Eaton for five or six months ;
but learning, only the day before the convention was to meet,
that he would oppose the nomination of Mr. Van Buren, I
immediately wrote him in strong and decided terms, warning
him of the danger of such a course, unless he was prepared to
quarrel with the General ! He was sent as a delegate from
Tennessee, and went directly to Baltimore, where the conven-
tion was to sit, the evening before it was to meet, without
passing through Washington as was oxi)ectcd ; but fortun-
ately he received my letter in time to save both himself and
Mr. Van Buren, perhaps."

The convention met, as Messrs. Lewis, Hill, Blair, and
Kendall had decreed it should meet, at Baltimore on the
2l8t of May. Three hundred and twenty-six delegates were
present. The Generars old friend. Judge Overton, of Ten-
nessee, was to have presided over the assembly, but was pre-
vented from doing so by sickness. The convention soon came
to a vote upon the candidates for the second olBce. Mr. Van
Buren received two hundred and sixty votes ; Mr. P. P. Bar-
bour, of Virginia, forty ; Col. Richard M. Johnston, twenty-
six. The opi)Osition noticed, with comment, that this con-
vention adjourned without deigning to issue the usual address
to the people.

The plan of the Calhoun wing of the democratic party,
if wing it could be called, and if it had a plan, was explained,
at the time^ by Gt3neral Duff Green to one of the friends of

422 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

Mr. Clay, aud by Mr. Clay to his nearest friend, Judge
Brooke, of Maryland. It was a wild scheme, or seems bucIi
to us who coolly scan it at this distance of time. " Dufif ex-
plained fully the views and wishes of the Calhoun party.
These are, that his name shall, in the course of the ensuing
summer (say August), be presented as a candidate ; that, if
no ticket is run in Virginia by our friends, and if they will co-
operate with his, he can obtain the vote of that State ; that,
with a fair prospect of receiving the vote of Virginia, he will
obtain those also of North Carolina, Georgia, and South Car-
olina, and probably of Alabama and Mississippi ; that the
result would be to defeat the reelection of General Jackson,
and to devolve the election on the House ; that there they
suppose I would be elected ; and that they would be satisfied
with my election. I have neither said nor done any thing in
reply to all this, to commit my friends or myself. I could
not, without dishonor, have ventured upon any sort of com-
mitment of them. They are, in fact, free, and so I wish them
to remain, to act according to their own sense of propriety."

A coalition between the leader of the nullifvinj: free-
traders and the champion of the protective system woidd
have been an astonishing conjunction, indeed. And Mr. Clay
does not appear to object to it on the ground of its incon-
gruity. He proceeds to ask Judge Brooke whether the thing
could be done, and if done, whether it would achieve the
end desired of ousting Jackson and linishing the public career
of Van Buren. The two factions, so irreconcilably opposed
in principle, had already coalesced to reject the nomination
of Mr. Van Buren ; and the well-informed Dr. Hammond, in
his ^' Political History of New York," intimates that, at the
same time, the subsequent compromise between nullification
and i)rotection was substantially agreed upon. Let us not,
however, get beyond our depth. Suffice it here to say that
the scheme of running Mr. Calhoun, so as to throw the
election into the House, was not attempt4}d, and that the
forces of the opposition, except the anti-masonry i)arty, were
concentrated upon Messra. Clay and Sergeant.

1832.] RE-ELEOTION OF GENERAL JACKSON. 423

The anti-masonry party, which had nominated Mr. Wirt
for the presidency, and Mr. William Ellnaker, of Pennsyl-
vania, for the vice-presidency, was a noisy and earnest party,
but proved to have little power except in two localities, west-
em New York and Vermont.

The grounds upon which the opposition rested their case
against the administration need not be repeated here. Most
of them will occur to the reader.

We support General Jackson, said the friends of the ad-
ministration, because he has restored the government to the
principles of Jefferson ; because he has stayed the corrupt
and unconstitutional expenditure of the public money for in-
ternal improvements designed for the benefit of localities ;
because he has waged war upon that gigantic and overshadow-
ing monopoly, the bank of the United States ; because on
the tariff he stands between the two dangerous extremes of
free trade and prohibition, and counsels moderation and com-
promise ; because, in less than two ycai*s from the beginning
of his administration, the trade to the West Indies, which
had been lost by the mismanagement of that which preceded
it, was again opened to the United States, on terms of reci-
procity ; because, within the same period, treaties of the ut-
most importance and difficulty have been negotiated with
Denmark, Turkey, and France ; because the dispute on the
subject of boundaries on our eastern frontier has been brought
to an issue by an award advantiigeous to the United States ;
because our relations with every portion of the world are
harmonious, and the United States never stood higher in the
respect of the world than at this moment ; because Andrew
Jackson, himself sprung from the people, and in heart-felt
sympathy with them, is the champion and defender of the
people against monopolies, bank aristocrats, gambling stock-
holders, and all others who prey upon the earnings of the
fitrmer and mechanic.

The opposition, in waging this important contest, relied
chiefly upon banquets, speeches, pamphlets, newspapers, and
caricatures. Caricatures, poorly designed and worse executed,

424 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

were published in great numbers in the course of the season.
A favorite idea of the caricaturists was to depict Mr. Van
Buren as an infant in the arms of General Jackson^ receiving
sustenance from a spoon in t-lie hand of the General. One
popular picture represented the President receiving a crown
from Mr. Van Buren and a scepter from the devil. Another
showed the President raving at a delegation. Another gave
Clay and Jackson in the guise of jockeys, riding a race
toward the White House — Clay half a length a head. An-
other represented Jackson, Van Buren, Benton, Blair, Ken-
dall, and others, attired as burglars, aiming a huge battering-
ram at the bank's im})regnable front door. Another portrayed
General Jackson as Don Quixote, tilting at one of the huge
pillars of the same marble edifice, and breaking his puny
lance against it.

The other party made great use of transparencies, proces-
sions, and hickory poles. M. Chevalier, a French gentleman
then traveling in the United States, gives an amusing account
of the Jackson processions. They were so frequent that the
traveler was led to suj)pose them one of the institutions of
the country. ^^ Besides the camp-meetings," he stiys, " the
political processiuns are the only things in this country which
bear any resemblance to festivals. The party dinners, with
their si)eeches and deluge of toasts, are frigid, if not repul-
sive ; and I have never seen a more miserable aftair than the
dinner given by the Opposition ; that is to say, by the mid-
dle class, at Powelton, in the neighborhood of Philadelphia.
But I sto])ped involuntarily at the sight of the gigantic
hickory pules which made their solemn entry on eight wheels,
for the jjurpose uf being planted by the democracy on theevt
of the election. I remember one of these poles, with its top
still crowned with green foliage, which came on to the sound
of fifes and drums, and was preceded by ranks of democrats,
bearing no other badge than a twig of the sacred tree in their
hats. It was drawn by eight horses, decorated with ribbons
and mottoes. Astride on the tree itself were a dozen Jack-

1832.] BE-ELEOTION OF GENERAL JACKSON. 425

son men of the first water, waving flags with an air of antici-
pated triumph, and shouting ' Hurra for Jackson!'

" But this entry of the hickory was but a by-matter com-
pared with the procession I witnessed in New York. It was
nearly a mile long. The democrats marched in good order,
to the glare of torches ; the banners were more numerous
than I had ever seen them in any religious festival ; all were
in transparency, on account of the darkness. On some were
inscribed the names of the democratic societies or sections :
Democratic young men of the ninth or eleventh loard; others
bore imprecations against the Bank of tlie United States ;
Nick Biddle and Old Nick here figured largely. Then came
portraits of General Jackson afoot and on horseback ; there
was one in the uniform of a general, and another in the per-
son of the Tennessee fanner, with the famous hickory cane in
his hand. Those of Washington and Jefferson, surrounded
with democratic mottoes, were mingled with emblems in all
tastes and of all colors. Among these figured an eagle, not
a painting, but a real, live eagle, tied by the legs, surrounded
by a wreath of leaves, and hoisted upon a pole, after the man-
ner of the Koman sUindards. The imperial bird was carried
by a stout sailor, more pletised than ever was a sergeant per-
mitted to hold one of the strings of the canoj)y, in a Cath-
olic ceremony. From further than the eye could reach, came
marching on the democrats. I was struck with the resem-
blance of their air to the train that escorts the viaticum in
Mexico or Puebla. The American standard-bearers were as
grave as the Mexican Indians who bore the sacred tapers.
The democratic procession, also, like the Catholic procession,
had its halting-places ; it stopped before the houses of the
Jackson men to fill the air with cheers, and halted at the
doors of the leaders of the Oiiposition, to give three, six, or
nine groans. If these scenes were to find a painter, they
would be admired at a distance, not less than the triumphs
and sacrificial pomps which the ancients have left ils delin-
eated in marble and brass ; for they are not mere grotesques
after the manner of Rembrandt — they belong to history, they

426 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

partake of the grand ; they are the episodes of a wondrous
epic which will bequeath a lasting memory to posterity, that
of the coming of democracy."**

Betting u])on the result of the elections was in great
vogue this year, and for several years after. We have seen
Mr. Clay and Mr. Van Buren amicably betting a suit of

* The following may seem, and i3, a very nonsensical anecdote. Those who
can remember the excitement of 1832, will not consider it altogether misplaced
here. It is, moreover, an illustration of " universal suffrage :" *• During Gen-
eral Jackson's second presidential campaign there flourished at the Quarantine
Orouud, Slaten Island, an honest old follow, a baker by trade, and a stanch
democrat withal. One overling a political meeting was lield at a small tavern
which then stootl on the shore road^ a short distance east of the present Pavilion
at New Ikighi<)n. Our good friend, and several other residents at the Qunran-
tine, attended tho mcciing. Among them was old Dr. IL, who was a noted wag;
and it occurred to him that if a speech could ))e got out of the old baker it
would be exceedingly amusing. Accordingly, ho Ciilled on him for an addresi

" 'No, no,' said the baker; ' I can make bread, but I can't make si)eeches.'

" The suggestion, however, had excited the audience, and the old mau ms
at length compellcil to make the effort. So, rising in his seat, he said:

'* ' Feller-citizens: it is well known to you all that when John Quincy Adams
was President, the Kmporor of Bmzil seized several of our ships, and wouldn't
let 'em come home. So President Adams wrote him a letter, and a ycry pnrty
letter it was, too — for to give him his due, he knew how to write, if he didn't
know any thing else. So the Emperor he got the letter, and, after he had read
it, ho asked who this Adams was? and his head men told him he was President
of the United States. " Well, well,*' says the Emperor, '• he wants me to send
them ships home, but I won't do it ; for it is (piite plain to me that a man who
can write so beautiful, don't know any thing aV>out lighting; so the shijw must
stay where they are." Well,' continued the baker, ' by-and-by Ginral Jaeksoo
got to be President, and he wrote a letter to the Emperor, and it was something
Ilk this :

" * " You Emperor, send them ships homo right away.

" ' " Andrew J.vcksos."

" * Well, the Emj)eror got that letter to<), and after he had read it, he laughed,
and said, " This Is a mighty cpieer letter! Who is this Jackson ? 'Pears tome
I 'vo hec^rd of him before." " We '11 tell you," said his head men, ** who he i&
He Is the New Orleans Jiicksou." "What!" said the Emperor, *'the New Or
leans Jackson : That's quite another matter. If this man don't v rite sobefto*
tiful, he knows how to fight ; so send them ships homo right away.'' And it
was done.'

" Tliis was regarded as a very effective political speech, and was recelTed
with thunders of applaase." — llar])ers Magazine.

■>

1832.] RE-ELECTIOK OF GENERAL JACKSON. 427

clothes upon an election. Members of Congresa were gener-
ally given to the practice. The minor oflSce-holders sought
to show their confidence in the success of their party, and to
intimidate the opposition, by the extmvagance of their bets.
Isaac Hill writes to Jesse Hoy t in October : " To meet the
braggarts of the opposition I advise my friends that any sum
will be safe on the electoral vote of Pennsylvania and New
York." Mr. William L. Mackenzie computed, from the evi-
dence of letters, that Jesse Hoyt's election bets amounted in
nine years to one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The
letters of Mr. John Van Buren, published a few years ago
by Mr. Mackenzie, give us a curious insight into the myster-
ies of election betting. Note these sentences :

" Can you get any bets on Governor, even ? We shall lick the dogs so
in this State that the * Great West' will hear the howling." . . .
'* Can you get bets on three, four, and five thousand majority for Marcy,
two hundred dollars on each? — if not, I will bet Ave hundred dollai-s
(m four thousand — perhaps, if we lose New Jei-soy, you can get thia
If you can't do better, I should like a bet of tliree hundred dollars
on five thousand majority for Marcy — unless we lose New Jersey: in
that event I will wait to get better terms." ..." I should be most
paiticalarly obliged to you, if you can get me an even bet against Marcy
to any amount less than five thousand dollars. I think I would bet one
hundred dollars on each one thousand majority up to live tliousand. J
would bet fifteen hundred dollars against one thouc-and dollars on an even
election. I consider Marcy's election, by from seven tliousand five hundred
to fifle«m thousand majority, as sure as God." . . . " P. 8. I don't
care to bet on five thousand majority for Marcy just now : il' it Ls not too
late to back out" . . . "In this State our majority will range from
fifteen thousand to twenty-five thousand. Bets on fifteen are perfectly
safe." . . . "By the looks of Webb's paper (although it is intended no
doubt to operate on New Jersey) the opposition gain confidence. Can you
tempt them with a wagor on three, four, and five thousand majorities —
two hundred dollars on each^-or five hundred dollars on four thousand?
If neither of these can be got to-morrow, bet them five hundred dolLirs on
fiye thousand majority. There will be no betting after to-morrow." . .
"They say *the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,' and heaven
knows I have been freely tapped in the good cause."

One other feature of this campaign remains to be noticed.

428 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

15oth i)artios were confident of victoiy ; but if one party was
•more conlident than the other, it was the opposition. The
reason of this was, tliat the printed matter rehiting to the
controvei*sv, with which the country was inundated, was
mostly on the side of the opposition. Reading people, them-
selves under the domination of the printing press, could not
but attach great importance to this circumstiince. Keadiug
I)eople are not now all aware that not more than one half of
the voters of this Union can be re^iched by print, and that no
l)arty that chiefly relies upon the press can carry a general
election. A striking pamphlet can influence voters, and so
does a well-conducted newspaper ; but a hickory pole, a tak-
ing cry, a transparency, a burst of sky rockets and Roumn
candles (alas ! that it should be so !) have a potency over a
large third of our voters that printed eloquence can not exert.
An event occurred at the close of the month of August
that served to complete the infatuation of the jmrty opposed
to General Jackson. The Conrkr and Enquirer^ so long the
sturdy and influential champion of the administration, turned
against it, removed the names of Jackson and Van Buren
from the head of its editorial columns, and ojx^nly joined the
opposition. " Since 1823," said Col. Webb, in the course of
an explanatory article of three columns, " I have been the
Ann, undeviating friend of Andrew Jackson, through good
and through evil report. I hav(» defended his reputation and
advocated his cause ; and for the last five vears mv exertions
in his behalf, as the conductor of a public journal, have been
known to this conimunitv. But the tune has now arrived
when I owe it to the people, to the institutions of the coun-
try, and to mys(^lf, to declare my deliberate conviction that
he has not realized the high hopes which his reputation and
previously written and declared opinions promiseil, nor re-
deemed the sacred pledges which he voluntarily gave on his
elevation to the first station in the world. Let me not be
misunderstood. I do not — I never will — imjieach his pa-
triotism or his int^^grity ; but as a sentinel at my post, true
to the duty which I voluntarily assumed when I became the

•^

1832.] RE-ELECTION OF GENERAL JACKSON. 429

editor of a public journal, I feel called upon to proclaim to
the people that Andrew Jackson is not their president ; that,
enfeebled by age, and the toils, cares, and anxieties of an ac-
tive and laborious life, he no longer possesses his former
energy of character or indei>endence of mind ; but confiding
in those who have wormed themselves into his confidence, he
haB intrusted the affairs of this great nation, and the ha])pi-
nesa of thirteen millions of freemen, to the hands of political
gamblers, money-changing, time-serving politicians, who, in
the pui'suit of their unhallowed purposes, threaten ruin to
the country and to that sacred charter of our liberties which
was matured by the wisdom of our fathera, after having been
purchased with their blood, and the sacrifice of every selfish
motive on the altar of public good. The events of the past
three years, the occurrences which are almost daily transpir-
ing, the high-handed infringements of the Constitution, and
the tone of the official paper at Washington, all but too
clearly prove that a few mercenary and unprincipled officers
of government, possessing the confidence of the Executive,
and leagued with a band of reckless money-changcra at Al-
bany, are bringing disgraice and distress upon the country,
and destroying the fairest fabric of liberty which an all-wise
and beneficent Providence ever bestowed upon man.''

Colonel Webb soon had an opportunity of learning
whether or not General Jackson possessed his "former en-
ergy of character." He was mistaken in attributing General
Jackson's late anti-bank measures to the influence of others.
General Jackson's animosity to the bank had suj)i)lanted in
his mind, for the time, all his other animosities. Only four
of his confidential counselors, Messrs. Benton, Taney, Blair,
and Kendall, were prepared to sustain him in all the mea-
sures he had taken, and all the measures he contemplated,
against it. Major Lewis held back. A majority of the Cab-
inet gave him but a cold and hesitating support, and one
important member tliereof was known to be a friend of the
bank. The President needed no stimulant in his warfare
against an institution, to destroy which was as nmch his rul-

430 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

ing passion in 1832, as it had been, in 1815, his ruling passion
to drive the British army into the sea. The bank had defied
him in 1829. The bank had ignored him in 1831. Perish
the bank ! The United States was not a country large
enough to contain two such presidents as Andrew Jackson
and Nicholas Biddle.

The defection of the great newspaper had its influence
upon the press. Eight papers, if we may believe the oppo-
sition editors, soon followed its example.

A few weeks later, the American dolorously exclaimed :
"The city is lost ! The returns from the country come in
all one way ! There is no doubt that Jackson and Van
Buren are elected 1"

The result of the election astonished every body. Not
the wildest Jackson man in his wildest moment had antici-
pated a victory quite so overwhelming. Two hundred and
eighty-eight was the whole number of electoral votes in 1832.
General Jackson received two hundred and nineteen — seventy-
four more than a majority. Mr. Van Buren, for the vice-
presidency, received one hundred and eighty-nine electoral
votes — forty-four more than a majority. Clay and Sergeant
obtained forty-nine ! William Wirt, of Maryland, and
William EUnaker, of Pennsylvania, the candidates of the
anti-masonry party, received the electoral vote of one State,
Vermont — a result to which the vehement denunciations of
a printer's boy, named Horace Greeley, may have contributed
a few votes. South Carolina threw her vote away upon
John Floyd, of Virginia, and Henry Lee, of Massachusetts,
neither of whom were nuUifiers.

The States that voted for General Jackson were these :
Maine, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl-
vania, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, and Mis-
souri— sixteen. All of these States but one gave their elec-
toral vote to Mr. Van Buren for the vice-presidency. Penn-
sylvania preferred William Wilkins for that office, one of her
own citizens, who received accordingly thirty votes, and

1832.] RE-EL EOTI ON OF GENERAL JACKSON. 431

caused Mr. Van Buren to fall thirty votes btlund his chief.
The States that gave a majority for Clay and Sergeant were :
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Mary-
land, and Kentucky — six.

How can we explain a result so unexpected ? First, Gen-
eral Jackson, in his Iciiding public measures (always except-
ing his appointment-and-reraoval policy) was right. Sec-
ondly, Society, in all countries and all ages, by the nature of
things, is divided into three classes. Top, Bottom, and Mid-
dle— ^kiugs, lords, and commons — the three estates — Office-
Holders, Capitalists, and Workingmen — call them what you
will. Any two of these is more than a match for any one
of them. In Europe, the despot unites with the masses, and
sways the scepter in safety. Or, he unites with the nobles,
and the peoj)le must submit. The nobles and the people to-
gether can put down the despot. In the election of 1832,
ihe President of the United States supported by the masses
of the people, repeated, on this republican theater, a triumph
supposed to belong only to the history of the Old World.

The Bank of the United States was doomed. The Globe
had the audacity to say, soon aft^r the election, that mem-
bers of the defeated party were prompting the " minions of the
bank" to save the institution by the only expedient that
could save it — the assassination of the President ! It further
stated, that two members of the Oppositi(>n had been over-
heard to declare, that the man who should do the deed would
render his countrv a signal service, which the bank would
gladly reward with a gift of fifty thousand dollars. There
was one man then living in the United States who believed
that there was truth in these 8tt)rios. Andrew Jackson was
his name. When, a little later, a lunatic aimed a pistol at
him, he thought for days that the " minions of the bank "
had set him on.

The present Emi)eror of France witnessed part of this
contest between the President of the Republic and the Presi-
dent of the Bank. From an allusion to it in the " Idees Na-
pol6onicnne8," we must infer thrt Napoleon III. was a Jack-

432 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

son man at that day. " The United States," observes tlif
imperial author, " offer us a striking example of the incim-
veniences which attend the weakness of a civil authoritv.
Althougli, in that country, there are none of the fcrment^i-
tions of discord, wliich for a long time yet will trouble Europe,
the central power, being weak, is alarmed at every indepen-
dent organization ; for every independent organization threat-
ens it. It is not niflitary power alone which is feared ; but
money power — the bank : hence a division of parties. The
president of the bank might have more power than the Pres-
ident of the country ; for a much stronger reason, a success-
ful general would eclipse the civil power."

Well, the clamor of tlie election, the shouts of triumph,
the groans of the defeated, died away in the month of Novem-
ber, and were forgotten. The President, it will be admitted,
was a very popular man just then. But who could have
foreseen that, within one little month, he was to win over to
his side, the veiy class and the only class that had opposed
his reelection, and attain a popularity more fervid and uni-
versal than has been incurred by a citizen of the United
States since the first term of General "Washington's presi-
dency ? Who could have exj)ectod to see all New England;
headed by New Englnnd's favorite, Daniel Webster, joining
with all the North and nu>st of the South, in one burst of
r'ntlinsiastic praise of Andrew Jackson ?

Indeed, some of tlie newspapers went so far as to nomi-
nate General Jackson for a third term. " My opinion is,"
wrote Mr. Wirt, " that he may be President for life if he
chooses."

1832.] NULLIFICATION AS AN IDEA. 433

CHAPTER XXXII.

NULLIFICATION AS AN IDBA.

"A RENDERING void and of no effect, or of no legal
effect/' is the definition given by Noah Webster of this word,
nullification. It was introduced into American politics as
early as 1798, when the passage of the odious Alien and Se-
dition laws prompted the Legislatures of Yirginia and Ken-
tucky to adopt certain resolutions known to history as the
Besolutions of '98, of which Mr. Madison and Mr. Jefferson
were the chief authors. One of these resolutions declared
that when the general government assumed powers not dele-
gated by the States, ^^a nullification of the act was the
netful remedy." The resolutions declared, however, that
the act nullified must be ^^ so palpably against the constitu-
tion as to amount to an undisguised declaration that the
compact is not meant to be the measure of the powers of the
general government, but that it will proceed to exercise over
the States all powers whatsoever, by seizing the rights of the
States, and consolidating them in the hands of the general
government." The authors of the resolutions contemplated
a concurrence with the act of nullification by other States, or
by all the States. Their object, evidently, was to provide for
a united protest against usurpation, and, if necessary, for
united action against it. The resolutions were drawn and
passed by men who loved the union of these States. They
were drawn and passed in the interest of the Union, for the
sake of the Union, to cement the Union, to avert danger
from the Union, to i>rovide a way of restoring the Union if
it should ever be threatened with dissolution.

The interpretation put upon the Resolutions of '98 by
the Nullifiers of 1832 was this : Any single State may nul-
lify any act of Congress which it deems unconstitutional.
Mr. Cidhoun contended that such nullification was not an
act tending to dissolve the Union, but, on the contrary, to

VOL, lU. — 28

434 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

Btrengthen it. Every thing else could go on as before. Tie
nullifying State merely refused obedience to one objectionable
act, and would wait patiently for Congress to repeal it. The
extreme nullifiers, the men of that party who had honest
minds, boldly avowed that the resolutions of 1798 meant
that any State of tJiis Union may secede froin the Union
whenever it likes ! And this is the real meaning of the nul-
lification doctrines of 1832. The language of Mr. Calhoun,
guarded and labored as it is, amounts to that, and nothing
short of that. He proposed the nullification of a revenue
law, and a revenue law must be universal in its operation or
it can not any where be obeyed. He contemplated a posture
of affairs which rendered it necessary for the Union to ob^
South Carolina, or for South Carolina to give laws to tbe
Union.

What, then, of the Supreme Court, the appointed arbiter
between State and State, between a State and the United
States ? Why, said Mr. Calhoun, the Supreme Court is
as much the creature of a Majority as Congress itself ; and
the very object of nullification is to resist the encroachments
of tyrant Majority. The Supreme Court is already com-
mitted to the side of the stronger, to which stronger the judges
owe their offices ; and, therefore, can not justly be allowed a
voice in the matter. Lest any one should find it impossible
to believe, without the evidence, that a man of Mr. Calhoun's
force and ability could deliberately utter such sentiments, I
will insert here the curious paragraph from his first formal
utterance upon nullification, which disposes of the Supreme
Court. The italics are Mr. Calhoun's :

" It is on universal and fundamental political principle, that the power
to protect can safely be confided only to those interested in protectingi or
their responsible agents, a maxim not less true in private than in pabGe
affairs. The danger in our system Is, that the General Goverament^ whidi
represents ihe interests of the whole, may encroach on the States, whidi
represent the peculiar and local interests, or that the latter may encrotcfa
on the former. In examining this pointy we ought not to forget that tbe
govemment, through all its departments, judicial as well as other% ii 9^

1832.] NULLIFIOATION AS AN IDEA. 435

ministered by delegated and responsible agents ; and that the power which
rtalfy controls utUmately aU the movements is not in the agentSj but those who
ded or appoint them. To understand, then, its real character, and what
would be the action of the system in any supposable case, we must raise
our view from the mere agents to this high controlling power which finally
impels every movement of the machine. By doing so, we shall find all
mider the control of the will of a majority, compounded of the will of tlic
minority of the people of the States estimated in federal numbers. These
united constitute the real and final power, which impels and directs the
movements of the General Qovcmment The majority of the States elect
the majority of the Senate ; of the people of the States, that of the House
of Representatives ; .the two united, the President ; and the President and
ft majority of the Senate appoint the Judges; a majority of whom, and a
miyority of the Senate and the House with the President, really exercise
•n of the powers of the government, with the exception of the cases where
the Constitution requires a greater number than a majority. The Judges
arc, in fact, as truly the Judicial Representatives of this united majority,
as the majority of Congress itself, or the President is its legislative or ex-
eoative representative ; and to confide the power to the Judiciary to de-
termine, finally and conclusively, what powers arc delegated and what
nserved, would be in reality to confide it to the majority, whose agents
they are, and by whom they can be controlled in various ways ; and, of
course, to subject (against the fimdamental principle of our system and all
sound political reasoning) the reserved powers of the States, with all of
the local and peculiar interests they were intended to protect, to the will
of the very majority against which the pretection was intended. Nor will
the tenure by which the Judges hold their office, however valuable the
provision in many other respects, materially vary the case. Its highest
pofltdble effect would be to retard and not finaUy to resistj the vnll of a
dominant majority."

Of course it would. And the belief is, and has always
been prevalent in the United States, that the majority ought
to be the ruling power in the republic.

The comment of General Jackson upon this reasoning is
about the best which the discussion elicited. " If this thing
goes on/' he exclaimed to his old courier, General Sam. Dale,
of Mississippi, " our country will be like a bag of meal with
both ends open. Pick it up in the middle or endwise, it will
run out." A homely and forcible summing up of the Web-
Bterian argument

436 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSOK. [1832.

It behoves every citizen of the United States to under-
stand this subject of nullification. And never was there more
need that it should be generally understood than in the year
1860. So much of it as relates to General Jackson and his
administration, I will now proceed to elucidate as clearly as
lean.

Every Southerner who has visited the North, and every
Northerner who has traveled in the South, has been stmck
with the contrast exhibited in the general aspect of the two
sections. The Northerner who finds himself, for the first
time, in the heart of a Southern State, surveys the sceae
around him with astonishment. He is told that the country
upon which he looks has been settled for a hundred or a hun-
dred and fifty years ; but he beholds all the signs which, in
his own section, denote a new settlement. He is amazed at
the apparent fewness of the people, at the vast quantitieB of
wild or worn out lands, at the dilapidated tenements, at the
air of desolation which pervades the scene. The villages are
few and far between, and present a contrast the most complete
to the trim, tidy, clean, well-shaded, delightful villages of his
northern home. If he alights and mingles among the people,
and, particularly, if he resides for a while upon a plantation,
he discovers that his first impressions were not altogether
correct. He learns that there is at the South a certain sub-
stantial prosperity, not indicated by the general appearance
of the country. But he also perceives that such prosperity
as there is, is shared by a comparatively small portion of the
people. Young men without capital or influential friends do
not find there that variety of employments, those chances to
rise, which gives to every kind of northern talent such a
stimulus to exertion. The stranger finds himself regarding
the amiable young men whom he meets with a kind of com-
passionate curiosity. He wonders what they are going to do
in life. Between those colossal estates there does not seem
any room for a young fellow to edge in and make his way.
The professions, too, offer less inducement there than else-

1832.] NULLIFIOATION AS AN IDBA. 437

where, owing to the general smalhiess of the towns and the
thinness of the country population.

A fine old Virginia gentleman, one of the olden time, who
has inherited a fine estate, finds life at the South sufficiently
pleasant, no doubt. But to unfriended, uncapitaled, aspiring
young men, the class whose energy and ambition make the
North what it is, the South does not ofier a tempting sphere
of exertion.

The contrast between the slow and limited prosperity of
the South, and the swift, noisy, marvelous progress of the
North, was never so striking as it was during the administra-
tion of General Jackson. The North was rushing on like a
western high-pressure steamboat, with rosin in the furnace
and a man on the safety-valve. All through western New
York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, the primeval wilderness was
vanishing like a mist, and towns were springing into exist-
ence with a rapidity that rendered necessary a new map every
month, and spoiled the gazetteers as fast as they were printed.
The city of Now York, as Mr. Irving has beautifully told us,
began already to feel itself the London of the New World,
and to calculate how many years must elapse before it would
be the London of the universe.

The South, meanwhile, was depressed and anxious. Cot-
ton was down. Tobacco was down. Corn, wheat, and pork
were down. For several years the chief products of the
South had either been inclining downward, or else had risen
in price too slowly to make up for the (alleged) increased
price of the commodities which the South was compelled to
buy. Few new towns changed the Southern map. Charles-
ton languished, or seemed to languish ; certainly did not keep
pace with New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. No Cin-
cinnati of the South became the world's talk by the startling
rapidity of its growth. No Southern river exhibited, at
every bend and coyne of vantage, a rising viUage. No South-
em mind, distracted with the impossibility of devising suit-
able names for a thousand new places per annum, fell back
in despair upon the map of the old world, and selected at

438 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

random any convenient name that presented itself, bestowing
upon clusters of log-huts such titles as Utica, Rome, Palermo,
Naples, Bussia, Egypt, Madrid, Paris, Elba, and Berlin. No
Southern commissioner, compelled to find names for a hun-
dred streets at once, had seized upon the letters of the alpha-
bet and the figures of arithmetic, and called his avenues A,
B, C, and D, and instead of naming his cross streets, num-
bered them.

Upon the fact of this contrast between the North and
South, all the earlier nullification debates turned. Mr. Clay
struck the key-note when he began his three days' speech
upon the tariff in 1832, with a glowing picture of the pros-
perity of the country. Southern gentlemen replied, particu-
larly Mr. John Tyler, of Virginia, that Mr. Clay's eloquent
periods applied only to one section of the Union. The
North, it was true, was boimding forward on a bright career,
but the South was paralyzed and desolate. Northern mem-
bers could not deny the essential truth of the Southerners'
lamentation. It was respecting the cause of the contrast
that the debaters differed.

The cause, the cause, ye most chaste stars I How could
any man, at that day, look upon the South and not see the
cause ? The Southern system, be it wrong or be it right,
be it wise or be it unwise, is one that does not attract emi-
grants ; and the Northern system does ! That is the great
cause.

From the hour when Columbus sprang exulting upon
these western shores, the great interest of America has been
emigration. That country of the new world has prospered
most which has attracted the greatest number of the best
emigrants, by affording them the best chance to attain the
sole object of emigration, the improvement of their condition ;
and that portion of that country has out-stripped the rest
which offered to emigrants the most promising field of labor.
For, a MAN, view him in what light you may, is the most
precious thing in the world. He is wealth in its most con-
centrated form. A stalwart, virtuous, skillful, thoughtful

1832.] NULLIFICATION AS AN IDEA. 439

man, progenitor of an endless line of such, planted in our west-
em wilds, to hew out home and fortune with his own glorious
and beautiful right hand and heart, is worth to the State that
wins him a thousand times his weight in Koh-i-nor. Such
have poured into the northern States, in an abounding flood,
these fifty years. Behold what they have wrought !

Such emigrants go to the South in inconsiderable Dum-
bere. Partly, because from infancy they learn to loathe the
very name of slavery. They sicken at the thought of it.
They shrink from contact with it. They take Wesley's char-
acterization of it in the most literal acceptation of the words,
and esteem it the sum of all villainies — that solely possible
crime which includes, in its single self, all the wrong that
man can wreak on man. Whether they are right, or whether
they are wrong, in so thinking, is not a question here. They
think so. And if they did not, they would not go in great
numbers to the South, because it does not aflbrd to a man
with six children and a hundred dollars the immediate oppor-
tunities for profitable and congenial labor which the North
affords. On the prairies, in the forests of the North, the
struggling emigrant finds himself surrounded by neighbors
whose condition, antecedents, prospects, social standing, are
all similar to his own. There is no great proprietor to over-
top him. There is no slave with whom he has to compete.
He forgets that there is any such thing as a graduated social
scale, and feels that by virtue of his manhood alone, he stands
on a level with the best.

To this great cause of the contrast between the South and
the North is to be added the unskillful labor of slaves. In
the debate of 1832, no one dwelt more forcibly upon this
than Mr. George M. Dallas, of the Senate. " The lights of
science," said he, "and the improvements of art, which vivify
and accelerate elsewhere, can not penetrate, or, if they do,
penetrate with dilatory inefficiency among the operatives of
the South. They are merely instinctive and passive. While
the intellectual industry of other parts of this country springs
elastically forward at every fresh impulse, and manual labor

440 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

is proi)elled and redoubled by countless inventions, machinefl,
and contrivances, instantly understood and at once exercised,
the South remains stationary, inaccessible to such encourag-
ing and invigorating aids. Nor is it possible to be wholly
blind to the moral effect of this species of labor upon those
freemen among whom it exists. A disrelish for humble and
hardy occupation ; a pride adverse to drudgery and toil ; a
dread that to partake in the employments allotted to color
may be accompanied also by its degradation, are natural and
inevitable. The high and lofty qualities which, in other scenes,
and for other purposes, characterize and adorn our Southern
brethren, are fatal to the enduring patience, the corporeal ex-
ertion, and the painstaking simplicity, by which only a succew-
ful yeomanry can be formed. When, in fact, the Senator from
South Carolina asserts that ' slaves are too improvident, too
incapable of that minute, constant, delicate attention, and
that persevering industry which is essential to the success of
manufacturing establishments,' ho himself admits the defect
in the condition of southern labor, by which the pi-ogress of
his favorite section must be retarded. He admits an inability
to keep pace with the rest of the world. He admits an in-
herent weakness ; a weakness neither engendered nor aggra-
vated by the tariff, which, as societies are now constituted
and directed, must drag in the rear, and be distanced in
the common race."

These explanations, and explanations such as these, though
they were received by southern gentlemen then, as they are by
southern gentlemen now, with respect and courtesy, were not
satisfactory to them then any more than they are now. No,
said Mr. Tyler, the protective tariff is the cause of our calam-
ities and our decay. " We buy dear and sell cheap" — that
is the simple secret. The tariff raises the price of all we buy,
and diminishes the demands for our products abroiul, by
diminishing the power of foreign nations to buy them. To
tliis assertion the protectionists replied then, as they reply
now, by the broad statement that every article of manufiio-
ture, adequately protected, soon becomes cheaper than it exec

/ ■

-, \

1832.] NULLIFICATION AS AN IDEA. 441

was before. Mr. Clay appealed to his own experience, as a
hemp-grower, when he said that the cottton bagging supplied
by the Kentucky planters had fallen in price since it was
protected by a high duty. As soon, he maintained, as it is
made possible in the United States to manufacture an article
of general utility, two forces, constantly operating, unite to
cheapen it, namely. Competition and Ingenuity.

This is not the place for a discussion of the tariflF ques-
tion, nor is the present chronicler the individual to undertake
that question any where. The object here is merely to show
the state of feeling at the time, which emboldened Mr. Cal-
houn to take the course he did. The North and the South
were divided in opinion as to the eflTects of protective duties
upon the prosperity of the country ; the North believing that
such duties were beneficial to the whole country ; the South
being of opinion, that they were stimulating to northern in-
dustry, but paralyzing to southern.

It is also to be noted, that from a very early period in the
history of the "United States, there has been some degree of
antipathy between the two sections, an antipathy engendered
by ignorance and fostered by misrepresentation. It can be
truly said, that, at this moment, neither section understands
the other, because neither section sympathizes with the other.
And there is no true knowledge without love. I see indica-
tions of ill feeling in the newspapers as early as 1796, when
slavery was not a sectional institution. In the Connecticut
Gourant oi 1796, a communication appeared, signed Pelham,
copied into the Philadelj)hia New Worldj which anticipates
much that is current in 1860. This article is valuable as a
mere historical curiosity :

" We have reached," says Pelham, " a critical period in our political
existence. The question must soon be decided, whether we will continue
a nation, at the expense even of our Union, or sink encumbered with the
present mass of difficulty into confusion and slavery. On a subject so in-
teresting as tliis, it is hazardous to speak. But it is still more hazardous to
remain silent

" I think it will not be an easy task to discover any thing like an eqoiv-

442 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

alent gained by the Northern States, for the admission of the negroes into
the mass of inhabitants in the Southern States, in order to swell the sie
of the representation into the general Congress^ The importance of this
point to tlie Soutliem States, will strikingly appear by a very shght exam-
ination. Negroes are in all respects, except in regard to life and deatli,
the cattle of the citizens of the Southern States. If they were good for
food, the probability is, that even the power of destroying their lives would
be enjoyed by their owners, as fully as it is over the lives of their cattl&
It can not be, that their laws prohibit the owners from killing their slsTea^
because those slaves arc human beings, or because it is regarded as a mor-
tal evil to destroy them. If that were the case, how can they justify their
being treated in all other respects like brutes? For it is in this point
of view alone that negroes in tlie Southern States are considered, in UxA^
as different from cattle. They are bought and sold ; they are fed or kept
hungry ; they are clothed or reduced to nakedness ; they are beat<;n, turned
out to the fury of the tempest, and torn from their dearest connections, with
as Uttle remorse as if they were beasts of the field. On what principle^
then, were they noticed among their masters in the scale of representation?
They have no interests to protect; no happiness to advance; the laws
afford them no security except for their hves; and the government fur-
nishes them with no advantages. If, to balance tliis claim, the Northern
States had demanded, that three- fifths of tlie whole number of their horses
and cattle should be added to the amount of free persons, the claim, doubt-
less, would have been rejected with indignation. But it was thought ex-
pedient that the Southern States should be indulged in a claim equally
absurd and unfounded. Where the equivalent rests, I am ignorant

" When it becomes a serious question, whether we shall give up our
government, or part witli the States soutli of the Potomac, no man north
of tliat river, whose heart is not thoroughly democratic, can hesitate what
decision to make. That this question is nearly ripe for decision, there can
be but little doubt. It is therefore time that the public mind should be
employed in examining it attentively, in order that, when the period ar-
rives, the decision may be made coolly and with firmness."

That the feeling disclosed in these paragraphs was not
confined to the North, can be easily shown. Col. Crockett,
a Tennesseean of the olden time, told the people of Boston,
at the public dinner given him at that city in 1832, that he
and thousands more of the Southern people had been brought
up to despise the inhabitants of New England. " We have
always been taught," ho said, " to look upon the people of
New England as a selfish, cunning set of fellows^ that were

1832.] NULLIFICATION AS AN IDEA. 443

fed on fox ears and thistle tops ; that cut their wisdom-teeth
as soon as they were born ; that made money by their wits,
and held on to it by nature ; that called cheatery mother-wit ;
that hung on to political power because they had numbers ;
that raised up manufactures to keep down the South and
West ; and, in fact, had so much of the devil in all their
machinery, that they would neither lead nor drive, unless the
load was going into their own cribs. But I assure you, gen-
tlemen, I begin to think diflferently of you, and I think I see a
good many good reasons for so doing. I don't mean that be-
cause I eat your bread and drink your liquor, that I feel so.
No ; that don't make me see clearer than I did. It is your
habits, and manners, and customs ; your industry ; your
proud, independent spirits ; your hanging on to the eternal
principles of right and wrong ; your liberality in prosperity,
and your patience when you are ground down by legislation,
which, instead of crushing you, whets your invention to strike
a path without a blaze on a tree to guide you ; and above
all, your never-dying, deathless grip to our glorious constitu-
tion. These are the things that make me think that you are
a mighty good people."

The caricatures and burlesques of Jackson's day are full
of this mutual antipathy. They show us that the feeling be-
tween the two sections was similar to that which exists be-
tween a country gentleman of the proud old school, with an
estate heavily mortgaged, and a rich manufacturer living in
his neighborhood, sprung from nothing, and carrying the
country all before him with his showy mansion and bursting
purse. One of these burlesques, the " Memoirs of a NuUi-
fier," corroborates CoL Crockett with tolerable humor. The
author conducts his readers into the judgment hall of Khada-
manthus, and reports the examination of the spirit of a de-
parted Yankee :

" Soon wc heard one of the constables call out, * Vh-gil Hoskins I Vir-
gQ Hoskms I' ' Here/ answered our companion the Yankee peddler, quak-
ing up to the bar. Rbadamanthus was seated with a great number of
huge acoount-books before him. * Virgil Hoskins is your name, is it?*

444 LIFE OF ANDBEW JAOKSON. [1832.

said lie. ^ Here it is among the Ks, page 49,358. Ah, Virgil I there's «
terribly long account against you. Let's see a few of the charges.'
{Roads.)

•* Virgil Hoskins. Db.

" June 27, 18 — . To selling, in the course of one peddling expedition,
497,368 wooden nutmegs, 281,532 Spanish segars made of oak lea?ea,
and 647 wooden clocks.

" ' What do you say to that charge, Hoskins ?*

" Hoskins, ' Why, that was counted in our place about the greatest
peddling trip that ever was made over the Potomac.'

" Rhadamanthus reads : June 29, 18 — To stealing an old grindstone,
smearing it over with butter, and then selling it as a cheese.

" HoskinSj in great surprise. * Jimminny I Surely you wouldn't pun-
ish a man for that, would you ?'

" Rhadamanthus reads : December 13, 1780. To making a counter-
feit dollar of pewter, when you were six years old, and cheatiog your own
fisither with it

'' Hoskins. ^ Daddy was mighty glad when he found it out He said
it showed I had a genius.'

" Rhadamanthus reads : July 2, 18 — . To taking a worn-out pair of
shoes, which you found in the road, and selling them to a pious old lady
as being actually the shoes of Saint Paul.

^' Hoskins, wilh exultation. ' I made four dollars and twelve and a half
oents by that'

" Rhadamanthus reads : July 2, 18 — , To taking an empty old watch-
case, putting a Uve cricket into it^ and then selling it as a patent lever in
full motion.

'' Hoskins. ^ He, he, he ; that was one of the 'cutest tricks I ever
played in all my life.'

^^Rhadamanthus: 'It would occupy mo a week, Hoskins, to go
through all the charges against you. These few are sufficient. I really
am getting entirely out of patience with New England, for it gives me
more trouble than all the rest of the world put together. You are sen-
tenced to be tlirown into a lake of boiling molasses, where nearly all your
countrymen already are, with that same old grindstone tied to your neck,
and to remain there for over.' "

The same writer represents a Yankee orator promulgating
from the stump :

" 1. That two and two do not make four, but something else, I havB
not yet exactly ascertained what.

" 2. That the higher the tax upon articles of merchandise, the lower

1832.] NULLIFICATION AS AN IDEA. 445

win be the price; the imaginatioii can fix no limit to the cheapness to be
thns obtained.

^ 3. That the higher the price of Northern manulactiires, the better
f(Mr ii8| as it will make us rich.

*^ 4. That the lower the price of cotton, and other Southern products,
the better for those who raise them, as it will force them to be economical,
and economy is one of the chief of the virtues."

The burlesque concludes by a chemical analysis of a Yan-
kee's soul :

" The devil is a wonderfully skilliul chemist, and knows how to an-

tiyte all substances, whether material or spiritual In a few minutes he

erected a furnace, seized one of the Yankees, and disengaged from the

body that which in these animals supplies the place of a souL It stood

np before us, a thing utterly strange and indescribable. He put it into a

large crucible, reduced it to a fluid mass^ and then separated the compon-

oit parts.

" It consisted of—

Ftfta in a thonnod.

Cuming, . 126

Hypocrifij, 125

Avarice, 125

Falsehood, 125

Sneakingneas, 125

Nameless and numberless small vices, .... 140

Easence of onions. New England rum, molasses, and cod-fish, 235

1000

A retort appeared at the North, which was more than
equal in humor and point to the " Memoirs of a Nullifier."
It was entitled, "A Yankee among the Nullifiers." The
following amusing passage is full of the feeling of the hour :

'^ As I was one evening in company with sundry Niillifiers, one of them
related the following :

" * I am very particular,' said he, * never to use an article of American
mannfacture on any consideration whatever. It costs me a great deal more,
to be sure, to obtain those of foreign production. But I am determined not
to encourage the advocates of protection ; and would sooner go fifly miles,
and pay a hundred per cent more than a thing is worth, if it be only im-
ported, than have a similar article of American manufacture brought to my
▼eiy door and sold at a fair price.

^ * Bat in spite of all my care, I sometimes get confoundedly taken in.

446 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

Why, it was only last week that I discovered a monstrous cheat that had
been put upon me. Falling into conversation with a Yankee, I laundied
out as usual against the Tariff, and swore that I would go bareheaded and
barebacked till the end of time, sooner than I would wear a coat made of
American cloth, or a hat manufactured in an American shop.

" ' With that the fellow poked out his hand and desired, if it was do
offense, to examine the quality of my coat " You may examine it as
much as you please," said I ; " but you '11 find it's none of your Yankee
manufacture ?"

" * " There 's where your mistaken, Mister," said he. " I helped make
that cloth myself at the Pontoosuc Factory, in old Barkshire, Masaachn-
setts."

" ' '' The devil you did 1" said L " Why, I purchased this cloth of a
merchant who assured me positively tliat it was of British manufacture.
But what makes you think it is American cloth, and especially that it was
made at the Pon , what do you call it, Factory ?"

" * " Why, I know by the feel of it Any fool might know tliat"

" ' He then made a like request — provided always it was no offense—
to examine my hat " You are devilish afraid of giving offense," said I,
at the same time handing him my hat; " but at all events you '11 not find
that of American manufacture. It 's real London made. I paid ten dd-
lais for it to the importer."

44 < <c rpjjg more fool you, then," said he ; " why, I made that hat with
my own hands, in the town of Danbury, CJonnecticut ; and I can buy as
many jest like it as you can shake a stick at, for four dollars apiece."

*' * " Confound you, for a lying Yankee I" said I, beginning to get angiy
at the fellow's impertinence — " do you pretend to be a hatter and doth
manufacturer too ? But here 's sufficient evidence, inside of the hat^ to
convict you of an untrutli ; here 's tlie name of the manufacturer, Bond-
street^ London."

" ' *' Ha ! ha I ha I" said he, laughing in my face — " I printed that libel
in Hartford, Connecticut"

" * " You Yankee scoundrel I" said I, " what hav'nt you done 7**

" ' ^' I never did so foolish a thing," replied he, '' as to pay twice as much
for British manufactures as I have to give for American ones ; and after all,
find the goods had been made in the workshops of our own country."

*^ ^ This capped the climax of the fellow's impertinence ; and I kidced
him out doors for his pains.' "

Here, then, was material upon which the great nullified
could work — the discontent of the South with the protective
system, and the popular antipathy between the two sectioiu
of the Union. It proved an explosive material in his hands.

1832.1 NULLLIFICATION AS AN EVENT. 447

CHAPTER XXXIII.

NULLIFICATION AS AN EVENT.

Calhoun began it. Calhoun continued it. Calhoun
stopped it.

So much is known. But the means are not accessible,
and are not likely to be, of forming a certain judgment re-
specting the character of this celebrated person. We can not
positively determine whether he was a selfish, or merely a
ihistaken man ; or, in other words, whether it was the love
of the presidency, or of justice and South Carolina, that im-
pelled him.

The old Jackson men of the inner set still speak of Mr.
Calhoun in terms which show that they consider him at once
fhe most wicked and the most despicable of American states-
men. He was a coward, conspirator, hypocrite, traitor, and
fool, say they. He strove, schemed, dreamed, lived, only for
the presidency ; and when he despaired of reaching that
office by honorable means, he sought to rise upon the ruins
of his country — thinking it better to reign in South Carolina
than to serve in the United States. General Jackson lived
and died in this opinion. In his last sickness he declared
that, in reflecting upon his administration, he chiefly regret-
ted that he had not had John C. Calhoun executed for
treason. " My country," said the General, " would have
sustained me in the act, and his fate would have been a
warning to traitors in all time to come."

It is painful to be compelled to think ill of a character
beloved by the people of one State, admired by the people
of many States, generally respected in all the States. Bul-
wer and others have maintained that we can not learn a man's
character from his writings. Perhaps not, when his writings
are imaginative and emotional, because such effusions do not
tell the secret of secrets — whether the good feelings of the
aathor have power to contrdl his conduct. A man of the

448 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1832.

right stAmp lives better than he writes : a man of the wrong
stamp writes better than he lives. The writings of Mr. Cal-
houn, voluminous, argumentative, difficult to read, seem to
reveal to us an honest, earnest nature. We should naturally
infer from them that, soured in some degree by his disappoint-
ment with regard to the presidency, he had fallen under the
domination of one idea, which he spent his last years in pro-
mulgating, and of which he seemed to die. We also learn
from those who associated familiarly with him that he was
personally the most amiable, gracious, and even fascinating
of men. The pages of the Senate-chamber liked to serve
him. The reporters of the Washington press were fond of
him. His neighbors in South Carolina loved him. It was
only his equals and rivals, Clay, Jackson, Crawford, and the
rest, who hated him ; and they did hate him most cordially.
And I am bound to state that, after long holding out against
their view of his character, a close survey of his political
career has compelled me to doubt both his patriotism and his
sincerity. I can not reconcile some of his important actions
with the usual theory that he was a pure, but mistaken man.
I can not resist the conclusion that it was the mania for the
presidency (which has led so many promising spirits to their
damnation) that inspired all his later efforts. It does really
seem that from the hour when public men feel themselves to
be on the road to the presidential mansion — that whited
sepulchre of all that is best in human nature — ^they all, in
some degree, cease te be worthy of themselves. They take
on board, as it were, and stow away in the hold of their
souls a huge magnet, which pulls the needle of conscience
all awry. If only those candidates for the presidency who
have passed that tremendous ordeal without just reproach
throw stones at Mr. Calhoun's memory, his good name is
safe.

But let us come to the facts. The war of 1812 left the
country burthened with a debt of one hundred and thirty
millions of dollars, and blessed with a great number of small
manufactories. The debt and the manufactories were both

1832.] NULLIFICATION AS AN EVENT. 449

reeults of the war. By cutting off the supply of foreign
manufactured articles, the war had produced upon the home
manufacturing interest the effect of a prohibitory tiiriff. To
pay the interest of this great debt and occasional installments
of the principal, it was necessary for the government to raise
a fer larger revenue than had ever before been collected in the
United States. The new manufacturing interest asked that
the duties should be so regulated as to afford some part of
that complete protection which the war had given it. The
peace, that had been welcomed with such wild delight in 1815,
had prostrated entire branches of manufacture to which the
war had given a sudden development.

Among those who advocated the claims of the manufac-
turers in the session of 1815-'16, and strove to have the pro-
tective principle permanently incorporated into the revenue
legislation of Congress, the most active, the most zealous,
was John C. Calhoun, member of the House of Representa-
tives from South Carolina. He spoke oft^n on the subject,
and he spoke unequivocally. Mr. Clay, who was then the
friend, ally, and messmate of Mr. Calhoun, admitted that the
Carolinian had sur])assed himself in the earnestness with
which he labored in the cause of protection.

One of his arguments was drawn from the condition of
Poland at the time. *' The country in Euroi)e," said he,
" having the most skillful workmen, is broken up. It is to
us, if wisely used, more valuable than tlie repeal of the Edict
of Nantes was to England. She had the prudence to profit
by it — let us not discover loss political sagacity. Afford to
ingenuity and industry immediate and AMPLE PROTEC-
TION, and they will not fail to give a preference to this fret*
and happy country/'

The protectionists, led by Messrs. Clay and Calhoun, tri-
umphed in 1816. In the tariff bill of 1820, the principle was
carried farther, and still farther in those of 1824 and 1828.
Under the protective system, manufactures flourished, and
the public debt was greatly diminished. It attracted skillful

VOL. in. — 2J)

450 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

workmen to the country, as Mr. Calhoun had said it would,
and contributed to swell the tide of ordinary emigration.

But, about the year 1824, it began to be thought, that
. the advantages of the system were enjoyed chiefly by the
Northern States, and the South hastened to the conclusion
that the protective system was the cause of its lagging be-
hind. There was, accordingly, a considerable southern oppo-
sition to the tariff of 1824, and a general southern opposition
to that of 1828. In the latter year, however, the South elect-
ed to the presidency General Jackson, whose votes and whose
writings had committed him to the principle of protection.
Southern politicians felt that the General, as a southern man,
was more likely to further their views than Messrs. Adams
and Clay, both of whom were peculiarly devoted to protec-
tion.

As the first years of General Jackson's administration
wore away without affording to the South the "relief" which
they had hoped from it, the discontent of the southern people
increased. Circumstances gave them a new and most telling
argument. In 1831, the public debt had been so far dimin-
ished as to render it certain that in three years, the last dol-
lar of it would be paid. The government had been collecting
about twice as much revenue as its annual expenditures re-
quired. In three years, therefore, there would be an annual
surplus of twelve or thirteen millions of dollars. The South
demanded, with almost a united voice, that the duties should
be reduced so as to make the revenue equal to the expendi-
ture, and that, in making this reduction, the principle of pro-
tection should be, in effect, abandoned. Protection should
thenceforth be "incidental" merely. The session of 1831-'2
was the one during which southern gentlemen hoped to
effect this great change in the policy of the country. The
President's Message, as we have seen, also announced that,
in view of the speedy extinction of the public debt, it was
high time that Congress should prepare for the threatened
Surplus.

The case was one of real difficulty. It was a case for a

1832.] NULLIFICATION AS AN EYEISUT. 451

statesman. No body of men ever assembled could have dis-
posed of it without doing injury to some important interest.
To reduce the revenue thirteen millions, at one fell and indis-
criminate swoop, would close half the workshops in the coun-
try. At the same time, for the United States to go on rais-
ing thirteen millions a year more than was necessary for
canying on the government, would have been an intolerable
absurdity.

Mr. Clay, after an absence from the halls of Congress of
six years, returned to the Senate in December, 1831 — an
iUostrious figure, the leader of the opposition, its candidate
for the Presidency, his old renown enhanced by his long exile
from the scene of his well-remembered triumphs. The gal-
leries filled when he was expected to speak. He was in the
prime of his prime. He never spoke so well as then, nor as
often, nor so long, nor with so much applause. But he either
could not, or dared not, undertake the choking of the Surplus.
What wise, complete, far-reaching measure can a candidate
for the presidency link his fortunes to ? He treated it as he
did a certain ^^ lion " in 1819, mentioned in a previous vol-
ume. He wounded, without killing it ; and he was compelled^
at a later day, to do what it had been glorious voluntarily to
attempt in 1832. He proposed merely " that the duties upon
articles imported from foreign countries, and not coming into
competition with similar articles made or produced within the
United States, be forthwith abolished, except the duties upon
wines and silks, and that those be reduced." After a debate
of months' duration, a bill in accordance with this proposition
passed both Houses, and was signed by the President. It
preserved the protective principle intact ; it reduced the in-
come of the government about three millions of dollars ; and
it inflamed the discontent of the South to such a degree, that
one State, under the influence of a man of force, became ca-
pable of — ^Nullification.

The President signed the bill, as he told his friends, be-
cause he deemed it an approach to the measure required. His
influence, during the session, hod been secretly exerted in

452 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

favor of compromise. Major Lewis, at the request of the
President, had been much in the lobbies and committee-rooms
of the capitol, urging members of both sections to make con-
cessions. The President thought that the just course lay be-
tween the two extremes of abandoning the protective prin-
ciple and of reducing the duties in total disregard of it.

" You must yield something on the tariff question," said
Major Lewis to the late Governor Marcy, of New York, " or
Mr. Van Buren will be sacrificed."

Said Governor Marcy in reply : " I am Mr. Van Buren's
friend, but the protective system is more important to New
York than Mr. Van Buren."

To return to Mr. Calhoun. His hostile correspondence
with the President was published by him, as we have before
stated, in the spring of 1831. The President retorted by
getting rid of the three members of the cabinet who favored
the succession of Mr. Calhoun to the presidency. Three
months after, in the Pendleton Messenger of South Carolina,
Mr. Calhoun continued the strife by publishing his first trea-
tise upon nullification. As there was no obvious reason for
such a publication at that moment, the Vice-President began
his essay by giving a reason for it. " It is one of the pecu-
liarities," said he, " of the station I occupy, that while it
necessarily connects its incumbent with the politics of the day,
it affords him no opportunity officially to express his senti-
ments, except accidentally on an equal division of the body
over which he presides. He is thus exposed, as I have often
experienced, to have his opinions erroneously and variously
represented. In ordinary cases, the correct course I conceive
to be to remain silent, leaving to time and circumstances the
correction of misrepresentations ; but there are occasions so
vitally important, that a regard both to duty and charact^^r
would seem to forbid such a course ; and such I conceive to
be the present. The frequent allusions to my sentiments will
not permit me to doubt that such, also, is the public concep-
tion, and that it claims the right to know, in relation to the
question referred to, the opinions of those who hold impor-

1832.] NULLIFICATION AS AN EVENT. 453

tant official stations ; while, on my part, desiring to receive
neither unmerited praise nor blame, I feel, I trust, the solici-
tude which €very honest and independent man ought, that my
sentiments should be truly known, whether they be such as
may be calculated to recommend them to public favor or not.
Entertaining these impressions, I have concluded that it is
my duty to make known my sentiments ; and I have adopted
the mode which, on reflection, seemed to be the most simple,
and best calculated to effect the object in view.''

The essay, which fills five columns of the Courier and
Enquirer y is divided into two parts. First, the Vice-Presi-
dent endeavors to show that nullification is the natural,
proper, and peaceful remedy for an intolerable grievance in-
flicted by Congress upon a State or upon a section ; secondly,
that the tariff law of 1828, unless rectified during the next
session of Congress, will be such a grievance. He went all
lengths against the protective principle. It was unconstitu-
tional, unequal in its operation, oppressive to the South, an
evil " inveterate and dangerous." The reduction of duties to
the revenue standard could be delayed no longer " without
the most distracting and dangerous consequences." " The
honest and obvious course is, to prevent the accumulation of
the suq)lus in the treasury, by a timely and judicious reduc-
tion of the imposts ; and thereby to leave the money in the
pockets of those who made it ; and from whom it can not be
honestly nor constitutionally taken, unless required by the
fair and legitimate wants of the government. If, neglecting
a disposition so obvious and just, the government should at-
tempt to keep up the present high duties, when the money
was no longer wanted, or to dispose of this immense surplus
by enlarging the old, or devising new schemes of appropria-
tions ; or, finding that to be impossible, it should adopt the
most dangerous, unconstitutional, and absurd project ever
devised by any government, of dividing the surplus among
the States (a project which, if carried into execution, could
not fail to create an antagonist interest between the States
and General Government, on all questions of appropriations,

454 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

which would certainly end in reducing the latter to a mere
office of collection and distribution), either of these modes
would be considered by the section suffering under the preseot
high duties, as a fixed determination to perpetuate fore?er
what it considers the present unequal, unconstitutional, and
oppressive burden ; and, from that moment, it would cease
to look to the general government for relief."

Nullification is distinctly announced in this passage. It
seems to be again announced, as a thing inevitable, in the
concluding words of the essay : " In thus placing my opin-
ions before the public, I have not been actuated by the ex-
pectation of changing the public sentiment. Such a motive,
on a question so long agitated, and so beset with feelings of
prejudice and interest, would argue, on my part, an insuffer-
able vanity, and a profound ignorance of the human heart
To avoid, as far as possible, the imputation of either, I have
confined my statements on the many and important points on
which I have been compelled to touch, to a simple declaration
of my opinion, without advancing any other reasons to sus-
tain them than what appeared to me to be indispensable to
the full understanding of my views. With every caution on
my part, I dare not hope, in taking the step I have, to escape
the imputation of improper motives ; though I have without
reserve freely expressed my opinions, not regarding whether
they might or might not be popular. I have no reason to be-
lieve that they are such as will conciliate public favor, but
the opposite ; which I gieatly regret, as I have ever placed a
high estimate on the good opinion of my fellow-citizens. But,
be this as it may, I shall at least be sustained by feelings of
conscious rectitude. I have formed my opinions after the
most careful and deliberate examination, with aU the aids
which my reason and experience could furnish ; I have ex-
pressed them honestly and fearlessly, regardless of their effects
personally ; which, however interesting to me individually,
are of too little importance to be taken into the estimate
where the liberty and happiness of our country are so vitally
involved."

18S2.] NULLIFICATION AS AN EVENT. 455

In this performance, Mr. Calhoun did not refer to his for-
gotten championship of the protective policy in 1816. The
busy burrowers of the press, however, occasionally brought
to the surface a stray memento of that championship, which
the press of South Carolina denounced as slanderous. A Mr.
Reynolds, of South Carolina, was moved, by his disgust at
such reminders, to write to Mr. Calhoun, asking him for in-
formation respecting " the origin of a system so abhorrent to
the South." Mr. Calhoun's reply to the inquiry does not
read like the letter of an honest man. It certainly conveyed
impressions at variance with the truth. He said that '' he
had always considered the tariff of 1816 as in reality a mea-
sure of revenue — as distinct from one of protection ;" that it
reduced dutieirf instead of increasing them ; that the protec-
tion of manufactures was regarded as a mere incidental
feature of the bill ; that he had regarded its protective char-
acter as temporary, to last only until the debt should be paid ;
that, in fact, he had not paid very particular attention to the
details of the bill at the time, as he was not a member of the
committee which had drafted it ; that " his time and atten-
tion were much absorbed with the question of the currency,"
as he was chairman of the committee on that subject ; that
the tariff bill of 1816 was innocence itself compared with the
monstrous and unconstitutional tariff of 1828, and had no
principle in common with it.

These assertions may not all be quite destitute of truth,
but they are essentially false, and the impression created by
them is most erroneous. The reader has but to turn to the
debates of 1816, to discover that the discussion of the tariff
bill turned entirely on its protective character, and that Mr.
Calhoun was the special defender of its protective provisions.
The strict constructionist or State rights party was headed
then in the House by John Kandolph, who, on many occasions
during the long debate, rose to refute Mr. Calhoun's protec-
tive reasoning, Calhoun was then a member of the other
wing of the republican party. He was a bank man, an in-
ternal improvement man, a protectionist, a consolidationist —

456 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

in short, a republican of the Hamiltonian school, rather than
the Jeffersonian. He was strenuous in asserting, among
other things, that protection would benefit the planter as
much as it benefited the manufacturer. In fact, there is not
a protective argument now employed by Mr. Carey or the
New York Tribune^ wliich can not be found in the speeches
of Mr. Calhoun upon the tariff of 1816. Indeed, it was Mr.
Calhoun's course on this question in 1816 which gave him
that popularity in Pennsylvania which induced his friends in
that State to start him for the presidency in 1824. His
principal tariflf speech had been printed upon a sheet, framed,
hung up in bar-rooms and parlors along with the Farewell
Address of General Washington. A member of Congress
from Pennsylvania reminded Calhoun of this fact during the
session of 1833.

Mr. Nicholas P. Trist, then of the State Department, in
a series of articles in the Richmond Inquirer^ fell uj^on Mr.
Calhoun's Keynolds letter, and tore it to shreds. He found
that (to use his own language) it contained more errors than
it contained words. He copied from the old newspapers
column after column of the debates of 1816, in which Mr.
Calhoun figured as the most active and even enthusiastic of
the protectionists. He showed that his name was associated
with that of Henry Clay in the defense of the principle, and
that both were frequently replied to at the same time by
members of the other division of the party. These articles
of Mr. Trist created what is now termed "a sensation." The
President was greatly pleased with them, aud had not the
least difficulty in accepting Mr. Trist's conclusion, " that Mr.
CaUioun was totallv destitute of all re^^jard for truth."

Mr. Calhoun's fulmination in the Pendleton Messenger
was dated July 26th, 1831. Congress met in December fol-
lowing, and debated the tariff all the winter and spring.
Late in the month of June, by a majority of thirty-two to
sixteen in the Senate, by a majority of one hundred and
twenty-nine to sixty-five in the House, Mr. Clay's bill, re-
affinuing the protective principle, and abolishing duties on

1832.] NULLIFICATION AS AN EVENT. 457

articles not needing protection, was passed. A month after,
Congress adjourned ; the Vice-President went home to South
Carolina ; and that fiery little State soon prepared to execute
the threats contained in the Vice-President's Pendleton
manifesto.

The legislature of the State, early in the autumn, passed
an act calling a convention of the citizens of South Carolina,
for the purpose of taking into consideration the late action
of Congress, and of suggesting the course to be pursued by
South Carolina in relation to it. At Columbia, on the nine-
teenth of November, the convention met. It consisted of
about one hundred and forty members, the elite of the State.
The Hamiltons, the Haynes, the Pinckneys, the Butlers, and,
indeed, nearly all the great families of a State of great fami-
lies were represented in it. It was a body of men as respec-
table in character and ability as has ever been convened in
South Carolina. Courtesy and resolution marked its pro-
ceedings, and the work undertaken by it was done with com-
mendable thoroughness. A committee of twenty-one was
appointed to draw up an address to the people of the State,
or rather a programme of the proceedings best calculated to
promote the end designed. The chief result of the labors of
this committee was the celebrated Ordinance, which ordi-
nance, signed by the entire convention, consisted of five dis-
tinct decrees, to the execution of which the members pledged
themselves. It was ordained —

I. That the tariff law of 1828, and the amendment to the
same of 1832, were " null, void, and no law, nor binding
upon this State, its officers or citizens."

II. No duties enjoined by that law on its amendment
shall be paid, or permitted to be paid, in the State of South
Carolina, after the first day of February, 1833.

III. In no case involving the validity of the expected nul-
lifying act of the legislature, shall an appeal to the Supreme
Court of the United States be permitted. No copy of pro-
ceedings shall be allowed to be taken for that purpose. Any
attempt to appeal to the Supreme Court '^ may be dealt with

458 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [18^

as for a contempt of the court," from which the appeal is
taken.

IV. Every office-liolder in the State, whether of the civil
or the military service, and every person hereafter assuming
an office, and every juror, shall take an oath to obey this Or-
dinance, and all acts of the legislature in accordance there-
with or suggested thereby.

V. If the government of the United States shall attempt
to enforce tlie tariflf laws, now existing, by means of its army
or navy, by closing the ports of the State, or preventing the
egress or ingiess of vessels, or shall in any way harass or ob-
struct the foreign commerce of the State, then South Caro-
lina will no longer consider herself a member of the Federal
Union : " the people of this State will thenceforth hold them-
selves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or pre-
serve their political connection with the people of the other
States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate
government, and do all other acts and things which sovereign
and independent States may of right do."

Such was the Nullifying Ordinance of November 24th,
1832 — Mr. Calhoun's peaceful, constitutional, and union-
cementing remedy for a federal grievance. The convention
issued an address to the people of the other States of the
Union, justifying its proceedings, and then adjourned.

The people of South Carolina accepted the Ordinance with
remarkable unanimity. There was a union party in the State,
respectable in numbers and character, but the nullifiers com-
manded an immense, an almost silencing majority. Robert
Y. Hayne, a member of the convention, was elected governor
of the State, and the legislature that assembled early in De-
cember, was chiefly composed of nullifiers. The message of
the new governor endorsed the acts of the convention in the
strongest language possible. " I recognize," said the gover-
nor, " no allegiance as paramount to that which the citizens
of South Carolina owe to the State of their birth or their
adoption. I here publicly declare, and wish it to be distinctly
understood, that I shall hold myself bound, by the highest

1832.] NULLIFICATION AS AN EVENT. 459

of all obligations, to cany into full effect, not only the ordi-
nance of the convention, but every act of the legislature, and
every judgment of our own courts, the enforcement of which
may devolve on the executive. I claim no right to revise
their acts. It will be my duty to execute them ; and that
duty I mean, to the utmost of my power, faithfully to per-
form."

He said more : " If the sacred soil of Carolina should be
polluted by the footsteps of an invader, or be stained with
the blood of her citizens, shed in her defense, I trust in Al-
mighty God that no son of hers, native or adopted, who has
been nourished at her bosom, or been cherished by her bounty,
will be found raising a parricidal arm against our common
mother. And even should she stand alone in this great
struggle for constitutional liberty, encompassed by her ene-
mies, that there will not be found, in the wide limits of the
State, one recreant son who will not fly to the rescue, and be
ready to lay down his life in I ?r defense. South Carolina can
not be drawn down from the proud eminence on which she
has now placed herself, except by the hands of her own chil-
dren. Give her but a fair field, and she asks no more. Should
she succeed, hers will be glory enough to have led the way in
the noble work of reform. And if, after making these efforts
due to her own honor, and the greatness of the cause, she is
destined utterly to fail, the bitter fruits of that failure, not
to herself alone, but to the entire South, nay, to the whole
Union, will attest her virtue."

The legislature instantly responded to the message by
passing the acts requisite for carrying the ordinance into
practical effect. The Governor was authorized to accept the
services of volunteers, who were to hold themselves in readi-
ness to march at a moment's warning. The State resounded
with the noise of warlike preparation. Blue cockades, with
a palmetto button in the center, appeared upon thousands of
hats, bonnets, and bosoms. Medals were struck ere long,
bearing this inscription : " John C. Calhoun, First President
of the Southern Confederacy." The legislature proceeded

4G0 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1832.

8()on to fill the vacancy created in the Senate of the United
States by the election of Mr. Hayne to the governorship.
John C. Calhoun, Vice-President of the United States, was
the individual selected, and Mr. Calhoun accepted the seat
He resigned the vice-presidency, and began his journey to
Washington in December, leaving his State in the wildest
ferment.

Two months of the autumn of this year, as we have before
mentioned. General Jackson spent in visiting his beloved
Hermitage. But he had had an eye upon South Carolina
Soon after his retuni to Washington in October, came news
that the convention of the South Carolina nuUifiers was ap-
pointed to meet on the nineteenth of November. On the
sixth of that month, the President sent secret orders to
the collector of the port of Charleston of an energetic
character :

" Upon the supposition that the measures of the convention, or the
acts of the legislature may consist, in part, at least, in declaring the Uws
of the United States imposing duties unconstitutional, and null and void,
and in forbidding their execution, and the collection of the duties within
the State of South Carolina, you will, immediately after it shall be form-
ally announced, resort to all tlic means provided by the laws, and particu-
larly by the act of the 2d of March, 1799, to counteract the measures
which may be adopted to give effect to that declaration.

" For this purpose you will consider yourself autliorized to employ the
revenue cutters which may be within your district, and provide as many
boats, and employ as many inspectors, as may be necessary for the exe-
cution of the law, and for the purposes of the act already referred to. You
will, moreover, cause a sufficient number of officers of cutters and iD:^>ec-
tors to be placed on board, and in charge of every vessel arriving from a
foreign port or place, with goods, wares, or merchandise, as soon as prio-
ticable after her first coming within your district, and direct them to anchor
her in some safe place within the harbor, where she may be secure fW)m
any act of violence, and from any unautliorissed attempt to discharge her
cargo before a compliance witli the laws ; and they will remain on board of
her at such place until the reports and entries required by law shall be
made, both of vessel and cargo, and the duties paid, or secured to be paid
to your satisfaction, and until the regular permit shall be granted for land-
ing the cargo ; and it will be your duty, against any forcible attempt^ to

1832.] NULLIFICATION AS AN EVENT. 461

retain and defend the custody of the said vessel, by the aid of the officers
of the customs, inspectors, and officers of the cutters, until the requisitions
of the law. shall be fully complied with ; and in case of any attempt to re-
moye her or her cargo from the custody of the officers of the customs, by
the form of legal process from State tribunals, you will not yield the cus-
tody to such attempt, but will consult the law officer of the district^ and
employ such means as, under the particular circumstances, you may legally
do, to resist such process, and prevent the removal of the vessel and
cargo.

" Shotild the entry of such vessel and cargo not be completed, and the
doties paid, or secured to be paid, by bond or bonds, with sureties to your
flfttisfaction, within the time limited by law, you will, at tlie expiration of
thftt time, take possession of the cargo, and land and store the same at
CSftstle Pinckney, or some other safe place, and in due time, if the duties
are not paid^ sell the same, according to the direction of the 56tli section
of the act of the 2d of March, 1799 ; and you are authorized to provide
such stores as may be necessary for that purpose."

A few days after the dispatch of these orders, General
Scott was quietly ordered to Charleston, for the purpose, as
the President confidentially informed the collector, " of sup-
erintending the safety of the ports of the United States in
that vicinity." Other changes were made in the disposition
of naval and military forces, designed to enable the President
to act with swift efficiency, if there should be occasion to
act.

If ever a man was resolved to accomplish a purpose,
General Jackson was resolved on this occasion to preserve in-
tact the authority with which he had been entrusted. Nor
can any language do justice to the fury of his contemptuous
wrath against the author and fomcnter of all this trouble.
The recently published autobiography of Gen. Sam. Dale,
of Mississippi, contains a passage which affords us a peep into
the White House when nullification was the ruling topic.
Dale had distinguished himself during the New Orleans
campaign as a bearer of despatches, in which capacity he
had rendered General Jackson much service, and won his
regard.

At the height of the nullification excitement, " Big Sam "
found himself at the city of Washington :

462 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACK SON. [1832.

" The third day, Colonel William R. King, of the Senate, brought me
word that President Jackson desired to see me. ' Tell Dole/ said he to
Colonel King, ^ that if I had as little to do as he has, I should have seen
him before now.* The Greneral was walking in the lawn in front of his
mansion as we approached. lie advanced, and grasped me warmly by
the hand.

" * No introduction is needed,' said the Colonel.

'^ ' Oh no,* said the Grcneral, shaking my hand again, ' I shall never for-
get Sam Dale.' We walked into his reception-room, and I was intro-
duced to Col. Benton, and five or six other distinguislied men. Thej
wore all very civil, and invited me to visit them. They were talking over
'NiiUificaiion^^ the engrossing subject at that period, and the Preadent,
turning to me, said, * General Dale, if this thing goes on, onr country will
be like a bag of meal with both ends open. Pick it up in the middle or
endwise, and it will run out I must tie the bag and save the country.*
The company now took leave, but when I rose to retire with CoL Kin^
the General detained me, ordered up some whisky, and directed hia ser-
vant to refuse all visitors until one o'clock. He talked over our cam-
paigns, and then of the business that brought me to Washington. He then
said, * Sam, you have been true to your country, but you have made one
mistake in life. You are now old and sohtary, and 'without a bosom
friend or family to comfort you. God called mine away. But alll hare
achieved — fame, power, every thing — would I exchange if she could be
restored to me for a moment.'

" The iron man trembled with emotion, and for some time covered his
face with his hands, and tears dropped on his knee. I was deeply affected
myself He took two or three turns across tlie room, and then abruptly
said, * Dale, they are trying me here ; you will witness it ; but, by the
God of heaven, I will uphold the laws.'

'' I understood him to be referring to nullification again, his mind eri-
dently having recurred to it^ and I expressed the hope that things would
go right

" * They shall go right, sir,' ho exclaimed, passionately, shivering his
pipe upon the table.

" He ciilmed down after this, and showed me his collection of pipe^
many of a most costly and curious kind, sent to him from every quarter,
his propensity for smoking being well known. * These,' said he, * will do
to look at I still smoke my corn-cob, Sam, as you and I have often done
together : it is the sweetest and best pipe.*

" When I rose to take leave, ho pressed me to accept a room there.
* I can talk to you at night ; in the day I am beset' I dcolined on tbe
plea of business, but dined with him several times, always, no matter what
dignitaries were present, sitting at his right hand. He ate vexy 8pAriiig(y,

1832.] NULLIFICATION TRIUMPHS. 463

only taking a single glass of wine, though his table was magnificent
When we parted for the last time, he said, * My friend, farewell ; we shall
see each other no more ; let us meet in heaven.'

" I could only answer him with tears, for I felt that we should meet
no more on earth.*'

CHAPTER XXXIV.

NULLIFICATION EXPLODES AND TRIUMPHS.

Congress met on the third of December. Mr. Calhoun
had not reached Washington, and his intention to resign the
▼ice-presidency was not known there. Judge White, of
Tennessee, was elected president of the Senate, pro tern,, and
the President of the United States was then notified that
Congress was ready to receive the annual message.

The message of 1832 reveals few traces of the loud and
threatening contentions amid which it was produced. It is
an unusually quiet and business-like document. The rav-
ages and the subsidence of the cholera were briefly referred
to. The recall of Mr. Van Buren from England was merely
mentioned as an " unexpected" and " unfortunate" circum-
stance, which had interrupted sundry negotiations with the
English government. The income of the year would reach
twenty-eight millions of dollars ; the expenditures sixteen
millions and a half ; the payments on the public debt eighteen
millions. The President was now enabled to announce that
on the Ist of January, 1833, there would remain of the i)ublic
debt less than seven millions, which would be extinguished
early in the course of that year. " I can not," he said, " too
cordially congratulate Congress and my fellow-citizens on the
near approach of that memorable and happy event, the ex-
tinction of the public debt of this great and free nation.
Faithful to the wise and patriotic policy marked out by the
legislation of the country for this object, the present admin-

464 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON [1832.

istmtion has devoted to it all the means which a flouriBhing
commerce has supplied, and a i)rudent economy preserved,
for the public treasury. Within the four years for which the
I)eople have confided the executive power to my charge, fifty-
eight millions of dollars will have been applied to the pay-
ment of the public debt."

It remained, the message continued, for Congress to revise
the tariff, so as to reduce the revenue to the reduced necessi-
ties of the government. This must be done : but so done, if
possible, as not to injure the manufacturing interest. " Large
interests have grown up under the implied pledge of our na-
tional legislation, which it would seem a violation of public
laith suddenly to abandon. Nothing could justify it but the
public safety, which is the supreme law. But those who
have vested their capitiil in manufacturing establishmeDts
can not expect that the people will continue permanently to
pay high taxes for their benefit, when the money is not re-
quired for any legitimate i^urpose in the administration of the
government. Is it not enough that the high duties have been
paid as long as the money arising from them could be applied
to the common benefit in the extinguishment of the public
debt ?" This was not the doctrine of the first message, which ,
contenii)lated a permanent sur})lu8 revenue for division among
the States. The President here recommended all, or nearly
all, that the nullifiors demanded.

The troubles in South Carolina were dismissed in a siogk
paragraph, which exi)ressed a hope of a si)eedy adjustment of
the difficulty.

The United States Bank was not suffered to die in peace.
^' I recommend," said the President, " that provision be made
to dispose of all stocks now held by the general government
in corporations, whether created by the general or State gov-
ernments, and to place the proceeds in the treasury." But
this was not all. Congress was urged to institute an inquiry
" whether the public deposits in that institution may be en-
tirely safe." Rumors were abroad, said the President, im-

1832.] NULLIFICATION TRIUMPHS. 465

peaching the character of the bank, which, being widely cred-
ited, seemed to call for formal investigation.

The President now brought forward his famous recom-
mendations respecting the public lands. They should no
longer, he thought, be made a source of revenue, but should
be sold to actual settlers, in limited parcels, at a price barely
8n£Eicient to pay the cost of surveying and selling, and the
expenses incurred in fulfilling our compacts with the Indians.
" The adventurous and hardy population of the west," ob-
senred the President, " besides contributing their equal share
of taxation under our impost system, have, in the progress of
our government, for the lands they occupy, paid into the
treasury a large proportion of forty millions of dollars, and,
of the revenue received therefrom, but a small part has been
expended among them. When, to the disadvantage of their
situation in this respect, we add the consideration that it is
their labor alone which gives real value to the lands, and
that the proceeds arising from their sale are distributed chiefly
among States which had not originally any claim to them,
and which have enjoyed the undivided emolument arising
firom the sale of their own lands, it can not be expected that
the new States will remain longer contented with the present
policy, after the payment of the public debt."

The President was also of opinion that the federal gov-
ernment should relinquish tlie ownership of public lands to
the several States within whose borders they lay. The mes-
sage contained the usual recommendation for the election of
President and Vice-Presidunt by the direct vote of the peo-
ple, and for limiting their time of liolding office to a single
term ; which last could not, of course, be omitted in view of
the recent reelection.

While Congress was listening to this calm and suggestive
message, the President was absorbed in the preparation of an-
other document, and one of a veiy different description. A
pamphlet containing the proceedings of the South Carolina
Convention reached him on one of the last days of November.
It moved him profoundly ; for this fiery spirit loved his
vuu in. -30

466 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

country as few men have loved it. Though he regarded thoae
proceedings as the fruit of John C. Calhoun's treasonable
ambition and treasonable resentment, he rose, on this occa-
sion, above personal considerations, and conducted himself
with that union of daring and prudence which had given him
such signal success in war. He went to his office alone, and
began to dash off page after page of the memorable Procla-
mation which was soon to electrify the country. He wrot6
with that great steel pen of his, and with such rapidity, that
he was obliged to scatter the written pages all over the tahk
to let them dry. A gentleman who came in when the Presi-
dent had written fifteen or twenty pages, observed that three
of them were glistening with wet ink at the same moment
The warmth, the glow, the passion, the eloquence of that
proclamation, were produced then and there by the President's
own hand.

To these pages were added many more of notes and
memoranda which had been accumulating in the presidentiil
hat for some weeks, and the whole collection was then placed
in the hands of Mr. Livingston, the Secretary of State, who
was requested to draw up the Proclamation in proper fonn.
Major Lewis writes to me : " Mr. Livingston took the papoB
to his office, and, in the course of three or four days, brought
the proclamation to the General, and left it for his examina-
tion. After reading it, he came into my room and remained
that Mr. Livingston had not correctly understood his notes-
there were portions of the draft, he added, which were not in
accordance with his views, and must be altered. He then
sent his messenger for Mr. Livingston, and, when he came,
pointed out to him the passages which did not represent his
views, and requested him to take it back with him and make
the alterations he had suggested. This was done, and the
second draft being satisfactory, he ordered it to be published.
I will add that, before the proclamation was sent to press to
be published, I took the liberty of suggesting to the Oeneral
whether it would not be best to leave out that portion to

1832.] NULLIFICATION TBIUMPH8. 467

which, I was sure, the State-rights party would particularly
object. He refused.

"Those are my views," said he with great decision of
manner, " and I will not change them nor strike them out."

This celebrated paper was dated December 11th, 1832.
The word proclamation does not describe it. It reads more
like the last appeal of a sorrowing but resolute father to way-
ward, misguided sons. Argument, warning, and entreaty
were blended in its composition. It began by calmly refut-
ing, one by one, the leading positions of the nullifiers. The
right to anntUy and the right to secede^ as claimed by them,
were shown to be incompatible with the fundamental idea
and main object of the constitution ; which was " to form a
more perfect Union." That the tariff act complained of did
operate unequally was granted, but so did every revenue law
that had ever been or could ever be passed.

" The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of tax-
ation that would operate with perfect equality. If the une-
qual operation of law makes it unconstitutional, and if all
laws of that description may be abrogated by any State for
that cause, then indeed is the Federal Constitution unworthy
of the slightest effort for its preservation. We have hitherto
relied on it as the perpetual bond of our Union. We have
received it as the work of the assembled wisdom of the nation.
We have trusted to it as to the sheet anchor of our safety, in
the stormy times of conflict with a foreign or domestic foe.
We have looked to it with sacred awe as the palladium of
onr liberties, and with all the solemnities of religion have
pledged to each other our lives and fortunes here, and our
hopes of happiness hereafter, in its defense and support.
Were we mistaken, my countrymen, in attaching this impor-
tanoe to the Constitution of our country ? Was our devotion
paid to the wretched, inefficient, clumsy contrivance, which
this new doctrine would make it ? Did we pledge ourselves
to the support of an airy nothing, a bubble that must be
blown away by the first breath of disaffection ? Was this
self-destroying, visionary theory the work of the profound

468 LIFE OF AiTDREW JACKSON. [1832.

statesmen, the exalted patriots, to whom the task of consti-
tutional reform was entrusted ? Did the name of Washing-
ton sanction, did the States ratify such an anomaly in the
history of fundamental legislation ? No. We were not mis-
taken. The letter of this great instrument is free from this
radical fault : its language directly contradicts the imputa-
tion : its spirit — its evident intent contradicts it."

The right of a State to secede was strongly denied. " To
say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union is
to say that the United States are not a nation." The indi-
vidual States are not completely sovereign, for they volun-
tarily resigned part of their sovereignty. " How can that
State be said to be sovereign and independent whose citizens
owe obedience to laws not made by it, and whose magistrates
are sworn to disregard those laws, when they come in conflict
with those passed by another ?"

Finally, the people of South Carolina were distinctly giv-
en to xmderstand, that, in case any forcible resistance to the
laws were attempted by them, the attempt would be resisted
by the combined power and resources of the other States.
For one word, however, of this kind, there were a hundred
of entreaty. " Fellow-citizens of my native State !" ex-
claimed the President, " let me not only admonish you as the
first magistrate of our common country not to incur the pen-
alty of its laws, but use the influence that a father would
over his children whom he saw rushing to certain ruin. In
that paternal language, with that paternal feeling, let me tell
you, my countrymen, that you are deluded by men who are

either deceived themselves or wish to deceive you.
..•■••...

" Contemplate the condition of that country of which you
still form an important part ! — consider its government unit-
ing in one bond of common interest and general protection so
many different States — ^giving to all their inhabitants the
proud title of Amebioan citizen — protecting their commerce
— securing their literature and their arts — ^facilitating their
intercommunication— defending the frontiers — and making

1832.] NULLIFICATION TRIUMPHS. 469

their name respected in the remotest parts of the earth !
Consider the extent of its territory, its increasing and happy
population, its advance in arts which render life agreeable,
and the sciences which elevate the mind 1 See education
spreading the lights of religion, morality, and general infor-
mation into every cottage in this wide extent of our Terri-
tories and States ! Behold it as the asylum where the
wretched and the oppressed find a refuge and support ! Look
on this picture of happiness and honor, and say, we, too, abb
CITIZENS OF America. Carolina is one of these proud States,
her arms have defended, her best blood has cemented this
happy Union ! And then add, if you can, without horror
and remorse, this happy Union we will dissolve — this picture
of peace and prosperity we will deface — this free intercourse
we will interrupt — these fertile fields we will deluge with
blood — the protection of that glorious flag w^e renounce — the
very name of Americans we discard. And for what, mistaken
men 1 for what do you throw away these inestimable bless-
ings— for what would you exchange your share in the advan-
tages and honor of the Union ? For the dream of a separate
independence — a dream interrupted by bloody conflicts with
your neighbors, and a vile dependence on a foreign power."

Such were the tone and manner of this celebrated procla-
mation. It was clear in statement, forcible in argument,
vigorous in style, and glowing witli the fire of a genuine and
enlightened patriotism. It was such a blending of argument
and feeling as Alexander Hamilton would have drawn up for
Patrick Henry.

The proclamation was received at the North with an en-
thusiasm that seemed unanimous, and was nearly so. The
opposition press bestowed the warmest encomiums upon it.
Three days after its appearance in the newspapers of New
York, an immense meeting was held in the Park, for the pur-
pose of stamping it with metropolitan approval. Faneuil
Hall in Boston was quick in responding to it, and there were
Union meetings in every large to>vn of the Northern States.
In Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware,

470 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

Missouri, Louisiana, and Kentucky the proclamation was
generally approved as an act, though its extreme federal po-
sitions foxmd many opponents. Mr. Clay's opinion of it was
that of many of the Southern politicians. " One short week,"
wrote Mr. Clay on the day the document appeared, "pro-
duced the message and the proclamation — the former ultra
on the side of State rights, the latter ultra on the side of
consolidation. How they can be reconciled, I must leave to
our Virginia friends. As to the proclamation, although th^
are good things in it, especially what relates to the Judiciary,
there are some entirely too ultra for me, and which I can
not stomach. A proclamation ought to have been issued
weeks ago, but I think it should have b^n a very different
paper from the present, which, I apprehend, will irritate in-
stead of allaying the excited feeling."

In South Carolina, it did " irritate the excited feeling."
The legislature of that State, being still in session, immedia-
tely passed the following resolution :

" Whereas, the President of the United States has issued
his proclamation, denouncing the proceedings of this State,
calling upon the citizens thereof to renounce their primaiy
allegiance, and threatening them with miUtary coercion, un-
warranted by the constitution, and utterly inconsistent with
the existence of a free State : Be it, therefore,

^^ Resolved, That his excellency the Governor be re-
quested, forthwith, to issue his proclamation, warning the
good people of this State against the attempt of the Presi-
dent of the United States to seduce them from their allegi-
ance, exhorting them to disregard his vain menaces, and to
be prepared to sustain the dignity and protect the liberty of
the State against the arbitrary measures proposed by the
President."

Governor Hayne issued his proclamation accordingly, and
a most pugnacious document it was. He denounced the
doctrines of the President's proclamation as ^^ dangerous and
pernicious ;'* as " specious and false ;" as tending " to up-
root the very foundation of our political system, annihilate

1832.] NULLIFICATION TBIUMPHS. 471

the rights of the States^ and utterly destroy the liberties of
the citizen ; as contemplating '^ a great, consolidated empire,
one and indivisible, the worst of all despotisms." The Gov-
ernor declared that the State would maintain its sovereignty,
or be buried beneath its ruins. " As unhappy Poland," said
he, " fell before the power of the autocrat, so may Carolina
be crushed by the power of her enemies ; but Poland was
not surrounded by free and independent States, interested,
like herself, in preventing the establishment of the very
tyranny which they are called upon to impose upon a sister
State. If, in spite of our common kindred and common in-
terests, the glorious recollections of the past, and the proud
hopes of the future. South Carolina should bo coldly aban-
doned to her fate, and reduced to subjection by an unholy
combination among her sister States — ^which is believed to be
utterly impossible — and the doctrines promulgated by the
President are to become the foundations of a new system, ce-
mented by the blood of our citizens, it matters not what may
be our lot. Under such a government, as there could be no
liberty, so there could be no security either for our persons or
our property."

" Fellow-citizens," said Governor Hayne, in conclusion,
"in the name and behalf of the State of South Carolina, I
do once more solemnly warn you against all attempts to se-
duce you from your primary allegiance to the State ; I
charge you to be faithful to your duty as citizens of South
Carolina, and earnestly exhort you to disregard those ' vain
menaces' of military force, which, if the President, in vio-
lation of all his constitutional obligations, and of your most
sacred rights, should be temp*ted to employ, it would become
your solemn duty, at all hazards, to resist. I require you to
be fully prepared to sustain the dignity and protect the liber-
ties of the State, if need be, with ' your lives and fortunes.'
And may that great and good Being, as a ' father careth
for his children,' inspire us with that holy zeal in a good
cause, which is the best safeguard of our rights and liber-
ties."

472 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

The proclamation of the Governor of South Carolina was
made public on the last day of the year 1832. The first of
February, 1833, the day appointed for the nullificiition of
the tariff laws to take effect, was drawing alarmingly near.
Meanwliile the milita,ry posts in South Carolina were filHng
with troops of the United States, and a naval force was an-
chored off Charleston. The Carolinians continued their mili-
tary preparations. Fair fingers were busier than ever in
making palmetto cockades, and, it is said, a red flag vritha
black lone star in the center was adopted as the ensign of
some of tlie volunteer regiments. Nullifying steamboats and
hotels, it is also reported, exhibited the flag of the United
States with the stars downward.

When the proclamation of Governor Hayne reached Wash-
ington, the President forthwith replied to it by asking Con-
gress for an increase of powers adequate to the impending
collision. The message in which he made this request, dated
January 16th, 1833, gave a brief history of events in South
Carolina, and of the measures hitherto adopted by the ad-
ministration ; repeated the arguments of the recent proclam-
ation, and added others ; stated the legal points involved,
and asked of Congress such an increase of executive powers
as would enable the government, if necessary, to close ports
of entry, remove threatened custom-houses, detain vessels,
and protect from State prosecution such citizens of South
Carolina as should choose, or be compelled, to pay the ob-
noxious duties.

One of the points made in this message, amused as many
of the people, at the time, as were calm enough to be amused.
" Oppression" was the favorite word of the South Carolinians
in discoursing upon their grievances. That the revenue sys-
tem hitherto pursued, said the President, " has resulted in
no such oppression upon South Carolina, needs no other
proof than the solemn and official declaration of the late
chief magistrate of that State in his address to the Legisla-
ture. In that he says that ^ the occurrences of the past year,
in connection with our domestic concerns, are to be reviewed

1832.] NU^LLIFICATION TRIUMPHS. 473

with a sentiment of fervent gratitude to the Great Disposer
of human events ; that tributes of grateful acknowledgment
are due for the various and multiplied blessings he has been
pleased to bestow on our people ; that abundant harvests in
every quarter of the State have crowned the exertions of agri-
cultural labor ; that health, almost beyond former precedent,
has blessed our homes ; and that there is not less reason for
ihanJ^ulness in surveying our social condition.' " This was
a happy hit. It was probably the first time that the formal
utterances of thanksgiving which i)recede state papers were
ever made to do duty as rebutting evidence.

Mr. Calhoun was in his place in the Senate chamber when
this message was read. He had arrived two weeks before,
after a journey which one of his biographers compares to that
of Luther to the Diet of Worms. He met averted faces and
estranged friends every where on his route, we are told ; and
only now and then, some daring man found courage to whis-
per in his ear : " If you are sincere, and are sure of your
cause, go on, in God's name, and fear nothing." Washington
was curious to know, we are further assured, what the arch-
nullifier would do when the oath to support the constitution
of the United States was proposed to him. " The floor of
the Senate chamber and the g?Uleries were thronged with
spectators. They saw him take the oath with a solemnity
and dignity appropriate to the occasion, and then calmly seat
himself on the right of the chair, among his old political
friends, nearly all of whom were now arrayed against him."*

After the President's message had been read, Mr. Cal-
houn rose to vindicate himself and his State, which he did
with that singular blending of subtlety and force, truth and
sophistry, which characterized his later efforts. He declared
himself still devoted to the Union, and said that if the gov-
ernment were restored to the principles of 1798, he would be
the last man in the countiy to question its authority.

A bill conceding to the President the additional powers
requested in his message of January 16th was promptly re-

* Jenkins' Calhoun, p. 247.

474 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832.

ported, and finally passed. It was nicknamed, at the time,
the Force Bill, and was debated with the heat and acrimonj
which might have been expected. As other measm^ of
Congress rendered this bill unnecessary, and it had no prac-
tical eflfect whatever, we need not dwell upon its provisions
nor review the debates upon it. It passed by majorities un-
usually large, late in February.

The first of February, the dreaded day which was to be
the first of a fratricidal war, had gone by, and yet no hostik
and no nullifying act had been done in South Carolina.
How was this ? Did those warlike words mean nothing ?
Was South Carolina repentant ? It is asserted by the old
Jacksonians that one citizen of South Carolina was exceed-
ingly frightened as the first of February drew near, namely,
John C. Calhoun. The President was resolved, and avowed
his resolve, that the hour which brought the news of one act
of violence on the part of the nullifiers, should find Mr. Cal-
houn a prisoner of state upon a charge of high treason. And
not Calhoun only, but every member of Congress from South
Carolina wlio had taken part in the proceedings which had
caused the conflict between South Carolina and the general
government. Whether this intention of the President had
any effbct upon the course of events, we can not know. It
came to pass, however, that, a few days before the first of
Febniary, a meeting of the leading nullifiers was held in
Charleston, who passed resolutions to this effect : that, inaa-
much as measures were then pending in Congress which con-
temi)lated the reduction of duties demanded by South Caro-
lina, the nullification of the existing revenue laws should he
postponed until after the adjournment of Congress ; when
the Convention would re-assemble, and take into consideia-
tion whatever revenue measures may have been passed by
Congress. The session of 1833 being the " short" season, end-
ing necessarily on the fourth of March, the Union was re-
spited thirty-two days by the Charleston meeting.

It remains now to relate the events which led to the paci-
fication of this painful and dangerous dispute.

1833.] NULLIFICATION TRIUMPHS. 475

The President, in his annual message, as we have just
seen, recommended Congress to subject the tariff to a new
revision, and to reduce the duties so that the revenue of the
government, after the payment of the public debt, should
not exceed its expenditures. He also recommended that, in
regulating the reduction, the interests of the manufacturers
should be duly considered. We discover, therefore, that while
the President was resolved to crush nullification by force, if
it opposed by force the collection of the revenue, he was also
disposed to concede to nullification all that its more moderate
advocates demanded. Accordingly, Mr. McLane, the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, with the assistance of Mr. Gulian C.
Yerplanck, of New York, and other administration members,
prepared a new tariff bill, which provided for the reduction
of duties to the revenue standard, and which was deemed by
its authors as favorable to the manufacturing interest as the
circnmstances permitted. This bill, reported by Mr. Ver-
planck on the 28th of December, and known as the Yerplanck
bill, was calculated to reduce the revenue thirteen millions
of dollars, and to afford to the manufacturers about as much
protection as the tariff of 1816 had given them. It put
back the " American System," so to speak, seventeen years.
It destroyed nearly all that Mr. Clay and the protectionists
had effected in 1820, 1824, 1828, and' 1832. Is it astonishing
that the manufacturers were panic-stricken ? Need we won-
der that, during the tariff discussions of 1833, two congresses
sat in Washington, one in the capitol, composed of the rep-
resentatives of the people, and another outside of the capitol,
consisting of representatives of the manufacturing interest ?
Was it not to be expected that Mr. Clay, seeing the edifice
which he had constructed with so much toil and talent about
to tumble into ruins, would be willing to consent to any
measure which could even postpone the catastrophe ?

The Verplanck bill made slow progress. The outside
pressure against it was such, that there seemed no prospect
of its passing. The session was within twenty days of its in-
evitable termination. The bill had been debated and amended, '

476 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

and amended and debated, and yet no apparent progress had
been made toward that conciliation of conflicting interests
without which no tariflf bill whatever can pass. The dread
of civil war, which overshadowed the capitol, seemed to lose
its power as a legislative stimulant, and there was a respect-
able party in Congress, led by Mr. Webster, who thought that
all tariff legislation was undignified and improper while South
Carolina maintained her threatening attitude. The constitu-
tion, Mr. Webster maintained, was on trial. The time had
come to test its reserve of self-supporting power. No com-
promise, no concession, said he, until the nullifying State
returns to her allegiance.

No question of so much importance as this can be dis-
cussed in Congress without a constant, secret reference to its
effect upon the next presidential election. " It is mortifying,
inexpressibly disgusting," wrote Mr. Clay to Judge Brooke, in
the midst of the debate upon his own compromise bill of this
session, " to find that considerations affecting an election now
four years distant, influence the fate of great questions of im-
mediate interest more than all the reasons and arguments
which intimately appertain to those questions. If, for exam-
ple, the Tariff now before the House should be lost, its defeat
will be owing to two causes — ^First, The apprehension of Mr.
Van Buren's friends, that if it passes, Mr. Calhoun will rise
again as the successful vindicator of Southern rights ; and
second. Its passage might prevent the President from exercis-
ing certain vengeful passions which he wishes to gratify in
South Carolina. And if it passes, its passage may be attri-
buted to the desire of those same friends of Mr. Van Buren
to secure Southern votes."

The fact deplored by Mr. Clay is unquestionable, but the
inference which is usually drawn from it may be questioned.
Does not the fact reveal to us, that politicians in the United
States, no matter what their unpatriotic ambition, are com-
pelled in all their public acts, to watch their masters' eye,
and, upon the whole, to carry out their masters' will ? To
what lengths would not some of them carry their impious

1833.] . NULLIFICATION TRIUMPHS. 477

domination, if there were no quadrennial Day of Judgment
for them ? This terror of the presidential election prevents
mach good it is true, but it also prevents much evil.

On the 12th of February, Mr. Clay introduced his celebra-
ted Compromise Bill for the regulation of the tariff. It dif-
fered from the measure devised by the administration and
engineered by Mr. Verplanck, chiefly in this : Mr. Verplanck
proposed a sudden, and Mr. Clay a gradual, reduction of du-
ties. The Verplanck bill tended mainly to the conciliation
of the nullifiers ; the Clay compromise, to the preservation
of the manufacturers. Mr. Clay's bill provided that, on the
last day of the year 1833, all ad valorem duties of more than
twenty per cent, should be reduced one tentli ; on the last
day of the year 1835, there should be a second and a similar
reduction ; another, to the same amount, at the close of
1837 ; and, so on, reducing the duties every two years, until
on the 31st of June, 1842, all duties should be reduced to or
below the maximum of twenty per cent. The object of Mr.
Clay was to save all that he could save of the protective pol-
icy, and to postpone further action upon the tariff to a more
auspicious day.

Then was seen an enchanting exhibition of political prin-
ciple I Which of these two bills, 0 reader, innocent and
beloved, was most in accordance with Mr. Calhoun's new
opinions ? Which of them could he most consistently have
supported ? Not Mr. Clay's, you will cert<iinly answer. Yet
it was Mr. Clay's bill that he did support and vote for ; and
Mr. Clay's bill was carried by the aid of his support and vote.
If this coui-se does not prove, that Mr. Calhoun was a " cow-
ard and a conspirator," it does prove, I think, that he was
not a person of that exalted and Bomau-toga cast, which he
set up to be, and which he enacted, for some years, with con-
siderable applause. The nullifiers in Congress could have
carried the Verplanck bill if they had given it a frank and
energetic support. They would have carried it, if the ruling
motive of their chief had been purely patriotic.

The most remarkable narrative left by Colonel Benton for

/ ^^<.\'DRKW JACKSON. [1833.

'^^ ;////'^8terity, is that which ho gives, in his

. .'nft'^^^'^'r Vii'^y^" of this stranffc coalition ])ctween Mr.

.. fhW Jj. odhonn for the passage of tlie C<jraproraise

/7.i^'', rlHU he tells us, had introduced the measure into

0^- \. bat the manufacturers could not be reconciled to

//""/"//;; provisions ; and, without their consent, nothing

'*''/'/ A^ Jone. At this stage of the affair, Senator John M.

^fyfon, of Delaware, a protectionist, gave Mr. Clay a piece

.^,'jrice, which he followed. "These South Carolinians,"

Lid Clayton to Clay, " are acting very badly, but they are

gije fellows, and it is a pity to let Jackson hang them." He

jjrgcd Mr. Clay to make a " new move'' with liis bill, get it

itjforred to a select committee, and so modify it as to render

it acceptable to a majority.

The bill was referred to a select committee, accordingly,
and that select committee was appointed, of course, by Judge
White, the president of the Senate. Resj)r»cting the apj)oint-
ment of this important committee. Judge White has left on
record a little tale, which shows, among other things, how
keenly the President watched the proceedings of Congress,
and how resolved he was to deprive the Opposition of all the
glory of pacificatiug the country.

" Before the members of the committee were name^l," write? Judge
White, " I received a note from tlio President, requesting mo to go to his
house, as he wished to see me. I returned for answer, that while the Sen-
ate wiLs in session it was out of my power to go, but that liS soon as it ad-
journed I would call on him. I felt the high responsibility wliicli rested
on me in appt^nting the committee; the fate of the bill, in a good degree,
depended on it ; and if the bill failed, we would probably be involved in I
m<:»st painful eonfliet. I endeavored to make the best selection I eould, by
t4ikiiig t^ome tariff-men, some anti-t;iriff, one nullifier, and Mr. Clay himself
— lioping that if a majority of a committee, in which all interests anti view3
were represented, couhl agi'ee on any thing, it was likely it would pass.
Taking these principles for my guide, I wrote down tlie names of seven
members, Mr. Clayton, of Delaware, being one ; and immediately before
we adjourned, handed the names to the sccrelAry, witli directions to puC
them on the journal, and in the course of the evening waited on the Presi-
dent. Soon after we met, he mentioned that he had wished to see me on
the subject of appointing a committee on Mr. Clay's bill, to ask that Mr.

1833.] NULLIFICATION TRIUMPHS. 479

Clayton might not be put on it; as he was hostile to the administration,
and xmfriendly to Mr. McLanc, he feared he would use his endeavor to have
a preference given to Mr. Clay's bill over that of the Secretary of the Treas-
ury, or words to that effect I observed, in answer, that it would always
give me great pleasure to conform to the wishes of my political friends,
whenever I could do so with propriety ; but that the treasury bill had been
ao altered and mangled, and that, as I understood, in a good degree by the
TOtes of his own party, that it had but few friends ; that we seemed to
be on the eve of a civil war, and that, for the sake of averting such a
oalamity, I would further aU in my power any measure, come from whom
it might, which would give peace to the country, and that any bill, having
that for its object, was esteemed by me a measure above party^ and any
man who was the author of it was welcome to all the credit he could gain
by it. But, at all events, it was too late to talk on the subject, as I had
handed the names of the committee to the secretary before we adjourned ;
and that as I had a very high opinion of Mr. Clayton's talents and liberal
feeUngSi I had put him on the committee, without knowing he was per-
eooally unkind to the Secretary of the Treasury. He then asked me if
I ooald not see the secretary of the Senate that evening, and substitute
aome other name for Mr. Clayton, before the journal was made up. I
told him I could not — ^in my judgment it would be wrong ,* and then the
interyiew terminated."*

Mr. Clayton was retained on the committee, therefore,
and it was directly owing to his tact and firmness, according
to Colonel Benton, that the bill was passed. He began by
making it a sine qua non that the compromise bill, with all
the amendments agreed upon, should be voted for by Mr.
Calhoun and the other nullifiers, so as to commit them to the
principles involved in the bill, and to give the manufacturers
an assurance of the perpetuity of the compact. He was
equally explicit in demanding that Mr. Clay, also, should re-
cord his vote upon the bill and its amendments. The closing
struggle between policy and principle let our eye-witness, Col-
onel Benton, describe :

" Mr. Clayton being inexorable in his claims, Mr. Clay and Mr. Cal-
hoon agreed to the amendments, and all voted for them, one by one, as
Mr. Clay offered them, until it came to the last — that revolting measure
of the home valuation. As soon as it was proposed, Mr. Calhoun and his

* Memoirs of Hugh L. White, p. 299

480 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

friends met it with violent opposition, deelaring it to be unconstitutional,
and an insurmountable obstacle to their votes for the bill if put into it It
was then late in the day, and the last day but one of the session, and Mr.
Clayton found himself in the predicament whicli required the execution of
his threat to table the bill. He executed it^ and moved to lay it on the
table, with the declaration that it was to he there. Mr. Clay went to him
and besought him to withdraw the motion ; but in vain. He remained in-
flexible ; and the bill then appeared to be dead. In this extremity, the Cil-
houn winjL^ retired to the colonnade behind the Vice-President's chair, and
hold a brief consultation among themselves ; and presently Mr. Bibb, of Ken-
tucky, came out and went to Mr. Clayton, and asked him to withdraw
his motion to give him time to consider the amendment Seeing this sign
of yielding, Mr. Clayton withdrew his motion — to be renewed if the
amendment was not voted for. A frien<l of the parties immediately moved
an adjournniont, which was carried ; and tliat night's reflections brought
them to the conclusion that the amendment must be passed; but still
with the belief that, there being enough to pass it witliout him, Mr. Cal-
houn should be spared the humiliation of appearing on the record in it«
favor. Tliis was told to Mr. Clayton, who declared it to be impossible ;
that Mr. Calhoun's vote was indispensable, as nothing would be considered
secured by the passage of tlie bill unless his vote appeared for eveiy
amendment soj;>arately, and for the whole bill collectively. When the
Senate mot, and the bill was taken up, it was still unknown what he
would do ; but liis friends fell in, one after the other, yielding their otgec-
tions upon diiforent grounds, and giving their assent to this most flagrant
instance (and that a new one) of that protective legislation against which
they were then raising troops in South Carolina I and limiting a day, and
that a short one, on which she was to be, ipso facto^ a seceder from the
Union. Mr. Calhoun remained to the last, and only rose when the vote
was ready to be taken, and prefticed a few remarks with the very notable
declaration that he had then to * determine' which way he would vote.
He then declared in favor of the amendment, but upon conditions which
he desired the reporters to note ; and which being futile in themselvea,
only showed the desperation of his condition, and the state of impossibil-
ity to which he was reduced. Several senators let him know immediate-
ly the futility of his conditions ; and without saying more, he voted on
ayes and noes fur the amendment, ami afterward for the whole bill"

The compromise bill, which passed in the Senate by a
vote of twenty-nine to sixteen, was sprung upon the House
of Kepresentatives, and carried in that body by a coup-dt-
main. The Verplanck bill, Col. Benton indignantly informs

1833.] NULLIFICATION TRIUMPHS. 481

118, was afloat in the House, " upon the wordy sea of stormy
debate," as late as the 25th of February. "All of a sud-
den," he continues, " it was arrested, knocked over, run
under, and merged and lost in a new one, which expunged the
old one and took its place. It was late in the afternoon
when Mr. Letcher, of Kentucky, the fast friend of Mr. Clay,
rose in his place, and moved to strike out the whole Ver-
planck bill— every word except the enacting clause — and in-
sert, in lieu of it, a bill offered in the Senate by Mr. Clay,
ance called the ^compromise.' This was offered in the
House without notice, without signal, without premonitory
symptom, and just as the members were preparing to adjourn.
Some, taken by surprise, looked about in amazement ; but
the majority showed consciousness, and, what was more,
readiness for action. The bill, which made its first appear-
ance in the House when members were gathering up their
over-coats for a walk home to their dinners, was passed be-
fore those coats had got on the back ; and the dinner which
was waiting had but little time to cool before the astonished
members, their work done, were at the table to eat it. A bill
without precedent in the annals of our legislation, and pre-
tending to the sanctity of a compromise, and to settle great
questions for ever, went through to its consummation in the
fragment of an evening session, without the compliance with
any form which experience and parliamentary law have de-
vised for the safety of legislation."

The bill passed in the House by a vote of one hundred
and nineteen to eighty-five.

That the President disapproved this hasty, and, as the
event proved, unstable compromise, is well known. The
very energy with which Col. Benton denounces it shows how
hateful it was to the administration. General Jackson, how-
ever, signed the bill concocted by his enemies. It would
have been more like him to have vetoed it, and I do not
know why he did not veto it. The time may come when
the people of the United States will wish he had vetoed it,

and thus brought to an issue, and settled finally, a question
VOL. m — 81

482 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1833.

which, at some future day, may assume more awkward di-
mensions, and the country have no Jackson to meet it.

Mr. Calhoun left Washington, and jouraeyed homeward
post-haste, after Congress adjourned. " Traveling night and
day, by the most rapid public conveyances, he succeeded in
reaching Columbia in time to meet the convention before they
had taken any additional steps. Some of the more fier}' and
ardent members were disposed to complain of the compro-
mise act, as being only a half-way, temporizing measure ; but
when his explanations were made, all felt satisfied, and the
convention cordially approved of his course. The nullifica-
tion ordinance was repealed, and the two parties in the State
abandoned their organizations, and agreed to forget all their
past differences."* So the storm blew over.

One remarkable result of the pacification was, that it
strengthened the position of the leading men of both parties.
The course was cleared for Mr. Van Buren. The popularity
of the President reached its highest point. Mr. Calhoun was
rescued from peril, and a degree of his former prestige was
restored to him. The collectors of political pamphlets will
discover that, as late as 1843, he still had hopes of reaching
the presidency by uniting the South in his support, and add-
ing to the united South Pennsylvania. With too much truth
he claimed, in subsequent debates, that it was the hostile at-
titude of South Carolina which alone had enabled Mr. Clay
to carry his compromise. " I had him down," said Calhoun,
in the Senate, speaking of Mr. Clay, "I had him on his
back — I was his master." " He my master !" retorted the
Kentuckian, " I would not own him for the meanest of my
slaves !"

A very few years after these events, before Mr. Van
Buren was President, and before Mr. Calhoun was Mr. VaD
Buren's friend, the Nullifier adopted new tactics. He be-
came the eulogist of slavery, falsely accusing the North of a
desire to interfere with that institution in the Southern
States. His first speech on this subject contains every aiga-

* Jenkins' Calhoun, p. 314.

1833.] KULLIFI CATION TRIUMPHS. 483

ment, assertion, and fact, which constitutes, at this moment,
the capital of the party in power. Until he spoke, the South
generally felt that slavery was only to be regarded as a choice
of evils — an unfortunate inheritance, to be endured as long
as it must be endured, to be abolished as soon as it could be
abolished safely* It was John 0. Calhoun that effaced from
the heart of the South the benign sentiments of Washington,
Jefferson, Madison, and Bandolph.

It was Calhoun who began all that is to be deplored in
the agitation of slavery questions. It was he who strove to
zob the people of the North of their right to petition, and the
people of the South of their right to receive what they choose
through the mail. It was he who cut the magnetic cord that
connected the South with the feeling of the age, and thus
made the peaceful solution of the problem difficult, and its
speedy solution impossible. It was he who made slavery a
maddening topic in the press. It was well said by Mr. Isaac
Hill, of New Hampshire, in 1836, that " of all the vehicles
tracts, pamphlets, and newspapers, printed and circulated by
the abolitionists, there is no ten or twenty of them that have
contributed so much to the excitement as a single newspaper
printed in this city. I need not name this paper when I in-
form you that, for the last five years, it has been laboring to
produce a Northern and a Southern party — to fan the flame
of sectional prejudice, to open wider the breach, to drive
harder the wedge, which shall divide the North from the
South." It was the United States Telegraph, the confiden-

* *' A hard necesaityi indeed, compels ua to endure the evil of slayery for a
tima It was imposed upon us bj another nation, while yet we were in a state
of colonial vassalage. It can not bo easily or suddenly removed. Tet, while it
oontinaes, it is a blot on our national character, and every real lover of fh>odom
confidently hopes that it will be oiTcctually, though it must bo gradually, wiped
away, and earnestly looks for the means by which this necessary object may be
attained. And, until it shall be accomplished, until the time shall come when
we can point without a blush to the language held in the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, every friend of humanity will seek to lighten the galling chain of
slavery, and better to the utmost of his power the wretched condition of the
dave." — Boff0r Jt, Taney in 1818, in defense of Rev, Mr. QrvJber,

484 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

tial organ of Mr. Calhoun, that was referred to in this pas-
sage.

Mr. Clay, as many readers may remember, won great glory
at the North by his course during the session of 1833. He
was received in New York and New England, this year, with
that enthusiasm which his presence in the manufacturing
States ever after inspired. The warmth of his reception con-
soled him for his late defeat at the polls, and gave new hopes
to his friends.

But the Colossus of the session was Daniel Webster, well
named, then, the Expounder of the Constitution. In sup-
porting the administration in all its anti-nullification meas-
ures, he displayed his peculiar powers to the greatest advan-
tage. The subject of debate was the one of all others the
most congenial to him, and he rendered services then to his
country to which his country may yet recur with gratitude.
'^ Nullification kept me out of the Supreme Court all last
winter," he says in one of his letters in 1833. He mentions,
also, that the President sent hb own carriage to convey him
to the capitol on one important occasion. After the adjourn-
ment he visited the great West, where he was welcomed with
equal warmth by the friends and the opponents of the ad-
ministration. It was then, I have imagined, that he, too,
took the mania for the presidency, of which he died.

Perhaps it is not extravagant to say, that the net result
to the United States of the nullification of 1832, and a result
worth its cost, was the four exhaustive Propositions into
which Mr. Webster condensed his opinions respecting the
nature of the compact which unites these States. We can
not more fitly take leave of this subject than by reading them
again:

^^ 1. That the constitution of the United States is not a
league, confederacy, or compact, between the people of the
several States in their sovereign capacities ; but a govern-
ment proper, founded on the adoption of the people, and cre-
ating direct relations between itself and individuals.

^^ 2. That no State authority has power to dissolve these

1833.] SUMMER TBAYKLS OF THB PBESIDENT. 485

relations ; that nothing can dissolve them but revolution ;
and that, consequently, there can be no such thing as seces-
aion without revolution.

^^ 3. That there is a supreme law, consisting of the consti-
tution of the United States, acts of Congress passed in pur-
suance of it, and treaties ; and that, in cases not capable of
assuming the character of a suit in law or equity. Congress
must judge of, and finally interpret, this supreme law, so
often as it has occasion to pass acts of legislation ; and, in
cases capable of assuming, and actually assuming, the char-
acter of a suit, the Supreme Court of the United States is the
final interpreter.

" 4. That an attempt by a State to abrogate, annul, or
nullify an act of Congress, or to arrest its operation within
her limits, on the ground that, in her opinion, such law is
unconstitutional, is a direct usurpation on the just powers of
the general government and on the equal rights . of other
States ; a plain violation of the constitution, and a proceed-
ing essentially revolutionary in its character and tendency."

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE SUMMER TRAVELS OF THE PRESIDENT.

General Jackson passed his sixty-sixth birth-day in the
spring of 1833. He stood then at the highest point of his
career. Opposition was, for the moment, almost silenced ;
and the whole country, except South Carolina, looked up to
him as to a savior. He had but to go quietly on during the
remaining years of his term, making no new issues, provoking
no new controversies, to leave the chair of state more univer-
sally esteemed than he was when he assumed it. Going
quietly on, however, was not his forte. A storm was already
brewing, compared with which the excitements of his first
term were summer calms.

486 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

The old friends of the old man were leaving him. I ob-
serve, in a letter of the President to the Land Commissioner,
dated July 20th, 1833, that he announces the death of " that
worthy and excellent man. General John CoflFee." " With
his dying breath," adds the President, " CoflFee asked me to
appoint William Weakly as his successor to the office of
Surveyor-General of the District of Alabama. Weakly is a
worthy man ; appoint him." Robert Purdy, too, that fight-
ing gentleman who served as Coffee's second in his duel with
young McNairy, in 1805, died about this time, and left an
office vacant for the President to fill.

It may be convenient just to mention here — ^reserving ex-
planations for another page — that three important changes in
the cabinet occurred in the month of May, this year. Mr.
Livingston, the Secretary of State, left the cabinet to go out
as embassador to France, in the hope of peacefully arranging
the spoliation imbroglio. Mr. Louis McLane, the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, was advanced to the Department of
State. William J. Duane, a distinguished lawyer of PhlLa-
delphia, son of the President's old friend. Colonel Duane, of
the far-famed Aurora, was appointed Secretary of the Treas-
ury. This appointment was the President's own. Strongly
attached to Colonel Duane, and having the highest opinion
of his talents and integrity, General Jackson was accustomed,
when speaking of his son, to exhaust compliment by saying,
" He 's a chip of the old block, sir." So he took him into
his cabinet. Mr. Duane was a conscientious opponent of the
Bank of the United States, and a democrat of the Jeffer-
sonian school.

The greater part of this summer, so fruitful of disaster,
was spent by General Jackson in traveling — in drinking deep
draughts of the bewildering cup of adulation. A few amus-
ing or characteristic incidents of his joumeyings may detain
us a moment from matters more important.

An event occurred on the first day's journey that was not
of an adulatory nature. On the sixth of May, the President,
accompanied by members of his cabinet and by Major Donet

1833.] SUMMER TRAVELS OF THE PRESIDENT. 487

son, left the capital, in a steamboat, for Fredericksburg, Vir-
ginia, where he was to lay the corner-stone of that monument
to the mother of Washington which is still unfinished. At
Alexandria, where the steamer touched, there came on board
a Mr. Bandolph, late a lieutenant in the navy, who had been
recently dismissed the service. Bandolph made his way to
the cabin, where he found the President sitting behind a
table reading a newspaper. He approached the table, as if
to salute the President.

" Excuse my risiDg, sir," said the General, who was not
acquainted with Bandolph. '^ I have a pain in my side
which makes it distressing for me to rise."

Bandolph made no reply to this courteous apology, but
appeared to be trying to take off his glove.

" Never mind your glove, sir," said the General, holding
oat his hand.

At this moment, Bandolph thrust his hand violently into
the President's face, intending, as it appeared, to pull his
nose. The captain of the boat, who was standing by, in-
stantly seized Bandolph, and drew him back. A violent
scuffle ensued, during which the table was broken. The
friends of Bandolph clutched him, and hurried him ashore
before many of the passengers knew what had occurred, and
thus he effected his escaiKJ. The passengers soon crowded
into the cabin to learn if the General was hurt.

" Had I known," said he, " that Bandolph stood before
me, I should have been prepared for him, and I could have
defended myself. No villain," said he, '* has ever escaped me
before ; and he would not, had it not been for my confined
situation."

Some blood was seen on his face, and he was asked whether
he had been much injured ?

" No," said he, " I am not much hurt ; but in endeavor-
ing to rise I have wounded my side, which now pains me
more than it did."

One of the citizens of Alexandria, who had heard of
the outrage, addressed the General, and said : ^' Sir, if you

488 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

will pardon me, in case I am tried and convicted, I will kill
Randolph for this insult to you, in fifteen minutes !"

" No, sir," said the President, " I can not do that. I want
no man to stand between me and my assailants, and none to
take revenge on my account. Had I been prepared for this
cowardly villain's approach, I can assure you all that he
would never have the temerity to undertake such a thing
again."

Randolph published statements in the newspapers of the
" wrongs" which he said he had received at the hands of the
government. The opposition papers, though condemning the
outrage, did not fail to remind the President of certain pas-
sages in his own life and conversation which sanction^ a
resort to violence. Randolph, I believe, was not prosecuted
for the assault. His friends said that his object was merely
to pull the presidential nose, which, they further declared, he
did.

Returning from Fredericksburg, after performing there
the pious duty assigned him, the President, early in June,
accompanied by Mr. Van Buren, Governor Cass, Mr. Wood-
bury, Major Donelson, Mr. Earl, and others, began that
famous tour which enabled the North to express its detesta-
tion of nullification, and its approval of the President's recent
conduct. Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Newark, Eliza-
bethtown, Boston, Salem, Lowell, Concord, Newport, Provi-
dence, each received the President with every demonstration
of regard which ingenuity could devise. Every one in the
United States knows how these things are done. Every one
can imagine the long processions; the crowded roofs and
windows ; the thundering salutes of artillery ; steamboats
gay with a thousand flags and streamers ; the erect, gray-
headed old man, sitting his horse like a centaur, and bow-
ing to the wild hurrahs of the Unterrified with matchless
grace ; the rushing forward of interminable crowds to shake
the President's hand ; the banquets, public and private ; the
toasts, addresses, responses ; and all the other items of the
price which a popular hero has to pay for his popularity.

■^/t-^Cty^

1833.] SUMMER TRAVELS OF THE PRESIDENT. 489

The enthusiasm was real and almost universal. The New
York American^ however, complained that the reception in
this city wore a too partisan complexion. " The mass of the
citizens, the clergy, the learned professions, and the great
middle class, could not approach him at all," said the
American.

At Philadelphia, the President was induced, after much
persuasion, to consult the celebrated Dr. Physick, with re-
gard to that pain in the side and the bleeding at the lungs
to which he was subject. Upon meeting the Doctor, the
President explained his symptoms, concluding with these
words : " Now, Doctor, I can do any thing you think proper
to order, and bear as much as most men. There are only
two things I can't give up : one is coffee, and the other is
tobacco." Bather important exceptions, one would suppose.
Mr. Trist, from whom I received this anecdote, added that
Doctor Physick was completely captivated by the Gen-
eral's manner. The next day, Mr. Trist had occasion to
consult the Doctor upon a case in which both of them were
deeply interested ; but, said Mr. Trist , he was so full of
Qeneral Jackson, so penetrated with the gentleness, the
finankness, the peculiar and indescribable charm of his de-
meanor, that he could talk of nothing else.

In New York, the President had a narrow escape or two.
After receiving in Castle Garden the address of the corpora-
tion, he mounted his horse and passed over the long wooden
bridge which formerly connected that fort with the Battery,
followed by his suite and a great concourse of officials. He
had just reached the land when the crowded bridge gave
way, and let the multitude down among the rocks and into
the shallow water below. Vice-President, Governor, Cabi-
net ministers, mayor, aldermen, military officers, and citizens
generally, were mingled in an indiscriminate and struggling
mass. The wildest confusion and alarm prevailed for several
minutes. Gradually, however, the crowd emerged from the
rains, and no one was seriously hurt. Major Jack Downing
tells us that Governor Marcy tore his pantaloons a second

490 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

time, and that Governor Cass lost his wig. But, he adds,
as Governor Cass had all the Indian tribes in his department,
he would have no difficulty in finding ^' a scalp to suit him."
Again, in going up Broadway, the General's horse took
fright, and would have thrown any horseman less accomp-
lished than himself. On another occasion the wa Iding of a
cannon came within a few inches of singeing the President's
white and bristling head.

The Rev. Dr. Van Pelt, of this city, favors the reader
with an interesting reminiscence of the President's excursion
to Staten Island in the steamboat Cinderella. Returning
from the Island, the President was enjoying on the upper
deck of the boat the enchanting scenery of the most beauti-
ful bay in the world.

" What a country God has given us !" exclaimed the
President to Dr. Van Pelt. " How thankful we ought to be
that God has given us such a country to live in."

" Yes," replied the Doctor, " and this harbor, General,
we think the finest thing in it."

"We have the best country," continued the General,
" and the best institutions in the world. No people have so
much to be grateful for as we. But ah ! my reverend friend,
there is one thing that I fear will yet sap the foundations
of our liberty — that monster institution, the bank of the
United States ! Its existence is incompatible with liberty.
One of the two must fall — the bank or our free institutions.
Next Congress, the effort to efi^ect a re-charter will be re-
newed ; but my consent they shall never have !"

He 8i)oke with great energy, and continued to denounce
the bank in unmeasured tenus. The Doctor changed the
subject, at length, by saying :

" I hear, General, that you were blessed with a Christiaa
companion." ('' Companion" is clerical for wife.)

" Yes," said the President, " my wife was a pioos,
Christian woman. She gave me the best advice, and I have
not been unmindful of it. When the people, in their sove-
reign pleasure, elected me President of the United Statee,

•\

1833.] SUMMER TRAVELS OF THE P R E SIDENT. 491

she said to me, * Don't let your popularity turn your mind
away from the duty you owe to God. Before Him we are
all alike sinners, and to Him we must all alike give account.
All these things will pass away, and you and I, and all of
us must stand before God/ I have never forgotten it, Doc-
tor, and I never shall."

Tears were in his eyes, adds Dr. Van Pelt, as he said
these words.

As the boat was nearing the city, some slight confusion
on board the boat occurred. To the apology of the mar-
shal, Mr. Coventry Waddell, the General replied : " You
were in action, I suppose, sir, and no apology is necessary.
You are a young man, Mr. Waddell, and I see around me
many who have seen fewer years than I have, and what I
now say may be of some use to them. Always take all the
time to reflect that circumstances will permit, but when the
time for action has come, stop thinking."

Upon reaching Battery Place, an officer approached the
President, and asked whether he preferred to ride in a ba-
rouche or on horseback. Turning to Mr. Van Buren, the
Gteneral said,

" Matty, shall we ride in a carriage or on horseback ?"

" As the President pleases," said Mr. Van Buren.

" Well, then," added the General, " let us ride on horse-
back."

Turning to Dr. Van Pelt, he said,

" Farewell, my friend."

" Farewell," wiid the doctor ; " we may never meet again
in this world."

" Then may we meet in a better," rejoined the President.

" You have my best wishes. General," said the doctor.

" I believe it," said the General, as he mounted and rode
away.

A few days after the departure of the President for New
England, the furniture used by him during his stay in the
city was sold at auction, and thus divided among his ad-
mirers as mementoes of his visit.

492 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

Boston received him with extraordinary liberality and en-
thusiasm. One floor of the Tremont House was set apart for
the entertainment of the President and his party. Carriages-
and-four were kept at their disposal. Tickets to every place
of amusement in the city were daily provided in profusion.
All tolls and fares were intermitted to the friends of the
President. Harvard University conferred upon him, in sol-
emn form, in the chapel at Cambridge, the degree of Doctor
of Laws ; and one of the seniors, Francis Bowen, addressed
the President, on behalf of the students, in the Latin lan-
guage. These ceremonies, of course, gave the wits of the op-
position an opportunity — which they improved. Major Jack
Downing, whose humorous letters amused the whole country
this summer, records that when the President had finished
his speech at Downingville, he cried out to him, " You must
give them a little Latin, Doctor.'* Whereupon the Presi-
dent, nothing abashed, " off hat agin," and thus resumed :
" E pluribus unum, my friends, sine qua non V

At Boston, the President, overcome by fatigue, had a dan-
gerous attack of his malady, bleeding at the lungs, which
confined him to his room for several days. The hotel was
suddenly enveloped in silence. The carpets in the halls of the
story occupied by the President were doubled, and the street
was covered with tan. The President rallied, and continued
his journey as far as Concord. At that point, he suddenly
turned his course homeward, visiting Providence and New-
port, steaming past New York without stopping, and making
the best of his way to the seat of government. The reason
assigned for this hafety return was the precarious state of the
President's health. But that was not the only reason.

The veracious Downing assures us that the General was
delighted with his " tower." *• He is amazingly tickled with
the Yankees," writes the Major, " and the more he sees on
'em, the better he likes 'em. * No nullification here,' says he.
' No,' says I, ^ General ; Mr. Calhoun would stand no more
chance down east here than a stumped-tail bull in fly time."*

Later in the summer, the President, accompanied by Ml

1833.] WAR UPON THE BANK RENEWED. 493

Blair, of the Olohe^ visited his favorite sea-shore resort, the
Rip-raps of Virginia. A little circumstance that occurred on
the steamboat that conveyed the party down the Chesapeake
shows that Andrew Jackson had that kind of assurance of
safety and success which CaBsar had in his fortunes and Na-
poleon in his star. The boat was a crazy old tub, and the
waves were running high. An aged gentleman on board ex-
hibited a good deal of alarm. " You are uneasy," said the
G-eneral to him ; " you never sailed with me before, I see."

CHAPTER XXXVI-

WAR UPON THE BANK RENEWED.

It is the nature of every thing that has life to try to pro-
long its life. Bo the Bank of the United States could not
make up its mind to die on the 4th of March, 1836. By the
aid of the press, and, possibly, by other means less legitimate,
it still hoped to obtain a re-charter from Congress by a ma-
jority that would render the veto of the President power-
less.

I say, possibly^ by means less legitimate. The charge was
made, and there was probably truth in the charge ; but how
much truth, it is impossible to ascertain. Unquestionably,
the president, the directors, the employees of the great bank
desired a re-charter, as much as the Jackson politicians de-
sired a perfKituation of their power ; and for the same reasons.
Unquestionably, the resources and the influence of the bank
were, in some degree, employed to secure a re-charter. Un-
questionably, a member of Congress or an influential editor
who presented a note to be discounted at the bank, was more
likely to obtain the accommodation sought than any other
man of equal credit. I think it highly probable that this
species of favoritism was carried, in the later years of the
struggle for life, to an extent that was most unwise, if not

494 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

criminal. The instance related by Col. Benton must be taken
with some allowance ; for Col. Benton, in the height of the
contest, was bank-mad, and was prepared to believe any thing
ill of Nicholas Biddle. " The manner," says Benton, " in
which the loans to members of Congress were made, was told
me by one of these members who had gone through this process
of bank accommodation ; and who, voting against the bank,
after getting the loan, felt himself free from shame in telling
what had been done. He needed $4,000, and could not get it
at home ; he went to Philadelphia — to the bank — inquired
for Mr. Biddle — was shown into an ante-room, supplied with
newspapers and periodicals ; and asked to sit, and amuse him-
self— the president being engaged for the moment. Presently
a side door opened. He was ushered into the presence — graci-
ously received — stated his business — was smilingly answered
that he could have it, and more if he wished it ; that he could
leave his note with the exchange committee, and check at
once for the proceeds : and if inconvenient to give an endorser
before he went home, he could do it afterwards : and whoever
he said was good, would be accepted. And in telling me this,
the member said he could read * bribery ' in his eyes."

I have been told, twenty times, in the course of my in-
quiries on this subject, that Daniel Webster's checks for
sums as large as five thousand dollars were paid by the bank
when Mr. Webster had not a dollar in the bank. Every one
must have heard similar stories, for they are still current.
When, however, we look over the list of directors, and find
there the names of men known to have been honest and hon-
orable all their lives, men of even punctilious honesty in their
private dealings, we find it impossible to believe such tales.
In later years, when the bank had ceased to be a national in-
stitution, and was governed almost absolutely by the " em-
peror Nicholas," there was, indeed, a looseness in the manage-
ment of its afiairs that we know not whether to ascribe to
corruption or to incapacity. A memoir of Nicholas Biddle,
if honestly written, would be a most valuable contribution to
the history of the country and of business, and would explain

1833.] WAP. UPON THE BANK BRNEWED. 495

many things in the later career of the bank which are now
lost in a chaos of figures, statements, counter- statements, and
vituperation. Even when the final crash came, no man in
the country seems to have been more sincerely astonished at
it than Nicholas Biddle. How instructive it would be to
men of business to have such an incredible mystery explained.
But it does not belong to our subject to explore in that
direction. The directors of the bank made no attempt to
conceal that they spent considerable sums in printing and
circulating documents designed to vindicate the bank against
the charges of the President of the United States. The bank,
said they in their celebrated report of December, 1833, owns
no press and sustains no press ; does not interfere, and has
not interfered with elections. In defending itself against the
charges brought by the administration, it had expended in
four years, the sum of fifty-eight thousand dollars ; an ex-
penditure which the directors justified as well as avowed.
" The Bank," they said, " asserts its clear right to defend
itself equally against those who circulate false, statements,
and those who circulate false notes. Its sole object, in either
case, is self-defense. It can not suffer itself to be calumni-
ated down, and the interests confided to its care sacrificed by
falsehoods. A war of unexampled violence has been waged
against the Bank. The institution defends itself. Its assail-
ants are what are called politicians ; and when statements
which they can not answer, are presented to the country,
they reproach the bank with interfering in politics. As these
assaults, too, are made at the period of public elections, the
answers of the bank must of course follow at the same time :
and thus, because these politicians assail the bank on the eve
of elections, unless the institution stands mute, it is charged
with interfering in politics, and influencing elections. The
bank has never interfered in the slightest degree in politics,
and never influenced or sought to influence elections ; but it
will not be deterred by the menaces or clamors of politicians,
from executing its duty in defending itself. Of the time and
manner and degree and expense connected with this ser-

496 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

vice, the board of directors claim to be the sole and exclusiTe
judges."

General Jackson, as we have before mentioned, recom-
mended Congress, in his message of December, 1832, to sell
out the stock held by the United States in the bank, and to
investigate again the condition of the bank, with a view to
ascertain whether the public deposits were safe in its keep-
ing. This intimation of the bank's insolvency caused a fiill
of six per cent, in the market price of its stock In Congress^
however, the institution was still so strong that the proposi-
tion to sell out the public stock, and the resolution implying
a want of confidence in the bank's solvency, were voted down
by immense majorities. Congress evidently regarded the
recommendations of the message of 1832 as the offspring of
an implacable enmity, which even victory had not been aUe
to soften.

Congress had baffled the President, but could not divert
him from his purpose. Three fixed ideas wholly possessed
his mind : First, that the bank was insolvent ; secondly, that
the bank was steadily engaged in buying up members of
Congress ; thirdly, that the bank would certainly obtain a
two- thirds majority at the very next session unless he, the
President, could give the institution a crippling blow before
Congress met.

The reason why the President thought the bank insolv-
ent must be briefly explained. In March, 1832, the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, Mr. McLane, informed Mr. Biddle of
the government's intention to pay off, on the first of July,
one-half of the three per cent, stock, which would amount to
six millions and a half of dollars ; but added, "if any objec-
tion occurs to you, either as to the amount or mode of pay-
ment, I will thank you to suggest it." An objection did
occur to Mr. Biddle, and he went to Washington for the pur-
pose of making it known to the Secretary of the Treasuiy.
So far as the bank is concerned, said Mr. Biddle, there is do
objection whatever. But, added he, the payment of so laige
a Bum^ several millions of which will inmiediately leave the

1833.] WAB UPON THE BANK BEKEWED. 497

country on account of the foreign stockholders, will certainly
embarrass the business men of the commercial centers.
Duties to the amount of nine millions were to be paid be-
fore the first of July, which could not be done unless mer-
chants enjoyed rather more than less of the usual bank
accommodation. Mr. Biddle advised the government to post-
pone the payment, therefore, and agreed to pay the interest
on the amount which would thus be left in the bank. The
offer was accepted. The arrangement was beneficial to the
bank, as it paid but three per cent, for the use of the money ;
beneficial to the government, as it received as much interest
as it paid the stockholders ; beneficial to the country, as it
prevented a large sum from going abroad at a time when it
was pressingly needed at home.

It excited surprise and remark at the time that Mr.
Biddle should have gone to Washington, in person, to ar-
range this postponement, instead of expressing his views by
letter. But the truth was, as the directors explained, that
" the letter of the Secretary was received so immediately be-
fore the period fixed for issuing the notice of payment, that
if any thing were to be done at all, it was to be done only by
personal communication with the Secretary, as there was no
time for correspondence."

A second time, the extinguishment of the same stock was
postponed, which the directors thus explained : " The re-
sources of the government were threatened with the great-
est danger by the appearance of the cholera, which had
already begun its ravages in New York and Philadelphia,
with every indication of pervading the whole country. Had
it continued as it began, and all the appearances in July
warranted the belief of its continuance, there can be no doubt
it would have prostrated all commercial credit, and seriously
endangered the public revenue, as in New York and Phila-
delphia alone, the demand on account of the foreign three
per cents, was about five millions. The bank, therefore,
made an arrangement with the foreign owners of this stock,
to the amount of $4,175,373 92, to leave their money in the

VOL. IIL — 32

498 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

country for another year, the bank assuming to pay the in-
terest instead of the government. Having settled this, the
bank resumed its usual facilities of business to the com-
munity."

General Jackson, although he consented to the first post-
ponement, drew from Mr. Biddle's conduct, particularly his
coming to Washington, the inference that the bank could
not pay the three per cents., and was, in fact, an insolvent
institution. " I tell you, sir," he would say, ** she's broke.
Mr. Biddle is a proud man, and he never would have come
on to Washington to ask me for a postponement if the bank
had had the money. Never, sir. The bank's broke, and
Biddle knows it. Her stock is not worth seventy-five oentB
on the dollar this minute." No argument could shake this
opinion ; and when, in 1842, the United States Bank of
Pennsylvania went to pieces, and brought ruin upon thou-
sands, the comment of General Jackson amounted to this:
" I told you so."

Col. Benton also adduces the President's declaration of
the bank's insolvency as a proof of his sagacity^ and he draws
a horrible picture of the disaster of 1842, to justify the
President's hostility to the bank in 1833. He also denies
that the hostility of the President had any thing in it of the
rancorous or vindictive.

If there is in existence any credible evidence that the
Bank of the United States was not solvent in 1833, or any
credible evidence that the bank was then endeavoring to se-
cure a re-charter by unequivocally dishonorable means, I have
not been able to discover it. Its complaisance to members of
Congress may have been carried too far. It was not in human
nature that it should not be. An institution such as the
Bank of the United States was in 1833, giving an honorable
livelihood and social distinction to five hundred persons, can
no more go out of existence without a struggle, than a strong
man can die without a struggle in the prime of his powers.
And this is really one of the weightiest objections against the
existence of such an institution. A bank with a limited

1833.] WAB AGAINST THE BANK BENEWED. 499

charter will as certainly direct its energies to procure a re-
newal as an office-holder^ under the rotation system, is chiefly
ooncemed to obtain a reappointment. He would gladly
serve the people, if the people, in return, would secure his
children's br^ ; but, as the people will not do that, he
serves his party, who will if they can.

But a truce to disquisition. We have now arrived at
that measure — ^fruitful of many disasters and of great event-
ual good — ^known as the Bemoval of the Deposits. The cari-
caturists of 1833 represent the President and his friends in
the act of carrying huge sacks of money from the Bank of
the United States. In this sense the deposits were never re-
moved. The measure proposed by the President, was not to
remove the public money suddenly and in mass from the
bank, but merely to cease depositing the public money in
the bank, drawing out the balance remaining in its vaults as
the public service required. The amount of public money in
the bank had averaged nearly eight millions of dollars for
some years past, which sum was so much added to the bank's
available capital

What a simple, what a harmless measure this appears I
And harmless it would have been, but for one lamentable
drcnmstance. The government had not devised a proper
pktce to which to transfer the public money. The sub-
treasury had not yet been thought of, or only thought of.
The complete and eternal divorce which that wise and simple
expedient effected between bank and state, came too late to
save the country from four years of most disastrous " experi-
ment." The plan proposed in 1833 was, instead of depositing
the public money in the Bank of the United States and its
twenty-five branches, to deposit it in a similar number of
State banks. What good could be hoped from such a partial
measure ? We can not wonder that every member of the
Cabinet, except two, besides some important members of the
kitchen cabinet, and a large majority of the President's best
friends, opposed it from the beginning to the end.

The measure occurred to the President while he was con-

500 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

versing, one day early in the year 1833, with Mr. Blair, of
the Globe, who hated the bank only less than the President
himself did. " Biddle," said Mr. Blair, " is actually using
the people's money to frustrate the people's will. He is
using the money of the government for the purpose of break-
ing down the government. If he had not the public money
he could not do it."

The President said, in his most vehement manner : " He
shan't have the public money. I'll remove the deposits I
Blair, talk with our friends about this, and let me know
what they think of it."

Mr. Blair complied with this request. He consulted sev-
eral of the President's constitutional and unconstitutional
advisers — among others, Mr. Silas Wright, of New York
Every man of them opposed the removal, unless it were done
by the authority of Congress. Mr. Wright was particularly
decided in his opposition. He said that the withdrawal of
the public money from the bank would compel it to curtafl
its business to such a degree, that half the merchants in the
country would fail. Mr. Wright argued upon the subject ai
though the public money, instead of being deposited in the
Bank of the United States, was about to be thrown into the
sea. The real effect of the removal — ^which was to stimulate
the business of the country to the point of explosion — did not
occur to him, nor to any one.

In the course of a day or two, Mr. Blair informed the
President that he had consulted the leading friends of the
administration upon the measure proposed, and that thej
were all against it. '* Oh," said the President, with a non-
chalance that surprised the editor of the OlobCy " my mind is
made up on that matter. Biddle shan't have the public
money to break down the public administration with. It 'a
settled. My mind 's made up." That was the only expla-
nation he ever gave, in conversation, of his course with re-
gard to the deposits. When letters of remonstrance reached
him, hundreds in a day, his comment was ever the same :
" Biddle shall not use the public money to break down the

1833.] WAR AGAINST THE BANK RENEWED. 501

■

government." The same idea was through all his public
papers on the subject.

Before proceeding to relate the manner in which the Presi-
dent accomplished his purpose, I will afford the reader an
" inside view" of the perturbations of the cabinet caused by
the announcement of his intention. The narrative annexed
was written, soon after the events occurred, by Major Lewis,
chiefly for his own use and entertainment. No part of it has
ever been pubh'shed before. The reader who is curious in
cabinet-ware, will be amused and edified by its perusal. It
will illustrate our motto : ^^ Desperate courage makes One a
majority."

NARRATIVE BT UAJOR WM. B. LEWIS.

'• I received from General Cass, September 23d, 1833, the following
note : ' My dear Major, may I ask you, as a particular favor, to postpone
your journey till day afler to-morrow ? I have a particular reason for
making this request, which I will explain to you to-morrow, and which, I
am sure, you will consider satisfactory.'

" This note of Grovemor Cass' led to a very interesting and important
oonversation. Business made it necessary that I should visit Virginia, and
haying been already detained by request of the President, several days be-
yond the time I had set for my departure, I determined to leave on the
morning of the 24th. Governor Cass knew this, but wishing to have some
conversation witli me before I left, desired, as stated in his note, that I
would postpone my trip until the next day. This I could not do, but con-
sented to see him the next morning after an early breakfast at my office, if
that would answer his puq^ose. He consented to tliis arrangement, and
accordingly called about half past eight o'clock.

" He commenced the conversation by remarking that his object in de-
siring to see me before I Icft^ was to inform me that he had determined to
resign his seat in the cabinet, and wished to converse with me upon the sub-
ject before he handed his letter of resignation to the President I was
veiy much 8uq)rised at this, and inquired of him tlie reason for this step he
was about to take. He said he differed witli the President with regard
to the measures which were about to be adopted for the removal of the
public de^Kxsits from the United States Bank, and, as his remaining in the
cabinet might embarrass his operations, he owed it, he thought, both to
himself and the President, to withdraw. This, he said, was the reason,
and, owing to the relations which had so happily subsisted between him-
self and me ever since he came to Washington, he did not like to do so
without first apprising me of his intentions.

502 LIFE OF ANDBSW JACKSON. fl833.

" 1 told him I regretted exceedingly that he should think it necessarj
to resign. I thought he had taken a mistaken view of the subject^ and
expressed a wish that he would reconsider the matter.

^' He said that he had already reflected much upon this subject, and
that both he and Mr. McLane, Secretary of State, were fully of the opinion
that they ought not to remain in the cabinet He added that he bad al-
ready prepared his letter of resignation, and intended handing it on that
day to the President

" This information rendered me very unhappy, for I foresaw that an '
explosion in the cabinet, at that conjuncture, might be attended with seri-
ous, if not fatal consequences to the administration. I thought it doubt-
ful, at best, whether Congress would sustain the President in directing the
deposits to be removed from the custody of the United States Bank ; but
if Governor Cass and Mr. McLane withdrew from the cabinet, and thdr
friends, who were numerous and powerful in and out of Congre&s, should
throw themselves against the measure, I believed Congress would not susi/M
him. With these apprehensions weighing upon my mind, I resolved, for the
sake of the President, the success of whose administration I had greatly at
heart, to make an effort to prevent, if possible, a step so fatal to it as I
believed that would be. I, therefore, inquired of Grovemor Cass if he had
spoken to the President upon the subject of his intended resignation. He
said he had not I again repeated to him that I thought there was no
necessity for him and McLane to resign ; that I was sure their disagree-
ing with the President in relation to the removal of the deposits, or the
manner of doing it, would not make the slightest diflerence with Him I
added that I knew his confidence in both of them was unimpaired, and
that I felt fully warranted in saying that he would greatly prefer they
should remain in the cabinet I then begged him to go and see the
President that morning, and have a conversation with him upon the
subject

" He consented to do so, and left immediately. In about half an hoar
he returned, and appeared to be exceedingly gratified at the interview.
He said he never saw the President so kind, or more frank, than on that
occasion.

" ' Well,' said I, ' what did he say to you ? Does he think yon and
McLane had better resign ?'

" ^ Not at all,' he replied. ^ He assured me that his confidence in both
of us was undiminished, and that he should regret exceedingly to loee
us; and, at the same time, added there was not the least necessity for
our withdrawing fi'om his cabinet'

" ^ Then,' I replied, * I hope you will not withdraw,' adding that I
thought it would be treating him very badly were he and Mr. McLane to
desert him in such a crisis.

c>C&~-z.*.<^ ,y^^

*:;^-^t^

1833.] WAB UPON THE BANK BEKEWED. 503

He replied that if McLane would consent to remain, he would be will-
ing to continue.

" * Well then/ said I, ^ go down without delay to the State Depart-
ment| and see him, and, if possible, prevail on him not to leave the cabi-
net,' which he did immediately.

" After dispatching some public business, which it was necessary for
me to attend to before leaving for Virginia, I stepped over to the Presi-
dent's house to take leave of him, and at the same time to see Gk>vemor
GasS) who promised, after having a conversation with Mr. McLane, to
meet me there. I had scarcely entered the house before he came with a
pleasant smile upon his face.

" * Well,' said I, * do you bring me good news ?'

" Nothing definite had, as yet, been agreed upon, he replied ; but he
had hopes of being able to get every thing arranged in such a manner as
would not only be satisfactory, but obviate the necessity of their with-
drawing from the cabinet I told him I had no doubt of it, and hoped
he would not cease his exertions until the arrangements were accom-
plished. As he was anxious to see the President and have a further con-
Tersation with him, I took my leave of him and departed for Virginia.
This unpleasant affair was thus happily arranged.

^ While upon this deposit question, it may not be improper nor yet
miprofitable to advert to otlier circumstances connected with the subject
It is one that excited much feeling and involved important consequences
both to the country and the party in power. It was the origin of much
trouble and difficulty among the friends and supporters of General Jack-
son— a rock upon which the democratic party (so called) had well nigh
been wrecked at the time, and from which it never afterward entirely
recovered.

" With whom the idea of withdrawing the public money from the
United States Bank originated, I know not, but it was started soon after
President Jackson's second election, and was warmly discussed by a few
of his friends in Washington, from that time until the order was given by
him for their removal I happened one evening to be at Mr. Blair's, edi-
tor of the Globe^ in the month of February, 1833, in company with Dr.
William Jone?, city postmaster, when the conversation turned upon the
United States Bank, and the withdrawal of the public deposits from its
oostody. Mr. Blair maintained most vehemently that the damned bank
ought to be put down, and the only effectual way of doing it was to take
from it the whole of the public money ; if it were allowed to retain that,
he said, it would undoubtedly be re-chartcred.

'^ ' How could the possession of the public money aid it,' I inquired,
* in obtaining a charter ?'

" * Why,' said he, * by corrupting the members of Congress j it would

504 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833

have the mtans^ he added, ' of buying up half the members, and would do
it unless the public funds were taken from it'

" * How very extravagantly/ I remarked to Mr. Blair, * you talk ; you
must entertain a very poor opinion of the integrity and honor of the mem-
bers of Congress, to believe them capable of such degrading and infamous
conduct'

" He said their conduct at the last, as well as at the present Beamoii,
showed they were capable of any thing where the interest of the bank wae
concerned. He would not trust them any more than he would Biddle and
the other officers of the bank, and he would not trust either further than
he could throw a bull by the tail.

" ' But/ said I, ^ Mr. Blair, do you really think the President would
order the public money to be drawn from the bank merely for the sake of
crippling, or, as you say, breaking it ?'

" Why, yes, he said, ho thought he would ; at any rate, he thoogfat
he ought to do it

" * Well,' I remarked, * I differ with you in opinion. I neither think
he ought nor vnll do it*

" I then inquired of him if he thought the Vice-President elect, Mr.
Van Buren, would advise such a measure.

" * Yes,' he said, * I have no doubt of it'

" I told him I did not believe it.

" * Why do you not believe it ?' said he. * Have you ever heard bio
express his opinions upon the subject ?'

"^No,' I replied, ^but Mr. Van Buren is too prudent and discreet a
man, and, withal, has too much sense to advise such rash measures.'

'^ This remark excited him still more, and snatching up his hat^ said he
would not wait to know what he thought in relation to the matter, and
started in pursuit of him. As he lefl the room, I remarked to him I would
not leave until he returned.

" Mr. Blair was gone nearly or quite an hour before he returned ; hot
Dr. Jones, who was present during the whole of the conversation, and
myself remained until he came back. He entered the room with evidentlf
dissatisfied as well as subdued looks.

" * Well,' said I, ' Mr. Blair, have you seen Mr. Van Buren ?*

" ' Yes,' was liis reply.

" ' Is he in favor of removing the deposits or not Are you or mysdf
right as regards his opinions upon this subject ?'

^' His reply was, that Mr. Van Buren was opposed to the removal
Such a step, he thought, would be both injudicious and impolitic.

'' I told him I agreed with him, and that I thought he would find a
large majority of the President's friends of the same way of thinking.

^' Here the conversation ended, and Dr. Jones and myself lef^

1833.] WAB UPON THE BANK BENEWED. 505

** Although Mr. Blair was disappointed and mortified at finding Mr.
Yan Baren opposed to this favorite scheme of his, jet it did not dampen
his ardor in the least It was his theme by day and by night, talking to
■n his friends that would listen to him, and urging it as absolutely ncces*
mrj to prevent the bank from getting its charter renewed. It was useless
to tell him that the President could prevent that, at any time, by the use
of the veto power. The reply was that it would be carried over his veto I
He let no opportunity slip of arousing the fears of the President, and ex-
citing his feelings against the bank ; and in this he was aided by Mr. Ken-
dall and Mr. Reuben M Whitney.

" A few weeks later, I embraced the earliest opportunity to inquire of
Mr. Van Burcn what had been determined upon with regard to the re-
moyal of deposits ? His answer was, he thought the President had made
up his mind to remove them from the United States Bank. I told him I
regretted it, because I thought it would be productive of much mischief to
the country, to the party in power, and to the President himself. He said
the question was seUied, and made a few remarks in justification of the
conrae of the President, by which I saw very clearly that his opinions had
undergone a change. I dropped the subject, and have never mentioned it
to Mr. Van Buren since.

" Not long after the President returned from the Rip Raps, I happened
to be with him in his private chamber, and as the conversation turned upon
the all engrossing topic of removing the deposits, he asked me if I had seen
the correspondence between him and Colonel Duane upon that subject I
told him I had not He then took from his private files a large package of
papers, and said :

" ' Here it is. Read it, and let me know what you think of it.*

" I accordingly gave it an attentive perusal, which, as it was very vol-
uminous, took me at least two hours. As I handed back the papers, ^ Well,'
said he, * don't you think Mr. Duanc's letters are very weak ?' * No,' I
told him, * I thought they were very well written ; in fact, that I thought
the correspondence evidenced a good deal of ability on both sides. The
difficulty, however,' I remarked, * upon my mind was not as regarded the
right to do the thing, but the necessity for doing it It would seem to me,'
I added, ' that it would be much better to wait until Congress met, and let
them legislate upon the subject, unless he thought the public funds in dan-
ger of being lost if permittod to remain longer in the Unite<l States Bank.'

"* I do think so,' he quickly and energetically replied. * Besides,' said
be, ' I have no confidence in Congress.'

" * But, General,' I remarked, * Mr. Diiane would be assuming a very
heavy responsibility in removing the public moneys from the custody of the
banl^ in the face of a resolution passed by the House of Representatives

506 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

at its last session, by a very large majority, perhaps two-thirds, declaring
them, in its opinion, safe.'

^' ' But,' said he, * I don't want him to assume the responsibility. Have
1 not said that I would take the responsibility ?'

'' ' Yes,' I told him, ' he had said so ; but it was doubtful whether any
person could be made responsible but the Secretary himself, because if done
at all, it must be done by him, as the law gave that power to no other
person.'

" I then inquired of him what he would do if Congress, when it met^
should pass a joint resolution, directing the Secretary to restore the de-
posits to the bank ?

" * Why,' said he, * I would veto it'

" This, I told him, would be, in my opinion, a much stronger question
against the administration than the vetoing of the bill re-chartering the
bank. The southern members were, I added, almost to a man, oliliged,
from the peculiar notions of their constituents, to sustain his veto upon
that bill, but not as regards this measure, which involves no constitutional
question. * Besides,' said I, * many of the members who were elected to
support your administration generally^ only wanted a pretext to throw
themselves into the ranks of the opposition.'

"* Under such circumstances. General,' I remarked, ^suppose they
should be able to carry the resolution over your veto ? What then would
you do ? If you refuse to permit the secretary to do it, the next step, on
the part of the House, would be to move an impeachment, and if Congress
have the power to carry this resolution through in defiance of the veto
power, they would be able to prosecute it to a successful termination.'

" * Under such circumstances,' he replied, elevating himself to his fiill
height and assuming a firm and dignified aspect, ' then, sir, I would resign
the presidency and return to the Hermitage I'

" After the General's emphatic declaration that he would resign and re-
turn to the Hermitage rather than be instrumental in restoring the deposits
to the United States Bank, there was a pause in our conversation for a few
minutes ; but it was renewed again by my asking him what object was to
be attained by a removal of the deposits from the bank at that time ?

" *To prevent it from being re-chartered,' was the reply.

'^'But,' said I, 'can not that object be as certainly attained, as well
without as with the removal of them ?'

" * No, sir,' said he, * if the bank is permitted to have the public money,
there is no power that can prevent it from obtaining a charter — it will have
it if it has to buy up all Congress, and the public funds would enable it to
do so!'

" * Why, General,' I remarked, * as the bank's charter expires twelve
months before you go out of office, you will at all times have it in your

T^Jb-E,

1833.] WAB UPOK THE BANK BENEWED. 507

power tc prevent it by vetoing anj bill that may be sent to you for that
purpose. Would it not be better, then/ I asked, ^ to let it go quietly out
of existence?*

" ' But, sir/ said he, * if we leave the means of corruption in its hands,
the presidential veto wiU avail nothing.*

'' Thid conviction had fastened itself so yirm/y on his mind, I discovered,
that it was impossible to remove it by any thing I could say, and I there-
fore dropped the subject The conversation was conducted on the part of
the President with calmness and moderations-evincing not the least excite-
ment as was sometimes the case when speaking about, or discussing the
question of removal

" He then asked me if I would read Mr. McLane*s opinions, or argu-
ments against removing the deposits ; ' but,' said he, ^ it is not wiitten with
his usual ability— owing undoubtedly, to his having taken a wrong view
of the subject" I told him, as it was getting late, and as the opinion appeared
to be a very long one, I would, with his leaye, embrace some other oppor-
tanity of reading it The conversation referred to above, took place a short
time before the removal of Mr. Duane from the Treasury Department

*^ The General was very much annoyed at the idea of having to remove
him, and would gladly have avoided it if he could have done so consist-
ently with what Jie considered his duty to the public. He had, previously
to the unfortunate difficulty, entertained for him a high personal regard.
Indeed, he told me apparently with great satisfaction, in the latter part of
November, or early in December, 1832, that he intended to offer the Treas-
ury Department to him, when Mr. McLane should be transferred to the
State Department, which would be the following spring.

"'My cabinet appointments have been generally made upon the re-
commendation of my friends, but this,' said he, ' will be my own, I like
the stock; his father was an able financier, a sound republican, a good
patriot, and an honest man ; and the son, in my estimation, is in every re-
apect equal to his father.'

" He little dreamed, when pronouncing this eulogy upon father and son,
that the appointment which he spoke of conferring upon the latter, in his
private chamber, would occasion him so much trouble and heart-burning I
But it is not given to man to dive into the secrets of futurity. When
things were rapidly drawing to a crisis, with regard to Mr. Duane, and
perceiving, from frequent conversations with the President, that he still
had a lingering feeling of kindness for him, I asked the General if some ar-
rangement could not be made by which he would be spared the pain and
Mr. Duane tlie mortification of a removal ? He said he knew of none.

" * Would not Mr. Duane,' I inquired, ' be willing to take some other
situation and leave the department voluntarily ?'

" He did not know, he said, but if he would he should have it I then

508 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

asked him if he would allow me to endeavor to ascertaiiL He said he had
not the least objection, and authorized me to say that if be desired it he
he should have a foreign mission. It was found impossible, however, to
make any such arrangement, and the President, as things then stood, was
left no alternative but to dismiss him, which he did."

It thus appears that the hearty supporters of the Presi-
dent in the removal of the deposits were Mr. Blair, Mr. Ken-
dall, Mr, Taney, Mr. Barry, and Reuben M. Whitney. To
these was soon added the indomitable Benton, the predestin-
ed champion of the measure in the Senate. He was in Vir-
ginia, he tells us, when he first heard of the President's
intention. "I felt," he says, "an emotion of the moral
sublime at beholding such an instance of civic heroism. And
I repaired to Washington at the approach of the session with
a full determination to stand by the President, which I be-
lieved to be standing by the country ; and to do my part in
justifying his conduct, and in exposing and resisting the
powerful combination which it was certain would be formed
against him."

CHAPTER XXXVII.

MR. DUANB'S narrative.

It is not true, as has been a hundred times asserted, that
Mr. Duane was appointed Secretary of the Treasury for the
purpose of removing the deposits. The post was offered him
in December, 1832, when the President had not yet conceived
the idea of removing them by an act of executive authority.
Mr. Duane owed his appointment to the respect and aflfection
which General Jackson entertained for his father and for
himself There was no intrigue or mystery about it.

In 1838 Mr. Duane wrote, and printed for distribution
among his friends, the story of his brief and troublous ten-
ure of the second place in General Jackson's Cabinet. His

1833.] MB. duane's narrative. 509

narrative, besides giving many glimpses of General Jackson^
valuable for the purposes of biography, tells the greater part
of the story of the removal of the deposits, and tells it in a
very entertaining manner. As this narrative was, doubtless,
printed for the purpose of rescuing from oblivion the singu-
lar events recorded in it, I shall be promoting the author's
purpose by presenting to the readers of these pages an ab-
stract of its contents. The work itself is only to be found
in the libraries of a few collectors, and, occasionally, on the
shelves of a public institution.

In December, 1832, Mr. Duane was practicing his pro-
fession in Philadelphia, anticipating nothing so little as an
invitation to enter public life. He had supported General
Jackson in the campaigns of 1824 and 1828, with the ardor
natural to him. " I thought," he remarks, " that his country
owed him a large debt of gratitude ; that it would be useful
to our institutions to have in our executive chair a person
unaccustomed to intrigue, too prevalent at Washington ; and
that he, who had given such sound advice to Mr. Monroe
while President, would never contradict, in practice, what he
then declared to be the only patriotic and honorable course
for the chief magistrate of a free and enlightened people."

The General, on his part, had shown his confidence in
Mr. Duane by appointing him, first, a government director
of the United States Bank ; secondly, District-Attorney ;
thirdly, a commissioner under the convention with Denmark ;
all of which offices Mr. Duane declined ; but was induced to
accept the Danish coramissionership by the repeated and
pressing solicitations of the President. In December, 1832,
Mr. McLanc came from Washington to Philadelphia, and
sought an interview with Mr. Duane, during which the follow-
ing conversation took place :

The Secretary of the Treasury. — " Mr. Duane, I have been particu-
larly desired by the President to seek this interview with you, on matters
of much consi^quence, not only to himself, but to the country. The Presi-
dent has, for some time past, meditated a change in his cabinet It has
been deferred until afler Uie termination of the elections in the States;

510 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

and as they are now over, the proposed change is urged anew. The pree-
ent Secretary of State is to go to France ; the present Secretary of tlie
Treasury is to take his place in the Department of State ; and the ques-
tion is, who is to go into the treasury ? It is settled that a citizen of
Pennsylvania is to be appointed, and the President and his friends hate
sought in that State for a person in all respects competent as an oflfioer,
and faithful as a friend. A list of names has been looked at, and, after
due inquiry, the President is decidedly convinced that you, sir, present the
fairest claims to official and personal consideration. You are of the o\d
democratic party of Pennsylvania, and have grown with its growth. Yco
are known as a mild but unvarying friend of the great political priodpliBB
which Pennsylvania cherishes. Your personal reputation, too, gives you *
moral influence, of the extent of which you are not, perhaps, youi
aware. You were the early and have been the steadfast friend of
eral Jackson, and should continue in every proper way to sustain "Mis^
whom you contributed to elevate. So satisfied, indeed, is the Presic^ie&t
of your peculiar fitness for the department, and of your being just su. ^^d^ *
person as he can politically as well as personally rely upon, that I can. not
use too strong terms in describing his solicitude that you should not r^^sfose
the station."

Mr. DuANE. — " I have listened, sir, to what you have stated with sur-
prise and distress ; so that it can not be supposed that I can give a
tive reply. I can not express how gpratified and proud I am at this
of confidence. If, however, I am now to give utterance to what I f*- -^ it

is to ask the President to blot this matter from his mind. It is tru< i- that

I have been and am sincerely friendly to the President ; that I posse^^=^ the
personal and political confidence of many worthy men in Pennsylv-^suua;
and that I have a strong inclination to do all in my power to evino^^ ny
principles and promote the welfare of the people. But it is also tru^ tbtt
my abilities are overrated; that my influence in Pennsylvania is x^ion
limited than is supposed; and that no weight can be given, by m.y •^
cession, to the administration. Such an occasion as the present can not
be heedlessly regarded by me, but all considerations united forbid nca« to
assent I have through, life sought the shade, and whenever I have iK^
out of it, it has not been from choice. I have always desired to tread on
the eartli, lest^ in ascending even a single step of the political ladder, I
should be obliged to resume my former place. Perhaps this is morbid
pride, but be it what it may, it has a powerful influence over me."

The Secretary of the Treasury. — ** All you have said, Mr. Du***^
shows you have the merit you deny yourself the possession of You b^'*'^
by declining office, on several occasions, omitted to advance yourself *'
am the President's friend and yours, and am not the man to advocate soy*
thing of a doubtful nature, by which the public may be affected. Ot^^'*

1833.] MB. duake's narbative. 511

are more competent, perhaps, to judge of your qualifications than you are
yooTself. Heretofore there have been some. difficulties; there may be
some at this time, owing to excitement in the South ; but that will soon
cease, and in a few months you will be perfectly au fait as to all general
duties. As to your standing in Pennsylvania, we have information to be
relied on; we believe your appointment would be pleasing there, and the
President desires to do what will gratify that State. Apart from other
GODsiderations, the President's own spontaneous preference of you is a
compliment not to be overlooked ; you will derive credit from it, where
yon are not known, among all who respect the patriotism and pure inten-
tions, as well as the natural sagacity of the President I am persuaded
that the appointment would be acceptable to many of the President's most
distinguished friends. Indeed, the fact that he goes to the people, and
not to Congress to select, will give weight to the choice. You will earn
a high reputation in the office proposed ; and the labors will be less bur-
densome than those to which you have been accustomed."

Mr. Duane. — " To tear up, as it were, by the roots, my business in
Philadelphia, on the uncertainty of continuing in office for four years, would
be yery imprudent Changes of residence, associations, and expenditure,
are sound objections. Friends to me ought not to urge a proceeding of so
doubtful a character."

The Secretary of the Treasury. — " Every man owes something to
his country. Even on the question of mere interest, the change will be
advantageous. You may be certain of employment for four years, at six
thousand dollars per year, and the mode of living ia that of a private
gentleman in Philadelphia. By identifying yourself with General Jackson
and his friends, and making a sacriQce, if it is one, you establish a claim for
continuance in this, or appointment to some other station."

Mb. Duane. — " Out of thankfulness, and a desire to make a return for
such confidence, my heart urges me to say * yes ;* but my head by no means
assents. It will be rude as well as unkind to the President to decide at
once, and upon so sudden an appeal on so serious a subject ; therefore I
will reflect"

Consultation with friends, and a month's reflection, re-
BTilted in Mr. Duane's notifying the President that he ac-
cepted the post oflFered him. On the thirtieth of January,
1833, he sent his letter of acceptance to Washington, which
the President joyfully acknowledged on the first of February.
On the first of June following Mr. Duane took the customary
oath, and entered upon the performance of his duties as Sec-
retary of the Treasury. Before he slept that night, an event

512 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

occurred which led him to suspect that the place of cabinet
minister is not all that the fancy of a politician paints it.

In the 'evening of his first day in office, Mr. Duane re-
lates :

" Mr. Reuben M. Whitney called upon me at my lodgings, at the de-
sire, as he said, of the President, to make known to me what had been
done, and what was contemplated, in relation to the United States Bank.
He stated that the President had concluded to take upon himself the re-
sponsibility of directing the Secretary of the Treasury to remove the pub-
lic deposits from that bank, and to transfer them to State banks ; that he
had asked the members of the cabinet to give him their opinions on the
subject ; that the President had said, * Mr. Taney and Mr. Barry had come
out like men for the removal ;' that Mr. McLane had given a long opinion
against it ; that Mr. Cass was supposed to be against it, but had given no
written opinion ; that Mr. Woodbury had given an opinion which was
* yes* and ' no ;* that the President would make the act his own, by ad-
dressing a paper or order to the Secretary of the Treasury ; that Mr. Amos
Kendall, who was high in the President's confidence, was now preparing
that paper; that there had been delay owing to the affair at Alexandria; but^
no doubt, the President would soon speak to me on the subject ; that the
paper referred to would be put forth as the proclamation had been, and
would be made a rallying point ; that he (Mr. Whitney) had, at the desire
of the President, drawn up a memoir or exposition, showing that the mea-
sure might be safely adopted, and that the State banks would be fully ade-
quate to all the purposes of government He then read the exposition to
me ; and, as I desired to understand matters so important and so singu-
larly presented, I asked him to leave the paper with me, which he ac-
cordingly did. He also read to me divers letters from individuals con-
nected with State banks. The drift of his further observations was to
satisfy me that the executive arm alone could be relied on to prevent a re-
newal of the United States Bank charter.

^'The communication thus made to me created surprise and mortifica-
tion. I was surprised at the position of afiairs which it revealed; and
mortified at the low estimate which had been formed of the independence
of my character. I listened, however, respectfully, to one who gave such
evidence of the confidence reposed in him ; and awaited the explanation,
which he intimated the President would give. Soon after this interview,
I took occasion to express my mortification at my position, to the member
of the cabinet who had represented the President in asking me to accept
office. On the next evening (Sunday), Mr. Whitney again called on me,
in company with a stranger, whom he introduced as Mr. Amos Kendall, a
gentleman in the President's confidence, who would give me any further

1833.] MR. duane's narbative. 513

explanations that I might desire, as to what was meditated in relation to
the United States Bank, and who then called on me, because he was about
to proceed forthwith to Baltimore. 1 did not invite nor check communi-
cation. Very little was said, and, perhaps, because I could not wholly con-
ceal my mortification at an attempt apparently made with the sanction of
the President, to reduce me to a mere cypher in the administration.

" The next morning, June 3d, I waited upon the President, and, as I
had been apprised by Mr. Whitney would be the case, he soon introduced
the subject of the bank. I stated that Mr. Whitney had made known to
me what had been done, and what was intended, and had intimated that
his communication was made at the President's desire. The President re-
plied, in a tone of dissatisfaction, that it was true he had conferred with Mr.
Whitney, and obtained information from him as to tlie bank, but that he
did not make him his confidant, nor had he told him to call on me. I
enumerated the representations which Mr. Whitney had made, and their
correctness was admitted. I said I feared that I should not be able to see
the subject in the light in which the President viewed it ; to which he re-
marked, that he liked frankness, that my predecessor and himself had some-^
times differed in opinion, but it had made no di£ference in feeling, and
should not in my case ; that the matter under consideration was of vast
consequence to the country ; that unless the bank was broken down, it
would break us down ; that if the last Congress had remained a week
longer in session, two thirds would have been secured for the bank by cor-
mpt means; and that the like result might be apprehended at the next
Congress ; that such a State bank agency must be put in operation, before
the meeting of Congress, as would show that the United States Bank was
not necessary, and thus some members would have no excuse for voting
for it My suggestions as to an inquiry by Congress (as in December,
1832), or a recourse to the judiciary, the President repelled, saying it would
be idle to rely upon either ; referring as to the judiciary to decisions already
made, as indications of what would be the eflTect of an appeal t£> them in
future. After mentioning that he would speak to me again, before his de-
parture to the eastward, the President said he would take with him the
opinions of tlie members of the cabinet, but would send Uiem to me from
New York, along with his views ; and, on his return, would expect me to
give him my sentiments frankly and fully.

" On the 5th of June, the day before his departure, we accordingly had
another conversation, which he ended by saying, he did not wish any one
to conceal his opinions, and tliat all ho asked was, that I should reflect
with a view to the public good.

" I had heard rumors of the existence of an influence at Washington,
unknown to the constitution and to the country ; and the conviction that
they were well founded, now became irresistible. I knew that four of the
VOL. III. — 33

514 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

six members of the last cabinet, and that four of the membere of the pres-
ent cabinet, opposed a removal of the deposits ; and yet their exertions
were nullified by individuals, whose intercourse with the President wa<«
clandestine. During his absence, several of those individuals called on me,
and made many of the identical observations, in the identical language,
used by himself. They represented Congress as corruptible, and the new
members as in need of especial guidance. They pointed out the importance
of a test question, at the opening of the new Congress, for party purposes.
They argued that the exercise of the veto power must be secured ; that it
could be in no other way so eflfectually attained as by at once removing
the deposits ; and that, unless they were removed, the President would
be thwarted by Congress. In short, I felt satisfied, from all that I saw
and heard, that factious and selfish views alone guided those who had in-
fluence with the executive ; and that the true welfare and honor of the
country constituted no part of their objects. I was painfully impressed
with these convictions, and also mortified that I should have been consid-
ered capable of entering into schemes like these ; when, on the 1st of July,
1 received fi-om the President, the letter and views " (which he had prom-
ised).

The package was of formidable dimensions, consisting of
more than two hundred pages of manuscript. The important
documents were two in number, namely, a letter from the
President, giving an outline of the financial system proposed
to be substituted for the one then in use, and a letter of pro-
digious magnitude, completely unfolding the President's views.
The smaller epistle may have been the President's own ; the
larger one was the production of Mr. Kendall ; but both were
signed, Andrew Jackson. In the paper by Mr. Kendall the
history of the war against the bank was related, and various
reasons were given for the measure contemplated. The main
reason advanced was, that the people had reelected General
Jackson distinctly on the bank issue, and that he owed it to
the people to complete the work of destroying the bank which
the veto had begun. The President's own letter informed
Mr. Duane what the President desired him to do. It should
be read with particular attention.

1833.] MB. duanb's narrative. 515

GENERAL JACKSON TO MR. DUANE.

" Boston, Jane 26th, 1838.

" It is, in my opinion, desirable that you should appoint

a discreet agent to proceed forthwith, with proper credentials from your
department, to the cities of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Boston, to consult
with the Presidents and Directors of State banks, in those cities, upon the
practicability of making an arrangement with them, or some of them, upon
something like Ae following terras, viz. :

" 1st That one bank be selected in Baltimore, one in Philadelphia, two
in New York, and one in Boston, with a right, on the part of the govern-
ment, to add one in Savannah, one in Charleston, S. C, one in the State
of Alabama, one in New Orleans, and one in Norfolk, upon their acceding
to the terms proposed, which shall receive the deposits in those places re-
spectively, and be responsible to the government for the whole public de-
posits of the United States.

" 2d. That these banks shall have the right, by a convention of their
presidents or otherwise, to select all the banks, at other points throughout
the United States, in which the pubhc money shall be deposited, with an
absolute negative by the Secretary of the Treasury.

" 3d. That the Secretary of the Treasury shall have power to discon-
tinue the deposits in any bank or banks, or break up the whole arrange-
ment, whenever he may think proper ; he giving, in such case, the longest
notice of his intention to do so which the public interest may admit of.

" 4th. That tlie primary and secondary banks shall make returns of
their entire condition, to the Secretary of the Treasury, monthly, and as
much oflener as he may require, and report to the Treasurer weekly the
state of his deposits ; and that they will also submit themselves to a critical
examination of tlieir books and transactions by the Secretary of the Treas-
ury, or an authorized agent, whenever the Secretary may require it

" 5th. That the arrangement of the government be only with the pri-
mary banks, which shall be responsible to it, not only for the safety of the
entire deposits, wherever made, but for making payments at any places in
the United Stiites, without charge to the government, in gold and silver, or
its equivalent, of any sum which may be required there to be paid by the
Secretary of the Treasury ; that tliey shall also pay any expenses that may
attend tlie removal of the deposits, as also the compensation and expenses
of any agent, temporary or permanent, whom the Secretary may appoint
to examine into their affairs.

" 6tli. That they will render, or cause to be rendered, without charge,
any service which can now be lawfully required of the Bank of the United
States.

" 7th. It would be inconvenient to employ all the State banks in good
credit, at the places designated for the location of the primary banks ; but

516 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

•

it is, nevertheless, extremely desirable to secure their good will and
friendly cooperation. The importance of that object is too obvious to re-
quire elucidation. It is supposed it might be accomplished by an arrange-
ment between the primary banks and the other institutions in their imme-
diate vicinity, by which, in consideration of an assumption by them of a
share of the responsibilities assumed by the primary banks, an equitable
share, all circumstances considered, of the benefits of the public deposits^
would be secured to the institutions referred to. This might be done by
allowing them, respectively, a credit at the selected banks equal to their
share of the deposits, taking into view the amount of capital, the trouble
of the primary banks, and all other circumstances entitled to consideration.
If such an arrangement could be made it would increase the actual secu-
rity of the government, consolidate. the entire mass of the mercantile
community of the principal cities in favor of the system, and place its suc-
cess and permanency beyond contingency.

" K the negotiation is, in the first instance, opened with delegations
firom all the banks in the cities referred to, and them candidly informed
of the desire of the government to award facilities and extend equal bene-
fits to all, but that in case of failure to make such an arrangement it
would have to select, at its own pleasure, the requisite number, there is
reason to hope the arrangement would be brought about. Amos Kendall,
Esq., would, in my opinion, be a proper person to be employed in the pro-
posed negotiation. These views will be regarded by you as suggestions
for your consideration only, and will, if adopted, without doubt be rendered
more complete and e£fectual by such modifications and additions as may
present themselves to your own mind."

Imagine the feelings of a prudent Philadelphian upon
reading the details of a scheme so novel, complicated, wild,
impossible as this. What bank, well established and self-
respecting, could be expected to submit to such espionage, or
to assume such responsibilities ?

In the same package Mr. Duane received the opinions of
the other members of the cabinet upon the measure proposed,
and also a brief abstract of the President's own view of the
bank question generally. The opinion of the President was
given in four propositions : First, the present bank charter
ought not to be renewed on any conditions whatever.
Secondly, there should be no Bank of the United States out
of the District of Columbia. Thirdly, the President of the
United States, if a new national bank were chartered, should

1833.] MR. duane's narrative. 517

have the appointing of its president, and a certain number
of its directors. Fourthly, no bank should be recommended
until the proposed State bank system had been tried and
found inadequate. We are tempted to infer from these pro-
positions, what the opposition asserted in 1832 and 1833, that
the real object of the politicians who influenced General
Jackson was, not to rid the country of a monstrous monop-
oly, but to add to the sum, already prodigious and alarm-
ing, of governmental patronage.

Mr. Duane promptly replied to the President's communi-
cations. He told the President that he was opposed to the
new fiscal scheme utterly. He thought it unjust to deprive
the Bank of the United States of the deposits, because the
bank paid the government a stipulated sum per annum for
the use of the deposits. " Their continuance is part of the
contract " between the bank and the government. Their re-
moval, he thought, would be most disrespectful to Congress,
inasmuch as the House had declared the deposits safe in the
keeping of the bank, by a vote of one hundred and nine to
forty, and this so recently as the last session. Nor did he
think that State banks of the first standing would accept the
deposits on the conditions proposed ; and in no others would
the public money be safe. Could not the government dis-
pense entirely with the assistance of banks? Perhaps it
could not. But he was of opinion that a matter so impor-
tant as a radical change in the fiscal policy of the country
was one which Congress alone had authority to regulate.
Ere long Congress would be compelled, by the near expira-
tion of the bank charter, to deliberate on the subject. To
Congress it belonged ; to Congress it should be left. More-
over, if the State bank system failed, and Mr. Duane believed
it would fail, the Bank of the United States would come be-
fore the country with an argument so plausible and convin-
cing that it would probably be able to secure a renewal of its
charter. In the course of his remarks, Mr. Duane alluded
with some feeling to the officious, and apparently authorized

518 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

visit of Reuben M. Whitney — a man not esteemed by Phila-
delphians.

The Secretary enforced and illustrated his opinions at
great length, and with much spirit and ability. His letter
was the production of a gentleman and a man of honor,
modest, respectful, affectionate even, but resolute. As the
President had then returned from his Northern tour, the
Secretary delivered his epistle in person, and received a reply
a few hours after.

General Jackson pounced like a hawk upon the cardinal
defect of Mr. Duane's eloquent paper. " You object to my
plan," said the General, in substance, " but you propose none
of your own ! If this affair is to be settled by Congress, I,
the President of the United States, will be expected to recom-
mend a new fiscal system for its consideration. Now, what
have you to suggest ? Think over the subject, my dear sir,
and let me see you soon at the White House."

"I waited on the President," continues Mr. Duane, "on the 15th of
July. He commenced the conversation by saying that he had read my
letter of the 10th of July (then lying on the table before him), and feared
we did not understand each other. j

" * My object, sir,' said he, * is to save the country ; and it will be lost
if we permit the bank to exist We must prepare a substitute, or our
friends in Congress will not know what to do. I do justice to your mo-
tives, but some parts of your letter gave me uneasiness. One part only I
will mention : that referring to Mr. Whitney. I am sorry you put that in,
for he is not in my confidence. He is an abused man, sir, and has much
information of which Mr. Polk and I have availed ourselves, but he can
not be called my confidant I was sorry to see his name introduced, and
don't see that your argument needed it.'

" I replied that I had been acccustomed to write freely and without
disguise ; that, in the present instance, I had barely stated fiacts : that I
had been unused to official correspondence ; that, I confessed, I had been
mortified at the approaches of Mr. Whitney, and when I felt strongly I
wrote so; that I meant no disrespect to the* President, however, and as ita
omission would not aflfect the rest of my letter, I would at once strike out
the passage relating to Mr. Whitney. Suiting the action to the word, I
took up a pen and struck out two or throe lines.

" * Now,' said the President, * we are friends, and should be sa If we

1833.] MR. duane's narrative. 519

differ in opinion, what of it ? It is but opinion, after all ; and I like you
the better for telling me frankly what you think.*

" He then alluded to passages in my letter which had a reference to
Congress and the judiciary, and deprecated any reliance whatever upon
either. He said it would be idle to resort to a court which had decided
that the very bills which Congress had prohibited were legal; that there
was but one course — to use the power possessed by the executive.

" I replied that we differed upon one point only. That he had asked
me, upon my responsibility to Congress, to remove the deposits ; and that
I could not remove them without violating what I considered my duty ;
that on all other points I agreed with him, and was ready to go hand in
hand to provide a substitute for the United States Bank.

" * Sir,' said he, ' I addressed you as Secretary of the Treasury, and
told you to use my letter as your shield.'

" * You called on me, sir,' I replied, * to exercise a power conferred on
me by law ; and you said you did not mean to interfere with the inde-
pendent exercise of it You called on me to do an act for which I might
be impeached ; and if I comply, your letter will be no protection, for, in
effect^ it tells me I may do as I please. The very circumstance that you
disclaim the exercise of control over me, would forbid my holding your
letter up as a shield.*

" The President here remarked that I did not understand that part of
his letter to which I alluded, but, instead of explaining it, he said :

** * I am preparing a reply to your communication, and ask you to read
it attentively. I am disposed to confide in you, and to be your friend, and
if anybody tells you otherwise, don't believe him.*

" I said I felt myself worthy of his confidence ; that I had come to
speak of a substitute for the present fiscal agent; that if the United States
Bank were to be soon closed, I did not apprehend evil as to the pubhc
funds or operations ; that the funds of the government in the former
United States Bank remained there until a few days before it expired ; that
nearly three years must elapse ere the doors of the present bank would be
shut; that, in my letter, I had suggested a relinquishment of all bank
agency, but that time for inquiry and reflection, as to the plan of a substi-
tute, was indispensable ; that I doubted whether a provision for fiscal oper-
ations could or ought to be made, without inquiry into the condition of the
general curreucy ; tliat a regulation of commerce, and a control over bonk
paper, seemed to be demanded ; that legislators alone could duly investi-
gate such important subjects; that I had no confidence in the competency
of State banks for fiscal purposes ; and that an extension of patronage to
them would only increase evils already too great.

** The President said he had already declared against delay, and why
there should be none j that there might be, as I supposed, abuses, but there

520 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

wore other and greater abuses; that to wait for inquiry would give t
triumph to the bank ; that State institutions were now our only resource ;
that he had himself asked Congress so to organize the treasury department
as to dispense with banks, but tliat be had not been attended to, by Con-
gress or the people."

The interview then terminated. The President replied to
Mr. Duane's elaborate argument of July 10th in a letter not
less elaborate, and Mr. Duane rejoined in a masterly paper
on the 19th of the same month. Neither of these letters
produced the slightest effect upon the individuals to whom
they were addressed. Mr. Duane firmly maintained his
ground, and the President (need I say it ?) firmly held to his
purpose. Other interviews followed.

" I waited upon the President," says the Secretary of the
Treasury, " twice on the 19th and again on the 20th of July,
and at those interviews the same course of argument was pur-
sued. I desired to bring the President to a point, and that
was not easily effected. At last he said :

"I want to press no man's conscience. My wish is to
meet Congress with a declaration that we have a safe substi-
tute for the United States Bank. How can we do this with-
out inquiry ? I desire Mr. Kendall to make that inquiry. I
doubt whether the State banks will come into my plan of
mutual guarantee, which I consider the only safe one ; but
we must try. For one, I shall be for positively removing the
deposits, if the three per cents, shall not be given up by the
bank in October. But the law gives you the power ; the act
must be yours. What, however, I want is inquiry y not to
unake arrangement. Information ought to be got even for
Congress, and it is through you it should be collected. Now,
do you understand me ? Until we get information, and con-
sider it, we shall remain uncommitted."

" I su2)posed that I now understood the President, and
even began to flatter myself that I had gained a point. I
understood him, that there was to be a fair inquiry such as
the importance of the object demanded ; that the information
needful in such a case was to be collected ; and that, until

1833.] MR. duane's narrative. 521

such information should he collected and considered, there
was to bo no commitment ; that my own sense of duty was
not to he interfered with ; and that, if the United States
Bank should deliver up the three per cents, in October, a re-
moval of the deposits would not be pressed upon me. Under
these impressions, and far from suspecting that the basis on
which they rested had been insincerely laid, or would be faith-
lessly changed, I prepared a letter of instruction" (for the
guidance of Mr. Kendall in his proposed tour of inquiry).

The letter of instructions directed inquiry only. Mr.
Kendall was to visit the principal cities, converse with bank-
ers, and ascertain whether the President's plan could be car-
ried out — whether respectable banks would accept the deposits
on the terms proposed by the President in his letter to Mr.
Duane of June 26th. The closing paragraph of Mr. Duane's
letter of instructions was the following : " Having thus, sir,
placed before you the views of the President, and such sug-
gestions on my own part as seemed to be called for, it be-
comes my duty to myself, in order to guard against expecta-
tions, on the part of the banks, that may not be realized, or
misapprehension elsewhere, distinctly to say that my perform-
ance of the present act of duty, as an executive agent, is not
i» be understood as an indication of any intention on my part,
under existing circumstances, to exercise the power vested in
me by law. Whether such an emergency may not arise as
may warrant the exercise of that power, it is unnecessary now
to anticipate ; it is sufficient to observe, that, in my opinion,
none such exists at present.'^

To these words the President strongly objected. " Why
send Mr. Kendall about the country to inquire, if no neces-
sity for action exists ?" he asked. " Previously to inquir}',"
wrote the President, " you declare that nothing has yet oc-
curred to render necessary the movement anticipated by it,
and thus leave me to infer that should the inquiry establish
the competency of the State banks to perform the agency
proposed to them, you will not foel yourself at liberty to
carry into effect the decision transferring the 2)ublic deposits

522 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

to them, which, the President, on advisement with his cabi-
net, may make. Please inform me whether I am correct in
supposing that this is your determination. If I am, it will
then be my duty, in frankness and candor, to suggest the
course which will be necessary on my part."

Mr. Duane says : " I considered this leter not only a vio-
lation of the assurance given in the President's letter from
Boston, that he did not mean to interfere with the independ-
ent exercise of the discretion conferred on me by law, but a
palpable infringement of the agreement, admitted in the above
letter itself, that there was to be no present commitment
The construction put upon the concluding paragraph of the
draft of instructions was forced and unwarranted. That
paragraph simply stated, in writing, what the above letter
itself shows had been agreed upon orally, that there was to
be no present commitment. The question of the actual re-
moval of the deposits had been reserved ; and yet, the above
letter demanded a commitment at once. These, and other
manifestations of bad faith, gave me much uneasiness. My
inclination, therefore, was to refuse to omit the paragraph
objected to. It occurred to me, however, that but one change
was proposed ; that the instructions still required the agent
to collect infonnation ; and that, if fairly collected, such in-
formation must disabuse the President himself."

So Mr. Duane consented to the omission of the obnoxious
paragraph. He gave the President distinctly to understand,
however, that he held himself entirelv uncommitted as to the
final decision of the question. "All that I can promise,"
he said, " consistently with the respect due to you as well as
myself, is, that, when the moment for decision, aft€r inquiry
and discussion, shall arrive, / toill concur with you, or re-
tirer

Surely, noio Mr. Kendall will be able to start upon his
important journey. Not yet. The President returned the
draft of instructions to Mr. Duane accomjmnied by the civil-
est of civil notes. " Your last," said the President, " mani-
fests a spirit, which, I trust, will enable us, before the time

1833.] MR. duane's narrative. 523

arrives for acting upon the report of the agent, to agree as
nearly as may be desirable in the decision which may be made
on the subject. I return you herewith the draft of the in-
structions, with some notes, suggesting a few changes, which
you will doubtless see no impropriety in adopting, leaving out
the last paragrajih."

These " changes," Mr. Duane found, were neither " few ''
nor unimportant. The " the material parts " of his man-
uscript "were erased and changed." After much reflec-
tion, though strongly tempted to resign at once, he concluded
to make the changes desired by the President. " The mis-
sion of an agent to make inquiry," he says, " I had no right
to resist ; nor could I dictate what should or should not be
the nature of his inquiry. It was only as to the removal of
the dejjosits, that I could exercise an inde2)eudcnt discre-
tion." The instructions were completed, therefore, and the
agent took his departure. A month elapsed before his return,
during which the perplexed secretary enjoyed comparative re^
pose.

Late in the month of August, Mr. Kendall had completed
his inquiries and his report. "His mission," Mr. Duane
assures us, " was abortive in the particulars which had been
deem'ed essential. The plan of bank agency, which the
President had considered the only safe one, was, I believe,
unanimously rejected. The answers of some of the banks
willing to act, showed that they ought not to be trusted.
Several of the most substantial institutions refused to act as
fiscal agents, under any circumstances. The materials from
;which the condition of the banks was to be ascertained, had
been very imperfectly furnished. Some of the banks answered,
that the proposed plans were impracticable. Others pointed
out the fallacy of the means suggested for the security of the
public money. Others denied that State banks could give
such facilities as government required. The banks, most
ready to become depositories, showed the least ability to pay
their own responsibilities in coin. Yet it was into this chaos
that I was asked to plunge the fiscal concerns of the country,

524 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

at a moment when they were conducted by the legitimate*
agent with the utmost simplicity, safety, and dispatch."

Col. Benton attributes the reluctance of the State banks
to their terror of the Monster. " Instead of a competition
among the banks," he says, " to obtain the deposits, there wag
holding off, and an absolute refusal on the part of many.
Local banks were shy of receiving them — shy of receiving the
greatest possible apparent benefit to themselves — shy of re-
ceiving the aliment upon which they lived and grew ! and
why this so great apparent contradiction ? It was the fear
of the Bank of the United States ! and of that capacity to
destroy them to which Mr. Biddle had testified in his answere
to the Senate's Finance Committee ; and which capacity was
now known to be joined to the will ; for the bank placed in
the same category all who should be concerned in the removal
— both the government that had ordered it, and the local
banks which received what it lost. But a competent number
were found ; and this first attempt to prevent a removal
by preventing a reception of the deposits elsewhere, entirely
failed."

After receiving Mr. Kendairs report, the President called
a Cabinet council, which convened on the 10th of Septem-
ber. The President, on this occasion, spoke at some length
and with great energy :

" Gentlemen," he began, " I have got here (liolding up a paper) the report
of the agent on the deposit question, and I want to call your attention to
it The first question is, whether the State banks are safe places to put
the public moneys in. The next is, whether, if they are, it is not our
duty to put them there — whether we are not culled upon, by the late dis-.
closures of the corrupt conduct of the United States Bank, to cast oflf the
connection at once. This is an important business. You know I have
long had it in agitation, and wliat took place in Congress. I deemed it
my duty to ask your opinions ; and, although I mentioned to Mr. Duane
that the subject was under consideration, I must, in justice to myself, u
well as to him, say, I did not think it proper, before his appointment, to
explain to him my views. But after doing so, I did think it due to our
country that we should go on. The present is a most serious state of
things. How shall we answer to Grod, our country, or ourselves, if we

1833.] MR. duane's narbative. 525

permit the public money to be thus used to corrupt the people ? Observe,
I do not want immediate action, but I desire a day to be fixed. Nor do I
want to touch a dollar of the money that is in the bank ; but I do want
that the money coming in may be put where it will be safe, and not used
for purposes of so infamous a kind. I want harmony in my Cabinet. I
am well pleased with you all. I want to go unitedly in this solemn duty.
The former conduct of the bank, in its corrupt loans, in its attempts to de-
preciate the credit of the country, in its whole corrupt state, justified our
acting ; but the last disclosures leave us no excuse for further delay. The
country will reproach us if we do not go on. By the last resolution of the
bank, the whole of its funds may be employed for corrupt purposes ; and
remember, that, for a part of the sum spent, no explanation or voucher is
given ; that it was by accident one of the directors, Mr. Wager,* noticed
this monstrous abuse. And give me leave to tell you that this is a small
part^ could the truth be got at I anxiously desire, then, that we should at
least do something. This report, if you put confidence in it — and I think
you may — shows the readiness of the State banks to take the public
money, and their ability and safety as substitutes for the present agent
Why, then, should we hesitate ? Why not proceed, I say, as the country
expects us to do ? Here are the papers. When you have read them let
us oome to an understanding."

As soon as the President had concluded, Mr. Duane
thanked him for explaining to the cabinet the circumstances
of his appointment. The President handed to Mr. McLane
the report and papers of Mr. Kendall, and the council was at
an end.

* Mr. Potcr "Wager was one of the five government directors of the bank,
nominated by the President of the United States. They kept General Jackson
well supplied with information respecting the proceedings of the board of di-
rectors, ar)d were called, therefore, by the frientis of the bank, spies. The " last
disclosures," referred to by the President, may be gathered from the following
passage of a Report which had recently been furnished the President by four of
the government directors: "On the 30th November, 1830, it is stated on the
minutes, that ' the president submitt&d to the board a copy of an article on banks
and currency, just published in the American Quarterly Review, of this city, con-
taining a favorable notice of this institution, and suggested the expediency of
making the views of the author more extensively known to the public than they
can be by means of the subscription list.' Whereupon, it was, on motion, * Be-
tolvedf That the president be authorized to take such measures, in regard to the
circulation of the contents of the said article, either in whole or in part, as be
may deem most for the interests of the bank.' "

526 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

A week passed before the cabinet again convened ; during
which the Globe and other administration papers began to
assail the character and motives of Mr. Diiane, as if to pre-
pare the public mind for his dismissal. The Secretary caJled
the attention of the President to these simultaneous attacks.
" It is impossible/' says Mr. Duane, " to describe the earnest-
ness of the President's professions in reply. He declared that
no one had attempted to shake his confidence ; that it re-
mained as it ever had been ; that he regretted even a differ-
ence in opinion between us ; and that he would put all
doubts at rest by conferring on me the highest appointment
then at his disposal. This he mentioned twice in the course
of our conversation, saying he had meditated a change from
one honorable station to another, not only as an act proper in
itself, but in order to do what would be satisfactory to myself
and friends."

On the seventeenth of September the cabinet again as-
sembled. *^ The President opened the proceedings," Mr.
Duane tells us, " by saying that he trusted advantage had
been taken of the time which had passed since the preceding
meeting, maturely to consider what he had then said. Then,
addressing himself to the Secretary of State, he asked his
opinion as to the propriety of a speedy change of the place
of public deposit. Mr. McLane at once proceeded to state
his objections, in detail, in an emphatic and lucid manner.
When the Secretary of State had closed, the President put
the same question to me ; and I simply answered, that I de-
sired to have the whole subject presented in the clearest light
before Congress — that I had full confidence in their desire as
well as ability to correct abuses, and avert the mischiefs re-
ferred to by the President — that I deprecated the proposed
connection with State banks — and apprehended serious evils
to the public in case the contemplated change should be made.
The Secretary at War (Governor Cass), when appealed to,
said, *^ You know, sir, I have always thought that the matter
rests entirely with the Secretary of the Treasury." The Sec-
retary of the Navy (Governor Woodbury) entered into an

1833.] MR. duane's narrative. 527

explanation of the opinion which he had given in April
against a removal of the deposits prior to the summer of
1834. Although he had then considered an earlier change
injudicious, he must now go with the President. The At-
torney-General (Mr. Taney) barely said, that he had been
from the beginning for an immediate change, and was now
more than ever for it. The President then said, ^ Gentlemen,
I desire to meet you to-morrow, and will then make known
my own views.' "

The cabinet met on the morrow. It was at this meeting
that the President caused to bo read the paper known to his-
tory as " the Paper read to the Cabinet on the eighteenth of
September." In this document the President recapitulated
the history of the war upon the bank, recounted the charges
against it, repeated at great length the reasons for the removal
of the deposits, and concluded by announcing that the re-
moval was resolved upon, and that he, the President, assumed
the entire responsibility of the act. The closing paragraph
containecl the whole paper : '* The President again repeats,
that he begs his cabinet to consider the proposed measure as
his OAvn, in the support of which he shall require no one of
them to make a sacrifice of opinion or principle. Its respon-
sibility has been assumed, after the most mature deliberation
and reflection, as necessary to 2>reserve the morals of the peo-
ple, the freedom of the press, and the purity of the elective
franchise, without which, all will unite in saying, that the
blood and treasure expended by our forefathers in the estab-
lishment of our happy system of government, will have been
vain and fruitless. Under these convictions, he feels that a
measure so important to the American people can not be com-
menced too soon, and he therefore names the first day of Oc-
tober next as a ])eriod proper for the change of the deposits,
or sooner, provided the necessary arrangements with the State
banks can be made."

When this paper had been read, the members of the cab-
inet oflfered neither remonstrance nor remark, but began in
silence to prepare for their departure. ^'As those present

528 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

were retiring/' continues the Secretary of the Treasury, "I
approached the President, and asked him to allow me to take
and read his exposition. He directed his secretary to deliver
it to me. I then asked the President, whether I was to un-
derstand him as directing me to remove the deposits ? He
replied, that it was his desire that I should remove them, but
upon Ms responsibility ; adding with great emphasis, that,
' If I would stand by him it would be the happiest day of his
life/ "

All the rest of that day the secretary sat brooding otct
the posture of affairs, questioning within himself whether it
were right even to keep his promise of resigning his place in
case he could not agree with the President. His resignation,
he well knew, would not retard for a day the consummation
of the President's unalterable purpose. Ought not the Pres-
ident to assume the additional responsibility of removing
him?

Early the next morning, the President sent to inquire
whether he had made up his mind. He answered that he
would make known his decision on the day after the morrow.
An liour or two later. Major Donelson called, and informed
Mr. Duanc that the President had determined to announce in
the Globe of the next dat/y that the government would cease
to deposit the public money in the Bank of the United States
on the 1st of October. Astounded at this intelligence, Mr.
Duane iustantly wrote and dispatched to the President are-
monstrance against the publication. The Globe of the next
morning, however, contained the announcement.

Upon reading the paragraph in the Globe, Mr. Duane re-
paired to the White House, carrying in his pocket a letter,
retracting his promise to resign, and positively refusing to
order the change in the fiscal system announced in the official
newspaper. The conversation which he had with the Presi-
ident on this occasion, Mr. Duane thus records :

Secretary. " I have, at lengtli, waited upon you, sir, with this letter/
President. "What is it ?"

1833.] MB. duake's kabbative. 529

Secretary, " It respectfully and finally makes known my decision, not
to remove the deposits, or resign."

President '^ Then you do not mean that we shall part as friends."

Secretary, "The reverse, sir, is my desire; but I must protect my-
8el£"

President " But you said you would retire, if we could not finally
agree."

Secretary. '^ I indiscreetly said so, sir ; but I am now compelled to
take this course."

President " I have been under an impression that you would resign,
eyen as an act of friendship to me."

Secretary. " Personal wishes, sir, must give way. The true question
18^ which must I observe, my promise to execute my duty faithfully, or my
agreement to retire, when the latter conflicts with tlie former ?"

President. " I certainly never expected tliat any such difficulties could
arise between us ; and think you ought still to consider the matter."

Secretary. " I liavc painfully considered i^] and hope you will not ask
me to make a sacrifice. All that you need is a successor, and him you may
have at once."

President " But I do not wish to dismiss you. I have too much re-
gard for yourself, your family, and friends, to take that course."

Secretary. " Excuse lue, sir, you may only do now what you said in
your letter of the 22d of July, it would be your duty to do, if I tlien said I
would not thereafter remove the deposits."

President. ^' It would be at any time disagreeable to do what might
be injurious to you."

Secretary. *^ A resignation, I tiiiuk, would be more injurious. And
permit me to say, that the publication in yesterday's Ohhe removes all
delicacy. A worm if trodden upon will turn. I am .'issailed in all the
leading papers of the administration, and if my friend, you will not tie up
my hands."

President. *' Then, I suppose you mean to come out against me."

Secretary. " Nothing is furtlier from my thought^. I barely desire to
do what is now my duty ; and to defend myself if assailed hereafler."

[Here the President expatiated on the late disclosures in relation to
the bank, tlic corruptibility of Congress, etc., and at length, t^ing a paper
from his drawer, said :]

President. " You have been all along mistaken in your views. Here
is a paper that will show you your obligations ; that the executive must
protect you."

Secretary. " I will read it^ sir, if such is your wish ; but I can not an-
ticipate a change of opinion."
VOL. III. — 34

530 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSOK. [1833.

President " A secretary, sir, is merely an executive agent, a subor-
dinate, and you may say so in self-defense."

Secretary. " In this particular case, Cong^ss confers a discretionary
power, and requires reasons if I exercise it Surely tiiis contemplates
responsibility on my part."

President. " This paper will show you that your doubts are wholly
groundless."

Secretary. " As to the deposits, allow me, sir, to say my decisioa is
positive. The only question is as to the mode of my retirement."

President. " My dear Mr. Duane, we must separate as friends. Far
from desiring that you should sustain any injury, you know I have in-
tended to give you the highest appointment now in my gifl. You shall
have tlie mission to Russia. I would have settled this matter before, but
for tlie delay or difficulty" (as I understood the PresideDt) ^ in relation to
Mr. Buchanan."

Secretary. " I am sincerely thankful to you, sir, for your kind dispo-
sition, but I beg you to senje me in a way that will be truly pleasing. I
desire no now station, and barely wish to leave my present one blame-
less, or free from apprehension as to the future. Favor me with a written
declaration of your desire that I should leave office, as I can not carry oat
your views as to the deposits, and I will take back this letter " (the ooe
I had just presented).

President " Never have I had any thing that has given me more
mortification than this whole business. I had not the smallest notion that
we could differ."

Secretary. "My principles and opinions, sir, are unchanged. We
differ only about time. You are for acting now ; I am for waiting for
Congress."

President ^' How oflen have I told you that Congress can not act
unt'd the deposits are removed."

Secretary. " I am unable, sir, to change my opinion at will upon
that point"

President " You are altogether wrong in your opinion, and I thought
Mr. Taney wouKi have convinced you that you are."

Secretary. " Mr. Taney, sir, endeavored to prevail on mc to adopt his
views, but failed. As to the deposits, I barely desired a delay of about
ten weeks."

President "Not a day — ^not an hour; recent disclosures banish all
doubt, and I do not see how you can hesitate."

Secretary. " I have oflen stated my reasons. Surely, sir, it is enough
that were I to act, I could not give reasons satisfactory to myself."

President " My reasons, lately read in the cabinet, will release yoa
from complaint"

1833.] MB. duane's nabbatiye. 531

Bacmiary. ''I am sorry I can not view the sabject in the same
light."

Our conversation was further extended, under yarying emotions on
both sides, but without any change of opinion or decision. At length I
retired, leaving the letter.

During the next three days various letters passed between
the President and the Secretary, without producing upon
either the effect desired. At length, on the twenty-third of
September, the President sent a note to Mr. Duane, which
concluded with the well-known words : " I feel myself con-
strained to notify you that your further services as Secretary
of the Treasury are no longer required."

On the self-same day, Mr. Roger B. Taney, the Attomey-
Gteneral, was appointed Secretary of the Treasury. Three
days after, he signed the order which directed collectors and
other government employes to deposit the public money in
the State banks designated in the order. The deed was
done.

The vacant attorney-generalship was filled by the appoint-
ment of Mr. Benjamin F. Butler, of New York, the towns-
man, law student, law partner, political pupil, friend and
admirer of Mr. Van Buren. The paper read to the cabinet
on the eighteenth of September was, soon after, published
in the Globe, and copied thence into all the leading papers
friendly to the administration.

The conduct of Mr. Duane, when the attacks of the ad-
ministration press had compelled him to make known that
conduct, called forth from all parts of the country expressions
of approval as warm as they were just. He deserves to be
held in lasting remembrance as one of that host of worthies
of every age and country who have preserved their honor un-
tarnished amid temptations that appealed with equal power
to the weaknesses and to the virtues of human nature.
Those are the temptations which men of honor find it hard-
est to resist. Such as are addressed to tlieir meaner passions,
to their ambition, their love of ease, wealth, and credit they
can easily resist ; but when to these are added the passion-

532 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

ate solicitations of a friend and benefactor, the entreaties of
honored associates and allies, the deliberate arguments of
able and trusted chiefs in the law, the claims of a large circle
who share the public honors of their relative, and do not al-
ways sympathize with the high feeling which seems to lower
both him and them in the social scale — then a man must be
made of sterling metal, indeed, who holds fast to his integ-
rity. Mr. Duane had every motive, worthy and unworthy,
which a public man can ever have to yield to the Presidents
desires. In not yielding, he displayed a genuine, moral
heroism.

The organ of the administration at Washington, in com-
menting upon Mr. Duane's dismissal, used the following lan-
guage : '^ Mr. Duane was dismissed for faithlessness to his
solemn written pledges, and for the exhibition of bad feeling,
which made him totally unfit for the station to which he had
been elevated. He was not dismissed merely for refusing to
remove the deposits."*

CHAPTER XXXVII L

THE BANK CURTAILS.

Pugilists begin a fight for tlie championship by shaking
hands ; but there comes a moment, in the course of the con-
test, when the man who is going to lose the battle loses his
temper. The bank, so courteous and dignified in 1829, lost
its temper for a moment, when the " Paper read to the Cabi-
net on the Eighteenth of September" — a paper replete with
accusations against its honor — announced to all the world the
removal of the government deposits. The Report published
by the directors, in reply to the President's fulininatioD;
spoke of it as " a paper signed Andrew Jackson, purporting

* Globe, Noyembor 19, 1833.

1833.] THE BANK CURTAILS. 533

to have been read to a Cabinet." The Report proceeded,
however, with moderation and dignity to reply to each of
the President's charges of misconduct ; and, so far as one un-
versed in the mysteries of finance can judge, it refuted those
charges, and proved that the bank had been managed hon-
estly, prudently, and successfully.

That it was an error of judgment on the part of the bank
to spend fourteen thousand dollars a year in " self-defense,"
is shown by the utter failure of that expenditure to conciliate
the popular mind. Whether the bank was justified in mak-
ing the expenditure was a question for the stockholders to
determine. The United States was a stockholder, and had a
right to object. But who will tell us how much money from
the treasury of the United States was employed in enabling
the administration to obey the law, before laid down in these
pages, that every thing in the universe, having in it the prin-
ciple of life, will do all it can to perpetuate its life ? Mr.
Kendall, an employ^ of the government, was a paid writer
for the Globe during a great part of its existence as the organ
of General Jackson's administration. His salary as special
contributor was eight hundred dollars a year. This was fair
enough I suppose, as Messrs. Blair and Rives paid the salary.
Yet I venture to estimate that the public money transmuted
into public opinion during the bank war amounted to a greater
sum than the bank expended for a similar purpose during its
entire career of twenty years.

In the new posture of affiiirs the bank was obliged to do
more than defend itself against paper bullets. A voice from
the bank parlor informs me that, upon learning the intention
of the government to remove the deposits, Mr. Biddle and
the directors were undecided for some time which of two
courses to adopt. To curtail, or not to curtail — that was
the question. A friend of Mr. Biddle, a gentleman of note
in the financial world, advised him not to curtail ; but to
give the country a striking proof of the strength of the bank
by rather enlarging its loans than lessening them. This
plan, he urged, would also render the sudden cessation of the

534 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

bank in 1836 so paralyzing to the business of the country
that the people would rise as one man, in the presidential
election of that year, and hurl from power the party that
would be supposed to have arrested the national progress.
Mr. Biddle was convinced by this reasoning. A circular let-
ter to the cashiers of the twenty-five branches, ordering them
to continue to their customers the usual accommodation, and
even, in some cases, to increase their loans, was drawn up
by Mr. Biddle. The gentleman before referred to (to whom
the reader is indebted for this information) prepared the
requisite twenty-five copies of this letter, folded them, super-
scribed them, and placed them in Mr. Biddle's hands, ready
for the mail.

The packet of circulars, however, was not sent to the
post-office that evening. Perhaps it occurred to the president
of the bank that the policy proposed would effect in 1836 a
prostration of business so complete that the capital of the
bank would be swallowed up in the general ruin. Whatever
the reason may have been, the circulars were put into the
fire instead of the mail, and a policy more prudent and
obvious was adopted. The amount of pubhc money in the
bank on the first of October, 1833, was #9,891,000. The
directors resolved simply to curtail the loans of the bank to
the extent of the average amount of public money held by it.
This was done. It was done gradually. It was done no
faster than the balance of public money diminished. The
bank itself tells us, in one of its publications, exactly what
it did :

" On the eighth of October, 1833, the bank directed * that the com-
mittee on tlie offices be authorized' to direct such gradual reduction in the
amount and the time of tlie loans, at the respective offices, as may, in their
judgment^ be made, without inconvenience to the customers of the bank,
or the community.' This authority has been executed in such a way as to
accomplish its object with the least pressure upon tlie community ; and the
bank sum up their operations in the following manner :

Ist That the bank never directed any curtailment of its loans until the actoil
removal of the deposits.

•^

1833.] THE BANK OUBTAILS. 535

Sd. That the onlj actual reduction of loons took place from the
lot of October to the 1st of December, when the loans were

diminiahed $5,641,098 26

WhQe at the same time the public and private deposits were

reduced 5,887,864 63

3d. That from the 1st of December, 1833, to the 1st of April,
1834, the loans have not been reduced, but, on the con-
trary, have actually been increasing, and were greater on
the 1st of April, 1834, than on the 1st of October, 1833,

by 353,712 96

While, during that same period, the public deposits had de-
creased no less than 2,239,393 89

4th. That the total reduction of loans from the 1st of October to

the Ist of April was 5,057,527 22

While the public deposits had been reduced . $6,935,568 84

Private deposits, 842,834 67

Making an aggregate of .... 7,778,403 41

Being a reduction of loans less, by nearly three millions, than

the reduction of deposits.

6th. That so far from cramping the trade of the country, it has

actually purchased, from the 1st of October to the 1st of

April, of domestic and foreign bills of exchange, . 34,671,324 00

6th. That the State banks wore permitted to be indebted to the

bank an average amount of 3,464,956 00

This curtailment compelled a similar one on the part of
many of the State banks, while the " pet banks/' the new
depositaries of the public money, had not yet begun to reap
the advantages of their position. Hence it was that during
the first six months of the operation of the new system, there
was a pressure in the money market — sharp, sudden, and se-
vere— which caused many disastrous failures, general conster-
nation, considerable distress, and tremendous outcry. Col.
Benton, in many a paragraph of rolling thunder, attributes
the whole of this distress and alarm to the criminal contriv-
ance of the monster bank. But he attributes the crash of
1837 to the same cause ! He dwells long upon the fact that,
as late as fifteen months after the deposits ceased to be made
in the bank of the United States, there were still in its vaults
three or four millions of the public money. He does not tell
UB that the contraction of the bank's loans ceased long before
that time ; nor that the bank could not safely use money

536 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

subject to instantaneous call ; nor that the public money was
left in the bank for purposes which could be more easily im-
agined than safely avowed. Can any bank lose an eighth of
its available capital without curtailing its business, or run-
ning imprudent risks ?

Congress met on the second of December, when the com-
mercial pressure was becoming severe. In his message the
President again congratulated the country on the prosperous
state of the public finances. Thirty-two millions had been
received into the treasury. The expenditures would not ex-
ceed twenty-five millions. The public debt had been reduced
to an inconsiderable sum, which would soon be discharged ; a
fact which the President stated with exultation. The late
removal of the deposits was again avowed to be the Presi-
dent's own measure, one which he had " urged upon the de-
partment" of the treasury for some months before the deed
was done. So certain was it, said the President, that the
bank was a corrupt and corrupting political engine, so sure
was he that the present commercial panic was needlessly
caused by it for the purpose of compelling a restoration of
the deposits, that " in my own sphere of duty, I should feel
myself called on, by the facts disclosed, to order a scire facias
against the bank, with a view to put an end to the chartered
rights it has so palpably violated, were it not that the charter
itself will expire as soon as a decision would probably be ob-
tained from the court of last resort."

The message concluded with a fifth repetition of the re-
commendation for the abolishment of " every intermediate
agency" in the election of President and Vice-President, and
that " their eligibility should be limited to one term of either
four or six years." The persistent man 1

1833.] THE PAKIO SESSION OF CONGRESS. 537

CHAPTER XXXIX.

THE PANIC SESSION OF CONGRESS.

The twenty-third Congress, from the extraordinary number
of its members who have filled important stations, has been
styled the Star Congress. In the Senate were Webster, Clay,
Galhoun, Benton, Wright, Frelinghuysen, Southard, Clayton,
Bives, Tyler, Mangum, Preston, Forsyth, Grundy, White,
and Poindexter — a galaxy of stars. In the House were
Franklin Pierce, Choate, John Quincy Adams, John Davis,
Cambrelcng, Fillmore, Horace Binney, Stephenson, Henry A.
Wise, McDuffie, Richard M. Johnson, John Bell, Cave John-
flon, Polk, David Crockett, Corwin, Vinton, Ewing, and C.
C. Clay — all well known names. Of the members of this
Congress, five have been President ; five, Vice-President ;
eight, Secretary of State ; twenty-five. Governor of a State.
In the House, on a test question, the administration could
rely on a majority. In the Senate, the 0])po8ition could com-
mand a majority which was small, but safe and sufiicient.

From the first week in December, 1833, to the last day of
June, 1834, the ruling — almost the only — topic of debate in
Congress, in the newspapers, among the people, was the re-
moval of the deposits. With one exception, no subject has
ever been discussed in the United States with so much ability,
bitterness, and pertinacity. Indeed, it was the great topic
from 1833 to 1842. It lived through the panic of 1834, the
inflation of 1835, the madness of 1836, the crash of 1837, the
depression of 1838 to 1842, and only received its final quietus
in 1844. The result of the discussion was the sub-trciisury
— a result which might as well have been reached in 1834 as
in 1838, if General Jackson had been less precipitate and his
advisers more acute. Prodigious as the price was wliich the
country had to pay for the total and final separation of the
government from banks, the result was one which the country
now feels was worth its price.

538 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

During the whole of this eventful session of Congress, a
kind of duello was going on between the President and the
bank party. Blow seemed to be given for blow, and both
parties were excited and angry beyond previous example.
When all was over, so many hostile and mortifying acts had
been done on both sides, that it was uncertain which of the
two had had the worst of the contest. To the excitement
within the walls of the capitol was added a clamor without,
which increased in loudness and intensity as the debates pro-
ceeded. We are now briefly to review the events of this
session.

Thrice in the very first week the President provoked the
ire of the opposition. First, in his annual message, which
contained ofiensive passages against the bank. Secondly, in
the report of the Secretar}' of the Treasury, which re-stated
those reasons for the removal the deposits with which we are
already familiar. Thirdly, by vetoing Mr. Clay's Land Bill,
providing for a distribution among the States of the proceeds
of the sales of the public lands.

The Land Bill Mr. Clay regarded as one of the conditions
of the late compromise. He considered that the administra-
tion was bound in honor to accept it as such, and that its re-
jection amounted to a breach of faith. General Jackson,
however, was utterly opposed to the principle of the bill, had
repeatedly avowed his opposition to it, and was resolved, from
the day of its introduction, to veto it if it passed. The bill
was handed to him for his signature when the last Congress
was within twenty-four hours of expiring. Instead of veto-
ing the measure at the time, he chose to " pocket" it, and the
bill was returned to Congress on one of the first days of the
present session, to the extreme mortification of Mr. Clay and
his friends. The veto message was assailed with peculiar vio-
lence, but it was never answered, and is unanswerable. A
main objection of the President was, that the bill created
new obstacles to the reduction of the price of the public
lands. By the operation of the bill, every State would have
an immediate interest in keeping up the price, whereas it was

1833.] THE PANIC SESSION OF CONGRESS. 539

the dictate of true policy to give the utmost possible encour-
agement to the actual settler^ whose labor alone gave value
to the land. " I do not doubt," said the President, " that it
is the real interest of each and all the States in the Union,
and particularly of the new States, that the price of these
lands shall be reduced and graduated ; and that, after they
have been oflfered for a certain number of years, the refuse,
remaining unsold, shall be abandoned to the States, and the
machinery of our land system entirely withdrawn."

Mr. Clay, not content, as it were, with these three blows,
afforded the President an opporturfity to give him a fourth,
by introducing the following resolution :

" Hesolved, That the President of the United States be
requested to inform the Senate whether a paper purporting
to have been read by him to the heatls of the several depart-
ments, relating to the deposits of the public money in the
treasury of the United States, and alleged to have been pub-
lished by his authority, be genuine or not ; and if it be gen-
uine, that he be also requested to cause a copy of the said
paper to be laid before the Senate."

The reader will note the use of the word " treasury" in
this resolution. It was Mr. Clay's position, in the subsequent
debates, that the bank of the United States was the treasury
of the United States. The resolution was agreed to by a
vote of twenty- three to eighteen. The President, of course,
refused compliance with both requests. " I have yet to learn,"
he wrote, ^' under what constitutional authority that branch
of the legislature has a right to require of me an account of
any communication, either verbally or in writing, made to the
heads of departments acting as a Cabinet council."

A few days after, Mr. Horace Binney, of Philadelphia,
presented to the House of Representatives a memorial from
the president and directors of the Bank of the United Stiites.
This document, in langujigo respectful and dignified, stated
that the custody of the ])ublic moneys was a part of the
original contract between the bank and the government. The
bank paid for the privilege in money and service. Recently,

540 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

the bank had been deprived of this advantage by an order
from the Secretary of the Treasury. The bank had in all re-
spects faithfully and punctually performed its part of the
contract. " The board of directors, therefore, deem it their
duty forthwith to apprise you of this violation of the char-
tered rights of the stockholders, and to ask such redress there-
for as to your sense of justice may seem proper." The me-
morial had no resulte. A resolution ordering the restoration
of the deposits to the bank was introduced later in the ses-
sion, but was lost by the regular party vote. For the first
time in many years, there was an anti-bank majority in the
House of Representatives, and no considerations of justice or
policy can break the spell of party discipline at such times as
these.

Early in the session the President sent to the Senate the
names of five gentlemen for confirmation as government direc-
tors of the Bank of the United States. Of these five, four
had rendered themselves obnoxious to the bank and to the
bank party by giving the President information of the pro-
ceedings of the board of directors, and copies of certain por-
tions of its minutes. Their names were, H. D. Gilpin, John
T. Sullivan, Peter Wager, and Hugh M'Eldery. Upon re-
ceiving these unwelcome names the Senate acted upon them
with an alacrity and promptitude which they were not accus-
tomed to exhibit in deciding upon General Jackson's nomi-
nations. Not satisfied with the results of their experiment
in rejecting Isaac Hill and Mr. Van Buren, they rejected
these names also, after voting down a proposition to inquire
into their fitness. The President sent their names a second
time to the Senate, accompanied with a message vindicating
their conduct, and eulogizing their characters, and remon-
strating against the course of the Senate. The nominations
were then referred to the Committee on Finance, who report-
ed against them, and the Senate again rejected the odious
names. Later in the session the President nominated other
gentlemen, who were confirmed. This was worse than a finiit-
less victory to the friends of the bank, for the impression was

1833.] THE PANIC SESSION OF CONGRESS. 541

created in the minds of the people that the bank was afraid
to Bubject its proceedings to the relentless scrutiny of honest
opponents.

On the 26th of December, two weeks after the refusal of
the President to give the Senate a copy of his cabinet paj)er,
Mr. Clay introduced his famous resolutions directly censuring
the President for dismissing Mr. Duane and removing the de-
posits :

" JResolved, That by dismissing the late Secretary of the
Treasury, because he would not, contrary to his sense of his
own duty, remove the money of the United States in de-
posit with the Bank of the United States and its branches,
in conformity with the President's opinion, and by appointing
his successor to effect such removal, which has been done, the
President has assumed the exercise of a power over the treas-
ury of the United States not granted to him by the constitu-
tion and laws, and dangerous to the liberties of the people.

" Hesolved, That the reasons assigned by the Secretary
of the Treasury for the removal of the money of the United
States, deposited in the Bank of the United States and its
branches, communicated to Congress on the third of Decem-
ber, 1833, are unsatisfactory and insufficient."

These resolutions, we may as well state at once, were
eventually reduced to one, which read as follows :

" Resolved^ That the President, in the late executive pro-
ceedings, in relation to the public revenue, has assumed upon
himself authority and power not conferred by the constitution
and laws, but in derogation of both."

The speech delivered by Mr. Clay, in support of his reso-
lutions, was exasperating to General Jackson in the highest
degree. He accused the President of an " open, palpable,
and daring usurpation." After having assumed all the other
powers of the government, executive, legislative, and judicial,
he had ended by seizing the public purse, as Ciesar had seized
the treasury of Rome. " For more than fifteen years," said
Mr. Clay, " I have been struggling to avoid the present state
of things. 1 thought 1 perceived^ in some proceedings, during

542 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833.

the conduct of the Seminole war, a spirit of defiance to the
constitution and to all law. With what sincerity and truth
— with what earnestness and devotion to civil liberty — I have
struggled, the Searcher of all human hearts best knows. With
what fortune, the bleeding constitution of my country now
fatally attests."

It was after reading this speech that General Jackson
exclaimed : " Oh, if I live to get these robes of office off
me, I will bring the rascal to a dear account."

Mr. Calhoun, if possible, surpassed Mr. Clay in the ve-
hemence of his denunciations. He said that the plundering
of the Roman treasury by Julius Caesar was a virtuous ac-
tion, compared with the recent conduct of Andrew Jackson.
" That" said Mr. Calhoun, " was a case of an intrepid and
bold warrior, as an open plunderer, seizing forcibly the treas-
ury of the country, which, in that republic, as well as ours,
was confined to the custody of the legislative department of
the government. The actors in our case are of a different
character — artful, cunning, and corrupt politicians, and not
fearless warriors. They have entered the treasury, not sword
in hand, as public plunderers, but, with the false keys of so-
phistry, as pilferers, under the silence of midnight. The
motive and the object are the same, varied in like manner by
circumstances and character. ^ With money I will get men,
and with men money,' was the maxim of the Roman plun-
derer. With money we will get partisans, with partisans
votes, and with votes money, is the maxim of our public pil-
ferers."

Mr. Webster opposed the removal of the deposits, and
supported Mr. Clay's resolution, in terms less offensive to the
President than these, but not less decided and forcible. After
a debate of three months' continuance, seldom interrupted,
Mr. Clay's resolution of censure was passed in the Senate
by a vote of twenty-six to twenty. Another barren victory.
Three weeks later, the President sent to the Senate an elabo-
rate Protest against the resolution, and asked that it be en-
tered upon the journal. Another month was consumed in

1833.] THE PANIC SESSION OF CONGRESS. 543

debating the question whether or not the Senate should com-
ply with the President's request. At length, by a vote of
twenty-seven to sixteen, the protest was disposed of by the
passage of four resolutions, of which the last two contain
the substance :

" Resolved, That the aforesaid protest is a breach of the
privileges of the Senate, and that it be not entered on the
journal.

" Resolved, That the President of the United States has
no right to send a protest to the Senate against any of its
proceedings."

Thus nearly five months of the session were chiefly con-
sumed in an affair which neither had any results nor could be
rationally expected to have any. Even the resolution of cen-
sure, impotent and harmless as it was, was not suffered to
repose in peace upon the record. It had been scarcely entered
npon the journal before Colonel Benton gave notice of a reso-
lution to expunge it ; and from that hour, a leading object
of his senatorial labors was to procure the passage of his ex-
punging resolution.

The President, meanwhile, was employing his powers and
his time far more effectively. The reader may remember,
that as long ago as the year 1829, when the war upon the
bank began, an attempt was made to deprive the branch of
the Bank of the United States at Portsmouth of the pension
agency. The bank refused to give up the books, and Mr.
Eaton, the Secretary of War, withdrew his demand, and gave
up the project. A similar attempt to remove the pension
agency from the branch at Albany met with a similar failure.
Since that time, the pensions, amounting to about four mil-
lions a year, had been paid by the bank and its branches with-
out interference from the government. In January, 1834, a
I few days after the introduction of Mr. Clay's resolutions of
•censure, the President attempted to take the whole of this
business from the bank. He announced the appointment of
fifteen State banks as pension agents, and formally demanded
from the Bank of the United Suites the surrender of the

544 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833L

books and papers relating to pensions, and half a million of
dollars remaining in its vaults designed for the next payments.
The bank, acting under the best legal advice attainable in the
country, refused to surrender either the books or the money.

On the 4th of February, the President, in a special mes-
sage, communicated this refusal to Congress, accusing the
bank of attempting to defeat the measures of the administra-
tion, and of assuming functions belonging only to the govern-
ment. The subject had been referred to the Attorney-Gen-
eral, who had discovered in a supplementary pension act of
1832, a clause which gave the Secretary of War the power to
appoint the time and place for the payment of certain pen-
sions. The sum allowed by the act was " to be paid to the
officer at such places and days as the secretary may direct."
The inference drawn by the Attorney-General from these
words is one of the most curious on record. " As the power,"
saidie, " to appoint the place of payment is unlimited, the
secretary may appoint a place at which there is no bank or
other pension agent ; in which case the power to appoiiU an
agent to pay must, necessarily, exist, or the acknowledged
power to appoint a place of payment be defeated. In this
class of cases, the power to appoint a place of payment, is thus
seen to include, as incidental to it, the power of appointing an
agent to pay. And if that power be possessed, in any one
case, it would seem to be possessed in every other ; unless,
indeed, it can be held, that the same word, in this law, mocins
one thing in reference to one place, and a totally different
thing in reference to another — ^a construction too refined to be
readily adopted."

If this be not a " refined " construction of laws clearly de-
signating the Bank of the United States as the agent for the
disbursement of pensions, I know not where an example of
refined construction can be found. It was remarked at the
time by a friend of the administration, that Mr. Butler had
not studied law at Kinderhook for nothing.

The Senate rejected Mr. Butler's reasonings. Three months
later in the session, that ]jfody passed resolutions to the follow-

1833.] THE PANIC SESSION OF CONGRESS. 545

ing eflfect : 1. That the Department of War is not warrant-
ed in appointing pension agents in any State or Territory
where the Bank of the United States or one of its branches
has been established^ except when specially authorized by act
of Congress. 2. That no power is conferred by any law upon
the department, or Secretary of War, to remove the agency
for the payment of pensions, and the funds, books, and pa-
pers, connected with that agency, from the Bank of the United
States, and to appoint other agents to supersede the bank in
the payment of such pensions." In this interpretation, a
minority of the House Committee of Ways and Means con-
curred. The President held to his purpose, however, and
carried his point, and was sustained in it by the people.

M. Chevelier, who witnessed this singular contest, men-
tions that the enemies of the bank "express the greatest
sympathy for the illustrious relics of the revolution, whom
the arrogance of the bank, as they say, is about to plunge, at
the close of their career, into the most dreadful misery ; they
pour forth the most pathetic lamentations over those glorious
defenders of the country, whom a money-corporation is about
to strip of the provision made for their declining years by the
nation's gratitude. You may imagine all the noisy arguments
and patriotic harangues, that can be delivered on this text.
On the 4th of Februarj^, the President sent a message to Con-
gress in the same strain. All this is mere declamation, of the
most common-place and the most hypocritical kind ; for who
will prevent the deliverers of America from duly receiving
their pensions, except those who shall refuse them drafts on the
bank, which the bank would pay at once ? But a people
under fascination is not influenced by reason, and it is at this
moment believed by the multitude that the bank has deter-
mined to kill the noble veterans of Independence by hunger.
Once more, then, anathemas against monopoly, hatred to the
moneyed aristocracy I Hurra for Jackson ! Jackson for

EVER ! "

As the session wore on, the pressure in the money market
increased, the failures became more numerous^ the panic

VOL. lU. — 35

546 LIFE OF AKDBEW JACKSON. [1833.

more intense, the clamor more vociferous. The tables of
Congress were loaded with petitions for and against the resto-
ration of the deposits. A part of the morning hour for thwe
months was absorbed in receiving these })etitions. One of
the New York members of the House had the curiosity to
save a copy of each of the petitions presented on this sub-
ject, and had the whole of them bound into one stupendous
volume of nearly two thousand pages. I had prepared, at
considerable labor, a catalogue of the contents of this mono-
tonous collection, but even this would occupy more of these
pages than can be spared for the purpose. There were in all
two hundred and twenty-three petitions, of which fifty-two
approved the removal of the deposits, and one hundred and
seventy-one asked their restoration to the Bank of the United
States. The great cities sent petitions in curious variety.
Philadelphia, for example, furnished the following : One
from the citizens generally, to which ten thousand names
were appended ; one from each of the municipal divisions of
Philadelphia ; one from each of the banks ; one from each
of the trades ; one from " six hundred strangers " in Phila-
delphia ; one from the young men, and one from the women
of Philadelphia ; one from five thousand Philadelphia demo-
crats ; one from the city council ; one from the German
working men of Philadelphia ; one from the Philadelphia
Board of Trade ; one from the Philadelphia Chamber of Com-
merce ; and one from the Philadelphia Aims-House. New
York, Boston, Baltimore, and New Orleans were only lees
zealous than Philadelphia in forwarding petitions. The
great petition from Boston was signed by ten thousand per-
sons ; the principal one from New York by six thousand ;
the most important one from Baltimore by three thousand.
The smallest towns contributed their mite to swell the
mountain of petitions, and, indeed, the whole country ap-
peared to abandon itself to the work.

The opposition leaders in Congress did not fail to make
the most of the prevailing excitement. " The city is full <rf
distress petitioners," wrote Mr. Clay in one of his private

1833.] THE PANIO SESSION OF CONGRESS. 547

letters ; " the more the better /" In seconding a motion to
print one of the great petitions, Mr. Clay enacted, one morn-
ing, a remarkable scene in the Senate chamber. He suddenly
ceased to address Mr. Van Buren as the president of the Sen-
ate^ and broke into an apostrophe to Mr. Van Buren as the
fiiend of Andrew Jackson :

" ' To you, sir/ exclaimed the orator, addressing the Vice-President^
' to you, then, sir, in no unfriendly spirit, but with feelings soflened and
subdued by the deep distress which pervades every class of our country-
men, I make the appeal. By your official and personal relations witli the
President you maintain with him an intercourse which I neither enjoy nor
oovet. Go to him and tell him, without exaggeration, but in the lan-
guage of truth and sincerity, the actual condition of his bleeding country.
Tell him it is nearly ruined and undone by the measures which he has
been induced to put in operation. Tell him tliat his experiment is operat-
ing on the nation like the philosopher's experiment upon a convulsed ani-
mal in an exhausted receiver, and that it umst expire in agony if he does
not pause, give it free and sound circulation, and suffer the energies of the
people to be revived and restored. Tell him that in a single city more than
BZty bankruptcies, involving a loss of upwards of fifteen millions of dol-
lars, have occurred. Tell him of the alarming dechne in the value of all
property, of the depreciation of all the products of industry, of the stagna-
tion in every branch of business, and of the close of numerous manufac-
toring establishment^, which, a few sliort months ago, were in active and
flourishing operation. Depict to him, if you can find language to portray,
the heart-rending wretchedness of thousands of the working classes cast
out of employment Tell him of the tears of helpless widows, no longer
able to earn their bread, and of unclad and unfed orphans who have been
driven by his pohcy out of the busy pursuits in which but yesterday they
were gaining an honest livelihood. Tell him that in his bosom alone,
under actual circumstances, does the power abide to relieve the country ;
and that unless he opens it to conviction, and corrects the errors of his
administration, no human imagination can conceive and no human tongue
can express the awful consequences which may follow. Entreat him to
pause, and to reflect that there is a point beyond which human endurance
can not go; and let him not drive this brave, generous, and patriotic
people to madness and despair.' "

Colonel Benton records that, " during the delivery of this
apostrophe, the Vice-President maintained the utmost deco-
rum of countenance^ looking respectfully, and even innocently,

548 LIFE OF AKDBEW JACKSON. [1833.

at the speaker all the while, as if treasuring up every word he
said, to be faithfully repeated to the President. After it was
over, and the Vice-President had called some Senator to the
chair, he went up to Mr. Clay, and asked him for a pinch ot
his fine maccoboy snuflF (as he often did), and, having re-
ceived it, walked away." Mr. Niles tells us, in his Register,
that at a great meeting, held, soon after, in Philadelphia, it
was "resolved" that the Vice-President would deserve the
execrations of all good men, if he did not faithfully deliver
to the President the message intrusted to him by the Honor-
able Henry Clay,

The President, during these mad months, was as immov-
able as the Crag of Fergus, whence he sprang. " I was ac-
customed," says Colonel Benton, " to see him often during
that time, always in the night (for I had no time to quit my
seat during the day) ; and never saw him appear more truly
heroic and grand than at this time. He was perfectly mild
in his language, cheerful in his temper, firm in his conviction ;
and confident in his reliance on the power in which he put
his trust. I have seen him in a great many situations of peril,
and even of desperation, both civil and military, and always
saw him firmly relying upon the success of the right through
God and the people, and never saw that confidence more firm
and steady than now. After giving him an account of the
day's proceedings, talking over the state of the contest, and
ready to return to sleep a little and prepare much for the
combats of the next day, he would usually say : * We shall
whip them yet. The people will take it up after a while.'
But he also had good defenders present, and in both Houses,
and men who did not confine themselves to the defensive."

Far from it. Colonel Benton informs his readers that he
himself spoke thirty times, during the session, on the one
topic of debate.

It became the custom, as the excitement increased, for
the great petitions to be conveyed to Washington by impos-
ing deputations of distingui^ed citizens, some of which
sought the presence of the President, and laid their grie&

1833.] THE PANIC SESSION OF CONQBESS. 5^

before him. The adventures of one of these deputations, a
friendly informant, who witnessed their interview with the
President, enables me to relate. The petition of the New
York merchants, bearing six thousand signatures (all ob-
tained by the labors and money of Mr. Biddle's devoted ad-
herents), was intrusted to the care of a deputation of great
bankers and great merchants, headed by Mr. James G. King.
When these worthy gentlemen entered the office of the Pres-
ident, at the White House, they discovered him seated at a
table writing, with a long pipe in his mouth, which rested on
the table and revealed the intensity of the President's interest
in his work, by the volumes of smoke which gushed from its
blackened bowL

" Excuse me a moment, gentlemen," said the President,
half rising, and bowing to the group. ^^ Have the goodness
to be seated."

In a few minutes he pushed back his paper, rose, and
said:

" Now gentlemen, what is your pleasure with me ?"

The members of the deputation were introduced to the
President by the gentleman whose recollections of the scene
I am now recording. Mr. King then began, in his usual de-
liberate and dignified manner, to state the object of the
interview, which was to inform the President of the embar-
rassments under which the merchants of New York were
laboring, and to ask such relief as the Executive alone was
supposed to be able to aflford. Mr. King had uttered only a
few sentences of the address which he had meditatfed, when
the President interrupted him with an irrelevant question.

" Mr. King, you are the son of Rufus King, I believe ?"

" I am, sir," was the reply.

Whereupon the President broke into a harangue which
astonished the grave and reverend seigniors to whom it was
addressed.

" Well, sir," said the President, " Rufus King was always
a federalist, and I suppose you take after him. Insolvent do
you say ? What do you come to me for, then ? Qo to

550 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1834.

Nicholas Biddle. We have no money here, gentlemen. Biddle
has all the money. He has millions of specie in his vaults,
at this moment, lying idle, and yet you come to nie to save
you from breaking. I tell you, gentlemen, it's all politics."

He continued to speak in a strain like this for fifteen min-
utes, denouncing Biddle and the bank in the manner usual
with him, and gradually working himself up to a high d^ree
of excitement. He laid down his pipe ; he gesticulated
wildly ; he walked up and down the room ; and finished by
declaring, in respectful but unmistakable language, that his
purpose was unchangeable not to restore the deposits. He
ceased, at length. The deputation, correctly surmising that
their mission was a failure, rose to retire, and were dismissed
by the President with the utmost politeness. The gentleman
who had introduced the deputation left the apartment with
them, but was overtaken by a messenger, as he was descend-
ing the stairs, who informed him that the President wished
him to return. He accordingly went back to the office, where
he found the President exulting over the result of the inter-
view. " Did n't I manage them well ?" he exclaimed. The
only object of the President in calling him back was to en-
joy a chuckle with him over the scene that had transpired.

Upon retiring to their hotel, the deputation deliberated
upon what was to be done next. They concluded to take
the President's advice, and go to Mr. Biddle. Before they
reached Philadelphia, however, a hint of their intention was
conveyed to the president of the Bank, who retired to Anda-
lusia, his country-seat on the Delaware. When the deputa-
tion called, therefore, Mr. Biddle was " out of town."

A few days after this interview, a delegation of the Me-
chanics and Artisans of New York arrived in Washington,
bearing another monster petition, asking the restoration of
the deposits. They, too, desired to make known their sor-
rows to the President. By this time the President was be-
ginning to be heartily disgusted with this novel method of
agitation, and it was only after repeated endeavors that the

-•0^^^:2z^ai4:_Yi-.^ ^

1834.] THE PANIC SESSION OF OONQBESS. 551

delegation succeeded in obtaining the interview desired. The
result of their conference was unsatisfactory in the extreme.

" Feeling it to be our duty," they said in their report, " to wait on the
President again, and communicate to him personally the situation and
wishes of our constituents, we presented ourselves on the 13th, but find-
ing him engaged in preparing to attend a funeral we lefl our card, inti-
mating our intention to call on him the next morning at ten o'clock. We
accordingly repaired to his residence on the morning of the 14th, and
were admitted at once to his presence. Two gentlemen were with him
at the time, who retired in a few moments. The President received us
with,

" * Good morning, gentlemen ; pray be seated.'

We introduced each other, and then took scats. The President also
sat down by a table and signed several papers, afler which he took up a
letter, bioke the seal, and read it very deliberately; then anotlier letter;
and was engaged with a tliird when company was announced. During all
this time he did not seem to notice our presence, and, fearing to interrupt
important business, we had patiently waited his leisure ; but perceiving, at
length, that we must introduce our subject without further delay, or lose
the opportunity, we commenced by saying,

'^ ' Tou are aware, sir, that we are a delegation from the mechanics
and artisans of the city of New York, to make known to the government
the pecuniary difficulties under which the citizens arc laboring at the pres-
ent time.'

" He answered, * Well what do you want ? what would you have me
do ? what do you come here for ? why don't you go to the United States
Bank? Go to Nicholas Blddle !'

" His manner was agitated, expressing impatience and anger. We re-
plied that we were not authorized to make application to the bank, but to
the government, for an amelioration of our sufferings, to which he replied :

" * I have been «ipplied to by committee afler committee, from New
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York again^K)ne, two, five, seven,
and you are the eighth. I have dealt openly and candidly with all. You
have seen the committee from your city ; they could tell you my determin-
ation. I told them, and I now tell you, I never will restore the deposits ;
I never will re-charter the United States Bank, or sign a charter for any
bank, so long as my name is Andrew Jackson.'

" H is energy and his anger increased as ho continued to speak. We
replied that we did not come to ask the re-charter of the United States
Bank, but merely to declare that our complaints did not originate in faction,
and to request from the government the adoption of some system which
might tend to restore mercantile confidence.

552 LIFE OF AKDBEW JACKSON. [1831

" He asked, ' How am I to do that T

" We replied that were not instructed to dictate to the govemment
what to do ; but we looked upon the want of a good understanding be-
tween the President and the Bank as the great cause of our present em-
barrassment At this he became excessively agitated, rose from his seat,
and shaking his linger in an earnest and threatening manner, said :

" ' In what way have I produced it?'

** To which we replied, * You informed Congress in your official com-
munications that you did not believe the bank was solvent — that it would
not be able, on winding up, to pay all demands against it*

'' The President replied, ' I did so, and I say it now. It will not pay
all ; it is a corrupt and abominable institution, buying up presses and inter-
fering with elections throughout the country. It has violated its charter
repeatedly.'

" We answered that the business portion of the citizens of New York,
we believed, viewed it in a different light But if the bank has violated it8
charter, the law points out the proper course to be pursued. Here his
excitement assumed an extraordinary shape, his whole frame trembling
With agitation.

"* Well,' said he, *■ have I not pursued lawful measures?'

" Wo answered that the charter authorized the President to issue a
scire facias ^ but we believed that course had not been pursued. He an-
swered, in a vehement manner :

" ' It may be, however, before the affairs of the bank are wound up.'

" He became too angry now to hope for any good growing out of fiir-
ther conversation. One of our committee, with a hope of appeasing bis
extreme irritation, said to him, in the kindest manner:

" ' May it please the President, we have been particularly instructed by
those whom we represent, not only to present our memorial to both houses
of Congress, but to state personally to the Executive our grievances, and
ask tlie wisdom of the government to devise some method for our relief.'

"But the President continued, 'Why am I teased with committees?
Here I am receiving two or three anonymous letters every day, threatening
me with assassination if I don't restore the deposits and re-charter the
bank — the abominable institution — the monster, that has grown up out of
circumstances, and has attempted to control the govemment I 've got
my foot upon it, and I '11 crush it* (The Oloht lay before him on the
table, containing some of the letters referred to.) He continued, * Am I
to violate my constitutional oath ? Is it to be expected that I am to be
turned from my purpose ? Is Andrew Jackson to bow the knee to the
golden calf, as did the Israelites of old ? I tell you, if you want relief, go
to Nicholas Biddle.*

'^ We repUed, * Nicholas Biddle will tell us that he is but following the

1834.] THE PANIC SESSION OF OONGRESS. 553

recommendations of the Executive, in winding up the affairs of the bank
by curtailing its discounts.* The rago of tlie President now increased, if
possible, to a degree which we shall not attempt to describe. He con-
tinued:

" * Did I advise him to witlidraw thirty-five millions from the purchase
of inland bills of exchange in the western country ? I tell you I am op-
posed to all banks and banking operations, from the South Sea bubble to
the present time. The Israelites, during the absence of Moses to the
Mount, made a golden calf, and fell down and worshiped if, and they sorely
8afferc<l for their idolatry. The people of this country may yet be pun-
iriied for their idolatry. Let the United States Bank relieve the commu-
nity by issuing their notes, and I pledge myself that the State banks shall
not oppress it'

" Beheving that we had already said more than was well received, we
now witlidrew. During this interview several persons were present"

A floating paragraph of the day, which I can not trace
to any responsible source, stated, that to one of the deputa-
tions the President addressed the following language : " In
the name of God, sir ! what do the ])eople think to gain by
Bending their memorials here ? If they send ten thousand
of them, signed by all the men, women, and children in the
land, and bearing the names of all on the grave-stones, I
will not relax a particle from my position."

It was officially announced in the Globe, soon after the
date of the interview with the artizans' delegation, that the
President would receive no more deputations sent to Wash-
ington to converse with liim on questions relating to the cur-
rency.

The storm of words raged on, meanwhile, within the walls
of the cai)itol. One member of the House, in a moment of
exa8i)eration, drew up a resolution proposing the impeach-
ment of the President ; and on the same piece of paper he
wrote some notes for the speech which he designed to deliver
on introducing his resolution. One of these notes expressed
the opinion that the story of General Jackson's having shed
his youthful blood in the revolutionary war was an election-
eering story, destitute of truth. The paper, left accidentally
on the floor of the House, fell into the hands of the editor of

554 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1834.

the Globe, who described it to General Jackson. On this oc-
casion the General was betrayed, by his ungovernable wrath,
into the use of language that had seldom fallen from bis
lips since the death of his wife.

" The d d, infernal scoundrel !" roared the President.

" Put your finger here, Mr. Blair," he added pointing to the
long dent in his head left by the sword of the officer whose
boots he had refused to clean fifty years before.

Mr. Blair found that the wound had been far more serious
than was supposed. He could lay a whole finger in the scar.

In the midst of the angry debates of this session, Cod-
gress was frequently called upon to consider events which, at
other times, would have allayed undue excitement. Among
the deaths announced during the winter and spring of 1834,
were those of General Lafayette, William Wirt, John Ban-
dolph, and the last of the signers of the declaration of inde-
pendence, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. Judge Bouldin,
of Virginia, while in the very act of alluding to the death of
John Randolph, paused in the midst of a sentence, fell to the
floor, in a few moments breathed his last, and was borne from
the hall a corpse. The unfinished sentence thus began : *' But
I can not tell the reasons why his death was not announced
without telling what I told a friend that I should say in case

I did " Then the grim messenger laid an icy finger upon

his heart and stilled it forever. The House, appalled at the
event, hastened to adjourn. A funeral of peculiar solemnity,
attended by the President, the Cabinet, and both houses of
Congress, gave a brief pause to the war of words. A few
weeks after, General Blair, of South Carolina, the only mem-
ber of the House from that State who was not a nuUifier, shot
himself dead, in a moment of despair, caused by a relapse
into habits of intemperance against which he had vainly
struggled for many years.

Although the greater part of the session was worse than
wasted in angry speeches, there were not wanting efforts to
conciliate the contending factions. Mr. Webster, taking the
hint, perhaps, from Mr. Clay's tariff compromise of the last

1834] THE PANIC SESSION OF CONGRESS. 555

Congress, strove to unite the moderate men of all parties in
the support of a bill to re-charter the Bank of the United
States for six years. Mr. Calhoun, who was an anti-bank
man in 1830, but now acted with the Opposition, proposed to
re-charter the bank for twelve years. Mr. Clay, however,
would listen to nothing less than twenty years. All these
propositions, and all similar ones, came to naught, and need
not detain us.

On the 4th of April, the House came to a vote upon four
resolutions reported by a majority of the Committee of Ways
and Means, of which the chairman was Mr. Polk, of Tennes-
see. 1. Resolved, that the bank ought not to be re- chartered ;
yeas, 134, nays, 82. 2. That the deposits ought not to be
restored to the bank; ayes, 118, nays, 103. 3. That the
State banks, under new regulations to be ordered by Con-
gress, ought to continue to be the custodians of the public
money ; ayes, 117, nays, 105. 4. That a new investigation
of the conduct of the bank ought to be made, with a view to
ascertain the cause of the commercial embarrassments, and
whether the charter of the bank had been violated, and
whether there had been in the conduct of the bank any
"abuses, corruptions, or malpractices ;" yeas, 175, nays, 42.
In accordance with the last resolution, a select committee
was appointed, consisting of seven members, Messrs. Francis
Thomas, Edward Everett, Henry A. Muhlenberg, John Y.
Mason, W. W. Ellsworth, Abijah Mann, and R. T. Lytle.
The committee was empowered to visit the parent bank and
any of its branches, to examine the books of the bank, and to
send for persons and papers.

The bank succeeded in frustrating the designs of the com-
mittee. The directors a})pointed a committee of seven of
their number to meet the House Committee and assist them
in their investigations. The House Committee, accordingly,
or repairing to the apartment in the bank designated for their
use, found it preoccupied by the bank committee, one of
whom, a member ex officio^ was Nicholas Biddle. The House
Committee objected to this proceeding, and asked the appro-

556 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1834

priation of a room in the bank to their exclusive use. The
directors refused compliance with this request, and intimated
to the committee that the use of a room in the bank, on any
terms, was regarded by the directors as a favor to the com-
mittee. In fact, the directors politely reminded the com-
mittee that beggars must not be choosers. When, therefore,
the House Committee presented themselves at the bank a
second time, they found Mr. Biddle and his committee al-
ready in possession of the apartment, and disposed to treal
the House Committee as distinguished guests.

The House Committee returned to their hotel, and re-
solved to conduct their investigation there. They notified
the president and directors of the bank of their intention, and
appointed a day and hour for the attendance of the president
and directors, who were asked to submit certain books and
papers of the bank to the inspection of the committee. The
directors replied that they did not feel justified in submitting
their books and papers to the secret, ex parte inspection of a
hostile body. The committee tlien notified the directors that
they would again repair to the bank and examine the books
there, either at the counter or in an apartment. At the ap-
pointed hour, the committee entered the bank and demanded
to see the books. The directors again refused to comply with
the demand, and stated their reasons in writing. The com-
mittee, in writing, demanded the surrender of certain specified
books, for the specified purpose of ascertaining whether the
bank had employed its power in producing distress or in con-
trolling elections. The directors replied, in writing, by point-
ing out the mode in which they thought the inquiry ought to
be conducted ; and by explaining the conditions upon which
alone any books would be submitted to inspection. They re-
quired the committee " when they asked for books and pa-
pers, to state specifically in writing, the purposes for which
they are proposed to be inspected ; and if it be to establish a
violation of the charter, then to state specifically in writing,
what are the alleged or supposed violations of charter, to which
the evidence is alleged to be applicable.''

1834.] THE PANIC SESSION OF CONGRESS. 557

The committee refusing to do this, no books were shown
them, and they returned to their hotel. Their next step was
to demand copies of certain books, entries, and papers desig-
nated by them. The directors replied that it would require
the labor of two clerks for ten months to execute the copies
demanded. As a last resort, the baffled committee caused
the marshal of the district to serve subpoenas upon the presi-
dent and directors, with a clause {duces tecum) commanding
them to bring with them the books required. The directors
obeyed the summons so far as to attend the committee at
their apartment, but disobeyed the clause of the subpoena re-
quiring them to produce the books. Upon entering the com-
mittee room the president of the bank handed to the chair-
man of the committee a document, signed by himself and
every member of the board. In this paper the directors
stated that " they do not produce the books required, because
they are not in the custody of either of us, but, as has been
heretofore stated, of the board ; and considering that as
corporators and directors we are parties to the proceeding, we
do not consider ourselves bound to testify, and, therefore, re-
spectfully decline to do so."

The attempt to investigate having completely failed, the
committee returned to Washington, reported their proceedings
to the House, and concluded by moving " that the speaker
of this House do issue his warrant to the sergeant-at-anns
to arrest Nicholas Biddle, president, Manuel Eyre, Lawrence
Lewis, Ambrose White, Daniel W. Cox, John Hohues, Chas.
Chauncey, John Goddard, John R. NefF, William Piatt,
Matthew Newkirk, James C. Fisher, John 8. Henry, and
John Sergeant, directors of the Bank of the United States,
and bring tliem to the bar of tliis House, to answer for the
contempt of its lawful authority."

The minority of the committee, Messrs. Everett and Ells-
worth, submitted a report to the House, which justified the
directors in every particular. " Firmly believing," said they,
" that the directors are innocent of the crimes and corruj)-
tions with which they have been charged, and that, if guilty,

558 LIFB OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1834.

they ought not to be compelled to criminate themselves, we
are clearly of the opinion that the directors of the bank have
been guilty of no contempt of the authority of the House, in
having respectfully declined to submit their books for inspec-
tion, except as required by charter." The motion of the
majority was never act^d upon by the House, and so the bank
added one more to its long series of fruitless triumphs.

The last few days of the session were signalized by events
that amounted almost to a second disruption of the cabinet.
The reader is aware that Mr. McLane, the Secretary of State,
had opposed the recent currency measures of the President,
from their inception to their consummation. He had, for a
whole year, desired to resign, and on more than one occasion
had resolved to do so, and, I believe, had once actually pen-
ned a letter of resignation. He was dissuaded from resign-
ing by the politicians surrounding the President, who remem-
bered well the disruption of 1831, and shuddered at the
possible eflTects of a second on the fortunes of the party.
Mr. McLane, however, as we have before hinted, indulged
presidential aspirations. He believed that the people would
not sustain the late measures, and deemed it unjust that he
should share the odium of acts which he had done his ut-
most to prevent. He wavered long between contending
attachments and desires ; but a few days before the adjourn-
ment of Congress, he resigned his place, and retired to private
life, the Globe declaring that though the Secretary and the
President had diflTered in opinion, they parted friends. Mr.
John Forsyth, of Georgia, the particular friend and defender
of Mr. Van Buren, was appointed to the vacant place.

The new Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Taney, had not
yet been confirmed by the Senate. The President, knowing
well what would happen when the nomination should be sub-
mitted to the action of a hostile Senate, held back his name
until the last week of the session. June 23d, the nomination
was sent in, and instantly rejected by a vote of thirty to
fifteen.

The nomination of Mr. Butler to the attorney-general-

1834.] THE PAKIC SESSION OF CONGRESS. 559

ship was confirmed. Mr. Woodbury was soon gratified by
• the promotion he had longed for, in being appointed to the
place from which Mr. Taney was compelled to retire. The
Navy Department was assigned to Mr. Mahlon Dickerson,
once governor of New Jersey, and for sixteen years a repre-
sentative of that State in the Senate of the United States.

The Senate had yet another blow to give the President
before parting. The mission to England was vacant stiU.
The President, who had long ago fixed upon a gentleman to
fill .that coveted post, and had, indeed, promised it to him,
sent his name to the Senate near the close of the session. It
was Andrew Stcplfenson, for many years the speaker of the
House, a man most hateful to the opposition from his strict
partisanship in the appointment of committees. The Sen-
ate rejected the nomination. The President adhered to his
purpose, however, till a Senate was found willing to confirm
the nomination.

As a part of the history of the removal of the deposits,
we may add an incident or two of the subsequent career of
-Mr. Taney. In 1835, a vacancy occurred on the bench of the
Supreme Court by the resignation of one of the associate
Justices. A place upon that bench had been the dream of
Mr. Taney's life, from youth to middle age. General Jack-
son sent his name to the Senate for confirmation to the
vacant seat. The Senate, of which a majority was still hos-
tile to the administration, did not so much as deign to notice
the nomination. Before Congress again assembled, the death
of Chief Justice Marshall left vacant the highest judicial
place in the President's gift. The long service of Justice
Story, his great ability, worth, and reputation, his early
championship of the republican party in New England, the
known wish of the late Chief Justice, all combined to desig-
nate him as the rightful successor to the vacant seat. The
President nominated Mr. Taney, and the Senate, wherein
then the administration commanded a majority, confirmed
the nomination.

On the last day of June, after a session of seven wasted

560 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1834

months, Congress adjourned, leaving the President as com-
pletely master of the situation as he was before it convened. .

As the commercial embarrassments diminished, the clamor
against the administration died away, and the fall elections
demonstrated that the party in power had been shaken, but
not seriously weakened. There were opposition gains here
and there, but the empire State this year elected Marcy gov-
ernor over Seward by a majority that surprised the demo-
crats, and utterly disheartened the whigs. A stranger would
have thought the administration lost beyond redemption in
April. In November, it was found that Hurrah for Jackson
was still an argument against which nothing could prevail
In April, the grand jury of Kowan county, North Carolina,
the county in which Andrew Jackson had studied law,
'^presented" the removal of the deposits as an act of usurpa-
tion, and the administration that had done the deed as profli-
gate, proscriptive, and tyrannical. In April, the leaders of
the opposition could not stir abroad without incurring the
risk of an ovation, and Mr. Biddle's casual presence in Wall
street was the sensation of the day. In November, the ex-
citement was a thing of the past, and almost effaced from
recollection by a new topic.

Upon a calm review of the consequences of transferring
the public money to the State banks, no pei'son, who is both
candid and disinterested, can hesitate to admit, I think, that
the act was as unwise as it was precipitate and unnecessary.
The State banks, as a senator remarked, " soon began to feel
their oats." The expression is homely, but not inapt. The
extraordinary increase in the public revenue during the next
two years, added immense sums to the available capital of
those banks, and gave a new and undue importance to the
business of banking. Banks sprang into existence like mush-
rooms in a night. The pet banks seemed compelled to extend
their business, or lose the advantage of their connection with
the government. The great bank felt itself obliged to ex-
pand or be submerged in the general inflation. It expanded
twelve millions during the next two years. All the other

1834] THE FRBNOH IMBBOGLIO. 561

banks expanded, and all men expanded^ and all things ex-
panded. It was the period of expansion. Many causes, as
we all know, conspired to produce the unexampled, the dis-
astrous, the demoralizing inflation of 1835 and 1836 ; but I
do not see any escape from the conclusion, that the inciting
cause was the vast amounts of public treasure that, during
those years, were " lying about loose" in the deposit banks.
(General Jackson desired a currency of gold and silver. Never
were such floods of paper money emitted as during the con-
tinuance of his own fiscal system. He wished to reduce the
number and the importance of banks, bankers, brokers, and
speculators. The years succeeding the transfer of the de-
posits were the golden biennium of just those classes. In a
word, his system, as far as my small acquaintance with such
matters enables me to judge, worked ill at every moment of
its operation, and upon every interest of business and morality.
To it, more than to all other causes combined, we seem to owe
the inflation of 1835 and 1836, the universal ruin of 1837, the
dreary and hopeless depression of the five years following.

During the summer of 1834, General Jackson paid his
accustomed visit to the Hermitage, and partook of the usual
t>anquet at Nashville, and made the usual detour on his re-
turn. In the towns through which he passed, he was greeted
with, if possible, more than the old enthusiasm.

CHAPTER XL.

THE FRENCH IMBBOGLIO.

The particular complaisance of General Jackson's admin-
istration toward Great Britain has already excited our sur-
prise. Still less could it have been foreseen, that the only
country with which it was to be dangerously embroiled was
the old ally of the democratic party, the favorite land of
Jefferson and Jeffersonians — France.

In May, 1806, the British government issued an Order in
VOL. m — 36

562 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1834.

Council, which declared the northern coast of Europe, from
Denmark to the Bay of Biscay, all of which was then under
the sway of Napoleon, to he in a state of blockade.

Napoleon retorted, in November following, by the Berlin
Decree, which was in these words : " The British Isles are
in a state of blockade. All trade and communication with
Great Britain are strictly prohibited. All letters going to or
coming from England or addressed to English persons, are
not to be forwarded : and all those written in English are to
be suppressed. Every individual who is a subject of Great
Britain is to be made prisoner of war wherever he may be
found. All goods belonging to Englishmen are to be confis-
cated, and the amount paid to those who have suffered through
the detention of ships by the English. No ships coming from
Great Britain, or having been in a port of that country, are to
be admitted. All trade in English goods is rigorously pro-
hibited."

In January, 1807, the British government was provoked
by the Berlin decree to issue another Order in Council, of
which the following was the most important article : " No
vessel shall be permitted to trade from one port to another,
both which ports shall belong to or be in possession of France
or her allies, or shall be so far under their control as that
British vessels may not freely trade thereat ; and the com-
manders of his Majesty's ships of war and privateers shall be,
and are hereby instructed to warn every neutral vessel coming
from any such port, and destined to another such port, to
discontinue her voyage, and not to proceed to any such port ;
and any vessel, after being so warned, or any vessel coming
from any such port, after a reasonable time shall have been
afforded for receiving information of his Majesty's order,
which shall be found proceeding to another such port, shall
be captured and brought in, and, together with her caigo,
shall be condemned as lawful prize."

This order, not having been found adequate to its pur-
pose, was followed, in November of the same year, by another,
which declared '^ that all the ports and places of France and

1834.1 THE FBENCH IMBBOGLIO. 563

her allies, or of any other country at war with his Majesty,
and all other ports and places in Europe from which, although
not at war with his Majesty, the British flag is exchided, and
all ports or places in the colonies, belonging to his Majesty's
enemies, shall from henceforth be subject to the same restric-
tions, in point of trade and navigation, with the exceptions
hereinafter mentioned, as if the same were actually blockaded
by his Majesty's naval forces in the most strict and rigorous
manner."

Napoleon had no sooner read this order than he responded
to it by issuing the famous Milan decree, which ordered that
every ship, to whatever nation it may belong, which shall
have submitted to be searched by an English ship, or which
shall be on her voyage to England, or which shall have paid
any tax whatever to the English government, shall be de-
claored to be " denationalized." The second article of the de-
cree notified the maritime world that " whether the ship
denationalized by the arbitrary measures of the English gov-
ernment enter our ports or those of our allies, or whether
they fall into the hands of our ships of war or privateers,
they are declared to be good and lawful prizes."

Both under the British orders-in-council and under the
Napoleonic decrees, spoliations upon the commerce of the
United States were committed. It will devolve upon that
hapless man, the Future Historian, to whom so many puz-
zling questions are daily referred, to explain why the spolia-
tions committed under the orders-in-council caused a war
between the United States and Great Britain, and why those
perpetrated under the decrees of Napoleon did not provoke a
war between the United States and France. It concerns us
only to know that, while the war of 1812 was supposed to
have righted the wrongs committed by Britain, the French
spoliations remained unatoned until the second term of Gen-
eral Jackson's presidency.

Those spoliations were of a character singularly atrocious.
In many well-authenticated cases, ships were confiscated only
on the ground that they had been boarded by the officers of

564 LIFB OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1834.

a British man-of-war. Other ships were confiscated because
they had been forced by an armed vessel to enter an English
port. In some cases, American citizens were detained in
France, under the surveillance of the police, for months, be-
cause they were suspected of the crime, least pardonable by
Napoleon, of being English.

From the time of the general peace, in 1815, until Gren-
eral Jackson's accession to power, the American government
had sought compensation for these outrages in vain. The
French government was brought to admit the justice of the
claim, but disputed its amount, and exhibited that distaste
for the discussion of the subject which men and governments
generally manifest when the object sought of them is the
payment of a stale debt. The first message of President
Jackson announced his intention to press the affair to a set-
tlement. "The claims of our citizens," said the President,
" for depredations upon their property long since committed,
under the authority, and, in many instances, by the express
direction of the then existing government of France, remain
unsatisfied, and must, therefore, continue to furnish a subject
of unpleasant discussion, and possible collision, between the
two governments. I cherish, however, a lively hope, founded
as well on the validity of those claims, and the established
policy of all enlightened governments, as on the known in-
tegrity of the French monarch, that the injurious delays of
the past will find redress in the equity of the future. Our
Minister has been instructed to press these demands on the
French government with all the earnestness which is called
for by their importance and irrefutable justice, and in a spirit
that will evince the respect which is due to the feelings of
those from whom the satisfaction is required."

It pleased the sapient counselors of Charles X., glad of
any pretext to postpone a disagreeable subject, to pretend to
regard the words "possible collision" in the light of a
" menace." The American Ambassador, Mr. Rives, of Vir-
ginia, contrived to mollify their feelings, and the n^otiation
languidly proceeded, till the revolution of 1830 drove Charles

1834.] THE FRENOH IMBROGLIO. 565

X. from his throne and country, and made Louis Philippe
king of the French.

Louis Philippe was the cordial friend of the United States
and an admirer of General Jackson. He remembered his
early wanderings in the American wilderness with a delight
that was enhanced by his imprisonment in the forms of a
court. There was nothing about which he oftener conversed,
or conversed more interestingly, than his youthful adventures
among the wild woods and the wild men of the west. Under
him, the negotiation for indemnity made such progress, that,
on the 4th of July, 1831, a treaty was concluded in Paris,
and signed by Mr. Rives, which bound the French govern-
ment to pay to the United States the sum of five millions of
dollars, in six annual instalments ; the first to be paid one
year from the date of the ratification of the treaty. The
treaty was ratified at Washington on the 2d of February,
1832. The first instalment, therefore, was due in Paris on
the 2d of February, 1833.

The affair was then supposed to be settled. So little did
Congress expect any further difficulty or delay, that it imme-
diately, and as a matter of course, passed a law providing for
the appointment of three commissioners to make an equitable
division of the money among the various claimants. The
commissioners were to meet in June, 1833, and were to con-
tinue the labor of distribution, if necessary, for three years,
at salaries of three thousand dollars a year. The treaty of
indemnity bound the United Stiites to make certain reduc-
tions of the duties upon French wines, and a law in accord-
ance with this sti])ulation was promptly passed by Congress.
Nothing remained but for France to pay the money.

The government of France changes so frequently, that it
may be necessary to remind the reader, that the government
over which Louis Philij)pe presided was a limited, or constitu-
tional monarchy, resembling that of Great Britain. There
was a Chamber of Peers and a Chamber of Deputies ; the
former an ornamental nonentity ; the latter, the governing
power of the country. In the Chamber of Deputies sat the

566 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1834

leading members of the cabinet, who held their places only
so long as they could command a majority therein. The king
had no more control over the public purse than the Sov-
ereign of England or the President of the United States.
All the expenditures of the government required an appropri-
ation by the Chamber of Deputies, the immediate representa-
tives of the people, who exhibited the reluctance to vote
money which such bodies invariably do, when they are com-
posed of two parties, one in power, the other ambitious of
power. Mr. Rives and the king, when they signed the treiity
of 1831, were aware that the real difficulty had yet to be
encountered. Mr. Rives, however, in the flush of his diplo-
matic triumph, could not be expected to enlarge upon this
branch of the subject in his communications to his govern-
ment. He had done his duty ; let the chambers do theirs.
He came home in triumph, and said nothing calculated to
disturb the impression that the instalments would be paid,
as a matter of course, as soon as they were due.

The 2d of February, 1833, the day on which the first in-
stalment was due at Paris, arrived. The administration
deigned to employ the services of the United States Bank on
this occasion, although even then the removal of the deposits
was in agitation at the White House. On the 7th of Feb-
ruary, a draft upon the French Minister of Finance, drawn in
favor of the cashier of the Bank of the United States, was
signed by the Secretary of the Treasury. The American
Charg^ des Affaires notified the French Government, in due
form, that such a draft was on its way. This draft was pur-
chased by the Bank of the United States, and its proceeds
were immediately placed to the credit of the government
The bank sold the draft to parties in England, who, on the
23d of March, presented it to the French Minister of Finance
for payment. The Minister informed the bearer of the draft,
that no money had been appropriated by the deputies for the
American indemnity, and it could not be paid. The finan-
cial complication resulting from the non-payment of the draft,
involving the English holders, the Bank of the United States

1834] THE FRENCH IMBBOGLIO. 567

and the American government, can be readily imagined. I
spare the reader the recital of the President's new quarrel
with the bank which arose when Mr. Biddle attempted to
adjust the matter with the Secretary of the Treasury. I will
merely say, that the dishonoring of a bill in Paris drawn by
the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, was an
event not calculated to lessen the disgust felt by General
Jackson at the neglect of the French government to provide
for the fulfillment of the treaty.

It is not difficult to account for that neglect. The treaty
of 1831, which was such a feather in the cap of Mr. Rives,
which was so complacently announced in the President's mes-
sage, and so highly extolled in the party newspapers, was not
r^arded in France as an affair of the first importance.
The king was occupied in securing his always shaky throne ;
the ministry in battling with an active and able opposition ;
the Chambers in the questions of the hour and the strife for
place. The news of the ratification of the treaty reached
Paris in April, 1832, five days before the expiration of the
session of the Chambers ; and neither king, ministry, nor
deputies thought of providing money to meet an instalment
due in February, 1833. In November, the Chambers were
again in session, and sat until April, 1833. But as there was
no American minister in Paris to press the claim of the
United States, the bill to provide for the first instalment was
not introduced till near the close of the session ; was not
then made a ministerial measure ; was not supported by the
ministry either with unanimity or with vigor ; and was not
acted upon by the Chamber of Deputies.

It was a fault in the administration of General Jackson
to leave the French mission vacant at such a time ; but upon
receiving the news that the draft of February, 1833, had
been dishonored, the administration hastened to atone for its
error in a striking manner. Mr. Edward Livingston, the
Secretary of State, resigned his office, accepted the appoint-
ment of minister to France, and was despatched to his post
in a national vessel. He was accompanied by his son-in-law^

568 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1834.

Mr. Thomas P. Barton, who was appointed Secretary of
Legation. In October, 1833, Mr. Livingston presented his
credentials to the king, who received him with particular
cordiality. " The king's answer to my address/' wrote Mr.
Livingston, " was long and earnest. I can not pretend to
give you the words of it, but, in substance, it was a warm
expression of his good feeling toward the United States, for
the hospitality he had received there. As to the convention,
he said, ' assure your government that unavoidable circum-
stances alone prevented its immediate execution, but it will
be faithfully performed. Assure your government of this,'
he repeated ; ' the necessary laws will be passed at the next
meeting of the Chambers. I tell you this not only as king,
but as an individual whose promise will be fulfilled.' "

The king was mistaken, and Mr. Livingston was disap-
pointed. At the next session of the Chambers, the bill ap-
propriating the money due to the United States was lost by
a majority of five — the Minister of Finance himself voting
against it !* The ministry in general not only would not
stake their places upon carrying the measure, but gave it a
languid support that invited and justified opposition.

The king, there is every reason to believe, was sinc^^ly
desirous to pay the money. He expressed to Mr. Livingston
great regret at the failure of the appropriation. He did
more than that. In confidential conversations with the
American minister he intimated clearly enough his opinion
that the only way left to induce the Chamber to vote the
money was for the President of the United States to insert a
passage in his next message which should show that the
American government was in earnest in the matter, and was
resolved to insist upon the prompt payment of the indem-
nity. Mr. Livingston communicated these conversations to
his government, and, accordingly, the message of 1834 con-

* It is due to the reader to state that some of the iacts recorded in this
chapter, not to be found in the public documents, I received from sunriving
members of Mr. Livingston's family. To Mr. Thomas P. Barton, of this city,
the reader is under particular obligations for interesting information commani-
cated to me in the most obliging and agreeable manner.

1834.] THE FBEKCU IMBBOGLIO. 5G3

tained a strong passage respecting the unpaid indemnity. This
message was prepared with unusual care, and was written
with great ability. It gave a history, full and exact, of the
late proceedings of the French legislature ; and concluded
the discussion of the subject with five short and quiet para-
graphs, which electrified two continents.

The President said it was a principle of international law,
that when one nation refused to pay a just debt, the aggrieved
nation might ^^ seize on the property" belonging to the citi-
zens of the defaulting nation. If, therefore, France did not
pay the money at the next session of the chambers, the
United States ought to delay no longer to take by force what
it could not get by negotiation. Nay, more. " Since France,"
said the President, " in violation of the pledges given through
her minister here, has delayed her final action so long that
her decision will not probably be known in time to be com-
municated to this Congress, I recommend that a law be passed
authorizing reprisals uj>on French property, in case provisions
shall not be made for the payment of the debt at the approach-
ing session of the French Chambers. Such a measure ought
not to be considered by France as a menace. Her pride and
power are too well known to expect any thing from her fears, and
preclude the necessity of tlie declaration that nothing partaking
of the character of intimidation is intended by us. She ought
to look upon it as the evidence only of an inflexible detern)ina-
tion on the part of the United States to insist on their rights."

Such words as these, I need scarcely say, were not such as
the King of the French expected to read in the message.
His idea of "strong language" and a "high tone" differed
from that of General Jackson. When he suggested to Mr.
Livingston to advise the President to employ strong language
in speaking of the indemnity, he used those words in a Euro-
pean and diplomatic sense. Nothing could be further from
his thoughts than such terms as " reprisals," " seizures,
"sequestration," and "taking redress into our own hands.
Members of General Jackson's own cabinet deemed the para-
graphs quoted above needlessly imtating and menacing, but
the General would not consent to abate a word of them.

570 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1834

" No, gentlemen/' he exclaimed, one day, during a Kit-
chen Cabinet discussion of the message, "I know them
French. They won't pay unless they 're made to."

The French King, alive to all the importance of the sub-
ject, was so anxious to "obtain the message at the earliest
moment, that he sent a courier to Havre to await the arrival
of the packet, and convey the document to Paris. Louis
Philippe, therefore, received the message before it reached the
American Ambassador, and was the first man in Paris who
read it. I am enabled to state, that the king read the mes-
sage with much surprise, but more amusement. He thought
it a capital joke. He was amused at the interpretation put
upon the advice he had given Mr. Livingston. The language
of the message, which a Tennessean deemed eminently mod-
erate and dignified, sounded in the cabinet of the Tuilleries,
like a fiery declaration of war. Upon the whole, however,
the king was pleased and satisfied with the message, because
he thought it calculated to produce the effect upon the depu-
ties which he desired it should produce.

The next day, the editors of Paris received their files of
American newspapers. The press of France under Louis
Philippe was not the tool of despotism which it must be under
any man of Bonapartean lineage. With one voice, the Pa-
risian newspapers, ministerial, opposition, and neutral, de-
nounced the message as an insult to France, so gross, that it
would be infamy not to resent it, A clamor arose, the vio-
lence of which can not be overstated. The excitement was
increased when, shortly after, American newspapers arrived
containing the extracts from Mr. Livingston's confidential cor-
respondence which are alluded to above. Imagine the embar-
rassment of the king, the disgust of the American Minister,
the exultation of the opposition, the indignation of the peo-
ple, the comments of the press, upon the publication of des-
patches which showed the King of the French attempting to
gain influence in the Chamber of Deputies by inciting the
President of the United States to act upon its fears !

The French government, weak because the King was

1835.] THB FRENCH IMBROGLIO. 571

weak, cowardly because the King was not brave, felt itself
compelled to bow to the storm. The French minister resi-
dent in Washington was immediately recalled, and Mr. Liv-
ingston was informed that passports were at his disposal.
The chambers were notified that diplomatic intercourse be-
tween France and the United States had been suspended. A
bill was' introduced in the chamber by the Minister of Fi-
nance proposing to pay the money, provided the Congress of
the United States should pass no hostile act in accordance
with the President's hostile message. The minister explained
to the chamber that the message was nothing more than the
expression of the President's individual opinion, and was not
to be considered the act of the people until its recommenda-
tions had been adopted by their representatives in Congress.

Mr. Livingston, instead of asking for the passports which
had been offered him, determined to await the arrival, hourly
expected, of the orders of his own government. He wrote,
meanwhile, an eloquent and ingenious paper, addressed to
the ministry, designed to show that the French people had
interpreted the message erroneously ; that it was a document
written to heal, not widen the breach ; that it expressed a
sincere and profound desire to avoid hostile measures ; that
no man knew better than the President how unworthy and
how hopeless were the attempt to extort from the fears of a
brave and high-spirited nation what could not be obtained
from its justice. All this the King understood, and so did a
majority of his Cabinet. The difficulty, then, was to allay
the excitement of the people and silence the thunders of the
press.

Mr. Livingston received his dispatches from Washington
— dispatches written before General Jackson had heard of the
recall of the French minister from the United States. The
President ordered Mr. Livingston, in Ciise the money was not
appropriated by the Deputies at the winter session of 1835,
to demand his j)assports and leave the country.

The action of Congress upon the message was well calcu-
lated to soothe the pride of the French people, and ought,

572 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1835.

at once, to have terminated the difficulty. On the 14th of
January, the Senate, without one dissentient voice^ passed the
following resolution :

" Resolved, That it is inexpedient, at present, to adopt
any legislative measures in regard to the state of affairs be-
tween the United States and France."

On no other occasion during the turbulent administration
of General Jackson, was the vote of the Senate, upon an
important question, unanimous. Resolutions of a similar
character were presented in the House of Repr^entatives.
On technical grounds, only, the House objected to suspend
the rules for their reception. The pacific action of Congreas
had its effect upon the Chamber of Deputies. In May, by a
vote of 289 to 137, the chamber passed a bill appropriating
a sum sufficient to pay the three instalments due upon the
indemnity. Unfortunately, a condition was annexed to the
payment of the money which the American government fell
to be utterly inadmissable. The bill forbade the ministry to
pay the instalments until the President had apologized for
the language of the message of 1834 ! The exact apology
demanded was stated by the Minister for Foreign Affaire:
" We will pay the money," said he, " when the government
of the United States is ready, on its part, to declare to us, bj
addressing its claim to us officially, in writing, that it regrets
the misunderstanding which has arisen between the two
countries ; that this misunderstanding is founded on a mis-
take ; that it never entered into its intention to call in ques-
tion the good faith of the French government, nor to take a
menacing attitude toward France." " If the government
of the United States," he added elsewhere, " does not give
this assurance, we shall be obliged to think that this mis-
understanding is not the result of an error." Again : " The
government of the United States knows that upon itself de-
pends henceforth the execution of the treaty of July 4th,
1831."

Mr. Livingston, after the passage of this bill, asked for his
passports, embarked on board the frigate Constitutionj and

1835.] THE FRENCH IMBROGLIO. 573

retomed to the United States, leaving behind him, as Chargd
des Affaires, his son-in-law, Mr. Barton. I should add that
before leaving Paris, he officially informed the French gov-
ernment that the President had approved the pacific inter-
pretation of the message of 1834 which Mr. Livingston had
given to it, on his own responsibility, soon after its arrival
in France. This he considered, and General Jackson con-
sidered, was more than equivalent to the apology which the
Chamber of Deputies demanded.

Congress had adjourned when Mr. Livingston reached the
United States. A clause of an appropriation bill, giving the
President the command of three millions of dollars, in case
any thing should occur during the intermission to render an
extraordinary expenditure necessary, had been fortunately
lost at the last moment of the session. The President was,
therefore, still obliged to rely upon the efficacy of words.
Orders were immediately sent out to Mr. Barton to convey
to the Minister of Finance a formal demand for the payment
of the three instalments overdue. The Charge presented the
demand accordingly. The minister replied that he was not
authorized to pay the money until the "formalities" enjoined
by the Chamber of Deputies had been complied with on the
part of the government of the United States. Mr. Barton
communicated this refusal to his government. The Presi-
dent then directed the Charge to demand of the French gov-
ernment its " final determination," and, if the instalments
were not paid, to close the office of the Legation, deposit
its contents with the Consul, and return to the United
States.

Before the result of this last application was known to
the President, Congress met, and the message had to be pre-
sented. The President recounted the history of the aftair,
informed Congress of the last orders sent to the Charge, and
promised another communication as soon as Mr. Barton, or a
despatch from that gentleman, should arrive. Congress and
the country were kept in painful suspense for six weeks
awaiting the news that might forebode inevitable war.

574 LIFE OP ANDREW JACKSON. [1836.

A caricature published during this period expressed the
popular feeling. General Jackson and Louis Philippe figure
as pugilists in a ring. General Jackson has just dealt the
king a blow on the nose, that has caused his crown to topple
forward, and his portly person to reel and stagger. The
President says: "General Valare wants an apology, does
he ? By the Eternal ! he shall have a taste of Old Virginia
rip-raps, in the shape of a tough hickory whip, that will
make him belch compliance, as old Bainbridge, Hull, and
Decatur made your crusty neighbor, Johnny Bull !" Behind
the king are frogs in uniform, one of whom says : " Vive le
roi ! vive la bagatelle ! L'Americain generale c'est bete !
Vive Valare ! General Shackson, God dame !" Behind
General Jackson rises Neptune, who slaps the General upon
the back, and encourages him with such elegant expressions
as these : " Fowl him, Andy ! Give it to him, my boy !
Old Ironsides, or even the Pennsylvania, will do to make
Johnny Crapeau's stomach qualmish ! "

Mr. Barton received the final determination of the French
government, which was, not to pay the indemnity until the
President had apologized. He set sail on his return home in
December, 1835, and reached New York, after a long voyage,
in January, 1836. Hindrances unavoidable and exasperat-
ing delayed his arrival in Washington for two or three days,
during which the impatience of the President rose to fever
heat. He reached Washington at last, and went to the resi-
dence of Mr. Livingston, who accompanied him to the man-
sion of the President. On the way thither they were joined
by Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Forsyth, both of whom were em-
barrassed and anxious beyond their power to conceal.

" Well, sir," asked the Secretary of State, " what are you
going to tell the President ?"

" I am going to tell him the whole truth, as I understand
it," replied Mr. Barton.

The Charge perceived a certain constraint and agitation in
the group. He stopped near the steps of the White House,
and asked^

1836.] THB FRENCH IMBROGLIO. 575

" Gentlemen, do you want oil poured upon the flames, or
water ?"

" Oh, WATER, by all means !" exclaimed the company in
chorus.

" That," said Mr. Barton, " will be the effect of the little
that I have to say."

They entered the presidential sanctum and were soon
joined by its irascible master.

" So, sir," said the General to Mr. Barton, " you have got
here at last, have you !"

This seemed to the gentleman addressed an ominous be-
ginning to an interview, a possible result of which was war
with a powerful nation. He hastened to explain the causes
of his detention — the negligence of a pilot and an extraordi-
nary fall of snow. The President was mollified, and darted
forthwith to the heart of the matter.

" Tell me, sir, do the French mean to pay that money ?"

" General Jackson," was the reply, " I am sorry to inform
you that they do not ?**

The President rose from his chair, and, turning to the
group of anxious officials, exclaimed,

" There, gentlemen ! What have I told you, all along ?"

He strode up and down the room several times in a state
of extreme excitement. It was too evident to the gentlemen
present that Mr, Barton's communication had not produced
upon the President's mind the effect of water upon fire.

" What do they say about it, sir ?" suddenly demanded
ihe President. " What excuse do they give ?"

" General," Kiid Mr. Barton, *^ I am exceedingly desirous
to make you acquainted with the state of affairs in France, as
for as I myself understand it ; but to do this effectually I
must beg to be allowed to tell my story in my own way."

"Right, sir," said the President, seizing a chair and sit-
ting down in it with emphasis, " Go on, sir."

" I verily believe. General," began Mr. Barton, " that
down to a recent period, the French government was trifling
with us."

576 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1836.

Up sprang the President again, at these words.

" Do you hear that, gentlemen ? Trifling with us ! My
very words. I have always said so."

The President resumed his seat, and Mr. Barton his ex-
planation.

" I mean by trifling with us, that they thought the treaty
a matter of no great importance, and one which was not press-
ing, and would not be pressed by the United States. It cotdd
be attended to this year, or next year — ^it was of small conse-
quence which."

The ex-Charge proceeded to say, that the popular oppo-
sition to the payment of the indemnity had risen to such a
height in France, that any ministry that should pay it be-
fore the President had apologized would, not only lose their
places, but subject themselves to impeachment. There was
no man in France who would dare to encounter the odium
of attempting it. The king would endanger his throne if he
should give it his sanction. France was in a kind of frenzy
on the subject, and no considerations addressed to its reason or
its prudence had the slightest weight. The king, the min-
istry, the capitalists, and all reflecting persons sincerely de-
sired to avoid a collision with the United States, from which
France could gain nothing that slie desired to gain. But the
people were mad ; and no one could predict how far the gov-
ernment nnght be compelled to yield to their fury.

This was the substance of Mr. Barton's communication
to the President, and it had the effect desired of allaying the
irritation of his mind. The President dismissed him with
every mark of approval and friendship.

The message to Congress which announced Mr. Barton's
return, and communicated the intelligence which he brought,
was meant to be as pacific and conciliatory as the circum-
stances were supposed to permit. But it contained passages
of fearful import to the lovers of peace. " The return of our
Charg^ des Affaires," said the President, " is attended with
public notices of naval preparations on the part of France
destined for our seas. Of the cause and intent of these

1836.] THE FRENCH IMBROGLIO. 577

armaments I have no authentic information, nor any other
means of judging, except such as are common to yourselves
and to the public ; but whatever may be their object, we are
not at liberty to regard them as unconnected with the meas-
ures which hostile movements on the part of France may
compel us to pursue. They at least deserve to be met by
adequate preparation on our part, and I therefore strongly
urge large and speedy preparations for the increase of the
navy, and the completion of our coast defenses. If this array
of military force be really designed to affect the action of the
government and people of the United States on the questions
now pending between the two nations, then indeed would it
be dishonorable to pause a moment on the alternative which
such a state of aflfairs should present to us. Come what may,
the explanation which France demands can never be accorded ;
and no armament, however powerful and imposing, at a
distance or on our coast, will, I trust, deter us from discharg-
ing the high duties we owe to our constituents, to our national
character, and to the world,"

The French Charge des Affaires was ordered home, and
all intercourse between the two governments ceased. Neither
government could yield without destroying itself, and the
people of both countries were in the temper that precedes and
provokes hostilities. Many members of Congress who had
opposed General Jackson's fiscal measures, his tariff policy,
his land policy, his Indian policy, his prescriptive policy,
gave him the most cordial support in his attempt to compel
the payment of the French indemnity. No one did so with
80 much effect as Mr. John Quincy Adams. " Sir," exclaimed
Mr. Adams, on one occasion, in the House, " this treaty has
been ratified on both sides of the ocean ; it has received the
sign manual of the sovereign of France, through his Imperial
Majesty's principal Minister of State; it has been ratified by
the Senate of this republic ; it has been sanctioned by Al-
mighty God ; and still we are told, in a voice potential, in
the other wing of this capitol, that tlie arrogance of France

— ^nay, sir, not of France, but of her Chamber of Deputies —
VOL. m — 37

578 LIFE OF ANDREW JAOKSON. [1836.

the insolence of the French Chambers must be submitted to,
and we must come down to the lower degradation of reopen-
ing negotiations to attain that which has already been
acknowledged to be our due ! Sir, is this a specimen of your
boasted chivalry ? Is this an evidence of the existence of
that heroic valor which has so often led our arms on to glory
and immortality ? Reopen negotiations, sir, with France ?
Do it, and soon you will find your flag insulted, dishonored,
and trodden in the dust by the pigmy States of Asia and
Africa — by the very banditti of the earth."

Mr. Seward records that the effect produced by this speech
was such, that, for some time after the orator ceased, the
House was "lost" in excitement. As the aged statesman
sank back exhausted into his chair, " the very walls shook
with the thundering applause he had awakened."

The darkest hour is just before the morning. The mes-
sage of the President, announcing Mr. Barton's return home,
and vaguely alluding to the hostile movements of the French
fleet, was sent to the capitol on the 18th of January, Three
weeks later, February 8th, the President, in a brief but preg-
nant message, informed Congress that the government of
Great Britain had offered its mediation, and that he had ac-
cepted the offer. He had, at the same time, notified the
mediating power that the apology demanded by France was
totally out of the question. He recommended Congress to
suspend proceedings upon the non-intercourse act, but to
continue those preparations for defense which would become
immediately necessary if the mediation failed. The President
said that he " highly appreciated the elevated and disinter-
ested motives " which prompted the offer of mediation, and
that he relied much upon " the great influence of Britain to
restore the relations of ancient friendship between France
and the United States."

The affair was settled in a very few days. February 22d
the President had the pleasure of informing Congress that
France had accepted the offer of mediation as soon as it was
made^ and that there was every reason to hope for a speedy

1836.] THB FRENCH IMBBOQLIO. 579

termination of the dispute. On the 10th of May he sent the
following communication to the capitol : " Information has
been received at the treasury department that the four in-
stalments UNDER OUR TREATY WITH FRANCE HAVE BEEN
PAID TO THE AGENT OF THE UNITED StATES. In COmmUUi-

cating this satisfactory termination of our controversy with
France, I feel assured that both Houses of Congress will
unite with me in desiring and believing that the anticipations
of the restoration of the ancient cordial relations between the
two countries, expressed in my former messages on this sub-
ject, will be speedily realized. No proper exertions of mine
shall be wanting to eflface the remembrance of those miscon-
ceptions that have temporarily interrupted the accustomed
intercourse between them."

General Cass retired soon after from the War Depart-
ment, and went to represent the United States at the French
court. The French minister resumed his residence in Wash
ington. Louis Philippe conceived the highest idea of General
Jackson's resolution and ability. A few years later, he com-
missioned an artist to paint a portrait of the General for the
Tuileries, which was the last portrait ever taken of Gen-
eral Jackson. In other ways the king gave proof of his par-
ticular esteem for the character of the General. I have been
told that the Duke of Wellington applauded, in his brief,
idiomatic manner, the spirit with which General Jackson had
maintained the rights of his country in this affair. The
people of the United States, when the danger of war was
over, and the comi)lete success of General Jackson became
apparent, applauded his conduct with nearly as much unan-
imity as enthusiasm. In the newspapers of the opposition I
find the warmest encomiums of the measures which secured
the payment of the French indemnity.

580 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1835.

CHAPTER XLI.

OTHER EVENTS OF 1836 AND 1836.

The eighth of January, 1835, was the day which Gen-
eral Jackson esteemed the most glorious of his presidency
It was the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, which
has now been for forty-five years celebrated in the United
States as a party festival. In 1835, the occasion was seized
by the democratic leaders to celebrate also the payment of the
last instalment of the national debt. The President had
looked forward to the extinguishment of that debt as he
would have done to the deliverance of his own estate, if it
had been heavily mortgaged, or as a western pioneer antici-
pates the day when his farm shall be completely his own.
Financiers of the Biddle school, some of whom proclaimed
the national debt a national blessing, regarded the solicitude
of the President on this subject as primitive and puerile.
It may be safely predicted that to a policy just as primitive
and puerile all financiering will come at last. Out of debt !
The honest citizen feels the magic of the words. Out of
debt ! The public man of the future will be contented with
little less for his country.

The party made the most of this auspicious event. A
banquet of extraordinary magnificence wivs given at Wash-
ington on the eighth of January, 1835. Col. Benton pre-
sided. Among the Vice-Presidents were James K. Polk,
Silas Wright, William R. King, Henry A. Muhlenberg, Isaac
Hill, John Y. Mason, and E. K. Kane. The distinguished
guest of the occasion was the rising sun, Mr. Van Burea
General Jackson declined to attend, but sent a toast : " The
Payment of the Public Debt. Let us commemorate it as an
event which gives us increased power as a nation, and reflects
luster on our federal Union, of whose justice, fidelity, and
wisdom it is a glorious illustration."

Col. Benton entered into the affidr with peculiar en-

1835.] OXHER EVENTS OF 1835 AND 1836. 581

thusiasm. Upon the removal of the cloth, he delivered an
exulting little speech, which was one of his most character-
istic efforts. " The national debt," he exclaimed, " is paid !
This month of January, 1835, in the 58th year of the repub-
lic, Andrew Jackson being President, the national debt is
paid ! and the apparition, so long unseen on earth — a great
nation without a national debt ! — stands revealed to the as-
tonished vision of a wondering world ! Gentlemen," he con-
cluded, " my heart is in this double celebration ; and I offer
you a sentiment, which, coming direct from my own bosom,
will find its response in yours :

" President Jackson : May the evening of his days be
as tranquil and as happy for himself as their meridian has
been resplendent, glorious, and beneficent for his country."

If we may believe the authorized report published in a
pamphlet, and printed by the ten thousand, the number of
toasts offered at this banquet was about one hundred. An
impossible number. From the character of many of these
sentiments, it is evident that the politicians of that day knew
the weak jilace in the President's heart. The adulation of
the President on this occasion, was shameful to human nature.
There seems to have been a strife among the guests which of
them could coin a sentence of the most ingenious and original
flattery. Take a few si)ecimens :

By Mr. Woodbury. — The President of the United States. Venerable
in years — illustrious in dt'eds.

By Mr. Forsyth. — The Battle of Xew Orleans. Not more glorious for
the valor which achieved the victory, than for the humanity displayed in
alleviatintr the sulferinfp? of the vanquished foe.

By Mr. Dicker.son\ — The Eighth of January^ 1815. An important era
in the history of America — second only t^) the 4th of July, 1776.

By Col. Richard M. Johnson. — Andrew Jackson at the battle of New
Orleans. He prevented booty ^ and he protectetl beauty.

By Mr. Silas Wright. — Tlie Citizen Soldier. The strengUi and secur-
ity of free p>vornment3. Washington. Lafayette, and Jackson have per-
sonified the character.

These are about one ticcf/fh of the toasts printed in the
report that expressly extolled the President on his favorite

582 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1835.

measures. The agency that General Jackson had in the dis-
charge of the national debt was simply this : He vetoed bills
appropriating money for internal improvements. These vetoes
suspended the internal improvement system, and caused the
public debt to be extinguished two or three years, perhaps,
five years, sooner than it would have been if Mr. Adams had
been reelected in 1828.

There is always some one to remind the most idolized
man that he is mortal. If General Jackson was unduly ele-
vated by the glorification which he received on the eighth of
January, an event occurred on the thirtieth of the same
month, which excited in his mind feelings of another charac-
ter. On that day, the President, the Cabinet, both Houses
of Congress, and a concourse of citizens, assembled in the hall
of the House of Representatives to take part in the funeral
ceremonies in honor of a deceased member of the House from
South Carolina. After the usual solemnities, a procession
was formed to escort the body to the grave. The President,
near the head of the procession, accompanied by Mr. Wood-
bury and Mr. Dickerson, had crossed the great rotunda of the
capitol, and was about to step out upon the portico, when a
man emerged from the crowd, and, placing himself before the
President, at the distance of eight feet from him, leveled a
pistol at his breast, and pulled the trigger. The cap exploded
with a loud report without discharging the pistol. The man
dropped the pistol upon the pavement, and raised a second
which he had held in his left hand under his cloak. That
also missed fire. The President, the instant he comprehended
the purpose of the man, rushed furiously at him with uplifted
cane. Before he reached him. Lieutenant Gedney of the navy
had knocked the assassin down, and he was immediately se-
cured and taken to jail. The President, boiling with rage,
was hurried into a carriage by his friends and conveyed to
the White House. For some days, his belief remained un-
shaken that the man had been set on to attempt his destruc-
tion by a clique of his political enemies.

The prisoner was proved to be a lunatic. His name was

1835.] OTflEK EVENTS OF 1836 AND 1836. 583

Lawrence. He was an English house painter, who had been
long out of employment. Hearing, on all sides, that the
country had been ruined by the measures of General Jackson,
the project of assassinating him had fastened itself in his
crazy brain. The physicians who examined him reported :
" He stated, that believing the President to be the source of
all his difficulties, he was still fixed in his purpose to kill
him, and if his successor pursued the same course, to put him
out of the way also — and declared that no power in this coun-
try could punish him for having done so, because it would be
resisted by the powers of Europe, as well as of this country.
He also stated, that he had been long in correspondence with
the powers of Europe, and that his family had been wrong-
fully deprived of the crown of England, and that he should
yet live to regain it — and that he considered the President of
the United States nothing more than his clerk. We now
think proper to add, that tlie young man appears perfectly
tranquil and unconcerned, as to the final result, and seems to
anticipate no punishment for what he has done."

Lawrence was placed in an asylum ; and the affair, which,
at first, had assumed portentous importance, soon ceased to
be a topic of remark. The insinuations of the Globe, that
" a secret conspiracy had prom2)ted the perpetration of the
horrible deed," do not apj)eAr to have obtained more than a
momentary belief even among the devotees of the party. It
was a curious illustration of the changeful nature of party
ties, that the gentleman whom the President most suspected
of a participation in the attempt to assassinate him was that
very George Poindextcr, of Mississippi, who had so eloquently
defended General Jackson during the Seminole War debates
of 1819,

Among the great crowd who attended this funeral and
witnessed part of the scene we have briefly described, was
Miss Martineau, who, in her " Retrospect of Western Travel,"
gives some curious particulars of the subsequent excitement
in Washington :

584 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1835.

" It so happened that we were engaged to a party at Mr. Poindexter's
the very evening of this attack upon the President There was so tre-
mendous a thunder storm that our host and hostess were disappointed of
almost all their guests except ourselves, and we had difficulty in merely
crossing the street, being obliged to have planks laid across the flood,
which gushed between the carriage and the steps of the door. The con-
versation naturally turned upon the event of the morning. I knew litde
of the quarrel which was now to be so dreadfully aggravated ; but the
more I afterward heard, the more I admired the moderation with which
Mr. Poindexter spoke of his foe that night, and as often as I subsequently
met him.

" I had intended to visit the President the day after the funeral ; but
I heard so much of his determination to consider the attack a political
affair, and I had so little wish to hear it so treated, against the better
knowledge of all the world, that I stayed away as long as I could. Before
I went, I was positively assured of Lawrence's insanity by one of the
physicians who were appointed to visit him. One of the poor creature's
complaints was that Greneral Jackson deprived him of the British crown,
to which he was heir. When I did go to the White House, I took the
briefest possible notice to the President of the ' insane attempt* of Law-
rence ; but the word roused his ire. He protested, in tlie presence of
many strangers, that there was no insanity in the case. I wa.s silent^ of
course. He protested that there was a plot, and that the man was a tool,
and at length quoted the Attorney-General as his authority. It was pain-
ful to hear a chief ruler publicly trying to persuade a foreigner tliat any
of his constituents hated him to the death ; and I took the liberty of
changing the subject as soon as I could. The next evening I was at the
Attorney -General's, and I asked liim how he could let himself be quoted
as saying that Lawrence was not mad. Ho excused himself by saying
that he meant general insanity. He believed Lawrence insane in one
direction ; that it was a sort of Ravaillac case. I besought him to impress
the President with this view of the case as soon as might be."

The summer of 1835 is memorable as the time when the
agitation of the slavery question began to assume the inten-
sity and bitterness which has characterized it since. At that
period, and for some time after it, the people of the Northern
States were so generally averse to the discussion of the sub-
ject that a man could not deliver an anti-slavery lecture,
or publish an anti-slavery newspaper, without running an
imminent risk of being mobbed and murdered. In Boston,
New York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, violent scenes

1835.] OTHBB EVBNTS OF 1836 AND 183 6, 585

were exhibited, with the inevitable effect of inflaming the
zeal of the party assailed. The attacks upon Mr. Garrison,
the murder of Mr. Lovejoy, the offering of twenty thousand
dollars for the head of Mr. Arthur Tappan, the attempt to
deprive the people of the right of petition — what effect could
such proceedings have but to invest the abolition leaders with
the character of martyrs, and to infuse into their hearts the
energy and fire that inspired the martyrs of old ?

Few were the abolitionists in number, but their activity
was constant. Among the measures devised by them for
the spread of their doctrines was the dissemination of pamph-
lets and newspapers in the Southern States. Some subscrib-
ers were obtained in the South for abolition papers, and large
numbers of tracts and periodicals were sent to Southern men
who were conspicuous supporters of the Southern system.
Besides these, pictures representing slavery in its worst as-
pects were sent to the South through the mail, and other-
wise. Col. Benton said in the Senate this year that " many
pictures, as well as many diabolical publications on this sub-
ject, had been sent to him, the whole of which he had cast
into the fire."

The circulation of these pictures and publications through
the mail excited the anger and the fear of some of the South-
em people. In Charleston, the public excitement was such,
during the summer of 1835, that the postmaster feared for
the safety of the mails. He was warned by the press and by
assemblages of the people not to deliver abolition pamphlets
and periodicals, no matter to whom they were directed. In
these circumstances he wrote to the Postmaster-General for
instructions.

A change had taken place in the Post-Office Department.
Mr. Barry had resigned his place, and accepted the mission
to Si)ain. Mr. Amos Kendall, long known to the country
as a member of the kitchen cabinet, was appointed Postmas-
ter-General. Upon receiving the letter of the postmaster of
Charleston, the administration was placed in an embarrass-
ing situation, from which it could have escaped only by an

586 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1835.

act of honest boldness, which would have jeopardized the
election of Mr. Van Buren to the presidency.

In deciding upon the course to be pursued, General Jack-
son proved unfaithful, as I think, to the rights and the in-
terests of the South. He receded from the positions of his
nullification message. One would have expected him to say:
" My fellow-citizens of the South shall be protected in their
right to receive whatever they choose through the United
States mail. If but one man in Charleston has subscribed to
an abolition paper, it shall be delivered to him, though it re-
quire an army and a fleet to effect it. And as to those pub-
lications which have been sent without having been ordered,
the persons to whom they are addressed, and they only, shall
decide whether to take them from the post-office or not. It
is their right to do this ; and I, as the sworn protector of the
individual against all who would wrong him, will employ in
their protection the power and resources of the nation, in-
trusted to me for that purpose."

General Jackson held no such language as this. He
might have taken such a position and safely maintained it
From what evils he would have saved his countrv and his
South, if he had done so ! He permitted Mr. Kendall to re-
ply to the postmastor of Charleston in the extraordinary
terms following :

THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL TO THE POSTMASTER OF CHARLESTON.

•* Post Officf Depajumijh,
'* Aagnit 4Ui, 1835.

" Sir : In your letter of the 29th ult., just received, you inform me
that by the steamboat mail from New York your office had been filled
with pamphlets and tracts upon slavery ; that the public mind was highly
excited upon the subject; that you doubted tlie safety of tlie mail itself
out of your possession ; that you had determined, as the wisest course,
to detain these papers; and you now ask instructions from the depart-
ment

" Upon a careful examination of the law, I am satisfied that the Poet-
master- General has no legal authority to exclude newspapers from the
mail, nor prohibit their carriage or delivery on account of their character
or tendency, real or supposed. Probably it was not thought safe to confer

la.

1835.] OTHER EVENTS OF 1835 AND 1836. 587

on the head of an executive department a power over the press, which
might be perverted and abused.

" But I am not prepared to direct you to forward or deliver the papers
of which you speak. The Post-Office Department was created to serve
the people of each and all of the United States^ and not to be used as the
instrument of their destruction. None of the papers detained have been
forwarded to me, and I can not judjje for myself of their character and
tendency ; but you inform me that they are, in character, * the most in-
fiammator}'- and incendiary, and insurrectionary in the highest degree.'

" By no act or direction of mine, official or private, could I be induced
to aid, knowingly, in giving circulation to papers of this description, di-
rectly or indirectly. We owe an obligation to the laws, but a higher one
to the communities in which we live, and if the form^ be perverted to
destroy the latter, it is patriotism to disregard them. Entertaining these
yiews, I can not sanction, and will not condemn the step you have
taken.

" Your justification must be looked for in the character of the papers
detained, and the circumstances by which you are surrounded.

•' I am, etc.,

" Amos Kexdall."

This was a palpable shirking of the responsibility. The
postmaster of Charleston was in a dilemma, and asked in-
structions from his chief. The chief would neither " sanction"
nor " condemn/' nor even advise, but left the subaltern totally
without assistance. Amos KendalFs letter lost the adminis-
tration the 8Uj)port of the most honest, disinterested, and
able of its editorial allies — William Leggett, of the Neiv
York Evening Post. But it secured Mr. Kendall's confirma-
tion in the Senate ; it strengthened the party in the South ;
and took some available wind from the sails of Mr. Cal-
houn.

The message of 1835, the last but one of General Jack-
son's annual communications to Congress, demands a mo-
ment's attention from us. The country seemed to the Presi-
dent prosperous beyond example. The financial measures of
the administration were producing their stimulating eflFect.
" Every branch of labor," the President Siiid, " we see crowned
with the most abundant rewards ; in ever}' element of na-
tional resources and wealth, and individual comfort, we wit-

588 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1835.

ness the most rapid and solid improvement." The national
debt was paid, and there was a surplus in the treasury of
eleven millions. The proceeds of the sales of the public
lands, during the year, had reached the amazing amount of
eleven millions of dollars ; and such was the pressure of busi-
ness upon the land office, that the mere manual labor of
signing documents absorbed the time and exhausted the
strength of the Commissioner.

The President's love of a hard currency appeared con-
spicuously in this message. The State banks, strengthened
by the government deposits, and disposed to comply with aU
the reasonable requirements of the government, would gladly
cooperate with Congress in the suppression of notes under
twenty dollars. " The attainment of such a result will form,"
said the message, " an era in the history of our country which
will be dwelt upon with delight by every true friend of its
liberty and independence. It will lighten the great tax which
our i^aper system has so long collected from the earnings of
labor, and do more to revive and perpetuate those habits of
economy and simplicity, which are so congenial to the char-
acter of republicans, than all the legislation which has yet
been attempted."

In dealing with the subject of " incendiary publications,"
the President's message was more guarded and more right
than the letter of Mr. Kendall. The President was careful
to specify only such publications as were " addressed to the
passions of slaves, and calculated to stimulate them to insur-
rection, and to produce all the horrors of a servile war." He
called " the special attention of Congress to the subject," and
suggested " the passage of a law to prohibit, under severe
penalties, the circulation in the Southern States, through
the mail, of incendiary publications intended to instigate the
slaves to insurrection."

With an emphatic repetition of the President's opinion
respecting the election of President and Vice-President, the
message of 1835 concluded.

A bill with regard to anti-slavery publications was Intro-

1835.] OTHER EVENTS OF 1835 AND 1836. 589

duced by Mr. Calhoun, early in the session, which went far
beyond the suggestions of the President's message. This bill
forbade postmasters to receive any publication or picture
toucliing the subject of slavery, which should be addressed to
an individual residing in a slave State. The bill was lost. I
allude to it for the sake of two incidents of the debate. In
one of his speeches upon the bill, Mr. Calhoun again had the
insolence to threaten Congress with nullification, in case the
bill were not passed. ** I must tell the Senate," said he, "be
your decision what it may, the South will never abandon the
principles of this bill. If you refuse cooperation with our
laws, and conflict should ensue between your and our law, the
Southern States will never yield to the suj)eriority of yours.
We have a remedy in our hands, which, in such events, we
shall not fail to apply. We have high authority for asserting
that, in such cases, * State interposition is the rightful remedy^
— a doctrine first announced by Jefferson, adopted by the pa-
triotic and republican State of Kentucky, by a solemn reso-
lution, in 1798, and finally carried out into successful practice
on a recent occasion, ever to be remembered, by the gallant
State which I, in part, have the honor to represent."

But the most memorable event of this debate was the
contrivance of a tie in the Senate, to compel Mr. Van Buren
to vote upon the bill. The object of this maneuver was to
destroy Mr. Van Buren as a candidate for the presidency. It
was supposed that if he voted for the measure, the North
would abandon him ; and if he voted against it, he was lost
at the South. It was Mr. Calhoun who arranged tlie tie, and
it was he who, at the right moment, demanded the yeas and
nays. When the vote was about to be taken upon the en-
grossment of the bill, the Vice-President, as Col. Benton
records, was out of his chair, walking behind the colonnade.
" My eyes," adds Benton, " were wide 02)en as to what was
to take place. Mr. Calhoun, not seeing him, eagerly and
loudly asked where was the Vice-President ? and told the
Sergeant-at-arms to look for him. But he needed no looking
for. He was within hearing of all that passed, and ready for

590 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1836.

the contingency : and immediately stepping up to his chair^
and standing up, promptly gave the casting vote in favor of
the engrossment. I deemed it a political vote, that is to say,
given from policy ; and I deemed it justifiable under the cir-
cumstances."

These were not the only political votes given at this ses-
sion. Again Congress had to grapple with an enormous and
increasing surplus in the treasury. In dealing with it, the
opposition displayed the same want of wisdom which seems
to mo to have marked their conduct from the beginning to
the end of General Jackson's administration. They made no
attempt to lessen or prevent the surplus, because to have
done that effectually they would have been compelled to
adopt General Jackson's oft-repeated suggestions with regard
to the public lands. It was speculations in the public lands
that created the surplus. General Jackson's three simple and
grand ideas with regard to the disposal of the public domain
had only to be enacted into a law, and the surplus had ceased.
Sell the land, said the General, only to actual settlers ; sell
it in limited quantities ; sell it at the bare cost of surveying
and selling, A measure embodying these three principles
would have laid the ax at the root of the difficulty.

Consider, for a moment, the state of things at the time.
On the 1st of January, 1834, the banking capital of the coun-
try was two hundred millions ; the bank notes in circulation
amounted to ninety-five millions ; the bank loans and dis-
counts, to three hundred and twenty-four millions. On the
1st of January, 1836, the banking capital had increased to
two hundred and fifty-one millions ; the paper issues, to one
hundred and forty millions ! the loans and discounts to four
hundred and fifty-seven millions ! Result — universal exjian-
sion of business, and great increase in the price of all com-
modities save one. That sole exception was the public land,
the price of which was fixed by law at a dollar and a quarter
per acre. Hence arose that mad speculation in the public
lands which, in 1835 and 1836, filled the treasury to overflow-
ing with paper promises- to-pay.

1836.] OTHER EVENTS OF 1835 AND 1836. 591

No event of that period affords so striking an illustration
of the state of things as the great New York fire of Decem-
ber, 1835. In a night, property to the amount of eighteen
millions of dollars was destroyed ; fifty-two acres of the
wholesale business region of the city were covered with ruins ;
five hundred and twenty-eight buildings were burned. Nine
months after the fire, nearly all traces of it had been obliter-
ated ; the burnt region was covered with stores larger and
handsomer than those which had been destroyed ; and all
this, without the failure or the suspension of a single firm !
Nay, many men were enriched by the catastrophe.

It was in such a state of things that Congress entered
upon the discussion of the question : What shall we do with
the surplus revenue ? — a surplus, be it remembered, which
was then deposited in the State banks, and which had
stimulated the business of the country to the alarming extent
indicated above. The plan proposed by Mr. Calhoun, adopted
by Congress, and not vetoed by the President, amounted to
this : Let us deposit more of the public money loitli the States,
and j)lace it on permanent deposit, instead of temporary.

The State deposit act of 1836 provided that the surplus
above five millions, at the end of every year, should be divided
among the States ; that the States were to give to the federal
government certificates of deposit, payable to the United
States ; that the Secretary of the Treasury could sell or as-
sign these certificates whenever he needed the money to meet
appropriations ; that the certificates, when sold or assigned,
should bear an interest of five per cent. ; that the deposits
not sold or assigned should bear no interest ; and, finally,
that deposits could be returned to the Secretary of the Treas-
ury at the pleasure of any State holding them. This measure
was well described by Col. Benton when he said : " It is, in
name, a deposit ; in form, a loan ; in essence and design, a
distribution. Names can not alter things ; and it is as idle
to call a gift a deposit, as it would be to call a stab of the
dagger a kiss of the lips. It is a distribution of the revenues,
under the name of a deposit, and under the form of a loan.

592 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1836.

It is known to be so, and is intended to be so ; and all this
verbiage about a deposit is nothing but the device and con-
trivance of those who have been for years endeavoring to dis-
tribute the revenues, sometimes by the land bill, sometimes
by direct propositions, and sometimes by proposed amend-
ments to the constitution."

There is too much reason to believe that the passage of
this bill was due to the supposed necessities of presidential
candidates. It passed by extraordinary majorities, both par-
ties desirous to share the popularity of the contemplated dis-
tribution. Col. Benton intimates that the same motive
induced the President to give the measure his assent. " The
bill was approved by the President," says the author of the
" Thirty Years' View," " but with a repugnance of feeling
and a recoil of judgment which it required great efforts of
friends to overcome ; and with a regret for it afterwards
which he often and publicly expressed. It was understood
that some of Mr. Van Buren's friends favored the President's
api)roval, and recommended him to sign it — ^induced by the
supposed effect which its rejection might have on the demo-
cratic party in the election. The opponents of the bill did
not visit the President to give him their opinions, nor had
he heard their arguments. If they had seen him, their opin-
ions concurring with his own feelings and judgment, his con-
duct might have been different, and the approval of the act
withheld."

Congress sat until the fourth of July. Before the ad-
journment. Col. Benton, who, almost alone among the pub-
lic men of the day, saw the ruin that awaited the country if
the land speculations continued, attempted to introduce a
measure to compel j)urchasers of public lands to pay for them
in specie. The proceeds of the sales of public lands had
risen from four millions a year to five millions a quarter, and
they were still on the increase. Col. Benton's proposition
met with no encouragement in a body, a majority of whose
members were interested in the very speculations which it
was designed to check. One week after Congress adjourned,

1836.] OTHER EVENTS OF 1836 AND 183 6. 593

the President, upon his own authority, against the known
will of Congress, against the advice of a majority of his cabi-
net, issued that famous " Specie Circular," which ordered all
land commissioners, after a certain date, to reject jmper
money in payment of public lands, and to accept gold and
silver only. Col. Benton, in his rapid, graphic manner, tells
us how and why this order was issued : "The President saw
the public lands fleeting away — saw that Congress would not
interfere — and knew the majority of his cabinet to be against
his interference. He did as he had often done in councils of
war — called the council together to hear a decision. He
summoned his cabinet, laid the case before them, heard the
majority of adverse opinions, and directed the order to issue.
His private secretary, Mr. Donelson, was directed to prepare
a draught of the order. The author of this * View' was all
the while in the olEce of this private secretary. Mr. Donel-
son came to him with the President's decision, and requested
him to draw up the order. It was done ; the rough draft
carried back to the council, put into official form, signed, is-
sued. It was a second edition of the removal of the deposits
scene, and made an immense sensation. The disappointed
speculators raged. Congress was considered insulted, the
cabinet defied, the banks disgraced."

The specie circular was eighteen months too late. Issued
in the spring of 1835, it had saved the country. Issued in
July, 1836, it could only precipitate the crash which had then
become inevitable. Its chief effect was to draw gold and silver
from the eastern to the western States, and the i)ressure in
the money market, which had already begun, increased from
that time. It was severe during the autumn months ; severer
during the winter ; severest in the spring. Unrelieved for a
single week, the pressure increased steadily from May, 1836,
until it ended in the stupendous ruin of May, 1837.

In November, 1836, General Jackson beheld the consum-
mation of his most cherished hopes in the election of Mr.
Van Buren to the presidency.

Mr. Clay, despairing of success, despairing almost of his

VOL. III. — 38

594 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1836.

country, had shrunk from the contest. " You seem to think,"
he wrote to Judge Brooke, " that I despond as to our public
affairs. If you mean that I have less confidence than I for-
merly entertained in the virtue and intelligence of the peo-
ple, and in the stability of our institutions, I regret to be
obliged to own it. Are we not governed now, and have we
not been for some time past, pretty much by the will of one
man ? And do not large masses of the people, perhaps a
majority, seem disposed to follow him wherever he leads,
through all his inconsistencies ? If that single man were an
enlightened philosopher, and a true patriot, the popular sanc-
tion which is given to all his acts, however inconsistent or
extravagant, might find some justification. But when we
consider that he is ignorant, passionate, hypocritical, corrupt,
and easily swayed by the base men who surround him, what
can we think of the popular approbation which he receives ?
One thing only was wanted to complete the public d^rada-
tion, and that was that he should name his successor."

General Harrison and Francis Granger were the whig
candidates ; Martin Van Buren and Richard M. Johnson the
democratic. If these had been the only names presented to
the people, Mr. Van Buren would have been chosen by a
majority only less decided than that which had reelected
General Jackson in 1832. But Judge White, of Tennessee,
long the friend and supporter of General Jackson, but long
the bitter enemy of Mr. Van Buren, permitted his name to
be used by a democratic faction for the purpose of defeating
the favorite of his old chief. Colonel Benton tells us, in one
place, that Judge White was " instigated to divide the demo-
cratic party, and defeat Mr. Van Buren," by Mr. Calhoun ;
and, in another place, that he was induced to run by the so-
licitations of an ambitious wife. Strange to relate, Tennes-
see, from an early period of the canvass, showed a particular
disinclination to support General Jackson's candidate. Ten-
nessee and Georgia cast their votes for Judge White. South
Carolina again threw her vote away upon a candidate named
in no other State — Willie P. Mangum. Massachusetts wasted

1836.] OTHER EVENTS OF 1835 AND 1836. 595

her vote upon Daniel Webster. Harrison and Granger re-
ceived the votes of Vermont, New Jersey, Delaware, Mary-
land, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio— seventy-three. Mr.
Van Buren triumphed in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia,
North Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama,
Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan — one hundred and seventy.
There w^as no choice of Vice-President by the people, as the
votes of four States were given to Mr. Tyler. The Senate,
upon whom the election devolves in such cases, gave the office
to Colonel Bichard M. Johnson.

The private letters of General Jackson show that he was
oveijoyed at the result of the election — a result which, for
seven years, he had eagerly anticipated, and to promote which
he had, for seven years, schemed and labored. It was a signal
triumph, for it was one which secured to him all the objects
nearest his heart. Mr. Van Buren, who, in conjunction with
Edward Livingston, had given to General Jackson's adminis-
tration its strong Jeffersonian flavor, was not likely, thought
the General, to abandon the principles which he believed to
be at once right and popular ; good for the country and safe
for the party. The election of Mr. Van Buren dismayed the
opposition, stung Calhoun, deprived the bank party of its
last hope, and secured in their places the great army of Jack-
Bonian office-holders.

Leaving the State of New York out of the canvass, the
election of Mr. Van Buren to the presidency was as much the
act of General Jackson, as though the constitution had con-
ferred upon him the power to appoint his successor. Nor
was Mr. Van Buren particularly active in the matter. Feel-
ing sure of General Jackson's preference, relying on that,
knowing that to be the strength of his position, he seems to
have been comparatively indifferent to other means of sup-
port The correspondence, published by Mr. McKenzie, be-
tween Mr. Van Buren and his most intimate friends, all tends
to confirm this impression.

596 LIFE OF ANDBBW JACKSON. [1836.

When James Gordon Bennett wrote to Jesse Hoyt im-
ploring pecuniary aid from Mr. Van Buren, of whose cause
Mr. Bennett had long been a stanch supporter, Mr. Van
Buren replied : " If Mr. Bennett can not continue friendly to
me on public grounds and with perfect independence, I can
only regret it, but I desire no other support. Whatever
course he may pursue, as long as it is an honest one, I shall
wish him well. He does not understand the relation between
the editors he quarrels with and myself, or he would not com-
plain of me for their acts. They are as independent of me in
in the management of their papers, as I wish him to be, and
remain."

CHAPTER XLII •

WHITE HOUSE ANECDOTES.

It belongs to our task to show how General Jackson,
when President of the United States, appeared to those who
conversed and associated with him. The material here is
superabundant aud interesting, but somewhat unmanageable.

He lived always in a crowd. The city of Washington,
we may premise, was the unforeseen result of an after-dinner
conversation between Hamilton, Jefferson, and two or three
" Potomac members " of Congress. Hamilton, finding him-
self in a minority upon one of his fiscal measures, implored
the aid of Jefferson's influence over the Virginia delegation.
" Dine with me to-morrow," said Jefferson, " and I will invite
some of the opposing members to meet you." After dinner,
the subject was discussed, and two members agreed to change
their votes — to save the Union, of course. It was observed,
by one of the gentlemen present, that the measure proposed
would prove so repugnant to the Southern people, that
^^some concomitant measure shoidd be adopted to sweeten
it to them a little." A lump of sugar would be needful after

1836.] WHITE. HOUSE ANECDOTES. 697

the medicine. The lump of sugar proposed and swallowed
was, the selection of a site for the permanent capitol of the
country in the wilderness on the banks of the Potomac. In
how many ways have the fortunesyand the morals of the Uni-
ted States been influenced by that talk over Mf. Jefferson's
mahogany in the year 1790 ! "*

The city has never lost its extempore character. It is
more like a camp than a town. Not a camp in which an
army rests for a night ; but a camp such as we may imagine
those "winter-quarters" to have been, into which, winter
after winter, Caesar led his victorious legions. The White
House has more in common with the marquee of a com-
mander-in-chief than the home of a civilized family. As in
a camp, too, every one is esteemed according to his rank in the
service, so, in Washington, a man is honored for the oflSce
he holds. Shut out from all the world, like boys in a col-
let, the honors of the place, which seem trivial at a dis-
tance, become objects of desire as intense as that which im-
pels ambitious youths to wear out their days and nights in
competing for a medal or a book.

Amid the bustle, and throng, and strife of Washington,
General Jackson maintained the same easy and profuse hos-
pitality to which he had been accustomed at the Hermitage,
and every one of his thousands of guests brought away some-
thing curious to tell of him. He was one of those positive
and peculiar men whose commonest action becomes an anec-
dote, and I have, consequently, accumulated a mass of anec-
dotical reminiscences of him, which I can not withhold, but
know not how to compress into reasonable compass. I may
add, before going further, that the liberal hospitality of the
White House compelled the President to eke out his salary
by drawing upon the proceeds of his farm. Before leaving
Washington in 1837, he had to send for six thousand dollars
of the proceeds of his cotton crop in order to pay the debts
which his last year's salary failed to cover. In the spring of
1836, when the Hermitage was damaged by fire to the extent
of three thousand dollars, he was really embarrassed to find

598 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1836.

the means of repairing and refurnishing it. He wrote to a
friend in Philadelphia : " I have directed my son to offer for
sale a piece of valuable land in Tennessee. I find this will
be necessary before I can venture to incur the responsibility
of another purchase. Here I have no control of my expenses,
and can calculate nothing on my salary." His son Andrew
was then a married man and a father ; a circumstance that
added greatly to the General's happiness, and considerably to
his expenditures.

But to our purpose. We are to observe, first, how the
President impressed those foreign visitors whom curiosity at-
tracted to the official mansion.

An English traveler, who recorded his recollections in the
" New Monthly Magazine," drew a portrait of the General
that was very striking.

" General Jackson," he wrote, " is tall, bony, and thin, with an erect
military bearing, and a head set within a considerable fierU upon hia
shoulders. A stranger would at once pronounce upon his profession : and
hid frame, features, voice, and action, have a natural and most peculiar
warlikcnesd. He has (not to speak disrespectfully) a game-cock look all OTer
him. His face is unlike any other : its prevailing expression is energy ;
but there is, so to speak, a lofty honorablencss in its tliin worn Unes, com-
bined with a penetrating and sage look of talent^ tliat would single him
out, even among extraordinary men, as a person of a more than usually
superior cast He looks like the last person in the world to be * humbug-
ged ;' and yet a caricature of him would make an admirable Don Quixote.
In the days of cliivalry he would have been the mirror of tried soldiers —
an old iron-gray knight invincible and lion-like, but something stiff in his
courtesy. His eye is of a dangerous fixedness, deep set, and overhung
by bushy gray eyebrows, his features long, with strong, ridgy lines run-
ning through his cheeks ; his forehead a good deal seamed ; and his while
hair, stiff and wiry, brushed obstinately back, and worn quite with an ex-
pression of a chevaux defrise of bayonets. In his mouth tlicre is a redeem-
ing suavity as he speaks ; but the instant his lips close, a vizor of steel
would scarcely look more impenetrable. His manners are dignified, and
have been called high- bred and aristocratic by travelers; but, to my mind,
are the model of republicau simplicity and straightforwardness. He is
quite a man one would bo proud to show as the exponent of the mannoa
of his country. Greneral Jackson would be a bad diplomatist in Europe, or
any where, without power. He has but one c?ieval de bataHle — ^he tides

1836.] WHITE HOUSE ANECDOTES. 599

down and breaks through every thing that other men would think of avoid-
ing or circumventing. He cuts all gordian knots. He is no * head to creep
into crevices.' Having made up his mind as to his aim, and trusting to his
own directness of purpose, he shuts his eyes, like the monarch of the herd,
and charges — generally with success. His passions are said to be tremen-
dously violent ; and a long life has but little subdued their warmth. His
paroxysms are not unfrequent; and sootli to say, he has oflcn cause : for
never was man so crossed and thwarted as he has been in his administra-
tion. His stem uprightness and singleness of mind, however, bring him
well through. His immediate passion is soon over, but his purpose does
not evaporate with his auger ; and he has shown, since he has been in
power, some ratlier startling specimens of his inflexibility."

To this I may add that the portrait which accompanies
this volume is the most successful of our attempts to furnish
a correct engraving of Genenil Jackson. It is a little triumph
in its way. It gives the most exact idea of the President as
he used to appear in the streets of Washington. The picture
from which it was taken was painted in the White House, by
Mr. Earl, for the " successful politician " whose recollections
are elsewhere recorded. Some of the most characteristic and
life-like portraits of the General are to be found in the cari-
catures of the time, of which an extraordinary number were
produced during the last five years of his presidency. Even
at this late day, I have been able to collect twenty, in which
General Jackson is the principal figure.

Miss Kemble, who was "starring" then through the
country with her father, was " presented to the President in
due form," during one of her Washington engagements. She
describes him in her journal as " very tall and thin, but erect
and dignified ; a good specimen of a fine old, well-battered
soldier; his manners perfectly simple and quiet, and, there-
fore, very good." She adds that "he talked about South
Carolina, and entered his i)rotest against scribbling ladies,
assuring us that the whole of the southern disturbances had
their origin in no larger a source than the nib of the pen of
a lady." The lady referred to by the President was, possibly,
one of the "set" opposed to Mrs. Eaton — perhaps the wife
of a colonel who figured in that affair.

600 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1836.

Mr. Stuart, a Scotch traveler, whose "Three Years in
North America" was a book of note twenty-five years ago,
recorded his observations of the President. He saw him first
at church, wliere the General listened with evident delight to
his favorite preacher. Dr. Durbin. "Nothing,'' says the
traveler, "struck me more than seeing him mixing in the
passages of the church with the rest of Uie congregation, as a
private individual, and conversing with such of them as he
knew on going out, without the slightest official assumption.
He bowed to Mr. Kennedy, in the seat where I was. The
President has very little the appearance or gait of a soldier,
as I have been accustomed to them. He is extremely spare
in his habit of body — at first sight not altogether unlike
Shakespeare's starved apothecary — ^but he is not an ungenteel
man in manner and appearance, and there are marks of good
humor, as well as of decision of character, in his counte-
nance."

The opinion of Mr. Duane respecting the character of the
President and his administration was recorded by him, in a
letter to a friend, several weeks before his dismissal from the
office of Secretary of the Treasury. " I consider the P' esi-
dent," he wrote, " intoxicated with power and flattery. ' L n-
stant dropping wears away stones.' Why, indeed, should ve
be surprised that he has bent under the influence of such
passions as, in ancient and modern times, overcame men
greater by nature and education than he is ? It is the fact
that men change that makes a republic preferable to a mon-
archy. Washington and Jefierson would not trust them-
selves with power longer than eight years. General Jackson
was, at one time, so fearful of the influence of power and
passion upon himself, that he was in favor of limiting service
in the presidency to four years. But what a revolution do
we behold ! Now he is not only content to retain power for
eight years, but desirous to transfer it to a favorite ! Such
is the efibct of power and flattery ! Are you amazed ? I
am not ; the matter is easily explained. When he came into
office, the President supposed that he would find much purity

1836.] WHITE HOUSE ANECDOTES. 601

at Washington, especially among his supporters, who had
been making so many professions. Instead of that, he found
the leaders at the head of factions, each desiring to drive the
coach of state. He found his tables groaning under the
weight of i)ctitions for oflBces. He saw several of the late
friends of his competitor, standing with cap in hand, to catch
the falling crumbs. He heard adulation from every body ;
plain truth from nobody. He came into oflBce to be the
friend of a whole people, but he became the mere purveyor
for the hungry expectants of discordant factions. In short,
all the circumstances around him were calculated to make
him entertain an exalted opinion of himself, and a contempt-
uous one of others. His own natural passions contributed to
this result. Such is my explanation — my apology, if you
please. He is changed, or else we knew him not."

Among the young men who surrounded General Jackson
during the early years of his presidency, there was none who
enjoyed more of his affection, and none who was more worthy
of it, than Mr. Nicholas P. Trist, of Virginia, the husband
of one of Mr. Jefferson's grand-daughters. Mr. Trist was
no politician in the partisan sense of the word, but a wise
and able one in its true acceptation. He was also one of those
happily constituted men who see clearly and lovingly the
nobler traits of a friend, and are blind to the less worthy
ones. In his intercourse with General Jackson, both as his
friend and as his secretary, Mr. Trist saw him when his na-
ture, so to speak, was in equilibrium ; when he was gentle,
kind, winning, and just. The picture he has drawn of him
is strictly true, but it does not convey all the truth ; for, as
we have before remarked, Jackson in equilibrium and Jack-
son excited by passion, or biased by prejudice, were two very
different beings.

Soon after Mr. Trist joined General Jackson's family as
his private secretary, he accompanied the General to the rip-
raps of Virginia :

" One evening," writes Mr. Trist, " after I parted with him for the

602 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1836.

night, revolving over the directions he had given about some letters I was
to prepare, one point occurred on which I was not perfectly satisfied as to
what those directions had been. As the letters were to be sent off early
next morning, I returned to his chamber door, and, tapping gently, in
order not to wake him if he had got to sleep, my tap was answered by
* come in.'

" He was undressed, but not yet in bed, as I had supposed he most
be by that time. He was sitting at the little table, with his wife's minia-
ture— a very large one, then for the first time seen by me — ^before him,
propped up against some books ; and between him and tlie picture lay an
open book, which bore the marks of long use.

" This book, as I afterward learned, was Tier prayer-book. The minia-
ture he always wore next to his heart, suspended round his neck by a
strong, black cord. The last thing he did every night, before lying down
to rest, was to read in that book with that picture under his eyes.

" In Wasliington, on going one day into the President's office, I found
that I had broken in upon a tete-d-tete between him and Charles, his negro
driver. Charles was looking the culprit to his best, that is, as well as was
permitted by a lurking smile, which betrayed his consciousness tliat nothing
very terrible was coming. As I entered, the General was saying, * Charles,
you know why I value that carriage. This is the second time it has
happened ; and, if it ever happens again, I will send you back to Ten-
nessee.'

" This lecture and threat Charles had brought upon himself by having
left his coach-box, as the natural consequence of which the horses had
run away and broken the carriage.

" In this scene I was struck with the fact that the General's thoughts
and feelings dwelt upon the carriage, upon the injury sustained by it.
without turning at all upon the expense of the injury to the horses, noble
dapple grays, his favorite color, of his own rearing, and descendants of his
famous horse Truxton. I at once inferred that this ' why* had reference
to his wife ; and upon inquiry of Col. Earl, my conjecture was verified.
Because the carriage had been hers, it was better than any new one; it
must never be given up, but always repaired and made as good as new,
though the cost might be greater than that of a new one.

" There was more of the woman in his nature than in that of any man
I ever knew — more of woman's tenderness toward children, and sympathy
with them. Often has he been known, though ho never had a child of
his own, to walk up and down by the hour with an infant in liis arms,
because by so doing he reheved it from the cause of its crying ; more also
of woman's patience and uncomplaining, unnoticing submissiveness to
trivial causes of irritation. There was in him a womanly modesty and

1836.] WHITE HOUSE ANECDOTES. 603

delicacy, as respects the relation of the sexes. Scipio was not more con-
tinent— more chaste would be the right word as to him — than I feel sure
he was, in thought as well as in conduct By no man was the homage
due to woman, the only true homage she can receive — ^faith in her — more
devoutly rendered. This chaste tenderness toward the sex was constantly
manifesting itself, and in a manner so unstudied, so perfectly spontane-
ous^ as to show that it was as natural to him as to breathe. As regards
patience, I have often seen his temper tried to a degree that it irritated
mine to think of, by those neglects in small things that go so hard with
an invalid — as he always was at the period when I knew him — and which
are so apt to test one's temper. But things of this kind passed ofif without
80 much as a shade coming over his countenance.

" Of course I do not mean to say that he was not subject to anger,
and, at limes, to the most vehement outbursts of passion. I have no
doabt that he could be, and has been, a perfect volcano. Though I never
witnessed any thing of the sort, there was that about him which told that
he could be so, and confirmed what you heard of the fearfulness of his
wrath. I speak of what he habitually was.

" This peculiar tenderness of nature entered largely, no doubt, into the
composition of tliat manner of his with which so many have been struck,
and which was of the highest available stkmp, as regards both dignity
and grace. Mr. Jefferson was strongly impressed with this on their meet-
ing at Lynchburg — that meeting made memorable by the toast, * Honor
to the man who has filled the measure of his country's glory.' No better
judge of manners lived than Jefierson, whose own were a charm to every
one who approached him, and whose associations through life had been
such that it must have been no easy matter for him to receive an impres-
sion of that kind. And yet, so strong had tliat impression been, that many
years afterward — but the year before his death — ^upon being visited by an
old friend whom he had known amidst the most polished circles of Paris,
he dwelt upon this point as tlie most sprprising tiling about Jackson.
How he could have got such manners — manners which, for their poUsh,
no less than their dignity, would have attracted the attention of every one
at any court in Europe — was to him an enigma. This was related to me,
many years after Mr. Jefferson's deatli, by tlie gentleman referred to.

" Another of the numberless particulars of the undying fidelity — the
truly feminine fidelity — of G-eneral Jackson's character manifesting itself in
regard to his wife's memory, was the relation established by him toward
CoL Earl, the portrait-painter. As a Nashville artist. Earl had been a
protege of Mrs. Jackson, one of the many objects on which the kindness
of heart recorded in the epitaph — so different in truthfulness from most
epitaphs— had found its indulgence. Tliis was enough. By her death,

604 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1836.

this relative became sanctified for the Greneral's heart Earl became
forth wiUi his proUge. From that time forward the painter's home was
under his roof, at Washington, in Tennessee, in the President's house, as
at the Hermitage, where he died before the General. And this treatment
was amply repaid. His devotion was more untiring even than his brush,
and its steadiness would have proved itself, at any moment the oppor-
tunity might have offered, by his cheerfully laying down his life in his ser-
vice. If he had had a tliousand lives, they would, I feel sure, have been
so laid down, one after the other, with the same perseverance that one
canvas after another was lifted to his easel, there to keep its place till it
had received * the General'

" Of the numberless cases which might be collected, corresponding to
those above related of the impression made by his manner, I will mention
one now, because of the idea it affords of him under another asp>ect, which
was quite a common one with him, namely, a dry archness in administer-
ing a gentle rebuke when he thought it called for. One would expect
something of the kind in his composition on being informed that, with
him, the book of books — aft^r the Bible, of course — ^was the * Vicar of
Wakefield.'

" The incident I am about to give occurred to Mr. Buchanan, by whom
I have heard it related.

" An American lady — a daughter, I think, of Charles Carroll, of Car-
rollton — on her return from a residence in England, during which she had
associated on the most familiar footing with the highest aristocracy of the
island, among the rest, the * Duke ' — ^being desirous of seeing General
Jackson, an hour was appointed for him to receive her. A few minutes
before the time arrived, Mr. Buchanan, who knew of the arrangement, or
perhaps was a party to it, upon going into the President's oflSce found him
tliero, immersed in work, and, very contrary to his wont, not at all neat in
his dress and personal appearance ; he had not even shaved, and had a
slovenly look otlierwise, which he had never before seen in him. Alarmed
at the effect this might have upon the expected visitor, Mr. Buchanan ven-
tured upon a hint to the effect that the hour being come, it would be ad-
visable to engage in making preparations for the visit.

" * Mr. Buchanan,' observed the General, * I once heard tell of a man in
Tennessee, who got along very well in the world, and finally made a for-
tune, by minding his own business.' Saying which, he arose and left the
room. In a very few minutes afterwards he walked into the parlor, to
which ^[r. Buchanan had repaired, presenting as neat an appearance in every
respect as if he had passed hours at his toilet

'' The lady departed, expressing the same admiration of his manners
ih&t hundreds had experienced before her.

1836.] WHITE HOUSE ANECDOTES. 605

" Mr. Buchanan being upon the carpet, I will conclude with another in-
cident which I have heard him relate more than once.

" The time this occurred was when the American settlers in Texas were
known to be in full retreat, with Sam. Houston at their head, before Santa
Ana and his advancing army. At that precise juncture, a breathless sus-
pense prevailed throughout our country as to how the tiling was to end ;
whether the Americans would make a stand, and try their hand at a fight
whilst still in Texas, or run clear across the border, and thus get under the
cover of tliat nationality of which they had divested themselves.

"At this critical moment, which soon after terminated in the news of
the battle of San Jacinto, Mr. Buchanan called to see the President, whom
he found in his office, with the map of Texas before him. He had been
tracing the progress of Santa Aiia (forwards,) and that of his pupil (back-
wards,) and did not seem at all elated at the spectacle presented by these
movements. As Mr. Buchanan looked over the map, the General, putting
bis finger upon San Jacinto, said, * Here is the place. If Sam Houston is
worth one hawbee^ he will make a stand here, and give them a fight*

" A few days after, the news was received at Washington of what had
taken place at that very spot,"*

To these pleasant recollections, contributed to the Even--
ing Post, I can add others received in manuscript from Mr.
Trist's own hand. Here is a little anecdote, recorded at the
moment :

" * I care nothing about clamors, sir, mark me I I do precisely what I
think just and right*

" The above are the precise words just uttered in my hearing, by An-
drew Jackson ; and as they convey a just idea of the man, so far as I have
been able to penetrate him (and I have liad the best opportunities) I have
determined to commit them to paper while fresh in my mind. The occasion
was tliis : Cabinet council on the 4th of May, 1833. (Present the Secre-
tary of State, Livingston, of the Treasury, M'Lanc, of War, Cass). The
Maine boundary question was under consideration. Mr. Livingston had
asked me for a rule, to draw some lines up>on a map. After some minutes,
search, I entered the Presiilent's office with a rule in my hand. The map
was on the table before the President, Mr. Livingston was at his side, look-
ing over the map with him, and making some remarks on the measure under
consideration. He had just uttered tlie idea, tliat its adoption would prob-
ably raise a clamor, when the President interrupted him with the above
words. As he uttered the last, his forefinger came down perpendicularly

« New York Evening Post, July, 1853.

606 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1836.

upon the map. To impress any one capable of reading man, with the real
character of the * Old Roman,' to have seen and heard him at this moment
would have sufficed. AU that I have seen of him (and I have seen him at
all hours, and in every possible relation) is in perfect keeping with the above.

"KP. Trist.

** May 4th, 1838."

Mr. Trist gives the reader characteristic glimpses of the
General in the following narratives :

" In the fall of 1836, on my arrival in Washington, en route for Virginia,
I found General Jackson alone in the White House, with the exception of
Colonel Earl, the other members of his household having left fur Tennes-
see, and I was invited to remain with him until his departure for the Her-
mitage. I did so, and on one of the days of my stay I was his only
companion in tlie afternoon walk, in which he was generally accompanied
by Colonel Earl. Striking across the President's square in a north-west
direction, and pursuing the same course towards Katorama, we came to a
ravine into which our path descended, and as we crossed the rivulet at the
bottom, some dilapidated houses stood before us on the brow of the hdl.
Those houses gave rise to the incident which I relate to you.

"A short time previously, during a visit of the General to the Rip
Raps, at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, for the benefit of sea air and bath-
ing, some riots had occurred at Washington which had occasioned great
alarm, especially among the colored population, against whom they were
directed. The mob, as I learned, had manifested intense exasperation
against, and had been very anxious to get hold of, a certain Augustus,
a remarkably fine looking mulatto, who was one of the President's hired
domestic's, in the capacity of waiter on his office. As the story ran, Au-
gustus had disappeared, and no trace of him could be found so long as the
General was away ; but the moment the latter had got back, there was
Augustus also.

'* As we crossed the rivulet, the General observed, * Those are the
houses which the mob destroyed,' adding a severe censure upon the city
authorities for not having immediately suppressed the riots. He went on
with the subject, mentioning that he had been waited upon by a deputa-
tion, to express the wish of those whom it represented, that Augustus
should not be retained in the place he occupied (which proceeding was, of
course, regarded by him as an approval of the mob's hunt after Augustus);
and his reply had been to this effect : * My servants are amenable to the
law if they offend against the law, and if guilty of misconduct which tlie
law does not take cognizance of, they are amenable to me. But, I would
have all to understand distinctly that they are amenable to me aloncy and

1836.] WHITE HOUSE ANECDOTES. 607

to no one else. They are entitled to protection at my hands, and this they
(shall receive.

" I observed that I had heard of all this, and was sorry to learn it, as I
knew that the effect would be to make Augustus a fixture in the office.

" * Why so, sir?' in a tone of some sharpness, showing that my remark
had crossed the current of his feelings. I repUed by saying tliat Augustus
could read and write ; that, from his hourly opportunities as regards papers
and conversations, and even Cabinet discussions, every thing wai at his
mercy ; and that, of course, among his (the General's) opponents there were
some not above tampering with a domestic in sucli a position. * They are
welcome, sir, said he, to anything they can get out of my papere. They will
find there, among other things, false grammar and bad spelling ; but they
are welcome to it all, grammar and spelling included. Let them make tlie
most of it Our government, sir, is founded upon the intelligence of the
people ; it has no other basis ; upon their capacity to arrive at right con-
clusions in regard to measures and in regard to men ; and I am not afraid
of their failing to do so from any use that can be made of any thing that
can be got out of my papers.'

" Of course, I made the objection that this view of the matter might do
very well if the people could be put in possession of the wholt truth ; if
they could be made fully and perfectly acquainted with a subject, in every
particular and every circumstance pertinent to its merits. But this being
impossible, while, on the other hand, mere fragments of truth often bear
a complexion calculated to convey totally false impressions regarding the
whole of which they constitute a part, such partial disclosures could not but
be attended often with mischievous consequences. * Well, if they can't
know all, let them know as much as they can. The more tlicy know of
matters the better.'

" "While writing the above I have been reminded of a remark made by
Mr. Gkillatin, at the beginning of Greneral Jackson's administration. Speak-
ing of Jeflerson, he said that Jefferson's name had a power with the peo-
ple— with the honest, unisophisticated masses — that no other name ever
possessed — ever approached to. And it was beciiuse no man could come
in contact witli him — no man could really know him, without being pene-
trated with the truth tljat he was the sincerest and earnestest democrat
living; tlie finnest and most unwavering in the democratic faith — in his
confidence in the reliability of the people. * This man,' added Gallatin,
pointing toward the White House, * has a popularity of the same sort It
seems to be no less strong than that of Jefferson, but he is the only one
that can at all compare witli Jefferson in this respect,"

" (Observe that this was said at the very beginning of Jackson's admin-
istration, and before his hold upon the confidence of the people had been
put to a single one of the many severe tests which the future had in store

f>08 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1836.

for it, and which proved the accuracy of Gallatin's insight into its
nature.)

" In the treatment of the wounds received by Jackson in his encounter
witli tlie Bentons, a slug or fragment of ball was overlooked, which for
years afterwards proved, on many occasions, the cause of an inflammation
that tlireatened serious consequences. One of these occurred at Washing-
ton during the Greneral's service in the Senate, and, in this instance, the
alarm of liis friends was greater than ever before. It was, also, far more
extcni?ively communicated, corresponding, in this respect, to the import-
ance which his life had acquired, and the value now attaching to it under
the party aspect. From these causes, the anxiety about it rose to the
pitch of a wide spread consternation, and tliis had for its fruit an appeal to
Mrs. Jackson, in the hope that through her influence the General might
be prevailed upon to call in another physician. The case was in tlie hands
of Dr. Sims, an old friend, who was always the family doctor when Jack-
son was at Washingt(m. Mrs. Jackson having become thoroughly enlisted
in tlie cause, the General's most intimate fiiends, knowing the tenderness of
his devotion to her, and his invariable deference to her wishes, counted upon
the result as certain. The entreaty was made by her, and to the amazement
of all, it proved a failure. All she had to report to the confederates was an
entreaty from him. He liad replied to hers, " Dr. Sims is my friend — an
old and valued friend. His professional reputation, his standing as a phy-
sician, his feelings as a man, as a friend, are all at stake in this matter. My
dear, the thing is impossible; it can not be. He shall cure me, or he shall
kill me. I entreat you never to speak to me again upon the subject'

" At a very early period of General Jackson's presidential service, and
while he was still * green in oflice,* I was with him one day on State De-
partment business, and upon getting tlirough with tliis, he said to me,
* Here is a paper which has been sent up from your department for my
approval, with Mr. Brent's signature as Acting Secretary.' I replied with
a smile (the smile of superior knowledge respecting official details, which
he was not to be presumed to be acquainted with), ' He is Acting Secre-
tary, the Secretary of State being absent from the city.' I had not been
long in the department, but long enough to have become imbued with
this belief, which prevailed there, and was habitually practiced upon. Its
correctness / had * taken for granted.' Not so the General. * If you will
look into the law, sir, you will see that the chief clerk is ex officio Acting
Secretary, only in case of vacancy in tlie office, and not merely from the
Secretary's being absent Please inform Mr. Brent of this, and that he
must be appointed Acting Secretary before he can vaUdly act as such,
under present circumstances.* Observe that Mr. Brent was an old gentle-
man (and a most estimable old gentleman he was) who had grown gray
in the office then held by him.

1836] WHITE HOUSE ANECDOTES. 609

" At a later period, Col. Aspinwall, our Consul at London, having sent
in his account for certain expenses incurred by him for the defense of some
American sailors who had been tried there on the charge of piracy, and
this account being supported by proper vouchers, and there being no doubt
of its correctness, the proper paper was sent up from the department for
the General's signature — the President's approval of the disbursement
being requisite in all cases of expenditure of the fund to which this one
would be chargeable, if approved. Col. Aspinwall was held in great re-
spect by G-eneral Jackson, to wliich he was richly entitled on every score,
independently of the strong title to tlie General's favor of his having but
one arm, in consequence of the other's having been left on the battle
field in the war with England ; in addition to all which he was known to
be poor, with a family to be supported out of his very small salary. It
oould not, therefore, but be decidedly painful to the General to withhold
from the Colonel any thing to which he was honestly entitled ; and the
honesty of this claim was a matter which, independently of the vouchers,
the Colonel's character placed above doubt Nevertheless, it was with-
held, though, I believe, ultimately paid. Trivial as the amount was, in-
stead of signing his name under * approved,' without understanding the
matter, (as some years afterward, in a memorable case relating to the same
fund, and for an amount not trivial, happened to a President who had
passed his life in all sorts of civil' employments), the Gtsneral determined
that he must thoroughly understand the matter before the requisite ap-
proval could be given. It was sent back to the department, with in-
structions to write to Col. Aspinwall, asking for explanations that would
make the case fully understood. Piracy ^ he said, being a crime which
necessarily denationalizes a man, inasmuch as it subjects him to the juris-
diction of any and every government, he doubted whether persons under
indictment and trial for this crime, by the tribunals of a foreign State,
could be regarded as retaining their national character, and consequently
whether any expenditure on their behalf was lawful and proper.

"These two instances afford a correct idea of what the ' mihtary chief-
tain* habitually was as resix'cts those matters of official routine, about
which the impression so generally prevailed that he could not but be alto-
gether incompetent, and entirely dependent upon his subordinates.

" On one occasion, upon my going into the President's office (this was
in the earlier part of nullification times). Major Donelson addressed a re-
mark to me which led to a conversation about tlie nullification theory, and
the Virginia State-rights doctrine of 1798, widi which that theory claimed
to bo identical — my object in the conversation being to explain the Vir-
ginia doctrine, and show the absurdity of this pretension. I spoke in an
under tone, tliat I might not disturb the General's cogitations, as he sat
smoking his pipe, facing the fire-place, several yards distant from the

VOL. Ill — 39

610 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1836.

Major and myself. The dinner bell rang, and the Greneral, taking my arm
as we descended the stairs, said, * Trist, beware of your metaphysics.'
Until now, I supposed that he had not heard a word of what we had
been saying. I replied, * My metaphysics, as you call them, General, haye
been my salvation in this case. But for them, I should inevitably have
been a nullifier, as several of my friends have become ; for they have en-
abled me to see into the fallaciousness of the reasoning by which it is pre-
tended to identify nullification with the Virginia doctrine. Had I not seen
into this, I must inevitably have been a nullifier ; for, to my mind, oar
doctrine is founded on reasoning which is unanswerable. It is the true
theory of the constitution, and the only thing that can preserve us agaiort
consolidation.' * No doubt of that,' said he, * but still, I say, beware of
your metaphysics ; there is no telling where they may lead and land yoo.
Hair-sphtting is dangerous business.' "

I am tempted to draw once more upon Mr. Trist's port-
folio, although the narrative which tempts me does not re-
late to General Jackson's White House life. The storv, how-
ever, was often told in the White House. It is incomparably
the best illustration of General Jackson's force of character
and strength of purpose that has ever seen the light of pub-
lication. Mr. Trist heard it related by Mr. Enoch Parsons,
one of General Jackson's oldest Tennessee friends. He was
so struck with the story that he induced Mr. Parsons to ^vrite
it out, and from the original manuscript I transcribe it here.
Mr. Parsons was a member of the legislature of Tennessee
when the news reached that State of the dread massacre at
Fort Mims, and General Jackson lay helpless in bed, slowly
recovering from the wounds he had received in the afiray
with the Bentons :

" I arrived at Nashville," wrote Mr. Parsons, " on the Saturday before
the third Monday in September, 1813. I found in the public square a
very largo crowd of people, and many fine speeches were making to the
people, and the talking part of a war was never better performed. I WM
invited out to the place where the orators were holding forth, and invited
to address the people. I declined the distinction ; the talking ended ; and
resolutions were adopted, the substance of which was that the enlightened
legislature would convene on the next Monday, and they would prepare
for the emergency.

"The legislature was composed of twenty senators and forty repfe>

, -// m^r- -^^

^^^^^/-'^^

1836.] WHITE HOUSE ANECDOTES. 611

eentativcs, some of them old, infirm men. As soon as the Houses were
^organized, at my table I wrote a bill, and introduced it, to call out 3,500
men, under the General entitled to command, and place them in the In-
dian nation, so that they might preserve the Mississippi territory from de-
struction, and prevent the friendly Indians from taking the enemy's side,
and to render service to the United States until the United States could
provide a force. The bill pledged all the revenue of the State for one
hundred years to pay the expense, and authorized the Governor to borrow
money from any source he could, and at the lowest rate he could, to de-
fray the expenses of the campaign. The Secretary of State, William G.
Blount, Major John Russell, a senator, and myself signed or endorsed the
Governor's note for twenty thousand dollars, and the old patriotic State
Bank lent the money which the note called for.

" At this time General Jackson was lying, as he had been between ten
and twenty days, with the wounds received in the battle with the Ben-
tons and others, and had not been out of his room, if out of his bed. The
constitution of the State would not allow the bill to become a law until it
had passed in each house three times on different days. The bill was,
therefore, passed in each house on Monday, and lay in the Senate for
Tuesday.

" After the adjournment of the Houses on Monday, as I passed out of
the Senate chamber, I was accosted by a gentleman, and presented with
General Jackson's compliments and a request that I should see him forth-
with. I had not been to his room since my arrival. I complied with his
request, and found he was minutely informed of the contents of the bill I
had introduced, and wished to know if it would pass, and said that the
news of the introduction of the bill had spread all over the city, and tliat it
was called the War Bill or Parsons' Bill. I assured the General it would
pass, and on Wednesday would be a law, and I mentioned that I regretted
very much that the General entitled to command, and who all would de-
sire should command the forces of the State, was not in a condition to take
the field. To which General Jackson replied :

" ' The duvil in hell, he is not.*

"He gritted his teeth with anguish as he uttered these words, and
groaned when he ceased to speak. I told him that I hoped I was mis-
taken, but tliat I did not believe he could just then take the field. After
some time I left the General Two hours after, I received fifty or more
copies of his orders, which had been made out and printed in the mean
time, and ordered the troops to rendezvous at Fayetteville, eighty miles
on tlie way, on Thursday. At the bottom of the order was a note, stating
that the health of the commanding general was restored.

"That evening or the next day, I saw Dr. May, General Jackson's
principal physician, and inquired of him if he thought General Jackson

612 LIFE OF ANDBe'w JACKSON. [1836.

could possibly march, Dr. May said that no other man could, and that it
was uncertain whether, with his spunk and energy, A« could ; but that it
was entirely uncertain what General Jackson could do in such circum-
stances.

^' I felt much anxiety for the country and for the Gkneral ; and when
the General started, which was, I think, on the day before the law passed,
Dr. May went with him and returned in three or four days. I called on
Dr. May, upon his return, and enquired, how the General had got along.
Whereupon the Doctor stated, that they had to stop the Cfeneral/requen&j/y
and wash him from head to foot in solutions of sugar of lead to keep down
inflammation ; and that he was better, and he and his troops had gone onl
The legislature then prefixed a supplemental bill to suspend all actions in
which the volunteers were concerned in the courts until their return.
These statutes may be seen by looking into the laws of Tennessee of 1813,
and which I conceive were the right kind of laws. The troops were taken
into the service of the United States, and with them General Jackson
fought the first three Indian battles."

There, reader, you have Andrew Jackson — ^his real
secret, the explanation of his character, of his success, of his
celebrity. If any one inquires of you what manner of man
Andrew Jackson was, answer him by telling Mr. Parsons'
story.

Mr. Trist informs me, that, during his residence in the
White House, he frequently saw the President exhibit the
same utter defiance of bodily anguish. He would transact
business with calmness and precision, when he was su£fering
the acutest pain, and when he was so pitiably feeble that
signing his name threw him into a perspiration. He could
not be kept from work ; nor was it of any benefit to him if
he did abstain ; for, says Mr. Trist, if he did not work with
his hands, he wore himself out with thinking.

Mr. John Van Buren, who was a very young man during
General Jackson's administration, has only agreeable recollec-
tions of the President. All dependents and inferiors, he re-
marks, loved him — ^boys, clerks, women, and servant*, as well
as horses and dogs. " He was an open-air man," who had no
secrets and locked nothing up. " While the fight lasted there
was no tiring him out ;" when the feud was at an end, he
would not permit the most distant reference to it in his prea-

1836.] vrniTE hot^se anecdotes 613

ence. The tie between General Jackson and his successor
was one of the sincerest mutual aflfection and respect ; each
finding in the other admirable qualities wanting in himself.
In the White House, as everywhere, General Jackson was
the MASTER — every one's master. He could be influenced,
advised and persuaded ; but there were times when no man
could move him a hair's breadth, when every man had to
yield to his will, or stand aside.

Upon no one did General Jackson make an impression so
deep or so lasting as upon Mr. Francis P. Blair, the editor
of the Globe. A man naturally thinks well of one to whom
he owes deliverance, fortune, power, and fame. But twenty
years have passed since Mr. Blair ceased to be the recipient
of benefits conferred through General Jackson. He has had
leisure to refiect upon the scenes through which he passed
during the General's administration. And if gratitude blinds
our eyes to the faults of a friend, it may also be most truly
said, that no man can rightly judge another who does not in
some degree sympathize with him. The judgments dictated
or biased by hatred, or by antipathy, are false necessarily.
Love is the enlightener of the human soul. Its judgments
are the only ones that approach correctness ; for the good in
a man is the man ; the bad in him is temporary, accidental,
and occasional. At least, I like to think so.

Mr. Blair's opinion of General Jackson — as expressed in
conversation — I confess, fills me with astonishment. He de-
liberately concurs in Colbert's judgment, that Andrew Jack-
son was the greatest man that ever lived. The bravest of
the brave ; the wisest of the wise ; the most tender, the
most resolute, the most discreet, and the most eloquent of
human beings. Fighting men loved him for his valor, and
cowards loved him for the protection he gave them. No man,
and no combination of men, could ever overcome him ; he
was victorious on every field. Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Pres-
ton, Biddle, the bank, the capitalists — the brightest men and
the most powerful agencies — were leagued against him for
eight years, without gaining over him one important advan-

614 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1836.

tage. He attempted nothing which he did not accomplish,
(ea^ept compelling the ladies of Washington to associate with
Mrs. Eaton). He gained constantly in Congress, and left his
party in a majority in hoth Houses. His eloquence surpassed
that of the most renowned orators. When he grew warm in
conversation, and his gray bristles shook, he thrilled the lis-
teners' nerves and souls, as no other man could thrill them.
No man could resist the impetuous intensity of his speech.
He was a man of absolute sincerity, incapable of guile, or
artifice, or acting for effect. He loved the people with a deep,
exhaustless love ; believed in them ; would have laid down
his hoary head on the block for them, and counted it gain and
glory. He was the controlling soul of his administration at
every moment of its existence. He was the animating spirit
of the Globe newspaper, the author of the best editorial sug-
gestions, the inspirer of its most successful articles. He
transferred the mantle of power to Mr. Van Buren for rea-
sons that were wise and patriotic ; because he knew that, of
all the public men then living, Martin Van Buren was the
most certain to adhere to the simple policy marked out by
Jefferson, and to continue the war against monopolies and a
loose construction of the constitution. Mr. Van Buren was
no intriguer. It was the terror of his public life to be thought
one. When the Globe was in the plentitude of its power,
when politicians trembled at its frown, and stood cap in hand
before it, Mr. Van Buren, neither by word nor manner nor
management, ever made the slightest attempt to conciliate
its favor. He never made one suggestion respecting its course
or its contents. His demeanor to the editor, in their daily
intercourse, was the same precisely when the opposition of
the Globe might have kept him out of the presidency, as it
had been when the paper was struggling into existence with-
out a dozen subscribers. General Jackson's choice of a suc-
cessor was among the wisest of his acts.

To these opinions, sincerely held by Mr. Blair, I will add
one anecdote related by him, tending to show that, dearly
as General Jackson loved a horse, he loved his friend better.

1836.] WHITE HOUSE ANECDOTES. 615

Three young horses, descended from the great Truxton,
were brought from the Hermitage to Washington. On a
beautiful spring day they were to be tried upon a race-course
near the city. Early in the morning of that day, Mr. Blair
had occasion to visit the President's office, where he found
Major Donelson, booted and spurred, just about to mount
and ride away to the race-course to see what the young horses
could do.

" Come with us, Blair," said Major Donelson, " it's a fine
day, and you'll enjoy it."

" No," said Mr. Blair, " I can't go to day. Besides, I've
no horse."

" Well, get one from a livery stable."

" Not to-day. Major."

" The President, who was in the room, busy over some
papers, cried out :

" Why, Mr. Blair, take my horse. Donelson, order my
horse for Mr. Blair."

The Secretary hesitated, looked confused, and at last
stammered out :

" Well, Blair, come on, then."

They walked out together, and on getting to the bottom
of the steps, found the General's well known horse already
saddled and bridled.

" Why, the General is going himself, then !" exclaimed
Mr. Blair.

" He was going," said the Major, sorrowfully, " but he
won't go now."

" But let us go back and persuade him."

" It will be of no use," said Major Donelson. " He had
set his heart upon seeing those colts run to-day. But he has
now set his heart upon your going. I know him, Blair.
It will only offend him if we say another word about it. He
has made up his mind that you shall go, and that he will not.
So, mount."

The editorship of the Globe and the congressional printing
were important to Mr. Blair ; but it was such acts as thesj

1837.] OLOSK OF THE ADMINISTBATION. 617

CHAPTER XLIII.

CLOSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION.

Mr. Van Buren had been elected to succeed General
Jackson. The administration commanded a majority in both
Houses. Mr. Polk, a strenuous and unscrupulous partisan,
was speaker of the House of Representatives. The impend-
ing session of Congress was the " short" session. The oppo-
sition was disheartened, and the President's popularity was
undiminished. In these circumstances it would have been
reasonable to expect that the last few months of General
Jackson's tenure of power would exhibit a lull in the
fierce contentions which for eight years had distracted the
country.

Those who indulged an expectation of that nature, if
any such there were, were disappointed ; for strife, acrimony,
violence, vituperation, were as much the order of the day at
Washington, during this last session of Congress, as they
had been during the panic session itself.

The last annual message of General Jackson, remarkable
in many respects, difiers in one particular from all other
papers, public or private, that bear his signature. It an-
nounced that Andrew Jackson had changed his mind ! The
expansion of the business of the country had become alarm-
ing. The receipts of the treasury had reached the astound-
ing sum of nearly forty-eight millions of dollars, of which no
less than twenty-four millions had accrued from the sale of
the public lands ; and the balance in the treasury would
amount, on the first of January, to little less than forty-two
millions. It was this terrible surplus that had awakened the
President's apprehensions, and caused a revision of his opin-
ions. He was opposed to any policy which contemplated a
surplus, and regretted the passage of the deposit act, to which
he had given " a reluctant assent."

The distribution of the surplus among the States, he

616 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1836.

that won his heart. He tells you calmly that General Jack-
son made his fortune. When he relates stories like this, his
voice falters and his eyes moisten.

A lady, who was constantly at the White House during
the early part of General Jackson's administration, describes
the evening scene in the President's own parlor. She de-
sires to see it painted, and suggests the subject to artists.
A large parlor, scantily furnished, lighted from above by a
chandelier ; a bright, blazing fire in the grate ; around the
fire four or five ladies sewing, say Mrs. Donelson, Mrs.
Andrew Jackson, Mrs. Edward Livingston, and another or
two ; five or six children, from two to seven years of age,
playing about the room, too regardless of documents and
work-baskets. At a distant end of the apartment the Presi-
dent, seated in an arm-chair, wearing a long, loose coat,
smoking a long, reed pipe, with a red clay bowl, exhibiting
the combined dignity of a patriarch, a monarch, and an In-
dian chief. A little behind the President, Edward Living-
ston, Secretary of State, reading to him, in a low tone, a
dispatch from the French Minister for Foreign Affairs. The
President listens intently, yet with a certain bland assurance,
as though he were saying to himself, " Say you so, Monsieur ?
We shall see about that." The ladies glance toward him,
now and then, with fond admiration expressed in their coun-
tenances. The children are too loud occasionally in their
play. The President inclines his ear closer to the Secretary,
and waves his pipe, absently, but with an exquisite smiling
tenderness, toward the noisy group, which, Mrs. Donelson
perceiving, she lifts her finger and whispers admonition.

1837.] CLOSE OF THE ADHINISTBATIOK. 617

CHAPTER XLIII.

CLOSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION.

Mr. Van Buren had been elected to succeed General
Jackson. The administration commanded a majority in both
Houses. Mr. Polk, a strenuous and unscrupulous partisan,
was speaker of the House of Representatives. The impend-
ing session of Congress was the " short" session. The oppo-
sition was disheartened, and the President's popularity was
undiminished. In these circumstances it would have been
reasonable to expect that tlie last few months of General
Jackson's tenure of power would exhibit a lull in the
fierce contentions which for eight years had distracted the
country.

The last annual message of General Jackson, remarkable
in many respects, differs in one particular from all other
papers, public or private, that bear his signature. It an-
nounced that Andrew Jackson had changed his mind ! The
expansion of the business of the country had become alarm-
ing. The receipts of the treasury had reached the astound-
ing sum of nearly forty-eight millions of dollars, of which no
less than twenty-four millions had accrued from the sale of
the public lands ; and the balance in the treasury would
amount, on the first of January, to little less than forty-two
millions. It was this terrible surplus that had awakened the
President's apprehensions, and caused a revision of his opin-
ions. He was opposed to any policy which contemplated a
surplus, and regretted the passage of the deposit act, to which
he had given " a reluctant assent."

The distribution of the surplus among the States, he

618 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1837.

said, had already produced effects that threatened disaster,
and Congress was accordingly advised to act at once upon
the principle of collecting no more revenue than the wants
of the government required.

The message proceeded to justify the specie circular, to
commend the working of the State-bank system, and to con-
demn the United States Bank of Pennsylvania for continu-
ing in circulation the notes of the extinct United States
Bank.

For the eighth time the President repeated his recom-
mendation with regard to the election of President and Vice-
President. He complimented highly the government em-
ployes, through whose " integrity and ability" he was enabled
to leave the various executive departments in " a prosperous
condition."

During the first week of the session. Col. Benton made
known to the Senate his intention to force to a decisive vote
his proposal to expunge from the journal Mr. Clay's resolu-
tion of 1834, which censured the President for removing Mr.
Duane and the deposits. For nearly three years the persist-
ent Benton had been agitating this notable scheme, and with
so much effect that the legislatures of several States, New
York among the number, had instructed their Senators to
vote for the expunging. It was made a party measure. In
vain did the opposition contend that the constitution required
the Senate to keep a record of its proceedings. How, asked
Mr. Webster, can we be said to keep a record, if any part of
it is expunged ? Col. Benton replied to all arguments by
delivering eulogiums upon the character and administration
of General Jackson, so fervid, so eloquent, so admirably ex-
pressed, that, to this day, whoever reads them forgets, for
the moment, every thing in the public conduct of General
Jackson that was not wise, noble, and heroic. In the warmth
of his enthusiasm he forgot his fears of the coming crash,
which he was accustomed to predict. All Europe, he said,
beheld with admiration the success of our efforts to supply
ourselves with gold and silver, the blessed currency of the

1837.] CLOSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 619

constitution. Seventy-five millions of specie in the country
" are the security of the people against the dangers of a de-
preciated and inconvertible paper money !" He pronounced
the administration of General Jackson to be as " brilliant,
beneficent, and glorious," as his military life had been " re-
splendent with dazzling events." " Solitary and alone," said
the orator in conclusion, " and amid the jeers and taunts of
my opponents, I put this ball in motion. The people have
taken it up, and rolled it forward, and I am no longer any
thing but a unit in the vast mass which now propels it."

Monday, the 16th of January, was the day upon which
the great deed was done. Col. Benton tells us, that " expect-
ing a protracted session, extending through the day and night,
and knowing the difiiculty of keeping men steady to their
work and in good humor, when tired and hungry, the mover
of the proceeding took care to provide, as far as possible,
against such a state of things ; and gave orders that night to
have an ample supply of cold hams, turkeys, rounds of beef,
pickles, wines, and cups of hot coffee, ready in a certain com-
mittee room near the Senate chamber by four o'clock on the
afternoon of Monday."

It was a wise precaution, for the debate was protracted
until midnight. After a debate of nearly thirteen consecutive
hours, members of the opposition came round to Col. Ben-
ton's desk, and said : " This question has degenerated into a
trial of nerves and muscles. It has become a question of
physical endurance ; and we see no use in wearing ourselves
out to keep oflF for a few hours longer what has to come be-
fore we separate. We see that you are able and determined
to carry your measures : so ciiU the vote as soon as you please.
We shall say no more." Mr. Webster was the last speaker,
and when he sat down there was a dead silence, which was
broken at last by the single word, " Question." The yeas
and nays were ordered, and the resolution to expunge was
carried by a vote of twenty-five to nineteen. Thereuj)on, the
Secretary of the Senate " produceil the original manuscript
journal of the Senate, and opening at the page which con-

620 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1837.

tained the condemnatory sentence of March 28th, 1834, pro-
ceeded in open Senate to draw a square of broad black lines
around the sentence, and to write across its face in strong let-
iJi ir^ To^ • ters these words : ^ Expunged by order of the Senate, this

16th day of March, 1837/ "

At once a storm of hisses, groans and outcries burst from
the crowded galleries ; which were silenced only when the
apparent ringleader was seized and dragged to the bar of the
chamber. "The gratification of General Jackson," adds
Benton, " was extreme. He gave a grand dinner to the ex-
pungers (as they were called) and their wives ; and being too
weak to sit at the table, he only met the company, placed the
' head-expunger ' in his chair, and withdrew to his sick cham-
ber. That expurgation ! it was the ^ crowning mercy ' of his
civil, as New Orleans had been of his military life !"

The only result of this nonsensical affair was to fix it in
the memory of the American people, that, in the year 1834,
the Senate of the United States passed a vote of censure
upon one of the acts of President Jackson. The page of the
journal which Col. Benton caused to be disfigured in the
manner which he so exultingly describes will long continue
to be shown to inquisitive visitors as one of the curiosities of
the capitol.

Violent scenes were passing, meanwhile, at the other end
of the capitol. The passage of the message in which the
President paid a parting compliment to the employees of the
departments, was actually made the pretext for an investiga-
tion into the conduct of the gentlemen complimented. On
motion of Mr. Henry A. Wise of Virginia, the passage was
referred to a special committee, who proceeded to examine
witnesses, and, among others, the notorious Reuben M.
Whitney. The conduct of this witness, according to the
statement of Mr. Wise, was "supercilious, self-important,
contumacious, and contemptuous." Many questions he r^
fused to answer ; others he would answer only in writing ; to
none was his reply satisfactory. " He would write his an-
swer," said Mr. Wise, " at the table, and, then, with an im-

1837.] CLOSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 621

pudent air of nonchalance, would fold his arms, cock up liis
legs against the wall, and cast glances full of defiance and
expressive of contempt at me and my friend, Mr. Bailie Pey-
ton, of Tennessee." Conduct like this led, at last, to a collision
between Mr. Peyton and the witness ; of a violent but blood-
less character, in which Mr. Wise bore an energetic part.

During the last month of his presidency. General Jackson
came into collision again with his old enemy, Mr. Calhoun.
In the course of a speech, Mr. Calhoun had remarked upon
the land speculations in which almost every man in the coun-
try who had capital or credit was then engaged. A sentence
or two of his speech, as reported in the Globe, gave the im-
pression that the President himself was concerned in land
speculations. In a long letter, of a remarkably respectful and
moderate character, the President demanded a prosecution of
the charge. "If you will neither do justice yourself," said
he, " nor place the matter in a position where justice may be
done me by the representatives of the people, I shall be com-
pelled to resort to the only remedy left me, and before I leave
the city, give publicity to this letter, by which you will stand
stigmatized as one who, protected by his constitutional privi-
l^e, is ready to stab the reputation of others, without the
magnanimity to do them justice."

With this letter were enclosed two notes certifying to the
correctness of the Glohc*8 report : one from a si)ectator in the
gallery of the Senate chamber, and one from the short-hand
writer who reported the sjKJech.

Mr. Calhoun spared the President the necessity of giving
publicity to his letter. The morning after he had received it,
the Senator from South Carolina infonned the Senate, that
he had received from the President of the United States a
communication of such a nature that he felt it his duty to
cause it to be read to them, and he handed it to the clerk for
that purpose. After it had been read, Mr. Calhoun proceeded
to comment upon it. " It has excited in my bosom," said
the Senator, " but one feeling, that of pity for the weakness
of its author, contempt for his menace, and humiliation that

622 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1837.

one occupying the office which he does, should place himself
in a situation so unworthy of his exalted station. Nor do I
intend to invoke the interposition of the Senate to protect
the privilege attached to a Senator from one of the sovereign
States of this confederation, which has been outraged in my
person."

Mr. Calhoun proceeded to recapitulate his previous speech,
and denied that he had used the language attributed to him
by the reporter. Two Senators testified to the correctness
of Mr. Calhoun's recapitulation. Mr. Calhoun then conclu-
ded his remarks by observing, that he was " gratified by this
testimony, and that all might now see, from these statements,
and the acquiescence of other Senators, what little cause the
President had for the outrage upon his privilege, and that of
the Senate, and for applying language to him which is never
used in intercourse between gentlemen, and better suited to
the purlieus of Billingsgate than to the mansion of the Chief
Magistrate."*

The President took no further notice of the affair, nor
did the Senate take any action upon it.

Signs of coming revulsion in the world of business were so
numerous and so palpable, during this session, that it is won-
derful so few observed them. The short crops of 1836 and
the paper inflation had raised the price of the necessaries of
life to a point they had never reached before, and have never
reached since. Flour was sold in lots, at fifteen dollars a
barrel ; in single barrels, at sixteen ; in smaller quantities,
at eighteen. The growing scarcity of money had already
compelled manufacturers to dismiss many of their workmen ;
and, thus, at a moment, when financiers cherished the delu-
sion that the country was prosperous beyond all previous ex-
ample, large numbers of worthy mechanics and seamstresses
were suffering from downright want. It was during this
winter of delirium and distress, that some vile demagogue in
the city of New York, promulgated from the steps of the City
Hall, the lie that the high price of flour was caused by spec-

♦ Calhoun's Works, Vol /iJ. p. 1 to 9.

1837.] CLOSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 623

ulators, whose stores were said to be filled with flour, kept
from the market iii the expectation of its realizing a famine
price. A mob of infuriated men, foreigners most of them,
surrounded a great flour store in the lower part of the city,
battored down the doors, rolled the barrels into the street,
and destroyed or carried off their contents. For two or three
days the city was kept in groundless terror of a general up-
rising of the distressed workingmen, and a general spoliation
of the j)rovi8ion stores.

Business men were gasping all the winter for breath, but
scarcely a man of them believed that the pressure was any
thing but temj)orary and accidental. After a day of extra-
ordinary stringency, the newspapers, in one chorus, would
declare that then the worst was over ; the bottom had been
touched ; relief was at hand. Col. Benton, who had so ex-
tolled the state of the currency in January, tells us that, in
February, he knew that the grand crash was both inevitable
and near. " It was in the month of February," says he,
" that I invited the president-elect into a committee room,
and stated to him my opinion that we were on the eve of
an explosion of the paper system and of a general suspension
of the banks — intending to follow up that expression of opin-
ion with the exposition of my reasons for thinking so ; but
the interview came to a sudden and unexpected termination.
Hardly had I expressed my belief of this impending catas-
trophe than he spoke up and said, ' Your friends think you
a little exalted in the head on that subject.' I said no more.
I was miffed. We left tlie room together, talking on difier-
ent matters, and I saying to myself, * You will soon feel the
thunderbolt: "

The last public act of President Jackson, done as the last
hour of the third of March was expiring, illustrates his firm-
ness, his audacity, and his tact.

The specie circular of July, 1836, was the ruling topic of
debate in both Houses during the greater part of the session.
It revived, as might have been foreseen, all the currency and
bank questions which for so many yeara had stirred the pas-

624 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1837.

Bions of both political parties. Presuming that the reader
has had enough of these heated and fruitless discussions, I
will only state that, after a long and acrimonious debate, the
specie circular was rescinded by great majorities. Mr. Cal-
houn refused fo vote upon the rescinding bill, though he was
in favor of it. The currency, he declared, was in a state of
disorder so inextricable that nothing short of the crash and
ruin which he felt to be impending could render its rectifica-
tion possible.

But the specie circular was more than rescinded. The
rescinding bill contained various provisions, the eflfect of which
was to render hank notes, under certain restrictionSj a legal
tender. There is reason to believe that the astonishing ma-
jorities which passed this measure were largely composed of
members who were themselves deeply involved in the very
speculations which the specie circular was designed to pre-
vent. General Jackson, as I learn from one of his letters to
Mr. Trist, was puzzled and amazed at the conduct of his
friends on this occasion :

GENERAL JACKSON TO NICHOLAS P. TBIST.

** WAsniMOTON, March Sd, 18ST.

"My Dear Mr. Trist: Your letter of Friday evening, Nov. 4th,
1836, found me confined to my room, indeed, I might say to my bed,
and I have been only four times down stairs since the 15th of November
last, although I have been obliged to labor incessantly, and now within one
day of the close of the session engaged in preparing another veto message
to a bill from the Senate, and, I may add, fostered by some of my friends
and all the opposition, which, I trust, will be my excuse for not answer-
ing your letter sooner. I have often heard from you and your amiable
family, was happy to learn you were all enjoying good health, and may
that greatest of all blessings, good health, continue with you all until the
end of long life, and then a happy immortality.

" The papers will give you the proceedings of Congress. I here indose
you the proof-sheets of my farewell address to my fellow-citizens of these
United States. There will be some verbal amendments in the phraseology,
but none in the substance or principle.

" As I will always be happy to hear from you, and as I will leave here
on the 6th, I will be happy to receive a letter from you at the Hermitage.

1837.] CLOSE OF THE ADMISTRATION. 625

and when you visit the United States, I will be happy to see you and your
family there, where I promise you a hearty welcome.

" To-morrow ends my official career for ever. On the 4th, I hope to
be able to go to the capitol to witness the glorious scene of Mr. Van
Buren— once rejected by the Senate — sworn into office by Chief Justice
Taney, also being rejected by the factious Senate. This shows the power
of public opinion, and tlius, unless corrupted by a paper, banking, and
gambling system, of which, from the symptoms displayed in the Senate, I
have some fear, our republic will for ever endure.

** I am free to declare that the votes of some of our friends in the Senate,
are perfectly unaccountable to me on this paper system. Good professed
State-rights men, and professed hard money men — the constitutional cur-
rency— still they vote to pass a bill to make bank bills part of our currency.

" But I must close. I am too weak to copy this if I had time. With
my kind salutations to you, and to all your family, I remain your friend,

^* Andrew Jackson.

**N. P. Teibt, Esq^ Consal, Hevana.''

The General, in this letter, speaks of vetoing the bill. He
changed his intention, however, as the bill could have been
passed over his veto. He killed the measure by not acting
upon it. The following is the last paper to which General
Jackson affixed his signature as President of the United
States:

" REASONS OF PRESIDENT JACKSON FOR NOT ACTING DEFINITELY ON THE BILL
ENTITLED ^ AN ACT DESIGNATING AND LIMITING THE FUNDS RECEIVABIJB
FOR THE REVENUES OF THE UNITED STATES.'

" The bill from the Senate, entitled * An act designating and hmiting
the funds receivable for the revenues of the United States,' came to my
hands yesterday, at 2 o'clock, P. M. On perusing it, I found its provisions
80 complex and uncertain that I deemed it necessary to obtain the opinion
of the Attorney General of the United States on several important ques-
tions touching its construction and effect, before I could decide on the dis-
position to be made of it The Attorney Greneral took up the subject
immediately, and his reply was reported to me tliis day, at five o'clock,
P. M. As this officer, alter a careful and laborious examination of the
bill, and a distinct expression of his opinion on the points proposed to him,
still came to the conclusion that the construction of the bill, should it be-
come a law, would be yet a subject of much perplexity and doubt (a view
of the bill entirely coincident with my own), and as I can not think it
proper, in a matter of such interest and of such constant application, to
VOL. ui — 40

626 LIFE OF ANDREW JAOKSON. [1837.

approve a bill so liable to diversity of interpretations, and more cspeciallj
as I have not had time, amid the duties constantly pressing upon me, to
give the subject that deliberate consideration which its importance de-
mands, I am constrained to retain the bill, without acting definitely there-
on ; and to the end that my reasons for this step may be fully understood,
I shall cause this paper, with the opinion of the Attorney General, and
the bill in question, to be deposited in the Department of State."

*' Andrew Jaoksov.

*^' Washikgton, March S, 18S7— one quarter before tweire, P. 'iV*

To the last day of his residence in the presidential man-
sion, General Jackson continued to receive proofs that he
was still the idol of the people. The eloquence of the oppo-
sition had not availed to lessen his general popularity in the
least degree. We read of one enthusiastic Jacksonian con-
veying to Washington, from New York, with banners and
bands of music, a prodigious cheese, as a present to the re-
tiring chief. The cheese was four feet in diameter, two feet
thick, and weighed fourteen hundred pounds — twice as large,
said the Globe, as the great cheese given to Mr. Jeflferson on
a similar occasion. The President, after givmg away large
masses of his cheese to his friends, found that he had still
more cheese than he could consume. At his last public re-
ception he caused a piece of the cheese to be presented to all
who chose to receive one, an operation that filled the White
House with an odor that is pleasant only when there is not
too much of it. Another ardent lover of the President gave
him a light wagon composed entirely of hickory sticks, with
the bark upon them. Another presented an elegant phaeton,
made of the wood of the old frigate Constitution. The
hickory wagon the General left in Washington, as a memento
to his successor. The constitutional phaeton he took with
him to the Hermitage, where I saw it, faded and dilapidated,
in 1858.

The farewell address of the retiring President was little
more than a resumd of the doctrines of his eight annual mes-
sages. The priceless value of the Union ; the danger to it
of sectional agitation ; the evils of a splendid and powerful

1837. J CLOSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 627

government ; the safety and advantages of plain and inexpen-
sive institutions ; the i)erils of a surplus revenue ; the injus-
tice of a high tariff ; the unconstitutionality of that system
of internal improvements which the Maysville veto had
checked ; the curse of paper money ; the extreme desirable-
ness of a currency of gold and silver, were the leading topics
upon which the President descanted. ** My own race," said
he, "is nearly run ; advanced age and failing health warn
me that before long I must pass beyond the reach of human
events, and cease to feel the vicissitudes of human affairs
I thank God that my life has been spent in a land of liberty,
and that he has given me a heart to love my country with
the affection of a son. And filled with gratitude for your
constant and unwavering kindness, I bid you a last and
affectionate farewell."

This farewell address provoked from the opposition a com-
parison with another document bearing the same title. It
was presumption, they said, in the President to suppose
that there was any thing in his character, or in his relation
to the people, which justified an imitation of a paper that
ought to remain for ever unique. The Neio York American
concluded its comments ui)on the address with these words :
" Happily it is the last humbug which the mischievous popu-
larity of this illiterate, violent, vain, and iron-willed soldier
can impose upon a confiding and credulous people."

As an instructive contrast to this bitter sentence, con-
sider the following lines, written about the same time, by
John Lawson, an inhabitant of the same city, and upon the
same subject :

" ANDREW JACKSON.

Come, stand the nearest to thy country's aire,

TIiou fearlesa man of uncomiptecl heart ,

Well worthy undividcnl praise thou art,
And 'twill bo thine wlien slumbers party ire.
Raised by the voice of freemen to a height

Sublimer far than kings by birth may claim,
Thy stern. unsolUsh spirit dared the right,

628 LIFE OP ANDREW JACKSON. [1837.

And battled 'gainst the wrong. Thy holiest aim
Was freedom in the largest sense, despite

Misconstrued motives and unmeasured blame.
Above deceit, in purpose firm and pure,

Just to opposers and to friends sincere,
Thy worth shall with thy country's name endure,

And greener grow thy fame through every coming year."

The Bun shone brilliantly on the fourth of March, the day
of Mr. Van Buren's inauguration. The scene at the Capitol,
to which the General had fondly looked forward for many a
day, was described at the time by Mr. N. P. Willis with
his own felicity :

" The republican procession, consisting of the Presidents and their fiim-
ilies, escorted by a small volunteer corps, arrived soon after twelve. The
General and Mr. Van Buren were in the ' constitution phaeton,* drawn by
four grays, and a%it entered the gate, they both rode uncovered. Descend-
ing from the carriage at the foot of the steps, a passage was made for them
through the dense crowd, and the tall white head of the old Chieftain, still
uncovered, went steadily up through the agitated mass, marked by its pe-
culiarity from all around it ... . The crowd of diplomatists and
senators in the rear of the columns made way, and the ex-President and
Mr. Van Buren advanced with uncovered heads. A murmur of feeling
rose up from the moving mass below, and the infirm old man, emerged
from a sick-chamber, which his physician had thought it impossible he
should leave, bowed to the people, and, still uncovered in the cold air, took
his seat beneath the portico. Mr. Van Buren then advanced, and with a
voice remarkably distinct, and with great dignity, read his address to the
people. The air was elastic, and the day still ; and it is supposed tliat near
twenty thousand persons heard him from his elevated position distinctly.
I stood myself on the outer limit of the crowd, and thoiJgh I lost occasion-
ally a sentence from the interruption near by, his words came clearly ar-
ticulated to my ear."

In his inaugural address Mr. Van Buren alluded to his
predecessor in becoming terms. " In receiving from the peo-
j)le," he said, '^ the sacred trust twice confided to my illustri-
ous predecessor, and which he has dischai-ged so faithfully
and so well, I know that I can not expect to perform the
arduous task with equal ability and success. But, united as
I have been in his counsels^ a daily witness of his exclusive

1837.] IN BETIREMENT. 629

and unsurpassed devotion to his country's welfare, agreeing
with him in sentiments which his countrymen have warmly
supported, and permitted to partake largely of his confidence,
I may hope that somewhat of the same cheering approbation
will be found to attend upon my path. For him, I but ex-
press with my own, the wishes of all — that he may yet long
live to enjoy the brilliant evening of his well-spent life."

General Jackson began his homeward journey on the third
day after Mr. Van Buren's inauguration. "I saw," says
Benton, " the patriot ex-President in the car which bore him
off to his desired seclusion. I saw him depart with that look
of quiet enjoyment which bespoke the inward satisfaction of
the soul at exchanging the cares of office for the repose of
home."

CHAPTER XLIV.

IN RETIREMENT.

By easy stages, stopping often and long to rest, the ex-
President traveled homeward. He visited Chief Justice
Taney at his seat in Maryland. At Cincinnati he remained
for two weeks, the guest of General Robert Lytle, a demo-
cratic member of Congress. He is said to have conversed on
his journey home, with extraordinary freedom upon political
subjects and persons. It appears to rest upon good testimony
that, during his stay at Cincinnati, he expressed regret at
having become nstranged from Henry Clay. Clay and him-
self, he said, ought to have been friends, and would have
been, but for the slander and cowardice of an individual whom
he denominated " that Pennsylvania reptile," and whom he
said ho would have " crushed," if friends had not interceded
in his behalf*^

His friends at Nashville gave him an impressive and hearty

* N. Y. Evening Fostj March 2Idt, 1859. CTommucication.

630 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1837.

welcome home, as they had been wont to do for many yeanj
as often as he returned after an absence. A young gen-
tleman who took a leading part in the proceedings on this
occasion has recorded his recollections of the scene : " The
day of his return was to me one of the most memorable of
my existence. We met him in the cedars near Lebanon.
Thfe old men were ranged in front, the boys in the rear. He
got out of his carriage, listened courteously to the address of
Judge Campbell, replied happily, and shook hands with his
old associates. Ho then drew near to us. I stepped forward,
spoke a few words of kindness, and wound up by saying,
* That the children of his old soldiers and friends welcomed
him home, and were ready to serve under his banner.' His
frame shook, he bowed down his head and whilst the tears
rolled down his aged cheeks, he replied, ' I could have stood
all but this, it is too much, too much !' The crowd gathered
around, and for a few moments there was a general outburst
of sympathy and tears. I may live a hundred years, but no
future can erase that scene from my memory."*

General Jackson was seventy years of age when he retired
from the presidency. He was a very infirm old man, seldom
free from pain for an hour, never for a day. Possessed of a
most beautiful and productive farm and a hundred and fifty
negroes, be yet felt himself to be a poor man on his return to
the Hermitage. " I returned home," he writes to Mr. Trist,
*' with just ninety dollars in money, having expended all my
salary, and most of the proceeds of my cotton crop ; found
every thing out of repair ; corn, and every thing else for the
use of my farm to buy ; having but one tract of land besides
my homestead, which I have sold, and which has enabled me
to begin the new year (1838,) clear of debt, relying on our
industry and economy to yield us a support, trusting to a
kind Providence for good seasons', and a prosi)erous crop."

During the next few years, he lived the life of a planter,
carefully directing the operations of his farm, enjoying the

• Oration by Hon. Andrew Ewing, delivorcd at the inauguration of a bust
of Oonorol Jackson, at Memphis, Tennessee, January Sth, 1859.

1837.] IN RETIREMENT. 631

society of his adopted son, and his amiable and estiraable
wife. They and their children were the solace of his old
age. Major Donelson and his family were near at hand, and
often clieered him by their presence at the Hermitage. Sur-
rounded by a large and affectionate circle, he passed many
happy days ; and most of his latter days would have been
happy if he had not been frequently reduced by sickness to
the condition of a helpless invalid. His early tastes remained
with him. He still took the keenest delight in a flourishing
cotton field, and loved a fine horse as much as he did when
he brought home Truxton from Virginia thirty years before.
Mr. Milburn, in his " Ten Years of Preacher Life," gives us
a momentary glimpse of the General in these tranquil years,
which shows us how he exulted in the mere sight of a superior
horse. " The only time," says Mr. Milburn, " I ever saw
Andrew Jackson, was early on a bright summer morning,
when he came into my father's yard to look at some blooded
animals that had just been imported from England. And
well do I remember how the patriarch's face glowed and his
eye shone as he gazed upon the noble creatures, and spoke in
excited tones of the exquisite blending of beauty and strength
in their mold. Never shall I forget the impressive appear-
ance, the tall, spare figure, the glittering eye, and the com-
manding presence of the erect old man."

Poor as the General felt himself to be after his return
home, he still found money to help an humble friend in his
day of need. His servant George was arrested on a charge
of murder. A quarrel among some slaves, of whom George
was one, had ended in a general fight, in the course of which
a man was killed, and ** George Jackson" was accused of
having struck the fatal blow. The General satisfied himself,
by protracted examinations of George and the other combat-
ants, that his favorite was innocent. Nevertheless, George's
case wore an ugly look, and there was much formidable evi-
dence against him. The General threw himself into the de-
fense of his man with a zeal and energy that could not have
been surpassed if the accused party had been his successor in

632 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1839.

the presidential chair. Besides employiDg the best counsel,
he went to Nashville to give his personal aid nearly every
day for six weeks. The trial lasted several days, during
which the ex-President was never absent from the court-
room when the court was in session. George was acquitted.
This affair cost the General fifteen hundred dollars, besides
a world of labor and trouble. George, who was born and
reared upon the estate, still lives to serve the General's son,
and to tell how " old master" saved him from the clutches
of the hangman. He is an old man now, but he occasionally
avails himself of his position of favorite to repeat some of
his Washington frolics.

General Jackson, always an assiduous letter-writer, was
as busy as ever with his pen after his final return to the
Hermitage. His mail-box at the gate of his garden was daily
stuffed with letters, newspapers, documents, and pamphlets.
He answered every letter that required an answer, unless he
was too weak to sit at the desk. His letters to private
friends during this period relate chiefly to the affairs of his
plantation, and to his constant suffering from disease and
debility.

The Hermitage was still the seat of hospitality. Besides
the numberless friends and acquaintances of its inmates, it
was visited by many who came as pilgrims to the democratic
shrine. Who could visit Nashville without driving out to
see " the General !" All were welcomed cordially, whether
they were friends or strangers. Dr. William A. Shaw, a
warm lover of the General, and who lives, very properly, at
Jacksonport, Jackson County, Arkansas, has kindly written
out for these pages some of his recollections of a long stay at
the Hermitage in 1839 — particularly the conversation of the
ex-President. Dr. Shaw writes :

" With regard to the quelling of the mutiny, during the Creek war, by
presenting a pistol to Major Hart's breast, as reported by Eaton, the Gren-
eral stated to me, while we were alone at his fireside, that it was with an
empty gun^ which he took from a sentinel pacing his rounds before his tent,
that thU mutiny was quelled. Hart told his men to stop, and obsenred to

1839.] IN BETIBEMEKT. 633

a subordinate officer, * d^-d if I don* t believe the old fellow will shoot*
The mutiny being quelled, the sentinel, while reclaiming his gun. observed
to General Jackson, * Why, Gineral, that gun ain't loaded — not even
primed/ * Never mind,' said the Gheneral, ' it has answered my purpose
as well as if it had been loaded and primed to the muzzle.'

*' In regard to the * rampart or breastwork of cotton hags at New Or-
leans,' General Jackson, who, at my request, described the whole battle,
declared to me, there was not a bale of cotton on the field. ' I had,' said
he ' the sand bags filled with sand, and piled them on empty store boxes,
in a long line, but only a few feet high, while on one end of my line
(laughing) there was a corn-field fence to extend it I'

" I had a great deal of military conversation with him, and was sur-
prised how well acquainted he was with ancient and modem wars. The
quickness of his perception in military matters — ^in regard to infantry, ar-
tillery, and cavalry — reminded mo of the lightning's flash when I proposed
certain field movements to him. Indeed, on all subjects, quick perception
and a dauntless presence of mind, that never deserted him, distinguished
this great man. He told me, in reply to a question, *that he never
had a tremor of his hands in his life; that his nerves were like steel
bars.'

" His description of the surrender of the British to our troops, * Five
hundred men, without a single wound, rising up from their prostrate posi-
tion slowly and solemnly, as it were, out of the ground,' he declared,

* reminded him more of the resurrection at the last day than any thing he
bad ever read or conceived of.' He stated that he had only six killed and
seven wounded in that battle, and only one of the seven wounded died.

* Is there such another battle,' I inquired, ' where the loss was so inconsid-
erable on the victorious side, allowing for the numbers engaged ?' * Not
one, so fur as my researches have gone,' said he. Indeed, the victory at
New Orleans was the old hero's greatest pride, as it was his greatest
exploit.

*' I alluded to the calunmics which ass^ailed him, as to his skepticism,
during the electioneering canvass. * Yes, sir I' said he, emphatically, * for
thirty-five years before my election to tlic Presidency, I read at least three
chapters of the Bible every day, which is far more than any of my de-
tractors could say, with truth, of their own conduct in this respect.'

" In sentiment General Jackson avowed to me Arminian views, though
lie was a Presbyterian of the old school church. * I believe,' said he,

* every man has a chance fur his own salvation.'

" Recurring to New Orleans, he said that, though Constantinople is
the great central key to commerce, she has no large fertile valley like the
great Mississippi valley to sustain her, and as long iis she belongs to Turkey
she will decrease, while New Orleans will be the largest commercial cm-

634 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1839.

poriurn on this continent, and, probably, in the world. This led him to
apeak of Russia as the great eastern rival ol* the United States of America,
rising pari passu with her. ' I do not apprehend war with Great Britain,'
said he, ' for a long period. The next great war we have will be witii
Ru-sia.' I reminded him of our present amity with Russia, as our best
friend in Europe. * True,' ^aid he, * but a growing al>solute monarchy an<i
a thriving democratic government are naturally antagonistic. It is ea^y
to find pretexts for war ; our vicinity to her North-western Pacific jiosses-
sions will suffice. France and Englan<i have helped to aggrandize Russia
by bad i)olicy. I told Mr. Fox, minister from Great Britain, while I was
Pi esident, that England and France would weep tears ol' blood for helping
Russia at Navarino.' * Well,' inquired I, * what will be the result of our
war with Russia, in the event it comes?' * We will beat them, sir; we
can whip all Europe with United States soldiers. Give me,* said he, with
great emphasis and a sparkling eye, * a thousand Tennesseans, and I 'U
whip any other thousand men on the globe I' I verily beheved his declar-
ation. He spoke of the wonderfiil aid from ' flying artillery ' as having
revolutionized modem warfare. His encomiums on it were amply justified
by our last war in Mexico. I delight to recur to these convei-sations, in
which Geneial Jackson's sagacity and judgment are so manifest, because
his traducers have misrepresented him as a rash, reckless — brave, indeed,
bv»t inconsiderate — ^leader, either in battle or in the Cabinet. Never was
so great a misconception in regaid to a great public character. He was a
consummate politician, but his almost intuitive quickness to discern the very
thing io he done, caused slower minds to mistake prompt execution for
reckless precipitancy.

" General Jackson was a tliorough Union man in his feelings and prin-
ciples. He loved his whole country, without sectional bias. The Federal
Union embraced all the States in his large-hearted comprehensiveness.
He expressed a contempt for nullification and secession.

" In regard to his removal of the Indians to the west^ he defended it
on the ground of its absolute necessity as well as humanity to the whites
and the Indians. * Every war,' said he, ' we had with the Indians was
brought on by frontier ruffians, who stole their horses, oppressed, defrauded,
or persecuted the Indians. This caused them to unbury the hatchrt, and
their massacres of the whites plunged innocent people in all the horrors
and cruelties of war.'

" In allusion to his early history, he quoted Shakspeare's sentiment :
" There is a tide in the afl'airs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on
to fortune.' ' That's true, sir,' said he, with emphasis, * I 've proved it dur-
ing my whole life.' "

A considerable number of interesting relics were destroyed

1840.] IN RETIREMENT. 635

when the Hermitage was burnt in 1836, but the house was
still a museum of curious gifts, which had been accumulating
ever since the General returned from the wars in 1815. The
pistols of General Washington we have already mentioned ;
also the collection of magnificent and useless pipes, and the
phaeton made of the Constitution's glorious wood. Besides
these, there was a wooden pitcher, holding not more than a
quart, but composed of seven hundred and fifty staves, from
the venerable elm under which William Penn made his fam-
ous treaty with the Indians. Tlu* hoops, lid, and handle
were of silver, and the bottom was a magnifying glass, through
which could be seen the joints of the vessel, which to the
naked eye were invisible. This marvelous pitcher was given
to the General by the coopers of Philadelphia. " Old Hick-
ory" was the name of a goblet made from a hickory tree which
had sprouted from where a cannon ball had severed the
parent stem during the revolutionary war. Nature had
graciously added a handle to the goblet, which was stint to
the Hermitiige from Long Island. Then there were Indian
calumets and wampum, presented by Indian chiefs ; a bayo-
net, round which a root had grown, found on the battle-
ground below New Orleans ; the cu[) and saucer last used by
General Washington ; the gold medals and swords presented
by Ci)ngress and other legislative bodies ; the silver vase pre-
sented by the ladies of Charleston ; the golden box given by
the city of New York in 1819 ; and a gallery of portraits of
the General's old comrades and friends. Among other small
articles there was a piece of candle found in the quarters of
Lord Cornwallis after he had surrendered to General Wash-
ington. This had been given to General Jackson long ago,
with the condition that he should light it every fourth of
July. The General complied with tin* condition for many
successive years, until at last the candle became so short that
he was obliged to omit the ceremony. To the day of his
death General Jackson i)reserved the dueling pistols with
one of which he had slain the hapless Dickinson. That very
pistol was lying on the m mtol-pieco of his bed-room during

636 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1840.

these last years of his life. To a gentleman who chanced to
take it up, one day, the General said, in the most ordinary
tone of conversation, " That is the pistol with which I killed
Mr. Dickinson."

But among all the curiosities of the Hermitage, none was
examined with so much interest as the coarse blue-and-
yellow uniform which the General had worn at New Orleans,
and which has since been placed in the Patent Office at
Washington. The huge old family coach (almost as large
and heavy as a mail-coach of the olden time), in which the
General and his wife took many a long journey together, has
now become a curiosity. This mighty vehicle, which cost
twenty-five hundred dollars, was a present from the General
to Mrs. Jackson. " She shall have a good coach to ride in
when I am gone," said he to Major Lewis.

The ex-President's interest in the fortunes of his party
was scarcely diminished by his retirement from public life.
He corresj)onded frequently with Mr. Van Buren, whose
leading measures he heartily approved, and whose firmness
against the greatest pressure ever brought to bear upon an
administration he could not but admire. When, in 1840,
the general poverty of the people and the re-nomination of
General Harrison threatened the democratic party with de-
feat, General Jackson exerted himself powerfully to secure
his friend's reelection. Early in the canvass, he wrote a let-
ter in behalf of Mr. Van Buren, which had at least the efiect
of creating in the minds of his opponents the most profound
disgust. That he should warmly commend the administra-
tion of Mr. Van Buren was natural, proper, and expected.
The offense of the letter lay in its closing paragraph : " In
respect to the statements which have been made in several
of the new8paj)ers of the day that I disagree with many of
my political friends in the estimate they have formed of
General Harrison's military merits, I am not aware of having
said any thing to justify them. Having never admired Gen-
eral Harrison as a military man, or considered him as pos-
sessing the qualities which constitute the commander of an

1840.] IN RETIREMENT. 637

army, I have looked at his political relations alone in the
opinions I have formed or expressed respecting his preten-
sions to the presidency, and the consequences which would
result to the country, should the suffrages of the people place
him in that high office."

This letter, published in nearly all the papers of the
Union, called forth angry and contemptuous comment. I
can not believe that it gained many votes for Mr. Van Buren.

In August, 1840, Mr. Clay, in compliance with a pressing
invitation, visited Nashville and atldressed an immense assem-
blage upon the political topics of the day. His reception
was enthusiastic in the very highest degree. Nine cheers, such
as have seldom been given to any man in this country except
to Henry Clay, greeted his rising. His allusions to General
Jackson were apparently respectful, but were, in reality, cal-
culated, and, perhaps, were designed to be exquisitely offen-
sive to him. "It was true," said Mr. Clay, "that he had
some reluctance, some misgivings, about making this visit at
this time, which grew out of a supposition that his motives
might be misconstrued. The relations which had for a long
time existed between himself and the illustrious captain in
this neighborhood, were well understood. He feared, if he
accepted the invitation to make the visit now, that it might
be thought by some that his motives were less patriotic than
sinister or selfish. But he assured that great asseaiblage,
that toward that illustrious individual, their fellow-citizen
and friend, he cherished, he possessed no unkind feelings.
He was a great chieftain ; he had fought well and bravely for
his country ; he hoped ho would live long and enjoy much
happiness, and, when he departed from this fleeting vale of
tears, that he would enter into the abode of the just, made
perfect."

Still harping on my Chieftain! In Mr. Clay's speech, as
published in the authorized volumes, edited by Mr. Mallory,
there is not one remark respecting General Jackson or his
public conduct which was not legitimate. Indeed the speech
chiefly consisted of humorous and satirical comments upon

638 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1840.

thu administration of Mr. Van Buren. He alluded, it is tnie,
to the appointment of Mr. Livingston as Secretary of State,
with the remark that he was a defaulter ; but he added, that
he presumed " the President did not sufficiently reflect upon
the tendency such an appointment would have." Other com-
ments were made by Mr. Clay upon General Jackson's ap-
pointments, and upon the extraordinary and unexampled
number of public officers who had recently become defaulters.
The day after the delivery of Mr. Clay's speech, Greneral
Jackson sent to the Nashville Union the following commu-
nication :

TO THE EDITOR OF THE UNION.

" Sir : Being inforined that the Hon. Henry Clay of Kentucky, in his
pubhc speech at Nashville yesterday, alleged that I had appointed the
Hon. Edward Livingston Secretary of StAte when he wiis a defaulter and
knowing him to be one, I feel that I am justified in decUiring the charge
to be false. It is known to all the country that the nominations made by
the Prositlent to the Senate are referred to appropriate committees of Uial
body, whoso duty it is to inquire into the character of the nominees, and
that if there is any evidence of default^ or any disqualifying circumstances
existing against them, a rejection of the nomination follows. Mr. Living-
ston was a member of the Senate from the state of Louisiana when he was
nominated by me. Can Mr. CLiy say he opposed the coufirmation of his
nomination, because he was a defaulter? l^ so, tiie journals of the S<mate
will answer. But his confirmation by the Senate is conclusive proof tliat
no such objeetion, if made, was sustaineil. and I am satisfied that such a
charge against him could not have been substantiated.

'* I am also informed that Mr. Clay charged me with appointing Sam-
uel Swartwout collector of the port of New York, knowing that he had
been an associate of Aaron Burr. To this charge it is proper to say, that
I knew of ;Mr. Swartwout's connection with Aaron Burr, pri^cisely as I did
that of Mr. Clay himself, who if the history of the times di«l not do him
groat injustice was far from avoiding an association with Burr when he was
at the town of Lexington in Kentucky. Yet Mr. Clay was appointed Sec-
retary of State, and I may say, confidently, with n^conmiendations for char-
acter and fitness not more favorable than tliose produced to me by the
citizens of New York in behalf of Mr. Swartwout, Mr. Clay, too, at the
time of his own appointment to that high office, it will be recollected, wsis
directly charged throughout the Union with having bargained for if, and

1840.] IN RETIREMENT. 639

by none was this charge more earnestly made than by his present associ-
ates in T(?nn('ssee, Messrs. B<'ll and Foster.

" Under such circunisfancos how contemptible does this <lcraagogue ap-
pear, wh«'n he descends from his high place in the Senate and roams over
the country, retiiiling slanders against the living and the dead.

"Andiiew Jackso!^.

^^Hersiitagk, August, 18th, ISW.**

To this communication Mr. Clay made an immediate re-
ply, giving a correct outline of his speech, and asserting that
he had spoken of General Jackson and his measures only in
proper and becoming terms. " With rt>gard," he concluded,
" to the insinuations and gross epithets contained in General
Jackson's note, alike impotent, malevolent, and derogatorj*
from the dignity of a man wlio has filled the highest office in
the universe, respect for the public and for myself allow me
only to say that, like other similar missiles, they have fallen
harmless at my feet, exciting no other sensation than that of
scorn and contempt."

Toward the close of the campaign. General Jackson made
a ctmsiderable tour in tlie western part of Tennesst^e, which
tour, the party papers of that day inform us, was designed
to aid the caust^ of Mr. Van Buren. One of these veracious
sheets stated, " on authority to be relied ui)ou," that the ex-
President, in a bar-room filled with people, expressed the
opinion ^^ that Wt^bster was sent over to Eugland to negotiate
a ffi-eat mammoth bank in America, and that the dukes and
lords and ladies of England were to be the stockholders, and
that the whigs of the United States had defrayed the ex-
penses of their conventions and barbecues with British gold,
which had been sent over to this country for these pur-

|>oses/'

Another little i)aragraph from a Ptamsylvania newspaper
of September, 1840, may interest the reader : *' Major John
H. Eatt)n, General Jackson's biographer and Secretary of
War, addressed, in our Court-house last night, a very large
assembly of botli political i)arties. His speech was truly a
splendid eti'ort in favor of Harrison and reform principles. I

640 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1842.

assure you the way he praised * Old Tip ' was the right
way."

The commercial disasters of 1837 and the depression that
succeeded had not seriously inconvenienced General Jackson,
with his magnificent farm and his hundred and fifty n^roes.
He repeatedly expressed the opinion that no one failed in that
great revulsion who ought not to have failed. Not the faint-
est suspicion that any measure of his own had any thing to
do with it ever found lodgment in his mind. He laid all the
blame upon Biddle, paper money, and speculation.

In 1842, when business men began once more to hojie for
prosperous seasons, and the country awoke from its long
lethargy, General Jackson became an anxious and embar-
rassed man through the misfortunes of his son. Money was
not to be borrowed in the western country, even then, except
at an exorbitant interest. He applied, in these circumstances,
to his fast friend, Mr. Blair, of the Globe, who was then a
man of fortune. Ten thousand dollars was the sum which
the General deemed sufficient for his relief. Mr. Blair not
only resolved on the instant to lend the money, but to lend
it on the Geuerars personal security, and to make the loan as
closely resemble a gift as the General's delicacy would permit
it to be. Mr. Rives desii*ed to share the i)leasure of accom-
modating General Jackson, and the loan was therefore made
in the name of Blair and Rives. Upon reading Mr. Blair's
reply to his application, the old man burst into tears. He
handed the letter to his daughter, and she, too, was melted
by the delicate generosity which it revealed. General Jack-
son, however, would accept the money only on conditions
which secured his friends against the possibility of loss.

Not long after these interesting events, further relief was
afforded General Jackson by the refunding of the fine which
he had paid at New Orleans, in 1815, for the arrest of Judge
Hall, and for rei'using to obey the writ of habeas cot-pus
issued by him. The fine was originally one thousand dollars,
but tho accumulated interest swelK'd the amount to twenty-
seven hundral. Senator Linn^ of Missouri, introduced the

1843.] GENERAL JACKSON JOINS THE CHURCH. 641

bill for refunding the money, and gave it an earnest and per-
severing support. In the House the measure was strenuously
supported by Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, and Mr. C. J. Inger-
soll, of Pennsylvania, to both of whom General Jackson ex-
pressed his gratitude in the warmest terms. The bill was
passed in the Senate by a party vote of twenty-eight to
twenty — Mr. Calhoun voting with the friends of the ex-
Prosidcnt ; in the House, by one hundred and fifty-eight to
twenty-eight.

Congress thus notified the future commanders of armies,
first, that they may place under martial law a city threatened
by an enemy ; and, secondly, that they may keep it under
martial law for the space of two months after the enemy has
been vanquished, and driven from the soil and from the
waters of the St&te in which that city is situated. In other
words. Congress invested the military commanders of cities,
in time of war, with supreme authority.

CHAPTER XLV.

GENERAL JACKSON JOINS THE CHURCH.

The north-of-Irelanders are a religious people. From his
mother, from the traditions of his father and his race, from
the example of his circle of relatives in the Carolinas, from
his early attendance at the old log church in the Waxhaws,
General Jackson had derived a r^ard for religion and its ob-
servances, which, in the wildest period of his life, was never
wholly forgotten by him. To clergymen he always paid par-
ticular respect, and among them he found some of his warm-
est friends. Without ever being a " Sabbatarian," he was
an observer of the day of rest, and a church-goer. On Sunday
mornings he would say to his guests : " Gentlemen, do what
you plcjise in my house ; / am going to church." The lan-
guage which Henry Clay employed upon moving the appoint-
VOL. in— 41

642 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1843.

ment of a national fast day, in view of the ravages of the
cholera in 1832, describes exactly the religious feelings of
General Jackson during sixty years of his life. " I am no
member of a religious sect," said Mr. Clay, " I am not a pro-
fessor of religion. I regret that I am not. I wish that I was,
and I trust that I shall be. But I have, and I always have
had, a profound respect for Christianity, the religion of my
fathers, and for its rites, its usages, and its observances."

How much the religious tendencies of General Jackson
were strengthened by the example of his wife, and how much
more by her aflFecting death at the moment when he needed
her most, we have already seen ; and how he gave her his
solemn promise to join the church as soon as he had done
with politics. The letters which he wrote, during his presi-
dency, to members of his own family, abound in religious ex-
pressions. The following to Mrs. Emily Donelson, the wife
of his valued private secretary, will serve to show the strong
tendency of his mind to religion during those exciting and
turbulent years.

GENERAL JACKSON TO MBS. EMILY DONELSON.

** Washixotox, November 27th, 1886.

" My Dear Emily : Your kind and acceptable letter of the 11th instant
was received on the 23d, whilst I was confined to my bed by a seven;
hemorrhage from the lungs, which threatened a speedy end to my exist-
ence, but, with sincere thanks to a kind Providence, who holds our exist-
ence here in the hollow of His hand, I have so far recovered, as to be able
to write you this letter, to acknowledge the receipt of yours, and to offer
to Him who made us my most sincere and hearty thanks for His kindness
to you in restoring you to health again, and \vith my prayers for your per-
fect recovery, and that you may be long spared to superintend the bnnging
up and educating of your dear children, and be a comfort to your dear
husband, who has a great solicitude about you, and great anxiety to spce<i-
ily return to you ; but my sudden attack has detained him.

" I rejoice, my dear Emily, to find your spirits are good, and that you
are able to take exercise daily. This is necessary to your perfect recovery ;
and trust in a kind Providence, that in time you will be completely re-
stored to your health. You are young, and witli care and good treatment,
will outgrow your disease, but you must be careful not to take cold this

1843.] JOINS THE CHUBOH. 643

winter, and as soon as Doctor Hunt's prescription roaches you, T would
a I vise you to pursue it. The digitalis, I f.'ar, is too exciting to the puli^e.

" The doctor tolls nic I lost from the lungs, and by the lancet and cup-
j)inLr, ujnvards of sixty ounces of blood, which stopped the hemorrhage
without the aid of that potent, but pernicious, remedy to the stomach, su^ar
of lend. I am now mending as fast as I could expect, and if I can keep
clear of taking cold tliis winter, I hope to be spared, and to return to the
H(?rmitage in the spring, and again have the pleasure of seeing you and
your dear children, to whom present me affectionately.

*' My dear Emily, the chastisement by our Maker, we ought to receive
as a rt'buke from Ilim, and thank Him for the mildness of it — which was
to bring to our view, and that it may be always before us, that we are
mere tenants at will here. And we ought to live daily, so as to be pre-
pared to <lie, for we know not when we may b<* called home. Then let us
receive our chastisements as blessings from God ; and let us so live that we
may say with the sacred poet :

W[\iii though the Fatlier*s rod

Drop a chastening stroke,
Yet, lest it w^ound their souls too deep,

Its fury shall be broke I

Deal gently, Lord, with those

Whose faith and pious fear,
Wiiose hope, and love, and every grace,

Proclaim their hearts sincere.

** I must close with my blessing to you and the children. May God
bless you and alL Emily, farewell. Affectionately,

"Andrew Jackson."

The promise which he made to his wife, in the grove that
shades the Hermitage church he remembered, but did not
strictly kwp. In August, 1838, he wrote to one who had ad-
dressed him on the subject : *' I would long since have made
this solemn j.ublic dediaition to Almighty God, but knowing
the wretchedness of this world, anil how prone many are to evil,
that the scoffer of religion would have cried out — * hypocrisy 1
he has joined the church for political eflFect,' I thought it best
to postpone this public act until my retirement to the shades
of jirivate life, when no false imputation could be made that
might be injurious to i*eligion." He passed two or three

644 LIFE OF ANDBEWJAOKSON. [1843.

years, liowever, in " the shades of private life," before he per-
formed the act referred to in this letter.

From the Rev. Dr. Edgar, pastor of an influential Pres-
byterian church in Nashville, I received the information
which is now to be imparted to the reader. It was a sermon
of Dr. Edgar's that produced in General Jackson the state
of mind that led to his connecting himself with the church,
and it was Dr. Edgar who administered to him his first com-
munion. He is, therefore, the source of trustworthy inform-
ation on this interesting subject.

It was about the year 1839 that Dr. Edgar was first invited
to the Hermitage for the purpose of administering religious
advice to its inmates. Mrs. Jackson, the amiable and estima-
ble wife of the General's son, was sick in body and troubled
in mind. General Jackson invited his reverend friend to call
and see her, and endeavor to clear her mind of the cloud of
perplexity and apprehension which hung over it. In the
course of her conversation with the Doctor, she chanced to
say, in the General's hearing, that she felt herself to be " a
great sinner."

" You a sinner ?" interposed the General, " why, you are
all purity and goodness ! Join Dr. Edgar's church, by all

means."

This remark was considered by the clergyman a proof that,
at that time. General Jackson was " blind" as to the nature
of true religion. Soon after this interview Mrs. Jackson's
anxiety was relieved, and she waited to join the church only
for a suitable opportunity.

Ere long a " protracted meeting" was held in the little
church on the Hermitage farm. Dr. Edgar conducted the
exercises, and the family at the Hermitage were constant in
their attendance. The last day of the meeting arrived, which
was also the last day of the week. General Jackson sat in
his accustomed seat, and Dr. Edgar preached. The subject
of the sermon was the interposition of Providence in the af-
fairs of men, a subject congenial with the habitual tone of
General Jackson's mind. The preacher spoke in detail of the

1843.] JOINS. THE CHURCH. 645

perils which beset the life of man, and how often he is pre-
served from sickness and sudden death. Seeing General
Jackson listening with rapt attention to his discourse, the
eloquent preacher sketched the career of a man who, in addi-
tion to the ordinary dangers of human life, had encountered
those of the wilderness, pf war, and of keen political con-
flict ; who had escaped the tomahawk of the savage, the
attack of his country's enemies, tlie privations and fatigues
of border warfare, and the aim of the assassin. How is it,
exclaimed the preacher, that a man endowed with reason and
gifted with intelligence can pass through such scenes as these
unharmed, and not see the hand of God in his deliverance ?
While enlarging on this theme, Dr. Edgar saw that his words
were sinking deep into the General's heart, and he spoke with
unusual animation and impressiveness.

The service ended. General Jackson got into his carriage,
and was riding homeward. He was overtaken by Dr. EdgJir
on horseback. He hailed the Doctor, and said he wished to
speak with him. Both having alighted, the General led the
clergyman a little way into the grove.

" Doctor," said the General, " I want you to come home
with me to-night."

" I can not to-night," was the reply ; " I am engaged
elsewhere."

" Doctor." repeated the General, " I want you to come
home with me to-night."

Dr. Edgar siiid that he had promised to visit that even-
ing a sick lady, and he felt bound to keep his promise. Gen-
eral Jackson, as though he had not keard the reply, said a
third time, and more pleadingly than before :

" Doctor, I taant you to come home with me to-night."

" General Jackson," said the clergyman, " my word is
pledged ; I can not break it ; but I will be at the Hermit-
age to-morrow morning very early."

The anxious man wjis obliged to he contented with this
arrangement, and went home alone. He retired to his apart-
ment. He passed the evening and the greater part of the

C46 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1843.

night in meditation, in reading, in conversing with his be-
loved daughter, in prayers. He was sorely distressed. Late
at night, when his daughter left him, he was still agitated
and sorrowful. What thoughts passed through his mind as
he paced his room in the silence of the night, of what sins
he repented, find what actions of his life he wished he had
not done, no one knows, or will ever know.

But the value of this upheaving of the soul depends upon
that. There is a repentance which is radical, sublime, re-
generating. There is a repentance which is shallow and
fruitless. Conversion means a turning. It is only when we
know from what a man turns, and to what he turns, that we
can know whether his turning is of any benefit to him.
There is such a thing as a man's emancipating himself, in
one night of agony and joy, in one thrilling instant of time,
from the domination of pride and desire. He who is walk-
ing along the plain can not reach the mountain top in a
moment ; but in a moment he can set his face toward it,
and begin to scale the height. Touching the nature and
worth of this crisis in General Jackson's life I know no-
thing, and can say nothing. We shall soon have an oppor-
tunity of observing whether the spirit of the man had changed,
or whether to the last he remained what we have seen him
hitherto.

As the day was breaking, light seemed to dawn upon his
troubled soul, and a great peace fell upon him.

To Dr. Edgar, who came to him soon after sunrise. Gen-
eral Jackson told the joyful history of the niglit, and expres-
sed a desire to be admitted into the church with his daughter
that very morning. The usual questions respecting doctrine
and experience were satisfactorily answered by the candidate.
Then there was a pause in the convei'Siition. The clergyman
said at length :

" General, there is one more question which it is my duty
to ask you. Can you forgive all your enemies ?"

The question was evidently unexpected, and the candidate
was silent for a while.

1843.] JOINS THE CHURCH. 647

" My political enemies," saitl he, " I can freely forgive ;
but as for those who abused me when I was serving my
country in the field, and those who attacked me for serving
ray country — Doctor, that is a different ciise."

The Doctor assured him that it was not. Christianity,
he said, forbade the indulgence of enmity absolutely and in
all cases. No man could be received into a Christian church
who did not cast out of his heart every feeling of that
nature. It was a condition that was fundamental and indis-
pensjible.

After a considerable pause the candidate said that he
thought he could forgive all who had injured him, even those
who had assailed him for what he done for his country in the
field. The clergyman then consented to his sharing in the
solemn ceremonial of the morning, and left the room to com-
municate the glad tidings to Mrs. Jackson. She hastened to
the General's apartment. They rushed with tears into each
other's arms, and remained long in a fond and silent em-
brace.

The Hermitiige church was crowded to the utmost of its
small capacity ; the very windows were darkened with the
eager faces of the servants. After the usual services, the
General rose to make the required public declaration of his
concurrence with the doctrines, and his resolve to obey the
precepts, of the church. He leaned he^ivily upon his stick
with both hands ; tears roUexl down his cheeks. His daugh-
ter, the fair, young matron, stood beside him. Amid a si-
lence the most profound, the General answered the questions
I)ro{)()sed to him. When he was formally pronounced a mem-
ber of the church, and the clergyman was about to continue
the services, the long restrained feeling of the congregation
burst fortli in sobs and exclamations, which compelled him
to pause for several minutes. The clergyman himself was
speechless with emotion, and abandoned himself to the exul-
tation of the hour. A familiar hymn was raised, in which
the entire assembly, both within and without the church,

648 LIFE OF ANDREW JAOKSON. [li

joined with an ecstatic fervor which at once expressed
relieved their feelings.*

From this time to the end of his life, General Jack
' spent most of his leisure hours in reading the Bible, bibl

) commentaries, and the hymn-book, which last he always ]

1 nounced in the old-fashioned way, hirne book. The v

known as " Scott's Bible" was his chief delight ; he rea<
through twice before he died. Nightly he read prayen
the presence of his family and household servants. I
read prayers, for so I was informed by those who often he
' him do it. But there has been published a description of

; family worship at the Hermitage, which represents the G

eral as delivering an extempore prayer.
' The Hermitage church, after the death of Mra. Jack

: and the Generars removal to Washington, had not been t

} to maintain itself ; but the event which we have just rela

j caused it to be reorganized. At one of the first meeting!

. the resuscitated church. General Jackson was nominate

" ruling elder."

"No," said he, " the Bible says, ^ Be not hasty in laj
on of hands/ I am too young in the church for such
office. My countrymen have given me high honors, bu
should esteem the office of ruling elder in the church
Christ, a far higher honor than any I have ever received.

propose brother , and brother " (two a

neighbors.)

The misfortunes which had befallen his son induced G
eral Jackson, in 1843, to cancel a will which he had m
several years before, and to prepai-e a new one. The f
will bestowed a handsome legacy upon a favorite neph<

♦ Rev. E. F. Berkley, an episcopal clergyman of Kentucky, ^writes: "^
Clay was baptized in his parlor at Ashland, on tho 22d of June, 1847 in
usual way, by pouriDg a handful of water on his head, in the name of tho 1
Trinity; one of his daughters-in-law and four of his grand-daughters beine
tized at tlie same time, and in tho same way. . . . The reason of iii;
coiving tliis holy oniiaanco at homo was, that my congregation at the timo ^
building a new church edifice, and wo had no fitter place for tho porfonn
of these sacred rites."

ft
tt

1S43.] JOINS THE CHURCH. 649

the second left the entire estate to his son in fee simple. In
connuciion with this subject, Major Lewis related to me some
interesting particulars of an interview between himself and
the ex-President, which occurred just after the execution of
the new will.

It was a beautiful morning in June. "Come, Major,
said the General, "it's a pleasant day, let us take a stroll.
He seemed verj* weak, scarcely able to walk ; and had much
diificultv in breathing. After walkin<j a short distance. Ma-
jor Lewis advised him to return, but he would not. A second
and a third time, the Major entreated him to go no further.
" No, Major," he said, " I set out to show you my cotton
field, and I will go." They reached the field, at length, and
sat down u])on a stump to admire its flourishing appearance.
Suddenly changing the subject, the General told his compan-
ion that he had made a new will, leaving his whole estate
unconditionally to his son. Major Lewis ventured to remon-
strate, and advised that a part of the property should be set-
tled upon Mrs. Jackson and her children, enough to secure
them against want in case his son's speculations should con-
tinue to be unsuccessful.

"No," said the General after a long pause, "that would
show a want of confidence. If she,'' pointing to the tomb in
the garden, " were alive, slie would wish him to have it all,
and to me her wish is law."

The new will, therefore, remained unaltered. It is a most
characteristic document, and nothing in it is more character-
istic than the honest anxiety it exhibited to secure the pay-
ment of the debt to Messrs. Blair and Rives.

GENERAL JACKSON'S WILL.

IIbrmitaob, June Ttb, 1S48.

In the Name of Gtod, Amen: — I, Andrew Jackson, Sr., being of
sound mind, memory, an J un'lcrstanding, and impressei with the grout un-
certainty of life and the certainty of death, and being desirous to dispose
of my temporal aflairs so that after my death no contention may arise rcl-

650 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1843.

ative to tlio same ; and wbereas, since executing my will of the SOtli of
September, 1833, my estate has become greatly involved by my liabili-
ties for the debts of my well-beloved and adopted son, Andrew Jackson,
Jr., which makes it necessary to alter the same: Tlierefore I, Andrew
Jacksou, Sr., of the County of Davidson, and State of Tennessee, do
make, ordain, publish, anil declare this my last will and testament, revok-
ing all other wills by me heretofore made.

First, I bequeath my body to the dust whence it comes, and my soul
to Grod who gave it, hoping for a happy immortality through the atoning;
merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the worUl. My desire i«»
that my body be buried by the side of my dear departed wife, in the garden
at the Hermitage, in the vault prepared in the garden, and all expenses paid
by my executor hereafter named.

Secondly, That all my just debts be paid out of my personnl and real es-
tate by my executor; for which purpose, to meet the debt of my good fiiends
General J. B. Planchin & Co. of New Orleans, for the sum of i<ix thousand
dollars, with the interest accruing thereon, loaned to me to meet the debt
due by A. Jackson, Jr., for the purchase of the plantation from Hii-am G.
Runnels, lying on the east bank of the river Mississippi, in the State of
Mississippi ; also, a debt due by me of ten thousand dollars, borrowed of
my frii'nds Blair and Rives, of the city of Washington and District of Co-
lumbia, with the interest accruing thereon, being applied to the payment
of tlie lands bought of Hiram G. Runnels as aforesaid ; and for the faithful
payment of the aforesaid recited debts, I hereby bequeath all my real and
personal estate. After these debts are fully paid,

Thirdly, I give and bequeath to my adopted son, Andrew Jackson, Jr.,
tlie tract of land whereon I now live, known as the Hermitage tract, with
its butts and boundanes, with all its appendages of the three lots of land
bought of Samuel Donelson, Thomas J. Donelson, and Alexander Donel-
son, sons and heirs of Savcrn Donelson, deceased, all adjoining the Her-
mitage tract, agreeable to their butts and bouniiaries, with all the appurten-
ances thereto belonging or in any wise appertaining, with all my negroes
that I may die possessed of, with the exceptions hereafter name<l, with all
tlieir increase afler the before recited debts are fully paid, with all the
household furniture, fanning tools, stock of all kind, both on the Hennitage
tract farms, as well as those on the Mississippi plantation, to him and his
heirs, for ever. The true intent and meaning of this my last will and tes-
tament is, tliat all my estate, real, personal, and mixed, is hereby first
pledged for the payment of the above recited debts and interest ; and when
they are fully j>aid, the resitlue of all my estate, real, personal, and mixed,
is hereby bequeathed to my adopted son A. Jack^n, Jr., with the excep-
tions hereafter named, to him and his heirs for ever.

Fourth, Whereas I have heretofore by conveyance, deposited with my

1843.]

JOINS THE CHURCH 651

beloved daughter, Sarah Jackson, wife of my adopted son, A. Jackson, Jr.,
given to my bolovod pfranddaup^hter, Rachael Jackson, daughter of A. Jack-
son, Jr. and Sarah his wife, several negroes therein described, which I
hereby confirm — I give and bequeath to my beloved grandson, Andrew
Jackson, son of A. Jackson, Jr. and Sarah his wife, a negro boy named
Ned, son of Blacksmitli Aaron and Hannah his wife, to him and liis heirs
for ever.

Fifth^ I give and bequeath to my beloved little grandson, Samuel Jack-
son, son of A. Jaokwn, Jr. and his much beloved wife Sarah, one negro
boy named Davy or Grcorge, son of Squire and his wife Giney, to him and
his heirs for ever.

Sixth^ To my beloved and affect ionati* daughter, Sarah Jackson, wife
of my adopted and well beloved son, A. Jackson, Jr., I hereby recognise,
by this bequest^ the gift I made her on her marriage, of the n«.»gro girl
Gracy, which I bought for her, and gave hor to my daughter Sarah as her
maid and seamstress, with her increase, with my house- servant Hannah
and her two daiighters, namely, Charlotte and Mary, to her and her heirs
for ever. This gift and becjuest Is made for my groat alfection for her — as
a memento of her uniform attention to me and kindness on all occasions,
.and particularly when worn down with sickness, pain, and debility. She
has been more than a daiighter to me, anil I hoj)e she never will be dis-
turbed in the enjoyment of this gift and bequest by any one.

Set'enihj I bequeath to my well beloved nephew, Andrew J. Donelson,
son of Saniin'l Donelson, deceased, the elegant swonl presented to me by
the State of Tennessee, with this injunction, that he fail not to use it when
necessary in support and protection of our glorious union, and for ihe pro-
tection of til!' constitutional rights of our beloved country, should they bo
ass;iileil by foreign enemies or domestic traitors. This, from the great
chang** in my worldly affairs of late, is, with my blessing, all I can bequeath
him, doing justice to those creditors to whom I am responsible. This be-
quest is made as a memento of the high regard, affection, and esteem I
bear for him, as a high-min<h.*d, honest, and honorable man.

Eiijhth^ To my grand-nephew, Andrew Jackson Coffee, I bequeath the
elegant sword presented to me by the Rifle Company of New Orleans,
comman led by Captain B-al, as a memento of my regard, and to bring to
his recolle(!tion the gallant services of his deceased fatlier, Gi?neral John
Coffee, in the late Indian and British war, under my (x^mmanil, and his
gallant cotiduct in defens«» of New Orleans in 1814 and 1815, with this
injunction : that he wield it in the protection of the rights wcvared to the
AuK'rican citizen un<ler our glorious constitution, against all invaders,
whi^lher fureign foes or intestine traitors.

I bequeath to my beloved grandson, Andrew Jackson, son of A. Jack-
son, Jr., an«l Sarah his wife, the sword presenteil to m».* by the citizens of

652 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1843.

Philadelphia, with this injunction : that he will always use it in defense of
the constitution and our glorious union, and the perpetuation of our repub-
lican system : remembering the motto—" Draw me not without occasion,
nor sheath me without honor."

The pistols of General Lafayette, which were presented by him to Gen-
eral George Washington, and by Colonel William Robertson presented to
me, I bequeath to George Washington Lafayette, as a memento of the il-
lusti'ious personages through whose hands they have passed — his fcUherj
and the father of his country, ^.

The gold box presented to me by the corporation of the city of New
York, the large silver vase presented to me by the ladies of Charleston,
South Carolina, my native State, with the large picture representing the
unfurling of the American banncsr, presented to me by the citizens of South
Carolina, when it was refused to be accepted by the United States Senate,
I leave in trust to my son, A. Jackson, Jr., with directions that should our
happy country not be blessed with peace, an event not always to be ex-
pected, he will, at the close of the war or end of the conflict, present each
of said articles of inestimable value to that patriot, residing in the city or
State from which they were presented, who shall be adjudged by his coun-
trymen or the ladies to have been the most valiant in defense of his coun-
try and our country's rights.

The pocket spyglass which was used by General Washington during
the revolutionary war, and presented to me by Mr. Custis, having been
burned with my dwelUng-house, the Hermitage, with many other invalu-
able relics, I can make no disposition of them. As a memento of my high
regard for General Robert Armstrong, as a gentleman, patriot, and soldier,
as well as for his meritorious military services under my command during
the late British and Indian war, and remembering the gallant bearing of
him and his gallant little band at Enotochopco creek, when, fulling despe-
rately wounded, he called out — *' My brave fellows, some may fall, but
save the cannon" — as a memento of all these things, I give and bequeath
to him my case of pistols and sword worn by me throughout my military
career, well satisfied that in his hands they will never be disgraced — that
they will never be used or drawn without occasion, nor sheathed but with
honor.

Lastly^ I leave to my beloved son all my walking-canes and other relics,
to be distributed among my young relatives — namesakes — ^first, to my
much esteemed namesake, Andrew J. Donelson, son of my esteemed
nephew, A. J. Donelson, his first choice, and then to be distributed as A.
Jackson, Jr., may think proper.

Lastly^ I appoint my adopted son, Andrew Jackson, Jr., my whole and
sole executor to this my last will and testament^ and direct that no security

1843.] ANNEXES TEXAS. 653

be required of him for tlie faithful execution and discharge of the trusts

hereby reposed in him.

In testimony whereof I have this 7th day of June, one thousand eight

hundred and forty-three, hereunto set my hand, and affixed my seal,

hereby revoking all wills heretofore made by me, and in the presence of

Marion Adams,

Elizabeth D. Love, ANDREW JACKSON (Seal),

Tn03. J. DONELSON,

Richard Smith,
R. Armstrong.

CHAPTER XLVI.

QENERAL JACKSON ANNEXES TEXAS.

"Extending the area of freedom" (to use his own lan-
guage), by the annexation of Texas, was the last political
project which occupied the thoughts and the jHin of Andrew
Jackson. In promoting this important measure he displayed
an energy and a pugnacity seldom exhibited, before or since,
by a politician in his seventy-seventh year.

For forty years or more General Jackson had cherished
the d^^sire to push the Spaniards further back from the west-
ern boundary of the United SUitcs. In Col. Burr's fillibus-
tering schcmt} of 1806, so far as it related to the conquest
of Texixs, he had heartily sympathised. Yet he assented to
the Spauish treaty of 1819, which gave us Florida, and gavo
up Texas. We have shown that he did so in a previous
volume.*^ To the opinions expressed in 1820 he adhered, so
far as is known, until he came to the presidency in 1829,
when an attempt was made to obtain Texas by negotiation,
which failed.

In 1830, General Sara Houston, as we have seen, came
to Washington, a man ruined in fortune and impaired in

* Seo Vol II., p. 685.

654 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1844.

reputation. He HveJ for a while in a boarding-house, where
also resided a certain Dr. Robert Mayo, once a well known
name, long ago forgotten. With Mayo General Houston
gradually became intimate, and to him he finally confided the
particulars of a grand project for wresting Texas from the
feeble grasp of Mexico, and founding an independent repub-
lic. Dr. Mayo, who was then one of those waiters upon
Providence wliom we call office-seekei*s, betraved his new ac-
quaintance, and revealed the scheme to the President in a
long letter. Heading his epistle with the cipher which the
adventurers employed in their secret correspondence, he pro-
ceeded to impart to the President the substance of Houston's
revelations. ^' I learned from him," wrote Mayo, " that he
was organizing an expedition against Texas ; to afford a
cloak to which lu- had assumed the Indian costume, habits,
and associations, by settling among them in the neighbor-
hood of Texas. That nothing was more easy to accomplish
than the conquest and possession of that extensive and fer-
tile country, by the cooperation of the Indians in the Arkan-
sas Territory, and recruits among the citizens of the United
States. That in his view it would hardly be necessary to
strike a blow to wrest Texas from Mexico. That it was
ample for the esUiblishment and maintenance of a separate
and indej)endent government from the United States. That
the expedition would be got reiidy with all possible despatch,
that the demonstration would and must be made in about
twelve months from that time. That the event of success
opened the most unbounded prospects of wealth to those who
would embark in it, and that it was with a view to facili-
tate his recruiting he wished to elevate himself in the public
confidence by the aid of my communications to the Riduaond
Enquirer. That I should have a surgeoncy in the exi)edi-
tion, and he recommended me, in the mean time, to remove
along with him and practice physic among the Indians in the
territory.*

♦ Eight Years ia Washington. Bj Dr. Robert ^layo, Baltimore, 1839

1844.] ANNEXES TEXAS. 655

Soon after General Houston hml made these communica-
tions, Mayo fell in with another of the confederates, who con-
firmed them — a Mr. Hunter, who had been recently dismissed
from the Military Academy at West Point. Hunter informed
Dr. Mayo that " he was a bona Jidc agent of the recruiting
service for this district ; that there were agencies established
in all the j)rincipal towns ; that sevtjral thousands had al-
ready enlisted along the seaboard, from New England to
Georgia, inclusive ; that each man paid thirty dollars to the
common fund, and took an oath of secrecy and good faith to
the cause on joining the i)arty ; that they wTre to repair, in
their individual capacities as travelers, to different j)oints on
the bimks of the Mississippi, where they had already char-
tered steamboats on which to embark, and thence ply to their
rendezvous, somewhere in the territory of Arkansas or Texas,
convenient for action."

Here was an exact reproduction of the Buit project of
1806. The revelations of Hunter were communicated to the
President bv the zealous Mavo.

When vfQ. consider the relations existing between Gen-
eral Jackson and General Houston, it is difficult to believe
that the President was ignorant of Houston's designs. His
office, however, compelled him to assume an attitude of op-
position to them. Upon the back of Dr. Mayo's letter ho
wrote these words : " Dr. Mayo on the contemi^lated in-
vasion of Texas, private and confidential — a letter to be
written confidential, to the secretary of the Territory of Ar-
kansas, with copy of confidential letter to Wm. Fulton, Esq.,
secretarv t«> the Territorv of Florida.'' This indorsement
seems to indicate agitation in the mind of the writer, for the
'' Wm. Fulton, Esq.," mentioned in it was not tlu^ *' secretary
of the Territorv of Florida," but the secretarv t)f the Terri-
torv of Arkansas.

A letter was written, marketl " strictly confidential,"
which communicated the substance of Mavo's information,
but expressed the opinion that that information was *• erron-

658 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1844

eous." Nevertheless, Mr. Fulton was ordered to be on the
look-out for a possible descent upon Texas, and to let the
President know if any suspicious movements were made in
the south-western country. In all that he did Mr. Fulton
was enjoined to observe the " utmost secrecy."

In due time, Gen. Houston entered upon the execution
of his scheme. That he experienced no serious hindrance
from the government of the United States, and that General
Jackson watched his movements with interest and with sym-
pathy, are facts well known to us. The last year of General
Jackson's presidency saw Houston master of the province,
and Santa Alia a prisoner in his hands. Santa Ana was per-
mitted to retire to Mexico on the condition that he should
use his influence to induw his government to acknowledge
the independence of Texas. A mob prevented his return.
In the spring of 1837, he came to Washington ; had several
interviews with General Jackson, the purport of which has
not been disclosed ; and was sent home in a national
vessel.

Before finally leaving the White House, General Jackson
employed many hours in burning useless papers, and in re-
turning letters to the authors of them. Dr. Mayo received
back his letter of 1830, and with it, in the same envelope, a
copy, in General Jackson's own hand, of the letter to Mr.
Fulton, referred to above. The sending of the Fulton letter
was probably an accident. Instead of returning it to the Pres-
ident, Mayo showed it to members of the Opposition, one of
whom, Mr. John Quincy Adams, read it to the House of Rep-
resentatives for a purpose tliat is obvious. General Jackson
avowed the belief, in an affidavit, that Dr. Mayo had stolen
the Fulton letter from his oflice in the White House. Dr.
Mayo swore that he received it with his own confidential epis-
tle. In either case. General Jackson was not far wrong when
he spoke of his own letter to Fulton as the letter " purloined"
by Dr. Mayo.

With this explanation, the reader is prepared to under-

1844.] ANNEXES TEXAS. 657

stun J the events which roused the aged lion from the quies-
cence natural to his years^ and caused him to roar and show
his teeth, as of old.

General Harrison had triumphed and died. Mr. Tyler,
the Vice-President had succeeded him. The presidential elec-
tion of 1844 was approaching. Henry Clay, the beloved, the
often disapj)ointed, was to be the candidate for the whigs.
Mr. Van Burcn, defeated in 1840 because of his immovable
devotion to the principles of his party, was the man entitled
by that party's " usages," to be its candidate in 1844. A
faction, headed (according to Col. Benton) by Mr. Calhoun,
was resolved upon his being droj)ped by the nominating con-
vention. To effect their purpose, the faction devised a new
and popular " issue," or, as we now phrase it, a " new plank
in the platform ;*' one upon which Mr. Van Buren could not
stand ; namely, the immediate annexation of Texas. As
Mexico had not yet acknowledged the independence of the
revolted province, its annexation to the United States was
equivalent to a declaration of war against Mexico. But what
of that if a president could be elected thereby ? Early in
1843, Mr. Gilmer of Virginia, a particular friend of Mr. Cal-
houn, published in a Baltimore newspaper, an elaborate plea
for immediate annexation, on the ground that Great Britain
had designs upon Texas.

Mr. Gilmer's letter was sent to General Jackson by Mr.
Aaron V. Brown, member of Congress from Tennessee, with
a request for the General's opinion thereon. The object of
the intriguers was to obtain from General Jackson a strong
expression of opinion in fovor of immediate annexation ; to
keep his letter a secret until a contrary opinion had been
published by Mr. Van Buren ; and, finally, to produce Gen-
eral Jackson's letter in the democratic convention, to the an-
nihilation of Mr. Van Buren's hopes. General Jackson, sus-
pecting no intrigue, replied to Mr. Brown with the utmost
promptitude and completeness.

VOL. lu — 42

658 LIPB OP ANDREW JACKSON. [1844

GENERAL JAOKSOM TO MB. A. V. BROWN.

**nRBMrrAOK, Febraaiy IS, 1S48L

" My Dear Sir : Yours of the 23d ultimo has been received, and with
it the Madisonian^ containing Governor Gilmer's letter on the subject of
the annexation of Texas to the United States.

" You are not mistaken in supposing that I have formed an opinion on
this interesting subject It occupied much of my attention daring my
presidency, and, I am sure, has lost none of its importance by what has
since transpired.

*' Soon after my election, in 1829, it was made known to me by Mr.
Erwin, formerly our minister at the Court of Madrid, that whibt at that
Court he had laid the foundation of a treaty with Spain for the cession of
the Floridas and the settlement of the boundary of Louisiana, fixing the
western limit of the latter at the Rio Grande, agreeably to the understand-
ing of France ; that he had written home to our government for powers
to complete and sign this negotiation; but that, instead of receiving such
authority, the negotiation was taken out of his hands and transferred to
Wasliington, and a new treaty was there concluded, by which the Sabine,
and not the Eio Grande, was recognized and established as the boundary
of Louisiana.

*' Finding that these statements were true, and that our government did
really give up that important territory, when it was at its option to retain
it) I was filled with astonishment. The right of the le;*i-itoiy was obtained
from France. Spain stood ready to acknowledge it to the Rio Grande,
and yet the authority asked by our Minister to insert the true boundary
was not only withheld, but in lieu of it, a limit was adopted which stripped
us of the whole of tlie vast country lying between the two rivers.

" On such a subject, I tliought with the ancient Romans, that it was
right never to cede any land or boundary of the republic, but always to
odd to it by honorable treaty, thus extending the area of freedom ; and it
was in accordance with this feeling that I gave our minister to Mexico in-
structions to enter upon a negotiation for the retrocesssion of Texas to the
United States.

*' This negotiation failed, and I shall ever regret it as a misfortune to
both Mexico and the United States. Mr. Gilmer's letter presents many of
the considerations which, in my judgment, rendered the step necessjiry to
the peace and harmony of tlie two countries; but the point in it, at that
time, which most strongly impelled me to the course I pursued, was the
injustice done to us by the surrender of the territory, when it was obvious
that it could have been retained without increasing the consideration after-
ward given for the Floridas. I could not but feel that the surrender of so
vast and important a territory was attributable to an erroneous estimata

1844.] ANNEXES TEXAS. 659

of the tendency of our institutions, in which there was mingled somewhat
of jealousy to the rising greatness of the South and West.

" But I forbear to dwell on this part of the history of this question. It
is past, and can not now be undone. We can now only look at it as one
of annexation, if Texas presents it to us ; and if she does, I do not hesi-
tate to siiy that the welfare and happiness of our union require that it
should be accepted.

" If, in a military point of view alone, the question be examined, it
will be found to be most important to the United States to be in possession
of that territory.

" Great Britain has already made treaties with Texas, and we know
that far-seeing nation never omits a circumstance, in her extensive inter-
course with the world, which can be turned to account in increasing her
military resources. May she not enter into an alliance with Texas? and
reserving, as she doubtless will, the north-western boundary question as
the cause of war with us whenever she chooses to declare it, let us sup-
pose that, as an ally with Texas, we are to fight her I Preparatory to such
a movement, slie sends her 20,000 or 30,000 men to Texas ; organizes them
on the Sabine, where her supplies and arms can be concentrated before we
have even notice of her intentions ; makes a lodgment on the Mississippi ;
excites the negroes to insurrection ; the lower country falls, and with it
New Orleans ; and a servile war rages through the whole South and West.

" In the meanwhile, she is also moving an army along the western
frontier from Canada, which, in cooperation with the army from Texas,
spreads ruin and havoc from the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.

*' Who can estimate the national loss we may sustain, before such a
movement could be repelled with such forces as we could organize on short
notice?

" Remember that Texas borders upon us, on our west, to 42^ of north
latitude, and is our southern boundary to the Pacific. Remember, also,
that if annexed to the United States, our western boundary would be the
Rio Grande, which is of itself a fortification, on account of its extensive,
barren, and uninhabitable plains. With such a barrier on our west we are
invincible. The whole European world could not, in combination against
us, make an impression on our Union. Our population on the Pacific
would rapidly increase, and soon bo strong enough for the protection of
our eastern whalers, and, in the worst event, could always be sustained by
timely aids from the intermediate country.

" From tli% Rio Grande, over land, a large army could not march, or
be supplied, unless from the Gulf by water, which, by vigilance, could
always be intercepted ; and to march an army near the Gulf, they could
bo harassed by militia, and detained until an organized force could bo
raised to meet them.

660 LIFE OF ANDREW JAOKSON. [1844.

" But I am in danger of running into unnecessary details^ which my
debility will not enable me to close. The question is full of interest also,
as it afifects our domestic relations, and as it may bear upon those of
Mexico to us. I will not undertake to follow it out to its consequences
in those respects, though I must say that, in all aspects, the annexation
of Texas to the United States promises to enlarge the circle of free insti-
tutions, and is essential to the United States, particularly as lessening the
probabilities of future collision with foreign powers, and giving them
greater efficiency in spreading the blessings of peace.

" I return you my thanks for your kind letter on this subject^ and sub-
scribe myself, with great sincerity, your fiiend and obedient servant,

" Andrew Jacksom.

" Hon. A. V. Bbown."

The opinions expressed in this letter are directly contrary
to those held by General Jackson in 1820. In a letter to
Mr. Monroe, written in that year, and printed in a previous
volume of this work, he said : " With the Floridas in our
possession, our fortifications completed, Orleans, the great
emporium of the West, is safe. . . . From Texas an in-
vading enemy will never attempt such an enterprise ; if he
does, I will vouch that the invader will pay for his temerity."
For these reasons, General Jackson, in 1820, was "clearly of
the opinion that, for the present, we ought to be content with
the Floridas," and he, therefore, approved the treaty of
1819.

For the space of eleven months the letter to Mr. Brown
was kept secret, or shown only to a few of the leading con-
federates. Mr. Van Buren, meanwhile, had declared himself
in favor of annexation when it could be effected honorably,
and without incurring a needless risk of war ; but he was op-
posed to the project of immediate annexation, r(^rdles8 of
the rights of Mexico. In March, 1844, the conspirators,
after having perpetrated the fraud of changing the date of
General Jackson's letter from 1843 to 1844, gave it publicity
in the Richmond Inquirer. The friends of Mr. Van Buren
were alarmed, and the General was apprized of the trick.
Mr. B. F. Butler, it was reported at the time, visited the
Hermitage for the purpose of making him fully acquainted
with it. General Jackson could not retract ; but he pub-

1844] ANNEXES TEXAS. 661

lished a second Texas letter, which, though it reaffirmed the
positions of the first, contained passages eulogizing Mr. Van,
Buren in the highest terms. In concluding this second let-
ter, the ex-President said : " I can not close these remarks
without saying that my regard for Mr. Van Buren is so great,
and my confidence in his love of country is strengthened by
so long and intimate an acquaintance, that no diflFerence on
this subject can change my opinion of his character. He has
evidently prepared his letter from a knowledge only of the
circumstances bearing on the subject as they existed at the
close of his administration, without a view of the disclosures
since made, and which manifest the probability of a dangerous
interference with the affairs of Texas by a foreign power."

This letter could not save Mr. Van Buren from defeat in
the nominating convention — so powerful was the combination
against him. Mr. Polk of Tennessee, whose name had
scarcely been mentioned in cortnection with the first office,
received the nomination. Polk, of course, was strenuous for
instantaneous annexation. He would have favored the an-
nexation of the infernal regions if " the party " had made it an
"issue ;" for he was a politician of the New York school.

The first Texas letter of General Jackson contained certain
allegations respecting the administration of Mr. Monroe which
could not be expected to pass unquestioned. General Jack-
son charged that administration with giving up Texas need-
lessly and wantonly. Mr. John Quincy Adams was alive to
meet the accusation, and he did meet it in a manner that
roused the angry passions of his old antagonist. He not only
denounced General Jackson's assertion as preposterous, in-
credible and groundless, but repeated his statement, made years
before in the House of Representatives, that General Jackson
luid approved the treaty of 1819. Again he produced his
diary in i)roof of his assertions, and explained how it was that
General Jackson had approved the treaty though he was ab-
sent from Washington at the time it was concluded.* "I

* This mutter is referred to in Vol. IL. p. 588 of this work, whero Mr A.dams
is suid to liavo been in error. When thnt volume was published I l^ad not dis-
oovcrod the explanation given bj Mr. Adams in 1844.

662 LIFE OF ANDREW JAOKSON. [1844.

have not said/' remarked Mr. Adams, " that Greneral Jackson
was consulted on the day upon which the treaty was signed.
That would have been too late for consultation. The consul-
tation with General Jackson was on the second and third
days of February, 1819, before the proposal of the Sabine for
the boundary had been made finally to Mr. Onis. If General
Jackson had given an opinion against it, I am persuaded that
Mr. Monroe would still have persisted in making the oflfer.
He was not earnestly intent upon the acquisition west of the
Sabine, then a wilderness, and which he thought would
weaken us, by extending a line of defenseless coast upon the
Gulf, always exposed to invasion by a foreign naval power."
Mr. Adams' address elicited from General Jackson an out-
rageous reply, which, though addressed to a private individ-
ual, was immediately published in the newspapers.

GSNERAL JAOKSON TO GENERAL ROBERT ARMSTRONG.

"Ukkxitaok, October iSd, 1844.

" Dear Sir : I thank you for the copy of the intelligence containing the
address of John Q. Adams to the Young Men's Club of Boston, delivered
on the 7th instant

^^ This address is a labored attempt on the part of Mr. Adams to dis-
credit the testimony of Mr. Erving, whose statements were referred to in
my letter to the Hon. A. V. Brown of February 12 th, 1843; and like
most of the productions from a diseased mind, proves little else but its own
weakness and foUy.

" My letter to Mr. Brown was published on the 20th of March, 1844,
in Washington city, where Mr. Adams was at that time. It has been the
subject of comment in the newspaper presses of both parties in all portions
of the Union ; and the statements of Mr. Erving, and the inferences from
them have not been deemed worthy of the notice of Mr. Adams until now,
just before the close of the presidential canvass, he pretepds to have dis-
covered that great injustice has been done him, and he makes a childish
appeal to his own ^ diary ' to screen him from the odium which has fallen
upon his treachery to the best interests of his country.

'^ Mr. Adams has been seven months in preparing this tissue of decep-
tion for the public. I pledge my countrymen, as soon as I can obtain the
papers, not now in my possession, referred to in the letter to Mr. Brown,
to prove not only that Mr. Adams has no cause of complaint against me,

1844.J ANNEXES TEXAS. 663

but tliat his yeracity, like his diplomacy, can not be propped up by his
* diary.'

'^ I say, in advance of the review I shall take of this extraordinary
production, thus heralded before the public on the eve of the presidential
election, that the assertion of my having advised the treaty of 1819 is a
bare-faced falsehood, without the shadow of proof to sustain it ; and that
the entire address is full of statements at war with truth, and sentiments
hostile to every dictate of patriotism.

" Who but a traitor to his country can appeal as Mr. Adams does to
the youth of Boston, in the close of his address ? ' Your trial is approach-
ing. The spirit of freedom and the spirit of slavery are drawing together
for the deadly conflict of arms. The annexation of Texas to this Union
is the blast of the trumpet for a foreign, civil, servile, and Indian war, of
which the government of tlie United States, fallen into faithless hands, has
already twice given the signal — first, by a shameless treaty rejected by a
virtuous Senate ; and again, by the glove of defiance hurled by the apostle
of nullification at the avowed policy of the British empire, peacefully to
promote the extinction of slavery throughout the world. Young men of
Boston, burnish your armor, prepare for the conflict ; and I say to you, in
the language of Galgacus to the ancient Britons, think of your forefathers,
think of jour posterity !'

" What is this but delusion, or, what is worse, a direct appeal to arms,
to oppose the decision of the American people, should it be favorable to
the annexation of Texas to the United States ?

" I may be blamed for spelling Mr. Erving*8 name wrong, but I trust
I shall never deserve the shame of mistaking the path of duty where my
country's rights are involved. I believed, from the disclosures made to
me of the transactions of 1819, that Mr. Adams surrendered the interests
of the United States when he took the Sabine river as the boundary be-
tween us and Spain, when he might have gone to the Colorado, if not
to the Kio del Norte. Such was the natural inference from the facts
stated by Mr. Erving; and there is nothing in the account now given of
the negotiation to alter this impression. The address, on the contrary,
docs not at all relieve Mr. Adams. It proves that he was then, as now,
an alien to the true interests of his country ; but ho had not then, as now,
the pretext of cooperation with Great Britain in her peaceful endeavors to
extinguish slavery throughout the world.

'* Is there an American patriot that can read the above extract, and
other similar ones that may bo taken from the address of this monarchist
in disguise, without a feeling of horror ? Grant that the thousands who
think with rne that the addition of Texas to our Union would be a na-
tional benefit, are in error, are we to be deterred from the expression of
our opinions by threats of armed opposition ? And is it in this manner

664 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1844.

that the peaceful policy of Great Britain is to he carried into execution,
should the American people decide that we are in error ? Or does Mr.
Adams mean to intimate that the will of Great Britain should be the law
for American statesmen, and will be enforced at the point of the bayonet
by those who descend from the patriots of our revolution.

" Instead of going to British history for sentiments worthy of the re-
publican youth of our country, on an occasion so vitally affecting our
national safety and honor, I would recommend those in General Wasliing-
ton*s farewell address, and particularly his warning to us to avoid entang-
ling alliances with foreign nations, and whatever is calculated to create
sectional or geographical parties at home.

" I am, very truly, your obedient servant,

" Andrew Jackson.*'

General Jackson forwarded this letter to Mr. Blair, of the
Olobe, requesting him to publish it, and to accompany it
with such remarks as would exhibit Mr. Adams " in his true
colors to the American people." In speaking of Mr. Adams
reading the Fulton letter to the House of Representatives,
General Jackson asked Mr. Blair : " Was there ever such
dishonorable conduct practiced by any man of the least pre-
tension to respectability before ? But this is an act of per-
fidy on the part of one once holding the elevated station of
the presidency ! True, he obtained it by intrigue, bargain,
and corruption ; but the distinction should have imparted
some consideration for the public's sense of honor, if he him-
self had no sense of the kind."

Mr. Adams made a sharp, indignant reply. " I ejchib-
itedj" said he, " to the young men at Boston the volume of
my diary containing the entries made at the time of tliis
consultation, and extracts from which I read to them and
have published. The volume is still in my possession. I
re-affirm before God and my country, that the published
extracts are true copies of entries made at the time of their
dates, and that the facts stated by them are true. Andrew
Jackson has responded to my summons, but he has not put
himself upon the country, either with regard to his charge
against me, or to my charge against him. He blusters, but
he retreats. He pours forth invectives, but he flinches."

SS^S-^-^^i^ 0£^ iJ'C^

1844.] ANNEXES TEXAS. 665

Enough of this pitiful quarrel. How different the corre-
spoudence between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in
their old age !

General Jackson bestirred himself zealously to secure the
election of Messrs. Polk and Dallas. He published anew his
old charge of bargain and corruption against Mr. Clay,
declaring his belief in it unchanged. His letters indorsing
the democratic nominations were numerous and were indus-
triously circulated. Perhaps it is not too much to say that
the controlling cause of Henry Clay's unexpected defeat in
1844 was the opposition of Andrew Jackson.

Great was the joy of General Jackson at the election of
Mr. Polk. In a field adjoining the Hermitage he entertained
two hundred guests at dinner, in honor of the event. His
anxiety, however, on the subject of annexation appeared to
increase rather than diminish after the election. On the
first day of the last year of his life, he wrote a long letter to
his friend Blair, urging him to use all his influence to induce
Congress to act with promptitude in the matter.

One of the secret conditions upon which Mr. Polk ob-
tained the support of the nullifiers was, that the Glohe
should not be the organ of his administration. General
Jackson, ignorant of this condition, was puzzled, astonished,
and indignant when he perceived the movements preliminary
to the shelving of his old friend and staunch ally. " How
loathsome," he wrote to Mr. Blair, Ai)ril 9th, 1845, " it is to
me to see an old friend laid aside, principles of justice and
friendship forgotten, and all for the sake of policy — and the
great democratic party divided or endangered for policy, I
can not reflect upon it with any calmness ; every point of it,
upon scrutiny, turns to harm and disunion, and not one
beneficial result cim be expected from it. I will be anxious
to know the result. If harmony is restored, and the Globe
the organ, I will rejoice ; if sold, to whom, and for what ?
Have, if you sell, the j^urchase money well secured. This
may be the last letter I may be able to write you ; but live

666 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1844L

or die, I am your friend (and never deserted one from policy) ^
and leave my papers and reputation in your keeping."

General Jackson was never enlightened as to the cause of
Mr. Polk's extraordinary conduct. Mr. Blair, happily for
himself, went into retirement ; the editor of the Union reigned
in his stead ; the democratic party was nullified.

The well known correspondence between Commodore El-
liot and General Jackson, with regard to the sarcophagus of
the Roman emperor, occurred in the spring of the last year
of the General's life. " Last night," wrote the blunt sailor,
(March 18th, 1845) "I made something of a speech at the
National Institute (Washington, D. C.,) and have offered for
their acceptance the sarcophagus which I obtained at Pales-
tine, brought home in the Constitution, and believed to con-
tain the remains of the Roman Emperor, Alexander Severus,
with the suggestion that it might be tendered you for your
final resting place. I pray you, General, to live on in the
fear of the Lord ; dying the death of a Roman soldier ; an
emperor's coffin awaits you."

The General replied : ''With the warmest sensations that
can inspire a greatful heart, I must decline accepting the
honor intended to be bestowed. I can not consent that my
mortal body shall be laid in a repository prepared for an em-
peror or a king. My republican feelings and principles for-
bid it ; the simplicity of our system of government forbids it;
every monument erected to perpetuate the memory of our
heroes and statesmen ought to bear evidence of the economy
and simplicity of our republican institutions, and the plain-
ness of our republican citizens, who are the sovereigns of our
glorious Union, and whose virtue is to perpetuate it. True
virtue can not exist where pomp and parade are the govern-
ing passions : it can only dwell with the people — the great
laboring and producing classes that form the bone and sinew
of our confederacy. I have prepared an humble depository
for my mortal body beside that wherein lies my beloved wife,
where, without any pomp or parade, I have requested, when
my God calls me to sleep with my fathers, to be laid ; for

1845.] THE CLOSING SCENES. 667

both of us there to remain until the last trumpet sounds to
call the dead to judgment, when we, I hope, shall rise togeth-
er, clothed with that heavenly body promised to all who be-
lieve in our glorious Redeemer, who died for us that we might
live, and by whose atonement I hope for a blessed immortal-
ity."

CHAPTER XLVII .

THE CLOSING SCENES.

A TOUGHER piece of slender manhood than Andrew Jack-
son never lived. Inheriting a constitution that was never
robust, he had been for thirty-one years a diseased man. He
went into the Creek war in 1813, wounded and weak from
the loss of blood, to encounter hardships and privations that
were borne with difficulty by strong men in perfect health.
He came home in 1815, with his digestive powers impaired
beyond remedy. Thenceforth, he was an invalid — often pros-
trated, always liable to be so after the slightest departure
from the regimen prescribed to him. In 1825, occurred the
accident that opened afresh, and internally, the wound which
he had received from Charles Dickinson in 1806. From that
time he was sul^ect to attacks of hemorrhage, which often
brought him to the very verge of dissolution. Thrice dur-
ing his presidency, his nearest friends despaired of his life, and
during the greater part of it he was debilitated to a degree
that would have prevented most men from transacting busi-
ness.

His habits with regard to diet and medicine were not such
as enable ordinary men to make the most of a shattered con-
stitution. Coffee and tobacco he used profusely. He both
smoked and chewed tobacco. Bleeding was the remedy which
he relied upon to stay his hemorrhage, and calomel to check
the diarrhoea ; treatment which we are now accustomed to re-

668 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1845.

gard as homicidal. His thread of life must have been of the
toughest fiber ever woven, to endure, for so many years, the
gnawing of such diseases and the corrosion of so much poison.

During the first six years after his retirement from the
presidency, his health was not much worse than it had usu-
ally been in Washington. Every attack of bleeding at the
lungs, however, left him a little weaker than he had ever been
before, and his recovery was slower and less complete. During
the last two years of his life, he could never be said to have
rallied from these attacks, but remained always very weak,
and knew few intervals, and those very short, of relief from
pain. A cough tormented him, day and night. He had all
the symptoms of consumption. One lung was consumed en-
tirely ; and the other was diseased. Six months before his
death, certain dropsical symptoms, which had threatened him
for years, were painfully developed ; and from that time, he
was alternately swollen by dropsy and, at once, relieved and
prostrated by diarrhaea. At times, to use his own language,
he was " one blubber " from head to foot ; and when he
seemed to be threatened with immediate death from this dis-
ease, he would be saved by another which reduced him so
low that he would recline for many hours helpless and feebly
gasping for life. The momcJnt he recovered a little strength,
the dropsy regained its power, and again he swelled, only to
be relieved and reduced as before.

The patience which he displayed during^ those years of
dissolution sometimes approached the sublime. No anguish,
however severe, however protracted, ever wrung from this
most irascible of men a fretful or a complaining word. Mr.
Blair relates an incident witnessed by himself at the Hermit-
age, when he visited the General toward the close of his life,
which exhibits the patient tenderness of the dying man in a
touching light. The General was sitting in an arm-chair,
suffering from one of those agonizing headaches to which he
was subject in his last years, and to which every man is sub-
jects who chews tobacco. His temples were throbbing vis-
ibly. He sat silent and motionless, as was his wont at such

1845.] THE CLOSIXQ SCENES. 669

times, wholly absorbsLl in mere eaJurance. A little nephew,
a sturdy, boisterous urchin, six years of age, was playing
about the room, unconscious of the silent sufferer. In one
of his rough gambols, he ran his head, with tremendous vio-
lence, full against the General's body. The sick man turned
ashy pale, fell back in his chair in breathless agony, and re-
mained, for a minute or two, speechless. When he recovered
his breath, ho said, in a tone of the most exquisite tenderness,
as though pitying the child :

" Oh, my dear boy, you don't know how much pain you
have given your uncle 1"

Seldom, down to his last hour, was lie so far subdued by
j)ain that he could not converse with animation upon politi-
cal topics. One day, about six weeks before his death, when
he was reclining in bed, ho surprised Dr. Edgar by asking
him :

■ " Doctor, what do you think will be my fame with pos-
terity ? I mean, what will postt^ity blame me for most ?"

Now, Dr. Edgar had been for many years, a political op-
ponent of General Jackson, and held opinions resi^ecting some
of his acts which were decided. Wishing to avoid a politi-
cal argument with a dying man, he tried to evade the ques-
tion. The General, however, pressed it upon him, and
seemed anxious for an explicit answer.

" Well," said the clergyman at length, " if I must give
an opinion, General, I think posterity will blame you most
for proscribing people for opinion's sake. In Kentucky,
every Adams man was turned out of office except one, and
he resigned because he said he should luive to bear the blamo
of all the rascality done in the State."

The remark which General Jackson made ui)on these
words sur])rised Dr. Edgar as much as it will suri)rise the
reader. He said that during all his j)residency he had turned
but one subi)rdinate out of office by an act of direct, per-
sonal authority, and he was a postmaster. Dr. Edgar ex-
pressed his astonishment at this statement, when the General
repeated it with emphasis and particularity.

670 LIFE OF ANDREW JAOKBON. [1845.

Changing the subject, Dr. Edgar asked him what he
would have done with Calhoun and the other nullifiers, if
they had kept on.

" Hung them, sir, as high as Haman," was the instan-
taneous reply. " They should have been a terror to traitors
to all time, and posterity would have pronounced it the best
act of my life."

As he said these words, he half rose in bed, and all the
old fire glowed in his old eyes again.

Almost to the last he was pestered by office-seekers, who
desired his signature to their petitions, and by hero- worshipers,
who wished to see his face before it was hidden for ever from
mortal view. A gentleman who visited the Hermitiige in one
of the last weeks of the General's life, describes his interview
with the "dying hero :" " It was about noon when I arrived.
Throngs of people were in attendance, waiting to see the
General. He would receive only two or three at cfnce, so I
sent my card, and after about an hour was ushered, in com-
pany with a stranger, into the presence of the Hero of Or-
leans. The feeble old man was lying upon a sofa, his head
and shoulders elevated upon the bolster. He was clad in an
old style, snuff-colored coat, with a high stiff collar, and a
coverlet was thrown over him from his feet to his bosom.
His only attendant was a negro boy, who stood near, fanning
away the flies with a bush. The hero is now extremely ema-
ciated. His chest is meager and collapsed ; his cheeks hol-
low and ghastly ; his once falcon eye sunken and rayless ;
and his whole countenance, when under no excitement, lan-
guid and insignificant. The gentleman who had entered
with me brought a letter from General Armstrong, commend-
ing him to President Polk for some office, and he had come
here to get the signature of Andrew Jackson, before he should
carry it to Washington. The way he was jilted was truly
hickory. The old General repulsetl him with a stern —

" * No, no, no ! I can do no such thing ; they '11 say I 'm
dictating to the President.'

1845.] THE CLOSING SCENES. 671

" And then he fell to lecturing on the way he was annoyed
by the office-seekers.

"* I am dying," said he, "as fast as I can, and they all
know it, but they will keep swarming upon me in crowds,
seeking for office — intriguing for office.'

" The gentleman, after assuring General Jackson that Gen-
eral Armstrong directed him to call and obtain his autograph
to this paper, concluded to put the document in his pocket
and say no more about it. We remained in the General's
private room about twenty minutes, and had to give place to
others who were waiting."

To other seekers for governmental favor he was more
complaisant. The last writing that General Jackson ever
penned (except franking letters) was a statement designed to
help his old friend and fellow soldier. General Robert Arm-
strong, to a pension. The reader may remember that to Gen-
eral Armstrong he had bequeathed his sword — tiie sword of
Pensacola, New Orleans, and Florida. Impatient to testify,
in this signal manner, his reg-ard for his friend, and desirous
to promote his political objects, he had given him the sword
witii his own hand late in the year 1844. He afterwards,
just twenty-three days before his death, strengthened Arm-
strong's claim to governmental favor by writing the following
statement :

" I have carefully cxamincil the within declaration of General Robert
Armstrong, for a pension, and do hereby certify that it is true in all its
parts; ami I do further cerlily that in the battle of the 23d of January,
1814, called and known by the name of Enolockopco, the shameful flight
of my rear jjuard produced panic and confusion in my whole army, that it
was the unflinching bravery of then Lieutenant Armstrong, acting as cap-
tain of the volunteer artillery guards, that saved my whole army from a
total and shameful defeat, and all my wounded from horrid massacre.
This lillle Spartan band, of about twenty -five in number, met and bravely
faced upwanls of five hundreil of tlie bravest Ci*eek warriors, checked them
in their desperate onset, and at one fire of tliis savage host, I s;iw seven
of this little heroic band fall ; among tliem was Lieut. Armstrong, com-
manding as captiin, severely wounded. lie fell by the side of tlie coaaoQi
exclaiming to his men this heroic expression :

672 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1S45.

*' * So7ne of yoUj my brave fdlowSj must perish; but save the cannon.'
" They did save the cannon and my whole army from a shameful de-
featj and my brave wounded from barbarous massacre. For this severe
wound General Armstrong claims a pension — I might have said glorious
wound. Can there be an American bosom that will not respond ? Yield
it to him, to the full amount of a captain's pay, as an honorable testi-
monial to the bravery of the G-eneral, and his valuable services to his
country.

" Given at the Hermitage, Tennessee, this 16th of May, 1845.

" Andrew Jackson."

These friendly efforts were so successful, that General
Armstrong was, soon after, appointed consul to Liverpool,
then one of the most lucrative offices in the President's

gift.

On Sunday, May 24th, the last Sunday but two of his
life, General Jackson partook of the communion in the pres-
ence of his family. He spoke much of the consolation of re-
ligion, and declared that he was ready for the final summons.
" Death," said he, after the ceremony was over, " has no ter-
rors for me. When I have suffered sufficiently, the Lord
will take me to himself ; but what are my sufferings com-
pared with those of the blessed Saviour who died on the ac-
cursed tree for me ? Mine are nothing."

A friend of the family, Mr. William Tyack, who spent a
few days at the Hermitage, while its master's life was ebbing,
kept a diary of his conversation and his sufferings. I extract
a few passages :

Wednesday, May 28tL " On my arrival, I find the ex-President more
comfortable than he has been, although his disease is not abated, and his
long and useful life is rapidly drawing to its close. He has not been in a
condition to he down, during the last four months.

Thursday, May 29. " General Jackson is rather more comfortable,
having obtained from opiates some sleep. This day he sat a while to Mr.
Healy, who has been sent by Louis Philippe to paint his portrait Mr.
Healy told mo that it was the design of the King of the French to place
his portrait by the side of Washington, which already hangs in his gallery.
Mr. Healy is commissioned by the King to paint the portraits of twelve
of the most distinguished revolutionary patriots, to surround those of

1845.] THE CLOSING SCENES. 673

Washington and Jackson. Mr. Healy was enabled to make much pro-
gress in his work to-day ; and, as usual the General received many visit-
ors— more than thirty. All were admitted, from the humblest to the
most renowned, to take the venerable chieftain by the hand and bid him
farewell. Among the visitors was General Jessup, an old friend and com-
panion in arms. The meeting of these faithful and gallant soldiers and
servants of the republic was deeply interesting and affecting. A reverend
gentleman called to inquire in regard to the General's health, his faith,
and future hope. The General said : ' Sir, I am in the hands of a merci-
ful God. I have full confidence in his goodness and mercy. My lamp
of life is nearly out, and the last glimmer has come. I am ready to de-
part when called. The Bible is true. The principles and statutes of that
holy book have been the rule of my life, and I have tried to conform to its
spirit as near as possible. Upon that sacred volume I rest my hope for
eternal salvation, through the merits and blood of our blessed Lord and
Saviour. Jesus Christ.'

Friday, May 30. " The General passed a bad night ; no sleep ; ex-
tremely feeble this morning. Mr. Healy, with much exertion on the part
of the General, was enabled to finish the portrait, on which he had labored
with great care. It was presented to the General. After examining it
for some minutes, he remarked to Mr. Healy, ' I am satisfied, sir, that
you stand at the head of your profession. If I may be allowed to judge
of my own likeness, I can safely concur in the opinion of my family. This
is the best that has been taken. I feel very much obliged to you, sir, for
the very great labor and care you have been pleased to bestow upon it'
The family were all highly gratified with its faithfulness. I consider it the
most perfect representation I have ever seen, giving rather the remains of
tlie heroic personage than the full life that made him the most extraordi-
nary combination of spirit and energy, with a slender frame, the world
over saw.

** At nine o'clock, as is the custom, all the General's family, except the
few who take their turn to watch by his side, took their leave of him.
Each of tlie family approached him, received his blessing, bade him fare-
well ; kissed ]]im, as it would seem, an eternal good night ; for he would
say, ' My work is done for life.* Aft«r liis family retires, it is touching to
witness tliia heroic man, who has faced every danger with unyielding
front, offer up his prayer for those whom Providence has committed to his
care ; that Heaven would protect and prosper them when ho is no more —
praying still more fervently to God for tlie preservation of his country, of
Uie Union, and the people of Uio United States from aU foreign influence
and invasion — tendering his forgiveness to his enemies, and his gratitude
to God for his support and success through a long life, and for the hope of
eternal salvation tlirough the merits of our blessed Redeemer.

VOL. Ill — 43

674 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1845.

" The General exerts himself to discharge every duty, and with all the
anxious care that is possible ; but his debility, and the unremitting anguish
he suffers, has almost extinguished every power except that of his intellect.
Occasionally his distress produces spasmodic affections ; yet, in the mid^t
of the worst paroxysm of pain, not a murmur, not even a groan escapes
his lips. Great and just in life, calm and resigned in death.

" Saturday, May 30. — The General passed a distressed night; no sleep ;
extreme debility this morning, attended with increased swelling of the
abdomen and all his limbs, and difficulty of breathing. He said, ' I hope
Gk>d will grant me patience to submit to his holy will. He does all things
well, and blessed be his holy and merciful name.' His Bible is always
near him ; if he is in his chair it is on the table by his side ; when propped
up in bed, that sacred volume is laid by him, and he often reads it He
has no power, and is lifled in and out of his sitting posture in bed to the
same posture in his chair. Nothing can exceed the affectionate care,
vigilance, and never-ceasing efforts of his pious and devoted family to
administer to his relief; and yet, in the midst of the affliction, which calls
for so much attention and sympathy, kindness and ho^itality to strangers
are not omitted.

"June 1. — ^ This day,' the General said, ^ is the holy Sabbath, ordained
by God, and set apart to be devoted to his worship and praise. I always
attended service at church when I could ; but now I can go no more.'
He desired the family to go, as many as could, and charged them to con-
tinue the education of the poor at the Sunday school This new system
of instruction, he said, which blended the duties of religion with those of
humanity, he considered of vast importance ; and spoke with an emphasis
which showed his anxiety to impress it on the family. Mrs. Jackson, and
her sister, Mrs. Adams, regularly attended to tlieir instructions on the Sab-
bath. A part of the family went to church. The General looked out of
the window, and said, ' This is apparently the last Sabbath I shall be with
you. God's will be done ; he is kind and merciful' The General's look is
often fixed with peculiar affection on his grand-daughter, Rachel, named
after his wife, so beloved, and whose memory he has so tenderly cherished.
The young Rachel has all the lovely and amiable qualities for which the
elder Mrs. Jackson was so remarkable.

" MoNDAT, June 2. — The General passed a bad night No sleep. An
evident increase of water on the chest He read many letters, as usual
Some of them were from persons of whom he had no knowledge, asking
for autographs, and making other requests. The letters were opened by
some of the family. Mrs. Jackson or Mrs. Adams were almost constantly
with him. He looked over them ; those of importance were opened and
read. Among them was one from Major Donelson, charg^ des affiiires to
Texas, giving an account of the almost incredible proceedings of the Bntish

1845.] THE CLOSING SCENES. 675

agent, Elliott, to prevent the annexation of Texas to the United States.
The General said, * We have made a disgraceful sacrifice of our territory
(Oregon) ; an important portion of our country was given away to England
without a shadow of title on the part of the claimants, as has been shown
by the admissions of the English ministers on referring, in Pariiament, to
the King's map, on which the true boundaries were delineated, and of
which they were apprised when urging their demands.' * Right on the
side of the American people, and firmness in maintaining it,' he continued,
' with trust in Grod alone, will secure to them the integrity of the possessions
of which the British government would now deprive them. I am satisfied
that they will assert and vindicate what justice awards them ; and that no
part of our territory or country will ever be submitted to any arbitration
but of the cannon's mouth.'

" He felt grateful, he said, to a merciful Providence, that had always
sustained him through all his struggles, and in the defense of the continued
independence and prosperity of his beloved country, and that he could now
give up his stewardship and resign his breath to God who gave it, with
the cheering reflection that the country was now settled down upon a firm,
democratic basis ; tliat the rights of the laboring classes were respected and
protected ; * for,' he added, * it is from them that the country derives all its
prosperity and greatness, and to them we must ever look to defend our soil
when invaded. They have never refused — no, sir, and never will Give
them an honest government, freedom from monopolies and privileged classes,
and hard money — not paper currency for their hard labor, and all will be well.'

" At 2 o'clock, P. M., his distress became suddenly very great, and the
water increasing to an alarming extent, an express was sent to Nashville,
twelve miles, for surgical aid. An operation was performed by Dr. Essel-
man with success; much water was taken from his abdomen, which pro-
duced great relief, although extreme prostration.

" Tuesday, June 3d. — Much distress through the night Opiates were
freely administered, but sleep appeared to have passed from him. Calm
and perfectly resigned to the will of his Redeemer, he prayed to God to
sustain him in the hour of dissolution.

" At 10 A. M., Doctors Robinson and Walters arrived from Nashville.
Doctor Essclman having remained with the General through the night, a
consultation was held, and all that had been done was approved ; and all
that could be done was to conform to the General's temporary wants.

" At 4 P. M., I left his house for home. He expressed great solicitude
in my beliulf, but I was silent; the scone was too affecting ; and I left this
aged soldier, statesman, and Christian patriot, with all the pious and hospi-
table inmates of the licrmitage, without the power of saying farewell"

On the Friday before he died, in an interval of compara-

676 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1845.

tive relief, he gave many directions respecting the affiiirs of
his farm ; and conversed much upon Texas and Oregon. He,
also, expressed to his daughter his desire to be buried with-
out pomp or display of any kind.

" I am pretty comfortable," said he, " but I feel that I
shall not long be with you. When I am about to depart
hence, send for my old friends. Major Lewis and Judge Camp-
bell (but I fear Judge Campbell is too feeble to come) to
make arrangements with n^j son for my funeral. I wish to
be buried in a plain, unostentatious manner."

Speaking of Texas, he said : " All is safe at last." He
praised warmly the conduct of his " old friend and compan-
ion-in-arms," General Sam. Houston, declaring that to him
the United States owed the " recovery " of Texas. Reverting
to Oregon, he said he knew President Polk would firmly
maintain the rights of the country, but hoped that this could
be done without resorting to war.

" If not," said he, " let war come. There will be patriots
enough in the land to repel foreign aggression, come whence
it may, and to maintain sacredly our just rights and to per-
petuate our glorious constitution and liberty, and to preserve
our happy Union."

All day long his mind seemed full of this subject. He
dictated a letter to the President, expressing confidence in
his judgment and patriotism, and urging him to act promptly
and resolutely in the affairs of Texas and Oregon. This was
his last letter. The next evening, twenty two hours before
his death, he franked a letter to Mr. Thomas F. Marshall of
Kentucky, who had written to inquire respecting his health.
He never signed his name again.

He saw the light of another Sunday morning — June the
eighth — a still, brilliant, hot day. He had been worse the
day before, and Dr. Esselman had remained all night at the
Hermitage.

"On Sunday morning/' writes Dr. Esselman, ''on entering his room,
I found him sitting in his arm chair, with his two faithful servants, Greorge
and Dick, by his side, who had just removed him from his bed. I imme-

1845.] THE CLOSING SCENES. 677

diately perceived that the hand of death was upon hira. I informed his
son that he could survive but a few hours, and he immediately dis-
patched a servant for Major William B. Lewis, the General's devoted
friend. Mr. Jackson informed me that it was tlie General's request that,
in case he grew worse, or was tliought to be near his death, Major Lewis
should be sent for, as he wished him to be near him in his last moments.
He was instantly removed to his bed, but before he could be placed there
he had swooned away. His family and ser\'ants, believing him to be dead,
were very much alarmed, and manifested the most intense grief; however,
in a few seconds reaction took place, and he became conscious, and raised
his eyes, and said : ' My dear children, do not grieve for me ; it is true I
am going to leave you ; I am well aware of my situation ; I have suffered
much bodily pain, but my suUerings are but as nothing compared with that
which our blessed Saviour endured upon that accursed cross, that we might
all be saved who put their tni.st in him.' He first addressed Mrs. Jackson
(his daughter-in-law), and took leave of her, reminding her of her tender
kindness manifested toward him at all times, and especially during his pro-
tracted illness. He next took leave of Mrs. Adams (a widowed sister of
Mrs. Jackson, who had been a member of the General's family for several
years) in the most kind and affectionate manner, reminding her also of her
tender devotion toward hira during his illness. He next took leave of his
adopted son in the most affectionate and devoted manner. He next took
leave of his grandchildren and the children of Mrs. Adams. He kissed
and blessed them in a manner so touchingly impressive that I have no lan-
guage that can do this scene justice. He discovered that there were two
of tlic boys absent — one of his grandsons and one of Mrs. Adams'. He
inquired lor tlieni. He was informeil that they were at the chapel, attend-
ing Simday school. He desired that they should be sent for. As soon as
they came, he kij^sed an<l blessed them also, as he had done to those with
him. By this time, most of his servants had collected in his room or at the
M'indows. When he had t^ken leave of them all, he delivered one of the
most impressive lectures on the subject of religion that I have ever heard.
He j!i>oke for nearly half an hour, and apparently with the power of in-
spiration; for he ppoke with calmness, with strength, and, indeed, with
aniniation. I regret exceedingly that there was no one present who could
have noted down his precise words. In conclusion, he said : * My dear
children, and friends, and servants, I hope and trust to meet you all in
heaven, both white and black.' The last sentence he repeated — ' both
white and black,* looking at them with the tenderest solicitude. With
these words he ceased to speak, but fixed his eyes on his granddaughter,
Rachel Jackson (who bears the name of his own beloved wife), for several
seconds. W^hat was passing through his mind at that moment I will not

678 LIFE OF ANDBSW JACKSOK. [1845.

pretead to say ; but it did appear to me that he was invoking the blessings
of Heaven to rest upon her.'*

Major Lewis arrived about noon. " Major/' said the dy-
ing man, in a feeble voice, but quite audibly, " I am glad to
see you. You had like to have been too late."

During most of the afternoon he lay tranquil and without
pain, speaking occasionally to Major Lewis, who never left
his bedside. He sent farewell messages to Colonel Benton,
Mr. Blair, General Houston, and to otiber friends not known
to the public. At half-past five, after a long interval of
silence, his son took his hand, and whispered in his ear :

" Father, how do you feel ? Do you know me ?"

" Know you ?" he replied, " yes, I know you. I would
know you all if I could see. Bring me my spectacles."

When his spectacles were put on, he said :

" Where is my daughter and Marian ? God will take
care of you for me. I am my God's. I belong to him. I
go but a short time before you, and I want to meet you all,
white and black, in heaven."

All present burst into tears. The crowd of servants on the
piazza, who were all day looking in through the windows,
sobbed, cried out, and wrung their hands. The General
spoke again :

" What is the matter with my dear children ? Have I
alarmed you ? Oh, do not cry. Be good children, and we
will all meet in heaven."

These were his last words. He lay for half an hour with
closed eyes, breathing softly and easily. Major Lewis stood
close to his head. The family were about the bed silently
waiting and weeping. George and the faithful Hannah
were present. Hannah could not be induced to leave the
room. "I was bom and raised on the place," said she,
"and my place is here." At six o'clock the General's
head suddenly fell forward and was caught by Major Lewis.
The Major applied his ear to the mouth of his friend, and
found that he had ceased to breathe. He had died without a

1845.] THE CLOSING SCENES. 679

struggle or a pang. Major Lewis removed the pillows, drew
down the body upon the bed, and closed the eyes. Upon
looking again at the face, he observed that the expression of
pain which it had worn so long had passed away. Death
had restored it to naturalness and serenity. The aged warrior
slept.

Two days after, he was laid in the grave by the side of his
wife, of whom he had said, not long before he died : " Heaven
will be no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there."
All Nashville and the country round about seemed to be
present at the funeral. Three thousand persons were thought
to be assembled on the lawn in front of the house, when Dr.
Edgar stepped out upon the portico to begin the services.
After prayer had been oflfered, a favorite psalm of the de-
parted was sung :

" Why should we start and fear to die ?
What timorous worms we mortals are I"

The text of the sermon was : " These are they which
came out of great tribulation, and washed their robes white
in the blood of the Lamb." The preacher related, with im-
pressive effect, the history of the late religious life of the
deceased, and pronounced upon his character an eloquent,
but a discriminating eulogium. Another hymn which the
General had loved concluded the ceremonies. The body was
then borne to the garden and placed in the tomb long ago
prepared for its reception. " I never witnessed a funeral of
half the solemnity," wrote a spectator at the time. The
tablet which covers the remains bears this inscription :

GENERAL

ANDREW JACKSON,

BORK ON TEE 15tH OF MARCH, 1*767,

Dud on thb 8th or June, 1846.

680 LIFE OF ANDREW JA0K80N.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

P O S T H UM 0 U 8.

When the news of the death of General Jackson reached
Washington, the President of the United States ordered the
departments to be closed for one day, and Mr. Bancroft, the
Secretary of the Navy and Acting Secretary of War, directed
public honors to be paid to the memory of the ex-President,
at all the military and naval stations.

In every large town in the country there were public cere-
monies in honor of the deceased, consisting usually of an ora-
tion and a procession. In the city of New York the entire
body of the uniformed militia, all the civic functionaries, the
trades and societies, joined in the parade. Mr. Van Buren
was invited to deliver the oration. In declining the invita-
tion, he said that no one had had better opportunities than
himself to observe the character of the departed, and no one,
among the millions who mourned his death, would cherish his
memory longer or more reverently. He announced his inten-
tion " to prepare, at a proper time, a suitable memoir of his
conduct and principles."

Among those who were invited to attend the commemora-
tion in New York, was Chief Justice Taney. This gentle-
man used the following language in replying to the committee :
" The whole civilized world already know how bountifully
he was endowed by Providence with those high gifts which
qualified him to lead, both as a soldier and a statesman.
But those only who were around him in times of anxious
deliberation, when great and mighty interests were at stake,
and who were with him also in the retired scenes of domes-
tic life, in the midst of his family and friends, can fully ap-
preciate his innate love of justice, his hatred of oppression
in every shape it would assume, his magnanimity, his entire
freedom from any feeling of personal hostility to his political

(Qi^Mj .-^i^ci^Tizz

POSTHUMOUS. 681

opponents, and his constant and unvarying kindness and
gentleness to his friends."

The record of the solemnities performed in the city ol
New York, in honor of Andrew Jackson, forms an octavo
volume of three hundred and three pages.

Twenty-five of the orations delivered on this occasion, in
various towns and cities, were published in a volume en-
titled " Monument to the Memory of General Andrew Jack-
son." They were those of George Bancroft, at Washington ;
George M. Dallas, at Philadelphia ; Benjamin F. Butler, at
New York ; Levi Woodbury, at Portsmouth, New Hamp-
shire ; Benjamin C. Howard, at Baltimore ; John Van
Buren, at Albany ; Wilson McCandless, at Pittsburgh ; M.
H. McAllister, at Savannah ; A. F. Morrison, at Indianapo-
lis ; Francis R. Shunk, at Harrisburg ; Ellis Lewis, at Lan-
caster, Pennsylvania ; Pliny Merrick, at Boston ; Hugh A.
Garland, at Petersburg, Virginia ; John A. Bolles, at Lowell,
Massachusetts ; Hendrick B. Wright, at Wilkesbarre, Penn-
sylvania ; Andrew Stephenson, at Richmond ; Thomas L.
Smith, at Louisville ; W. McCartney, at Easton, Pennsyl-
vania ; Samuel A. Cartwright, at Natchez ; William Irwin,
at Lancaster, Ohio ; J. G. Harris, at Charlotte, Tennessee ;
Rev. D. D. Love, at Pottsville, Pennsylvania ; Rev. G. W.
Bethune, D. D., at Philadelphia ; Rev. Thomas Brainard, at
Philadelphia.

The comments of the press upon the character of the de-
ceased were not all of a eulogistic character. Many of the
whig editors could not refrain from again deploring the
" fatal popularity" of a " military chieftain," who had brought
unexampled woes upon a too confiding people.

A remarkable scene occurred at the June meeting of the
New York Historical Society. The meeting on this occasion
was unusually large and interesting. Daniel Webster and a
concourse of less distinguished politicians were present. Mr.
Prosper M. Wetmorc offcTed a series of resolutions, eulogiz-
ing General Jackson, and " lamenting, in common with our
fellow- citizens throughout the Union," his death. Mr. Ben-

682 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON.

jamin F. Butler Beconded the resolutions, and Mr. Webster
supported them with a few of those ponderous nothings
which he well knew how to employ when he was compelled
to speak and had naught to say. The President of the So-
ciety, Governor Bradish, was about to put the resolutions,
when, to the astonishment of the assembly, Mr. Fessenden
rose and delivered himself thus :

'* I don't see, Mr. President, why such a society as this should be called
on to put forth resolutions commendatory of the life and character of Gren-
eral Jackson. (Murmurs of disapprobation. A voice, * Who's that ?*
Hon. Mr. Bokee — ' Pooh I it's only a Yankee lawyer !' — a laugh.) It is
true, he was a President of the United States, and a Major-General in
the army, but what has that to do with this society — ^with historical
literature ? I don't agree at all with many of the opinions put forth in
the address of the gentleman who seconded the resolutions. I can not
sanction tlic resolutions themselves. (Applause and hisses.) I say I can
not approve of those resolutions, and I will oppose them, though I stand
alone. For thirty years I have sincerely and fer\'ently opposed Greneral
Jackson, and I can not consent now, because he is dead, to approve of
his conduct. General Jackson certainly never contributed any thing to
the Historical Society, nor to any other that I know of. He was not a
literary man. Why, then, should a literary society be called on to pass
such resolutions ? Again, did he exhibit the pure motives and self-sacri-
ficing devotion of the first Presidents ? No, I don't believe he did. Why,
then, pay him this mark of honor ? Truth should come from societies like
this. (Applause and hisses.) On his accession to office, General Jack-
son put a political enemy in jail, because he had been a defaulter under
the previous administration ; and he said he would keep him there till the
money was paid, or he humbled himself before him. This led me to ex-
pect that he would carry out this stern administration of justice. But did
he do it? No. There was more defaulting under Jackson than there
was under all the Presidents; but because the defaulters had voted for him,
he let them escape. Again, he gave the lie to John Quincy Adams about
his approbation of the Florida treaty ; and even when his own letter was
produced in evidence, he still swore it was all a lie. Well may they
call him ^ the man of the iron will,' for he was determined to make it the
sole arbiter of truth and falsehood. (Laughter, applause, hisses, and con-
fusion.) But he has gone to a land where neither his will nor the behests
of his party will determine what is right and wrong. (Applause, hisses,
and confusion, in the midst of which the Hon. Mr. Bokee and the great
body of the members of the Court of Errors, who had been invited to be

POSTHUMOUS. 683

•

present, rose and Icil the room.) I hope he has repented of his sins, and
gone to a better state of existence. (Loud hisses.) We ought to recol-
lect that we are not the first in this business ; the Empire Club has gone
before us. I don't want to make myself notorious — (shouts of laughter) —
but when, as a member of this society, I was called on as a literary
society — (a laugh) — to approve of the conduct and character of General
Jackson, I have only to say tliat I approve of neither." (Applause and
hisses.)*

Mr. Charles King, of the New York American, vehe-
mently supported the sentiments advanced by Mr. Fessenden.
After a desultory debate, the resolutions were put and car-
ried, only three gentlemen voting against them — Mr. Fessen-
den, Mr. King, and another.

A conversation said to have occurred in a New York om-
nibus, between an an ti- Jackson broker and a democratic
merchant, reveals much of the verdict of the people upon
the character of Andrew Jackson :

Merchant (with a sigh) : " Well, the old General is
dead."

Broker (with a shrug) : " Yes, he's gone at last."

Merchant (not appreciating the shrug) : " Well, sir, he
was a good man."

Broker (with shrug more pronounced) : " I don't know
about that."

Merchant (energetically) : " He was a good man, sir.
If any man has gone to heaven. General Jackson has gone
to heaven."

Broker (doggedly) : " I don't know about that."

Merchant : " Well, sir, I tell you that if Andrew Jack-
son had made uj) his mind to go to heaven, you may depend
upon it he 's there."

The gold box mentioned in the will of General Jackson
was awarded, a few years ago, to a vohmteer who distin-
guished himself during the war with Mexico, Ward B. Bur-
nett, colonel of a regiment of New York Volunteers.

For three years after the death of General Jackson the

* Report in New York Herald, Juno 20, IS16.

634 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON.

interior of the little church at the Hermitage was draped in
black. In 1855 the sword of the General was presented by
the family of General Armstrong, then deceased, to the na-
tion ; and the gift was formally accepted by Congress, many
of the members pronouncing new eulogiums upon the charac-
ter of him who had worn it. An equestrian statue of General
Jackson, by Clark Mills, has been placed by order of Congress
in Jackson Square in the city of Washington. This was the
first public statue ever erected by order of Congress to a citi-
zen of the United States. A statue of General Washington
now adorns a public ground of the federal capital, but it was
placed there several years after Mr. Mills had set up his statue
of the victor of New Orleans. In 1856, the State of Tennes-
see bought the Hermitage estate, intending to ofibr it to the
United States as the site of a military academy. It is now
(1860) in contemplation to remove the remains of General
Jackson and his wife from the Hermitage garden to the sum-
mit of the hill at Nashville upon which stands the State capi-
tol, and there to erect over them a suitable monument.

CHAPTER XLIX.

CONCLUSION.

Respecting the character of Andrew Jackson and his in-
fluence, there will still be difierences of opinion. One fact,
however, has been established : during the last thirty years
of his life, he was the idol of the American people. His
faults, whatever they were, were such as a majority of the
American citizens of the last generation could easily forgive.
His vutues, whatever they were, were such as a majority of
American citizens of the last generation could warmly admire.
It is this fact which renders him historically interesting.
Columbus had sailed ; Ealeigh and the Puritans had planted ;
Franklin had lived ; Washington fought ; Jeflferson written ;

CONCLUSION. 685

fifty years of democratic government had passed ; free schools,
a free press, a voluntary church had done what they could
to instruct the people ; the population of the country had
been quadrupled and its resources increased ten fold ; and
the result of all was, that the people of the United States
had arrived at the capacity of honoring Andrew Jackson be-
fore all other living men.

People may hold what opinions they w^ill respecting the
merits or importance of this man ; but no one can deny that
his invincible popularity is worthy of consideration ; for what
we lovingly admire, that, in some degree, we are. It is chiefly
as the representative man of the Fourth-of-July, or combat-
ive-rebellious period of American history, that he is inter-
i'bting to the student of human nature.

Those who have read "Wanderings in Corsica" by Gre-
gorovius, will agree with me, that he who would know Na-
poleon must begin by studying Corsica, which has produced
many Napoleons. And no man will ever be able quite to
comprehend Andrew Jackson who has not personally known
a Scotch-Irishman. More than he was any thing else, he was
a North-of-Irelander. A tenacious, pugnacious race ; honest,
yet capable of dissimulation ; often angry, but most j)rudent
when most furious ; endowed by nature with the gift of ex-
tracting from every aflfjiir and every relation all the strife it
can be made to yield ; at home and among dependents, all
tenderness and generosity : to opponents, violent, ungener-
ous, prone to believe the very worst of them ; a race that
means to tell the truth, but, when excited by anger or warj)ed
by j)rejudice, incapable of either telling, or remembering, or
knowing the truth ; not taking kindly to culture, but able
to achieve wonderful things without it ; a strange blending
of the best and the worst qualities of two races. Jackson had
these traits in an exaggerated degree ; as Irish as though he
were not Scotch ; as Scotch as though he were not Irish.

The circumstances of his childhood nourished his peculiar- '
ities. He was a poor boy in a new country, without a
father to teach him moderation, obedience, and self-controL

686 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON.

The border warfare of the Revolution whirled him hither and
thither ; made him fierce and exacting ; taught him self-
reliance ; accustomed him to regard an opponent as a foe.
They who are not for us are against us, and they who are
against us are to be put to death, was the Carolina doctrine
during the later years of the war. The early loss of his elder
brother, his own hard lot in the Camden prison, the terrible
and needless sufferings of his younger brother, the sad but
heroic death of his mother, were events not calculated to
give the softer traits the mastery within him. All the in-
fluences of his early years tended to develop a very positive
cast of character, to make him self-helpful, decisive, indiffer-
ent to danger, impatient of contradiction, and disposed to
follow up a quarrel to the death. Not to be of his party
was to be a traitor, and death was too good for traitors.

His first step in life shows something of the quality of the
man. His father, his forefathers, his relatives in Carolina,
had all walked the lowlier paths of life, and aspired to no
other. This poor, gaunt, and sickly orphan places himself
at once upon the direct road to the higher spheres. He gets
a little money by teaching school, mounts his horse, and
rides away to the North to find a chance to study law.
He accomplishes his purpose with playful ease. After
two years of the most boisterous jollity, the tradition of
which is fresh in Salisbury to this day, he has won his license
to practice, and goes off, penniless, to regions unknown. He
lingers a year in the old settlements ; long enough to dis-
cover that there is no room there for a lad of his mettle.

Westward, ho ! Half a dozen young lawyers go with him
to the valley of the Cumberland, but he has contrived to get
an appointment as prosecuting solicitor, an oflSce supposed
to be worse than valueless ; but he made it invaluable. He
becomes at once a man of mark in the new countr)'. The
little settlement existed in a state of siege, liable to attack at
every moment by day and night. Every clump of trees, every
thicket of cane, every field of com, might conceal a foe.
Every mile of every journey had its own peculiar peril. The

CONCLUSION. 687

solicitor, half the year on horseback, compelled to make long
and solitary journeys, lived in an atmosphere of danger, and
became habituated to self-reliance. Always escaping, he
learned to confide implicitly in his star ; believing that no
harm could befall if Andrew Jackson was near. To the last
hour of his life this was his habitual feeling.

This kind of life may make men tender and amiable at
home, because they are always protecting its beloved inmates;
but abroad, in their intercourse with men, they become
direct, fierce, clannish. Their feelings are primitive and
intense. They use "the English language." If a man
varies from the truth, they call him a liar without more ado,
and the man who is called a liar can only clear his character
by fighting. A word and a blow becomes the law of the wil-
derness. And in a country where fighting is one of the
necessities of every man's lot, the man readiest to fight and
. ablest in fight, is necessarily the first man.

How prompt Mr. Solicitor Jackson was with vituperative
word and rectifying pistol, we all know. While yet a boy
he notifies Commissary Galbraith to prepare for another
world before attempting to execute his threat of chastise-
ment. Offended in the court-room at Jonesborough by Mr.
Avery's harmless satire, he tears a blank leaf from a law
book and dashes off" a challenge,* which he himself delivers ;
and, before the sun sets, the duel has been fought, and the
antagonists are friends again. The affair with Dickinson
was of a very different nature. So far as the taritten testi-
mony enables us to judge, Jackson was wholly, grossly,
abominably in the wrong. But the tradition in the circle of
Jackson's nearest friends is clear and strong, that Dickinson
had reviled Mrs. Jackson in his cups.

If any one wishes to see into the soul of Andrew Jackson,
let him turn back to Vol. I., piige 356, and read the letter of
the fiery General to his friend, Judge Campbell, in which he

* This cballengo is still prcserrcd among tho papors of Col Isaac T. Aveiy
of MorgantOD, N. C

688 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON.

pours out his wrath upon Silas Dinsmore. He begins quite
moderately, and proceeds so for a few lines, until he mentions
Dinsmore's stopping a lady and her ten slaves, when he sud-
denly boils over. " And, my God, is it come to this ? Are
we freemen, or are we slaves ? Is this real, or is it a dream ?"
And so he raves on to the end. In his wild, fiery way he
loved justice, but when excited by passion he was totally in-
capable of discriminating between right and wrong. He was
like his own Mississippi, which flows on with useful placidity
until the levee gives way, and then is instantly converted into
a roaring, rushing, devastating torrent — and the levee is made
of material that can not resist an extraordinary pressure. But,
after all, the mighty river pushes directly for the Gulf of
Mexico, and gets there by the route that is best for itself.

Jackson had passed his forty-fifth year without having
achieved any thing very remarkable. Public life he had tried,
but had not shone in it, and nothing became him in his pub-
lic life so much as his leaving it. He had tried merchandis-
ing, but not successfully. He tried speculation in land, and
nearly lost all his estate by his ignorance of law, but saved
it, at the last moment, by one of his characteristic spurts of
energy. Nothing really prospered with him but his farm and
his horses, both of which he loved, and, therefore, understood.
Upon the whole, however, he had shown himself a leader of
the people, helping them, at each turn of his career, to what
they wanted most : first, law ; then, merchandise ; next,
horses ; lastly, defense.

The massacre at Fort Mims gave him, at length, a piece
of work which he was better fitted to do than any other man
in the world. Only such energy, such swiftness, such resolu-
tion, such tenacity of purpose, such disregard of foniis and
precedents, such audacity, and such prudence as his, could
have defended the Southwest in 1814 and 1815. When a
man successfully defends his invaded country, we must not
too closely scrutinize the acts which dim the luster of his
gre^it achievement. The captain who saves his imperiled
ship we honor, though, in the critical hour, he may have

CONCLUSION. 689

sworn like a trooper, and knocked down a man or two with
the speaking trumpet. The slaying of the six militiamen,
and the maintaining of martial law in New Orleans two
months too long, we may condemn, and, I think, should con-
demn ; yet most of the citizens of the United States will
concur in the wish, that when next a European army lands
upon American soil, there may be a Jackson to meet them
at the landing-place. After making all proper deductions,
justice still requires that we should accord to General Jack-
son's defense of the southern country the very highest praise.
It was a piece of difficult work most gloriously done. Not
even the party celebrations of the eighth of January ought
to hide from us or obscure the genuine merit of those who,
in the darkest hour this republic has ever known, enabled it
to believe again in its invincibility, by closing a war of dis-
aster in a blaze of triumph.

He came home from the wars the pride, the darling of
the nation. No man in this country has ever been subjected
to such a torrent of apj)lause, and few men have been less pre-
pared to withstand it by education, reflection, and experience.
He accepted the verdict which the nation pronounced upon his
conduct. Well pleased with himself, and with his country-
men, he wrote those lofty letters to Mr. Monroe, the burthen
of which is that a President of the United States should rise
superior to party spirit, appoint no man to office for party
reasons, but be the President of the whole people, judging
every applicant for presidential favor by his conduct alone.
His feud with Adair, and his quarrel with General Scott, soon
showed that, with all his popularity and his fine words, he
was the same Andrew Jackson as of old, unable to bear op-
position, and prone to believe the worst of those who did not
yield to him implicitly. He went to Florida in 1818, bur-
thened and stimulated with a stupendous military reputa-
tion. The country expected great things of the victor of
New Orleans, and the victor of New Orleans was not a man
to disappoint his country. He swept down into the province

like a tornado, and drove the poor remnant of the Seminoles
VOL, ui — 44

690 LIFB OF ANDREW JACKSON.

into the Everglades. He assumed, he exercised all the pre-
rogatives of an absolute sovereign. He raised troops in his
own way ; invaded a foreign territory ; made war upon his
brother sovereign, the King of Spain ; put his subjects to
death without trial ; shot Ambrister, and permitted the mur-
der of Arbuthnot. He came home, not in chains, to stand
his trial for such extraordinary proceedings, but in triumph,
to receive the approval of the President, defense and eulogy
from John Quincy Adams, exoneration from Congress, and
the applause of the people. What an effect such an expe-
rience as this was likely to have upon such a mind as his^ we
need not say.

He reappeared in Florida as its Governor. We may pal-
liate and forgive his conduct there in 1821. It must, never-
theless, be pronounced violent, arrogant, and disgraceful to
the civilization of his country. Every unbiased gentleman
who witnessed his performances at Pensacola in 1821, beheld
them with mingled wonder and disgust. All his worst quali-
ties were inflamed by disease and disappointment. He laid
about him like a madman.

He was started for the presidency. He was passive ; he
was clay in the hands of two or three friendly potters. Ten-
nessee took up his name with enthusiasm ; Pennsylvania
brought it prominently before the nation ; he wrote his
tariff letter ; he voted for internal improvements ; the Mon-
roe correspondence was published ; he won a plurality of elec-
toral votes, but was not elected. His disappointment was
keen, and his wrath burned anew and with increased fury
against the man who had given the office to Mr. Adams. If
he did not invent the bargain-and-corruption lie, he did worse,
he believed it. To be willing to believe so scandalous a tale
respecting such men, except upon what may strictly be called
evidence, is not creditable to the heart or the understanding
of any man. To persist in believing it for fifteen years, after
it had been completely disproved, to avow a belief in it, for
political purposes, just as he was sinking into the grave, re-
vealed a phase of character which we have a right to call de-

0ON0LU8ION. 691

testable. We owe it to the interests of human nature to
execrate such conduct.

If General Jackson was passive during the campaign of
1824, he was passive no longer. The exposure of the cir-
cumstances attending his marriage, accompanied by unjust
comments and gross exaggerations, the reflections upon his
mother, the revival of every incident of his life that could be
unfavorably construed, kept him in a blaze of wrath. De-
termined to triumph, he took an active part, at home and
abroad, in the canvass. He was elected ; but, in the moment
of his triumph, his wife, than whom no wife was ever more
tenderly beloved, was lost to him for ever. The calamity
that robbed life of aU its charm deepened, and, as it were,
sanctified his political resentments ! His enemies had slain
her, he thought. Adams had permitted, if he had not
prompted, the circulation of the calumnies that destroyed her.
Clay, he firmly believed, had originated the crusade against
her ; for this strange being could believe any evil thing of
one whom he cordially hated. Broken in spirit, broken in
health, the old man, cherishing what he deemed a holy wrath,
but meaning to serve his country well, went to Washington,
to find it crowded with hungry claimants for reward.

Oh, what an opportunity was his ! Oh, if he could but
have buried the hateful past in oblivion, and risen to the
height of his letters to Mr. Monroe ! Or, if he could only
have devised some other mode of avenging his private wrongs 1
How different were the condition of public affairs in this year
1860, how different the prospect before us, if, instead of that
vague and ominous paragraph about " reform," in his inau-
gural address, he had used language like this :

" Know, all whom it may concern, that in this republic
no man should seek, few men should decline, a public trust.
To apply for office, fellow-citizens, is of itself an evidence of
unfitness for office. 1 will appoint no man to an office who
seeks one, or for whom one is sought. When 1 want a man,
1 shall know how to find him. If any one has indulged the
i expectation that I will deprive honest and capable men of

692 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON.

their places because they thought proper to oppose my elec-
tion to the presidency, and, in the heat of an exciting can-
vass, went beyond the limits of a fair and proper opposition,
I notify them now and here, that Andrew Jackson, imperfect
and faulty as he is, is not capable of conduct so despicable.
Depart hence, ye office-seeking crew, whose very presence
here shows that your motives for supporting me were base !''

Such a paragraph as this would have astonished the office-
seekers ; but the people would have sustained him, would
now sustain any president who should utterly defy the office-
seeking horde.

General Jackson's appointment-and-removal policy I con-
sider an evil so great and so difficult to remedy, that if all
his other public acts had been perfectly wise and right, this
single feature of his administration would suffice to render it
deplorable rather than admirable. The captain of a ship who
should be, ever and anon, going below and secretly boring a
hole in the hull, where it could be reached only with the
greatest difficulty, and stopped with greater, we should esteem
a bad captain, even though he sailed his ship well, and, upon
occasion, fought her valiantly. Something like this General
Jackson did to the ship of state ; and ever since his day the
crew have had hard pimaping; and we stiU continue to
pump, instead of going into dock and overhauling her bot-
tom, and stopping the leaks, and putting on new copper so
thick that no future captain will be able to get his augur
through it. Let no one hope for decency or honesty in the
government while the servants of the public hold their places
at the mercy of the successful wire-puller. Eotation necessi-
tates corruption, organizes corruption, appears almost to jus-
tify corruption. The ship needs repairing infinitely more
than the officers need changing.

When a man in high office acts upon principles diametri-
cally contrary to those which he professed in private life, we
are apt to infer that his professions were hypocritical. Such
an inference, in the case before us, would be worse than un-
charitable ; it would be erroneous. Unquestionably General

OONOLUSION. 693

Jackson wrote his fine letters to Mr. Monroe with perfect
sincerity, little thinking that he would ever be called upon to
act upon the high principles he laid down for the guidance
of another. But what is easier than to write lofty senti-
ments ? Men do not much difier in their knowledge of what
is right ; it is in our power to act up to our knowledge that
we differ from one another. Take the most eloquent of the
northern heroes of the platform ; take the fiercest of the fire-
eaters ; make one of them, no matter which, emperor of the
United States, clothed with power to carry out the ideas
with which twenty years of advocacy ha\^ made him and us
familiar. Where were then his readiness, his confidence, his
fluency ? How overwhelming the thought, that a mistake
of his, trifling as it might seem, applauded as it would be,
would affect the welfare of millions of human beings for
many ages 1 Ah ! how easy to thrill an audience with
glowing sentences, but how difficult, in any province of
human affairs, to effect even a slight improvement 1 I do
not accuse Jackson of hypocrisy. He had force enough to
carry out a purpose of his own, but not that nobler force
which enables men to act upon the high principles in public
life which they had approved in private. Influenced at once
by his resentments, by gratitude, by the opinions of the New
York politicians, by the clamors of the hungry crowd of
office-seekers, he seems to have fallen without a struggle.

Many, very many, of the measures of General Jackson's
administration will always be heartily approved by a majority
of the people of the United States. Some of these were the
result of his own sagacity and experience ; others were due
to the Jeffersonian opinions imbibed in their youth by Mr.
Van Buren, Mr. Livingston, Col. Benton, and others. The
removal of the Indians, the policy of selling the public lands
to actual settlers only and at the bare cost of selling, were
the President's own ideas, I believe. With regard to the
war upon the Bank of the United States, every one is glad
the bank was destroyed, but no one can admire the manner
or the spirit in which the war was waged. At the same

694 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON.

time, it is not clear that any other kind of warfare cotild
have been successful against an institution so rooted in the
country as that was in 1829.

There is a passage in Mr. Buckle's colossal work, the
^* History of Civilization in England," which will occur to
some as they read of General Jackson and his administration.
Gladly do I borrow a few sentences from a writer whose ad-
vent is an era in the history of man. " There is no instance
on record," says Mr. Buckle, " of an ignorant man who, hav-
ing good intentions and supreme power to enforce them, has
not done far more e^il than good. And where the intentions
have been very eager and the power very extensive, the evil
has been enormous. But if you can diminish the sincerity
of that man, if you can mix some alloy with his motives, you
will likewise diminish the evil which he works. If he is self-
ish as well as ignorant, it will often happen that you may
play off his vice against his ignorance, and by exciting his
fears restrain his mischief. If, however, he has no fear, if he
is entirely unselfish, if his sole object is the good of others, if
he pursues that object with enthusiasm, upon a large scale,
and with disinterested zeal, then it is that you have no check
upon him, you have no means of preventing the calamities
which, in an ignorant age, an ignorant man will be sure to
inflict."*

I must avow explicitly the belief, that, notwithstanding
the good done by General Jackson during his presidency, his
elevation to power was a mistake on the part of the people
of the United States. The good which he effected has not
continued ; while the evil which he began remains, has grown
more formidable, has now attained such dimensions that the
prevailing feeling of the country, with regard to the corrup-
tions and inefficiency of the government, is despair. I will
also avow the opinion, that, of all men sent to Washing-
ton, the man surest to fall a prey to the worse influences of
the place is your honest country gentleman, whose intentions

• History of Civilization in England, Bj Henry Thomas Buckle. Vol L,
p. 132. (American edition.)

OONCLUSIOK. 695

are excellent^ and whose ignorance is almost as complete as his
innocence. I find in General Jackson's private writings no
evidence that he had ever studied the art of governing nations,
or had arrived at any clear conclusions on the subject. Except
the " Vicar of Wakefield" it is doubtful if he had ever read any
secular book through. That solitary exception is creditable
to his taste and feelings as a human being, for no man can be
altogether despicable who keenly relishes the "Vicar o^
Wakefield." But a President of the United States sho/Ud
know all books, all times, all nations, all arts, all ar.'-jifices,
all men. It is essential that he be a man of cultu)fe. His
culture may not prevent his falling into error, but (/cultiva-
ted man is capable of being convinced of his errors*. He can
not be a cultivated man without having learne d, over and
over again, how fallible his judgment is ; without having often
been sure that he was right and then found that he was
wrong. It must be admitted, that General tTackson, when
his purpose was formed, when his feelings were roused, was
not capable of being convinced. His will tyrannized over
him, over his friends, over Congress, over the country. No
Dionysius of old was more the autocrat than he. Unap-
proachable by an honest opponent, he could be generally
wielded by any man who knew how to manage him, and was
lavish enough of flattery.

Andrew Jackson, in fact, was a fighting man, and little
more than a fighting man. It was not till a political contro-
versy became personalized, that his force and strength were
elicited. He hated the whig party much, but Henry Clay
more ; nullification much, but Calhoun more ; the bank
much, but Biddle more. He was a thorough-going human
fighting-cock — very kind to the hens of his own farm-yard,
giving them many a nice kernel of corn, but bristling up at
the faintest crow of chanticleer on the other side of the road.

There are certain historical facts which puzzle and disgust
those whose knowledge of life and men has been chiefly de-
rived from books. To such it can with difficulty be made
clear that the award is just which assigns to George Wash-

696 LIFE or ANDBEW JACKSON.

iogton a higher place than Benjamin FrsDklin and Tl
JefFcrfiou — higher honor to the executing hand than 1
conceiving head. If they were asked to mention the gn
Englishman of this age, it would never occur to them to
the Duke of Wellington, a man of an understanding sc
ited as to be the natural foe of every thing liberal
■o,^ progreBsive, Yet the Duke of Wellington was the only
^Si^inan of his generation to whom every Englishman
ofi <Ub hat. And these men of hooka contemplate with
wond^the fact, that during a period when Webeter, i
CaIhon\ Wirt, and Preston were on the public stage,
drew Jaijfson should have been so much the ido] ol
American Woplc, that all those eminent men united c
not prevail against him in a single instance.

It is pU^sant to justify the ways of man to man.
instinctive preferences of the people must be right. Th
to say, the man preferred by the people must have nioi
him of what the people most want than any other ol
generation. The moi-e intimately we know the men
surrounded General Washington, the clearer to ua doe
intrinsic superiority become, and the more clearly we pert
his utter indispensableness. Washington was the only
of the revolution who did for the revolution what no o
man could have done. And if ever the time comes when
eminent cotemporaries of Andrew Jackson shall be as i
mately known to the people as Andrew Jackson now is,
invincible preference of the people for him will be far lest
tonishiug than it now appears. Clay was the only mai
the four leading spirits whose character will bear a conij
son with our fiery, faulty hero. Clay was indeed a prin
man ; it is impossible not to love him ; but then, his end
mcnts were not great, and his industry was limited. J
often when the country wanted statesmanship he had not]
to give it but oratory 1

Besides, suppose Washington had not fought the be
of Trenton, and not restored the revolution when it was al
to perish. Suppose England had lost the battle of Watet

CONCLUSION. 697

and given the fellest — because the ablest — of tyrants another
lease of power. Suppose the English had sacked New Or-
leans, and no peace had come to check their career of con-
quest ! By indulging this turn of reflection, we shall perceive
that the Washingtons, the Wellingtons, and the Jacksons of
a nation are they who provide or preserve for all other gifts,
talents, and virtues, their opportunity and sphere. How
just, therefore, is the gratitude of nations toward those who,
at the critical moment, do the great act that creates or de-
fends them 1

What man supremely admires in man is manhood. The
valiant man alone has power to awaken the enthusiastic love
of us all. So dear to us is valor, that even the rudest man-
ifestations of it in the pugilistic ring excite, for a moment, a
universal interest. Its highest manifestation, on the mar-
tyr's cross, becomes the event from which whole racps date
their after history. Every great career, whether of a nation
or of an individual, dates from an heroic action, and every
downfall from a cowardly one. To dare, to dare again, and
always to dare, is the inexorable condition of every signal and
worthy success, from founding a cobbler's stall to promulgat-
ing a nobler faith. In barbarous ages, heroes risked their
lives to save their self-respect ; in civilized periods, they risk
what it is harder to risk, their livelihood, their career.

It is not for nothing that nature has implanted in her
darling the instinct of honoring courage before all other quali-
ties. What a delicate creature was man to be tossed upon
this planet, and sent whirling through space, naked, shelter-
less, and untaught ; wild beasts hungering to devour him ;
the elements in league against him ; compelled instantly to
to begin the " struggle for life," which could never cease until
life ceased. What but heroic valor could have saved him for
a day ? Man has tamed the beasts, and reduced the warring
elements to such subjection that they are his untiring servants.
His career on earth has been, is, w^ill ever be, a fight ; and,
the ruling race in all ages, is that one which has produced the
greatest number of brave men. Men truly brave. Men val-

698 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON.

iant enough to die rather than do, suffer, or consent to wrong.
To risk life is not all of courage, but it is an essential part of
it. There are things dearer to the civilized man than life.
But he who can not calmly give up his life rather than live
unworthily comes short of perfect manhood ; and he who can
do so has in him, at least, the raw material of a hero.

In the eternal necessity of courage, and in man's instinct-
ive perception of its necessity, is to be found, perhaps, the
explanation of the puzzling fact, that in an age which has
produced so many glorious benefactors of their species, such
men as Wellington and Jackson are loved by a greater num-
ber of people than any others. The spiritualized reader is not
expected to coincide in the strict justice of this arrangement.
His heroes are of another cast. But the rudest man and the
scholar may agree in this, that it is the valor of their heroes
which renders them eflfective and admirable. The intellect,
for example, of a discoverer of truth excites our wonder ;
but what rouses our enthusiasm is the calm and modest valor
with which he defies the powerful animosity of those who
thrive by debauching the understanding of man.

It was curious that England and America should both,
and nearly at the same time, have elevated their favorite
generals to the highest civil station. Wellington became
prime minister in 1827 ; Jackson, President in 1829. Wel-
lington was tried three years, and found wanting, and driven
fixjm power, execrated by the people. His carriage, his house,
and his statue were pelted by the mob. Jackson reigned
eight years, and retired with his popularity undiminished.
The reason was, that Wellington was not in accord with his
generation, and was surrounded by men who were, if possible,
less so ; while Jackson, besides being in sympathy with the
people, had the great good fortune to be influenced by men
who had learned the rudiments of statesmanship in the
school of Jefierson.

Yes, autocrat as he was, Andrew Jackson loved the
people, the common people, the sons and daughters of toil.

CONCLUSION. 699

as truly as they loved him, and believed in them as they
believed in him.

He was in accord with his generation. He had a clear
perception that the toiling millions are not a class in the
community, but are the community. He knew and felt that
government should exist only for the benefit of the governed ;
that the strong are strong only that they may aid the weak ;
that the rich are rightfully rich only that they may so com-
bine and direct the labors of the poor as to make labor more
profitable to the laborer. He did not comprehend these
truths as they are demonstrated by Jeffersoii and Spencer,
but he had an intuitive and instinctive perception of them.
And in his most autocratic moments, he really thought that
he was fighting the battle of the people, and doing their will
while baffling the purposes of their representatives. If he
had been a man of knowledge as well as force, he would have
taken the part of the people more effectually, and left to his
successors an increased power of doing good, instead of better
facilities for doing harm. He appears always to have meant
well. But his ignorance of law, history, politics, science, of
every thing which he who governs a country ought to know,
was extreme. Mr. Trist remembers hearing a member of the
General's family say, that General Jackson did not believe the
world was round. His ignorance was as a wall round about
him — high, impenetrable. He was imprisoned in his igno-
rance, and sometimes raged roiind his little, dim enclosure
like a tiger in his den.

The calamity of the United States has been this : the
educated class have not been able to accept the truths of the
democratic creed. They have followed the narrow, conserva-
tive, respectable Hamilton — not the large, liberal, progressive
Jefferson. But the people have instinctively held fast to the
Jeffcrsonian sentiments. Hence, in this country, until very
recently, the men of books have had little influence upon
public affairs ; and at this moment the spirit that prevails in
very many institutions of learning in the country is at war,
open, declared war, with the spirit of democracy. And if, at

700 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON.

the present time, there is a class of intelligent and instructed
men who feel with the people, and are striving for popular
objects, the fact is not due, in any degree whatever, to the
colleges. For fifty years the spectacle was exhibited in the
United States of two parties — one composed chiefly of the
educated and wealthy, and the other chiefly of the men who
labor with their hands. The old federal party was the rich
man's party ; the old democratic party was the poor man's
party ; and of all the various differences between them, this
was the most real and essential one. Therefore, the culti-
vated intellect of the country had little to do with directing
its policy and amending its laws. The consequences have
been that, as a general rule, the educated American of leisure
has been the most aimless and useless of human beings, and
the public affairs of the United States have been conducted
with a stupidity which has excited the wonder of mankind.
To this most lamentable divorce between the people and those
who ought to have been worthy to lead them, and who would
have led them if they had been worthy, we are to attribute
the elevation to the presidency of a man whose ignorance,
whose good intentions, and whose passions combined to render
him, of all conceivable human beings, the most unfit for the
office. But those who concur in the opinion that the admin-
istration of Andrew Jackson did more harm than good to the
country — the harm being permanent, the good evanescent —
should never for a moment forget that it was the people of
the United States who elected him to the presidency.

The signs are numerous that the cultivated intelligence
of the country is about to resume its proper influence in the
solution of practical difficulties. What frightful problems
glare upon us at this moment ! Upon what terms are these
five million Africans to live among us ? By what means is
that great crime against nature, amalgamation, the worst re-
sult, so far, of the association of the two races, to be prevented
utterly ? What is nature's law, man's interest, and God's
justice, with regard to the living together of two races un-
equal, diverse, necessary to one another, impossible to be ever

CONCLUSION. 701

separated, capable of helping one another where each needs
help mostj certain to be to each other the greatest blessing
or the deadliest curse ? Are such questions as these fit to
be left to the wranglings of demagogues, drunkards, savages,
and madmen ?

No, fellow-citizens. There is need here of all the knowl-
edge, all the wisdom, all the virtue with which the country
is blessed. And to comprehend the state of things in which
we find ourselves, it is necessary, first of all, to know every
step of the progress by which the present state of things Jiias
been reached. It is necessary that the writings of Washing-
ton, Adams, Hamilton, and Jefferson should no longer re-
main in the public libraries with the leaves uncut. It is
necessary, in a word, that the educated intelligence of the
United States should begin to understand that there is no-
thing in recent European history half so worthy of study as
the history of the United States since the adoption of the
present constitution.

If these volumes, all imperfect as they are, shall be found
to throw any valuable light upon the past, and thus elucidate
the present, one cherished object of the author will have been
attained.

August, i860.

INDEX.

iiBXBOKOMBns, Sir Ralph. YoL IT., 79.

Adjir, General John. Vol. I. ATerj^s seoond
In dael with Jackson, 162.
Vol. II. Descends the MtstlBaippi to N. O.,
30 : commands Kentucky troops, 170 ; in-
spects the linos in company with Jackson,
172 ; makes an important susgestion, 176 ;
stations reserre on Jan. 8^ 18S ; com-
mended by Jackson on Jan. 8th, iM)S;
adTises Jackson not to attack, 236 ; alln-
sion to, 241; commended by Jackson,
276; thanked by legUUtureof La., 306:
to Anderson upon Jackson*s running for
the presidency in 1816, 380 ; correspond-
ence with Jackson upon retreat of Ken-
tucky troops at N. O., 384 to 390.
Vol. III. In Congress. 373.

Adair, Kev. Patrick. Vol. L His contest
vrith Uev. Edward MaUhews, 49.

Adams, John. VoL I. Nominates Serier
brigadier-general, 173; in presidential
election of 1796, 199, 200 ; in chair of the
Senato, 203; his inauguration, 210; his
French policy, 280; his name on map of
U. 8., 236; advocate of nayy, 268.
Vol. II. Quotod. *26i. Vol. III. Disliked
by John Uamlolph, 91 ; his removals, 208.

Adams, John Qnincy. Vol. I. Allusiun to,
10*2 ; ill Europe in 1814, 66 i; quoted upon
UMcfulneKS of U. 8. bank, 669.
Vol. II. Holds federalist opinions, 843 ; ap-
I>oinU3d Sec of State by Monroe, 369 ; his
appointment approved by Jackson, 370;
remonstrates to Lord Bathurst against
Nichols, 895; not shown the Rhea letter,
437 ; justitioB Jackson's conduct in Flo-
rida, 610, 511 ; his reply to Piaarro, 613;
appointed Sec. of State over Clay, 636 ;
allusion to, 66S; toasted at Nashville,
674; dispute with Jackson upon Spanish
treaty of 1810, 6S6 : dreads to hear news
of Jackson in Florida, 639 ; Justifies Jack-
son's proceedings in Florida, 640; esteemed
by Jackson, 064; started for presidency
in 13. '4, m\
Vol. III. Haled by federalists, 16, 16; al-
lusion to, 23 ; his vote in caucus of 1S.'4,
27 ; allublon to, 47 ; his vote for presi-
dency in 1824,60: not cordial with Clay
hcfure lSi4, 06 ; engages not to proscribe
federalists, 61 ; elected president, 66 ;
meets Jackson same evening, C8; de-
nounced by Jackson, 73; inaugurated,
79 ; strong for internal improvements,
87 : extract from hU third message, 89 ;
his administration decent, 91 ; expected

re-election, 94, 187; denoanced bj Kre-
mer, 103 ; denounced by Jackson, lOT to
110 : denies charge of bargain, 1 IT : op-
posed by Van Buren, 131, 133; aoenaa-
tions against in 1828, 140, 143; rote of
1828, 160, 161 ; aUubions to, 16^ 166: r«.
tires from presidency, 167 ; his rcmovala,
208 ; Blairs antipathy to, 336 : in Hoom
of Rep. 373, 637 ; on committee to invea-
tigate U. 8. bank, 399; rindicatea U. S.
bank, 4(Ki; supports Jackson's Frendi
measures, 677 ; in collision with JaekMH
upon Florida treaty, 661 to 664.

Alabama. Vol. I. Birthplace of Teciimaali*a
parents, 402 ; visited by Tecuncaeh, 404,
406 : alarm after massacre of Fort Mima,
419; part of Mississippi in 1813, 421.
VoL III. Electoral rote of 18i4, 60; of
1838, 161 ; of 18.H2, 430 ; of 1836, 69&

Allison, David, Jun. Vol. I. Accompaniw
Jackson to Tennessee, 149.

Allison, David. VoL I. Buys land of Ja^-
son, 242 ; his failure, 243 ; land embrog^
lio, 261.

Allcobn, Col. Vol L In battle of Ta]lo»>
chatches, 436.

AuToM, Joseph. VoL IL Burr to, upon
Jackson for president in 1816, 861; h«
replies, 363.

Ambbistkb, Robert G. VoL IL Arrives in
Florida, 420; writes to Nichols In behalf
of Seniiiioles, 420 ; his influence, 421 ;
taken prisoner, 462 ; his trial, 474 : his
execution, 476 to 477 ; his history, 473 ;
iU effect in EngUnd, 486, 487 ; debate
upon his execution in Houm of Kep., 5M
to 650; anecdote respecting, 568; alia-
sions to, 6T4.

Amelia Island. Vol. IL 4*22.

Amklung, Captain. VoL II. Arrests Lon-
ailller, 311; sent to Pensacola about No-
gro Fort, 400, 401.

Ames, Fisher. VoL I. In Congress in 1796,
203; on Committee to draft address to
Gen. Washington, ^0&

Akdkbson, CoL VoL II. Adair to, on Jackp
son's running for president in 1816, 360.

Andbrsox, W. Patten. VoL I. Has a cock-
fighting match with Jackson, 106; inter-
es'^ed in race, 268, 269, et seq. ; viaits
Burr, 316 ; connected with Burr, 317, 322;
Jackson to, in Burr panic, 3'.'8 ; Jackson
to, from Richmond, 334 ; saved by Jack-
son at race-course, 341 ; killed by Mad-
ness, 343; Jackson's tribute to, 34L

Amkcdotks. Vol. I. Gold grown at Char-
lotte, 62 ; develo|Mment, 63 ; Andy kicked
over by a gun, 64 ; his gibberish, 66 ; what

IKDEX.

703

the gentlemMi f 66 : gangling fel-
low on the gnuM pony^ 78, Andy makes
weapons for killing the British, 76; the
Wh^'s rerenge, 76 ; Ilicks defends his
house, 77; Fred. Smith captured bv
Whigs and Tories, 78 ; Mrs. Slocumb •
narrative, 79 ; Tariton and the boys, 82 ;
Tarlton tames the horse, 83 ; Jackson de-
fends the hottse of Capt Sands, 86 ; re-
fuses to dean officer's boots, 83 ; wins
two hundred dollars at Charleston, 9S ;
Aunt Judy and the gun,lM; race with
Hugh Montgomery, 107 ; bad women at
Salisbarv ball, 107 : drinking bout at Sal-
isbury, fOS ; escape of Sevier, 1 IS ; Jack-
son and the owl-hootings, 122 ; all night
by the torrent, 142 ; saves the raft, 143 :
saves the camp, 144 ; flights a ruffian with
a rail, 16*J: the Styjc anecdote, 160; Jack-
son at the Jon^boro* fire, 163 : at the
cockpit, 163 ; Mrs. Washington and Nellv
CustiH, 197 ; drawing nearer England,
201 ; Judge Jackson at Capt. Lyon's, 238;
Jackson credit in Boston, 260 ; Crockett's
fighting anecdotes, 266 ; anecdotes of
early camp-meetings, by Rev. P. Cart-
wright, 258 ; gouging, 261 ; Baring and
the firontiersman, 261 ; the Georgia re-
hearsal, 26^ ; Swartwout shoulders Wil-
kinson, 336 ; Jackson and the wagoners,
341 : click of the tobacco-box, 341 ; natu-
ral enemy of scoundrels, 344 ; Jackson
and Daniel Boone's son, 347 ; Jackson re-
bukes the fault-finder, 368 ; Count Zln-
sendorf and the rattlesnake, 403 ; Jackson
and the acorns, 446: Jackson and John
Woods, 508. 609 ; Jackson and the wound-
ed Indian, 620 ; Weatheraford arrests the
murderer, 636 ; Indian terror at name of
Jackson, 6i3.

Vol. II. Sir Charles Lyell and the pilot, 11 ;
Edward Livingxton and the bunt code, 20 ;
Jackson at Mrt. Livingston's dinner-party,
30 ; Jackson and the frightened ladles of
N. O., 76 ; Sergeant Roche and Captain
Roche, 83 ; Jackson and Captain Shreve,
tlie Mississippi boatman, 118 ; Jackson
and Captain Louis Livingston, 121 ;
Withers proves that he shot Rennie, 201 ;
the boy bugler on Jan. 8th, 201 ; Mrs!
Livingston and the wounded Brtsish of-
ficer, 227, 228, 23.' ; Nicholas Sinnott,231 ;
Jackson comforts Mrs. Livingston's little
daughter, 303 ; Jackson and his adopted
son at N. O., 3.'4 ; Cartwright preaches in
presence of Jackson, 839 ; Crawford plays
Cato, 245 ; Jackson ridicules the idea of
running for th« presidency, 364 ; Jack-
son and Ambrister, 058; the Methodist
preacher at St. Augustine, 609 ; Jackson
at the fire in Pensacola, 613 ; Jackson and
the duel at Pensacola, 614; asking a bless-
ing at the Heimiugc, 665 ; Jackson hears
Parson Craighead out, 555; the overseer's
wife in the Hermitage parlor, 656 ; Jack-
son and his wheat crop, 660 ; Jackson and
Henry Clay's daughter, 661.

Vol. III. Jackson promises his wife to Join
the churcii, 101 ; hunting the antl-Jackson
men in Tennessee, 161 ; Jackson and Dr.
Dnrbin, 219 ; the successful politician's
anecdotes, 227 to 256 ; Jacksou^s message
to the nuUifiers, 284 ; the oratorical Iwker
of SUten Island, iM ; Jackson and bam.

Dale, 469 ; Jackson and Dr. Physio, 480 ;
Jackson and Dr. Van Pelt, 490 ; Jackson
on his way to Rip Raps, 493 ; Jackson and
the N. Y. deputations, 649, 661 ; Jackson
and the threatened impeachment, 6M
anecdotes of White House life, 601 to 616
Jackson joining the church, 646 to 649
Jackson nominated a ruling elder, 648
Jackson and his new will, 6^.

Amick, Queen. Vol. I. Party spirit in her
reign, 89 ; news of her death, 41.

Apkalaciiioola, the. Vol. I. Arms landed
near, 601. Vol. II. Massacre upon, 430.

Akbitcklb, CoL Vol. II. Arrests Judge
Hall at N. O., 313.

Abdutiinot, Alexander. Vol. II. Arrives in
Florida, 411; hU character, 411, 412;
communicates complaints of Seminoles,
412, 413 ; his letter to Nichols, 414 ; to
llambly, 417 ; to commandant of Fort
Gaines, 417 ; brings Woodbieo to Florida,
418 ; omplains of him, 419 ; intercedes
for the Seminoles after the war had broken
out, 489 ; denonnoed by Jackson, 447 ;
sends warning letter to his son, 448 ; taken
prisoner by Jackson, 463, 4M ; accused
by Hambly, 463, 464 ; his trial, 464 to 476;
his execution, 479 ; his appearanoe, 4S0 ;
effect of his execution in England, 486,
487 ; denounced by J. Q. Adams, 613,
614 ; debate upon bis execution in House
of Rep., 634 to 660 ; aUusion to, 674.

AsMSTKONO, Gen. John. Orders Jackson to
disband, 378 ; to Jackson, upon British in
Florida, 593.

Armstboxo, Gen. Robert Vol. L Distin-
guished at battle of Enotoehopoo, 498, 493.
Vol IIL Urges H. L. White to accept

* place, 362 ; statement by Jaektion of hia
services at Enotoehopoo, 671 ; appointed
consul, 672 ; presents Jackson's sword to
Congress, 684.

Aenaud, Major. VoL II. Surprised on Jan
8th, 214.

Arnold, Thomas P. VoL IIL Assaulted by
Heard, 392.

AsTOR, John Jacob. Vol. I. Lends to U. 8.
in war of 1812, 568.

Augustus. VoL III. Anecdotes respecting,
606.

Auk LAND, Lord. VoL III., 879.

AuKY, Commodore Louis. Vol, II. Arrives
at Amelia Island, 423 ; his difflcultles,
424 ; his proclamation, 426 ; compelled to
depart, 426 ; shipwrecked, 582.

Avery, Isaac T. VoL I. Source of informa-
tion, 101 ; relates his recollections of
Jackson, 160 ; error corrected, 173.

Avery, WaightstilL VoL I. Visited by Jack-
son, 101 ; second visit, 119 ; bis duel with
Jackson, 16i; his opinion of Jackson,
169.

AxLEY, Rer. Mr. VoL II. Brutally insults
one of his auditors, 840.

Bachb, Mr. VoL I. Joined by Wm. Doane

in the Aurmra, 282.
Baoot, Hon. Charles. VoL IL Addressed

by Arbuthnot on behalf of Seminoles, 416,

466 ; sends copy of court martials tv E^

giand,486.

704

INDEX

Bailt, Captain. VoL I. Taket oommand of
Fort Mims after death of Beaaley, 415;
hia death, 417.

Bailt, Francis. Vol. I. Narrative of his
travelH In Tennessee, 176 to 196; quoted
upon arrogance of Spaniards, 318.

Bakbic, Gapt VoL II. Commands 44th in
battle of Dec 23d, 75; in Lines, 174;
commended by Jackson, 275.

Balcq. Alfred. Vol. IIL 133, 143.

Baldwin, Mr. VoL L On committee to draw
up addrc&H to Gen. Wsshingtoo, 205.

Baltiiiork. Vol. II. Visited by Jackson in
1819, 667, 585.

Bakcboft, George. VoL IIX. In error, 269 ;
directs public honors to Jackson^s mem-
ory, 680; pronounces eulogy, 681.

Bank of Columbia. VoL I. Lends to U. S.
in war of 1812, 670.

Bank or tok Unitko States. VoL L J. Q.
Adams upon disasters caused by non-
renewal of charter in 1811, 669.
VoL II. Denounced by Poindexter in House
of Rep. in 1819, 646 ; Jackson in collision
with, at N. O , 6»6.
VoL III. Sketch of its hUtonr, 266 ; em-
broiled with administration, 268; attacked
in first message, 272 ; defended by Mc-
Duffle and attacked by Potter, 278 ; Blair's
antipathy to, 836 ; attacked in second mes-
sage, 842 ; by Benton, 843 ; in third mes-
sage, 374 ; induced by Clay to apply for
re-charter, 894 ; made a presidential issue;
896 ; vetoed, 406 ; attacked in fourth an-
nua] message, 464; deposits to be re-
moved, 409 ; Mr. Duane's narrative, 609 ;
its conduct after removal of the deposits,
634 ; loses penbion agency, 546 ; frustrates
investigating committee, 665.

Babbour, Philip P. Vol. IIL In bargain and
corruption affair, 1(KS; thought of for vice-
president, 38 i, 421.

BABaAIN AND CoBUUPTION CbT. VoL III.

102 to 119.

Babino, Mr. Vol. L Anecdote of, 261.

Barnky, Commodore. VoL III., 224.

Babnet, M^or. VoL IIL Removed from
office, 223, 224.

Babnet, Mrs. VoL III. Protests against her
husband's removal, 222.

Babon, Charh'H. Vol. II. Testifies respect-
ing Indians at Pensaoola, 601.

Babbaxoas, Fort. VoL I. Its importance,
674; blown up bv the British, 6i2. VoL
II. Taken by 'Jackson in 1818, 600.
Yielded to U. S. 601.

Babbatabia. Vol.1. Mart of the privateers,
6S1; visited by Lockyer, 683; allusion
to, 605.

Babbt, William T. Vol. IIL Appointed
postmaster-general, 17S ; his career, 179 :
in affair of Mrs. Eaton, 202 ; commended
bv Jackson, 294; sustains Mrs. Eaton,
802 ; remains in cabinet after its dissolu-
tion, 843 ; favors removal of deposiU,
606 ; resists and goes to Spain as aml)as-
sador, 685.

Babt<»n, Thomas P. Vol. III. Aooompanies
Edward Livingston to France as Secretary
of Legation, 5t>8 ; left in charge, 578 ; re-
turns home, 574; interview with the pre-
sident, 575.

Babton, William. VoL I. Mrs. Jackson dies
at his house near Charleston, 90w

Basset, SsQIngmaster. VoL XL In expedi-
tion against Negro Fort, 40t3.

Batucbst, Lord. VoL II. Allusion to, SOT ;
Interview with J. Q. Adams, 395 ; allusion
to,416w

Battles. VoL I. Tippecanoe, 406 ; Thameo,
411, 421 ; Fort Mlms, 411 to 420 ; Lake
Erie, 398, 421 ; TaUuschatches, 436 ;
Emuckfan, 488 ; Enetochopco, 491 ; Horse-
shoe Bend, 516 ; Fort Bowyer, 602 to 614 ;
Pensacols, 620 to 626.
VoL IL Lake Borgne, 61 ; night battle of
Dec 23d, 87 to 101 ; the Carolina, 130 ;
Reconnoissance of Dec. 28 ih, 135; Jan.
1st, 1815, ISS to 161 ; Solferino, 158; Jan.
8th, 186 to 213 ; defence of Fort St. Philijk,
946.

Batabd, James A. VoL L, 662.

Batou Bienvxnve. VoL IL, 47 ; described,
53,83.

Batou Piebbe. Vol. I. Jackson lives tiiera
after his marriage, 153.

Batou St. Jobn. Vol. IL Described, 24.

Bkal, Captain. Vol. IL Goes to attack tha
British, 74 ; in night batUe, 107.

Bean, RnssclL Vol. I. First white child
bom in Tennessee, 116 ; incidents of bis
life, 166, 167 ; tradiUonal story of, 228.

BEAN,Waiiam. VoLL First setUer in Ten-
neBsee, 116.

Beaslet, Mi^oi' Danld. Vol. L Commands
at Fort Mims, 412 : his death, 414.

Beautt and Booty. VoL II. Not the British
watehword on Jan. 8th, 225.

Belfast. Vol. I. Described, 30 ; violenoa
of sects, 34 ; outstrips Carrickfergua, 36.

Bell, George. Vol. I. Second of M'Nairy
in duel with Coffee, 287.

Bell, John. Vol. IIL Supports Eaton for
senatorship, 177 ; in Congress, 373, 687.

Bennett, Capt Noah. VoL IL Tcsiiiias
against John Harris, 285^

Bennett, Mr. Vol. I. Accompanies Jackson
to Tennessee, 148.

Bennett, James Gordon. VoL IIL Active
for Jackson in 1828, 146 ; specimen of his
paragraphing, 146 ; narrates l>eginninic
of newn»aper war upon U. S. BanlL, 266 ;
editor of Courier and Enquirer, 400 ; ap-
plies to Van Buren for pecuniary aid, 596.

Benton, Jesse. VoL I. Challenges Carroll,
387 ; dud with Carroll, 383 : affray with
Jackson, 392. Vol. III. Publishes s
pamphlet against Jackson in 1824, 48.

Benton, Thonuui H. VoL L Alluivion to,
162 ; explains Southern vote upon direct
taxation, 215 ; employed in trial of youns
Magness, 344 ; his early recollections of
Jackson, 845 to 349 ; his narrative of
Jackson's being called to the field, 361 to
864 ; commands a regiment, 36P ; writes
from Natehes, 375 ; narrates Jackson*s
preparations to march his division back
to Tennessee, 378 ; intercedes with Sec-
retary of War for Jackson, 3S4 ; HSnr
with Jackson, 392 : his letter after the af-
fray, 395 ; his narrative of the afl^y,
397.
VoL IIL AcUve for Clay in 1324, 30 ; in
Senate in 1824, 38 ; hik reconciliation with
with Jackson, 47 ; visits Jefferson in 1824,
69 ; remonstrates with John Scott, 61, 62 ;
turns to Jackson in IS .'5, 63 ; votes for
confirmation of Clsy, 80 ; narrates case

INDEX.

705

of Conin^Rsional corrnpt'oiv 14S; npon
Jackson's reraovala, '^^10 ; votes against
Lee, 21 'i ; votes against I^e, 274 ; nar-
rates Jefferson banquet, 283 ; In the line
of sncccfoion, 207 : quoted anon Blair,
33S; first speech against U. S B.ink, ^43 ;
quoted upon H. U White, 362 ; In Son-
ate, 373 ; u]»on rejt»ction of Van Ruren,
879 ; upon Hank of IT. 8 , 397 ; induc'S
ClayUMi to attack U. S. Bank* 398 ; Wliit-
ney his itiformiint, 4')4 ; coUlKlon with Clay
in Senate 412 to 415 ; relates passage of
compromise bill, 478, 479 : quot«'d, 49ft ;
in favor of removal of deposits, 50) ; upon
tht; St^tc banks, 6 '4 ; in Senate, 5:}7 ;
gives notice of expunging resolution, 543 ;
upon Clay'K address to Van Huron, 547 ;
presides at Jackson dinner, 5S0 ; narrates
maneuver of Calhoun to ruin Vmu Ruren,
589 ; denounces deposit bill, 591 ; draws
up spi'cii' circular, 593 ; carries expung-
ing rfS4>lutlon, 618, 619 ; warns Van Ru-
ren ofcrkniing rcTubion, 6.3 ; upon Jack-
son leavin-.^ Washington. 6.9.

Rkrnarp, <ien. VoL II., n65, 369.

Beurikn, Joliii M. Vol. III. Votes against
confirmation of Clay, SO; appointed at-
torney-genrral, 178 ; in affair of .Mrs.
l-:aton, *J(V2 ; attends wedding of Mrs.
]<:aton, iS-^ ; allusion to, 29*2 ; in affiir of
Mrs. Eaton, 8«)2 to 808 ; resigns, 366 to
369.

Bekricm, Mrs, Vol. III. Will not call upon
Mrs. Eaton, 'X8.

Beverly, C<irt^»r. VoL III. Reports remarks
of Jackson upon bargain. 111, 112.

BiDnLE, (;iiarles. Vol. II., 557.

Biddlr, Nicholas. VoL I. Allusion to, 102.
Vol. III. Allusion to, 14i ; sketch of hU
career, 25S ; commended by In^^hani, '25.> ;
correspondence with Ingham upon Mason,
262 to 269 ; to Green, on freedom of the
press, 4<)0 ; exiK)R«^8 the perjury of Whit-
ney, 4'^>5 ; to i.'luy, on the veto, 411 ; allu-
sion to. 420, 42."^ ; accused of corruption,
494, 495 ; arranges postponements uf the

/ three per cimts., 496 to 4.>8 ; accused by
Blair, 500; renolves not to curtail aftt^r
removal of deposits, 534 ; denounced by
Jackson, 550, 553 ; avoids N. Y. deputa-
tion, 550 ; frustrates investigating com-
mittee, 5^''^ 557 : a lion in Wall street,
560 ; allusion to, 640.

Biim)LR, T., and J. (;. VoL III.. 403.

BiEMVEMr, Madame Devance. Vol. II. Sends
four suns to defence of N. O., 67.

BiRNVE.'<(r. M. Vol. II. Ills mansion plun-
dered by the enemy, 140.

Bk; Wareiur. VoL I. His speexh at treaty
of Fort Jackson, 552. VoL II., 41\

BlNNEY, Horace. VoL III. In Congress, 537 ;

Kes<-nts bauk memorial to House of Kvp.,
9.
BiNNS, John. VoL II. Describes effect at
rhiladilphia of news of vlct*»ry at N. O..
247 ; Ijucock to, upon Jackson's violence,
Wl.
VoL ni. His Interview with J. Q. Adams,
92 ; narrati's attempt of Eaton to corrupt
him, l;i5 ; prints colUn handbills, 141 ;
mobbed, 152.
BisnELL, Captain. VoL I. Commands Fort

Maxsac during Rurr panic. 323.
fiLACKHURN, Kuv. Gldeon. VoL J. Jackson

VOL. III. 45

to, f^om the Greek expediticn, 466 : ad-
dresses the troops, 476. VoL 11. Es-
teemed by .Mrs. Jackson, 8.18, 5^5, 598.

Blair, Francis P. VoL I. Allusion to, 102.
VoL III. Clay to. upon his position at
Washington In 1825, 55; Clay fo, upon
the same, 60 ; relates anecdote of Jackson,
102; active for Jackson in 18-28, 146; his
career, 336 ; arriv>?s at Washington, 3.3T ;
starts the Globe, 33S ; prospi>rs, 338 ;
quoted upon Jackson's Kelf-r»«liance, 372 :
accompanies Jacks>.>n to Hermitage, 420;
suggests removal of deT>oiiits. 50); vehe-
ment for the removaL 5 >3, 514, 508 ; anec-
dote of Jackson's wound, .^54; his opln-
ion of Jacks'm, 613; relates anecdote of
Jackson, 615; lends money to Jackson,
640 ; Jackson to, denouncing .1. Q. Adams,
664; Jackson to, upon selling the Globe,
605; relates ani>cdotc of Jackson's pa«
tience, 66S ; dying message to, from Jack-
son, 678.

BlvRi f*«*Ti. VoL III. Sulci'le, 551.

Blair, William. VoL I. His epitaph. 51.

BLENxrnnAHSKTT, Hennan. VoL II, Detains
Jackson at Natchez, 3 8.

Blakknry, Gen. E<lward. VoL II. Denies
the Hoauty and Hooty calumny, 225.

Blaxqur, M. VoL I. Tiifitte to, revealing
design upon N. (>., 587.

RLonxT, Barbara i*rev. VoL I., 183.

HLorxT, EliBa. VoL I., SSL

IlLorxT, Thomas. VoL I Opposes the ad-
dress to President Washington, 211.

Bloitnt, Gov. Willianj. Vol. I. Talks with
the Chcrolcees, 157 ; member of the con-
vention to frame constitution, 172 ; one of
the first U. S Se:iators from Tonnesaee,
173 ; to Si'vier upon presidential election
of 1796, 201.

Bloitst, William G. VoL III., 611.

BLoirsT, Gov. Willie. VoL I. Ordered to de-
tach militia, 363; offers the servir^sof Jack-
S'm's division, 365; orders it to N. O., iWO ;
revii'ws the dl vinion, 370 ; Jackson to, upon
the departure of the rroups, 370 ; confers
with Jackson and Coffee upon massacre at
Fort Minis, 422 ; Jackson reports to, upon
battle of Talltischatcht>s. 43S ; to Jackson
advising him to give up the campaign,
479 : .Tiickson to. Imploring re-inforoe-
ments, 48); orders a new levy, 484;
quoted upon antipathy of western people
to Spaniards, 618 ; Jackson to, upon cap-
ture of Pensacola, 620.
Vol. II. Jacksi)n to, from New Orleans af-
ter flight of the English, )HYJ ; his call for
1000 militia to garrl.<.on forts In Creek
country, 2S9 ; to Secretary of War, upon
the term of service of militia, 291 ; pre-
sents sword to Jackson, 3'tl.

Bu>LXT, Mrs. Willie. VoL I. Presents ban-
ner to Jackson's dlvlMion, 383.

Blituf, VoL II., 1:^6, 17.3.

Blur, Major. VoL I., 620, 625.

Blytiie, S. K. Vol I. letter upon Jack-
soirs dealing in slaves, 24*4.

Bonaparte, Louis Napoleon. VoL III. De-
scribes a go'>d administration, 82 ; allu-
sion to, 8i : acknowledges presiMit of beef,
166; upon Nap(»leon*s removals, 206;
upon bank issue, 431.

Bo.XAi'ARTE, Napoleon. VoL I. Jackson's
alluaion to, 164; toasted by Taiujnany

706

INDEX

Society, 198; commended bj Jacknon,
819 ; interest in his exploits at the West,
S^ ; qnotod, 458 : nowrs of his downfall,
660
Vol. U. Sfild to be ally of Jefferson, 242 ;
Jackson upon his fall, 3!)3 : compliments
Crawford upon his appearance. 345.
Vol. III. His removals from office, 208 ;
his Berlin and Milan decrees, 552, 663

BoMNCR, Kobert, Vol. I. Of Scotch-Irish
linea^, 36.

Boox, Major. Vol. I., 506.

BooNK, DanieL Vol. I. Traverses Cumber-
land Valley, 126 ; Jackson loves him, 347.

BoRONR, Lake. Vol. II. Described, .S3 ;
g^in-boat battle upon, 6t.

BouLDiM, Jndge. Vol. III. His sndden
death, K^

BowKX, Prancla Vol. TIL, 499.

BowLROS, or Bolcck. Vol. II. Sends com-
plaint to Hawkins, 396 ; his cattle stolen,
415 ; indebted to Arbuthnot, 418 ; applies
to Bagot for munitions, 468.

BowYKs, Fort Vol. I. Defence of In 1S14,
601 to 614 : described, Ml.
Vol. IL Taken In 1816. 277. 304.

BoTD. Vol. I. Knocked down bv Jackson,
163.

Bragkrxkiooe, Judge Henry M. Vol. I.
Quoted upon ill feeling in war of 1812, 666.
Vol. II. Relates anecdote of Jackson, 354 :
another, 699 ; another, 613 ; acoompanies
Jackson to Pensacola, 616 ; appointed al-
calde, 616 ; his agency in dispute between
JackHon and Callava, 617 to 6.14 ; Jack-
son to, upon affairs of Florida, 6S9.
Vol. III. Describes contrast between public
and private manners of J. Q. Adams, 69.

BRAKnii. John. Vol. III. In Senate in 1824.
33 ; votes against confirmation of Clay,
80 ; appointed Sec of Navy, 178; in affair
of Mrs. Eaton, 202 ; interview with X.
Clark, 233, 234 ; recommended for cabinet
by Katon, 'i88 ; in affiiir of Mrs. Eaton,
303 to 30S ; resiles, 364, 366 : in Congress,
373.

Branch, Mrs. Vol. m. Will not call upon
Mrs. l-^aton, -288.

Brrnt. Mr. Vol. IIL, lOfJ, 608.

B RON AUG II, Dr. J. G. Vol I. At Capt Ly-
on's, 239,
VoL II. At Nashville banquet, 575 ; second
in a duel at Pensacola, 614 ; ordered to
demand papers of Callava, 622, 627 ; his
portrait at Hermitage, 6"^; a gn>est at the
Hermitage, 653 ; allusions to, 67i.

BRONTit, Patrick. Vol. L Of Scotch-Irish
lineage, 36.

Brook R, Francis. Vol. III. Clay to, upon
accepting ofllce nnder Adams, 70 ; allusion
to, 78 ; Clay to, upon president-making,
476 ; Clay to, upon Jackson's character
and rule, 504.

Brookr, CoL George M. Vol. II. Commands
U. S. troops at Pensacola, 601 ; entertains
Callava, 6i0, 624 ; ordered to detail troops,
622.

Brookr, Mrs. Geo. M. VoL II., 622, 625.

Brown, Aaron V. Vol. III. Jackson to, upon
annexation of Texas, 668.

Brown, Gen. Jacob. Vol. II. Commands
northern division, 3H6 ; awailed by Jack-
sou in his farewell address to the army,
6ML

BiTonAKAW, James. Vol. I. Witness In •
suit. 137.

Buchanan, James. Vol.1. Allnvion to, 102L
VoL III. In House of Rep. in 18M, 33 ; his
interview with Clay before election in
House of R >p., •'16 ; ezoncratos Clay from
charge of banTain, 114 ; Jackson dissatis-
fied with, 116 : aufc iote of. 604. 6 15.

BuoKLR, Henry Thomas, Vol. IIL His
** History of Civilization in Kngland**
commended, 85 ; quoted, 6M.

BuoKNRR, Senator. Vol. III. Describes Hous-
ton's assault of Btanberry, 3-S9.

Bullrtin. Vol. II. In London paper of
British expedition against N. O , S'ift.

Bunch, CoL VoL I., 517

BuROOYNR, Sir John. VoL II., 140.

Burnrtt, Ward B. VoL III. Awarded the
gold box bequeathed by Jackson, 6S3.

Burr, Aaron. VoL I. Allusion to, 102 ; ad-
vocates admlstion of Tennessee, 173 : voted
for by Tennessee, 174 ; in presidential
election of 1796, 193, 200, 201 ; senator,
203 ; acquainted with Jackson at Phila-
delphia, 222 ; visiU the Hermitage, 309 :
again, 311 ; writes to Jackson upon dif-
ference with Spain, 813 ; again, 315 ; third
visit to Hermitage, 815 ; attends pablie
ball at .Nashville, .^16; fourth visit to
Hermitage, 320 ; questioned by Jackson as
to his designs, 321 ; left Clover Bottom,
322 ; denounced, 322 ; tried, 333 ; satisfied
with Jackson, 334 ; advises the employ-
ment of Jackson in war of 1812, 361.
Vol. II. His probable influence upon Ed-
ward Livingston, 18 ; exults at Jackson's
victory at N. O., 2.58 ; to Alston, on Jack-
son for president in 1816, 351 ; allusions
to, 390 ; resembled Arbuthnot, 4Sa
VoL III. His letter to Alston not the csose
of Jackson's nomination, 14 ; his influ-
ence upon Van Uuren, 121 to 124*. his tao-
tirs. 122 : entertained by Van Buren in
1812, 128; allusion to, 143; setive for
Jackson in 1828. 147.

Burr, Tbeodo«is. VoL L At Blennerliaaset
Island, 316.

BuTLRR, Benjamin F. VoL II. Reports re-
mark of Jackson upon execution of Am-
brister and Arbuthnot, 485u
VoL III. Appointed attorney-general, 631 ;
upen transfer of pension agency, 544 ; con-
firmed by Senate, 55S : allusions to, 5S4 ;
visits Hermitage, 660 ; seconds resolu-
tions In Historical Society upon dcatli of
Jackson, 682.

BuTLRR, Pierce. VoL II. Presides at Jack-
son dinner in Philadelphia in ld!9, 557.

BuTLRR,CoL Robert VoL I. Statement re*
specting difference between Jackson and
Swaun. 281 ; organizes levies in Tennes-
see, 6.W.
Vol. II. Accompanies Jackson to N. O.,
29 ; in ni<;ht batUe, 104 ; knocked down
on Jan. Ist, 157, 168; sent to meet British
flag on Jan. 8th, 218, 219 ; commended bv
Jackson, 275 ; sl'^ns division order of IS '.7,
37 J ; at Chickasaw treaty, 531 ; teatifi<.^
before Lacock's committee, 567 ; allusion
to, 610, 613; ordered to arrest Sousa, 620;
ordered to demand papers of Callava, &i2^
627 ; a guest at the lIermit.tgo, 658.

BuTLRR, Cjiptain Thomas. VoL II. Jackson's
Aid on D9C 28d, 74 ; left to guard M. Ou

INDEX

707

TB, 104 ; commanded by JackRon, 275 ;
■igni order to banish Ilall from N. O* 315.

Oadwalladkr, T. VoL III. To Mason,
upon the pension aj^cncy, 26fS.
• Caliiou!*, John C. Vol. I. Of Spotch-Irlsh
linea;;!^. tUi : allusion to, lOi ; his name on
map of IT. S., ^!36.
Vol. II. Appointed Secretary of War by
Monroe, 371 ; to Jackson, upon the divi-
sion order of 1817, 875; dL'spatche^ Qaincs
to Amolia, 432; shows Jaclcsoti's Rhea
letter, 434, 4't5 ; sees it a second time,
437 ; ordcr.4 Jackson to Florida, 4.tS ; ap-
proves Jackson's proceeding 441 ; pro-
poses inquiry into the conduct of Jackson
in Florida, 503 ; to Jnckson npon rclin-
qiiishment of Spanish posts, 61 C ; mis-
undnrstood by Jackson, 517 ; allusion to,
525, 5.'S : t4>astcd by Jackson on his way
to Washirifrton, 533 ; allusions to, 643 ;
Lacock upon his oinduot in 1819, 552 :
esteemed by Jackson, 654 : candidate for
presidency in 1824, 667; commended by
Wirt and Story, 667; his early career,

(m.

Vol. III. Allusions to, 20 23 ; dropped by
f^ennsylvania in 1S24, 23, 20 ; nominated
for vice-presidency, 29; Jackson's con-
fidence in, 41 ; elected vlc«>-prc8{dent, 49 ;
sworu in by Jackson, 79 ; re-elected,
151 ; mentioned for suc^sMion to Jackson
in 1829, 16S; gives Webb commission,
183 ; upon former removals from office,
208 : votes for Kendall, 277 ; his toast at
Jpfforson banquet, 283 ; Jackson estranged
from him, 295 ; distanced by Van Buren.
296; his alleged tnachinaUons, 296, 29'J ;
final quarrel with Jnckmn, 310 to 338 ;
publishes his correspondence with the
preiridcnt, 344; publishes his first paper
upon nuinfi(^:ition, 3iO; attribut<ris to Van
Duren his loss of succ;>ssion, 375; exults
in Van Bnreirs rejection, 3S0 ; his scheme
in 18:)2, 42*2; expounds nullitic:ition, 434,
435; JacksDi regretted be had not hanged
him, 447 ; lils character, 41S ; a protec-
tionist in 1 816, 44 ) ; his first essay npon
nullification, 452 ; his letter to Reynolds,
455; proposed for president of southern
rx)nfL.>aeracy, 459 ; resigns vlc^-presidency
and elected Senator, 4C0 ; takes his seat,
473 ; in danger of arrest, 474 ; coalition
with Clay, 477; his insolence to Clay,
432 ; his evil influence in V, &, 4S2, 4S;) ;
in Senate, 537 ; denounces removal of the
deposits, 6 1*2 ; proposes re-charter of U.
8. Bank for 12 yiiari, 5.V5; tbn^tens nul-
lification again, 68); last collision with
Jackson, 621 ; votes for refunding of
Jackso I's fine, 641.

Oaliioitm, Patrick. Vol. II., 663.

GALiFo;tNiA. Vol. II. Kxtennination of In-
dians of, 40).

Gall, Richard K. VoL II. Recommended
for promotion by Jackson at N. O., 276;
a guest at the Hermitage, 6.M
Vol. III. Delegate f^m Florida, 83; in
afltiir of If ra. h^aton, 102, li>3.

Oallava, Don Joso. Vol. II. Disputes with
Jaoksoa bsforu ths snrraadsr of Florida,

699; yields Pcnsncol* to U. 8., 601; allu-
sions to, 612, 61S ; his ch ir icter and
career, 61 1; his dispute with Jackson,
61S to 637 ; allnsi ms to. G4), 6^U.

Camiikklbmo, Chnrehill C. Vo^ III. In
House of R^p. In :8it, H3; in ISil, 373 ;
on committee to i.iveitijat** l\ S. Bank,
399 ; Webb to, npon bank lo.ius, 401.

Camdks, 8. C. Vol. I. Tlio prison there in
revolution, 90; battle near, 92.

Cameron, Oov. VoL IL, 415, 420.

Campurli., Lieut Duncan. VoL II. Would
not ''pe4>r* for an American, 184; his
death, 204 ; bnriAl, 237.

Campbkll, George W. VoL I. Practices
law with Jaclcson at Jonesboro, 165; at
the cockpit, 163; Jackson to, on govern
norship of Ls., 237 ; gives Jarkson sound
advice, 252 ; Jackson to, on Burr project,
8.30; his dispute with Robertson, 331 ;
Jackson to, npon Dinsmore, 356.
Vol. II. Declines war department for Jack-
son, 368, 369 ; Jackson to, upon the tak-
ing of Pensaoola in 1818, 499 ; Jackson tn,
from Chickasaw treaty ground, 629 ; allu-
sion to, G06.
Vol. III. Presides st Jackson dinner in
18-2.'), 80; member of Nashville commit-
tee, 142; allusion to, 177; receives Jack-
son at Nsshville after presidency, 630;
allusion to, 676.

Campkrll, Rov. J. N. VoL ITL In slZair of
Mrs. Eaton, 185, 196 to 205b

Carioaturbs. Vol. IIL, 423, 574.

Carmes, John. VoL I. His testimony re-
specting Jackson's birthplace, 53.

Cabolima, The. VoL IL, 78, 87, 94, 112,
129.

CARRiCKPKBaus. VoI. I. Chapter upon, 86^

Carrimoton, Edward. VoL 1. Testifies to
Swann*B respectability, 290.

Carroll, Henry. VoL 11. Brings news of
peace to Washington, 1 18, 261.

Carroll, Oen, William. VoL L Brigade-
inspector up'm expedition to Natchez,
369 ; his early career in Tennessee, 336;
challenged bv Jesse Benton, 887 ; duel
with Jesse Benton, 833 ; leaves Nashville
before Benton affray, 391,393; in battle
of Talladega, 443; B«!!it to Teuoessee from
Creek country to raise a now army, 466;
brings in new troops, 473, 435 ; in b.ittle
of Emuckfan, 43S, 4)0 ; in battle of Eno-
tochopco, 492 ; in battle of Horseshos
Bend, 617.
Vol. IL Raises regiment for N. O., 85;
ordered to hasten to N C, 61; arrives,
6); ordered to guard upper Bien venue,
73 ; ordered to Rodriquez CaiwI, 103,
1U6; orders the fire on Jan. 8th. 195; in
battle of Jan. 8.h, 20^ ; hardships of his
brigade, 270; cjmmended by Jackson,
276 : thanked by I^egislature of La., 306 ;
attends Mo;iroe ball with Jackson, 371 ;
a guest at the Hermitage, 663.

Cabtwriuut, Rev. Peter. VoL I. Anecdotes
of pioneer life, '2:>8 to 261 ; quoted, 266.
Vol. II. Quoted, 35; relates anecdotes of
his preachi-ig to Jack-on, 339.

Cass, Lewis. VoL L Allusion to, 18 ^
VoL IL His bust at Hermitage, 650.
VoL HI. Appointed Secretary of war, 363,
376; accompanies Jarkson to the north,
4!i8 ; loses his wig^ 4UU ; opposed to re-

708

INDEX

moral of deposita, 601, 626; ambassador
to France, 6TJ).

CA8TLBRKAGH, Lord. Vol. L Aoecdoto of,
486,566.

Caswkll, Gov. VoL L His address to peo
pie of Franklin, 117.

Catlkt, Dr. Hanson. YoL L Second of
Dickinson in duel with Jackson, 293.

Catron, John. Vol. III., 142, 36i.

Caucus, Kint;. Vol. II. Remarks upon, 343.
Vol. III., 211, 25, 26, 27, 96.

Cavansaugii, Major. VoL 11., 101.

CuAKLESTOK. VoL I. The Jacksons land
there, 48 ; the prison ship in revolation,
94; Mrs. Jackson dies there, 95; eva-
cuated, 97 ; visited by Jackson, 97.
Vol. III. Postoffice threatened, 5S5.

CoABLKS X. Vol. L, 222. Vol. HI., 564, 6S5.

CiiARLOTTR, N. (J. VoL I. Jackson at school
there, 62 ; why so named, 76.

CaAKLviLLE, 2d. VoL I. Settles NashviUe,
l'i6.

CuASR. Judge. VoL I., 809. VoL IIL, 224,

Oh AUNOKY, Charles. VoL III., KS7.

CuBUAW Indiana. VoL IL Entertain and
supply Jackson, 442; massacre of, 489;
redressed. 407.

CnxBOKEEB. Vol. I. Attacked by €}«n. Rob-
ertson at Nickajack, 155 ; become friend-
ly to whites, 157 ; boundary dispute with
Tennessee, 174; beginning of their civili-
sation, S50 ; visited by Tecumseh, 40G ;
attempt to get land of the conquered
Creeks, 565.
VoL II. Jackson negotiates treaty with,
336 ; chiefs visit Washington, SOS ; fav-
ored by Crawford, 356. VoL III. Their
removal, 272, 280.

CoKVALiEK, M. VoL III. Upon parhr pro-
cessions, 424 ; upon the bank war, 5451

Cmiokasawb. Vol. I. Gen. Robertson, their
agent, 8.58. Vol. IL Jackson negotiates
treaty with, 836 ; another, 529 to 581.

CuoATR, Rufus. VoL III. In congress, 373,
537.

CuocTAWB. Vol. I. Silas Dinsmore agent
for, 34'J ; provision of their treaty with U.
S., 360 ; join the peace party in 1814, 600 ;
in asHault upon Pensacola, 0:^0.
VoL II. In battle of Dec 2.<id, 74 ; visited
by Jackson, 336 ; Jacluon and Hind nego-
tiate treaty with, 576.

Cholera. Vol. IIL Allusion to, 371; rav-
ages U. B., 413 to 420.

CaoTARD, Major. VoL IL Accompanies
Jackson to N. O., 28 ; his Ald-de-Camp on
Dec. 2^{<1, 74, 104 ; commended by Jack-
son, 275.

City Hotel, Nashville. VoL L Described,
391 ; scene of Benton affray, 392.

Olaibok.hk, Wni. C. C. VoL I. Candidate
for governorship of La., 237 ; warned by
Jackson of designs upon S. O., 319 ; Jack-
son consij^ns his nephew to, H23; sends
troops to Fort Mims. 412 ; Beasley to, on
condition of Fort Mims, 413 ; allusions to,
419, 420 ; sends for help after massacre at
Fort Mims, 422 ; Latitte to, revealing de-
signs upon N. O., 58S ; Jackson to, upon
the same, 592.
VoL II. Feud with the Legislature of La.,
15; his character, 17; summons legisla-
ture, 22 ; receives Jackson at N. O., 28 ;
Madame Bienvenae to, offering her ser*

viees, 67; shuts out the Lcgislatnra of
La., 146 ; thanked by Congress, 257 ; com>
manicates thanks of Legislature of La.
to Coffee and others, 306.

Clark, X. VoL IIL His narrative, 227 to
255

Clay, C. C. VoL IIL In Congress, 373, 53T.

Clay, Henry. VoL L Allusion to, 101; his
name on map of U. S., 236; in Europe in
1814, 662 ; GaUatin to, on American pros-
pects, 562.
Vol. IL At Ghent, 118 ; mortified by the
flight of Kentucky troops at N. O., 241 ;
exults at victory of N. O., 257; oflferpd
war department by Madison, 368 ; opposes
administration of Monroe. 506 ; expected
appointment to State department from
Monroe, 635; censures Jackson's conduct
in Florida in House of Rep., 5^; de-
nounced by Jackson therefor, 543, 514 ;
opposes Florida treaty of 1819, 533 ; Jack-
son a convert to his bank speech of IS 11,
651 ; candidate for presidency in 1834,
66:».
Vol. IIL Supported in Pa. iirlS^ 29; in
House of Rep. in 18^, ai; allusion to,
36 ; narrates his acquaintance with Jack-
son, 45 ; their reconciliation in 1 824, 46 ;
his vote for vice-president in 1824, 49 ; for
president, 50 ; elects a president, 54 to 66;
to Blair upon his position, 55 ; Buchanan

Eroposes to make him Secretary of Stat«,
S, 63 ; interview with Jackson in ISiS,
64 ; accepts office under Adams, 70 ; de-
nounced by Jackson as corrupt, 72 ; com
ments upon Swartwout letter, 78; con-
finned by Senate, 80 ; cause of his duel
with Randolph, 90 ; confident of party
success, 94, 137 ; allusion to, 96 ; de-
nounced by Kremcr, 103; replies, 101;
denounced by Jackson, 107 to 110; denies
the charge of bargain, 113 ; exonerated
by Buchanan, 114, 115; popular, 166; at

Jublic dinner on li:aving Washington in
829, 172 ; Jackson's first cabinet inimical
to him, 178, 179; accused of slandering
Mrs. Jackson, l8i) ; accused of slandering
Mrs. Eaton, 187, 189 ; dtifemled by Har-
rison, 210; attacked in message, 270;
monumont to, upon national road, 2S6 ;
bets with Van Buren, 291 ; commente on
the dissolution, 369; returns to Congress,
372 ; favors rpjecllon of Van Buren, 375 ;
induces Bank of U. 8. to apply for re-
charter, 394 ; nominated for presidency,
334, 395; to a friend, upon bank isctue,
395 : Biddle to, on veto, 411 ; collision
with Benton in Senate, 412 to 415 ; to
Brooke, upon Colhonn in 1832, 422 ; his
vote in KS.ii for presidency, 4:iO, 4(1 ; upon
the teriff, 4.^8, 411 ; friend of Calhoun in
1S16, 44J ; his return to Congreiis, 451 ;
upon Jackson's proclamation, 470 ; to
Brooke, upon president-making, 476 ; co*-
lition with Calhoun, 479 ; hir> contempt for
Calhoun, 4Si ; wins popuLirity by compro-
mise bill, 481 ; in Senate, 537 ; his I.and
Bill vetoed, 538; asks copy of cabinet
paper, 5-^ ; resolutions censuring the
president, 511 ; upon distress petitioners,
516 ; addresses Van Buren in Senate, 547 ;
opposes compromise on bank question,
655; to Brooke, upon character of Jack-
son, 694 ; speaks at Nashville, 6J7 ; replies

INDEX

709

to Jackson* B e-ird, 639 ; his reU^ous feel-
ing, Mi ; joins the Church, &4S.

Olaytoj*, AugustitM'.. VoL III. Attacks U.
S. D.ink, i59S ; chairman of committee to
investi)i:ate U. S. Bank, 399, 403, 4')4.

Claytdn, John M. Vol. III. In Senate, 372,
537; effects coalition between Clay and
Calhoui), 479.

Clixou, Col. Vol. II. Comminda party
ajjalnst N«'cro Fort, 403 to 407.

Clixtox, Do Witt. VoL IL His enemies
promoted by administration. S4T ; farora
Mnnrot* in I'StC, .'U> ; toasted by Jackson
at N. Y., 561 ; Jackson*B standing toast,
562 ; his card adverse to Gen. Scott, 532 ;
toasted at Nushyilie, 574 ; esteemed by
Juckaon, 6''>( ; mentioned for the presi.
dency in 18il, 669.
Vol. III. Declitief) scat In Cabinet under
Jackson, 53 ; allusion to, 85 ; offered am-
bassadorship to England, 91 ; allusion to,
120 ; his character, 126 ; candidate for
presidency in IS 12, 127 ; his opinion of
Van Buren, 123 ; bis death, 131 ; his pres-
ence, 229.

Clovf.r Bottom. Vol.1. Jackson's store at,
241 ; racecourse there, 267 ; boats built
there for Burr, 317 ; Burr reitides at, 3iO ;
Jackson saros Patton Anderson, 341.
Vol. II. Allusion to, 649.

Cobb, Joseph B. VoL II. Relates running of
Van Buren for rice-presidency in Ga., in
1824,664.
VoL III. Descrlb'?s electioneering at Wa-sh-
in^tonin l$.'3, 25; describes exhibition of
Crawford at Washington, {SS ; descrll)es
Crawford after his defeat, 67 ; rotes
against confirmation of Clay, 80.

CoBH, Thomas W. VoL II. Introduces into
House of Ilep. resolutions censuring Jack-
son's conduct in Florida, 534.
VoL III. To au ally, upon Crawford's
health, 25 ; despairs of Crawford's elec-
tion, 28 ; risits Crawford after his defeat
in 18i5, 67.

Cobb, Gen. Vol. III., 38.

CoBBKTT, William. VoL I. Allusion to, 201.
Vol. II. (Quoted, 326.

CocKR, Judge. VoL I. In battle of Enoto-
chopco, 493.

CoCKR, Gon. William. Vol. I. Member of
Conreutlon, 172 ; one of the ttrst U. S.
Senators from Tennessee, 17J: comn.cnds
Jackson's conduct in House of R.tp., 216 ;
conft^rs with Jackson upon expedition
against the ('reeks, 424 ; musters his di-
rision, 43') ; to Jackson, upon prorlsiont,
4'1() ; approaches Jackson s camp, 442 ;
his difference with Jackson, 449 to 457 ;
ordered to Join Jackson at Fort Strot her,
465 ; arrives, 475 ; ordered home, 475 ;
his arrest, 501.

CooKKANR, Sir Alexander. VoL II. Com-
mands British tleet against N. O., 87 ; in-
terrogates Ducroas, 54 ; anecdote of, 122 ;
attends council, 148 ; taunts Pakenham,
189.

CoDDRisoTox, Sir Edward. VoL II., 37, 148,
304.

Coffer, Andrew J. VoL III. In Jackson's
win, 651.

OoFFRB. (ion. John. VoL I. Partner of Jack-
son, 244; marries nieci^ of Mrs. Jackson,
25J ; concerned in quarrel between Jack-

son and Swann, 272 ; his affidavit re-
specting Jackson's assault upon Swann,
278 : his duel with M'Nairy, 186 ; builds
boats for Burr, 317 ; narrates intcrriew
between Jackson and Bcrr, 320 ; returns
to Burr unexpended money, 322 ; elected
colonel, 364 ; commands caralry upon ex-
pedition to Natchez, 369 ; to Donelson,
upon his departure from Nashrille, 360 ;
to Donelson from Natchez, 375 : In Ben-
ton affray. .393, 396 ; confers with Jackson
and Blount upon massacre at Fort Mimi,
422 ; marches against the Creeks, 424 ,
sends back news to Jackson, 427 ; scours
the Black Warrior, 4:il, 433 ; bis person
and character, 43,5 : his report of battle
of Talluschatchcs, 436 ; to I)onehK>n, upon
battle of Talladega, 444 ; assists to quell
mutiny at Fort Strothcr, 464; sick at
Huntsrille, 467 ; deserted by his regiment,
475 : to Donelson, upon affairs In Jack-
son's camp, 476 ; accompanies Jackson
upon the twelre days' excursion, 487 : in
battle of Emuckfan, 488, 4'>0 ; wounded,
490 ; in battle of Enotochopco, 495 ; to
Donelson, upon battles of Emuckfan and
Enotochopco, 496 ; rejoined by part of
his command, 590 ; in battle of Horseshoe
Bond, 516 ; to Donelson, up(m battle of
the Horseshoe Bend, 522 ; to Donelson,
upon end of Creek war, 540 ; marches for
Mobile, 5^)9 ; arrives, 017 ; marches to-
ward N. ()., 625.
VoL II. Hardships of march to N. O., 36 ;
ordered to N. O., 56 ; his swift march, 65 ;
described, 65 ; goes to attack the British,
Dec. 2ad, 74 ; in night battle, B\ 86, 87,
91, 100, 102, 104; In cannonade of Jan. Ist,
161 ; in battle of Jan. 8th, 206, 208 ; hard-
ships of his brigade, 270 ; commended by
Jackson, 275 ; thanked br legislature of
La., 306 ; testifies in case of Bleunerhasaett
vs. Burr, 3J9 ; provided for after the war,
359, 300 ; his portrait at Hermitage, 650 ;
a guest at the Hermitage, 652.
VoL III. Attends funeral of Mrs. Jackson,
15S ; urges H. L. White to accept place,
36J ; his death, 486.

CoLDRN, (;adwalader 1>. VoL II. Addressee
Jacksuu, 559 ; presides at Jackson dinner,
5il.
VoL III. For Jackson in 1824, 30.

CoLMAN, Dr. L. If. VoL III. His correspond-
ence with Jackson upon the tariff, 34^ 35.

I'oLTo.s, Rer. C. VoL III. Quoted, 14, 56.

Columbian Obsruvkr. VoL III., 103, 104.

Cu.NORBVB Rockets. VoL II. Usclessnesa of,
15S.

CoxsRCTK'UT. VoL III. Electoral rote of
18.'4, 5) ; of 1S2S, 160 ; of 1832, 431 ; of
1S:)6, 595.

Conway, George. VoL I. Succeeded by
Jack^n as major-general, 173.

Cook, Petor B. Vol. II. Arrircs in Florida,
413 ; intercedes for Hambly and Doyle,
41^ : taken prltioner, 46i ; serves against
U. S., 468 ; tcstid<» against Arbuthnot,
469.

CooKR, Capt JoMn N. Vol. I. Sees sham
light on the S -rpcntino, 563.
Vol. II. His iiarruiivc of night battle, 99 ;
of Dea 24th, 114; relates anecdote of
Wilky, 12 f; applauds Jackson, 128*
quotedi, 140; describes British camp 00

INDEX.

711

1824, 49, 60 : of 1823, 151 ; of 1832, 431 ;
of IS36, 555.

Dklta of the MissiasippL VoL II. Described,
11 to 14.

DxMocKATS. the. Vol. I. Their opinions in
17.16, 198 ; lament the downfall of Napo-
leon, 501.
Vol. II. Derive policy from the foderalists,
343 ; sympathize with fiUibastcrs of Amc-
lia, 426.
Vol. IIL In New York, 12?, 126.

DiGKERSoN, Mahlon. Vol. III. Appointed
ticcretary of the nayy, 659 ; toasts Jack-
son, 6S1 ; witnesses attempt to assassinate
Jackson, 582.

DiCKiNso.H, Charles. VoL I. Interested in
race between Truxt^n and Plon;^hboy,
263 ; his character, '2CS ; accused of slan-
dering Mrs. Jackson, '26D ; duel with
Jackson, 2U5 ; death, 301 ; mourniiif^ for,
303 ; false account of dnel in democratic
nexrspnper, 306.

Dick, John. Vol.11. Prosecutes Jackson for
cont'>mpt at N. O., 317.

DiCKso.v, Col. Alexander. Vol. II. Denies
Boiuty and Booty calumny, 225.

DiOKfto.N, 'William. Vol. III. Jackson to,
asking his political opinions, 93.

DiXKiNS, Mtvjor. Vol. II. Takes possession
of Fort Burancas for U. 8., 601.

D« ViLLiERS, CoL VoL II., 626.

DiMSMOKK, Silas. VoL I. llis quarrel with
Jackson, 349 to 360; participates in battle
upon Lake Erie, 35.i : loses his office, 35^.
VoL II. Interview with Jackson at Choc-
taw treaty, 576 to 5S1.

Do.MLSOx, Alexander. VoL L, 266, 397, 490,
496.

DoNKLSON, Andrew Jackson. VoL I. Edu-
cated by Jackson, 340.
VoL III. Jackson to, upon his reception of
medal, 37 ; replies to Jesse Benton, 43 ;
accompanies Jackson to Washington, 165 ;
priyate secretary, 183 : allusion to, 215 ;
writes out mcssa^^ca, 269 ; allusion to, 273 ;
consulted upon Union toast, 284 ; absent
six months from White House, 283 :
Jacluou recommends lilm to Blair, 337 ;
assists the Olobe^ 338 ; accompanies Jack-
son, 486, 43 j ; interview with Duane,528;
copies specie circular, 6'J3 ; allusion to,
615, 6:U : in Jackson's wilL 651.

DoxKLSON, Mrs. A. J. Vol. III., 155. Ac-
companies Jackson to Washington, 165 ;
will not c^l upon Mrs. Eaton, ^3 ; at the
White House, 016 ; Jackson to, upon re-
ligion, 642.

DoNKLsu.v, Captain John, Sen. VoL L His
daughter married to Coffee, 369 ; Coffee
to, upon his departure for the war, 360 ; ■
Coffee to, from Natchez, 375 ; Coffee to,
upon battle of Talladega, 4i4 ; Coffee to,
apon affairs in Jackson's camp, 477 ; Cof-
fee to, upon battles of Emuckfan and Eno-
tochopco, 4l>6 ; Coffee lo, upon battle of
Horseshoe Bond, 52 i ; Coffee to, upon end
of Creek war, 540.
VoL II. Buys land in Pensacola, 407 ;
Jackson to, from Florida, 60J ; Jackson
to, upon his cotton crop, 612 ; a guebt at
the Hermitage, 653 ; Jackson to, up'>n
campaign of 1824, 40 ; Jackson to, upon
religion, 225.

DoHBUBu:*, Capt^ John, Jan. VoL II. Id

night battle, 94, 101 ; commended by
Jackson, 276 : buys land in PenaacoU,
407 : pleased with his purchase, 600.

DoxELSoif, John, Sen. VoL I. Pioneer in
Tennessee, 121 ; his river-voyage to Nash-
ville, 127 : prospers, 132 : killed, 184 ;
plants first corn at Clover Bottom, 267.

DoNKLSON, Mrs. John, Sen. VoL I. Boards
Jackson, 133 ; residence in Mercer Co.,
Ky., 148.

DoNKLSoN, Polly. Vol. I. Marries Coffee,
869.

DoxKLSON, Samuel. VoL I. Conducts Mrsi.
Uobards to her mother, 148.

DoNKLsoN, Sayem. Vol.1. Father of Jack-
Bin's adopted son, 339.

Do.NKLSON, Stockley. VoL I. Indicted for
frauds in land -warrants, 231;

DoNKLSox, William. Vol. I. Source of in-
formation, 247, 309.

DoronBKTY, Gen. Vol. I. 621.

Douglas, Stephen A. Vol. III. Advocates
refunding of Jackson's fine, 641.

DowNi.NO, Msjor Jack. VoL III. Quoted,
490, 492.

DoTLR, Edmand. Vol. II. Allusion to, 413 ;
accnaed by Arbuthnot, 414 ; taken pris-
oner, 431, 45.1, 46~j ; testifies at trial of
Arbuthnot, 472

DttA.KE, Joseph Rodman. VoL II. His satir-
ical poems upon Jackson at New York,
560, 663.

Draytox, CoL Wm. H. VoL IL Recom-
mended by Jackson to Monroe for secre-
tary of war, 353, 360.
VoL III. Same, 41 ; thought of for war de-
partment, 383.

DUAXB, WUliam. VoL L Sketch of his life,
221.
VoL IIL Meets Jackson at inauguration of
J. Q. Adams, 78.

DUA.NK, William J. VoL III. Appointed sec-
retary of the treasury, 486 ; allusions to,
505 to 507 : narrates removal of the do-

gosits and his own dismissal from office,
0.) ; his opinion of JacJ^son, 600.

DtJBOUB», Abbe. VoL II. Jackson to, re-
questing public ttianksgiving at N. O.,
270 : Jackson replies to his address, 274.

DucROS, Mr. "N^L IL Interrogated by Keane
and Cockrano, 54.

DCXCA.X, Abncr L. VoL II. Conveys false
report of Legislature of La. to JackK>n,
144, 145 : in cannonade of Jan. 1st, 160.

DtJPLESSis, Mr. VoL II. Aid to Jackson, 74;
in the night battle, 104 ; Jan. 1st, 160.

DuBBix, RcT. J. P. Vol. IIL Jackson ad-
mires, 219, 6)a

DtTTTox, Mr. Vol. IIL Webster to, upon
Kendall and Noah, 276 ; upon the succes-
sion, 296.

Dykr, CoL VoL I. Brings in prisoners and
corn, 436; restores battle of Talladegs,
444.

Eabi., R. E. W. VoL IL Inmate of the Her-
mitage, 653 ; his tomb, 653.
VoL III. Acconi|>anlcs Jackson to Wash-
ington, 165 ; upon his tour, 488; allusions
to, 5'JJ, 60i3.

£ASTo:f, Thomas. VoL L Editor of Impar-

712

INDEX.

■: I

i s

tfal Review, ?C9 ; remark! npon Dickinson
duel, 301, 803.

Eaton, John Ilonry. Vol. I. Allusion to,
lOi ; quoted upon Jackson's bravery at
Enotochopoo, 4*^6.
Vol. II. Rcportti remarks of Jackson upon
martial-la«r, 60 ; quoted npon the ruse of
Shields and Murrcll, SO ; quoted upon
Dec. 23d, 8S, 90 ; upon Jackson's endur-
ance, 117; upon fn^titude of Tennessee
troops to ladies of N. O., 1'21 ; upon Jack-
son's intention if his lines were forced,
143 : upon Jackson's conduct toward the
legislature of La., 146 ; omits to mention
execution of the six militia men, 300; nar-
rates the scenes after Judge Hall fined
Jankson, 319 ; buy.i land in Pcnsacoia,
407, &67 ; attempts to quash investigation
by Senate of Jackson's conduct in Florida,
651 : Jackson to, upon Spanish treaty of
1819, 53 { ; his portrait at Hermitage, 650;
a guest at the Hermitage. 652 ; Jackson
to, upon war with Spain, 071.
Vol. III. Active for Jackson in campaign
of lSi4, 2*2 ; against congressional caucus,
26 ; in Senate in l$i4, ^3 ; attends pre-
■entation of medal to Jackson, 38 ; votes
against confirmation of Clay, SO ; his
agency in bargain and corruption cry,
106 ; attempts to corrupt Binns, 135, 136 ;
active for Jackson in H:28, 147 ; appointed
secretary of war, 176 ; sketch of his ca-
reer, 177 ; boards at O'Neal's, 184 ; mar-
ries .Mrs. Tlmbcrlake, IS'^; warns M'Kcn-
ner, 215; interview with X. Clark, 2.S4;
to Mason, upon tlic pension agency, 261 ;
reco!nm»nded liranch for cabinet appoint-
ment, 23S ; alluKiun to, 291 ; cotnmunded
by Jackson, 204 ; embarrassed by the
scandals respecting his wife, 302 to 308,
S27, .S28 : resigns, 346, 347 ; hostile cor-
respondence with Ingham, 361 to 367;
waylays Inghum, 367; Green tt>, upon
Houston's ratiou contract, 3S6 ; objects to
Van Buren for vice-president, 421 ; for
Harrison and Tyler in XMH, 6;{9.

Eaton, Mrs. Vol. III. Her early lifo^ 134 ;
mirries I-liton, 1S5 ; scandals respecting.
185 to 2>5 ; visited by X. Clark, 235 ; la-
dies will not visit her, 283 ; sustained by
Van Biiron, 230, 201 : and by the Presi-
dent, 290 ; party for and against her, £02
to 3)8 ; living itj 18W, 363.

EuoAK, Kuv Dr. Vol. II. Source of lofor-
mation, 73.
Vol. III. Relates Jackson's Joining the
church, 641 ; conversation with Jackson,
660 ; uUends Jackson's funeral, 679.

Edwakim, James L. \'oL III. In Portsmouth
aflfair, ^65.

Elim)N, Lur<L Vol. I. Compared with Jack-
son, 2ia

Electionh. Vol. I. Presidential, of 1796^
19'), 2iK) ; Jackiioa elected uugor-gencral
of militia, 2.{2.
Vol. II. Presidential of ISIO. 343 to 354 ;
pre^idcntinl of 1820, 5S3 ; effect of presi-
dential eleoUo.is, 603 ; presidential of
1824, 0J4.
Vol III. Itoinarkn upon, 11, 12 ; result of
presidential of 1821, 49 to 51 ; in House
of Rep. ISJ5, 63 ; effects upon, of univer-
sal suffrage, 12J ; presidential of 1S82,
43J ; presidential of ISiC, 634.

OffBTS iiaroo-
CandidAte

Eluot, CoL George. VoL IT., 87B, 449, 464,

479.
Elliot, Commodore. VoLIIL

phagus to Jackson, 666.
!Ell.nakrr. William. VoL III.

for vice-presideucy, 4*23, 430.
Ellsworth, W. W. VoL III., B55c 657.
Ely, Rev. E. S. VoL III. C-orrespondenoe

with Jackson npon Mrs. Eaton, 186 to 196;

allusions to.30\
Emuokfan. Vol. L Battle of, 4S8.
Enotooiiupco. Vol. I. BatUe of, 401..
Epprh, John W. VoL IL Threatened by

Jackson, 570.
Erwin, Joseph. VoL I. Interested In race

between Truxtou and Ploughboy, 368 ; in-
terview with Jackson, 269 ; various alia-

sions to, 270 to 304 ; defends Dickinson

after the duel, S'Vl ; opposes Di ismore, 35\
EssKLJfAN, Dr. VoL III. Attends Jackson

in his last sickness, 675 to 677.
EusTis, William. VoL I. To Silos Dinsmore

upon arresting negroes, 351. 'm53.
VoL III. Receives one vote for rloe-preid-

dency in caucus of 1824, 27.
Evans, Sir De Lacy. VoL II. Wounded Dec

23d, 103.
EvKNiNO Post. VoLL Prodlcts attack apoa

N. O., 572.
VoL II. LTpon effect of peace of 1315 upon

prices, 255 ; comments opoo Jackson's

toast at Tammany UaU, 562.
EvKRRTT, Edward. VoL III. In Oongroas,
i 373 ; on committee to investigate U. S.
I Bank, 555 ; vindicates the Bank. 557.
EwiNO, Andrew. VoL III. Upon Jackson's

reception in Nashville in 1S87, 6:iOL
EwiNu, Thomas. VoL III. In Congress, 537.
ExKCUTioNS. VoL I. Of John Woods, 50 ».
VoL II. Of the American dexertcr on Jan.

9th, 1315, 222 ; of the six militia m^n, .'77 :

of Francis and UimoUonico, 457; o^ .\r<

buthnot and Ambrister.

Panning, MiOcm*. VoL IL, 444. 464. ATX.

Faulknrr. James. Vol. I. Ills testimony
respecting Jackson's birthplace, hi.

Faulknrr, Thomas. Vol. L His testimony
respecting Jackson's birthplace, M.

Fayrttrvillb, Tenn. Vol. I. Rendezvous
of expedition against the Creeks, 42&.
Vol. IL, 44a

Fedrualists. the. Vol. I. Their contem;it
for the democrats, 197 : exult at Napo-
leon's downfall, 561.
VoL IL Their power broken in 1816, .^13 ;
impart their policy to Uepublicana, 'AM ;
Monroe upon, 362, 363.
VoL III. K^ect upon of Jackson's letters to
Monroe, 15; opposed Bank of U. S. in
1S16, 256

Fr.RNANUlNA. Vol. IL, 421.

Fkrrill, Capu Vol. L. 489, 490.

Fkssrndrn, Mr. VoL III. Opposes rcsola>
tious npon death of Jackson, 4<=12.

FiLLMtiRB, MlLird. Vol. III. In Congress,
687.

FiNPLY, Charles. VoL I. Ills testimony re-
specting Jackson's birthplace, 5&.

Fish, Preserved. VoL III., 31&

Flaujao, Gen. Qftrriqae. VoL II.» 1T4.

IKDEZ

713

Florida. Vol. I. Visited by Teonmseh, 406 ;
Spanish authorities sympathize with the
CrcckH, 420 ; held by British in war of
18i2. 57:2 ; Jacksou^s first invasion of, 618
to 020.
Vol. 1 1. Resort of faf^itive slaves, 397, 398 ;
negotiations for cession to U. S., 407 ; fit-
libustiirs in, 422 ; its price, jySS ; treaty of
cession ratified, 5S4 ; Jackson takes pos-
session, 001.

Flournrv, Qen. Vol.1. CommAnds at New
Orlc:ins, 432 ; resits, 547.

Floyd. Gen. VoL I., 4S7, Sa'*.

Foot, Samuel A. Vol. III. Ills land resoln*
sion, 2S1.

FoEHRH AND Co. Vol. II. Trado In Florida,
410, 411 ; accused offhand, 618; vindi-
cated, 6:(9.

FoRBRH, Col. James Grant VoL II. Dis-
patched to Cuba for surrender of Florida,

Sao.

FoKSYTir, John. Vol. IL Crawford to, upon
the Uhca letter, 509 ; sent upon a foreign
mission, 551.
Vol. III. In House of Rep. in 1824, 83 ; one
of bar;;ain committee, 105 ; anecdote of,
'251 : in Jackson and Calhoun feud, 324
to 330 ; in Senate, 373 ; defends Van Bu-
ren, 3TS ; appointed secretary of state,
553 ; interview with Benton and Jackson,
574 : toasts Jacksou, 581.

FowLTowN. VoL II. Attacked by U. 8.
tnK>ps, 429.

FowLTowN CiiiRF. VoL II. Wams CoL
Twiggs, 428 : takes Hambly and Doyle,
231.

F&ANriH. Vol. II. Accompanies Nichols to
England, 31)5 ; has interview with George
IV., n97 : returns home, 415; cheated by
Woodbine, 4:r> ; asks Nichols for horses
and uniform, 42<) ; c.iptures M'Krimmon,
431 : (ItMionnced by Jackson. 447; arrested
by M'K<'cvlT, 4Xt ; executed, 457.

Feanimm, Milly. VoL II. Intercedes for
M'Kriinm/n, 431 ; escapes from M'Keever,
450 ; Ht vxt'cution of AmbrLtter, 4S0 ;
marries M'Krimmon, 483.

Veanklin. VoL I. F^rly name of Tennes-
S4>e, 117: quarrel with North Carolina,
117 : its old court-houxe, 134.

Fkanklin, Renjamin. VoL L ilis name on
map of r. 8., 236.
VoL II. TiKUJtcd by Jackson, 653.
VoL III. JiukHon admirt-s, 251.

Frrdrkic II. Vol. I. (Quoted, 457.

FEELi.Niiiit'Y.HKN, Theodore VoL III. In
Senat.'. :j7-', Ml.

Feomkntin, Klijius. VoL II. His career,
616 : hi? dispute with Jackson, 6:;8 to 6:17 ; \
allusion to, 64t).

Fcllkk.\t. Vol. II. Arrested by Jackson at '
Pens icola, 620. 622, 632. |

Fulton, Robert VoL I. Of Scotch-Irish line-
age, 36.

FuLTo.v, William. VoL III. Ordered to keep
secret Houston's desigus upou Texas, 655.

Qadsdrx. James. Vol.11. Recommended by
Jarkjon for an appointment, 360 ; builds
Fort (ladsden, 444; sent in to Fort St
Marks, 459; sent to leUe Arbathnot*B

schooner, 462 ; complimented by Jack.<on,
503 ; allusion to, 524, 650 ; a guest at the
Hermitage, 653.

Gadsden, Fort VoL II. Built, 444.

Gainrh, Gen. Kdmund P. VoL L Dispatched
to N. O., 547.
Vol. II. Commands on southeastern border
of U. 8., 402 : the Little Prince to, upon
seizure of Indian lands, 408 ; his talk to
the Seminoles, 427 ; detaches troopk to
Fowltown, 429 ; forbidden to attick Span-
ish ports, 433 ; complimented by sec of
war, 438 ; raises body of Georgia inUitLi,
441 ; hastens to save Fort Scott, 442 ; lost
in the wilderness, 444 : pursues Semin-
oles at Suwannee, 461 : president of court-
martial, 464 ; ordered to take St Augus-
tine, 506.

Gaixks, Fort VoL II., 445.

Oalhraitii, Capt VoL I. JackBon*a quar-
rel with, 96.

Gallativ, Albert. VoL I. He describes
Jackson in 1796, 11)6 ; in Congress, 203 ;
supports addres.H to President Washington,
211 ; to Clay, upon American prospects in
1814, 562 : warns the President 568.
VoL II. At Ghent 118 ; recommends Ber-
nard. 265.
VoL III. Nominated for vice-presidency bv
caucus, ?7; declini^s, 31 ; anecdote ol^ 60i.

Gallatin, Tenn. VoL I.. Jackson has store
there, 246. 24S.

Garcon. VoL II. (Commands Negro Fort,
398 ; killed, 407.

Garland, Hugh. VoL III., 90.

Garhu»on, Wm. I-.. VoL HI., 585.

Gatrs, Gen. Horatio. Vol. L Defeated by
Cornwallis, 72.

Georuk. VoL III. Breaks carriage, 602 ;
accused of murder, 681.

Groroia. VoL L Early trade with the west,
240 ; anecdote of Lincoln county, 262.
VoL in. Electoral voti« of 18.'4, 49. 50 ; of
1S28, 151 ; of 1^32, 430 ; of ISiJO, 594.

Gerry, Elbridgo. VoL I. Ambassador to
Franc**, 220.

GiBBS, Gen. SamucL VoL II. Arrives near
N. O., 123 ; comnian<}6 a coiunm of Brit-
ish army, 133 ; orders a lutlt, 142 ; attends
council, 143 ; commands a column on Jan.
8th, 1S9, 190 ; death, 118, 221.

GiB.<»o.N, CoL Vol. II., 44.1, 444, 446, 464.

Gibson, CoL G. VoL II., 27^ 672.

GiLBKRT, Mr. VoL I. Defends the address
of President Washington, 210.

GiLRS, William B. Vol. I. Opposes address
to President Washington. 20-*, 210, 211.

GiLMRR, Mr. Vol. III. Advocates annexation
of Texas, 657.

Gilpin. H. D. VoL II L, 540.

GiRABO, Stephen. VoL I. Lends to U. S. in
war of 1S12, 568.

GiBOD, Nicholas. Vol. II. Receives Jackson
at N. ()., 28 ; thanked by Jackson, 301.

Glahcock, Gen. Vol. II. Sends to Jackson
news of massacre of Chehaw Indians, 489.

Globk, the. VoL III. Established, 338;
quoted, 884, 528, 532, 5r>a

Goocu, Mr. VoL IIL, 3;{5.

Goodrich, Chauncey. VoL I. In Congreee
in 1796, 203.

GooDRini. S. G. VoL II. Describes effect of
news of peace in 1815, 253.
Vol. III. Describes meeting of Jsioknii

714

INDEX

f
f

■• J

and Adams after election of Adams in
1826, 68.

OoEDON, Captain. Vol. I. VolunteerM to
stay with Jackson at Fort Strother, 462 ;
commands t!ie spies, 487 ; In battle of
Horseshoe Bend, 017 ; dispatched to Pen-
sacola, 594.

GoBDON, (Japt J. Alexander. VoL XL, 38.

QouYKSNEUK, Stiniuel I^ Vol. IL His state-
ment, respecting the Rhea letter, 528.

GoYKRNMENT. Vol. III. The two theories
of, 81 to 89; univt^rsal suffra^, 129.

Gkaham, George. Vol. IL Acdng secretary
of war, :;6», 371.

Geangbk, Franks. VoL HI. Candidate for
vice-presidency, 594.

Grbkley, Horace. Vol. I. Of Scotch-Irish
lineage, 3l> ; quoted upon pioneer barbar-
ism, *204 ; quoted upon character of In-
dians, 402.
VoL III. Allusions to, 36, 83, 181, 430, 453.

Gbse.v, Duff. VoL III. Edits organ of Jack-
son party in 1828, 146 ; his career, 180 ;
eouTcrsation with Jackson npon confirma-
tions, '.:77 ; objects to Eaton* s appoint-
ment, 3 8 ; attempts to reconcile Jackson
and Calliuun, 2:i4 ; sides with CalhouD,
334; ceases to be organ of adminLstratlon,
338, 3H9 ; allusions to, 382 ; to £aton,
upon the Houston ration contract, 336 ;
conversation with Jackson upon th« same,
3S6 ; borrows from U. 8. Bank, 400.

Grerne, N. VoL III. At inauguration of
Jackson, 16S ; allusion to, 382.

Green K, Gen. NathanieL VoL L Defeated
by Lord Itawdon, 91, 99.
VoL II. Hangs eight men for desertion,
298

Gebt, Captain. VoL IL Eillod in night bat-
Ue, 06.

Gbymes, John R. VoL IL, 29, 160.

GuBBiNS, Col. VoL IL, 215, 220.

Geumuy, Felix. VoL I. Describes the dan-
gers of the early settlements, 140; defends
young Magpiess, 343 ; addresses Gen.
Jackson on his returu from the Creek war,
542.
VoL II. Addresses Jackson on his return

from N. ()., 3-29.
Vol. III. Votes against Lee, 274 ; in Sen-
ate, 373, 537.

Hall, Domlnick A. VoL II. Arrested by
Jackson at N. O., 312, 313; banished from
N. O., 315; permitted to return, 316;
fines Jackson a thousand dollars, 319.

Halleck, Fitz-Oreenc. VoL IL One of the
Croakers, 559.

Hallkn, Capt Vol. II. In night battle, 93.

Hambly, William. VoL II. Seminoles apply
to, 410, 412 ; accused b^ Arbuthnot, 414,
415, 417, 4G4; taken prisoner, 431 ; nar-
rates his capture, 495 ; taken into Jack-
Bon's confidence, 451 ; enemy to Arbuth-
not, 454 ; interviuw with llimoUomico,
456, 453 ; informs against Ambrister, 462 ;
allusion to, 405 ; tesiitics against Arbuth-
not, 471 ; at execution of Ambrister, 480 ;
allusion to, 48 1; sent to Washington by
Jackson, 50J, 504. ,

Uaiultux, Alexander. VoL L In presiden-

tial election of ITM, 200 ; oppositiaa to
his measures, 203.
Vol. III. Concedes site of capital to Sonth*
em States, 596.

HAjfii.TOK, Gen., of 8. C. VoL IIL Proposed
for cabinet appointment, 321.

Hamii.tox, James A. Vol. III. Allnnon to,
117 ; acting sec. of state, 211 ; accompa-
nies Jackson to N. O., 315 ; remote cause
of feud between Jackson and Calhoun,
315 to S-tS.

Hammond, Capt VoL I., 39T, 437.

Hammond, Dr. Jabez. VoL II. Explains
political intrigues of 1816, 346.
VoL III. Quoted upon election of 1824,50
npon Clinton declining seat in cabinet^ 53
gives character of Clinton, 126, 1^
quoted upon Van Buren's eloquence, 129
quoted upon Van Buren's tic\ I'U to 13S
upon Van Buren's confidence in 1S4A, 137
quoted, 422.

Hanoinu Kock. VoL I. Sompter'a attack
upon, 71.

Hannau. Vol. II. Allusions to, 601, 647.
VoL III. Narrates death of Mrs. Jackson,
151 ; in Jackson's wiH, 651.

Hardt, Sir Thomas. VoL IL, 38, 14S.

IlABRifli, Capt VoL I. Commands compaav
of which John Woods was a member, 60Es
511.

Harris, Dr. VoL IIL Extracts ball from
Jackson's arm, 415.

Uakris, John. Vol. IL His ezecntion, STT
to 280 ; trial, 285.

Harrison, CoL VoL L Heads the rioten
at Jonesboro', 233.

Harriso.v, Gen. Wm. H. Vol. I. Quoted
upon early dueling in the army, 2I& ; al-
lusion to, 376 : interview with Tecumseh,
404 ; his opinion of Tecumseh, 415 ; his
popularity after battle of the Thamei^
421 ; leaves the army, 546.
Vol. IL Commended by Clay in Honae of
Kep., 538; condemns Jackson's oonduetla
Florida in House of Rep., 513.
VoL III. Votes for confirmation of Clay,
80 ; goes out as minister to Colombia, 152;
recalled, and why, 210 : candidate for
presidency in 1836, 534 ; opposed in 1810
by Jackson, 636.

Hartford Cu.nvemtiox. Vol. I. Remarks
upon, 667.
VoL IL Allusions to, 242, 245^ 363 ; Jack-

son's opinion of, 367.
Vol IIL, 39.

Uatciiy, King. VoL II. His talk to Gaines,
428 ; applies to Bogot for munitions, 466.

Hawki.ns, Ber\jamin. VoL I. Appointed In-
dian agent by Washington, -.02 ; allutiion
to, ^158 ; at the Crock council of 1812, 40^ ;
in Jackson's camp at surrender of Weatb-
erford, 532 : commissioner to make treaty
with the Creeks. 541) ; Creeks give him a
tract of land, 555.
VoL IL Implies to Nichols in 1815, 895u

Hawkins, Mrs. Lavinia. VuL I. Teaches tb«
Creeks to spin and weave, 553.

Hayks, Robert Vol. L, :;66 ; KUtement re-
specting difference between Jackson and
Swann, '28L

Hayne, Gren. Arthur P. VoL I. At treatyof
Fort Jackson, 552.
VoL II. Dispatched to the Balize, 32 : ro-
oonnoiters enemy's position, 84 ; in night

INDEX

715

battle, 1(U : compliments Tlind'a drapfoons,
14T ; dUputchud to Washington after the
fli;?ht of the English, *i75 ; conducts the
volunteers from Tennessee to Florida,
440 ; delayed, 443, 444 ; to Jackson, upon
relinquishment of Spanish posts, 517, 544;
a guest at the Hermitage, W'i.

Hatkk, KobcrtY. Vol HI. Against Con-
grewiional caucus of 18i4, 26 ; in Setmte
in 1S24, 33 ; votes against confirmation of
Clay, SO ; votes .iguinst Lee, 274 ; debate
with Webster, *28*J ; proposed for cabinet
appointment, 3-21 ; in Senate, 372 ; elected
governor of S. C, 45S ; his proclamation
In r«'ply to Jackson, 470.

Hays, Stokuly 1). Vol. I. Narrates his con-
nection with Burr, 3J1 ; in Benton affray,
8i>4, ;i07.

Vol. 11., 543.

Haywood, John.

Vol. III., 21.

Vol II., 673.

HCA.LY, Mr. Vol. III. Paints Jackson^B por-
trait for Louis Philippe, 072.

HcxLY, Capt Vol II. Commands the Caro-
lina, 7S ; his report quoted, 126 ; reports
explosion of the Carolina, 130 ; fortlUus a
brick-kiln, 150.

Hbmky, Captain. VoL II. His gallantry on
Jan. 8th, 200.

Hbxry, Patiick. VoL L Jackson hears him
■peak, 165.

Hbemrs, the. VoL I. At Peosacola, 575 ;
burnt, C<W.

Hbrxitauk, the. VoL I. Bought^ 158 ; Jack-
son remov.'H to, 245 : his first house there,
307 : the Imli.in boy at, 440.
VoL II. New Hprmita<.;e built, 643, 644;

described, 049, d'yO.
VoL III. Damaged by fire, 5^ ; curiosities
at, 035.

HiooiNS, CoL Vol. I., 48D, 490, 49.^.

UioiiLANDKus, the uiaety-third. VoL IL, 39,
190.

HiLLAHRM, the. Vol. I. Sue for peace, 447 ;
attacked by Gen. White, 4V2.

Hill, Captain. VoL II. Describes bodies of
American soldii^rs after night battle, KM} ;

?[uot<!d upon Dec. 24th, 1 15 ; narrative of
ugitive slave, 126, 26S ; upon explosion
of the Carolina, 131 ; upon the black
troops, 13'.) ; conveys orders to Mullens,
185 ; (iuscribes the firu on Jan. 8th, 190 ;
describes BritlKh hQS])itals, 234.

Hill. Isanc. Vol. IIL Active for Jackson in
1828. 145 ; allusion to, 150; at inaugura-
tion of Jackson, 108 ; his education and
career, 181 : appointed to oftice by Jack-
son, 1S2 ; urges Jackson to remove oflice-
boidertt, 182 ; complains of Jeremiah Ma-
son, 200, 261 ; rejected bv Senate, 274 ;
olt'Cted senator, 275, 276 ; ^>r Van Bunm,
291 ; in Senate, 373 ; allusion to, 382, 384 ;
to lloyt, upon bets, 427 ; upon evil infiu-
ence of the U. S, Telegraphy 483 ; at Jack-
son dinner, 5>0.

HiMOLLOMico. ViL II. Arrested, 455 ; exe-
cuted, 44S.

UiSDS. CoL Vol. II. Ordered to N. ()., 57 ;
arrives at N. ()., 66; goes to meet the
British, 74 ; reconnoiters enemy's posi-
tion, 84; quart.'red at Chalmett«)*8, 132;
Jackso.) compliments his eorps, 147 ; hiit
activity and boiduess, 151; aiks permis-
sion to pursue ou Jan. 8th, 207 ; hanuscs

enemy's retreat, 267 ; thanked by legisla-
ture of La., 306 ; coramissioner with Jack-
Kon to make treaty with Choctaws, 576,
578, 679.

Hollaxdrr, Mr. VoL II. Arrested by Jack-
son at N. O., 313, 314.

IIoRXRT, the. VoL II. Detained at Cuba,
5^8 ; arrives at Florida, 599.

HoRSRSiioK Bk.vd. VoL I. Described, 614 ;
battle of, 516.

Houston. Sam. VoL L Of Scotch-Irish line-
age, 86 ; quoted against slave-trade, 254 ;
ensign in 3'.>th regiment, 4'>9 ; gallantry in
battle of Horseshoe Bend, 617, 519 ; sof-
fering;i after the battle, 521.
Vol. II. A guest at the Hermitage, 6^3.
Vol III. Against Congressional caucus of
1824, 26 ; in House of Rep. in 1824, 33 ;
accompanies Jackson to N. O., 315 ; bids
for ration contract, 385 ; his proclamation,
887 ; assaults Stanberry, :;83 to 392 ; an-
ecdote respecting, 6<)6 ; his expedition to
Texas, O.'Ml

IIowAKi), Mitjor. VoL II. Murdered at Che*
haw village, 490.

IIOYT, Je.Hsc. VoL III. Swartwout to, upon
office-seeking, 211 ; Van Buren to, upon
Jackson's regard for him, 262 ; Hill to,
upon bets, 427.

Hull, Gen. William. VoL L News of his
surrender, W7. 407.

IIUMBKHT, Gen. VoL II. Sent to reinforce
Morgan on western bank of Miss., 218,
223 : discovers the departure of the Brit-
ish army, 207.

UuMPiiRKY, Capt. VoL IL, 136, 158, 163, 173,
200, 275.

HuMPiiKiiM, Dr. Vol.L Schoolmaster in the
Whaxhaws, 62.

Uu.NT. David. VoL II. His last letter, 278 ;
his execution, 280 ; trial, '287.

UuNTUB. Dr. Cyrus L. VoL I. His letter
upon Jacksim's school-days, 66.

HuNTRt*^ Kov. Humphrey. VoL 1. Hisre<>wl-
lections of Jackson's achool-daya, 66.

IIUNTHViLLK. Aio. VoL I. Cotfcc dispatched
to, 4-24 ; CulTee si«k there, 467.

UuTCiiiNUs, John. VoL I. Assists in Jack-
sou's store, 243 ; partner of Jackson, M4 ;
his atliJavit respecting difiference between
Jackson and Swann, 277 ; allusion to, 602.
VoL IL, 276.

HuTOiiiNsoN SiSTKBS. VoL L Their povcTty
and character, 47.

Illinois. Vol. IIL Electoral vote of 1824,

6 ) ; of 1828, 151 ; of 1832, 430 ; of 1836,

59Sw
Imbko<}lio, the French. Vol. IIL, 661.
Indiana. VoL IIL Klectoral vote of 1324,

5) : of 1828, 151 ; of 1932, 4^0 ; of 1330,

6»5.
Indians. VoL L Infest Nashville, 81, 139 ;

exchange qualities with white man, 264 ;

character, 401 ; terror of in war of 1812,

4()8 ; how a tribe is Incited to war, 408 ;

their power broken, 5.'6.
VoL IL How treated by whites, 409.
VoL IIL Their removal west of .Miss., 272,

279 ; Jackson's treatment of, '.80.
LfOiLAM, Samuel D. VoL III. Against Con-

716

INDEX.

■

V '

1 1'

grosslonal cancns of 1824, 26 ; In HonRo
of Kcp. in 1824, 33 ; his agency^ in bargain
and CDrruptioii cry, 106, Iffti active for
Jacksua in 1323, 147 ; appointed secretary
of treasury, 174 ; sketch of liis career,
17& ; in affiir of Mrs. Eaton, 202 ; to Bid-
die, commending U. S. Bank, '2S0 ; cor-
rtSpouiJcnco with liiddic upon Mason, 261
to 269 ; relates pacification of the CJiblnet,
303 ; resiijus, 3^2 ; h<»stile correspondence
with Katon, U64 to 366 ; insnlte'l by Ran-
dolph, 360 : waylaid by Eaton, 367 ; leaves
Washington, 36S.

Inouam, Mrs. Vol. III. Will not call upon
Mrs. Eaton, 283.

Imoorsoll, Charles J. VoL I. Quoted upon
Burr and Jackson, 361 : quoted upon
dread of Indians iii war of 1812, 41^8.
VoL IL Upon threatened insurrection of
slaves at N. O., 78 ; upon the news of the
victory at N. O., 246 ; upon the news of
peace, 251.
Vol. III. Advocates refunding of Jacluon's
fine, 641.

IXNKKAiuTY, John. Vol. IL Accused of sup-
plying Seminoles with munitions, 502 ; ac-
cuiie<l of fraud, 618 ; at house of Callava,
622, 623 ; at examination of Caliava, 629 ;
attempts release of Callava, 633.

IsisuiiAX. Vol. I. Described, 31.

Ievino, Washington. Vol. III. Ills return
from Europe, 417, 418.

Jaokson, Andrew. VoL I. Of Scotch-Irish
lineage, 87 ; anccstora in Carrickfergus^
87 ; superstitions about Friday, 46 ; his
features conuuon among Scotch-Irish, 48 ;
born, 5-! : proofs that he was bom in North
Uaroliaa, 53, 54, 55, 5ti, 6*27 ; lives with his
uncle Crawford, 58 ; attends Old Field
school, 6 J : Latin school, 62 ; Queen's
College, 62 ; peculiar pronunciation of
deoetopemetit, 63 ; his character as a
his swearing, 64 ; his ig-
his mode of writing, 6ti ;
mother, 68 ; attends the
wounded in Wuxhaw church, 70 ; firbt
flight from home, 71 ; sees battle at Hang-
ing Kock, 71 ; admires CoL Davie, 72 ;
second flight from home, 72 ; resides wiUi
Mrs. Wilson, 74 ; defends the house of
Captain Sands, S5 ; captured by the Brit-
ish, 8S ; refuses to clean boots, 89 ; saves
Thompson, 89; in Camden prison, 90;
sees battle through knot-hole, 92 ; deliv-
ered by his mother, 93 ; has small-pox,
94 ; quarrels with (.ralbraith, 96 ; works
in saddler's shop, 96 ; dissipated, 97 ; vis-
its Ctiurleston, 97 : wins two hundred dol-
lars and returns home, 98 ; reforms, 98 ;
teaches school, 99 ; studies law, 101 to
109 : licensed to practice, 110 ; described
at twenty, 110 to 114; leaves Salisbury,
114 ; starts from Morgantou to Tennessee,
118; escapes the Indians, 12.^; reaches
Nashville, i'24 ; boards with Mrs. Donel-
8on, i;{3 ; early success at the bar, 135,
136, 137, 13S ; writes to Geo. Dan. Smith
upon Indians, 141 ; adventures in the wil-
derness, 142 to 145 ; accused of adultery,

schoolboy, 64
norauce, 67 ;
love for his

146 ; marries Mrs. Kobarda, 162 ; happi-

nesa of the marriage, 1S8 ; irhr be did not
accompany NlekiO*<;k expedition, 166 ;
becomes a landowner, 157 ; narrates his
fight with a ruffian, 169 ; duel with Avery,
162 ; Jack8<m saves Jonesboro, 163 ; fights
Sevier, 164 ; a cock-figfaier, 165 ; member
of the convention to frame a ct>nstitQtlon,
170 ; elected to House of Representatives,
174 ; reaches PhiUdeiphia, 196 ; takes his
seat in the House, ^03 ; his vote upon the
address to Gen. Washington, 211 ; bis
speeches, 212 to 215 ; elect(>d senator, 217 ;
resigns senatorship, 219 ; elected Judge of
Sup. Court of Tenn., 227 ; feud and fight
with Sevier, 230 to 235 ; elected major-
general of militia, 232 ; his name on the
map of U. S., 236 ; resigns Jadg«*shlp,
236 : desires govemorsliip of La., 236,
237 : keeps store, 246 ; p«yB the AUson
debts, 243 ; skiU in farming, 244 ; buys^
Truxton, 247 ; deals in slaves, 248 ; re^^^
tires from mercantile business, 260 ; nar»
rowly escapes ruin, 251 ; fond of cock-
fighting, 253 ; of racing, 267 : matches
Truxton against Ploughboy, 263 ; assaults
Thomas Swann, 273 ; duel with Dickin-
son, 295 ; unpopular In Tenn., 306; his
first house at the Hermitage, 307 ; his hos-
pitality, SOS ; entertains Burr, 310, 311,
3*5 ; corresponds with Burr, 313 to 316 ;
builds boats and buys proviaions for Burr,
816, 317 ; Buspecto Burr, 318 ; warns Clai-
borne and the Pre^dent, 319 ; questions
Burr, 321 ; sends Murrell for Information,
323; address to the veteran corps, 325; ad-
dress to his dividon, 3*26 ; suspected of
Earticipatlon with Burr, 329 ; exculpates
imself, 331 ; attends Burr's trial, 333 ; .
defends Burr, 333, 335 ; supports Monroe
for the presidency in 180S, 336 ; irascible,
340 ; saves Patton Anderson, 341 ; at-
tends trial of young Magnesa, 343 ; fend
with Dinsmore, 34'J to 360 ; called to the
field, 362 ; address to his division, 366 ;
up all night among the troops, 368 ; de-
scends the river, ii72 ; halts at Natches,
373 ; offers his di^Hsion for service else-
where, 377 ; ordered to disband, 377 ;
leads his division homo, '.iSl ; named Old
Hickory, 381 ; ackni>wledges the gift of a
banner from Mr& Blount and daughters,*
883 ; popularity of Jackson upon bis re-/
turn from Natchez, 335 ; Carroll's second
in duel with Jesse Benton, 387 ; orders
troops to rendezvous at Fayetteville to
march against the Creeks . 425 ; his ad-
dress to the troops, 426 ; takes command,
4*27 ; rapid march to 11 untsvillc, 428 :
stopped by scarcity of provisions, 490 ;
drills the troops, 4j1 ; second address to
the troops, 433 ; his report of battle of
Talluschatchez, 438 ; sends Indian infant
to Hermitage, 439 ; rears him, 4-k) ; battle
of Talladega, 443 ; hungry return to Fort
Strother, 446 ; scuds an Indian banner to
the ladies of East Tennessee, 448 ; diffor-
ence with Gen. Cocke, 449 ; quells ma-
tiny at Fort Strother, 4S>'J ; qut;lls second
mutiny, 463; hU iett^T to Blackburn, 466,
correspondence with the volunteer offi
cers, 407 to 470; quells tliirJ mutiny, 471 ,
his address to the mutinous troops, 473 ,
trouble upon trouble, 476 ; letter to Blount
imploring re<§uforcemcut«, 470 ; his report .

INDEX

717

Jaokso!^, Andreir. Vol. I.

to Pinckney upon the twelve dnyB* excur-
sion, i-^ci ; bis bravery at Enotocbopco,
493 ; to I^wis, upon prospects of the c^m-
pai^, 602 ; orders execution of John
Woods, MK) ; in battle of Horseshoe Bend,
616 ; congratulates the troops^ 523 :
marches to the Holy Ground, b*2o : spares
Weathersford, 633 ; entertains Oen. Pinck-
ney at Hcly Ground, 639 ; public recep-
tion at Nnsiiville, 54'i ; his address to the
citixens, 5(i ; appointed a nicjor-general
In armv of U. 8., M<J; 111 health, 64T ;
leaves noin» for Fort Jackson, 649 ; con-
cludes treaty of Fort Jackton, 666 ; accepts
three square miles of land from the Creek?,
668 ; hears of Uritish at Pemuicola, 602 ;
to Claiborne on tho same, 6 ^'i ; to bi>c. of
war upon the same, 6'Ji* ; s«;c, of war to,
upon the same, f>93 ; correspondence with
Maurequez upon Crocks and British in
Florida, 61) 4 to 5.>8 ; to soc. of war upon
the same. 6'.>S ; defence of Mobile, Gff2 to
614 ; proclamation in reply to that of
x^ Nichols, (U'i ; proclamation to the free
~C»lored people, 014 ; delayed six weeks at
Mobile, (ilC ; hears of mutiny of Fort
Jackson, 616 ; takes and abandons Pensa-
cola, 611) to 6*20 : his name terrible to In-
diauH, 6J3 : leaves Mobile for N. O., 6.'6.
VoL II. Reaches N. O., 29 ; dines with VA-
ward Livin^ton, ZO ; prepares to defend
N. C>., 'M to 34 ; bears of the loss of the
gun-boats, 66 ; orders in consequence,
66 ; address to the people of N. U., 67 ;
declares martial law, 69, 60 ; reviews and
addresses the troops, 63 ; be^rs of British
landing, 12 ; goes to attack them, 78 ; ttie |
night battle, 85 to 101 ; begins to fortify
his position, 110 ; his activity and endur-
ance, IIG, 117 ; intended to burn the city
if his lines were forced, 143 ; defeats the
grand recontioissancef 130 to 144 ; heurB
falsereportoflegislaiureof La., 146; tests
Ti^lance of his sentries, 161 ; triumphs
on Jan. Ist, I6S to 161 ; ascertains the
next design of the enemy, 172 ; final pre-
parations, 17*2 to 1^ ; on morning of Jan.
8th, 186 : in battle of Jan. 8th, 207, 212 ;
the armistice, 218, 23S ; permits Mrs. Liv-
ingston to entertain wounded British of-
ficer, 2'.:7 ; is dissuaded from attacking
enemy, 2:i5 : censures flight of Ken-
tuckians, 240 ; rumors about him after
victory of Jan. Sth, 248 ; Congress thanks
and votes him a, gold medal, 267, 2ri8 ; to
Blount, upon campaign of N. O., 269 ; the
public thanksgiving at N. (>., 270, 27i> ; his
addresses to the army upon abandoning
the lines, 271 ; sends llayne to Washing-
ton aft4>r t1i;;ht of the Knglish, 275 ; orders
the executiun of the hix militia-men, 277, •
888 ; order for the court-martial, 281 ; hii*
call for l,0OJ militia to garrison forts in
Creek country, 289 ; Justifies the execu-
tion of Harris, 296 ; returns Keanu*s
sword, 302 ; collision witli the press of N.
O., 307 ; orders away the French, 3<« ;
arrests Louaillier, 311 ; arrests llall, 313;
dismisMes the militia with laudation, 816 ;
fined $1,000 by Judgt> IlaU, 319 ; reproved
by the administration. 32U ; viitited by
Mrs. Jackbon, 323 ; gives his miniature
to Livingston, 327 * detained at Natchez

by Blennerhasset, 3SS ; his welcome home,
.329 to 331 ; journey to Washitigton in
1816, 333 : his remarks upon fall of Bona-
parte, 333 : toasted by Jefferson at Lynch-
burg, 8»4 ; his popularity, 'XU ; visits N.
O. and traverses Indian country, 336 ;
builds a church for Ms wife, 339 : hears
and entertains Cartwright, 341, VAi ; sug-
gested for the presidency in 1816, 350, 351;
hates Crawford, ."65 ; correspondence with
Monroe in 1816 and 1817. 367 to 371 ; de-
clines war department, 368, 369 ; approves
the appointment of J. Q. Adams as sec. of
state, 370 ; att.'Uds Monroe ball at Nash-
ville, 371 ; orders his ofHcers to obey no
orders not received through him, 373 ;
correspondence with (Jen. Scott upon the
foregoing, 377 to 391 ; hostile correspond-
ence with Adair, 385 to 390 ; corresponds
with governor of Pensacola upon Negr^
Fort, 400; addresses war department upon
Negro Fort, 40 J ; to Mojiroc, offering to.
conquer Florida, 433 ; bums Rhea's let-
ter, 4.^>6 ; ordered to Florida, 438 ; raises
a thousand mounted volunteers, 440 ;
starts for Florida, 441 ; reaches Fort Scott,
443 : marches into Florida, 443 ; warns
governor of Pensacola, 446 ; takes Fort
at, Marks, 462 ; destroys Suwannee, 461 ;
marches homeward, 463 ; orders trial of
Arbuthnot and Ambrister, 464 ; orders
their execution, 478 : spares Pollydore,
4S3 ; denounced by English press, 483 ;
redresses massacre of Chchaw Indians,
491 to 497 ; correspondence with Governor
Rabun, 491 to 497 ; Ukes PeuKacola, 499
to 601 ; addresses tho troops upon leaving
Pensacola, 5)2 ; reception at NashviUe,
6<>4 ; orders Gaines to take St. Augustine,
506; Justified by tho administration, 511 ;
supposes Crawford to have proposed, and
Calhoun to have opposed, Investigation ol
his conduct in Florida, 617 ; corresponds
with Monroe upon invasion of Florida in
1%$18, 518 to 5.'8 ; negntiates treaty with
the Chickasaws, 529 to 631 ; dispute with
Shelby, 580 ; Journey to Washington In
1819, 633 ; toasts Callioun, 6:13 ; debate on
his conduct in Florida in House of Rep.,
633 to 660 ; denounces Clay in letter to
Lcwl.<<, 543 ; sustained by House of Rep.,
64J ; before the Senate, '661 ; his ailegtsd
violence at Washington, 651 ; tour to the
North in 1819, 657 ti> 567 ; returns to
Washington upon hearing of I^cock's Re-
port, 6'i9 ; his alleged violence there, 569 ;
to Wilson, on the same, 671 ; his reception
at Nashville in 1819, 572: negotiates treaty
with Choctaws, 576 ; repels Dinsmore,
581 ; to Eaton, ufion Spanish treachery,
633, 671 ; to >Ionroe, approving Spanish
treaty of 1819, 6'i4 ; oppose«l to reduction
of army in 1820, 699 ; resigns hLs commis-
sion in the army, 6S9 ; hU farewell ad-
dress to the armv, 690, 6"'2 ; appointed
governor of Florida, 690 ; 1. raves home for
Florida, 594 ; in collision with U. S. liank
at N. O., 696; disputes with C.illava, 699 ;
to Donelson, from Florida, 600 ; takes
possession of PensacoLi, 601 ; his measures
as governor, 607, 608 ; disappointed, 609,
610 ; to Donelson, upon his cotton crop,*
612 ; sends Callava to the calaboose, 617
to 637 : quarrel with Fromentin, 683 to

.dtnlTiistr.11oii.am,
omo. 80], OM ; be

Cilnuin u|>Dii Uriff, M. SB: renlrei

iwt (;alhonn, *H i uki 'wiilt

Dill CI.7UHI rnrn tariff eainm

tewl w niod.1 ToWd br Conirro™, 33 i hi.
<»rr<,>poii.l.nc« with koi.ro, pdbllihtd,

R.i,*olph, 49T : l^ur 'to tho S,

S9 : to Unndion ud I«>is npon «ni-

recfiiM item of I.UD.. ^>J ; d

palgD of ISil, 4n ! to Lewi. .nJ Wl[«a.

to remove the deportla, and w

Bmlt. 41 : ittlh (Jt»7. M 1 irilh Benton,

to Duane, on rvnian] nf drpo

« 1 hi. ™t* f« Ti».-p™Meot In .«1. « :

of dectlon of ISW. M ; niMf. iaf.ji-K*,

BUI. MS; refli«M eablnrt »
nmnlnaua bank din-cton. 516 :

Dl ; tupporti Lif.yotn bill, S3 i tb.^ Dlck-

■nna vound rr-opgoa. 43 : ni«u Adiinit
tfter deollod in AouM of Kep.. 6« 1 Co

bT 111* Sinile. Mi : praleitii. ^
fcr.pei«ioi.«tmor, Ifci froMr

Wil»r. .nd Lewlfc «curing Cl.r "«

Justice. OS) jcomp-J. p.yta«il ,

Ad.msifKr hlaloaQjimlion, IB: rwelvD.

Iwllnr. S^.'a Dicfn''. on po]mu"r

alnole. Bsi : «^CIUKl PorudeiUii

1801, t3 : re-nomliMled. 05 i rc.ign. wti-

g.U.i«: tl. 683 , p«Tnll. p«l„

«tOPi(ilp,90: lo IM.nch6. upon th. J.ck-

Ctii.rle.ton too.clude .bollUon d

«ll profc..»or.aip. 90 1 donoonw. .dinln-

=i»«sa

101 i uxu«< i,-|.7 and Adam, of targaln.

101 lo 110, 111, I'li : to Lowla, upon Bu-

shinui. lis 1 neirer relncwd chann of

GJS ; anecdote, of White IIdiu

t»reia», in : pnfer. Nbit Vork potiti-

loSlS : cijhm .nnn.1 mo™-^

«llD.. IM; vLslu N. O. to 1S38, ISS : Io».

sr.s'.si»ss.t;',2

hi. wife, 161 to 1B8 : dsKribed by ■ Udy,

•Ml return, to Herrall-s„, asc

ITI : hi. tim cabinet, ITl to ITS i aceoK.

ntion witli Dr. 8h»-. ^i' ™

ClUT of .landori-iK Mr* J^kion, ISO:
mrrale. Inlerriew with IJiniptaU, 137 ;

V.U Boreu In 1340. OM ; depr«;
riunH niUlUry Clonti, 6.*; ,

s;j:s-Kr£;,Rif

hUlvmixals from office, SQJ. SIO , Intel-

nnon rellgton, 3» to
X. Clark, SJS t<i isa

BrmaU«n..'.T;i

BSS ; leDda for Bl

•nd rnitbain, SffT : ts

«0'; ^'Sr'T^W. wuS''sriL''l
bii fourth .niiuil meauKE. 4<3 :

j^niilie ehu^h.Mi Thl. ,„,'

Ki: Lul qinfTBl with J. Q. Adl

[or Polk and U»11m, «W ; dec

"riif, eSt'io «S0' ; 'tWBiSItSion

.Olios. Andrew, .[nj Vol. I. At
Jack»n, «*- 3^ 1

ntorinhciiuo^aiO, a|3; .peoiil.
MOl h.lr of jMkKH. «K), too.

IKDEZ.

719

land, 47 ; settles in the Garolinas, 49 ; bis
poYcrty, 40 ; death, 50.

Jaokson, Mrs. (Elizabeth. Vol. T. Emigrates,
46 ; her family, 47 ; a stout woman, 48 ;
at house of Creor;;e M'Kenney, 61 ; Kives
birth to Andrew, 52 ; lives irlth Crawford,
5S ; designs Andrew for the church, 61 ;
her advice to Andrew, 63 ; nurses the
wounded in Wax'iaw church, 70 ; dellTers
her sons from prison, 93 ; visits Charles-
ton prison-ships, 94 ; death, (5.
VoL III. Slandered in 18J8, 141.

Jackhcix, Fort. Vol. I. BuUt, 53*2 ; Weath-
ersford surrenders at, 534 ; treaty of, 549
to 560, 633 ; mutiny at, 616.

JacKsox. IIuKh. VoL I. Grandfather of
Andrew, 37 ; in the siege of Carrickfer-
gas,88.

Jackson, Hugh, Jnn. Vol. I. Bom near
Carrickfcrgus, 37 ; resides with M'Kumie,
57 ; serves in the army ander Col. Davie,
69 : death, 69.

Jaokaok, John. VoL I. Mentioned in Hist,
of Carrickfergus, 89, 40.

Jaoksu!*, Robert Vol. L Bom near Car-
rickfcrgus, 87 ; attends the wounded in
Waxhaw church, 71 ; sees battle at Hang-
ing Rock, 71 ; defends house of Captain
Sands, 85 ; captured, 88 ; wounded, 89 ;
in prison, 00 ; death, 94.

Jagkron, SamucL VoL I. Established in
Philadelphia, 46.

Jackson, Samuel Vol. I. His quarrel with
Jackson, 206 ; in Dickenson aJlair, 270 to
277.

Jacksox, Mrs. RacheL Vol. L Accompanies
her father to Tennessee, 126 ; marries
Robards, 133 ; divorced, 140 ; marriage
to Jackson, 152 ; superintends farm, 244 ;
her story-telling, 3J7 ; beloved by her
husband, 33S ; adoption of a nephew, 339 ;
Benton's tribute to, 343 ; receivos Lin-
coyer at the Hermitage, 439.
Vol. II. VUits N. O. after the peace of 1815,
323 : dances with the General at a bail at
N. O., 324 ; joins the Presbyterian church,
838 ; to Mrs. Kingsloy, from N. I)., 5»4 ;
to Mrs. Kingsley, from West Florida, 537;
resides in Pensacola, 600 ; to Mra Kings-
ley, from Pensacola, 6 )3 ; allusions to,
6(^ : to her brother, upon Jackson's dis-
appointment with Florida, 610 ; to Mrs.
Kingsley, upon the same, 610 ; new Her-
mitage built for her, 644 ; her portrait,
650 ; her courtesy to the overseer's wife,
667.
YoL III. Goes to Washington, 51 ; to Mr:*.
KingJey, from Washington, 52 ; sick in
Wasliiii^ton, 73 ; un^es her husband to
join church, 101 ; visits S. O. in 18:8,
140 ; slandered in campaign of I8i8, 141 ;
defended by Lewits 144 ; decorated for
the White House by ladies of Nashville,
15 1 ; her last sickness and death, 154 to
157 ; her funeral, 15S ; described, 160 ;
mourned by her huiband, IS^ ; anecdote
of, 60i> ; her great coach, 6J6 ; Jackson's
r»»gard for her memory, 643.

Jambs 1. VoL I. His Irish policy, 31.

Jay's Tkbaty. VoL I. Unpopularity of, 198,
201.

JxPFBKSox, Thomas. Vol. I. Voted for by
Tcaiiessee, 17J ; Candidate in 1796, 19J,
ikX), '^01 ; electod vice-prasldeat, 216 ; his

recollections of Jackson in the Senate,
219 ; bis name on map of U. S., 236 ; al-
lusions to in Jackson to Campbell, 237 ;
warned by Jackson of traitorous designs,
819 : denounces Burr, 322 ; is convinced
of Jackson's innocence, 330 ; allusion to,
404.
VoL IL Values services of Edward Liv-
ingston, 18; denounced in 1814,242; toasts
Jackson at Lynchburgh, 335 ; accused by
Burr of fomenting schisms in republican
party, 351 ; his **Anas" confirmed by Mon-
roe, 364 ; applauds Seminole letter of J.
Q. Adams, 513, 543 ; his influence upon
politics, 66-2.
VoL III. His opinion of the Clay and Adams
coalition, 60 ; his view of government, 82
to 86 ; his influence upon Van Buren,
121 ; his removals, 20S ; opposed to Bank
of U. 8., 256 ; celebration of his birthday,
282 ; appoints Cass marshal, 303 ; author
of resolutions of 1798, 4:{3 ; important din-
ner with Hamilton, 506 ; his opinion of
Jackson's manners, 603.

Jknnimgs, Jonathan. Vol. L His narrow es-
cape, 128 : killed by Indians, 131.

Jkxnixos, Mrs. Vol. I. Her courage, 129.

JoiiNso.v, Cave. Vol. III., 880, 537.

J oiiKsoN, Richard M. Vol. IL Dissents fW>m

resolation adverse Jo Jackson, 534; de-

., Ova {

toasted at Nashville, 574.

fends Jackson in House of Rep.

Vol. III. Against Congressional caucus of
1824, 26 : in Senate of IS. '4, 33 : allusion
to, 72 ; attempts to pacificate cabinet, 303
to 308 ; in llouse of Rep., 373, 5J7 ; on
committee to investigate U. S. Bank, 399 ;
his real opinion of U. S. Bank, 405 : thought
of for vice-president in ISi'i^ 4*21 ; toasts
Jackson, 581 ; elected vice-president, 594,
695.

JoHNso.v, Sailing-master. Vol. II. Captures
British brig, 171.

JOMCSHOKO, Tenn. VoL I. Described, 120 ;
its court-house, 120 ; Jackson visits, 138 ;
Jackson practices law there, 162 ; holds
courts, 227, 233.

Jones, Lieut. Thomas Ap. Catesby. VoL II.
Commands gunboats on Lake Borgno, 33 i
narrative of the loss of the gunboats, 51.

Judy, Aunt. Vol. I. Her recoUectioos of
young Jackson, 1U5.

JuoKANT, Capt. Pierre. VoL II., 76i

Kane. E. K. VoL III.. 580.

Kkanb, Gen. John. Vol.11. Commands forces
against N. O., 33 ; interrogates Ducros,
5( : sketch of his career, fj ; his confi-
dence on Dec. 23d, 83 ; walks over tiie field
of night battle, lOJ ; attends council, 143 ;
commands a division on Jan. 8th, lliO ;
wounded, IDS ; defends the memory of
Pukcnham, 2..'5 ; under tliu hands of the
Surgeon, 234 ; asks return of his sword,
3J2.

Krublr, Frances Ann. VoL I. Quoted, 7.
Vol. HI. Interview with Jackson, 5j9.

Kbmpkr, Reuben. VoL II. Dispatched to
the mouth of the Bienvonuo, 107.

Kknhall, Amos. VoL I. Allusion to, 103.
VoL III. Aclivo for Jacksou in 1828, 146 ; at

/18

INDEX

» ■

i '

r 0-

jAOiraoN, Andrew. Vol. TI.

0BT ; orders the Spaniards ont of Florida,
638 : flustnined by the administration, CB9,
640 ; returns home, 642; builds neir house,
643 : his habits at home, 651. 6"^ ; ho
hears out Parson Grai<;hcad, C55 : enter-
tainH Lafayette, 657 to 600 ; anecdote of
^*-the wheat crop, 660 ; m<»cta Henry Clay's
daughter, 661 ; to Eaton, on war with
Spain, 071.
Vol. III. His obligations to Major Lewis,
12 ; nominated to presidency, 2t ; elected
senator, 23 : receives one vote for yice«
presidency in caucus of 1824, 27 ; Webster
upon his demeanor in 1824. 2S ; takes his
seat in Senate, 32 : correspondence with
Colman upon tarilT, 34. 35 ; receives
Washington's telescope and pistolH, 37 ;
receives medal voted by Con^ss, 38 ; his
correspondence with Monroe published,
89 ; to Donclson and I^wis, noon cam-
paign of 1S24, 40 : to Lewis anil Wilson,
upon same, 41, 42, 43 ; reconciliation with
Scott, 4( ; with Clay, 40 ; with Benton,
47 ; his vote for vic^-president In 19i4, 49 ;
for president, 50 ; to Lewis, up<m result
of election of 1324, 52 ; meets lAfayette,
62 : supports I^fayette bill, 53 ; the Dick-
enson wound rc-opens, 63 : meets Adams
after election in House of Kep., 68 ; to
Wilson and Lewis, accusing Clay and
Adams of biirgain, 72, 73 ; congratulates
Adams after his inaus^uration, 79 ; receives

Subtle dinner at Nashville, SO; toasts
iolivar, 81 ; to Dickson, on politics of
1801, S^3 ; re-nominated, 95 ; resigns sen-
atorship, 96 ; to Planch6, upon the Jack-
son professorship, 99 ; denounces admin-
istration, lO*) ; promises to Join church,
101 ; accuses Clay and Adams of bargain,
107 to 110, 111, 112 ; to Lewis, upon Bu-
chanan, 116; never retracted charge of
bargain, 117 : prefers New York politi-
olaos, 136; visits N. O. in 1828, 138 ; loses
his wife, 157 to 159 ; described by a lady,
16'J ; Journey to Washington, 164 ; ac-
knowledges Merkle's present of beel^ 166;
Inauguralud, 169 ; his inaugural address,
171 ; his first cabinet, 175 to 178 ; accuses
Clay of slandering Mrs. Jackson, 180 ;
mourns for his wife, ISO ; corrcHpondenco
with Dr. Kly upon Mrs. Eaton, ISO to 196;
narrates interview with Campbell, 197 ;
his removals from office, 20 J, 210; inter-
views with M'Keimey, 215 ; admires Dr.
Durbin, 219 : to Donelson and White,
upon religion, 225 to 227 ; interviews with
X. Clark, 3i8 t'> 'J05 ; bo«r embroiled with
U. S. Bank. 'i6 ) to 26} ; his first message,
270 ; causes Hill to be elected senator,
275 ; conversation with Gr<?cn upon con-
firmations, 277 ; toasts the Union at Jef-
ferson banquet, 28J ; vetoes Maysville
Road bill, 2S5 ; honors Mrs. Eaton, 290 ;
won by Van Buren's attentions to her,

291 ; sidopts Van Buren as his successor,

292 to 295; to Overton, upon Van Buren
and Calhoun, 234; proposed for rotilection,
29T to 302 : attempts to pacificate cabinet,
303 to 303 ; breaks with Calhoun, 310 to
333 ; sends for Blair, W'A ; promotes Qlobc^
338 : second annual message, 339 ; dis-
solves his cabinet, 345 to 300 ; his confl-
deuoe in II. L. White, 301 ; ia aiTair of

Eaton and Tngham, 367 ; to Ch^riestoQ
committee, upon the Union. 370 ; third
annual message, 873 ; devoted to Van Bn-
ren, 380 ; conversation with Green npon
the Houston ration contract, 384 ; pardoas
Houston for assault, 391 ; vetoes U. S.
Bank, 406 ; ball extraet<?Ki from his arm,
416 ; eschews paper money, 4 0 ; reelect-
ed, 430 ; dt>epi!iea nullification. 435 ; nv
gretted he had not hanged Calhonn, 447 ;
re<M>mmends compromise npon the tarlfl^
451 ; prepares to suppress nnllifieatioo,
460 : interviews with Samu D.Me, 462 ;
his fourth annual me8<«age, 463 ; his procla-
mation upon nullification, 463 ; his ines-
iage upon the same, 472 ; intemis to ar-
rest Calhoun, 474 ; aaks White to leave
ont Clayton from tiriflT cr>mmlrtee, 478 ;
signs compromise bill, 481 ; assaulted bv
Itindolph, 487 ; tour to t!ie North, 48^;
receives degree of LL.D., 4'>2 ; determines
to remove the deposit*, and why, 4^ to
4^9 ; vehement for removal, 5!V>' to 507 ;
to Duane, on removal of d(>posits, 6i5;
interviews with Duane, 518, 520. 526. 5:8;
fifth annual message, 536 ; vcto«;a \/xnA
Bill, 538 ; refuses cabinet paper, M9 ;
nominates bank directors, 510 ; censored
by the Senate, 542 ; protests, 543 ; trans-
fers pension agency, M5 ; frustrates N. Y.
deputations, 545, 651 : threatened with Im
peaehment, 553 ; apitoints Taney chief
justice, 559 ; compels payment of FVcneii
Indemnity, 564 to 679 ; attempt to aimas-
slnatc, 582 ; accuses Polndexter ot insti-
gating it, 583 : permits postmaster of
Charleston to exclude abolition doenmenti^
566 : seventh annual message. 5ST ; is
sues necie circular, 693 ; reJoic?s In elee
tion of Van Buren, 595 ; Ids profuse 1k»>

gitality, 597 ; ^cseribed i j 3>w Monthly,
J8 ; anecdotes of White House life, 599
to 616 ; eighth annnal message, 617 ; last
collision with Calhoun. 621 ; pockets re
scinding bill, 625 ; receives presents, 626
issues farewell address, 6.*6 : sonnet npon.

627 ; attends inauguration of Van Buren,

628 ; returns to Hermitage, 630 ; oonver
sation with Dr. Shaw, 632 ; active fo
Van Buron in 1840, 036 ; depredates Har
rison's military talenti, 6.'>6 ; denonnres
Clnv's Nashville spet.»ch. GC8 : borrows of
Blair and Riv«^ 040 ; his fi»)e refunded.
641 ; to Emily Don»»lson on religion, f43
joins the church, 647 ; his |:ifit will. 619
his agency in annexation of T(;xas, 66 1 lo
663 ; last qnarrel with J. Q. Adams, 66!
for Polk and Dallas, 665; declines tbt
sarcophagus, 666 ; sickness, death, and
burial, 667 to 680 ; p(»thumoas honors
680.

Jacksox, Andrew, Jun. VoL I. Adopted by

Jackson, 69f.' 3i^ *]
VoL IL Taken to N. O. after peace of 181 5

323; accompanies Jackson to Florida, 594

returns homo, 6l0, 613 ; speculative, C6J
VoL in. Allusion to, 631 ; his misfortanesk

649 ; heir of Jackson, 649, OTiO.
Jacks<^ Mrs. Andrew, Jnn. VoL III. A

the Whitd House, 616 ; the solace of Jaek

son's old age, 631 ; Joins the church, 64^

647 ; In Jackson's wiU, 651.
Jacksu.h, Andrew, Sen. Vol. L Married

S7 ; emigrates, 46 ; his oondltloa in Ire

INDEX.

719

land, 47 ; «cttle4i in the CaroHnas, 49 ; bis
porerty, 49 ; death, 50.

Jaok«on, Mrs. Kiizabeth. Vol. T. Emigrates,
46 ; hor family, 47 : a stout woman, 48 ;
at house of <reor^e M'Kennoy, 5i ; gires
birth to Andrew, &2; lives with Crawford,
5S ; dcsis^ns Andrew for th*^ church, 61 ;
her advice to Andrew, 63 ; nurses thn
wounded in W«x"iaw church, 70 ; doUrers
her sons from prison, 03 ; visits Charles-
ton pvison-shipi, 04 ; death, '.5.
VoL III. Slandered in 18 J8, 141.

Jackson, Fort. Vol. I. Built, KJ:J ; Weath-
eraford surrenders at, 534 ; treaty of, 549
to 560, 633 ; mutiny at, 616.

JA.CK80M, IIu;;h. VuL I. Grandfather of
Andrew, 37 ; in tiio siege of Carrickfer-
gu8,88.

Jackson, Hugh, Jnn. Vol. I. Bom near
Carrickfer^^us, 37 ; resides with M'Kemie,
67 : serves in the army under Col. Davie,
69 : di>ath, 6J.

Jackson, Rob;;rt. VoL I. Bom near Car-
rickfuri;us, 87 : attends the wounded in
Wiixhaw church, 71 ; sees battle at Hang-
ing Kock, 71 ; defends house of Captain
Sands, 85 ; captured, 8S ; wounded, 89 ;
in prison, 00 ; death, 04.

Jackson, SamucL VoL I. Established in
Philadelphia, 46.

Jack.hon, Samuel Vol. I. His quarrel with
Jackson, 2r]6 ; in Dickenson affair, 270 to
277.

Jackson, Mrs. RncheL Vol. I. Accompanies
her fattier to Tennessee, 126 ; marries
Robard.H, 133 ; divorced, 140 ; marriage
to Jackson, 15i ; superintends farm, i244 ;
her story-telling, 3j7 ; h>>lovod by her
husband, 3.3S ; adoption of a nephew, B.>9;
Benton's tribute to, 34S ; recijivcs Lin-
coyer at the llormikigo, 439.
VoL II. Visits N. I), after the peace of 1815.
3-i;{ ; dances with th«> (rvneral at a ball at
N. (>., 324 ; Joins the Pr<.'SbyU.-ri:in church,
338; to Mr:i. KiDsrsley, from N. (>., 5 '4:
to .Mrs. Kiugsiey, from West Florida, 5L»7;
resides in IVtisacola, 600 ; to Mrs. King-i-
ley, from Pensacola, 6 13 ; all unions to,
6(iS ; to her brother, upon Ja'^kvon's dis-
appointment with Florida, 610 ; to Mrs.
Kingsley, upon the same, CIO ; new Her-
mitage built for her, 6U ; her portrait,
OV) ; her courtesy to the overseer's wife,
6ft7.
VoL HI. Goes to Washington, 51 ; to Mr*.
Kiiigdoy, from Washington, 5i : sick in
Wa.siii:i^to-), 73 ; ur>^i>i her husband to
join church, 101 ; visits .\. (). in H:S,
140 ; slitridured in campai;^ of l^.H, 141 ;
defendi-d by I^cwii*, 144 : deoor.iied for
the White House by ladies of Nashville,
15 i ; her last sickiioss and death, 154 to
157 ; Irr funeral, 15S ; described, 160 ;
mournoi by her husband, H); anecdote
of, OH ; her great coach, 6.Mi ; Jackson's
Ti'gard for her m-'uiory, 64'L

Jambs 1. VoL I. Ili« Irish policy, 31.

Jay's Tubaty. VoL I. Unpopularity of, 193,
201.

JxprsKSov, Thomis. Vol. I. Voted for by
Tea lesse'i, IT.t : Ciidiiato in 1796, 19J,
SkM, -.01 ; olttctoi vioe-prasldeat, 216 ; his

recollections of Jackson in the Scnatr,
219 ; his name on map of U. S., 236; al-
lusions to in Jackson to Csmpbull, 237 ;
warned by Jackson of traitorous designs,
810 ; denounces Burr, 322 ; is convinced
of Jackson's innocence, 830 ; allusion to,
404.
VoL IL Values services of EdwArd Liv-
ingston, 18; denounced In 1814, 242; UMSts
Jackson at Lynchburgh, 33.% ; accused by
Burr of fomenting scltisms in republican
party, S51 ; his **Anas" confirmed by Mon-
roe, 364 ; applauds Seminole letter of J.
Q. Adams, 513, 543; his influence upon
politics, 662.
VoL IIL His opinion of the Clay and Adams
coalition, 60 ; his view of government, 82
to 86 ; his influence upon Van Buren,
121 ; his removalF, 204 ; opposed to Hank
of U. 8., 256 ; celebration uf his birthday,
282 ; appoints Cnss marshal, 3(»3 ; author
of resolutions of 1798, 4:t3; important din-
ner with Hamilton, 5'>6 ; his opinion of
Jackson's manners, 60:L

Jknnino^, Jonathan. Vid. L His narrow es-
cape, 123 : killed by Indians, 131.

Jbnni.nos, Mrs. Vol. I. Her courage, 120.

JoiiN*o.v, Cave. Vol. III., JJ83, 6:17.

Johnson, Richard M. Vol. II. Dissents fW>m
resolution adverse to Jackson, 534 ; ^0'
fends Jackson in House of Kcp., 544 ;
toasted at Nashville, 574.
Vol. IIL Agaiast Congressional caucus of
1324, 26 ; in Senate of 18.'4, 33 ; allusion
to, 72 ; attempts to puciflcate cabinut, SOS
to 308 ; in House of ICep., 373, 5:.7 ; on
committee to investigate U. S. Bank, 399 ;
his real opinion of U. S. Bank, 405 ; thought
of for vice-president in 1 8J'i, 421 ; toasts
Jackson, 581 ; elected vice-president, 594,
535.

.Johnson, Sailing-master. Vol. IL Captures
British brig, 171.

JoMuiiouo, Tenn. VoL I. Described, 120 ;
its court-house, 120 ; Jackson visits, KIS ;
Jackson practices law there, lOi ; holds
courts, 227, 233.

Jones, Lieut Thomas Ap. Catesby. VoL IL
Commands gunboats oa Lake Borgno, 33 ;
narrative of the loss of the gunt>oats, 51.

Judy, Aunt. VoL I. Her recollections of
young Jackson, 105.

JuOKANT, Capt. Ilerre. Vol. IL, 76i

Kane, E. K. VoL III., 580.

Keanr, <«en. John. Vol. IL Commands forces
against N. <)., 3S ; interrogates Ducros,
51 : sketch of his career, 7 J ; his confi-
dence on Due. 23d, 83; walks over the field
of night battle, lOo ; attends council, 14S;
commands a division on Jan. Slh, L;0 ;
wounded, 193 ; defends the mouiory of
Puk.;nham, 2'.'5 ; undur thu hands of the
Surgeon, 2J4 ; asks return of hii sword,
8i>J.

Krmhlr, Frances Ann. VoL I. Quoted, 7.
Vol. III. Interview with Jackion, 5.(9.

Kbmpkk, Reuben. VoL II. Dispatched to
the month of the Bienvenuc, 107.

KRMtALi., Amos. VoL I. Allusion to, 102.
YoL IIL Aclivc for Jacksou in 18J8, 146 ; at

720

INDEX

Ji.

Jl?

inaugnratioQ of Jackson, 168 ; appointed
audit<jr, IS2 ; induces Courier and En-
quirer to attack U. 8. Bank, 268 ; con-
ilrmed by casting rote of Calhoun, '277 ;
for Van Burcn, 2LH ; thought of establish-
ing a paper, ii34 ; recomtnends Blair, 335 ;
asiilsts to set up the Globe, 33S ; Lewis to,
sugj^osting national cunyention, 382 ; ap-
proves suggestion, 384 : assists to write
bank veto m«'ss ige, 406 ; urges removal
of deposits, 505, 5'JS ; agent to inquire of
State banks, 514 to 516, 520 to 5.'4 ; writes
for the Qlobe^ 533 ; appointed postmaster-
general, fxS5 ; to postmaster of Charleston,
upon abolition documents, 5S6.

Kknmkdy, Major. Vol. I. Describes Fort
Mims after the raashacre, 418 ; in assanlt
upon Pensacola, GJO.

Kbnt, Chancellor. VoL III. Upon removals,
•i78.

Kentucky. Vol. I. Gouging in early day,
^1 ; mortified by flight of troops at N.
O., 24/).
Vol. III. Electoral vote of 18W, 50 ; of
1828, 151 ; of 1833, 431 ; of 1836, 696.

Kkmtucky KKiM>itTRR. Vol. II. Embroiled
with Jackson, 384.

Kkrr, Dr. J. C. Vol. II., 104, 165, 268.

KiMO, Charles. Vol. III. Oppose;} resolutions
y in Ili.storical Society upon death of Jack-
son, 6SJ.

Kino, Col. Vol. II. Left by Jackson in com-
mand at Peusacola, 503, 526 ; allusion to,
672.

Kino, James G. Vol. III. Ilcads deputation
to Juckson, 549.

KiKO, Major. Vol.11. His gallantry on Jan.
8th, 200.

Kino, I{ufuf<. Vol. I. Opposes admission
of TenucsHee, 173.
Vol. II. Prestmts Jackson^B memorial of

IS20 to the Si-nate, 576.
Vol. III. iiec<-ive3 one vote for vice-presi-
dency in caucus of 1824, 28; in Senate in
1S::?4, 33 ; appointed minister to Eiiglaud
bv J. Q. .Vdams, 91 ; allusion to, 519.

KiNoi William K. Vol. IIL In Senate, 373 ;
allusion to, 462 ; at Jackson dinner, 580.

KiXARi), Maj(»r. Vol. U., 460, 461.

KiNOSLKY, Mrs. KliZiU Vol. II. Mrs. Jack-
sou to, from New Orleans, 694 ; Mrs.
Jackson to, from West Florida, 597 ; Mrs.
Jackson to, trom Pcnsacola, 603 ; Mrs.
Jackson to, njion atiairct in Florida after
the cession, 510.
Vol. 111. Mrs. Jackson to, from Washing-
ton, 52.

KiNOSLKV, Capt. Vol. IL, 597, 598, 608, 610.

Knox, Sarah. VoL I. Keared at the ller-
mita.^i', 235.

KxoxviLLK. VoL I. Fight there between
Jack.^^on and Sevier, 164 ; convention
meets to frame constitution, 170; U. S.
troop.H at to protect Cherokeea, 174 ; arri-
val of Francis Baity, 195 ; Jackson holds
courts therf^ 227 ; scene betweou Jackson
and Sevior, 234 ; ladies of pranent a ban-
ner to Jackrton's division, 8S3 ; troops*
rendezvous against the Creeks, 424.
VoL II. RL'ccives Jackson in 1819, 572.

KuKMEic, George. V^ol. IH. Against Con-
gressional caucus of 1824, 26 ; to Jackson,
upon Monroe correspondence, 38 ; de-
nounces Clay in Columbian 0b9€rvtr^

105 ; retracto, lOS, 106 ; repeats charge on
the stump, 110.
Krudkxril, Btron. VoL IIL Sapports Mrs-

Eaton, 239, 290.

Lacock, Abner. Vol. II. Allusion to, 436 ;
chairman of Senate conimitt*H» upon Jack-
son's conduct in Florida, TAX ; to Binne,
upon Jackson's violence, 551 : to Jackson,
upon Calhoun In 1819, 552 ; reports to
the Senate against Jackson's conduct in
Florida, 567 ; quoted upon Jackson's vio-
lence at Washi igton, 569.

LArAYBTTK. VoL I. Uis name on map of U.
S., 2:i6.
VoL II. Recommends Bernard, 265 : visits

the Hermitage, 657.
Vol. III. Seen by Jackson during rerolo-
tion, 62 ; meets Jackson at Washington,
52 ; bill passed for his relief, 53 ; his name
given to N.-uihviIle profeasorsbip, 99 ; places
I>oui8 Philippe on throne, 340 ; death,
654.

Lakaykttk, Geo. Washington. Vol. IIL Jack-
son's bequest to, 652.

Lafittr, Dominique. Vol. I. In prison at
.N. O., 582.

Lafitte, Jean. VoL L Sketch of his life,
581 ; interviews with Lockycr, 683 to
587 ; reveals to authorities at N. O., 6St7 to
589 ; abandons Barrataria, 590.
Vol. II. Offers his services to Jackson, 62 ;
dispatched to Barrataria, 116.

Lafittr. Pierre. Vol. 1., 632, 690.
VoL IL, 120.

Lambert, (ren. JohiL Vol. 11. Joins British
army near N. O., 170; commands reserve
on Jan. 8th, 191, 202 ; aasumes the com-
mand of the whole army, 205 ; rtunned by
the slaughter of Jan. 8th, 217 ; asks an
armistice, 218, 219 ; withdraws troops from
the western t>ank of the Misa, 220 ; de-
fends memory of Pakenham. 225; resolves
to retire to the fleet, 261 ; knighted for his
able retreat from N. O., 266 ; pardons de-
serters, 303 ; Jackson to, proposing cessa-
tion of hosUUties, 315.

Laror, DanicL Vol. IIL His convcrsatioo
with Jackson upon bargain, 107.

Laturx, John. VoL I. Ills testimony re-
specting Jackson's birthplace,

Latiiek, Mrs. Sarah. Vol. I. Her testimony
respecting Jackson's birthplace, 53.

Latour, Major A. Lacarriere. VoL I. De-
scnbes Fort Bowyor, 6'.>i.
VoL IL Assists to fortify Fort St Philip,
33 ; quoted upon picquet at Bayon Biun-
venue, 54 ; descrities N. O. preparing for
diffense, 66 ; discovers landing of the Brit-
ish, 72 ; his catalogue of American forces
in battle of Dec 2;;d, 75 ; in the night bat-
tle, 104 ; attempts to flood the British po-
sition, 111 ; sent witii rei'uforcements to
Chef-Menteur, 116; c^instructs lines on
west bank of Miss., 150 ; upon the liber
ality of the Legislaturo of La., 169 ; ob-
serves the movements of the enemy, 178 ;
narrates the treatment of the wonndcd
after battle of Jan. 8lh, 231 ; npon the
ravages of disease after Jan. Sth, 260 : de-
scribes the pageant at N. O., 272, 27$.

INDEX

721

LAiTDKitDALC, lieat VoL II. miled Dec.
23d, 103.

Latack, Lieut YoL II. His frallantrj on
Jan. 8th, 199.

Laval, Captain. Vol. I. Dispatched to Fort
Bovycr, 604 ; retires to Mobile, C09 ;
wounded at Pensacola, 621.

Lawernok, Major William. Vol. I. His
gallant defense of Fort Bowyer, 692 to
614.

Vol. II. Allusion to, 275 ; capitulates, 304.

Lawsox, John. Vol III. His sonnet to
Jackson, 627.

IXM^ Henry. VoL II. Inmate of the Her-
mitage, 653 ; his career, 663, 654 ; assists
at inaugural, 164 ; accompanies Jackson
to Washington, 165 ; appointed consul,
212 ; death, 212 ; r^ected by Senate, 274,
297.

Lee, Henry. Vol. III. Candidate for vice-
presidency, 430.

LxooETT, William. VoL III. Ceases to sup-
port administration of Jackson, 587.

Lkslir, Mrs. Sarah. Vol. I. Assists at the
birth of Jackson, 54, 55.

Letoiikr, K. P. Vol. III. Witnesses inter-
view between ('lay and Buchanan, 57 ;
carries compromise bill in House of Rep.,
481.

Lktters. Vol. I. Jackson to Daniel Smith,
upon Indian peace, 141 ; Jackson to Dan-
iel Smith, on division of a piece of land,
15S ; Blount to Sevier, upon preMdential
election of 1796, 201 ; Jackson to Gen.
Robertson upon affairs of Ttmnessee in Con-
gress, 218 : Jackson to Campbell, upon
governorship of La., 287 ; Montflorence to
Jackson, upon venture to Natchez, 241 ;
Blythe on Jackson's dealing in slaves, 24S ;
Bwann to Jackson, on the forfeit paid by
owners of Ploughboy, 271 : Jackson to
Swann, upon the same, 271 ; Swann to
Jackson, demanding satisfaction, 273 ;
Dickinson to Jackson, rotortin;; abuse,
274 ; Dickinson to Eastin, upon Jackson's
abuse, 2UI ; Jackson to IXckinson, chal-
lenge, 2i»2 ; Burr to Jackson, upon differ-
ence with Spain, 313 ; Burr to Jackson,
upon politics, 315 ; Jackson to friend, upon
arrival of Burr, 315 ; Jackson to Clai-
borne, upon Burr's designs, 319 ; Jackson
to Jefferson, upon same, 319 : Jackson to
Bissoll, upon Burr, 323 ; Bissell to Jack-
son, upon Burr, 323 ; Jackson to Patton
Anderson, in Burr panic, 328 ; Jackson to
Campbell upon Burr panic, 330 ; Jackson
to Anderson, from Ricnraond, 334 ; Stump
to Din.smore. upon Jackson's anger at
Dinsmore, 355; Jackson to Campbell, upon
Dinsmorc, 356 ; Coffee to Donelson, upon
his departure with troops to Natchez, 369;
Jackson to Blount, upon departure of the
troops for Natchez, 371 ; Coffee to Donel-
son, from Natchez, 375 ; Armstrong to
Jackson, ordering him to disband, 377 ;
Mauxiqne to Creek chiefs in war of 1812,
420 ; Reid to Lewis, upon affairs at Jack-
son's camp, 432 ; Jackson to Blackburn,
asking aid for Creek war, 460 ; Jackson to
volunteer officers, urging them to remain,
468 : Coffee to Donelson, upon affairs in
Jackson's camp, 477 ; Blount to Jackson,
advising him to give up the campaign, 4tU ;
Jacksou to Blouut, imploring recuforce-

voL. III. — 46

raents, 480 ; Jackson to Pinckney, upon the
twelve days' excursion, 486 ; Coffee to
Donelson, upon battles of Emuckfan and
EuDtochopco, 490 ; Jackson to Lewis, upon
prospects of the Creek campaign, 502 ;
Coffee to Donelson upon end of the Creek
war, 540 ; Gallatin to Clay, upon prospects
of the war, 562 ; Nichols to Lafitte, asking
his cooperation, 6S4 ; Percy to the Barra-
tarian!<i, asking their cooperation, 585 ;
Ijafitte to Lockyer, promising cooperation,
697 ; I-Afltte to Blauqu^, revealing l/ock-
yer's offers, 5SS ; Latitte to Claiborne, de-
fending himself, 5SS ; JackKon to Maure-
qucz, upon Creeks aud British in Florida,
696.

VoL II. From N. O., before attack, 68 ;
from N. O., after night battle, 107, 108 ;
ftom one of Hind's dragoons, 147 ; Jack-
son to Blount, upon the campaign of N. O.,
269 : Jackson to Abbe Dubourg. upon a
public thanksgiving at N. O., 270 ; Jack-
son to Hayne, upon promotion of his offi-
cers, 275 ; David Hunt to his parents, be-
fore his execution, 27S ; John Harris to
his wife, before his execution, 279 : Jack-
son to friends, upon the execution of Har-
ris, 296, 297 : a sou of John Harris, in de-
fense of his father, 298 ; Burr to Alston,
on Jackson for president in IS 16, 341 ; cor-
respondence of 1816 between Jackson and
Monroe, 357 to 371 ; Calhoun to Jackson,
upon the transmission of military orders,
375 ; correspondence between Jackson and
Scott upon the division order of 1817, 37T
to 381 ; correspondence between Jackson
and Adair, upon retreat of Kentucky troopa
at N. O., 383 to 390; Arbuthnot to Nichols,
upon complaints of the Seminoles, 414 ;
Jackson to Monroe, offering to conquer
Florida, 433 ; correspondence between
Jackson and Rabun, 491 to 497 ; Jackson
to the Chehaw warriors, upon the massa-
cre at Chehaw village, 492 ; Jackson to
Campbell, upon taking of Pensacola in
1818, 499 ; corrcspondunce between Jack-
son and Monroe upon second invasion of
Florida, 51 8 to 528 ; Jackson to Lc.wiA,
upon Seminole debate in House of Rep.,
543 ; Lacock to Jackson, upon conduct of
Calhoun in 1819, 562; Jackson to Wilson,
upon his alleged violence in Washington,
671 ; Jackson to Monroe, approving. Span-
ish treaty of 1819, 684 ; Mrs Jackson to
Mrs. Kingsley, from N. O., 590; Mrs.
Jackson to Mrs. Kingsley, from West
Florida, 597 ; Jackson to Donelson, upon
prospects of Florida, 600; Mrt. Jackson
to Mrs. Kingsley, from Peawcola, 603;
Mrs. Jackson to her brother, upon Jack-
son's disappointment in Florida, 610 ;
Mrs. Jackson to Mrs. Kingftley, upon af-
fairs in Florida, 610 ; Jackson to Donel-
son, upon his cotton crop, 612 ; Jackson
to Brackenridge, upon ait ilrs of I-lorida,
639 ; Jackson to F^ton, upon prospects of
war with Spain, 671.

VoL III. Corrospondenro between Jackson
and Col man upon tariff. 34 to 3t> : Jackson
to Donelson, upon campaign of ldJ4, 40 ;
Jackson to Lewis, upon same, 4i>; Jackson
to Lewis ujton sanit*, 41 ; Jackson to Wil
son, upon sanif, 42, 43 ; Mrs. Jackson to
Mrs. Kingsley, from Washington, 6J ;

722

INDEX.

4 .

f.l
•I

) -

• r

Lsmsa. VoL IIL

correspondence between Benton and John
Scott, upon election in Hoase of Rep., ^^ ;
Jackson to Lewis, accusing Clay and
Adams of bargain, 72, 73 ; Jackson to
Swartvout, upon the same, 76 ; Jackson
to Dickson, asking his opinions, 93 ; Jack-
son to Planche, asking aid for college, 99 ;
Kremer to Columbicm Observer^ upon bar-
gain, 103 ; Beverly to a friend, upon bar-
gain, 111 ; Jackson to Beverly, on same,
112 ; correspondence between Jackson and
Ely, upon Mrs. Eaton, 186 to 196 ; Swart-
wont to Hoyt, upon office-seeking, 211 ;
Jackson to Donelson, upon religion, 225 ;
oorrespondence between BIddle, Ingham,
and others, upon Jeremiah Mason, 260 to
269 ; Jackson to Overton, upon Yan Bn-
ren and Calhoun, 294 ; correspondence be-
tween Lewis and Stanbaugh, upon Jack-
son's ro«*lection, 297 to 302 ; hostile cor-
respondence between Jackson and Cal-
houn, 330 to 332 ; correspondence between
Jackson and his cabinet, upon their re-
signing, 347 to 359 ; hostile correspondence
between Eaton and Ingham, 364 to 366 ;
Jackson to Ctiarleston Committee, upon the
Union, 370 ; Lewis to Kendall, suggesting
national convention, 3S2 ; Jackson to Du-
ane, upon removal of deposits, 515 ; Ken-
dall to postmaster of Charleston, upon
abolition documents, 536 ; Jackson to
Trist, upon leaving the presidency, 624 ;
Jackson to NashvUle Union, upon Clay,
638 ; Jackson to Emily Donelson, upon re-
ligion, 642 : Jackson to A. V. Brown, upon
annexation of Texas, 65S ; Jackson to
Armstrong, denouncing J. Q. Adams, 662.

IdlTASSBUK, M. Vol. s II. Relates visits of
Lafayette to the Hermitage, 657.

Lswis, Ucnry. Vol. IL His exccnUon, 278,
280 ; tried, 287.

Lbwis, Seth. Vol.1. Opposes claim of Jack-
son in Tenn. legislature, 175.

Lewis, Mi^or William B. Vol. I. Allusion
to, 102 ; defends Mrs. Jackson, 147 ; quar-
ter-master under Jackson, 368 ; provides
1,000 cords of wood, 368 ; sent back from
Creek expedition to hasten suppllea, 430 ;
Reid to, upon affairs at Jackson's camp,
432 ; his great exertions to forward sup-
plies, 46.*^, 501 ; Jackson to, upon the pros-
pects of tlie campaign, 502 ; Interview
with Monroe, 570.
YoL II. Copies Jackson's letter to Monroe,
857 ; narrates difference between Jackson
and Shelby at Chickasaw treaty, 530 ;
lends Jackson his overcoat, 533 ; Jackson
to, upon Seminole debate in House of Rep.,
543 ; relates anecdote of now Hermitage,
643 ; a guest at the Hermitage, 652.
VoL III. CUietiy instrumental in Jack8on*s
election to the presidency, 12 ; source of
information, 13; narrates Jackson's nomi-
nation to presidency and election to Sen-
ate, 14 to 23 : Jackson to, upon campaign
of 1824, 40 ; Jackson to, upon same, 41 :
replies to Jc^Si.' Itcnton's pamphlet, 4S ;
Jm^ksoa to, upun result of election of 18^4,
52 ; JackHou to, accusing Clay and Adams
of bargain, 72, 73 ; Jackson to, upon Bu-
chanan, 110 ; narrates forming of Nash-
vUle Committee, 142; defends Mrs. Jack-
ion, 144 ; assists in writing inaugural.

Tried for mntinj,

Remonstrmtes to
to» 464.

164; MoompaDiesJaekcon to Washington,
166 : narrates career of Eaton, 176 : ap-

Sointed auditor, 180, 183 ; copies Eatoo
ocnments, 195 ; in affair of Mrs. Eaton,
199, 200 ; opposes Jackson's removal
policy, 224 ; allusion to, 373 ; gives Jack-
son information of Hayne del>at«, 282 ;
narrates ori^ of Union toast, 284 ; won
byVanBuren's attentions to Mrs. Eaton,
291 ; explains secret purpose of Jackson's
letter to Overton, 293 ; to Stanbaugh, upon
Jackson's reflection, 29T, 299 ; Stanbaogh,
upon the same, 301 ; narrative of fend
between Jackson and Calhoun. 310 ; coo-
suits Gooch, 335 ; receives Blair, 337 ; as-
sists to set op the Cflobe, S38 : to KendaQ,
suggesting national convention. 382 ; to
Eaton, urging him to support Vanlktren,
42]^ opposed anti-bank measures, 429 ;
2orcompromisc upon the tariff, 452 ; upon
nullification prodanoation, 466 ; his narra-
tive respecting removal of deposits, 501 ;
allusion to, 63t> ; relates anecdote of Jack-
son's last will, 649 ; present at Jackson*!
death, 67a

LiKOOYKB. YoL L Indian boy reared at the
Hermitage, 439, 44a

LtXBS, the American. VoL 11. Cotton bales
employed, 110 ; the cotton removed. 111 ;
described when complete, 173, 174.

LiKN, Senator. Vol. III. Moves refondiiif
of Jackson's fine, 640.

LiNSKY, Edward. YoL IL
286.

LrtTLB Prince. YoL II.

Gaines, 408: Arbuthnot writes
467 ; to Mitchell, upon Chehaw
491.

Liverpool, Lord. YoL IL, 396.

Livi!«GSTON, Captain Louis. YoL IL
dote of, 121.

LrviNGSTox, Chancellor. YoL I., 336L

LiviNGSTOM, Cora. YoL IL, 120, 3«3, 328.

LiviKoeroM, Edward. YoL I. In Congress
in 1796, 203; opposes address to PreaTdent
Waohington, 203, 211 ; his early friendship
with Jackson, 222 to 224 ; oooosel of the
Lafittes, 582 ; believes the revelations of
the Lafittes, 590.
YoL II. Sketch of his career, 17 to 2U ; calls
meeting of citizens of N. O., 29 ; heads
Committee of public Defense, 21 ; enter •
tains Jackson at N. O., 29, 30 ; becomes
aid-de-camp to Jackson, 31 ; draws up
proclamation, 57 ; his opinion of martial-
law, 53 ; recommends Lafitte to Jackson,

62 ; reads address to the troops at N. O.,

63 ; on Dec 23d, 74, 77, S6, 104 ; retort to
Nolte, 111 ; quoted upon Jacksnn's endur-
ance, 117 ; intrusts his family to Pierre
Lafitte, 120 ; observes the movements of
the enemy, 173 ; entertains wounded Brit-
ish officer at N. O., 226 ; relates incident
of the Ursullne nuns on Jan. 8th, ISIS,
2'28 ; advises Jackson not to attack, 335 ;
his dispatches admired, 248 ; sent to Brit-
ish fleet to arrange exchange of prisoners,
301 ; bis detention, 3(^, 304; returns with
news of peace, 805 ; procures release of
Hollander, 314 ; prepares defense of Jack-
son from charge of contempt, 317 ; sug-
gests the presidency to Jackson, 350 ; his
bust at Hermitage, 650.

VoL III. Suggests Jackson for the presi-

INDEX

723

dency, IT ; actirc for Jackson in 1824, !iO ;
in HouM of Rep. In IS'24, 88 ; attends pre-
■entation of nii.>(lal to JaokBon, 88 ; offered

?Iace in cabinet, 174 ; votca against Jjcn^
74; agrees to accept Hecretarfship of
state, 846 ; appointed. 860, 375 : source of
information, 395 ; allusion to, 409 ; draws
up proclamation upon nullification, 466 ;
goeti ambassador to France, 567 ; his con-
versations witli the king. 5dS ; returns
home, 57*2, 574 ; his infiiicnce upon Jack-
son's administration, 6')5 : at the White
House, 616 ; allusion to, 638.

LlviN<i8Tt)?c, Mrs. VAward. VoL II. Enter-
tains Jackson at N. O., 30 ; allusion to,
120 ; (Miti'rtains wounded British officer,
227 : her intenriew with him on Jan. Stii,
928 ; anxious for her hnnband^s safety,
803 ; arranges costume of Mrs. Jackson at
N'. (). 323.
Vol. nil At the >Vliitc House, 616.

Lloyd, Thomas. Vol. I. Offers to pnblish
short-hand reports of the proceedings of
House of Rep.. 203, 204»

LocKYER. Capt. Vol. I. Dispatched to Bar-
ratarla, MO ; Inturrlews with I^fitte,
53 { : revlMits Barratarla. 590 ; at attack
upon Fort Bowjvr, 60.J.
Vol.11. Captures gunboats on Lake Borgne,
51.

Loom IS, Jairna. VoL II. Commands flotilla
up Appalachicola, 402 ; blows up Negro
Fort, 406.

LOUAILLIER, Ix>uis. VoL II. Rcbukes legis-
lature of La., 22 ; promotes subscriptions
for the Kentucky troops, 169 ; his article
againiit JackK4>n s usurpation at N. O.,
3(K> ; tried, Mi i released, 316.

Louisiana. VoL I. .Jackson desiroi gover-
norship of. .i36. 237.
VoL III. Ek'otoral vote of 1924, 50; of
IS.'S, ir)l ; of 1S.12, 4;J0 ; of 1S3»J, 595.

Louisiana, the. Vol. H., 131, 141, 151, 156.

Louls l*iiii.ii'i»R. VoL I. In TennrHsee, 221.
Vol. 1 1 1. Made Kln^' of the French, 840 ; in
affair of tht; French indenmity, 505 ; or-
ders portrait of Jack'ton, 072.

Louisville. VoL I. liarly trade of, 242.

LowM>KS, Williuin. VoL II. His speech
upon S(>minolc war denounced by Jackson,
54;L

LowBiK, Walter. VoL III. Iteceives one
▼oto for vice-preKl<iency in caucus of 1S24,
27 ; vinits Crawford, 67.

LowRY, Col. Vol. I. Deserted. 62a

Lurruoi'.ot'oii, Midshipman. VoL IL Killed
at mouth of Appalachicola, 403.

Ltsll, Sir Charle-i. Vol. II. Quoted upon
Delta of Mississippi, 11, 13.

Lto.v, Captain. Vol. L J udge Jackson risits,
233.

Lttlb, R. T. Vol. III., 555, 629.

MoAfrr, R. B. VoL II. Error in hfs his-
tory of the war, SM.

MoCakmu K, Major. VoL IL, 160, 267.

MoCal- LEY, LlruU James. VoL II. Tried for
mutiny, 2S,'L

MoC AY, Spruce, VoL I. Jackson studies law
with Mm, 101 ; his office described. 103.

HcDoi-UAL, Captain. VoL IL Girea the!

wounded Pakenham hishorae, 197 ; eatohM
him in his arms, 198.

McDltfie, George. VoL III. In House of
Rep. in 1924, 33 ; reports in favor of U. S.
Bank, 2T8 ; in Congresa, .t78, 537 ; on com-
mittee to investigate U. 8. Bank, 899, 404.

McGrroos, General Sir McGregor. VoL II.
His style, 421 ; lands in Florida, 422 ; saUs
for En^and, 428 ; returns to America,
6S3.

McIntoss, Gen. Vol. IL Commands friendly
Creeks in Reminole war, 442 ; his dis-
patellte, 445, 469 ; his prowess, 460 ; re-
turns Ihome, 463; remonstrates against
Chehiw massacre 490.

McKkmet. George. VoL I. Receives Mrs.
/ Jackson, 52 ; his place descril>ed, 5T.

MoKkk, CoL VoL IL, 578, 580.

McKrrvrr, Captain. VoL IL Ordered to
cooperate with Jackson in Florida, 44T ;
arrives at 8t Marks, 454 ; arrests Francis
and HimoUomico, 456 ; thanked by Jack-
son, 503.

MgKen NET, Thomas L. VoL I. Quoted opon
poverty of the government in war of 1812,
668 ; relates anecdote of Monroe, A70; re-
lates anecdote showing Indian dread of
Jackson, 623.
VoL HI. Upon former appointment polley,
20^ ; narrates interview with Jackson,
815 ; upon Uouston^s bid for ration oon«
tract, 885.

McKrimmon, Duncan. VbL II. Hlslife saved
by Milly Francis, 431 ; causes arrest of
FrancU, 4^5 ; marries Mllly Francis, 483.

McLank, Ijouis. VoL III. In House of Ken.
in 1924, 33 ; snccessful in negotiating, 340;
recalled from England, 846 ; appointed
secrcUry of the treasury, 860, 864, 875 ;
Van Buren*s dispatch to, 876 ; thought of
for vice-pn>sident, 882 ; prepares tariff
bill, 475 ; appointed sccretarv of state,
496 ; arranges postponement of the three
per cents., 496 ; opposed to removal of de-
posits, tiOl to 50*, 5.'6 ; interview with
Duanc, r>09 ; resigns, 558.

McLean, John. VoL III. Appointed by Jack-
son to supreme bench. 1*2.

Mc.Mahon, MarshaL VoL I. Quoted. 457.

McNaiky. John, VoL I. Appointed Judge
for Tennessee, 119 ; heads party of emi-
grants, 119; surprised by Indians, 123;
member of convention, 170 ; Jacluon quar-
rels with him, 235, 266.
VoL III., 142.

McNaikt, Nathaniel A. VoL I. In qnarrd
between Jackffm and Swann, 279; duel
with (;offee, 296.

Macon, NathanieL VoL I. Opposes the ad-
dress to l*rcHident WsMhington, 211.
Vol. III. Receives one vote for vice-presi-
dency in caucus of 1S24, 27 ; in Senate in
1S24, 33 ; visits Crawford, 67.

McQrKKN, IVter. V«>L II. Denounced bv
Jackson, 447 ; attacked by Mcintosh, 450.

McRka, CoL. Vol IL In battle of Dec 23d,
74.

McSkimin. BamucL VoL L His history of
Carrickfergus, 39 ; quoted upon psrty
spirit in Carrickfergus, 40; upon customs
and superstitions, 42.

MoWiiDUTER, SamueL VoL I. His testi-
mony respecting Jackson's birthplace, 6Bw

Madiso.*«, James. Vol. I. In Congress in

724

INDEX

■ ^

. t

* I

1796, 203 ; on committee to draft address
to Gen. Washington, 205 : supports Jack-
sou in House of Rep., 215 ; his name on
map of U. S., 886 ; offended hy Jackson's
defense of Bnrr, 824, 360 ; Jackson op-
posed to In 1808, 336, 360 ; just to Jack-
son, 364 ; accepts the serrices of Jackson's
division, 365 ; allusion to, 544 ; ofifers a
brigadier-generalship to Jackson, M6 ;
offers m^or-generalship, 546; recom-
mends Congress to confirm Cr^k grant
of land to Jackson, 659 ; warned by Gal-
latin in 1814, 566 ; adTised by Wilkinson
to defend N. O., 571.
Vol. IL Denounced in 1814, 242 ; sends
neirs of victory of N. O. to Uonse of Rep.,
346 ; receires news of peace, 250, 253, 256;
allusion to, 343 : Monroe his candidate for
presidency in 1816, 346.
VoL III. His view of government, 86 ; op-
posed by Clinton in 1812, 127 ; his remov-
als, 20S ; opposed to Bank of U. 8., 256 ;
appoints Cass pcovemor of Michigan, 364 ;
author of resolutions of 179S, 433.

Madison, Mrs. Vol. II. In drawing-room of
White House, 262.

Maoxbsaks, tha Vol. I. Murder of Ander-
son, 343 ; trial of young Magness, 344.

Maine. Vol. III. Electoral vote of 1824, 49,
50 : of 1828, 150 ; of 1832, 430 ; of 1836,
595.

Malcolm, Rear Admiral. VoL IL, 37, 148,
304

Mankt, Major. VoL IIL Nominates Jackson
for Senator, 22.

Manoum. Willie P. VoL III. In House of
Rep. In 1S24, 33 ; in Senate, 537 ; candi-
date for vice-presidency, 694.

Mann, Abijah, VoL III., S56.

Mauxiqur, Maxeo Gonzalez. VoL L His let-
ter to (;reek chiefs, 420.

Makoy, WUliam. V(>L IIL In Senate, 872 ;
justifies spoils system, 377; allusions to,
427 ; anecdote of, 452.

Mariony. Mrs. Vol. III. Receives Mrs. Jack-
son at N. O. in 1S2$, 140.

Marahall, John. VoL I. Ambassador to
France, 120.
Vol. III. Administers oath to Jackson, 170;
desires Story to succeed him, 559.

Mastinrait, Harriet. VoL I. Quoted upon
firequency of duels In N. O., 256.
Vol. III. Witnesses attempt to assassinate
Jackson, 5S3 ; Interview with Jackson,
5**4.

Marylan D. Vol. in. Electoral vote of 1824,
49, 50 ; of 1828, 151 ; of 1832, 431 ; of 1836,
595.

Makon, JcreniUh. Vol. HI. Webster to,
upon prospects of J. Q. Adams, 137 ; allu-
sion to, 14') ; correspondence respecting,
between Biddic, Ingham, and others, 260
to 2))9 ; WebHter to, upon Calhoun and
Van Buren, '296.

Mason, John Y. VoL III., 565, 580.

MASSAcuirsKm. Vol. III. Klcctoral vote of
1824. 49, 50 ; of 1328, 150 ; of 18.32, 431 ;
of 1836, 5 ir>.

Massry, Benjamin. VoL I. His testimony
respcctin<; Jacktson's birthplac<>, 53.

Mattiibw«, Kov. Kdward. Vol. L Contest
with Rev. Patrick Adair, 40.

Maurrquez, Gov. Vol. I. Correspondence
with Jackson upon Creeks mad British in

Florida, 604 to 598 : favors Britiah, 595 ;
refuses to surrender Pensaoola, 620 ;
firiendly to Jackson, 623.

MATriRLp, George. VoL L Creeks give him
square mile of land, 556.

Mayo, Dr. Robert VoL III. Gives informa-

I tion of Houstoa*s Texas project. 654, 655.

'Maysville vkto. VoL IIL, 235, 340.

Mecklknburgii County, N. C. VoL I. Why
so named, 76.

Mkrorr, Charles F. VoL HI. Presents Wash-
ington's pistols to Jackson, 37.

Mrrorr County. Ky. VoL L Court divorces
Robards, 146 ; Mrs. John Donelson re-
sides there, 148.

Mkrklr, Gen. VoL III. Sends present of
beef to Jackson, 166.

Mero District. VoL I. Why so called. 141.

Mrrriu'ratukr, Gen. David. VoL IL, 35'^.

.Messages. VoL III. First annuaL 270;
MayavUle veto, 285 ; Washington Turn-
pike veto message, 257 ; aecoud annual,
3.19 : third annual, 373 ; bank veto, 4fl6 ;
fourth annual, 463 ; on nullification, 472 ;
fiAh annual, 536 ; ;dxth annual, 5^ : sev-
enth annuaL ^^ I eighth annual, 617.

Michigan. VoL IIL Bought bv Schoolcraft,
280 ; electoral vote of 1SJ6. 5^

Milburn, Rev. W. H. VoL L Quoted upon
fighting in early dav, 256.
VoL ILL Upon Jack5on*8 love of horses,
631.

Miller, John. VoL II. Clerk of county court
of Pensacola, 619, 620.

Miller, Pleasant. VoL L Lawyer at Jozftss-
boro, 165.

MiHR, Forf« Vol. L The massacre at, 411 to
420.
VoLIL Visited by Mrs. Jackson, 598.

MiMS. Mrs. VoL II. Visited by Mrs. Jackson,

59a

MiMS, SamueL VoL L Builds Fort Mims. 411.

MtSAiHsippi. VoL I. L^slature susttilns
Dlnsmore, 352 ; Alabama a part of^ 421 ;
legislature votes a sword to .Tackson, 546.
VoL III. Electoral vote of ls24, 5u; of
18>8, IM ; of 1832, 430 ; of I'Oe, 595.

Mi8Si88iPfi River. Vol. IL Its delta, 11 to
14 ; described, 12.

Missouri. VoL L Visited by Tecumseh,
406.
VoL IIL Electoral vote of 1824, 50; of
1828, 151 ; of 1832, 430 ; of 1S36, 595.

Miston, Major. VoL IL, 464, 5i)3.

Miranda, Gen. Vol. I. His expedition to
South America, 313.

Mitch kll. Gen. D. B. VoL 1 1. Ilia estimate
of the number of the Seminole^ 392 ; upon
border wars, 409, 410 ; Arbuthnot to, on
complaints of Semlnoles, 413 : testifies to
effect of attack upon Fowltown, 430 ; Ar-
buthnot to, on behalf of Semlnoles, 4:19 ;
Little Prince to, upon Chchaw masiiacre,
491 ; testimony respecting murder of Mrs.
Garrets, 515 ; before committee of Senate,
651.

MiTcnRLi., Major. Vol. IL Captured Dee.
23d, 93, 94 ; anecdote respecting, 8«3 ;
meets Nolle In Paris, 326.

Mobile. VoL I. Alarmed by massacre at
Fort Mims, 41 S : whv not attacked by
Creeks in 1813, 419, 420 ; iu 1S14, G^K) ; its
bay, 601 ; defeniie of Mobile Point, 602 to
614.

INDEX

725

Yol. n. Threatened by British fleet in ISIS,
27T.

MoNTOoMURT, lIujJTh. Vol. I. IIls mco with
jHckson at Malisbury, 107 ; allusion to,
2C».

MoNTr.oMKuY, M:ijor L. p. Vol. I. Kllleil at
battle of llorsttshoc, 527.

HoNROR, .Tniiics. Vol. I. Ilia name on map
of U. 8^ .'IW : Jurkson in favor of in 1809,
Slid, .1(>0 : l>l<ul;^•8 his estate to raise money
for defense • of N. O., 570.
Vol. ir. Wilkinson to, predicUnp the fall
nf N. O., '243: sick, 245; his advice to
Mi'i;.^, 'IM ; toust4>d by JackM>n at Lvnch-
burgh, 3114 ; allimion to, IU8 ; candidate
for nrfsjiloncy in 1810, 344 ; fiivored by
adminlHtritioii, 'MO : Burros opinion of,
851 : ol«cted President, .354 : intimate
friend of JafkH-in. Xi!i ; correspondence
with Jackson, 3'»7 to j;70 ; visits Na^hyillo,
371 ; J.irkHoii to, upon military orders,
,S72 ; i-xpi'ls tillibnstcrs from Florida,
4.'C; Jackson to, ofTcrlni; to conquer Flor-
ida, 4'X\ ; ack!iowled|;;es rcci-ipt of Khea
letter, 4:^ ; re<iui*8ts Klica to answer it,
41i5 ; requests Jackson to burn Khea*s
letter, 4.^ ; corroHpond:* with Jackson npon
second InvnMion <>f Florida, 518 to 5^ ;
remarks upon the lUie:i letter, 5J8 ; ap-
p-fints Adams sue. of atutn over Clay, 54.'> ;
snpxwrts Jackson's Florida measures,
543 ; to.istoil at Nashville, ')74 ; inclined
to war with Spain in 18i0.5S3, 671 ; claims
Texas f)r I'. S. i.i lSa\ 5s:i ; Juckson to,
approvins; Spatdsh treaty of 1811*, 584 ;
ret'U>cted I'residunt, 58S ; appoints Jack-
son governor of Florida, 5 >o ; appoints
Fronii-ntin judge in Florida, 017 ; justlties
Jackson's proceediui^s in Florida, 0J9 ; es-
tcemiid by Juckson, CM.
Vol HI. Allusions l<», 14, 15 ; his corre-
spoiidunce with Jarkson published, 3'.> ;
visits (;i.-ty with Jacksoii, 40 ; his ^ew of
goveniniHUt. 88 ; inlluence of his corro-
f(p(r.ide:ic.> with Jackson, I'M ; consulted
by Wirt. 174 ; his removals, 2iH ; pro-
motes Hiddle, *.^5S ; diners with Jackson,3.'2.

MouKAi', John B. Vol. II. Source of infor-
mation, 561.

MoRKu V. L. VoL IL Counsel for Louail-
llcrat N. O., 311,81-2.

MoKO.vN, Col VoL I. In battle of Ilorae-
uhoe, 510.

MuKO.vN. (fL'U. Vol.11. Commands on west-
era bank of Mi.ssisslppi, 177 ; Jackson to,
on Jan. Stii, H-i ; in battle of Jan. 8th, 213
to 210 ; resumes his position, 221 ; allu-
sion to, 3-i ►. :'.'.»0.

MoR«; ANTON. N. C. Vol. I. Visited by Jack-
KOM, lol ; S«'vior"s trial and escape, 117 ;
n'!uluzvou> of emijjrKnts, ll'.>.

MoRKOw. David. VoL II. T-'Stillea ap^lnst
StroihiT, -Hi; ajjii-iJit M'Cauley, I'SJ ;
triid, 2.S4.

Moi'NT/, Lieut. Vol. II. Ordered to arrest
(.':tlliiVA. fill : conduct!) (Jalluva to the
cdia boose, Ct'.i-*.

Mi'iii.KNiiriK., Henry A. VoL III., 655.

Mt'iii.RNitrdiai, Major. VoL II. .Vttacked by
Siiuiuoles, 4;U ; member of court-martial,
46L

Ml'Lli.ns lio ). (;ol. VoL II. Kccclves or-
di^rs to I ike Mp fasriiH'S, 185 ; his miscon-
duct o.i Ja:i sih, r.a, !»-•, 195, r.»o.

MuBRRLL. Dr. Vol. n. lie deceives British

oflicera, 80.
McTisY. Vol. I. At Fort fitrother, 459 ;

near Fort Strotber, 463 ; second mutiny

at Fort Strother, 471 ; at Fort Jackson,

016.
VoL II. At Fort Jackson, 281.

Nabiivillr. VoL L Journey to in early day,
121 : .Tackson arrives at, 124 ; described
inl78S, li5; settled by CharlviUe, 126;
arrival of Itoliertson, 126 : of John Donel-
Bon, 130 ; danger from the Indians, 131 ;
its first court house, 134; early bar, 135 ;
court house repaired, 138; Indian massa-
cres, 139 ; described by Francis Bally,
ISO ; visited by Louis Philippe, 221 ; early
trade. 240, 245, 246 ; price current of 1807,
245 ; horses of the vicinity, 247 ; effect o(
news of Dickenson duel, 301, 302 ; public
reception of Burr, 309 ; ball attended bv
Burr and Jackson, 316 ; Burr burnt in ef-
fipT}', 322 ; volunteers' rendozvons, 367 ;

effects of news of massacre at Fort Mims,

4 "tit »

— .>.

Vol. II. Celebrates Jackson's return from
N. ()., 331 ; contributes 10'> men to Sem-
inole war, 440 ; receives Jackson in 1819,
572 : desiTlbed, 044 to 049.
Vol. III. Whitewashing committee formed,
141 ; business suspended for funeral of
Mrs. Jackson, 157 ; reception of Jackson
after presidency, 0 ;0 ; visited by Clay in
1S40, 637.

Nasiivii.lk ir.'fivRRsiTT. VoL I. Arosefrom
Davidson Academy, 154.
VoL IIL Jackson solicits aid for, 90.

Natchez. VoL I. Jackson marries Mrs.
Robards there, 152 ; early trade with
Nashville, 2M), 245; Juckson there with
troops in 1813, ."{73.

Natii»sal iNTKLLHiFNOKR. VoL II. De-
scribes arrival at Washington of news of
peuct', 249 ; publishes Florida treaty in
isl'i. 5!W.

Nkoril ItAY. VoL II. Rendezvous of British
expedition against N. ()., 37.

Nx<}KOKS. Vol. I. New negroes liarbarizing
to whites, 254.
VoL n. Difficulty of Umiug, 397.

Nkuuo KoRT. VoL H. Allusion to, 393 ; oc-
cupied by negroes, 899 ; described, 399 ;
blown up, 400 ; Fort Gadsden built on the
8it<>, 444

New IIampsiiirr. VoL IIL Klectoral vote
of 15124, 4'.». 50 ; of 18J3, 150 ; of 1832,
430; of IS30, :i9.V

New Jkrsky. V»d. III. Electoral vote of
18. '4, 50 ; of 18i3, 151 ; of 1832, 430 ; of
ls30, bWi,

New (Milkans. VoL I. Early trade with
Nashville, 240, 245 ; frequency of duels,
25! J ; threatened in IS 12, ;j*J3, 305 ; ilUdt
trade with liarrataria, MI.

VoL II. DeHcribi'd, 14 ; citizens loyal to U.
8., 15 ; marti.ll law declared, 00 ; dcpar-
turi- ot the troops to attack the British,
74; alarm on Jan. Ath, H15, 223; supposed
to h.ive fallfu, 214.
VoL III. Visited hjr Joi-kson in 1823, 138.

New Pbovidk.nck. Vol. II., 411.

726

IHDEX.

1 -

Nxw YoKK AimiOAir. VoL m. Quoted
apon Van Buren for presidency, 82 ; upon
Jackson's slave-holding, 145; suggests
epitaph for Mrs. Jackson, 164 ; quoted
upon dem. factions in 1929, 1G8 ; epigram
upon the dissolution, 360 ; upon bank veto
message, 411 ; upoa election of 1$32, 430 ;
upon vif»1t of Jackson, 4S0 ; upon Jackson* s
farewell addrusH, 627.

New York City. VoL L News of massacre
at Fort Miins reaches, 421.
YoL II. Visited by Jackson in 1819, 668 ;

imitated by western dtios, 646.
YoL III. Effects upon of universal suffrage,
129 ; its rapid growth, 417 ; visited by
Jackson in 1833, 489 ; great fire of 1835,
691 ; flour riots, 622.

New York State. Vol. IL Some of its po-
litical intrigues of 1816, 346.
Yol. III. Electoral vote of 1824, 49, 60 ;
code of the New York politician, 12 i ;
electoral vote of 18.8, 161 ; of 1832, 430 ;
ofl836, 506w

NiCKAJACK EXPEDITIOK. YoL I,, 166.

NicuoLS, CoL I'klward. YoL I. Commands
British troops at PonsacoU, 676 ; his or-
der of the day, 676 : his proclamation, 578 ;
letter to I^fitt<!, 584 ; quartered with the
Gov. of Pensaoola, 695 ; attacks Fort Bow-
yer, 603 ; retires, 606; Jackson's counter-

Sroclamation, 612 i abandons Pensacola,
22.
Yol. II. At siege of N. O., 131 ; his pre-
diction falsified, 140 ; reappears in Florida
after the war, 392 ; correi^nds with Haw-
kins, 393 ; concludes a treaty witli the
Seminoles, 393 ; sails for London. 395 ; re-
pudiated by Lord Bathurst, 396 ; leaves
nis fort to the Seminoles, 899 ; relied upon
by Seminoles, 410 ; Arbuthnot to, upon
complaintti of the Seminoles, 413, 414 ;
rumors respecting, 504 ; J. Q^ Adams upon
traatv, 513.

NiLBS, Hezekiah. YoL IL Comments upon
Jackson's Seminole war, 505 ; upon anti-
slavery opposition to Monroe in 1820,
588.
Yol. III. Interview with Jackson before
election in House of Kep. iu 1S25, 64 ;
• quoted upon Merkle'B present of beef to
Jackson, 106 ;' upon Clay's apostrophe to
Van Buruii, 54S.

NOAU, M. M. Vol. III. At inauguration of
Jackson, 168 ; allusion to, 268 ; rejected
by Senate, 'iT7 ; editor of Courier ofui JSn-
qtiirer, 400.

NOLTB, Vincent VoL I. Anecdotes of pio-
neer ferocity, 268 ; his secret voyage to
Pensacola, Gil.
Yol. II. His opinion of Edward Livingston,
20 ; narrates anecdotes of Dec 23d, 'i4, 75,
88, 86 : in the batUe, 90 ; quoted, 105,
106 ; tells the cotton-bale story, 1 10 ; de-
scribes cannonade of Jan. Ist, 160 ; his
blankets taken for the troops, 170 ; quoted,
179 ; in battle of Jan. Sth, liOS ; quoted
upon llt»uuty and Booty, 224 ; describcH
the collecting of the British dead, 232 ;
narrates arrest oflloUanderat N. 0.^313;
his interWews with Jackson after the peace,
322 ; deticribes Gon. and Mrs. Jackson at
a ball at .N. O., 324; meeu British offi-
cers in Paris, 326.

I^OBBis, Lieut. Vol. IL, 130, 136, 173.

NoETH-OF-lRKLA2fDBB8. Yol. L Chapter apoD,
29.

NoBTU Carolina. YoL I. Jackson bom lo,
5S to 66, 627 : in rerrolntionary wmr, 76 ;
dispute with Tennessee, 117; early Judi-
cial system, 161 ; early land frauds, 23L
YoL II. Resembles MasHachuaetts, 644.
YoL IIL For Jackson in 1824, 16; electoral
vote of 1S24, 50 ; of 1823, 151 ; of 1832,
430; of 1836, 595.

Nullification. Vol. 111. The Webster and
Uayne debate, 231, 282 ; at JeBenoa ban-
quet, 283 ; Jackson's Charleston letter,
870 ; as an idea, 4S3 ; as aa event, 447 ;
explodes, 466.

O'DoNNEL, Eliza. YoL IL Presents colors
at Baltimore, 666.

Ohio. YoL III. Electoral vote of 1824, 49,
60 ; grant of land for Sciota canal, 148 ;
electoral vote of 1828, 151 ; of 1832, 430 ;
of 1836, 596.
"O. K." YoL L Probabte or'^^n of the
saving, 186.

Old Fields. YoL L Described, 60.

Old Fiei.u School. VoL I. Described, 60.

Old Uu^kory. YoL I. Why and when Jack-
son was so nicknamed, ^1.

O'Neal, Mrs. VoL III. Mother of Mr*.
Eaton, 184, 183; won by Van Buren,
291.

O'Neal, WiUiam. YoL IIL Father of Mrs.
Eaton, 184.

Orders in Council. YoL L Monroe's pro-
test against, 336.

Overton, John. Vol. I. His narrative re-
specting marriage of Jackson and Mrs. Ro-
bards, 148 ; succeeds Jackson on bench of
supreme court, 227 ; employ^ by Jackson,
251.
YoL II. TesUfies to Rhea letter, 436 ; ad-
dresses Jackson at Nashville, 572, 575 ; a
guest at the Hermitage, 653.
YoL IIL For Jackson in 1324, 21 ; in 182S,
142 : Jackson to, upon Calhoun and Van
Buren, 294 ; accompanies Jackson to N.
O., 315 ; was to preside at Baltimore con-
vention, 421.

Overton, Major. VoL II. Ills defense of
Fort St Philip, 239 ; commended by Con-
gress, 257 ; by Jackson, 275.

Overton, Thomas. VoL I., 246, 266 ; Jack-
son's second in duel with Dickinson, 290,
296, 299 ; visits Burr, 316 ; consulted by
Jackson upon Burr' s designs, 320.
YoL U. AUusion to, 664.

Pakenham, Oen. Sir F^ward. VoL IL His
arrival at the British camp, 1^' ; sketch
of his career, 123 ; his first plan, 125 ; sees
the destruction of the Carv^imt, LlO; re-
connoissance of Jackson's {rasition, 136 ;
another schenie formed, 14S ; its failure,
162 ; designs to storm the American lines,
171 ; first muvcnjcnts on Jan. Sth, 1S8 ;
orders the attack, VJI ; wounded, 197 :
death, irS ; evidence retuting the Beauty
and Booty calumny, 225.

INDEX.

727

PABRi'^n, Jamps. Vol. I. T^nds to IT. 9. in
warof ISlJ, nOS.

Paepons, Ktioch. Vol. III. His namitWc of
Jackson^s taking command of Teimcs9«o
troops after massacre of Fort Mims,
CIO.

Pattersos, Commodore. Vol. I. Siippre8a«B
prlvjitoors at Hiirraturi.i. M'2. 5I>0.
Vol. II. llccelves .Jark».m at N. ()., 29; lii«
ofTorts to iMili.st utiilors, 59 : on board the
Carolina Deo. '^.Sd, 7S. 86, sT ; att^^mpts to
arm iiu.>ri'hantmeM, I'iS; his ro]K>rt of the
reconunisHuneo, 141 ; constnictM batterle.H
on wvHi b.-ink of MitM., irrf) ; 8tr(Mi>;thcns
bin b.itt«»ri«v*, 156 ; in cannona<l« of Jan.
Ist, 150 ; Shepherd disobeys Ins orderB,
1G5; wutebus Itrititih poKitioii, 17 J; re|H)rt8
to Si'cretary of nnvy, 177 ; olisirrvi'S inovc»-
mentH (if th<! enemy, IT-?, 170; Hondrt mcs-
sa<;e r<t .I:iek»<Mi on Jan. Sth, 1S7 ; in bat-
tle of J;m. Sth, '213, 210; n-jaini bin bat-
teries, --0 ; thanked by (Jjujjreas, 257 ;
alluKinn to, I'^'X

Pepdir, LiL-iit. VoL II. Explores Bayou
Blenv" nue, r>.*l.

PEDi>i»rL\rx. Philippe. VoL IL Ills escape
on .Jan. 1 ^t, liiO.

Peliiam. Vol. III. Article by, upon slavery,
441.

I*KS»«YLVANi.v. VoL III. For JackR<m in

1524, 2I» ; electoral vote of 1824, 54» ; of

1525, ir>l ; for rerlection of Jackson, 207
to 3(yi ; remarks upon. 3m ; electoral vote
of 1SJ2, 4:n» : of 1S3(>, r>05.

PRNSAroLA. VoL I. Di'scribod, 574; th«
governor in 1S14, 574 ; population, 575 ;
taken and abandoned by Jackson. C2(> to

VoL IT. Irs weakness In l"^lf», 401 ; specu-
lators from L*. S. liny lands in. 407 ; tjiken
by J.acks.,n in ISIS, 400 ; yii.'ld.jd to U. S.,
001.

PKRrv, Hon. W. 11. V<»L I. Commands Rrit-
ish Hei't ut Ponsacola. 575 ; dispatelu-H
L'K-ky.T to D-irrataria, 53 » : to thf. Harra-
tariiins 5SL

Pr.RKiN.s <;oL P. VoL ir. I*resident of court-
iiiartlul, i"*l.

Pekiiy, ( 'ommodoro. VoL I. News of his vic-
tory upon l^ike Erie, 39S, 421.

Pett4in. lUilie. VoL III. In colUsIon with
Wliltney. 621.

PiiAi.i'^. Lbut. VoL II. Killed Jaa 1st, 1S15,
102.

PliKLi-:*, Thaddeu-i. VoL III., 315.

Puii.Ai>K(.i'HiA. Vol. I. In 17'.>6. IIHJ; panic
of 17o7, 'H*i ; public amnscmentH in IT.^<.
224, 225, 220 ; early trade witli the Wi-st,
240.
Vol. II. Illumination f(»r victory at X. o.,
247 ; vhltt.'d by Jackson in 1S11>, r».%7 ; imi-
tated bv Wfsti'rn cities, 615.
Vol. III." Jiinns mobUid in I'^.'S, 152 ; vis-
itcd by Jackwm in 1S32, 4Sy ; bank pet l-
ti'tns fr.»:ii, .'>46.

PiiTu.is, Annt. Vol. L Her rccoUecilons of
Andv, 50.

PiiYSii-, Dr. VoL III., 310. 4?0.

PirKKTT. .V. J. VoL I. (^!i<it d upon Tecum-
Si-h iu tin* ('reek council, 4i)0 ; upon maM-
H.icn- at Fort Mims, 41'^ ; quoted up'in i s-
cape of a chK'f, 5i«» ; mirrau-s anecdote of
Went her sfonl. 'hid ; quoted upon prowess
of the Crc'.'ks, 53d.

PiKKCK, Franklin. Vol. TIT. In Congress.
537.

PiEiiE, Mj\jor. VoL I. Conveys flag to Gov.
of Pensacola, 61d.
VoL II. Commands 7th Infantry on Dec.
23d, 74, 104 ; in lines, 173 ; commendod
by Jackson, 275.

PiNrK.NKY, Gren. Thomas. Vol. I. In preri-
dentlal election of l?J6, 100, 2(il ; electoral
vote fi»r, 216; allusion to, 470; onlers
Jackson to hold all bis ])OSts, 470 ; ap-
plauds .fackson, 40R ; takes the command
at Fort Jackson, 530.

PixrKNEY, C. C. VoL I. Ambassador to
Franco, 220.

PiPKis, C!ol. Vol. II. AsalHts court-martial
of the militla-men, 2Sl, 24J ; allusions to,
208.

PiZAuno, Don Jose. Vol. II. ncmonstratefl
a<rainst invasion of Florida, 54)7.

PLANciife, Major. VoL II. Commands unl-
fornuul batbilion of N. (>,, 34 ; p)es to at-
tack the Uritish, 74; nervous, ^^•, crowd-
ed out of line, 00 ; complimented, 101 ;
interview with Duncan, 145.
VoL III. Jackson to, upon Jackson profes-
Ki^rship, 00.

Platt. Col. VoL II. Wounded Dec. 23d, 80.
104.

Pleasant Grove Cami» Orouxd. Vol. L
Andrew Jackson, Sen., settles there, 40.

PoixuKXTKR, CJeorpe. VoL II. Judp^in Miss.,
820 ; allusion to, 300 ; justifies Jackson's
con«luct in Florida, 5:1.5, 54.'».
VoL III. In Sennte, 373, 5:57 ; acrased by
Jack.ion of instigating bis aKsussination,
5S3, TAi.

Poix.sett, .I(K?l II. VoL m. Aipiinst congres-
sional e;incus of 1S24, 26 ; in IIouso of
iJep. iu 1^24, 33.

Poi.K. (Jrn. Wlllijim. VoL III. Supports
Jark<on in N. ('.. 10.

Polk, Janjes K. Vol. 1. Of Scotch-Irish line-
ai;e, •■«.
Vol. I IL Ur^ps II- I- Whife to accept place,
302 ; in Coii«rri'."Js, 273, 5'J7 ; introduces
resolutions ni:^ainsr IJ. S. ILink, 555 ; at
Jackson dinner, 5^0 ; spoaki-r of House of
lit'p., 017; 8upp»rtt'd by Jackson for the
presidrncy, OO.'*.

Polk, WilliauL VoL I. Removed from trns-
tofstiip uf Davidson Academy, 154 ; allu-
sion to, 260.

Polly DOUR. VoL II. Spared by Jackson,
4s:L

poiNT«MAUTUAiN, I*ike. VoL II., 24 ; de-
^4'^lbod, 33.

Poi:!i.i'., .lohn. Vol. I. Testifies that Jackson
tuuirht school, 00.

pRtM.iN, William C. VoL III. In Senate,

5.'>t,

pRKTF.NDKii, the. Vol. I. Carrickfergoi

thri-siti-niMl by. 37 ; the same, U).
PiiiOK. Norton. Vol. I. Ijind (•mbro-.;lio, 251.
Pkivaii:kiiin«j. Vi>L I. In Gulf uf Mexico

and <.':iribbcan Sea, 531.
Proi'HKT. the.. Vol. I. His character and

intineruv, 405, iOG ; accompanies Tecum-

Kc'li to till- Cri'.'krt, 407, 410.
Pronpeiit P.LrKK. Vol, II. Site cf Negro Fort,

300 : allusionsto, 412, 413.
Pryou, (.-aptain. Vol. I. Interested iu race,

2(W.
PuuDY, Robert. VoL L Btatoment respect-

728

INDEX

t »-

I ■

ine difference between Jackson and Sirann,
8S2 ; Coffee's second in dael with M* Nairy,
28T
Vol. ill. Dies in office, 488.
.♦uTNAM, Col. A. P. Vol.1. Quoted upon;
perils of early settlement of Cumberland
valley, 131 ; extracts from old records,
136, 137, 138 ; quoted upon Nidu^ack ex-
pedition, 156 ; upon e^rly Teimessee cur-
rency, 157 ; extracts from MSS. notes upon
opi)08ition to Jackson's claim in Tennessee
I^islature, 175 ; quoted upon Sevier's
b^uty, 230 ; upon partial reconciliation
between Jackson and Sevier, 235.

QuARBKLS, etc., of Jackson. VoL L Threat-
ens to kill boys if they laugh at him, 64 ;
advises Galbraith to prepare for another
world, 96 ; fight with a ruffian, 159 ; duel
with Avery, 162 ; knocks down Boyd,
163 ; terrifies Kobards, 168 ; the Bean
story, 228 ; feud and fight with Sevier,
164, 230 to 23ft ; quarrel with M'Nairy,
835 ; rumored feuds, 265 ; assaults Swaun,
270 ; duel with Dickinson, 295 ; proposes
to fight Wilkinson, 379 ; Carroll's second
in duel with Jesse Benton, SS7 ; affray
with the Bentons, 392 ; dispute with Cocke,
453.
Vol. II. Embroiled with legislature of Ia.,
145; with authorities at N. O., 808 to
819 ; dispute with Scott, 377 to 381 ; with
Adair, 383 to 390 ; with Kabun, 491 to
4QJ ; Jackson repels Dinsmore in 1820,
581 ; dispute with Adams upon the Span-
ish treaty of 1819, 587 ; dbspute with Gen.
Brown, 5'.)2 ; in collision with U. S. Bank
at N. ()., 596 : Callava in calaboose. 614 to
637 : quarrel with Judge Fromentin, 633
to 637.
Vol. III. Quarrt'l with Calhoun, 310 to
833 ; another, 621 ; in collision with Clay
at Nashville, 637 to 639 ; with J. Q. Adams,
upon Florida treat v, 6G1.

QuBBKO. Vol. III. Cholera at, 419.

Qqtek.n'b Collk(;r. VoL I. Jackson attends
it, 62 ; why so named, 76.

QuiNCY, Dr. Joslah. Vol. II. Quoted upon
J. (^. Adams" Justification of Jackson's in-
vasion of Florida, 510 to 612.

Babun, Gov. William. Vol. II. Correspond-
ence with Jackson upon massacre of Che-
haw Indians, 491 to 495 ; allusion to, 562.

Bandolpii, Dr. Vol. III. Appointed chief
clerk of war department, 220 ; for Van
Burcn, 291 ; insults Ingham, 866.

Kanu<»li>ii, Edmund. Vol, I. Testifies to
Swann's respectability, 290.

BANnoLPir, John. Vol. i. Denounces Span-
ish policy of Jefft'rsoti, r>14.
Vol. III. In House ol K..'i). in 1824, 33 ;
teller to House of Kcp., 66; votes against
confirmation of (^luy, 80 ; denounces Clay
and AdauiH, 90, 92 ; appointed minister to
Russia, 17'.) ; death, r)5i.

Bamdolfii, Lieut Vol. III. Assaults the
President, 487.

Bawsoic, Lord. Vol. T. Approaches Wax-
haws, 71 : dispatches drafroons to aid Wax-
baw tories, 87 ; defeats Green, 9i.

Bbid, John. VoL I. Jackfion's aid upon ex-
pedition to Natchez, 369 ; sent to addma
the troops at Fayetteville., 425 ; to Lewis,
upon affairs at Jackson's camp, 433 ; assists
to quell mutiny at Fort Strother, 464 ;
prepares address to the mutinous troops,
478.
VoL II. Accompanies Jackson to \. O., 28 ;
his aid-de-camp on Dec. 23d, 74, 104 ; com-
mended by Jackson, 275.

BxMOVAL or THK DxposiTS. VoL III. De-
termined upon, 500 ; cabinet opposed to,
601 to 514 : Mr. Duane's narrative, 507 ;
petitions respecting, 546.

Bknnir, CoL Vol IL, 142, 200, 201.

Keymolub, Mr. VoL III. To Caihonn, on
protection, 4%.

BnsA, John. Vol. IL Proposed by Jackson
as a medium of communication, 484 : an-
swers Jackson's confidential letter to Mon-
roe, 435 ; requests Jackson to bom his
reply, 436 ; aUusion to, 609, 528.
Vol. IIL Mentioned for Senator in 1S2S,
22.

RiioDK Island. VoL III. Electoral vote of
1824, 49, 50 ; of 1828, 160 ; of 1832, 431 ;
of 1836, 595.

in. Opposed to Jackson

VoL IIL Dines at Wbit«

Richie, Mr. Vol.
in 1824, 43.

RiNGOoLU, Finch.
House, 322.

Ripley. Gen. E. W. VoL II. Concurs with
Jackson in recommending Drayton for sec.
of war, 360.

RiVKS, John (;. Vol. III. Partner of Blair,
339 ; lends money to Jackson, 640.

RIVE8, Willinm C. Vol. III. Ip House of
Rep. in 1824, 33, 537 ; negotiates indem-
nity treaty with France, 564, .V»5, 5661. 667.

I Ri VEIUL Vol. I. Differences between eastern
and western, 512.

RoANK. Gov. Vol. I. Elects Jackson major-
general of militia by casting vole, 2.'J2.

RoBAK!>s, I^wis. VoL I. Marries Rachel
Donclson, 133 : his divorce from her, 146;
his Jealousy, 148 ; frightened away by
Jackson, 108.

RoBERTSox, Dr. Felix. Vol. I. Resembles
Gen. Jackson, 48 : describes Jackson as a
man of business, 249 ; signs request to
place Impartial Rtvievo in mourning for
Dickinson. 30.S.
VoL II, Allusion to, 646.
VoL IIL For .lackson in 1823, 142 ; mayor
of Nashville, 157.

RoBERTSoy, James. VoL I. Explores Ten-
nessee, 121 ; settles at Nashville, 126 ; his
first winter at Nashville, 129 : joined by
Donclson, 130 ; early hardships, 182 ;
wounded by Indians, 139 ; saved by his
son, 140 ; his NickiOsck expedition, 155 ;
member of convention, 170; taught to read
by his wife, 170 ; Jackson to, upon poli-
tics, 21$ ; removed from Chickasaw agi^ncv,
285 ; his adv. in Impartial Rttiete, 24*i ;
consulted by Jackson upon Burr's letter,
314 ; entertains Burr, 319 ; conwulted by
Jackson upon Burr's designs, 320 ; ten-
ders services of veteran corps, :i24 ; dispute
with Campbell, 331 ; agent to the Chicka-
8awis858.

INDEX. 729

BoBniTBOTr, Jonathan. Vol. I. Saves hla Srorr, Ttaoman. VoLII. First wonnded man
father's life. 139. at N. U., 83.

BoBEKTS, Gon. Isaac. Vol. I., 326 ; sent back Scboop, Thomas L. VoL II. Accelerates
to TfUiit'KMce from Crrrk expedition to arms boat to N. <)., .10.

ralso a nevr army, 406; brinf^ in ncv Searcy, ThoinaM Vol. I. AccompnnicsJack-
tr<H>ps 47s ; arrcitted, tuXii recuiyos Capt. | son to TeitdRssf, ll'J, 140 ; narratcst inci-
Ilarris' i'om(uiny, ryCV, 54MV ! dent of thcjoiimcv, I'il ; loHcit hl:i oflAoe,

HoitiNsoN, William. Vol. IIL GlTes WaRh- ' 235 ; allusion to, UUS : sent buck to Ten-

ington's pistols to Jack8*>D, S7 ; applies for
an oilicv, 'JIT.

De»(<>e from ('reek expedition, to raise a
new nmiy, -Mii.

Roche, ('aptain. Vol. II. In battle of Dec. JSki.kirk, Larl of. Vol. HI., 311.

*-I3d, 7r> ; anecdote of, >»4 ; another, S6. Skmi.nol^:!*. Vol. I. Visited by Teonmseh,

I2oiM}KRi4. J. H. Vol. II. His narrative of ar- ' 406 : drilled by WtNxlbine. 570, nOT).

rest Mud execution of FranclM and Ilimol- Vol. II. Claim (.'reek lands after peace of
li'mieit, 4.'>4 ; narrates capture of Ambris- ' l'^15, .-SOI ; their nnmlier, '.fJ'i ; claim Negro
ter, 4tiL ; last momenlH and execution of ' Fort, 3''.* ; ren-ive aniiH from N«n;ro Fort,
^mbri<>t4<r and Arbnthnot. 476 to 4S0. | 4"7 ; discontented in 1^17, 406 : make

RoDKigi K/. (*AN.\L. Vol. II , 75. S<, lOJ. ' known tlieir grievances through Arbuth-

KooT. Knistns. Vol. HI., '27, 273. I not and others. 40-» to 4.S ; attacked by

Kods, Col. Vul. 11. In battle of Dec 'J3d, 74,
101.

KowAN CorNTY, N. (J. Vol. HI. Presents
Jackson's adniiniht ration, 500.

HUBII, Uichard. Vol. II. Upon ctTect In Eng-
land of execution of Arbnthnot and Am-
brister, 4Sti, 4S7.
Vol. HI. Ilec4ives one vote for vlcc-presi

U. S. troops, 42.» ; tluir revenge, 430.

Sexac. Pii<rre. Vol. H. TcHtititts respecting
Indians at Pensacohi. .'i r*.

Sebuka>t, Jolin. Vol. HI. ('I'ldidate for
Vice-presidency, 304, 43 •. Diivctor of U.
S. Bank, 557.

Sevikb, John. Vol. I. (;.>v. r::or of Frank-
lin, 117 ; tried at .Morganti.n. N. C, 117 ;

dency in caucus of 1S_'4, '.'S ; his vle^ of escapes, ll** ; electeil to legislature of N.

government. 8S ; for vic»i-pr<»ident in! <-'•« H*^ ; tiglit with Jackson, 1(>4 : first

H2>, 140, 151.
Rl■^rtELI^ (.apt. Vol. I., 487, 49.'.

Vol. H., -'77.
RuTLKiNiF, (feorge. VoL I. Succeeds Sevier

aa brigudii'r-general, 173.
Rutlkih;k, Mr. Vol. H. In Florida with
Jackson, 507, 50*.», 628, 62.«.
VoL III., 153.

governor ot Tenne.>Mee, 173 ; nominated
brigadier-p>nenil by .Vtlnms, 17H ; Blount
to, on pre^idetitial «>Ii-ction of 1706, 201 ;
bis (.iberoki-e exiN'ilition in Congress, 213,
214, 215 ; his cliaructer, 230 ; causes of
feuil with Jackson, 231 : the fight, 2:i4 ;
urges vvngeaiiC4.> against the Creeks, 4*23.
VoL II. To his Kon, on the news of the vic-
tory of Jan. srh, 1SI.\ 24'.».
Sevikii, George W. VoL I. Visits Ilermit-
8. «se, 2 :5,

■Skviku, Robert. VoL I. Killed by Indians,
Sao R, Dr. John. VoL I. Interview with Burr, ' 13..>.

201. I^KViKi:, William. VoL I. Killed by Indians,

St. Marks, Fort. Vol. II. Jucluon sends' 13'.».

MK(;«-ver to. 447 : taken by Jackson, 45-'. Sewauo, W. II. Vi>l. H. Quoted upon an-
Bt. Vii roKiA. VoL II. Anecdote reapi-cting, nouncenient of puiee at (ihent, lli.

22S. VoL HI. I'l*.)!! J. (^. Aiianirt in House of

Saluucky, N. C. VoL I. Jackson Htudies law lU'p., 578.

there, ini ; descrilwd, K^- ; traditions .*^haw, William A. VoL HI. His conversa-
theri* of J.iekson, 104 to UK*. tio:i with «x-prisitlunt Jaeksou, 632.

Samim.k, William. Vol. HI. His t^'Stlmony r'UAWANoKs, the. VoL I., 4iL'.

in barg)iin aflair, ms. .rtURLKY, (iov. Ikuic. Vol. II. Otfered war

Sanfoko. .Nathan. Vol. HI. Nominated for department by .Monroe, 300 ; in commis-

viri-presldcney, JO ; his vote, 40. siou with .laokson to tr<-at with Chicka-

Sartoku's, M.idame Catherine. Vol. II., 48.i. , kawh, 5i*.> ; ditfereice with Jackson, 531 ;

bcnooLritAiT. Henry IL VoL HI. L'iKm toa«ited, 575.

Jackson'K Indian policy, 2S0. SuEi.ocrA. VoL I. Brings news to Jackson's

3coT( 11-Ikisii. V<tL 1. ChaptiT upon, 'JO; camp in (Jreek war, 4 il ; his speech al the

{lutriotH iu the revolnti<in, 70. | treaty of Fon JaekNon, f)5:L

9cN)T«nMA.\. Vol.1. l),M-ribid. :!i. .riHKi'ni:i:i>. Iti'.xln D. VoL 11. Saves life of

icoir. (ien. Wintield. VoL 11. Pn-sideHati .Imlah Touro. 10:>; c »nveyK niessace from
bamiuet ill honor of Jackiio-i at P.irirt, 3-.'0; . P.itlersiin to .laekson, ls7 ; iu battle of
corresiHindence with Jaek.sou upon the di- 1 Jan. Sth, 216; sent to British tleet, 301,
vi-ion order of IS 17, ;;77 to3sl ; ii<>nounofd ' 304.

ill a eanl by I)e Witt Clinton. o-L'. .;?mikm»s, Piirsi-r. VoLII. I )ecelv.'s British

VoL HI. Uee^nciliation with Jaikson, 41, othetT.t, m); purMies the British, 2(K^

45 ; ordered to Charleston, 461. Siirkvf^ (.'ap'. Vol. 11. Anecdote of at N.

ScoiT, John. Vol. III. Currespoiidencfwith ' O., Us.

IkMiton ui>on his vote in is.'!), 6i. SiMi>NiiN, Williuin. VoL I. Witness in a suit,

:«coiT, LieiiU VoL H. Killed by Indians, , 1:>7.

4H<) ; his .Kufferiugs, 458. :Sims Dr. Vol. HI. Jack<ion attached to,

tit oiT. Sir Walter. VoL I. Quot<«d upon Irish J 00s.

hiuuor, 32. ?jii'ij:n vvrj», Mr. Vol. I. On ciimmittt'o. to

Vol. H. l<apsa of memory, 5'.S. oratl aJdre:>i> to Giui. Washlngtou, '.(V*)

BuiTI. G*orge. Vol. IL 1

IniHanH .t PanjutoU, 601. jStiothii. Cmpt. John, VoL 1

BUIOUIIH. Mri. VsL L I1i-riuml]Te,n. ! nutlnr, tlSl.
Bhast. Hdhd. Vol I. ilpr lalsnlBW irith ancmiEi, Fori. VoL I. BuDt,

JnckBoD In revolution, ii. it. 4M. iS8 ; mntlTir, «W, M

SULET. Jl^r. Vol. II. (iheen Ihti dylnB Stdhi', C Vol J. Ilia lettm n]

Shitii. D»nl«L Vol L jKkHD write! to. 'stcmp, OoL Vol I-.'S*. MT.

Btiuit^O.'_

to"pre<nicnl \
SxiTU, J. Kilty. '

Bmiii, Wiilluo'.
draft <uldr«s

Vol. III. Vole

SouiA, l>Dn liomliiFn

to«34.

41 : M4. of nivy under J. Q. AduuB, TO :

Booth Chroli'n*. VoL lit Electoril rote
of 18i4, rw ; of 1848, IM i of 193S. 430 ;
n<illifl»tloii eicltemeol In, «T; of 1838,
1W4.

Bfkie Cibcular. Vol. III. Issued, !03 :

>L1I. Inb>ltlenfI>ecS3d,
Hd' bj JukwD, MS.
KkMO, 497, aw 1 hi. 're^y.
m. Vol.IIL BrattUyu-
Ir 3^ Vol. III. Dwrlbei

the Hillna of the B
Biy to Ijike Borgni

jKknn. Soil. M.

Sdhkii Cogntt, Toniu Vol.
xsii. Vol IL DEatroyed

, 111. Fir JukioD In l&M.
., upon " mlEllftFy chieflKln,^'

BniBss, Jotl. "

iEK»>!r. Andrew. VoL III. In lloiiwl Mi.
r Hep. ill IS-''!, 33 1 elected Speaker by iTilliti
Id oT Van Unren, 13S: illiislon U>, IM, TALLVtiq

SntM. Oipt. Oeorge. Vol. II, Iniervleiri

vltb Jnckuii at bltlmora. OK.
StlLVBLl, tjUai ». Vol. III. AtHermlUige

tnl8jT,llI.
giocKTnN, sir. Vol. IL W«n« JackHu

asalnut IMnimon. 871, BI8
flroKK, tt«n. Monifori. VoL II L ForJaek-

HHilnlsj4,in. V0,«1.
Brain, Jobn. Vol. 1. Jaekun nudlea law

W3, Oil 1 appolntod BccreULrr
nrr, B3I ; rejccled by Senai

eiorr, GKI ; riritod by Jaekxoi

, Jd(»Ii. VoL II. 1
IIS, WS ; cuiumendl I

. Upou rvUrement of J. Q. Adam^

INDEX

731

VoL L Ezcalpates Gen. Cocke,

Vol. I. His lair adver-

Tatk, C.

Tathav, William.
tiBement, 028.

Tatum, Major. YoL II. Discovers landing
of thu UritlBh near N. O., 72.

Tazewell, Mr. YoU III. Upon Judge White,
361 ; narrow escape of, 3D3.

TxousiSEH. Yol. I. Dignity of his demeanor,
222 ; skctcli of his lif(s 402 to 411 ; gains
over Weathemford, 6iD.

TXK Eyok, K^'twrt Yol. UL In House of
Bep. in 182^33.

Tknkkbsee. Yul. I. How explored, 115; early
process, 1 IG ; declares her independence
of North Carolina, 1 17 : mode of traveling
in 17SS, 119 ; its early bar, 135 : prospers
after Nickujack expedition. ltV>; early cur-
rency, 157 ; law practice iu early day, 159,
628 ; becomes a Stat**, 170 to 174 : votes
for JefferBon and Burr, 173; grievnuceain
1796, 174 ; salaries of governor and Judge
in 1798, 227 ; early trade. 240 ; causeN of
fierceness of pioneers, 2&4 ; effect of news
of massacre at Fort Mims, 422.
Vol. 1 1. Kesembles Pennsylvania, 644.
Vol. III. Electoral vote of 1824, 50; of 1828,
151 ; of 1S32, 430 ; of 1830, 594,

Test Act. YoL I. Opposition to in Garrick-
fergus, 40,

Texas. Yol. II. Relinquished by treaty of
1819, 5S2, 583 ; Jackson approves the same,
5^^4.
VoL IIL Annexation of to U. 8., 653.

ToAc'KfiKAY, W. M. YoL I. Quoted upon
north of Ireland, 30.

Thoma», Francis. VoL III., 899, 665.

TuOMAii, (leu. YoL II. (jroes to defense of
X. O., 30 : sick at N. O., 170 ; thanked by
legislature of La., 306 ; exculpates Ken-
tucky troops at N. O., 384.

Thomi*»on, Lieut. YoL IL Saves the LouiV
iaiut, 130, 131.

TuoaMToN, Col. W. Yol. II. Commands
British advance corps, 46 ; attempts to

Srevent Villere's escape, 09 ; distrusts
irltish position, S3 ; commands Rrititth
force on weHtum bank of Miss., 1S5 ; de-
layed in crossing, 1S9 ; his victory, 213,
215 ; wounded, 217 ; defends memory of
Pakenhum, 2*25.

TlVBRRL.vKK, Purser. YoL III. Marries
Miss O'NeaL 184 ; death, 185 : allusions
to, ISS, 193, 303.

TiXEH, the vi-^ndon). YoL I. Quoted upor
Madison and American naval victories in
war of 1812, .%f>4.

TlPPK«'ANoK, baltle of. YoL I., 406.

Tod, John. VoL IIL, 28, 29.

Touoi'EKA. Vol. I. The bend described, 514 ;
battli- of, 5H».

Tompkins, Daniel D. YoL I. .Supplies West
Point with wood in war of 1812, 608.
VoL II. Candidate for presidency in 1*<16,
S47 ; nominated for the vice-presidency,
349 ; entertains Jackson at Staton Island,
565 ; reelected vice-president, iiSS.
VoL III. .Supported by Van Buren, 125 ;
elected vice-presidiint, 120 ; defended by
Van Buren in legislature, 128.

TOL'EO, Judah. Yol. II. His life saved by
Shepherd. 14)5 ; his death, 100.

Tous%>ANi>, M. Vol. IL Opposes authority
of Jacluou at N. O., 3-)S, 313.

Towsox, Col. VoL ITL In affair of Mrs.
Eaton, 201, 202, 305, 328.

Treaty op Fokt Jacksox. VoL I., 649 to
860 ; copy of, 663.
VoL II. Misinterpreted by Nichols, 408 ;
misunderstood by Clay, 637.

TaiBT, Nicholas P. YoL III. Communicates
copy of Dickson letter, 93 ; appointed pri-
vate secretary to Jackson, 228 ; criticizes
Calhoun* s letter to Reynolds, 466 ; relates
anecdote of Jackson and Dr. Physic, 489 ;
relates anecdotes of Jackson, 601 ; Jackson
to, upon leaving the presidency, 624 ;
Jackson to, upon his poverty, 620.

Trowbriihjf., .Sir Thoraaa YoL II., 38, 148.

Tbuxto.n. Vol. I. Bought by Jackson, 247 ;
cause of Dickinson duel, 268.

Tbuxton, Commodore. YoL L Celebrity in
1806, 2dS.

Twioo8,CoL YoL II. Warned by Fowl town
chief, 428 ; atUcks Fowltown, 4*29, 430.

TvAOK, WiUiam. YoL IIL Diary of Jack-
son's last sickness, 672.

Tyldex, Sir John. YoL II. Dispatched to
Mullens on Jan. Stti, 192 ; to order up the
reserve 202

Tyler, John. Vol. IIL Upon the Urifl; 438,
441 ; in Senate, 537 ; candidate for vice-
presidency in 1836, 595.

Ulster. Yol. I. Cuusos of its prosperity, 81.

Uniox Cou.nty, N. C. Vol. I. Andrew Jack-
son, Sen., settles in it, 60 ; why so named,
60 ; Jackson born there, 53.

UrsulixbNl'xa. YoL II. Nurse the wounded
at N. ()., 121, 228 ; their prayers on Jan.
8th, 228.

Vax Bup.es, John. YoL IIL Betting upon
elections, 427 ; his recollections of Jack-
son, 012.

,Yax BiJKKN, Martin. YoL I. Allusion to,
102 ; Burr at his house in 1812, 361.
YoL II. Draws np resolutions commending
Jsckson in ISI.%, 257 : inactive in presi-
dential campaign of H16, :M9 ; head of a
party in N. Y., 561 ; randiduto for vice-
presidencv in Ga. in 1S24, 000 ; for Craw-
ford in 1824, 005.
Yol. ill. For Congressional caucus of 1324^
26, 27 : opposes change in electoral sys-
tem, 31 ; mentioned for the presidency in
1824, 32 ; in Senate, 33 ; his vote for vice-
president in 1S24, 4) : passive in 1S2.\5S;
votes for contrrmation of Clay, 80 ; sketch
of his career, 120 to l:JO ; i>pi>oses univer-
sal HUtTraKe, Vi^J ; proposed for the succes-
sion in 18*29, 108 ; appointed secretary of
state, 174 : in afCiir of .Mrs. Eaton, '20i ;
interviews with X. Clark, the successful
politician, 22L> to 26''> ; calls u{hmi and sus-
tains .Mrs. Kuton, 2.88, 2'«9, 2*J0 ; bets with
Clay, 391 ; his gdod hnnior, 21*2 ; ad.ipted
by .lackson as his b(iceeH.sor. 2 '2 ; his g^eat
influence, 21»0 ; favors .Ta<;k-»on's reelec-
tion, 297 ; innocent of feud between Jack-
son and Ciillioun, 310, ii20, 327 ; resigriH,
346, 346 ; miuLster to llnglaud, 860 ; ro-

732

INDEX

ecUid by Senate, 1)75 to 380 ; proposed for
yice-presidont, 381 ; nominated for yice-
prcsident, 421 ; elected, 4.H0, 431 ; allusion
to, 452, 463 ; accoinpanios Jackson to the
north, 488. 491 ; opposed to removal of
deposits, 504 ; apostrophized by Clay, 647 ;
intervieMT irith Ucntoti aud Jackson, 574 ;
at Jackson dinner, 5S'r ; allusions to, 589 ;
elected Prcside'it. ^04 ; liis iniluence upon
Jackson'dadniiriistration. 6D5 ; rofuses pe-
cuniary aid to Bimnctt, 590 ; allusion to,
614 : anecdote of, Glli ; lnau;;orated, 628 ;
hid rciHectiou adrocated by Jackson. 636 ;
c )Mspiracy to defi^ut in 1814, G5T ; Jackson
Bupiiorts, 6itl ; dfclines to deliver eulogy
upon J:u:kson, 6S0.

V AX Nkss, William P. YoL II. Appointed a
jud)?o, 347.

Vax Tklt, liev. Dr. Vol. II. Relates anec-
dote of Jackson and Anibrister, 658 ; of
Jackson's visit to N. Y., 490. 4J1.

Van KfCN's«ELAKR, Srephcn. Vol. IIL In
House of Rup. in 18i4, 38 ; present al pre-
sentation of pistols to .Jackson, 37.

Vauoiian, Mr. Vol. IIL Sustains Mrs.
Eaton, 28J, '290.

Vena BLR, Abraham. Vol. I. Opposes the
a<Idress to President Washington, 211.

Vkemont. Vol. III. Electoral vote of 1824,
49, 50 ; of 1828. 160 ; of 1832, 430 ; of
1836, 695.

Veeplanck, Oulian C. Vol. III. In Con-
gress, 373 ; introduces tariff bill, 476.

Vetoes. Vol. III. Of Maysville road, 285 ;
two other road bUI vetoes, 287 ; vetoes de-
fended, 340 ; bank veto, 406 ; Clay's land
bill, 538.

ViDAL, Nicholas Maria. Vol. II. His estate
in litigation, 617, 618, 63.K

ViLLKKfe, General. Vol. L Believes Lafitte's
rc'V«lation», M.>.
Vol. II. Stations piquet at Bayou Blen-
venue, 53.

ViLLKKfe, Msjor Gabriel. Vol. II. Conveys
to Jackson Intelligence of the landing of
the British, 69 to 72 ; in the night battle,
104.

Vinton, Samuel F. Vol. III. In Congress, 637.

ViKOiNiA. Vol. I. Laws rospecting divorce,
145 ; early trade with the West, 240 ; its
breed of horses, 247.
Vol. III. Electoral vote of 1824, 60 ; of
1828, 151 ; of 1832, 430 ; of 1836, b'J6.

Waddkll, Coventry. VoL III. Jackson's
advice to, 4'.>1.

Waudkll, Rev. Dr. Vol. I. Jackson revered
his memory, 63 ; did not attend his school,
63.
Vol. II. Crawford, his nsher, 345.

Waokk, Peter. Vol. III., 6i5, 540.

Watmol'«ii, Mr. Vol. III., 399.

Wailks, B. L.C. Vol. 1. Source of informa-
tion. ;i69.
VoL II. t^ourcc of information, 829 ; nar-
rates interview botwocn Jackson and
Dinsraoro, 576 to 5S1.

Walk KB, Alexander. Vol. I. Source of In-
formation respecting the Lafittes, 586.
Vol. II. Describes Jackson's entrance into
S. O., 24 to *<29 ; narrates landing of the

British near N. C, 63 ; nsirrates escape of
Gabriel Vlller^ 69 ; anecdote of Dec 234,
76 ; quoted upon superiority of Am<*riean
rifle, 91 : describcut the night' warfare, 15.' :
incident of Jan. 1st, 15S : upon effects of
cannonade of Jan. Ist, 102 : relates anec-
dote of Shepherd and Touro, 164 ; the
story of the boy bugler on Jan. 8th, 201 ;
after the battle, 201, 2^ ; incident of the
flight of the English, 268.
Walkup, 8. H. VoL L Thinks Andrew
Jackson, Sen., owned uo land, 49 ; proves
that Jackson was bom in N. ('., 53 ; prove!
that Jackson taught school, 99.
WALTt>N, George. VoL IL Secretary of

West Florida, 619, 636.
Warino, J. N. VoL III. Upon bargain cry,

110.
Wasiiinoton Citt. VoL III. History and

character of, 696.
Wasiiinoton, George. VoL L Allnrion to,
46 ; his horsemanship. 1 10 ; elected Preid>
dnrit. 1*24 ; tenderness for the Indiaus,
155 ; his last speech to Congress, 204 : ad-
dress of the House in reply, i<)7 ; Jack-
son's vote upon it, 211 ; at inauguration
of John Adams, 216 ; his name on m^of
U. S., 236 ; character of Indian ag^'Uts ap-
pointed by him, 360 ; advises Indians to
pe ice, 653.
VoL II. Army order quoted, 296 ; alln.«ion
to, '297 ; his pistols given to Jackson, 660.
VoL IIL nis telescope presented to Jadc-
son, 87 ; his pistols, 37 ; his rejnovals, ^OT.
Wasiiinoton, Mrs. VoL L Filthy democrat

anecdote, 197.
Waxhaw CiiUEcn. VoL I. Described, 50;

turned into a hospital, 70.
Waxhaw Cuuboutard. Vol. L Andrew
Jackson, Sen., buried in it, 50 ; described,
60.
Waxhaws, the. VoL L Described, 4S, 69.
Weakly, Robert. VoL L Allusion to, 265 ;
his narrative of Jackson passing Choctaw
agencv. 354.
Weakly. 'William. Vol. IIL Appointed to

office, 486.
Weatiikkskobd, William. VoL I. Com-
mands Creeks at massacre of Fort Mima,
414, 416 ; tries to stop the carnage, 417 ;
his surrender demanded. 526 ; sketch of
his life, 627 : he surrenders, 53*2 ; his sub-
sequeut life, 634 to 537.
Webb, James Watson. VoL III. Active for
Jackson in 1828, 146 ; in confidence of his
administration, 183; comments upoti Hill's
election to Senate, 276 ; upon Calhoun's
Book, 345 ; upon dissolution of cabinet,
359 ; his loans ft-om U. S. Bank, 4(10 to
402 ; allusion to, 427 ; abandons support
of Jackson, 4*28.
Webster, DanieL Vol. L Allusion to. 102 :
his report of Jeffertion's remarks npoa
Jackson, 219 ; his name on map of U. S.,
236.
Vol. III. To his brother, Ezekiel, upon the
caucus of 1824, 2S ; in House of Itep in
18M, .S3 ; to a member of House of Rep.,
upon voting for Adams in 1825, 61. 91 ;
teller to House of Rep'., 66 ; to Exekiel,
upon Kremer, l(Vi; to Clay, upon bargdn,
115 ; to Mason, upon prospects of J. Q.
Adams, 137 ; Ezekiel to, upon Adams and
Clay, 165 ; to Ecekiel, upon Jackson^s

INDEX

733

Slans, 1G7, 108 , upon inaaguration of
ackson, 170 ; opposed, in 1S16, to Bank
of U. 8., 266 : Riipposed to have caused
appnintmont of Mason, 200, 201, 202 ; to
Dutton, upon Kendall and Noiih, 270 ;
upon the power to rcmore, 278 ; debate
with llaync, 28i ; to Dutton, upon Van
Burcn, 290 : aUusiona to, 31-4, 31.*) ; sup-
ports U. 8. Bank, 843 ; to Clay, upon p«jli-
tica, 309 ; In Senate, 372 ; favors rcjecUon
of Van Buren, 375, 377 ; attacks bank
veto, 211 ; opposes compromise with nul-
liAors, 470 ; his opinion npon the nature
of the Tnlon, 4S4: his alleged corruption
by Bank of U. 8., 494 ; in Senat.-, 5;J7 ;
opposes removal of the deposits, !>42 ; pro-
poses re-charter of U. S. Bank for six
years, 5.^5 ; candidate for presidency in
1830, 595 ; opposes expuiiginpf resolution,
01 H, 010 ; allusion to, 639 ; seconds Jack-
sou resolutions, OSl.

Webstkiu Kzekiel. Vol. III. Daniel Web-
ster to, upon caucus of 18 ?4, 28 ; upon
Kremcr, 1(>4 ; allusion to, 140 ; to Dauicl,
upon Adams and Clav, 105.

Webster, Noah. Vol. IfL Defines nullifica-
tion, 433.

Wkllisotom, Duke of. Vol. I. Quoted, 520.
Vol. II. Commeuds writings of the Subal-
tern, 41.
Vol. III. Prime minister, 097.

Wetmobe, Prosper M. Vol.111. Offers reso-
lutions upon Jackson's death, (iso.

WuiTK, c;apt. .Maunsel. Vol. IL Sent to
British licet, 301.

White, Elizabeth T. Vol. I. Testifies that
JaclciDou tau^'ht school, 99.

Whitk, Gen. Vol. I. On the march to join
Jackfum, 433 ; approaches Jackson's en ifip,
442 ; suddenly retires, 443 ; his reasons
for retiring, 452 ; attacks the llillabees,
452.

WniTK,* Huu'h I* V<iL I. Of Scotch-Irish
lineage, 30. Petitions Congress for runi-
pensation, 212 ; suppresses dueling in
Tennessee, 204 ; Jackson to, upon sup-
plies for Creek expedition, 431 ; prevails
upon Col. Williams to Join Jackson, 50f».
Vol. III. Allnsion to, 47 ; elected senator,
98 ; Katon to, upon a cabinet ap]iointment,
170 ; Jackson to, upon his wife, 120 :
votes against T^icc. 274 ; designed for cabi-
net after dissolutim, 340 ; refuses place in
cabinet, 301 to :i03 ; in Senate, SU, 537 ;
eli'cted president of the Senate, 403 ; be-
sought l)y Jackson to leave out Clayton
from tariff committee, 473 ; runs for the
presidency, 594.

White, Jauies F. Vol. I. His testimony re-
specting Jackson's birthplace, 027.

WiiiTE, Jocieph. Vol. I. Jackson lives with
him, 90.

WniTKWAMiiNO Committee. VoL III,, 141.

WuiTNEV, ICeuben M. Vol. III. Ills perjury
expost'd, 40;i U) 400 ; urges removal of de-
posits, 505 ; his offensive interview with
Duane, 512, 518 ; in collision with Wise
and Peyton, 020.

Wuittlest, Klisha. Vol. HI. In House of
Hep. in 1S'.'4, 33.

WiCKKKiiAM, William. Vol. L Witness In a
snit, 137.

WiLKi.vs<»N, Capt Vol. II. Anecdote of,
122 ; bin heroic death, 190.

Wilkinson, Gen. James. Vol. I. Met by
Burr at Massac, 310 ; kept store in Ky.,
311 ; suspected of treason by Jackson,
319, 329 ; hated by Jackson, 334, 335 : In-
sulted by Swartwout, 335 ; commands at
New Orleans, 305 ; Jackson expects colli-
sion with, 372 ; correspondence with Jack-
son, 373 ; suspected of desigiis upon the
Tennessee troops, 380 ; transferred from
N. O., 647 ; to Madison, on the defense
of N. 0.,571.
VoL II. His measures against Burr un-
popular at N. O., 16 ; Is sure N. O. will fall
in 1814, 243.

WiLKi.vRox, William. Vol. I. Defends dis-
senters of Carrickfergus, 40.

WiLKi.S!*, William. Vol. III. Candidate for
vlce-presldoncy, 430.

Williams, Col. John. Vol.1. Joins Jackson
with 39th U. S. Infantry, 499 ; Importance
of his aid, 503 ; in battle of Horseshoe
Bend, 617.
Vol. IIL Candidate for Senate against
Jackson, 21, 22, 23, 43.

' VVlLLIAMSOX, Col. Vol. I., 021.
Vol IL, 101. 401.

WiLLiAMSox, Col. Thomas. VoL I., 327 ;
volunteers to stay with Jackson at Fort
Strolher, 475.

Willis, N. 1*. Vol. I. Quoted npon conver-
sation with Louis Philippe, 221.
VoL IIL Describes inauguration of Van
Buren, 028.

Wilson, George. Vol. 1 1. Jackson to, on his
alleged violence In Washington, 571.
Vol. III. For Jackson in 1824, 18 ; Jackson
to, upon tariff, 42 ; Jackson to, upon
liitchie. 43 ; Jackson to, accusing Clay and
Adams of bargain, 72.

WiiJio.N. Jane. VoL I. Her testimony rc-
sp<>etlng Jackson's birthplace, 55.

WiL8t»M, Rev. Dr. VoL I. His rccollectlona
of young Jackson, 74.

Winch KSTKU, Gen. James. Vol. I. Appoint-
ed by Jackson to command twelve ctun
panics against Burr, 327 ; his defeat in
war of 1812, 370 ; commands at Mobile,
025.
Vol. IL Ordered to defend Mobile, 60.

WiKE-Fi'LLiNO. Vol. III. Kcuiarks upou,
11 : illustrations uf, 293, 297 to 301.

WiBT, William. VoL IL Commeuds Cal-
houn in 1824, 007.
VoL IIL Resigns attorney-generalship, 174 ;
c^i'idid.'ite for presidency, 423, 430 ; quoted,
432 ; (loath, N%4.

WisK, Htnrv A. VoL IIL In Congress, 537 ;
In collision with Whitnev, ii'iO.

WiTiiKit-N. Mr. VoL IL Shoots Rcnnie on
Jan. Sth, 201.

Wo(U), .MoUv. Vol. L Attends ball at Salls-
bur>-, 10'7.

Wool). R:icli.;l. VoL I. Attends ball at Salis-
bury, 107.

WooiinriiY, L»»vi. VoL I. Allusion to, 102.
Vol IL Allusion to, 688 ; his bust at Her-
mitage, 050.
VuL III. Complains of Jeremiah Mason,
201, 202 ; votos ugalnst Lee, 274; retires
from Senate, 2T5 ; designed f«)r oabhx't,
340 ; appointed s<^rretary of the navy, i^»0,
375; accompanies Jackson to the north,
488 ; for and againtt removal of the de-
poBitB, 512, 626 ; appointed Mcretary of

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